Postscript¶
Core Argument¶
This postscript presents a detailed indictment of the Chinese Communist Party leadership, arguing that its top figures have been transformed from bureaucratic functionaries of a deformed workers’ state into a fully-fledged capitalist class. The core narrative thrust is that the personal fortunes amassed by the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, along with former leaders, are not anomalies but the logical outcome of a restoration of capitalism within the Party’s upper echelons. The chapter draws on leaked documents from the Panama Papers, investigations by the New York Times, and other financial reporting to substantiate its claims.
The chapter systematically profiles each member of the Standing Committee. Xi Jinping is alleged to be worth approximately US$100 million, with family interests in companies holding US$376 million in assets. Li Keqiang is linked to the World Bank’s China 2030 report, described as a blueprint for fully opening the Chinese economy to global capital and privatising remaining state enterprises. Zhang Dejiang is characterised by his violent suppression of peasant protests and his role in the plundering of Shenzhen Airlines. Yu Zhengsheng is accused of orchestrating corrupt property deals and demolishing homes for profit. Liu Yunshan, head of the Propaganda Department, is said to have used his position to enrich his son, who raised over US$5 billion in private equity. Wang Qishan is identified as a member of the “Princelings Party” and a leading advocate of China’s role as a cheap labour platform. Zhang Gaoli is presented as representing the interests of Party members in state-owned giants, with extensive business interests in Hong Kong.
The chapter extends its critique to former leaders. Jiang Zemin is accused of embezzling state resources through the privatisation of state enterprises, with his grandson Alvin Jiang allegedly securing lucrative deals in duty-free retail. Wen Jiabao’s family is said to have amassed US$2.7 billion. Even Hu Jintao, whose personal wealth is modest, is implicated through his son’s control of Tsinghua Holdings and his daughter’s marriage to a wealthy internet executive. The case of Zhou Yongkang is treated as exemplary: his removal and conviction for corruption are presented not as genuine anti-corruption measures but as a Stalinist purge of a political rival who represented a different faction within the capitalist bureaucracy—one that wished to slow privatisation.
The chapter’s theoretical context is Marxist analysis of the Soviet Union and China as “deformed workers’ states” that have undergone a capitalist restoration. It argues that the accumulation of personal fortunes by Party leaders—often exceeding US$100 million—places them in a different class from workers earning US$5,000 a year. The polemic is directed against those who maintain that China remains socialist or that the CCP represents the working class. The chapter explicitly argues that the struggle between factions within the Party, such as that between Xi and Zhou, is not over socialism versus capitalism but over which route to capitalism to take, drawing a parallel to the British bourgeoisie’s division over EU membership. The evidence of rampant corruption, from the US$30 million found in a deputy energy chief’s home to the estimated US$160 billion taken abroad by 16-18,000 fleeing officials, is marshalled to demonstrate that the CCP has become a vehicle for the enrichment of a new capitalist elite.