The ranking of the GDP of the nations communicated by the World Bank and based on exchange rates at purchasing power parity foreshadows an overtaking of China over the USA already this year, and therefore symbolizes a new center of gravity in the economy of the third planet. However, all that shines is not gold.
The architect of China's drive towards the market, Deng Xiaoping, said: "Let someone get rich before others"; a relaxed way of accepting those inequalities that Mao wanted to flatten at all costs. But today Prime Minister Xi Jinping would be right to view Deng's saying with distrust.
The inequality index in China is overtaking that of the USA: an unflattering overtaking, unlike that of GDP. Especially since the 'someone' who gets rich before the others are party leaders or entrepreneurs connected to power, not ordinary citizens.
The close relationship between financial and political elites ensures growing inequality, and not only in China: this is the common trait that links the protests in Thailand, the fears of the Chinese Communist Party towards social unrest, the cynicism of Filipinos and Indonesians towards the promises of income redistribution and the similar distrust of the South Koreans regarding the assurances of President Park Geun Hye on the containment of the power of the large conglomerates ('chaebol').
