Illustration: Liu Rui

The achievements of China's reform and opening-up have attracted worldwide attention. However, in the past 30 years, market competition has simultaneously caused economic development and social polarization. Social polarization and the hatred of the rich are distinctly linked. So it is essential for Chinese government to prevent social polarization while developing the economy.

The root cause of social polarization in China is that the development of public welfare lags behind the social reality.
In the world, almost all the countries use regulatory measures to solve the wealth gap, instead of the market economy itself. Generally speaking, those countries that have a small Gini coefficient and a small wealth gap often use various policies to adjust the distribution of wealth.

Socialism is resistance to capitalism. Capitalism is the most thorough form of the market economy, which in theory realizes the effective distribution of resource by free competition, while socialism advocates adjusting social distribution by government intervention.

So market economy and socialism are opposites. The mission of socialism is to prevent excessive expansion of the market and balance the polarization caused by market economy through government policies.

The biggest drawback of the socialist market economy is that it lacks clear boundaries. Many people think that it has the advantages of both socialism and market economy and will not lead to social polarization. However, this misunderstanding has caused a lack of restrictions and balances in the market economy and led to the huge wealth gap.
 
To prevent ourselves from falling into the trap of polarization, we must recognize that the market economy and socialism are two different mechanisms. They can coexist, but the market economy must be balanced and restricted by socialism, which is the basic way to solve the problem of polarization of rich and poor.

No country in the world can keep their policies thoroughly just and fair to every social class. Chinese government must stand up for workers' benefits to promote the development of the socialist society.

The reason is that in a competitive market-oriented society, labor is always the vulnerable group. The essential mission of the government is to protect the benefits of most vulnerable groups by socialist policies.

It does not mean that the government should ignore the rights of the social elites, but the elites always have a dominant position anyway.

Chinese society is traditionally populist and sympathetic to vulnerable group. It was ordinary people who founded the new China in 1949 and laborers are the biggest group in the society. So the Chinese government should pay more attention to laborers and provide more policy support to them.

In conclusion, in the rapid development and transformation period of Chinese society, social polarization is a dangerous trap and the emerging hatred of the rich is a warning sign.

In order to avoid this trap, the development of socialism in China must keep pace with the social reality. The government must focus on workers' benefits and prevent social benefits from concentrating among the elite. It is the only way to eliminate the growing hatred of the rich.

The author is a researcher at the Chunqiu Institute. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

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