Xi's common prosperity uses old methods on new targets

Significance

The meeting ended with a call for high incomes to be regulated and for the rich to 'give back' more. It followed a series of dramatic regulatory actions against large private firms and super-rich individuals.

Impacts

• Inequality has become a higher priority in recent years; many further attempts to address it will emerge.
• The Party has not soured on private business in general or in principle; most private firms and entrepreneurs will not be targets.
• Comparisons to Mao and the Cultural Revolution are misplaced.
• Next year's Party Congress is particularly sensitive, so the customary crackdowns ahead of it may be commensurately intense.