One of the oddest things about Chinese history and culture is the very low status of the businessman.
In most cultures the warrior is on top of the heap, with the merchant next, then artisans and finally the peasants.
In China the mandarins were on top, a group that never existed anywhere else. The peasants came next, then warriors and merchants. Merchants traditionally were viewed as semi-criminal, with no real right to their gains, and were plundered at their whim by mandarins or the Emperor.
Viewed as almost criminal, they reacted by in self-defense becoming secretive and almost criminal themselves. Chinese businessmen have always been closer to organized crime than in any other country, with possible exception of Sicily.
And yet, the businessman never had such a large role in China until today. Once they decided it was glorious to be rich, shortly before the Richard Nixon era, they had to take a seat at the table of capitalism even while showing socialist table manners.
In China the mandarins were on top, a group that never existed anywhere else. The peasants came next, then warriors and merchants. Merchants traditionally were viewed as semi-criminal, with no real right to their gains, and were plundered at their whim by mandarins or the Emperor.
Putting the mandarins on top produced stability for 1,300 years. The mandarins were the intellectuals of China. Which type of people are the source of subversion and revolutionary agitation? By giving intellectuals a path to wealth and power, you remove them as a source of revolutionary agitation.
Mao, the son of a wealthy farmer, under the mandarin system, would have risen to high rank within the system, instead of overthrowing it.