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.
You bet.
And the modern capitalist economic system they’ve imported and adapted is vastly different from the traditional Chinese economy. For one thing, hundreds of millions of Chinese have climbed well above poverty for the first time in their history, with reasonable prospect of doing even better in the future.
Seems to me this is a VERY positive trend, even if it does unjustly empower the Party, who are seen, rightly or wrongly, as responsible.
Given their huge success over a 2000 year period as businessmen whenever they left China and were out from under the thumb of the mandarins, Chinese obviously have a talent for business. It’s a very good thing for China and the world that they’re finally being allowed to exercise it at home.