Zhou Xin

My Take | It’s now okay to not be okay about getting rich in China – but this could become a problem

China appears to have entered a stage when the pursuit of wealth is seen as something suspicious, not glorious

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Many in China are rethinking the pursuit of wealth, as the state continues its push for “common prosperity”. Photo: Bloomberg

Zhou Xin

Published: 7:00am, 30 Jul 2024

After decades of the enthusiastic pursuit of wealth, many are rethinking the long-held notion that “to get rich is glorious” in Chinese society.

This reassessment can be gleaned from China’s high-school graduates. As the country’s 18-year-olds choose their academic destinations this summer, fewer top students are looking to study finance or attend business schools – the typical paths taken to ensure high-salaried jobs in the future. China’s smartest kids are losing interest in becoming bankers or corporate executives.

By contrast, police academies have become a hot destination for these new graduates. Although these institutions require more physical fitness than academic excellence, they are seen as providing a way to stable – if not guaranteed – job prospects.

This change has happened at a time when internet services and finance, the country’s two best-paying industries, are quickly losing their allure. The state has started to put a cap on bankers’ annual packages and even called on them to return part of their compensation over the past few years in line with the government’s “common prosperity” push.

It has been speculated that some of the best-paid mainland bankers in Hong Kong faced salary cuts of as much as 90 per cent. What has made things worse is that there is little public sympathy for these bankers, who are considered greedy for taking big pay packages amid the country’s shaky economic recovery.

Students at a packed campus job fair in Huaian, a city in eastern Jiangsu province, on June 16, 2024. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

With discrimination against banking and finance jobs so intense, the dean of a Shanghai finance school had to tell graduates this summer not to feel ashamed about their career choice. This shows that it has somehow become “politically correct” to punish the rich in China, even though their wealth was attained through legal means.