Xi Jinping raises 'common prosperity' rhetoric, warning China's rich

President Xi Jinping’s rhetoric about “common prosperity” surged this year, evidence of the Communist Party’s commitment to closing the country’s yawning wealth gap. 

The term appeared sporadically in his first eight years in power. Last year, he began to reference “common prosperity” more often and has picked up the pace: The phrase has appeared 65 times in Xi’s speeches and meetings so far this year, compared with 30 in all of last year. 

The sloganeering signals the strength of Xi’s intent, said Maria Repnikova, who studies China’s political communication at Georgia State University. “Slogans often capture new policy directions or shifts and can signal how the policy is changing,” she said. “They’re also often broad, leaving some space for ambiguity