Power makes money, money makes power, this is not unusual. That the owners of power have innate intention to pass on the privilege to their children, as well, is more than estimable. But the specific degree of such phenomena in China have nonetheless long been clouded as a taboo.
This, if any one has done the research, must have been a top secret. But thanks to the “unusual openness” of Chinese media, a striking figure comes to the light. Perhaps what surprised us more is no longer the expected fact how notable the monopolization of social wealth is associated with political power, but that what unprecedented honesty allows these figures slip into Xinhua News, the state-owned media, and open to public.
The figures are revealed in two sets of reports which are both quoted in a professor’s article on a newspaper. The article is put online on Xinhua.net, named “Word of worry: what’s behind the groups of astonishing numbers”. It was soon called into attention in blogsphere. Muji in Bullog.cn picked the text and exposed the most significant data on the title:
官方：亿万富翁3220人中2932人是高干子女
The original article says
中国社会科学院两年前的《当代中国社会流动》研究报告曾有统计说，我国处于社会优势地位的阶层，高干子女职业继承性明显增强，“干部子女当干部的机会比常人高2.1倍”。
What’s more telling is the data revealed by a co-effort of several central research agencies, including the Research Center of State Council and Central Academy of CPC:
截至今年3月底，内地私人拥有财产（不包括在境外、外国的财产）超过5000万以上的有27310人，超过1亿元以上的有3220人。超过1亿元以上者， 有2932人是高干子女，他们拥有资产20450余亿元。而考证其资产来源，主要是依靠家庭背景的权力下的非法所得和合法下的非法所得。
Up to March this year, 27310 people in China possess, each of them, a fortune over 50 million (Yuan), 3220 with over 100 million each, and 2932 of them are children of senior officials; their aggregate fortune amounts to 2045 billion. The further study finds that, the fortune is mostly derived from illegal income facilitated by their family’s political power, and illegal income that is from legal sources (as read in the original text—translator).
Netizen 常非常 reply almost immediately:
官方也承认这个了，感动中……
牛家庄客 laughed
革命的目标实现了!
(the revolution is alluded to the 1949 Communism revolution that establish PRC—translator)
It gains 60 clicks of “support”.
hcgs2218 says:
内地私人拥有财产（不包括在境外、外国的财产）
这个统计很不全面啊。如果包括的话，我们可以说，共产主义终于在高干子弟群体实现鸟。
This is such an incomplete work. If the fortune transferred to foreign countries are included, we could say, finally, communism is achieved among the children of senior officials (高干子弟).
刘亚玲x1300000000 questioned the twisted saying in the article:
‘合法下的非法所得’？？？
说合法，就合法，
说非法，就非法，
合法也非法，
非法也合法，
党妈说了算
It will be legal if it is so said, it will be illegal if it is then said. The illegal is legal, the legal is illegal, and all is decided by our mother Party .
杨佳第二 (2nd Yang Jia) on the contrary, has no time to mock and sigh, but furiously yelled:
上帝让人灭亡，必先让其疯狂。努力攫取吧，因为这是你们通往地狱的纸钱！！！！！！！！！
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