This story, about China’s nouveaux riches, has been getting some attention around the internet today:

A generation ago, when people still dressed in monochromes and
acquiring great wealth, never mind flaunting it, was generally illegal,
the route to success was to join the right Communist Party youth
organization or to attend one of the best universities.

Now the
race starts early, with an emphasis not on ideology but on the skills
and experiences the children will need in the elite life they are
expected to lead. In addition to early golf training, which has become
wildly popular, affluent parents are enrolling their children in
everything from ballet and private music lessons, to classes in horse
riding, ice-skating, skiing and even polo.

     It contrasted sharply with this other story, a portion of which is translated by CDT (full Chinese text of this story, here):

At 9:20 yesterday morning, Chen Xiaoying, a 42-year-old migrant worker
in Zengcheng City, Guangdong Province, inadvertently scratched the tail
of a white Toyota car while she was crossing a street. 

What followed this small incident was disastrous. The driver got
out, dragged Chen to the roadside, and slapped her twice, then left her
on the ground. When Chen was lying on the road, a heavy truck, which
was going backward, crushed her head. Chen died immediately.

Chen’s husband, who was standing across the street, watched hopelessly as his wife died.

     "Dickensian" comes to mind to describe this contrast in fortunes.   The tragedy of Chen Xiaoying highlights this paragraph from the other story:

“At the top of the pyramid will be exceptionally strong graduates from
top American or European universities who become a sort of
‘international freemen,’ ” said Qiu Huadong, an author and editor who
has written about the new elite. “They work several years in China, and
then they go abroad for a while, shifting locations every few years. At
the bottom of the pyramid will be those who didn’t get such an
outstanding education, and they’ll be sweating and bleeding for China
and globalization.”

   Bleeding, indeed.  At a general societal level the terrible human consequences of growing economic inequality in China is not a new story.  It has been getting worse for years now.  We are left, then, with the usual question: what is to be done?

   Mencius would tell us to attend to the Chen Xiaoying’s of China, not the nouveaux riches:

Therefore, in securing the people’s livelihood, an enlightened ruler ensures that they have enough to serve their parents and nurture their wives and children, that everyone has plenty to eat in good years and no one starves in bad years. (17)

     That is what good government would do.  And it it precisely what is most lacking in the world today.