Number Theory: How different are elites in China and America?
Research by a group of academics from a project which was started in 2022 gives some important insights into this question
The world’s largest and second largest economies, US and China, have declared economic war on each other. Unlike a military war, this is a war where elites, not millions of soldiers are planning and trading attacks. This also means that the similarities and differences between the elites of these two countries will matter in how this battle is fought or resolved. How different are the American and Chinese elite? The former is the world’s oldest democracy and the biggest capitalist power while the latter is a communist country with highly developed production structures today but also one which only started tasting economic success a few decades ago. Research by a group of academics from a project which was started in 2022 gives some important insights into this question.
Firstly, a note on the data
The World Elite Database (WED), a work in progress to quantify the attributes of global elite, currently covers 16 countries which count for 74% of the world’s billionaires, 54% of global GDP and 33% of world’s population. While the database has US and China it does not have India. WED defines the economic elite as comprising of three main groups: top executives of major companies, both listed (criterion 1A) and unlisted (criterion 1B); individuals on national rich lists (criterion 2); and policymakers or officials who shape economic regulation (criterion 3). This classification also means that categories 1A or 1B can naturally overlap with 2 in case of family-run companies. It should be noted that all data for China and the US is as of end-2020.
