Seems like OP is dyslexic. Not the top 70 people in chinese politics, but the top 70 richest party members have a combined 90 bil net worth. Most of them dont have a political office. I can name five dem members who top that, and with GOP its even easier. That is not to say that China isn't a corrput cesspool.
Op's link is mentionning congressmen, not party members. And i read another article today pointing to the top 2% of chinese congress having an average net worth of 1.44billion usd against abt 330 mil for the top 2% of us congressmen- yet some data might have been mixed up
Speaking of China, anyone up to date on a free and easy to use proxy to surf the web while there - no google, no youtube, no bloomberg, no many blogs, and even no access to a bunch of websites having neither economical, political or sexual content... it feels a bit oppressive plus it does make one's life more difficult
this is the same theme you have posted previously with the implication that the US is wonderful. this is the future of the debt ridden US. Angelos Tzortzinis for The International Herald Tribune Michalis Petrakis, who is jobless and whose son Pantelis has been going to school hungry, shows his nearly empty refrigerator. By LIZ ALDERMAN ATHENS â As an elementary school principal, Leonidas Nikas is used to seeing children play, laugh and dream about the future. But recently he has seen something altogether different, something he thought was impossible in Greece: children picking through school trash cans for food; needy youngsters asking playmates for leftovers; and an 11-year-old boy, Pantelis Petrakis, bent over with hunger pains. ____________ Spain Recoils as Its Hungry Forage Trash Bins for a Next Meal In Spain, the unemployment rate is over 50 percent among young people. More Photos » By SUZANNE DALEY P MADRID â On a recent evening, a hip-looking young woman was sorting through a stack of crates outside a fruit and vegetable store here in the working-class neighborhood of Vallecas as it shut down for the night. At first glance, she looked as if she might be a store employee. But no. The young woman was looking through the dayâs trash for her next meal. Already, she had found a dozen aging potatoes she deemed edible and loaded them onto a luggage cart parked nearby. the US consist of 50 states which resemble greece and spain. don't be so proud billyrob.
Which is pretty much the same. Name 5 Chinese persons in Chinese top politics who are NOT member of the party....
People Congress of China is largely a rubber stamp, and thus mostly symbolic. Many members are not party members. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_People's_Congress
Its not not the same. Of course, without party-membership nobody gets access to capital, economic opportunity or political offices. Party membership is, by the way, a privililege. One doesn't just simply join China's CP. You need to know someone important who can sponsor you in, be from the right family and it often it is in practice hereditary. Almost a bit like european nobility of old. But that doesnt mean that every business owner has a political/party office at all, most are, on paper, ordinary party members. But someone in the family probably does.