Li Qinfu races his purple Lamborghini toward what looks like the United States Capitol rising above the canola fields south of Shanghai. As he turns into the manicured grounds surrounding the domed marble building, there stands an 18-foot, three-ton bronze likeness of himself, right hand raised as if beckoning to the future. "It would have been too dangerous to cast the hand waving with the palm turned out." While the Communist Party publicly embraces capitalists these days, inviting them in a controversial decision last July to join the party, it is still trying to restrain the emergence of a wealthy class. ...the super-rich have reached critical mass ... China now has one of the world's greatest wealth gaps, from almost none 20 years ago. "In a one-party country everything looks peaceful, but when there's a problem, it's a big problem. The current problem is that there's isn't enough competition and people aren't worried." For China's Wealthy, All but Fruited Plain |