ABSTRACT
Jiang Zemin held the position of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1989 to 2002, and Hu Jintao held this position from 2002 to 2012. The Jiang Zemin administration was characterized by China completing its transformation into a capitalist country, unfettered by democracy. Under Jiang Zemin, China had capitalism unfettered by democracy, resulting in China's income and wealth distributions becoming extremely unequal. Two forces led to China going from one of the world's most equal countries in 1983 to one of the world's least equal countries in 2016 – capitalism unfettered by democracy and corruption. The Chinese government's initial rationale for setting up its stock market was to raise funds for state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The Jiang Zemin government completed the transformation of China into capitalism unconstrained by democracy. Most of the ways that China deviated from pure capitalism favored the capitalist class.
