Cake theory

The nouveau riche are seen as variously the beneficiaries of their hard work and enterprising character under the new market economy, or as cheaters of the system and inheritors of unfair privilege.

"[1] To deal with the increasingly sharp conflicts between different interest groups, the Chinese Communist Party was said to have split ideologically over the "cake issue".

[2] The ideological cleavage surfaced publicly in a war of words in late 2011, when Guangdong party chief Wang Yang stated that "one must bake a bigger cake first before dividing it.

[3] In response, Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai remarked, "Some people think [...] that one must bake a large cake before dividing it; but this is wrong in practice.

"[3] The egalitarian "divide-the-cake" approach is an important component of the Chongqing model advanced by former star politician Bo Xilai.