Billionaires dominate gathering of China's parliament
One of the most important events on China's political calendar is underway in Beijing. The National People's Congress (NPC) opens its 10-day annual meeting. Some call it a "token" or "rubber stamp" parliament, which meets to approve the agenda of the Communist Party, the biggest legislative body in the world. Increasingly, the gathering is becoming a club for the ultra-wealthy, reports CBS News correspondent Seth Doane.
There are more than 2,900 delegates to the NPC and another 2,000-plus in an advisory body that meets alongside it.
In these two councils, there 59 billionaires based on Forbes' "China Rich List" and converting to U.S. dollars, their combined wealth is $178 billion, roughly the GDP of Kuwait.
Delegates approve the Communist Party's agenda, designed by those with real power, sitting on-stage.
Before delegates enter the Great Hall of the People, they have to pass by the media. One, Zong Qinghou, who is worth $11 billion, said he understands poor people's difficulties.
"I was poor. I'm helping poor people to become more affluent," he said.
"The difference between a poor peasant and these very wealthy entrepreneurs even makes the income gap in the United States look rather modest by comparison," Arthur Ross Director at the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations Orville Schell said. "China's inclusion of the wealthy class is an effort to keep this kind of power, and indeed wealth is a kind of power inside the political system rather than outside it."
He said it was former Chinese President Jiang Zemin who pushed to bring the wealthy into the Communist Party about 15 years ago.
"The shift that took place was a rather remarkable one, actually, because the Chinese Communist Party, of course, was founded (to) represent workers, peasants, soldiers and other oppressed people, not the wealthy," Schell said. "So, when the switch came and they began to allow China's new sort of middle class, wealthy, wealth accumulating class into the party, this was quite a startling identity transfer for the Communist party."
In the middle of all of this is Lei Jun, worth about $9 billion. He made his fortune selling smartphones.
He said he began a career in politics because he "[felt] it is the responsibility and obligation of every single citizen to try our best to push for change in our society."
The richest member of Congress in the U.S. is Rep. Darrell Issa, who is worth around $350 million. Compare that to the richest member of the NPC, who is worth more than $14 billion. That's 41 times higher.
It turns out income inequality was one of the issues mentioned Thursday in the opening of the session.