Oh, it'd not be easy at all. Despite having higher book rates for taxes at every income level, a higher corporate tax rate, and a VAT mainly higher than any US jurisdiction's sales tax, Chinese tax take is a good bit lower than American, which in turn is among the lowest in the OECD.

There is *rampant* fraud going on and even more rampant gray market avoidance. There's just no way that the Party-State will make the decision to do this, not least because huge numbers of its leadership benefit from the current arrangement.

Unfortunately, instead of attempting to constrain inequality, invest in working- and middle-class quality of life, and encourage consumption by more effectively administering a more progressive tax code... the Party has instead just decided on the traditional plan of "cutting down the tallest blades of grass" as an exercise in control and populist propaganda, as Mark says.

That will squeeze them from both sides, in the end.