Phorum.com.gr

The Chinese Communist Party’s affair with capitalism is souring rapidly. Beijing is forcing the country’s $120 billion private tutoring industry to turn non-profit, an unprecedented move that wiped out billions of dollars in value at a swathe of listed Chinese firms.

The latest policy change, widely circulated on Friday, marks a ham-fisted attempt to solve two deep-rooted social problems: the country’s stubbornly low birth rate and its widening wealth gap. Neither are caused by private educators, however, and online courses compensated for decades of under-investment in poorer regions.