In 1992 the late Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese former leader and father of "socialism with Chinese characteristics", said: "Let a part of the population get rich first." He did not explicitly assign that leading role to the Chinese Communist party, but the party, which continues to insist on its exclusive right to rule and its vanguard role in Chinese politics and society, took Deng's instructions to heart.

Deng's reforms – economic liberalisation combined with the party's unchanging grip on China's politics, law, machinery of state, security apparatus, much of its industry and commerce and all of its land – kickstarted 30 years of rapid economic growth. That brought average per capita income in China up to a still modest $2,425 by 2010. It also facilitated the huge fortunes made by party leaders and their families over the same period.

China is on the brink of a leadership change, the infighting for which exposed the accumulated family wealth of Bo Xilai, the disgraced former party secretary of Chongqing. Bo now faces a long list of charges, including corruption. But given the overwhelming evidence of the intimate relationship between political power and money in China, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Bo's behaviour, in this respect at least, was not an exception.

The party itself has repeatedly stressed that corruption is one of the biggest threats to its continuing rule, but revealing details of the unprecedented wealth enjoyed by leaders' families remains unpopular with the Chinese authorities. Chinese media that do so can face the serious charge of threatening "social stability". International media are simply blocked, as the New York Times was this week for its account of the fortunes of the family of China's premier, Wen Jiabao ($2.7bn in assets). Bloomberg Business News was similarly blocked for an account in June of the family wealth of Xi Jinping, the man expected to become China's president in November, a relatively modest $136m. Xi once advised colleagues in the Communist party to "rein in your spouses, children, relatives, friends and staff, and vow not to use power for personal gain".

Wen's image as a benign and caring leader – he is popularly though sometimes satirically referred to as Grandpa Wen in China – has been honed over the years by regular TV appearances at moments of national trauma. He has comforted earthquake victims and apologised for breakdowns in the train service. He has also made statements in support of political reform, though no progress has been made under his leadership. Wen's family has not yet been implicated in any of the scandals of conspicuous wealth and jetset lifestyles that regularly fuel the resentment of the less fortunate majority.

But the mechanisms by which Wen's wife and son built up their eye-watering portfolios are routinely discussed around Beijing dinner tables, and accounts of his and other leadership family fortunes have been published, in Chinese, in Hong Kong. The fact that Wen's wife, son and even his 90-year-old mother have swiftly grown spectacularly rich is not a big surprise in China.

The symbiosis of politics and money extends to China's parliament, the National People's Congress which, as the annual Hurun report on China's rich has shown, is now a billionaires' club: the wealthiest 70 members enjoy a combined net worth of $85bn. By way of comparison, the estimated combined net worth of 660 top US officials, including the president, reportedly adds up to a mere $7.5bn.