Apparently, the Chinese have figured out that the development of any nation depends on a strong financial sector with well developed financial institutions.
So they are now adopting lower taxes for people higher up in the financial sector. Anybody in living in Shanghai and working in finance will have to pay less taxes than the rest.
Apparently, the people who would be in the 45% tax bracket before are now only required to pay 20-25% of their income as taxes, with the rest being refunded to them.
This is a part of their scheme to dismantle their autonomous competitor in Hong Kong and have Shanghai overtake it. They are clearly desperate considering the real estate mess up they did in trying to make Shanghai a thriving rich metropolis, which ended up instead as a broke place with skyscrapers that are now completely empty.
I still do wonder - in a country with as many state-owned enterprises as China, why doesn't the government fund itself from sale of goods and services? They could easily adopt a business-based model for raising revenues, and not impose taxes on anybody.