Perhaps the fact that the children of the nouveau riche, the tuhao generation mentioned in a recent Asia Briefing column, are being sent to special schools to encourage them to behave better is also having an impact on luxury car sales.

Not only are the children of the rich among the worst offenders when it comes to misbehaving in traffic, they are generally considered wilful, spoiled and corrupt.

The son of former president Hu Jintao's one-time chief of staff, Ling Jihua, died in a Ferrari crash, and two other supercars were smashed up in a street race as people tried to emulate the drivers.

President Xi Jinping last month called for greater efforts to “guide the younger generation of private enterprise owners to think where their money comes from and live a positive life”.

With this in mind, more than 70 children of billionaires in Fujian province in southeastern China attended a special training session "to raise their awareness of social responsibility and patriotism", according to the Beijing Youth Daily.

The attendees were aged 27 on average, and they are known in China as the “fuerdai”, or second-generation rich.

You Xiaoming, a cadre in Xiamen, said the new rich are worried that their children are spoiled, too used to the silver chopsticks and lacking in social responsibility.

“Many entrepreneurs wanted to send all their grown-up kids to the session, but we could only admit one from each enterprise,” said You. There were fines of 1,000 yuan (€143) for arriving late.

“Although it is not a large sum for the wealthy, the rule aims to build a sense of responsibility.”

The event is sponsored by the United Front Work Department, a liaison group between the government and the people. The department urged young rich to devote their money to expand production, invest in the real economy and do more public welfare and charity work.