Red capital and the ideology of stability: the view from Beijing

In his book Capital and Ideology, Thomas Piketty discusses the rise of inequalities in China, the role of the State in the economy and the regime’s critique of the political model of electoral democracy. The present essay highlights the significant inequalities of status that coexisted with the relative equalization of income in the Mao era and that continue to operate today through the distinction between rural and urban residents. For this reason, the state’s implication in the economy does not translate into better social protection but rather into increased political repression against the claims of rural migrants and other groups excluded from the economic miracle.