Inequalities and capital accumulation in China

Abstract

This article contributes to the debate on income and wealth distribution in China by analyzing the main characteristics of the Chinese accumulation pattern that determine its distributive dynamics in a comparative perspective. After a period of rapid growth of inequalities, coupled with improved living conditions for all distribution deciles, inequalities have stabilized in China since the mid-2000s. Globally, China is today in a distributive pattern worse than Western Europe or Japan, but it is more egalitarian than the United States and far from the world inequality frontier defined by Brazil, India, South Africa and the Middle East. In this article, we scrutinize three characteristics of the regime of accumulation in China that mitigate the capital-concentrating tendency: 1. the financialization process with Chinese characteristics, 2. the strategic share of State ownership in the economy, 3. its trajectory over the agrarian question.

On The Chinese Socialist Market Economy And The “New Projectment Economy”

“…Recent research has correctly pointed to the increasing control exercised by the state over wealth and income flows in China. Piketty, Yang and Zucman (2017), Naughton (2017) and Nogueira, Guimarães and Braga (2019) come to similar conclusions, demonstrating that the Chinese government currently controls about 30% of all wealth produced in the country.…”

A (Nova) Economia do Projetamento: o conceito e suas novas determinações na China de hoje

“…As reformas econômicas de 1978 podem ser apreendidas como uma decisão estratégica que a China tomou diante do mundo e de si mesma. Durante quase 30 anos a transformação estrutural da economia foi acompanhada da constituição de um país com níveis muito baixos de desigualdade social (Nogueira, 2019 In terms of the state-people relationship, the government listened and responded to the "voice" from the grassroots and China's "tough model" does not rule out the possibility of self-improvement. Therefore, a virtuous cycle between the state and people has formed afterwards.…”

“…6 Pesquisas recentes fizeram apontamentos interessantes e acertados sobre a elevação da participação e controle estatal sobre a riqueza e os fluxos de renda na China. Piketty et al (2017), Naughton (2017) e Nogueira et al (2019) têm conclusões semelhantes demonstrando que o Estado chinês controla atualmente cerca de 30% da riqueza produzida no país. De forma contraditória, atualmente o Estado chinês conta com uma capacidade muito maior de intervenção sobre a realidade do que o tinha no final da década de 1970.…”