China: "Capitalism and ideology", by Thomas Piketty, confronted with censorship

"Capitalism and Ideology", the latest book by French economist Thomas Piketty devoted to the meteoric rise in inequalities in the world, will "probably" not be released in China, the author refusing the cuts demanded by Citic Press, his Chinese publisher , he announced Monday, August 31, to AFP. 

“In summary, they want to remove all references to contemporary China, and in particular to inequality and opacity in China. I have refused these conditions, and indicated that I will only accept a full translation without cut. 'any kind,' said Thomas Piketty.

Considered a "rock star" of the economy, the professor of the Paris School of Economics published this new sum at the Editions du Seuil in September 2019, six years after the worldwide success of his book "Le Capital au XXIe century "(more than 2.5 million copies sold). 

"Other Chinese publishing houses in contact with my French publisher have indicated that they will also demand cuts, so at this point it is likely that this book will not be published in mainland China," he added. , confirming information from the South China Morning Post.

In Capital & ideology, I offer a critical but constructive perspective on inequality regimes & their hypocrisies: in China, but also in USA, Europe, India, Brasil, Middle East .. It is sad that Xi Jinping's "socialism with Chinese characteristics" shrinks itself from open discussion https://t.co/Naj8vgcjhR

A first opus hailed by President Xi Jinping

Citic Press has had the honor to cooperate with Thomas Piketty to publish the Chinese version of 'Capital in the 21st Century'. Both parties were pleased with their cooperation. The copyright of Thomas Piketty's new book remains in negotiations, "a spokesperson for the publishing house told AFP.

This first opus had sold hundreds of thousands of copies in China, and had even been praised by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who had used the results of his research on the sharp rise in inequalities in the United States and in Europe as proof of the superiority of the Chinese Communist model. 

But in chapter 12 of "Capitalism and Ideology", devoted to "communist and post-communist societies", the French economist, after having pinned down Russia's "oligarchic and kleptocratic drift", attacks the "plutocracy" of a Chinese regime which, in terms of income inequalities, has caught up with, or even overtaken, Western countries.

"At the end of the 2010s, (...) China is barely less unequal than the United States, and it is clearly more so than Europe, while it was the most egalitarian of the three regions- continents at the beginning of the 80s ": this sentence appears besides among the 24 passages which Citic Press demanded the deletion, first at the beginning of June in the French edition, then at the beginning of August in the English edition. 

We also find this one: "after having been for a long time the country of the abolition of private property, it [China] has become the world leader of the new oligarchs and offshore wealth, that is to say, hidden in opaque structures within tax havens. More generally, post-communism, in its Russian, Chinese and East European variants, has become at the start of the 21st century the best ally of hypercapitalism ".

Censorship that "illustrates the growing nervousness of the Chinese regime"

If a Russian edition is not planned, China is the only country to have formulated such demands, continued Thomas Piketty for whom this "censorship illustrates the growing nervousness of the Chinese regime and its refusal of an open debate on the different economic and political systems ". 

"It is sad that Xi Jinping's 'socialism in Chinese colors' shies away from dialogue and criticism", despite the "critical but constructive perspective of the various unequal regimes on the planet and their hypocrisies" that the economist claims to have adopted in his book, and which does not spare the United States any more than Europe, Brazil, India or the Middle East. 

With AFP

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