The contradictions of communist capitalism in China

 A communist regime trying to create a casino-like capitalist market is just one of the contradictions accumulating in almost every corner of China’s economy and politics, writes Pranab Bardhan

THE recent dizzying plunge in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges has posed a unique test for China’s Communist rulers.

So long as the markets were rising, the paradox of vigorous capitalist development overseen by the world’s largest and strongest Communist Party confounded only academics and old-school Marxists.