Navigating Security Risks: Chinese Private Entrepreneurs’ Security Concerns and Coping Strategies

Since the launch of the policy of reform and opening up, the number of Chinese private enterprises has surged, and their social status has also continuously improved. This essay provides a perspective based on an investigation on private entrepreneurs in five cities in Zhejiang Province and Shanghai. Results show that, although private entrepreneurs achieved higher social status, most of them express deep concern for their security. Four main factors account for private entrepreneurs’ lack of security: difficulty in obtaining equal protection of private property; the risk of criminal charges that threaten personal safety; the growing culture of hatred against rich people; and doubts over changes on the state political ideology, the latter causing the most anxiety among entrepreneurs. This essay proves that, although the state regulates some private entrepreneurs in stages due to social justice pressures and to the need to ensure a stable governance, no overall ideology transformation may overturn the economic policies in the private sector.