But such discriminations are informally done, not part of the formal system. Other countries, such as China, can incorporate formal distinctions in sentencing. In revolutionary countries, who you are and what the class background of your parents can be held against you or in your favor. Reactionary, bourgeois, feudalistic classes and elements were consciously suppressed. If a member of such a class committed a crime, that was much more serious than if the same act had been done by a member of the working classes.
Contradiction is an important concept in Marxist thinking.
It defines and points to the fundamental splits in society which cannot be overcome but will lead, inevitably, to change. Mao argued that there were, at that time in China, two contradictions, both still in existence because revolutionary China was still a new country. It would disappear. What to do with a criminal depended on which contradiction was expressed in a specific act. Suppose someone stole a bicycle from another.