I feel like I don’t hear much internal critique about China from the ML side of things - is this more of a ‘critical support’ posture or are people just generally more optimistic about long-term socialization of their market?
edit: if there are more reading materials that discuss this topic in-depth, I am very interested in recommendations
Given the circumstances in the 90’s, I can’t fault socialists and communists of the era being pessimistic about market reform in AES countries. After what happened to the USSR, it must’ve looked like a slippery slope to the same outcome.
However, I think time has born out that those reforms were necessary for the continuation of socialist political economies. It added a flexibility to their economies that the strictly state capitalist economies didn’t have. Of course I’d still prefer for those market institutions to come in socialist forms like worker co-ops or public corporations run by boards jointly made up of worker and public representatives rather than traditional capitalist structures.
I think this is one of the fairer takes. I think what’s obvious is that since Deng the Chinese model is unquestionably the most effective growth model as far as global capitalism is concerned. They can beat anyone on those terms. But those terms have fundamental social and ecological limits and so we cannot afford to play by them any longer.
The heavy duty moves to improve environmental impacts and weed out corrupt businessmen suggests China is planning for that. Especially after the housing market crisis exposed the vulnerability caused by an overly financialized economy.