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
In the case of someone like Parenti, who vigorously resisted anti-soviet inclinations, I wonder how much of it was related to the sino-soviet split.
I have no material basis for this, and I have done no investigation. I may be way off base and I’m happy to be corrected:
But I have to imagine if you are a public intellectual in the '80s, trying to point out that the Soviet Union is not an evil empire, that more often the United States are the bad guys and the Soviets are the ones acting in good faith, the sino-soviet split had to be an unwelcome complication. Especially with Chinas rapprochement with the Nixon/Carter admins, their actions in Vietnam/Cambodia, etc.
In 2025, I pray for the day that Chinese amphibious carriers land troops on the west coast. If it were 1978 I would probably feel a little differently, and would probably be much more sympathetic to the Soviets.
One of these days I’m going to sit down and read a few books about the sino-soviet split. It is one of my biggest blind spots. I’ve avoided it because It feels so tragic, and unnecessary.