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
So would you say that the animosity between China and “The West” is solely a realpolitik calculation between competing capitalist visions? Certainly the rhetoric between them is that they see their systems as incompatible, but that could just be theatre. And to be fair it’s almost exclusively directed at China by the West, the inverse is much less hostile.
It seems to me that modern china is ready to work with about anybody. a quick stroll through the BRICS countries would say so, India(one bad day away from a billion person religious war) a semi feudal and mildly fascist(although with a robust labor movement) country being a standout. But yes as you say the matter that seems hard to square is the USA’s uncompromising belligerence. although its possible that is a strange but powerful cold war cultural artifact that just possesses the various higher ups in the military with a fanatic bloodlust. Obviously exceptions among the elite like Elon who clearly would like to benefit from chinas industrial capacity remain despite his incoherent libertarian ideals, Milei in Argentia talked a big talk and then when the chips were down decided he did like china, global capitalism was allowed to eat another day. somehow the USA persists in barreling towards war though. Although this probably should get squared into a proper analysis, Matt christman had a byline through his vlogs about capitalism “leaving behind” the need for the USA as its tool securing globalized markets, and now that it has locked itself into a role as the reserve currency while also producing a population with expectations about consumption/immigration/lots of other things that result in highly present and irreconcilable contradictions. But I am sure there is an even cleaner explanation, or one that better captures geopolitical complexities inside Lenin’s break with the second internationale on how imperialism will always lead to war.
Of course, if we believe that China is “capitalist” or at least obeys the law of value(which many metrics of its economy implicitly do, even the SOE’s) then it also will run into many similar problems as the USA. I cant imagine the CPC is not aware of this, but it is in a genuinely delicate balancing act in the coming decades. And while its quality governance and prudent state investment has mellowed out the shocks and bumps, the future is worrisome. Someone else in the thread mentioned “jack ma is not the most powerful person in china” but that belies the reality that there are immensely powerful capitalist interests in china that also rapaciously desire profit, and will put up quite the struggle if xi did “press the communism button”. how they will actually move away from commodity production, if it all, to avoid capitalism’s contradictions remains illusive. Especially as they seem to be putting some aspect of their stability into the fortification of a robust middle class, not exactly a socialist ideal.
A lot to process, thank you for your thoughtful response. I’ll have to think about this stuff more.
I’d hope that at the very least being a country with a communist history and national origin story would help with their handling of things, being educated and aware of Marxist theory would help you think of the economy as a tool you can manipulate rather than a god you are at the mercy of, although your assessment undermines that hope. Maybe if nothing else the masses can be more conscious there than westerners usually are of their class interests.