Hello! I would like to start off by apologizing because I know a thread like this gets posted every other day and it can border on (or actually be) concern-trolling, but I wanted to get a rough survey of opinions here on a topic.
Specifically, do you have any criticisms of China’s contemporary culture? Its government? What are they?
I’m of the opinion that there are a lot of low-hanging fruit in this regard, like the patriarchal social order that [whatever one might say about its status in other nations] is certainly an ongoing problem for the matter of women’s liberation. I also think it’s both socially backwards and bad for national security to not have gay marriage, because we’re all familiar with how the US loves infiltrating student movements.
I also rather regret how the CPC seems to be trending towards expanding the role of the profit motive rather than shrinking it. See these statements:
http://en.qstheory.cn/2023-05/04/c_882761.htm
http://en.qstheory.cn/2023-05/05/c_882998.htm
Do you agree with these points? Do you have your own criticisms? Am I totally off-base? Let me know!
(btw I’m also familiar with the idea of sharing criticism with comrades but finding public criticism to be counter-productive, but I don’t want to spend all day listing caveats)
Is that considered an “anti-Deng” stance now? I thought that was the general consensus about his reforms. They have worked, but also weren’t without their own set of issues that did cause a lot of…I don’t know if “backsliding” is the right word, but more tolerance of capitalist behaviour. We could always wonder about “what if” but we could also wonder what if Mao invented the anti-capitalist laser that strategically targets every capitalist in the world instantly and frees everyone. It feels like pointless circlejerking to be honest. The China in the world today is the China we have, for better and worse. Thankfully, things do seem to just be getting better and better there, though obviously not at an ideal pace, but we aren’t idealists, we are materialists.
And in turn, I agree with your second paragraph. They do seem to be moving very slowly towards a planned economy. I’m not sure if this is due to them being concerned about western aggression, or just believing that their economy has too much inertia to shift quickly. Of course, this could also be because the Maoists are right and they’re all just evil capitalists pretending to be socialists for some reason.
I am not Chinese nor do I live in China. So my opinions are just my opinions and not based on any concrete understanding of these things.
idk, I’m not super into all the terminology surrounding everything, I thought the general consensus was that China wouldn’t have reached this height without his reforms. I agree it’s not worth talking about too much, although we should always analyze the past of course. I might make a post asking about their shift to a planned economy, I’d be curious for people who understand China better to explain it to me
Yeah, me too. I haven’t read much really up to date stuff on the matter, not since they before they started their most recent 5 year plan.
And the terminology obsession is for the terminally online anyway. Figuring out if something is more Althussertherian or Haywoodian or whatever doesn’t matter. If a person can’t explain their position simply, or another’s position as they understand it, they probably don’t understand the topic very well. (A person can explain something and still be wrong of course, but trying to “prove” yourself correct by referencing some obscure Marxist thinker is the hallmark of the pseudo-intellectual who is only concerned with “winning” pointless internet arguments.)
I think some of it is liberal propaganda and Deng’s reform was mainly useful for survival in capitalist encirclement, as it produced a massive degree of impoverishment for the common people early on.
I don’t really understand the economics, but I don’t think that switching to a centrally-planned economy overnight is possible. It’s not a matter of Xi Jinping restraining himself from pushing the button; it’s just that the contradictions that arise from China’s economic system haven’t given rise to the need for complete nationalization. Not like it’s a good thing; most of China’s growth and innovation is from the private sector.
I gotta heavily disagree with that last line. Most of China’s innovation is from state-owned or at least scientific state-supported funding, and the private economic activity is just raising funds.