- Why does China, a socialist country, have mega corporations like Tencent and Bytedance? Are they collectively owned by syndicates or unions? If this is a transitionary phase to socialism, can we trust China to actually enforce Socialism after this stage ends?
- Child Labor in factories: Myth or Fact? I have a Chinese friend who said he personally never worked as a child in China, but obviously if this was true not every single kid would have worked in a factory.
- Surveillance and Social Credit: are these myths, or are they true? Why would China go so far to implement these systems, surely it'd be far too costly and burdensome for whatever they'd gain from that.
- Uighur Muslim genocide: Is this true?
Thank you to anyone who answers, and if you do please cite sources so I can look further into China. I really appreciate it.
edit: I was going to ask about Tiananmen Square, but as it turns out that literally just didn't happen. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8555142/Wikileaks-no-bloodshed-inside-Tiananmen-Square-cables-claim.html
https://leohezhao.medium.com/notes-for-30th-anniversary-of-tiananmen-incident-f098ef6efbc2
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/there-was-no-tiananmen-square-massacre/
Listen i think you should think twice before asking random internet Marxists about options on China but here's a better question I'll pose are you deferring real serious inquiry into China as a way to not have to deal immediate task at hand where you live.
This aside you need to understand the history of the left in the last 70 years your gonna find three or four types of leftists in this thread,
Western Dengists that aren't directly connected to the Chinese socalist project they belive China is a socialist country and that you should generally trust the plan, some of them are trying to fuse mmt with Marxism.
Marcyites a type of trotskyist that is so soviet defencist they are pro stalin, they do decent interestingly enough from trotskis party in America rather indirectly, some of them are pro China for soviet nep reasons
ML(stalinist) a form of leninism that flows from the same vein as trotskyist Leninism, both sects claim to be the pure forn of leninism but is not historically related to the soviet government or its various Marxist lenists traditions they typically will hold mixed right and left opposition options in the ml tradition up until the purges. Sometimes pro China for nep reasons
Something to note very important to know the left has a established history since the 1920s of talking foreign policy and focusing on staning other countries when their political project is in crisis yet again read Christopher lashs agony of the American left. It ls almost critical you understand this before picking sides in any ideological debate around China.
christopher lasch? lmao are you fuckin joking?
He was a leftist at one point and transitioned to the right in 88 his works on leftistism are still useful, I read everyone we shouldn't just assume we know everything or that Marxism is the only heuristic worth using, you should know this as a leftist. So it goes lmao are you fucking joking? I find this unserious we should be reading everyone and develop a Critical understanding and pull what is useful from them into our huertistic. I wonder who said ruthless criticism of all that exists. The leftists that don't know there own history is a critical mistake.
That whole breed of reactionary ex-trot is only useful insofar as it reveals what kinds of ideological conviction can curdle. It doesn't mean they have any particular insight into the left or anything else.
I can vouch for the efficacy of this excuse. It is my go-to for all kinds of hard topics including questions regarding China. Which I know nothing about. Couldn't with any honestly answer any of the OP questions though I have a general idea of some of the possible vibes that would come up from others. I will read on in the thread and see if anything is compelling.
To argue both sides of "Should I bother to have an opinion on things like this and does it matter?":
PRO: Know about what people have tried before and how did it work out. Be able to anticipate problems in advance. Get inspired and have a big imagination about how world can be. Be more astute about potential manipulations of local conditions. Be able to pose an intelligent counterpoint to mainstream messaging to people who are interested in it. Avoid looking like a total dumbass when someone in ideological opposition says your ideas on the whole are stupid because don't you know about this historical/current thing that disproves it. Be a smarty pants.
CON: Can become a weird nerd thinking so much about things that no one else cares about. If you let it slip in wrong context, people can be put off. It can make you feel distanced from people around you when you can't talk about the things you care about. Can forget about the actual class struggle in your vicinity and focus too much on the far away which you have no potential impact on. Intellectual isolation can lead weird places. You could be very wrong about everything. And if you're correct it doesn't really do much anyway. Opportunity cost.
Good answer actually, imo
I really appreciate your good faith engagement with my post, I think its criticality important to develop a understanding of the history of the left and our past failures, I think the reason I posted this is a see a lot of new leftists diving head first into theory with out understanding its context and get baffled for years into various sects with out understanding how we got here. My aim with recommending that particular lash text is this text touches on how culture isn't just a epiphnenomnal things that comes out of the super structure of society but rather a reinforcing structure that we have to engage with. Its something I see a lot of new leftists really struggle with its not just enough to develope productive forces, it is all the creation of a political subjects that yearns for a new world and is empowered to do so, the job of leftist is to empower workers to be able to create that new society.
Theory stuff aside I really appreciate your effort with my engagement.
It was the time where a lot of leftists were going lib or giving up because of the fall of the USSR and Eastern Bloc, but even today, a large part of many leftists' identities is to be the AES/sometime Russia cheering/denunciation squad. Were these countries to take a huge L for whatever reason, from either external or internal causes, you'd likely have a lot of people abandoning leftist positions. You can even see it in say the people who embraced pro-NATO positions with the start of the War in Ukraine.
The author didn't talk about it iirc, but another big issue is the fixation on history. Is Stalin Based or cringe arguments, German anarchists posting murder fantasies on communists over Kronstadt, Trotskyists being viewed with inherent suspicion, etc. It's probably a sign of current weakness of the left. A retreat upon ourselves from a world that just isn't going in our direction for a large part.