"The campaign of the West for the “democratisation” of China is taking place just as many political analysts are forced to see the decline of democracy in the West. A few years before the economic crisis, one could read in the International Herald Tribune that the United States had become a “plutocracy”; now the forces of private and corporate wealth have already taken hold of political institutions, while the rest of the population is cut off (Pfaff 2000). Nowadays, on the left as well as among those completely opposed to the Marxist tradition, it is common to read that in the West, and primarily in the United States, plutocracy has taken the place of democracy. We can conclude that the on-going campaign for the“democratisation”of China is actually a campaign for its plutocratisa-tion, to turn in the opposite direction the “political expropriation” of the bourgeoisie that has taken place since 1949 in the big Asian country."
I think you can hold both that the attempts at Western "democratization" in China are a cynical, imperialist political ploy to destabilize and discredit a competitor AND that the current construction of Chinese socialism has nothing to do with socialism, and that the Chinese state is not attempting to build socialism whatsoever.
Before the China stans call my some ignorant Anglo, please explain to my ignorant Yankee ass how China is building socialism. I recognize that in terms of global capitalist domination, it is FAR preferable to have China as the world's superpower rather than the US empire and it's western European satellites. I sincerely hope China can subvert US domination. But I have seen no evidence that China is actually building socialism and empowering the working class and displaced peoples at the expense of the capitalist class. How can a country that allows billionaires to exist while it's working population continues to suffer under (granted conditions are gradually improving) capitalist domination claim to be advancing socialism?
"The campaign of the West for the “democratisation” of China is taking place just as many political analysts are forced to see the decline of democracy in the West. A few years before the economic crisis, one could read in the International Herald Tribune that the United States had become a “plutocracy”; now the forces of private and corporate wealth have already taken hold of political institutions, while the rest of the population is cut off (Pfaff 2000). Nowadays, on the left as well as among those completely opposed to the Marxist tradition, it is common to read that in the West, and primarily in the United States, plutocracy has taken the place of democracy. We can conclude that the on-going campaign for the“democratisation”of China is actually a campaign for its plutocratisa-tion, to turn in the opposite direction the “political expropriation” of the bourgeoisie that has taken place since 1949 in the big Asian country."
Good quote
I think you can hold both that the attempts at Western "democratization" in China are a cynical, imperialist political ploy to destabilize and discredit a competitor AND that the current construction of Chinese socialism has nothing to do with socialism, and that the Chinese state is not attempting to build socialism whatsoever.
Before the China stans call my some ignorant Anglo, please explain to my ignorant Yankee ass how China is building socialism. I recognize that in terms of global capitalist domination, it is FAR preferable to have China as the world's superpower rather than the US empire and it's western European satellites. I sincerely hope China can subvert US domination. But I have seen no evidence that China is actually building socialism and empowering the working class and displaced peoples at the expense of the capitalist class. How can a country that allows billionaires to exist while it's working population continues to suffer under (granted conditions are gradually improving) capitalist domination claim to be advancing socialism?