Defend China. How is it currently socialist?
Some things to respond to (the gatcha questions):
The rapid expansion of capital, foreign and local, and the reemergence of capital accumulation as a production goal in the end of the 20th century
The existence of megacorporations, especially private megacorporations such as tencent and foxconn
the state of labor rights in the aforementioned megacorporations, and the state of labor rights in the industrial sector as a whole
The repression of marxist and leftist protest and critique of the current state of the system
The apparent lack of repression of non-leftist critique (I could easily be convinced that this is just because they're amplified by American media)
The great firewall (I could be convinced this is protectionism to avoid Western silicon valley capitalism's supremacy on the internet)
The social credit system
idk i guess talk about the Uyghurs if you want, but I don't really want that to become the entire discussion, as it has a tendency to be, so if you talk about that, don't make it the entirety of your defense or attack
and let's try to keep this relatively civil? Like, a random post and argument between some leftists on the internet isn't actually going to like, collapse china's rising economic and political power into nothing. We can't actually do shit about china, good or not, so try not to make this a flame war?
The fact that a single billionaire has ever been jailed in China makes it closer to socialism than anything in the West, and even if you disagree with every iota of what China is, you cannot deny that is fucking metal as shit.
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If you investigate the convictions and reasons behind them, it reveals a false equivalency. They have a "kill pigs list" for billionaires.
More general sources 1 2 3 4 5 (a slideshow!)
Some specific examples: Ding Yuxin
Wu Ying - not executed, but sentenced to death and resentenced
Wang Zhenhua (Punishment shoulda been greater) - doing what he is convicted of in the US would meant it gets swept under the rug - Epstein, Trump 👀👀
oop, and as I say that, Zhao Zhiyong
Liu Han
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The ramp-up in punishment of these elites is more or less a part of Xi's anti-corruption drive, which, if I'm correct, was in response to the corruption and rot that had been normalised in the CPC partly due to economic liberalisation and the ossification of the bureaucracy. I think characterising the punishment of these elites as being to preserve the status quo of "Chinese capitalism", given the nature of Xi's background and goals, is incorrect.
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Who? I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility; I'm just struggling to think of an example. The whole "no one went to jail for causing the 2008 recession" bit comes to mind.
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Bernie Madoff is a good example of this too, now that you mention it. Your point also makes me want to dig into the charges filed against the billionaires China imprisons.
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