I know that I live in the belly of the beast and most 'news' I hear is propaganda, but I don't want to base my opinions simply on the opposite of imperialist American talking points. How communist is China in reality? I know that they've seemingly done very well for the quality of life of their middle class, but I still hear a lot of people talking about poor Chinese people making iPhones for pennies. Also, with their strong global power, are they not participating in the same kind of imperialism? I was under the assumption that conservatives crying about "communist china" were silly because I thought they were essentially just a form of state-commanded capitalism.

Cuba I'm sure is too small to really be doing wrong on the global stage, but I'm curious about the actual state of things there. Are they still poor and corrupt due to the brutal treatment by America during the Cold War? Or have things improved there and America just wants us to think they haven't because "communism bad".

I know I'm sort of going against the grain with these questions, but I'm not looking to stir the pot. I'm fully ready to embrace the idea that China is much better than American propaganda claims, I just want to see some evidence / hear some good points to support that.

  • KiaKaha [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I thought they were essentially just a form of state-commanded capitalism

    The short answer to your question is in this piece by Lenin, and this quote:

    if a huge capitalist undertaking becomes a monopoly, it means that it serves the whole nation. If it has become a state monopoly, it means that the state (i.e., the armed organisation of the population, the workers and peasants above all, provided there is revolutionary democracy) directs the whole undertaking. In whose interest?

    Either in the interest of the landowners and capitalists, in which case we have not a revolutionary-democratic, but a reactionary-bureaucratic state, an imperialist republic.

    Or in the interest of revolutionary democracy—and then it is a step towards socialism.

    For socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly.

    If you want something theoretically meatier, have a read of this twitter thread.

    If you wanna go straight to the source, here’s a site with the Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s current approach.

    If you want info on China generally, the /r/Communism megathread is pretty good.

    China’s not perfect or a utopia by any means. It’s not even communist—they self-describe as being in the early stages of socialist construction. But it is a socialist project, and decisions are ultimately made by the Party, not capital.

    As for Cuba, you might find their democratic processes interesting. Read this, this, and this.