Genuine question so please don’t hate on me. It seems to me that china now is more of a mixed market than a planned economy. Billionaires and class disparities definitely still exist in China and it seems like american communists almost romanticize china while ignoring obvious flaws in its system, only because they (rightfully) hate america and america hates China. China also supplies all of the world’s exploitative corporations with the vast majority of their goods. While China is probably better than the capitalist economies of the west, I don’t understand why a lot of people seem to hold it in the same regard as the USSR.

  • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    In part, USSR was held in high regard because it led the principle anti-western block and offered an alternative pole to the third world.

    It's not quite the same, but China occupies a simar position now.

    It's not an alternate "2nd world" but it is an alternative partner for trade, foreign investment, technical expertise etc. This isn't simple altruism from China, but it does offer a way for countries to get these things without suffering structural adjustment or loss of sovereign assets to the west. The rise in global influence and standing caused by this are in large part what the new US hostilities with China are about.

    Internally, China is one of the only third world countries that has massively improved the conditions and living standards for the people in it's borders. At the end of the civil war, China was poorer than India. Both countries are huge, multi-ethnic states. But today China is much wealthier and has eliminated extreme poverty. To people in wealthy countries this may not seem impressive, but to the majority of humanity it is monumental. And it should impress people in wealthy countries since now more people live in extreme poverty in the US than in China.

    It accomplished this by following a development path very different from what capitalists nations called for and it is why most of the world's poverty reduction hasn't occurred in South America, or Africa, or India but has instead happened in China.

    All that said, there's definitely cringe romanization of China from lefties too.

    • HamManBad [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Agreed. To me, a leftist in 2021 should view China in the way that a leftist in 1914 could have viewed the United States-- progressive in some unique ways, a better alternative than the current ruling empire, but by no means representative of the end goal for the left.

    • shoe [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      I definitely agree with this, and have held this viewpoint for a while now. As a Bangladeshi living in the US, it is ridiculous how a ‘first world’ country seems to face some of the same issues in the grand scheme of things that bangladeshis do back home. Me moving to the US is what radicalized me. And I do hope Bangladesh shifts it’s political position to be more pro-China because yes, China is better than the US and will definitely do more for us than the US ever has or ever will. It’s just the almost mythical regards to which western leftists hold china to that baffles me sometimes.

      • panopticon [comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I think the mythologization is jokes for the most part, sort of an ironic inversion of the cartoon cutout commie citizen character that we get in western propaganda.

      • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        It’s just the almost mythical regards to which western leftists hold china to that baffles me sometimes.

        Yeah, it's weird. I think it's partially cuz of hopelessness of change in their country. But that hopelessness is often a giving up on the responsibility of taking action and organizing. China won't deliver us to global communism, that will take an international movement from people around the world.