I came across this thoughtful response a while back, on Facebook of all places, and to this day it’s still one of the best intros to the “is China socialist?” question I’ve seen.— professional hog groomer (@bidetmarxman) January 25, 2022
I thought this was really well thought out actually
An economy defined by the tightist capital controls on earth and municipal led state brokered investment programs is not an economy defined by "marketisation"
China didn't go full market capitalism, it intergrated specific manufacturing sectors into the global American led capitalist market and used the resulting influx of western capital to build local industrial capacity
And the question of whether China will "pivot back" was answered in 2015 when capital controls were loosened and a trillion dollars fled the country in less then two weeks, that was the moment the Chinese capitalists forever lost their chance
They basically told the state that if given the smallest bit of leeway they would crash the country and transfer their assets back to the west, since then we've seen a resurgance of Marxtist rhetoric from the state, heavier crackdowns on the rich and an intensification of internal state investment. The 2050 project finally became real back in 2015
An economy defined by the tightist capital controls on earth and municipal led state brokered investment programs is not an economy defined by "marketisation"
China didn't go full market capitalism, it intergrated specific manufacturing sectors into the global American led capitalist market and used the resulting influx of western capital to build local industrial capacity
And the question of whether China will "pivot back" was answered in 2015 when capital controls were loosened and a trillion dollars fled the country in less then two weeks, that was the moment the Chinese capitalists forever lost their chance
They basically told the state that if given the smallest bit of leeway they would crash the country and transfer their assets back to the west, since then we've seen a resurgance of Marxtist rhetoric from the state, heavier crackdowns on the rich and an intensification of internal state investment. The 2050 project finally became real back in 2015