ChavistaGang [she/her]

Beijing has applied to join an Asia-Pacific trade pact once pushed by the U.S. as a way to isolate China and solidify American dominance in the region.

“It’s a perfectly rational calculation by the Chinese leadership,” according to Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels. “Given how the Chinese market is driving the economic recovery, their cards will never be this strong again. Or rather, the cost of rejecting China’s application will never be this high.”

But it remains uncertain whether China will be allowed to join the free trade pact, formally known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, as it would require unanimous approval from the 11 member countries.

The negotiations about joining won’t be simple -- China and CPTPP member Australia are in the midst of an economic and trade dispute which has seen China apply tariffs or block billions of dollars of Australian exports.

Tensions reached a boiling point after Australia called for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus. In May, China suspended the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue, which had been formed to boost trade and promote talks. The month prior, Australia scrapped a Belt and Road deal between Beijing and the state of Victoria. China has since imposed tariffs on Australian goods including wine and barley. Australia has asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to rule against the wine tariffs on exports to what was formerly its biggest market.

Canada is also in a dispute with China, with one Canadian citizen jailed for 11 years and another still awaiting sentencing in cases that are seen as linked to the arrest in Canada of the daughter of the founder of Huawei Technologies Co.

A former U.S. trade official said China’s membership in the group isn’t assured given its trade regime and direction toward more central control of its economy.

“It’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to see how they could embrace the CPTPP rules governing state-owned enterprises, labor, e-commerce, the free flow of data, among others, as well as comprehensive market access commitments,” said Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former acting deputy U.S. Trade Representative.

Practices such as subsidies to state-owned enterprises that distort competition are forbidden by the pact. Under Xi's leadership, China has been strengthening the state sector, so negotiations to join could hit a stumbling block from the start.

"As the role of the state becomes all the more prevalent in the Chinese economy, Beijing seems to moving even further away from the market-based, high-standard CPTPP rules," former Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler told Nikkei.

China's new data security law that took effect this month includes a ban on taking data out of the country, which could meet resistance from member countries.

The CPTPP has three principles that ensure transparency and fairness in the distribution of data, including a prohibition on forcing companies to disclose source code. In China, companies have been forced by local governments to disclose technology to obtain permits and licenses.

In addition, the CPTPP calls for an end to discrimination between foreign and domestic companies in government procurement. Beijing, on the other hand, has issued "buy-China" guidelines for government procurement for certain products. The road to membership will be difficult as China prioritizes its own interests.

The CPTPP's restrictions clash excessively against China's economic model and it seems very doubtful that China would even be able to make the reforms necessary to comply with the trade deal as it currently stands. So it appears unlikely that China will even get accepted into the pact unless they're somehow able to successfully lobby hostile governments into granting China major economic exemptions from CPTPP rules.

"I will never prioritize houseless settler-colonizers"

Cuba has their own version of Wikipedia from a socialist perspective: https://www.ecured.cu/Estados_Unidos

You'll have to use a translator if you don't know Spanish though.

It was part of the Healthy China 2020 government initiative. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2019-06-14/Why-can-China-provide-1-4-billion-people-with-healthcare-coverage--HwhyDMAOdi/index.html

According to a CPC member who did a recent AMA:

On Medicare. China has a universal healthcare system, but previously a lot of workers and farmers don't have access to it. ( it was complicated to register for it). Xi in term simplified the procedure. He also kept the prices of going to hospital pretty low ( you can easily afford it even if you are poor as long as you don't have very major conditions.)

In addition to what hagensfohawk said, the CPC under Xi has been substantially increasing the amount of supply and marketing cooperatives to cover over 95% of villages and townships as of 2018 (was only 56% in 2012) as well as broadening their scope of services to other industries. There hasn't been such an emphasis on these cooperatives since the Mao era. Public services like healthcare are also being strengthened with the recent reestablishment of a universal healthcare system although it’s not totally free at point of service yet.

Xi called on the Communist Party’s state-owned enterprises to become “stronger, better and larger” and that “they form the economic and political foundation of China’s socialist system and are a key pillar for the Party’s rule” also adding that the state sector’s role “cannot be negated nor weakened”. He also stated that the state-owned enterprises have proven their worth in “both pandemic control and industrial production.” 44 high-tech companies have also been recently nationalized.

There has been a new campaign to purge corrupt capitalist roaders in the party, censor liberal economists like Mao Yushi and Sheng Hong who attack China’s publicly-owned enterprises, and to even shut down their neoliberal organizations like the Unirule Institute of Economics.

This may help:

In recent years the Laotian government focused on the extraction industries, opening new tin and potash mines with the help of China and the DPRK, and gold, silver, and copper mines in partnership with other investors, particularly from Australia. The mining sector only comprises around 7% of the Laotian economy, with the industrial sector contributing 28.6%. Hydroelectric power constitutes an enormous part of the Laotian economy, forming 30% of its exports in 2017. Heavy government investment in that industry began in 1993 and rapidly expanded due to the low population density of the country and the comparative ease with which new dams could be constructed. With Lao PDR already producing far more electricity than it needs, it is poised to become a major supplier of clean electricity to all of Southeast Asia.

Another area of economic growth in recent years has been rubber plantations, most of it in the north near the Chinese border. The area under rubber cultivation is projected to reach 13.8 million hectares by 2018, and much of this growth comes from the demand for tires by the rapidly-expanding automobile industry in China. Many of these plantations are funded by foreign investors but local villages struggle to exert some communal control over the plantations, as is laid out by law.

Lao PDR retains very strict labor rules that reflect the power of its working class. Labor unions exist alongside party and council bodies, and all labor units must have a trade union representative. Workers are protected by these institutions from being fired, and any layoff must be justified in a court. Such justifications must prove that the employer has already sought new employment for the worker, with the worker being paid a termination allowance to support them while they continue to look for new work. Employment is a task the government and labor unions also help with. Labor is restricted to 8 hours a day or 48 hours a week for all trades, with maximum overtime hours limits also set, and with extremely generous paid sick leave, maternity leave, and vacation time.

Despite these protections, the presence of market relations ensures the continued survival of a bourgeoisie in Lao PDR. Under socialism, the class struggle continues but it assumes new forms. The power of the bourgeoisie rests mainly in control over local markets and trade in the highly-decentralized country. However, the control by the Laotian working classes over the commanding heights of the economy and the strict limits on private property keep the Laotian bourgeoisie on a tight leash.

The future of socialism and the Lao PDR are closely tied to the fates of their socialist neighbors. A growing relationship with China and new trade opportunities with surrounding Southeast Asian nations promises economic growth. When we speak of economic growth and capital accumulation, we should never forget to ask the question posed by Lenin: “for whom?”

If anyone is interested, a mainland Chinese CPC member appears to have done an AMA on the Communism subreddit a couple months ago to help provide a better understanding about the party: https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/itlyar/xi_jinpings_main_domestic_policies_and_their/

It didn't seem to get much attention at the time. Some interesting points:

Fighting corruption. Xi believes that the party has lost its purity after Reform and Opening up, and a lot of people who don't believe in Communism joined the party and used their power to accumulate wealth for themselves at the expense of the people and the country. He has relentlessly fought corruptions ever since he took office, and has targeted both "the tigers and the flies" ( meaning both high-ranking and low-ranking officials are being targeted ). in 2018, he created a governmental organization " The National Supervision Committee" with the sole task of fighting corruption

On workers' right. Xi has focused mainly on poor workers' right, and has raised minimum wages by many folds. He is however silent on the 996 phenomenon among middle class workers ( programmers, for example)

On Medicare. China has a universal healthcare system, but previously a lot of workers and farmers don't have access to it. ( it was complicated to register for it). Xi in term simplified the procedure. He also kept the prices of going to hospital pretty low ( you can easily afford it even if you are poor as long as you don't have very major conditions.)

Question: How would you define China's economic model? Socialism with Chinese Characteristic, plain Socialism, State Capitalism, or another term? And why do you think there's such vociferous deliberation among Western leftists on the topic?

Answer: China is a Socialist Market Economy. The party won't plan for everything, and would allow the market to adjust itself. But the party will have the leadership on everything, and if the market's adjustment is inadequate, the party will step in. The biggest difference between China's model and State Capitalism is that our model's greatest pursuit is not profit or wealth, and doesn't serve the interest of oligarchs and capitalists. Rather, the socialist market economy is used to advance the living standard of the people and develop productivity.

Question: How and why is China a dictatorship of the proletariat? Some people here in Brazil say that the bourgeoisie actually controls the Party and China's no longer a DotP.

Answer: Basically, a bourgeoisie government transfers wealth from the poor to the rich, and the rich can exert meaningful power in the government to keep that process going. China usually took wealth away from the rich and transfer it to the poor, and the rich has no power to stop it. Wang Jianlin, for example, was once China's richest man, and he has to participate in the government-mandated poverty alleviation effort. He once said in public that his money is "his" money, not the government's, and started to transfer his assets abroad, and the banks ( which are all state owned) basically refused to give him anymore loans, and the government also refuses to exchange his RMB to dollar, so he can't transfer any more assets abroad. Now he is in a tough situation.

Question: What percentage of the party are Capitalist roaders just pretending to be socialists?

Answer: I'd say about 20%, most of them are either rich people invited to join the party back in the days of Reform and Opening up, or are corrupt officials who only joined the party for money and prestige. The situation has gotten better since Xi, 10 years ago I'd put the number at at least 50%.

Question: What level of influence do owners of large businesses and corporations have in China? Have they meaningfully infiltrated the government?

Answer: They haven't. Even the owners of the largest enterprises still have to follow the party's rule. If, for example, the party tries to remove Ma Huateng from the post of CEO of Tencent, Ma is going to get removed and another CEO who understands the redline better will be nominated by the board.

Question: This is incredibly worrisome to me. I feel like a simple solution would be to have caps on the wealth of party members and their families. I'm glad the situation has gotten better under Xi but I'm curious why there isn't a ban against rich people being in positions of power in the party. How do you ensure a dictatorship of the proletariat in the long term if the bourgeoisie have real power from within the party? I guess it's another form of class struggle but not just in society but for the soul of the party?

Answer: Xi is trying to get rid of corrupt officials with his anti-corruption campaign. These corrupt officials usually have their wealth hidden, and on the surface, they are just as clean as a normal party members. As for those rich people who are invited to join the party, they have no real power whatsoever, and they won't be able to hold any offices in the government or any leadership position in the party. Their party only give them memberships to show to the people that entrepreneurs are also being united under the umbrella of the party.

Question: This is really good news my only concern relates back to question 2. In that if they are allowed to join and influence the party then they don't have to go against the party they can just try to influence the party directly from within. What percentage of the upper leadership in the CPC is rich?

Answer: If you define upper leadership in the CCP as provincial/ministerial level and national level, then I'd say that about 10% of the provincial officials are at least corrupt to some degrees, and I'd say very few of the national leaders are corrupt.

Question: I’ve heard the use of vpns have become quite popular in order to bypass the strict content regulations. Do you think this is a good thing? I mean being restricted to government approved content must be quite annoying and limiting to everyone’s person political beliefs. But hey not my problem.

Answer: I think it is generally a good thing. A VPN is not very expensive and anyone who can afford the Internet can afford a VPN. Most Chinese people who used the VPN to access the outer world, however, came back to the Chinese Internet complaining about the toxicity and disinformation that exists outside of the wall, particularly in the political sphere.

Question: What's the general consensus on Islamic extremism in the Xinjiang region, specifically pertaining to Xi Jinping's response? Too extreme, too lenient, adequate, or something else entirely? There is no consensus on that topic, since we do not talk about it often ( or at all ), but the official explanation is that extremism, separatism and terrorism has taken over the region and has invaded people's mind in that region. And to return Xinjiang back into peace and prosperity, a deep and throughout cleaning is necessary.

Answer: Unlike what is portrayed by the West, we do not massacre at the so-called "concentration camps" ( why would we? ), instead we teach ideological classes their to eliminate the three isms in their minds and teach basic skills to them so that once they return to the society, they can make a living for themselves. Also, the number is quite exaggerated, bu at least 10 folds, as reported by the West.

Question: What would you recommend as goes literature? The r/communism mods put together their reading list for Marxism-Leninism, are there things the Chinese Communist Party believes necessary for a modern Marxist-Leninist? Things you recommend, personally?

Answer: The Selected Work of Mao" is a must. Other than that, most of what the party suggests us to read is specific to China, and I don't think is applicable to the situation in the West.

If anyone is interested in learning from a mainland Chinese CPC member who appears to have done an AMA on the Communism subreddit a couple months ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/itlyar/xi_jinpings_main_domestic_policies_and_their/

Some interesting points:

Fighting corruption. Xi believes that the party has lost its purity after Reform and Opening up, and a lot of people who don't believe in Communism joined the party and used their power to accumulate wealth for themselves at the expense of the people and the country. He has relentlessly fought corruptions ever since he took office, and has targeted both "the tigers and the flies" ( meaning both high-ranking and low-ranking officials are being targeted ). in 2018, he created a governmental organization " The National Supervision Committee" with the sole task of fighting corruption

On workers' right. Xi has focused mainly on poor workers' right, and has raised minimum wages by many folds. He is however silent on the 996 phenomenon among middle class workers ( programmers, for example)

On Medicare. China has a universal healthcare system, but previously a lot of workers and farmers don't have access to it. ( it was complicated to register for it). Xi in term simplified the procedure. He also kept the prices of going to hospital pretty low ( you can easily afford it even if you are poor as long as you don't have very major conditions.)

Question: How would you define China's economic model? Socialism with Chinese Characteristic, plain Socialism, State Capitalism, or another term? And why do you think there's such vociferous deliberation among Western leftists on the topic?

Answer: China is a Socialist Market Economy. The party won't plan for everything, and would allow the market to adjust itself. But the party will have the leadership on everything, and if the market's adjustment is inadequate, the party will step in. The biggest difference between China's model and State Capitalism is that our model's greatest pursuit is not profit or wealth, and doesn't serve the interest of oligarchs and capitalists. Rather, the socialist market economy is used to advance the living standard of the people and develop productivity.

Question: How and why is China a dictatorship of the proletariat? Some people here in Brazil say that the bourgeoisie actually controls the Party and China's no longer a DotP.

Answer: Basically, a bourgeoisie government transfers wealth from the poor to the rich, and the rich can exert meaningful power in the government to keep that process going. China usually took wealth away from the rich and transfer it to the poor, and the rich has no power to stop it. Wang Jianlin, for example, was once China's richest man, and he has to participate in the government-mandated poverty alleviation effort. He once said in public that his money is "his" money, not the government's, and started to transfer his assets abroad, and the banks ( which are all state owned) basically refused to give him anymore loans, and the government also refuses to exchange his RMB to dollar, so he can't transfer any more assets abroad. Now he is in a tough situation.

Question: What percentage of the party are Capitalist roaders just pretending to be socialists?

Answer: I'd say about 20%, most of them are either rich people invited to join the party back in the days of Reform and Opening up, or are corrupt officials who only joined the party for money and prestige. The situation has gotten better since Xi, 10 years ago I'd put the number at at least 50%.

This answer I think aligns well with how the party was in disarray with the notorious corruption and ideological confusion during the mid-2000s under Hu Jintao who was a weak leader who tolerated a lot of shit. Lots of cringe revisionist takes from the attendees of one conference in 2006 referenced by David Kotz although we probably shouldn't necessarily extrapolate some of those alarmingly revisionist views that were expressed during a single event to make it seem like those opinions solidly represent a massive party of tens of millions, especially the current state of the party from a dated source. There will always be the threat from potential opportunists, careerists, and even people who just may honestly be confused and not well informed on theory. This is also juxtaposed by the outlook of the party described by liberal economist Wu Jinglian who described a rising left-wing faction in reaction to rising corruption and inequality during this time as well before the time of Xi's leadership and wasn't optimistic about the future of the party due to it. The CPC’s recent closure of the pro-economic liberalization Unirule Institute of Economics, more promotion of Marxist media programs like Marx Got It Right , and the CPC media's attacks on liberal economists like Wu Jinliang, Zhang Weiying who got sacked from his position as Dean from the Guanghua School of Management, and Mao Yushi who even withdrew from the party reflect a recent, albeit slow positive shift in the CPC.

Question: What level of influence do owners of large businesses and corporations have in China? Have they meaningfully infiltrated the government?

Answer: They haven't. Even the owners of the largest enterprises still have to follow the party's rule. If, for example, the party tries to remove Ma Huateng from the post of CEO of Tencent, Ma is going to get removed and another CEO who understands the redline better will be nominated by the board.

Question: This is incredibly worrisome to me. I feel like a simple solution would be to have caps on the wealth of party members and their families. I'm glad the situation has gotten better under Xi but I'm curious why there isn't a ban against rich people being in positions of power in the party. How do you ensure a dictatorship of the proletariat in the long term if the bourgeoisie have real power from within the party? I guess it's another form of class struggle but not just in society but for the soul of the party?

Answer: Xi is trying to get rid of corrupt officials with his anti-corruption campaign. These corrupt officials usually have their wealth hidden, and on the surface, they are just as clean as a normal party members. As for those rich people who are invited to join the party, they have no real power whatsoever, and they won't be able to hold any offices in the government or any leadership position in the party. Their party only give them memberships to show to the people that entrepreneurs are also being united under the umbrella of the party.

Question: This is really good news my only concern relates back to question 2. In that if they are allowed to join and influence the party then they don't have to go against the party they can just try to influence the party directly from within. What percentage of the upper leadership in the CPC is rich?

Answer: If you define upper leadership in the CCP as provincial/ministerial level and national level, then I'd say that about 10% of the provincial officials are at least corrupt to some degrees, and I'd say very few of the national leaders are corrupt.

Question: I’ve heard the use of vpns have become quite popular in order to bypass the strict content regulations. Do you think this is a good thing? I mean being restricted to government approved content must be quite annoying and limiting to everyone’s person political beliefs. But hey not my problem.

Answer: I think it is generally a good thing. A VPN is not very expensive and anyone who can afford the Internet can afford a VPN. Most Chinese people who used the VPN to access the outer world, however, came back to the Chinese Internet complaining about the toxicity and disinformation that exists outside of the wall, particularly in the political sphere.

Question: What's the general consensus on Islamic extremism in the Xinjiang region, specifically pertaining to Xi Jinping's response? Too extreme, too lenient, adequate, or something else entirely? There is no consensus on that topic, since we do not talk about it often ( or at all ), but the official explanation is that extremism, separatism and terrorism has taken over the region and has invaded people's mind in that region. And to return Xinjiang back into peace and prosperity, a deep and throughout cleaning is necessary.

Answer: Unlike what is portrayed by the West, we do not massacre at the so-called "concentration camps" ( why would we? ), instead we teach ideological classes their to eliminate the three isms in their minds and teach basic skills to them so that once they return to the society, they can make a living for themselves. Also, the number is quite exaggerated, bu at least 10 folds, as reported by the West.

Question: What would you recommend as goes literature? The r/communism mods put together their reading list for Marxism-Leninism, are there things the Chinese Communist Party believes necessary for a modern Marxist-Leninist? Things you recommend, personally?

Answer: The Selected Work of Mao" is a must. Other than that, most of what the party suggests us to read is specific to China, and I don't think is applicable to the situation in the West.

This trade deal appears to be a bit overblown :

4. What’s different about the RCEP? Unlike the TPP, or Trans-Pacific Partnership, and other U.S.-led trade deals, the RCEP doesn’t require its members to take steps to liberalize their economies and protect labor rights, environmental standards and intellectual property. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has called it a “very low-grade treaty” that lacks the scope of the TPP. But RCEP’s imminent implementation illustrates America’s diminished clout and could make it harder for U.S. businesses to compete in the vast region.

From what I've read so far, the deal does not restrict government subsidies or state-owned enterprises, allows countries to retain key tariffs in protection of what they may deem as especially sensitive or critical industries, and also includes technology transfers to the least developed members like Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. Unlike the TPP, it also does not include controversial investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms or limit government sponsorship of industries. RCEP has been criticized for being less protective of intellectual property rights and services that cross borders than other large trade deals. Sucks that it doesn't really include labor or environmental protections, but the deal overall does help undermine US influence in the region and shift us closer to a multipolar world order.

Far from ideal, but it does accelerate the needed shift towards a multipolar world order and deprives the US of influence in the region. The deal also does not restrict government subsidies or state-owned enterprises, allows each country to retain key tariffs in protection of what they may deem as especially sensitive or critical industries, and also includes technology transfers to the least developed members like Laos (a socialist country hardly anyone discusses), Myanmar, and Cambodia. Unlike the TPP, it does not include investor-state dispute settlements mechanisms or limit government sponsorship of industries. RCEP also appears to be less protective of intellectual property rights and services that cross borders.