Hello! I would like to start off by apologizing because I know a thread like this gets posted every other day and it can border on (or actually be) concern-trolling, but I wanted to get a rough survey of opinions here on a topic.

Specifically, do you have any criticisms of China’s contemporary culture? Its government? What are they?

I’m of the opinion that there are a lot of low-hanging fruit in this regard, like the patriarchal social order that [whatever one might say about its status in other nations] is certainly an ongoing problem for the matter of women’s liberation. I also think it’s both socially backwards and bad for national security to not have gay marriage, because we’re all familiar with how the US loves infiltrating student movements.

I also rather regret how the CPC seems to be trending towards expanding the role of the profit motive rather than shrinking it. See these statements:

http://en.qstheory.cn/2023-05/04/c_882761.htm

http://en.qstheory.cn/2023-05/05/c_882998.htm

Do you agree with these points? Do you have your own criticisms? Am I totally off-base? Let me know!

(btw I’m also familiar with the idea of sharing criticism with comrades but finding public criticism to be counter-productive, but I don’t want to spend all day listing caveats)

    • kikuos_child@lemmygrad.ml
      2·
      1 year ago

      China did try the stalin model during Mao’s era which only lead to new contradictions between private labour and socialized appropriation bc of its underdeveloped productive forces.

      "What merits our attention here is that our socialist state was established by a proletarian party that has a grasp of historical materialism and is dedicated to communism. With such a party controlling the state power, it is possible for our country to promote changes in the relations of production according to its own will. If, instead of proceeding from realities, we try to change the relations of production according to our wishful thinking, the result may be that the relations of production will go beyond the requirements of the growth of the productive forces, which may thus be disrupted. In 1958, for instance, people’s communes, ‘large in size and having a high degree of public ownership’ as Mao Zedong put it, were set up throughout the country, and there rose the premature ‘communist wind’ characterized by the attempt to effect a transition to communism. All this made agricultural production drop greatly.” End quote. Xue Muqiao. “China’s Socialist Economy”.

      just nationalizing every industry dont make sense economically when large scale industry is the basis for socialism. Therefore, abolishing markets in sectors of the economy which still are highly competitive is nonsensical and would lead to enormous economic inefficiencies.

      “The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible.” End quote. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. “Manifesto of the Communist Party.”

      The inherent implication of this is that a Marxist party should not abolish private property in onestroke. This is a common misconception. A Marxist party should instead utilize markets in an efficient way in order to develop the economy as rapidly as possible. Complete abolition would require incredibly high levels of economic development which humanity has yet to realize.

      “Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke? No, no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity.” End quote. Friedrich Engels. “The Principles of Communism.”

      “That’s how China still is to this day. People will often point out the fact that 60% of China’s GDP output is from the private sector and conclude that means China “abandoned Marxism.” What they don’t also realize that is 60% of China’s GDP output also comes from small-to-medium sized enterprises, meaning that the overwhelming majority of large enterprises are public.”

      "The transition to socialism is not characterized by an instantaneous jump to a pure socialist system. Rather, it is characterized by the dominance of the socialist system. As capitalism develops, the contradictions within it become more and more acute as large-scale industry contradicts with capitalism, but also lays the foundations for socialism.

      The transition to socialism does not occur when this process has completed to its fullest, when the entire economy becomes under the control of a single monopoly. Rather, the transition to socialism occurs once the contradictions of capitalism have become acute enough, once there is enough large-scale industry, to establish public ownership and economic planning as the dominant form of ownership in society." end quote. Aimixin “introduction to marxism”

      these two are a must read if u wanna understand this

      a short introductory work that will clear some of your economic misconceptions

      Aimxin directly discussing ab this topic

      Hope this helps!