Socialism or capitalism? Here’s the truth about China’s economy

That's a question that has always puzzled me as it appears that China does Capitalism much better then the west.

Here are quotes from an analysis and explanation penned by Richard Wolff.

In China since at least the 1970s, the Communist Party and the government it controls have managed state-owned and supervised private enterprises.

Both kinds of enterprise exhibited the same employer/employee structure.

Chinese state capitalism is a hierarchy with the party and government at the top, state and private employers below them, and the mass of employees comprising the bottom.

Western private capitalism has a slightly different hierarchy: private employers at the top, parties and government below them, and the mass of employees comprise the bottom.

I never thought of this distinction in national hierarchy and I do find it very telling.

Dr. Wolff talks about this in the context of employer/employee relatios:

China’s economic system is also clearly not a communism in the sense of having overcome the employer/employee structure or mode of production.

To the extent that such overcoming once occurred during the era of communes early in the history of the People’s Republic of China, it mostly vanished.

Employer/employee structures of enterprises are today’s Chinese norm. China is not post-capitalist. China is, as the USSR was, socialist in the sense of a state capitalism whose further transition to post-capitalism has been blocked.

For any interested this is a well written article without 'finance' jargon by a well respected teacher of economics.

www.alternet.org...

It can also be found at braveneweurope.com...

Not really communism versus not really democracy?

a reply to: FyreByrd

it appears that China does Capitalism much better then the west.

That must be why China is ranked very low compared to the US and many westernized Asian nations on the Human Development Index along with having a low GDP per capita despite having a large GDP overall, since their population is so large.

The Supremacy of Westernized Asian Nations

Is there any mention of China's dozens of Billionaires ? 😎🦇

Sweet hopefully China can afford more suicide nets now.

By law , the Chinese government owns 51% of all businesses.
That's capitalism ?

a reply to: Gothmog
As compared to 51% of the government being owned by businesses?

(Not accurate, but the meaning stands)

a reply to: Nivhk

Politicians 100% owned by big businesses.

a reply to: FyreByrd

What a crock of crap.
The Chinese government owns all of the raw materials.
They own all of the utilities.
They have no worker safety standards.
They have little in the way of labor laws.

Pretty easy to make things profitable when your expenses are so low.

a reply to: FyreByrd

What do you make of this?

The Communist Party of China uses the cancelling of retirement pensions as a tool to punish dissidents. In June 2020, Cai Xia (蔡霞), a retired professor of CCP's Central Party School,criticized Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the CCP, called him a "mafia boss" and the ruling Communist Party a "political zombie" .In 20-minute audio on social networking sites, she said that everyone is Xi’s slave, and there is no human rights and rule of law, She suggested that Xi should retire. On August 17, 2020, Cai Xia was expelled from the CCP’s Central Party School and her retirement pensions were cancelled.

source

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: FyreByrd

What a crock of crap.
The Chinese government owns all of the raw materials.
They own all of the utilities.
They have no worker safety standards.
They have little in the way of labor laws.

Pretty easy to make things profitable when your expenses are so low.

Thank you for sharing your opinion.

originally posted by: Alien Abduct
a reply to: FyreByrd

What do you make of this?

The Communist Party of China uses the cancelling of retirement pensions as a tool to punish dissidents. In June 2020, Cai Xia (蔡霞), a retired professor of CCP's Central Party School,criticized Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the CCP, called him a "mafia boss" and the ruling Communist Party a "political zombie" .In 20-minute audio on social networking sites, she said that everyone is Xi’s slave, and there is no human rights and rule of law, She suggested that Xi should retire. On August 17, 2020, Cai Xia was expelled from the CCP’s Central Party School and her retirement pensions were cancelled.

source

Irrelevant to the OP. Thank you for sharing.

originally posted by: FyreByrd
Western private capitalism has a slightly different hierarchy: private employers at the top, parties and government below them, and the mass of employees comprise the bottom.

I don't agree with Mr. Wolff with that statement. In the USA, at least what our founding fathers considered, government is below the mass of people (a.k.a. employees). Too bad that over the years, government has elevated itself above the people.

a reply to: FyreByrd

“it appears that China does Capitalism much better then the west. “

Wait, what?

Are we talking about the same China?

Obviously not. Your entire premise has no leg to stand on. The us is also not truly “capitalist”, especially when over 50% of our GDP is from Government spending

a reply to: FamCore

China’s communist party also does Not represent capitalism, for the record

a reply to: FyreByrd

pretty easy when you practically got a slave labor force. sure they pay them, but what choice do they have it's either work for one of the majority government owned businesses, contracted out to foreign companies or one of their own national majority government owned businesses, vs work on a farm well into your late old age to even have enough to eat.

a reply to: FyreByrd

double post

originally posted by: FyreByrd

originally posted by: Alien Abduct
a reply to: FyreByrd

What do you make of this?

The Communist Party of China uses the cancelling of retirement pensions as a tool to punish dissidents. In June 2020, Cai Xia (蔡霞), a retired professor of CCP's Central Party School,criticized Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the CCP, called him a "mafia boss" and the ruling Communist Party a "political zombie" .In 20-minute audio on social networking sites, she said that everyone is Xi’s slave, and there is no human rights and rule of law, She suggested that Xi should retire. On August 17, 2020, Cai Xia was expelled from the CCP’s Central Party School and her retirement pensions were cancelled.

source

Irrelevant to the OP. Thank you for sharing.

Actually it is very relevant to the OP. It demonstrates how the Chinese Communist party has full control over their people and their economy as opposed to a capitalistic system such as in the U.S.

a reply to: FyreByrd

another thing, by devaluing their currency which they have done several times, it makes the cost of their exports lower which gives them advantage selling their cheap/ inferior made junk cheaper in other markets and raises the cost of imports so that there is a need to make more cheap/ inferior made junk to replace the imports for their domestic markets.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: FyreByrd

What a crock of crap.
The Chinese government owns all of the raw materials.
They own all of the utilities.
They have no worker safety standards.
They have little in the way of labor laws.

Pretty easy to make things profitable when your expenses are so low.

It's changing, slowly. People can get a whiff of freedom and autonomy by buying a knock off smart phone and visiting government supported websites, play on government sanctioned apps...

There's the system, then there's your part in it. Agreed, China sucks ass.