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Are the people of China communist?
I know the Chinese government is communist. But how do the majority of its citizens actually support it? (google is giving me some unclear responses)
8 Answers
- EisbärLv 72 years agoFavourite answer
They do not know anything else. Most people from pre-Mao communist revolution aren't around anymore.
But I copied and pasted a link to an article below, which is from 2010 from the Irish Times asking Chinese people what they think about communism. Some of the comments are kind of funny, because they seem very unambitious. Opposite of Americans...
Like this Chinese person's comment:
“I just want an ordinary life like other people, peaceful and joyful, have a cozy family, happy. Not too good, not too bad.”
- Anonymous2 years ago
the only thing communist about China is the name of the ruling party.
China has a wealthy elite, and a huge underclass of very poor workers. It's nowhere near "work according to ability, receive according to need"-communism
- Anonymous2 years ago
they are farmers mostly
- Xi Jinping ThotLv 42 years ago
Many don't really understand socialism or communism and just like whatever their government is doing because China's economy has been soaring lately. However how "communist" the actual Communist Party is is debatable.
Mao tried to dictate socialism into existence, which is incredibly contrary to Marxism as Marx believed that the material conditions of a society lead to its economic mode of production. Capitalism didn't overthrow feudalism because people had the magical idea that capitalism is better, but because the feudal mode of production reshaped the material conditions of the society until they were completely incompatible with feudalism, and so feudalism collapsed into a new economic system more suitable for new material conditions, that being capitalism.
Marx believed capitalism is doing the same to our current material conditions, and the way capitalism is reshaping the globe makes its own collapse inevitable, and its replacement by socialism to be equally inevitable.
"The essential conditions for the existence and for the sway of the bourgeois class is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the labourers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by the revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable."
- Karl Marx
This leads to a crisis, though. If capitalism creates the material conditions necessary for socialism, what happens if a communist revolution happens in a country that does not have those material conditions? What happens if a feudal country is overthrown by communists, such as in China in 1949 or Russia in 1917?
Lenin responded crisis like so...
"Inasmuch as we are as yet unable to pass directly from small production to socialism, some capitalism is inevitable as the elemental product of small production and exchange; so that we must utilise capitalism (particularly by directing it into the channels of state capitalism) as the intermediary link between small production and socialism, as a means, a path, and a method of increasing the productive forces."
- Vladimir Lenin
Mao did not believe this, rather, he tried to simply build socialism despite China's feudal conditions. However, when Mao did, Deng Xiaoping changed the direction of China, viewing Lenin's route as the correct route, and altered China's economy accordingly.
"The problem is how to develop the productive forces more effectively. We used to have a planned economy, but our experience over the years has proved that having a totally planned economy hampers the development of the productive forces to a certain extent. If we combine a planned economy with a market economy, we shall be in a better position to liberate the productive forces and speed up economic growth."
- Deng Xiaoping
The problem, however, is that the moment you have enormous wealth inequality, you will necessarily have enormous political inequality, as those capitalists with hoards of wealth will use it to influence the media, elections, etc, and will begin to take control over the state.
China insists they're still socialist for two major reasons: (1) the dominant mode of production in their economy is one of capitalism and not socialism, as China has one of the largest public sectors in the world, and (2) the Party still represents the interests of the working class and not the capitalist class, and they've not been affected by this inequality.
I find this to be dubious, however, as another person pointed out, China has been putting down Marxist protests. They've also been putting down Maoist guerrilla groups in India, and have been engaging in imperialism in Africa. The Chinese government seems to be more and more representing the interests of big business than the proletariat of the world.
Of course, they still insist they're on the right path. Xi Jinping says that he believes China will finish this industrialization process by 2035 and could start transitioning towards a higher level of socialism. But whether or not this will actually happen I am quite skeptical of.
China's not in its late capitalist days like the US is. It's still in its hay day, where people's living standards have been improving across the board rather than declining. So there isn't many people who are questioning the system of private property at the moment much at all. China's government has something like an 80% approval rating, one of the highest in the world.
But, of course, if Marx's predictions are right and China does not transition into socialism in 2035, then, at some point, its living standards, wages, and profits will begin to stagnate and even decline like they have been in the United States. This will force them, like the US has done, to become an imperialist power, so that they could export their capital to other countries for higher profits. Two competing global imperialist powers will almost inevitably go to war.
I think given that China is much more open to talking about socialist and communist ideas, that China would much more likely to have high class consciousness and the people to rise up against this if this worst-case scenario does take place in the far future. However, as I said, at the moment, the average Chinese citizen doesn't really care because China's doing well and there's little chance of conflict.
- New World ManLv 62 years ago
Check again! They actually have a congress similar to ours but MUCH bigger. The communist party happens to hold the majority of the seats, and has for quite some time. Interestingly, the second largest amount of seats is held by Independents..
- electricpoleLv 72 years ago
The ARE if the government says they ARE.
Otherwise you get tossed in jail, and maybe your organs get harvested for some government official who needs one.