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China is very much communist. It's very different than 19th and 20th century communist state, but the US looks very different than a 19th and 20th century capi
by lev99 8y ago
China is very much communist. It's very different than 19th and 20th century communist state, but the US looks very different than a 19th and 20th century capitalist state.
The Chinese governmental structure is very much communist. The ideals in the propaganda are communist. The goverment has strong control of their citizens, controlling how many children they can have, which city they can live in, etc.
- pas 8y agoDo workers own the means of production? No. Are they going toward that? No. It's not "communist" then.
- geezerjay 8y ago> Do workers own the means of production? No. Are they going toward that? No. It's not "communist" then. Newsflash: workers never owned the means of production in any communist state. They were told they would, but they were subjected to compulsory work to cater to the communist regime's elite goals while owning nothing at all. That sort of bait and switch is pretty much the hallmark of every single communist regime since the very beginning.
- pas 8y agoAs far as I know Revolutionary Catalonia came the closest to that. That said, I don't really care that dictatorships after dictatorships called themselves socialist and communist, people's this and that, they - as good populists always do - subverted the people and their ideas. Just as North Korea is a "democratic" "republic". Mistake not this nitpicking for defense of communism. I don't think it makes any economic sense to strip away savings and investment and everything else connected to those for compulsory ownership of your workplace. So yes, bait and switch is what populism is. And it worked and continues to work wonderfully independent of political leaning/orientation.
- AlexB138 8y agoYou're looking for the term Totalitarian. All Communists are Totalitarian, not all Totalitarians are Communists. They've long since done away with the pretenses of Communism.
- lev99 8y ago> They've long since done away with the pretenses of Communism. They've kept all their pretenses of communism. We aren't a pure capitalist society, or a pure republic, or democracy. We still use those words to describe ourselves. It's important that we do use those words to describe ourselves. The phrase 'all men are created equal' in the declaration of independence aided the abolitionist argument, even if at no point did the goverment treat all men as equal. The ideals of communism still have an impact on China's goverment, culture and even economy. Just because they fall short of a perfect communist society doesn't mean they are not communist.
- AlexB138 8y agoFair points, all. However, this quote: > The goverment has strong control of their citizens, controlling how many children they can have, which city they can live in, etc. is specifically talking about the totalitarian nature of their government.
- stale2002 8y agoComunism means worker countrol of the means of production. Or in other words, all private capital ownership and private business ownership is illegal. Lots of people own businesses in China. Therefore, by definition, it isn't communist.
- rapind 8y agoHas there ever been a communist country by that strict definition though? I've always thought communism was just an unachievable ideal. With socialism as the best case implementation of it, and totalitarianism as the worst case. Kind of like how "free market" is an ideal, but capitalism is generally the implementation.
- Markoff 8y agotell me more about their welfare system, free healthcare and free education if you think it's communist/socialist country as for children you are allowed to have two which nobody really wants anyway and they plan to introduce three or no limit at all i lived in China for years and now appreciate communist EU more
- mooseburger 8y agoThere were no 19th century communist states.
- leadingthenet 8y agoThere were pretty much no 20th century ones either.