Blog Discussion Group Eight
Blog post due at 11:55pm on November 20 and comment due at 11:55pm on November 23.
China
- What changes did Mao make to Marxism and Leninism to make them more appropriate to the Chinese setting?
- Is it still appropriate to think of
- Discuss the possibility of
2) Yes it is still appropriate to think of China as a communist country. Big factories in China have communist party committees. The overall project is to make China the best it can be and be like they once was. China needs to keep a firm grip on the economy to continue to improve. In China, economic production is coordinated for the common good. China has objectives they want to continue to meet. The Chinese Communist Party is the largest in the world making up 86.7 million members. You have to still consider them communist. That's a lot of people that make up one country. https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/viral-news/2017/10/19/is-china-actually-a-communist-country/
ReplyDelete2) In political terms China is still very much a communist country as it is still being ruled by the communist party. In terms of economy however, China certainly strays from communist ideology by possesing a mixed economy that has aspects of market economies while still maintaining public property. The presence of the market economy doesnt hinder communist ideology. This would make China a communist country.
ReplyDeletehttps://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/1207
I agree with you that China's economy pushes them away from being entirely communistic however, they also have voting processes that push them even further. The market economy has made sure that the population can survive and have enough to eat. Do you believe that the market economy is enough of a difference to not call China communist?
DeleteIs it still appropriate to think of China as a “communist” country? If you're looking at who runs the country then yes, China is a communist country because it is run by the Chinese Communist Party and has been since the year 1921. But if you look at the economy it doesn't seem to fit the description of a communist country. Even based off the definition of communism, the government owns the means of production and the product on behalf of the people, China is not a communist country. The economy really took off when the Chinese added foreign investment to the economy, increasing the economy nearly 10% every year since.
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree with you Bryce, the leaders of China are still labeled as Communist and the Communist party is a very large part of Chinese history. I read an article talking about how the economy was running based off of a "socialism" type ideology.
Deletehttps://www.independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/is-china-actually-a-communist-country-36243236.html
Is it still appropriate to think of China as a “communist” country?
ReplyDeleteYes and no, based on the rulers it is still communist, though it isn't fully the definition of traditional communism, somewhere between communism and socialism- (still run by the communist party). The communist party is still the only party that has ruled since the formation of the republic in 1949.
"Going by what communism – as defined by Karl Marx – has meant traditionally, Professor Shaun Breslin from the University of Warwick would struggle to label modern day China as communist, mostly because the country’s objectives have little to do with class.
“The Communist Party is there to deliver what they deem to be national goals and priorities and objectives, so there’s no class-based analysis at the heart of this,” he said.
https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/viral-news/2017/10/19/is-china-actually-a-communist-country/
I do agree that China does not follow the traditional form of communist rule, rather instead a form of nationalism, a sense of state capitalism. This is mainly due to all of the nations citizens having a strong desire to see China's economy succeed and the nation prosper.1 Even though the citizens have personal ties to the economy and want it to succeed, China is still very much a Communist country with its ultimately single party, centralistic form of government.2
Delete1.https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/politics-of-economics/0/steps/30823
2.https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2010/07/how-communist-is-china-anyway.html
2. Yes for the most part. The Communist Party still being the only party that’s ruled over China since the formation of the People’s Republic in 1949, The Communist Party describes its economic model as “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, which in practice means the government owns the country’s biggest companies – what Lenin referred to as the “commanding heights of the economy” – the banks, energy and transport sectors. The private sector in China, which contributes a greater percentage of GDP than the state sector, is still very receptive to the state – and China isn’t classed as a market economy by the World Trade Organization, in part because of how much the state intervenes. Because while the biggest companies in China are state owned, “the private ones are closely aligned with the government in ways that is different than western capitalist economies. For example, there’s a Communist Party cell in all companies in China, including foreign ones. Most of the small to medium sized companies which have flourished in export markets are however not ‘private’ in a Western sense but have close links with local government. Moreover, almost all the large and successful Chinese companies are state owned and the few major genuinely private companies (like Huawei, Lenovo and Ali Baba) have close links with government. State enterprises, albeit highly efficient and competitive, dominate banking, energy and telecoms.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/is-china-actually-a-communist-country-36243236.html
Is it still appropriate to think of China as a “communist” country?
ReplyDeleteYes and no, the leaders in China are still apart of the Communist party. The current models that the Chinese government use are very strayed and different from the Marx ideas of Communism. The article I read mentions about the economy structure, the article says, "socialism with Chinese characteristics." This is an example of how the current Chinese model doesn't directly follow Communist ideas. They use different models of leadership and ideals in different aspects of their political rule. However, under Communist rulers or under a Communist name, the will always be partially Communist because they don't completely abandon all ideas of Communism.
I used this article for my research, https://www.independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/is-china-actually-a-communist-country-36243236.html
Dalton, I will agree with you on yes they are a communist country, but I just don't see them being called a non communist country. The Chinese government has strong command in what they do over there and how they run things. They are still using communist ideas, and while they continue to do that they should still be called a communist country. Just because some things are changed, they still are doing traditional communist acts. The overall goal like I mentioned in my passage is that they are trying to be the best that can be in whatever they are doing. A lot of people in China still consider themselves communist and using communist acts in their life. Just how everything is ran over there, YES I would still consider it called a communist country.
Delete3. Even though China has very strong governmental and traditional control as a communistic body, there is still a voting process which the people go through to elect officials. This is slightly different than then other electoral structures in the Western world because the citizens elect local officials, even though the governmental positions are appointed by other officials. A democratization might be difficult due to China’s nationalism being a strong factor which creates a bond between the people of the nation, a common goal of government to work towards. This nationalism has great roots for the country in the market place and within the global market. Ultimately, China’s best interest is the people, which is the economy. Thus, the leaders will not give up economic control if there is fear that China’s economy might weaken based on the elections of the citizens.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/anderscorr/2017/04/03/waiting-for-china-to-democratize-holding-your-breath-may-be-fatal/#3591f5ae479f
I agree with you on this, while China has best interest in the people/economy, which means they will not give up control of the economy. They do have voting process' that sets them apart from a traditional communist society. While nationalism has great roots for the market place and global market that couldn't be changed unless the government changed its stance on what its best interest was.
DeleteYes it is still appropriate to call China a Communist country as it is still being run by the Communist Party, however, there are traits in China that differ from Communism. The Chinese have a market economy and they invest overseas. By revamping their economy, China has boosted exports and investments in order to make sure the population has enough food and can survive. There are also voting processes that push them away from being Communist in which people elect local officials. While China’s economy and other parts makes them not completely Communist, I believe that China should still be labeled as Communist considering many of the changes are to ensure survival.
ReplyDelete(https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/politics-of-economics/0/steps/30823)
Hi Allison, I agree China should still be labeled as Communist.
DeleteCommunism, according to German philosopher Karl Marx, is a society without class divisions… or any government. In that perfect world, everyone would be voluntarily working for the public, and at the same time, receiving whatever they needed from publicly owned institutions. Later, Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin built on this idea. He said a “vanguard” party would assume power on behalf of the working class during the transitional period he called “socialism.” That party would decide on all political and economic matters.
despite the existence of vibrant private businesses, the Chinese economy is still largely run by the state. The government sets a grand development plan every five years and directly owns companies in the most important, strategic sectors.
According to the Fortune Global 500 List, the top 15 Chinese companies with the biggest revenues are all state-owned. Together they dominate China’s energy, banking, telecommunications and rail sectors, where there are few private players.
Chinese officials also regularly intervene in the markets – stocks, housing, currency, etc – even as they allow a measure of market forces to do their thing.
Plus, the government still owns all the land in China, which is in turn leased out to individuals and companies. By this definition, the state owns much of the means of production. That’s a classic tenet of socialism. In Xi’s 2017 marathon speech, he declared that “socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era.” Summarizing his first five-year term, he said that China had become stronger and richer than ever.
But in other ways, Xi is moving away from socialism. He has vowed to step up market reforms to free up exchange rates and bring more private capital into state-run sectors.
Regardless of any particular campaign of the day, the Communist Party maintains that as long as it is in charge, ruling the country on behalf of the people and serving their needs, it is upholding what Marx called “the dictatorship of the proletariat” and continuing its march toward communism.
https://www.inkstonenews.com/china-translated/china-translated-china-socialist/article/2161467