In the search for stability, some western nations are turning to a country that many in Washington see as an existential threat
If geopolitics relies at least in part on bonhomie between global leaders, China made an unexpected play for Ireland’s good graces when the taoiseach visited Beijing this month. Meeting Ireland’s leader, Micheál Martin, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China’s president, Xi Jinping, said a favourite book of his as a teenager was The Gadfly, by the Irish author Ethel Voynich, a novel set in the revolutionary fervour of Italy in the 1840s.
“It was unusual that we ended up discussing The Gadfly and its impact on both of us but there you are,” Martin told reporters in Beijing.
China is on a charm offensive with western leaders, a path cleared by Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic and destabilising power grabs on the global stage. Although Europe breathed a sigh of relief this week when Trump withdrew the threat of using military force in Greenland and said he would not impose tariffs on opponents of his plans in the Arctic, the US no longer seems like a reliable partner.
I’m not trying to deceive anyone. From what I can tell, China’s labour protections don’t seem to be any better than those of the US. Wasn’t Alibaba known for demanding employees work 12 hours per day, 6 days per week? The infamous 996 schedule.
I’ve also heard of iPhone factories with nets to catch employees trying to commit suicide. I’d love to believe these are rare extremes, but these are also very large companies, not some fringe outfits.
What I would expect from an actual socialist system is the workers controlling the factories and receiving the profits, the people having a vote in everything, and not having an untouchable ruling class that’s above accountability and can draw more power to themselves.
How well that would work, I don’t know, but a better compromise between that and capitalism would be the Nordic model with strong labour protections and strong unions. In any case, the US is a very poor model to emulate, unless you want cut throat capitalism.
I’m sure there are a billion things I don’t know about China, and with China being such a closed society and censored internet access, there’s a lot I can’t know. I’d love it if you could set me straight on the details around these an other issues. I’m just here pointing out what little I know, and why that gives me the impression of state capitalism instead of socialism. It seems to be combining the worst of both worlds.
China does seem to be good at getting competent leaders to the top, though. I’m frequently frustrated by the amateurs and clowns dominating global politics, and often China seems to be the only one capable of a constructive long term vision. It’s undeniable that the mix of democracy with cut throat capitalism and extreme inequality leads to corruption, as we’re seeing in the US and Russia.
But you can’t really say you represent the people if you deny them a vote.
I really question the value in my time of trying to get through to you on a subject where ostensibly you are just spouting hearsay about shit you have read in western news outlets but I will try to give you some stuff to read to support what I am saying you and can decide for yourself what you want to believe.
Could have fooled me. You should do research on topics before speaking with any kind of authority on them.
This is probably one the areas I need to look more into overall, but working conditions in China are improving year over year. These changes have been slow, but they have also been consistent. Overall the people working in these terrible 996 conditions has been a fraction of the overall worker population - China has 1.5 billion people in their country remember. Not to mention this practice has been widely condemned in China, though again implementation of these laws can be slow which is definitely a valid criticism.
In this capacity I think it is also important to remember that China is a developing country and is very dissimilar from the US in this regard, but the US is probably one of the best analogs in terms of the economic size (at least in my opinion) though China has surpassed us by about $10T at this point. China has a deep history of colonial oppression and exploitation that they are still dealing with and resolving. What is demonstrably provable is that the workers within China are becoming more and more satisfied with their labor conditions year over year AND the Chinese governments is very serious about investigating and resolving labor disputes.
https://annas-archive.pm/md5/04a9e01f4e923fcbc2e184b4a66806ac
https://ash.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/final_policy_brief_7.6.2020.pdf
The numbers show that more and more of the businesses within China are falling under state control - which is quite literally how that would work in a socialist system. The people control the government, the government controls the corporations, therefore the people control the corporations. China is actively working in reducing the control of billionaires with in society as they make public more of the companies.
https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/2023/chinas-state-vs-private-company-tracker-which-sector-dominates
There has been a marked drop in the number of billionaires in the country as they have cracked down on exploitation and corruption. This is not indicative of some monumental economic town turn (like I said before China has a $10T larger economy than the US) but rather indicative of them regulating things to bring down prices for their citizens for common goods and services.
https://statisticstimes.com/economy/united-states-vs-china-economy.php
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-lost-36pc-billionaires-three-years-rich-list-hurun-economy-2024-10 (the framing of this article is stupid as fuck)
The Nordic model is actively failing because of growing privatization in these countries too. Just because there are regulations on corporations doesn’t mean you are safe from the intrinsic need of private corporations to grow as the parasitic entities they are. It’s definitely better than what we are doing in the US, but the US is also one of the most backwards nations in the world for our level of wealth and power in regards to working tirelessly to fuck over the average person at the behest of like 5 pedophilic billionaires.
https://www.cpreview.org/articles/2023/5/debunking-the-glam-of-the-nordic-model
I want to make it clear that I am in no way saying that China is perfect or that I agree with everything they are doing. But it is precisely the fact that China IS representative of the will of the people that they enjoy such an overwhelming amount of support from their citizens. The fact that China is engaged in a centrally planned, controlled and regulated form of state run capitalism is the exact reason they are able to construct these long term visions for the future. The communists in charge of the nation have effectively put a harness on the western capitalist need to find the cheapest place to manufacture things and have used that to propel themselves to the forefront of progress. They’ve done this faster than any nation in human history and at a scale that has never been seen before.
https://progressive.international/blueprint/cb7dbaf4-b106-4105-8bde-fdab4bfc2fe8-building-whole-process-peoples-democracy-in-china/en/
China has an extremely robust democratic process. Just because they also put special emphasis on taking feedback from their citizens at all times doesn’t mean they aren’t also voting. China has several political parties as well, it’s not just the one party that is currently in power.
https://progressive.international/blueprint/cb7dbaf4-b106-4105-8bde-fdab4bfc2fe8-building-whole-process-peoples-democracy-in-china/en/ (yes I linked this twice but it is a really good read)
Please don’t make me regret all the time I spent putting this together.