China can boast of being a communist country. However, they practice a
capitalist system that makes them the number two economic giant in the
world after the United States.
For information, communism is an ideology and a philosophical, social,
political, and economic movement whose goal is the formation of a
communist society, namely a socio-economic order that is structured on the
idea of common ownership of the means of production and the absence of
social class, money, and the state..
Whereas capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership and
control over the means of production and its operation for profit.
Beijing's 21st century Marxism sees no intrinsic contradiction in its
system, as long as it conforms to how China has been ruled for thousands
of years.
December last year, marking the centenary of the Chinese
Communist Party's (CCP) existence and rule, a period that Beijing defined
as a “noble journey” at the most recent Central Committee meeting in
November.
In July 1921, the CCP's first congress was held with 12 or 13 people in
attendance, including Mao Zedong who later became the country's "lifelong
leader". The participants at the Shanghai meeting couldn't even remember
the exact day. But today the same party has millions of members,
continuing to chart the fate of China.
While Russia's communist experiment, the Soviet Union, failed miserably in
1991 along with many other socialist countries in Eastern Europe, China
still considers itself a communist country, but operates a capitalist
system.
Charlie Parton, a leading expert on China and senior associate fellow at
the Royal United States Institute (RUSI), a British think tank, argues
that the system works thanks to China's interpretation of Marxism and the
CCP's overemphasis on "historical continuity".
"The efforts of the party and the people over the past century have been
the most extraordinary chapter in the millennial history of the Chinese
nation," reads the latest resolution of the CCP Central Committee,
establishing a clear link between the country's history and communism.
This important relationship was recently defined as “socialism with
Chinese characteristics” by the country's leader, Xi Jinping, who claims
it can explain the CCP's extraordinary character in terms of the country's
long history and future behavior. Since the late 2010s, it has also been
called "Xi Jinping Thought".
“That would not say that it is capitalist behavior, but a manifestation of
socialism with Chinese characteristics. You might say that's a bit
dishonest. But being dishonest has never bothered the CCP," Parton, who is
also the former First Advisor of the European Union in China, told TRT
World, quoted Friday (21/1/2022).
“The ability to keep contradictions in mind without discomfort is
something difficult for the West, having been brought up in the
Aristotelian school of logic. The Chinese feel less pressured," the former
top diplomat said.
Unlike the Russians, whose religious and cultural life seemed to have much
in common with Europeans, the Chinese felt less attached to Greek
philosophy. "But for the CCP, this is a new breakthrough in adapting
Marxism to the Chinese context," he said.
In the past, Soviet or other communist states and movements were almost
always proud to have universal communism, which could apply to everyone in
every country, claiming that universalism signaled the final victory of
Marxism worldwide.
As a result, the Soviets, which controlled not only the vast majority of
Russian-speaking people but also various non-Russian speakers such as the
"Central Asian Turkic" countries, never claimed to have such a socialism
with Russian characteristics.
It may also partially explain why the Soviet system collapsed in the face
of modern capitalism and Chinese socialism persisted. Also, there is one
significant difference between the two communist experiments. In the late
1980s, when the Berlin Wall fell, Soviet leaders thought that they needed
to change not only the economic structure but also the political system,
by dissolving the ruling Communist Party.
But the Chinese think differently, believing that the CCP is good, but the
economic system needs to be changed. As a result, they integrated
capitalist elements into the political economy to adapt to the new
realities of the 1990s.
“China accelerated its astonishing development process over the past 50
years by sometimes defining its system of government as 'socialism with
Chinese characteristics', which is a coded way of expressing its domestic
and international participation in a capitalist world economy guided by a
perspective usually described as 'neoliberal globalization',” said Richard
Falk, a leading international relations expert.
“Such identity is underscored by China's membership in the World Trade
Organization (WTO), which is widely accepted as the institutional body
entrusted with overseeing and promoting neoliberalism. It is common for
economists to describe China after the policy reforms associated with Deng
Xiaoping in 1991 as a 'socialist market economy,'” Falk told TRT World.
While the CCP uses various authoritarian measures to control the world's
largest population, continued Falk, its survival can not only be explained
by authoritarianism as is usually portrayed in the Western world.
In contrast to that approach, the CCP's success lies mainly in its
"extraordinary record of administrative competence" within China's borders
because Beijing has also pursued a foreign policy that relies on a "soft
power approach, resulting in many win/win solutions" such as the highly
successful Belt and Road Project. ambitious.
Both the internal and external behavior of the CCP clearly differed from
the Soviet model, whose corrupt bureaucracy and adventurous military
efforts worsened the state of the country in the long run, leading to its
collapse.
"In the past two decades, China has witnessed the largest economic and
geopolitical rise in history, measured by spectacular growth, the
eradication of extreme poverty, and the most significant increase in
frontier technological dominance of 21st century innovation," Falk said.
Interestingly, while many Westerners see China's phenomenal development as
a success of their capitalist model, in Beijing the political
understanding is completely different, believing that it is a marvel of
their own interpretation of communism.
21st Century Marxism Xi, who is also the head of the CCP, is the key to
understanding 21st century Marxism. For the Chinese, Xi embodied the kind
of leadership that Mao Zedong symbolized at that time, so he is the
representative of Maoism today.
“'21st Century Marxism' is used as a way to identify and highlight the
relevance of Xi Jinping's thinking, and elevate it to a status equal to
Mao Zedong's,” Falk said.
Consequently, on a doctrinal level, Xi Thought is a continuation of Mao
Zedong Thought, according to the CCP. Many hope that the CCP will sanctify
Xi Thought as its newest official doctrine at the 20th party congress this
year.
“In ideological discourse, Xi prefers to emphasize the socialist nature of
China's approach rather than claiming its 'Communist character'. Xi also
wants his listeners to accept the idea that Marxist thought is dynamic and
remains in this century full of vitality,” said the professor.
Xi's 21st century Marxism also somewhat points to the new state of the
CCP, which has not yet reached communism as theorized by Karl Marx in the
19th century.
“In theory, it is still on its way to that blessed state. For now it is
going through the stage of socialism," Parton said. "Marx and Engels'
analysis of the basic contradictions in capitalist society is not out of
date, nor is it the historical materialist view that capitalism is doomed
to die and socialism is sure to triumph," Xi said.
But many Westerners believe that all these doctrinal titles and words are
used to cover up China's authoritarian capitalist nature.
"The Chinese Communist Party remains the supreme authority of the state,
so the 'communists' must remain in the name of the state to maintain the
legitimacy of the party's claim to supreme power," said Matthew Bryza, a
former US diplomat for former Soviet Azerbaijan.
“Like all communist parties, over time, greed and self-interest eventually
became more important to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party
than ideology,” Bryza told TRT World. Despite his criticism of the CCP,
Bryza still sees Xi as a true believer in Marxism.
“Xi Jinping seems to be trying to change that and pull the country back a
bit from capitalism and more towards the egalitarian ideology of
communism,” he said. "Squaring this circle is one of Xi's biggest
challenges."
