‘The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. The cheap prices of commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image’. Manifesto of the Communist Party.
China purports to be communist. Mao Zedong declared China a ‘communist’ state on 1st October, 1949. China was then, not communist but a state capitalist society. ‘The change from state capitalism to a mixed state and private system may have been started by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, but the idea of China being part of the global economy did not originate with Deng. As Mao Zedong is reported to have told a US diplomat in 1945: ‘China needs to build up light industries to supply her own market and raise the living standards of her own people. Eventually she can supply these goods to other countries in the Far East. To help pay for this foreign trade and investment, she has raw materials and agricultural products. America is not only the most suitable country to assist this economic development of China: she is also the only country fully able to participate’, Socialist Standard July 2017. ‘
The piece below, taken from a Time article entitled: ‘China’s Solution to Inequality? Cracking Down on Displays of Wealth and Poverty’, demonstrates the inequality that permeates Chines society. It would seem to show that young people in particular are badly served in a society exhibiting many capitalistic traits.
‘In recent weeks, senior Chinese officials held urgent meetings with business leaders to discuss revitalizing the economy. The country’s youth unemployment rate has climbed to a record 20.4% in April, and then to 20.8% in May, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. (When officials revealed that they considered anyone working at least an hour a week to be employed, speculation abounded online that the real unemployment rate is in fact much higher.)
This has come as a rude awakening for millions of Chinese young adults, who have long been told that studying hard would come with the reward of financial stability. In response, Chinese authorities have urged them to swallow their pride and accept lower-end jobs—a proposition that has left many feeling betrayed.
“In a context like today’s China, the wealth gap is so big that young people from an average family background realize that no matter how hard they try they can never reach that kind of wealth. So they just stop trying,” says Huang. ( Tianlei Huang, the China Program coordinator at the Peterson Institute for International Economics).
China’s Gini coefficient, which measures inequality, has decreased significantly since the 2000s, but continues to hover above 0.46, which by international standards signals a high level of income inequality.
“The showing off of wealth among wealthy people, especially those who work in the government and state companies, is like adding oil to fire,” says Shan. “It just reveals the hard truth of how unequal the society is.”’.
(Shan Wei, a senior research fellow of Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore).
More at link.
https://time.com/6289559/china-inequality-wealth-flaunting-common-prosperity/
Inequality where ever it is found in the world under the present system will only be abolished when capitalism is abolished and is replaced by real socialism.
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