thesovietbroadcast answered:

A lot of it really amounts to the government of China actively redefining what it means by poverty line and relying on the same number-setting used by the World Bank to falsely portray global poverty as rapidly shrinking (claiming an 80% reduction globally since 1980 thanks to capitalism) despite it being larger today when utilising reasonable metrics. In China measures poverty with a standard equivalent to $1 a day, which is actually lower than the already absurdly low World Bank standard, and going by Chinese prices is not even enough to provide a 1500 calorie per day diet even if 100% of income goes towards food.



What poverty reduction has occurred is only temporary and there is an ever increasing wealth gap between urban and rural areas, minimum wages range from $1.40 to $2.70 per hour depending on the province making it extraordinarily difficult for workers to live in urban centres (particularly more affluent ones where prices are very much similar to prices in western countries), not to mention that most of western China is impoverished and largely ignored by state authorities. The share of the “growth in wealth” in China since 1978 seen by the proletariat has continued to shrink further and further with time.



It also must be kept in mind that by far the greatest reduction in poverty predates the 1978 reforms, seeing as the so-called “Mao period” saw widespread electrification, infrastructure development, housing development, urbanization, etc. that is unrivaled in history since. The price reduction in agricultural goods brought about through collectivization have also been reversed with and since the 1978 reforms, increasing the percentage of income spent on food considerably compared to the Mao period. Besides the benefits which cannot be accurately measured through the typical capitalist means of measuring poverty, the Mao period was stronger in terms of economic growth by those systems of measurement China relies on today as well. “Mao era” China saw stronger GDP growth than post-reform China, even despite the losses after the Great Leap Forward, while growth in agricultural and industrial output has been unrivaled since that time. This is despite the claims from the “China is socialist” crowd that the economy was stagnant and on the verge of collapse.



When you factor in all these elements it’s very hard to believe China has a “socialist economy” when its current leadership actively calls for the enhancement of the private sector, defends the allocation of resources based on market capitalism, and engages in extractivist missions in third world countries. The “growth of wealth” in China was not brought about by the 1978 reforms and those which followed, they only changed which classes benefit the most from that growth.



Only very delusional people who don’t understand important Marxist principles such as ownership of the means of production, relations of production, and dictatorship of the proletariat can claim that China’s socio-economic system is “socialism.”

