In this episode of On Mass I expand my argument in regards to whether China is a socialist country or a capitalist-imperialist country in the present day. I begin by conceptualizing how we should think about socialism, and then move towards giving a brief account of how China developed after it’s revolution in 1949 with an emphasis on the Cultural Revolution’s attempt to correct problems that developed in most socialist countries as they pertained to the transition to socialism on the level of economics, culture, ideology, and politics. For this argument I focused on the question of whether China is capitalist and briefly discussed its imperialistic elements, but didn’t go into detail in regards to imperialism as a concept. A concept we’ll revisit in the near future.

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Sources:

Charles Bettelheim – Cultural Revolution and Industrial Organization in China: Changes in Management and the Division of Labor

www.marx2mao.com/Other/CRIOC74.html

Charles Bettelheim – Class Struggles in the USSR (The First and Second Period)

http://www.marx2mao.com/PDFs/CSi76.pdf

http://www.marx2mao.com/PDFs/CSii77.pdf

Deng Yuan Hsu & Pao Yu Ching – Rethinking Socialism

www.marx2mao.com/Other/WIST.html

Xi Jinping – Governance of China (p. 114 of PDF version)

Lenin – State and Revolution

(For understanding socialism as a transitional phase and the role of the state in capitalism and socialism. I also forgot to mention that Lenin considered the Dictatorship of the Proletariat to be a “semi-state” that should be fundamentally different from a typical capitalist state. I would argue that China embodied this during the Cultural Revolution.)

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/

Lenin – The New Economic Policy And The Tasks Of The Political Education Departments www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/wo…/1921/oct/17.htm

Mao – Communes Are Better

www.marxists.org/reference/archiv…e-8/mswv8_13.htm

Mao – On State Capitalism

www.marx2mao.com/Mao/OSC53.html

China in Africa Podcast

www.chinaafricaproject.com/podcast-afr…am-levison www.chinaafricaproject.com/china-afric…n-johnston

Example’s of Maoists in China

http://www.redchinacn.net/portal.php (In Mandarin, but Google Translate makes certain articles fairly understandable)

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/20/world/la-fg-china-maoists-20120320

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2147634/last-maoists-china-find-refuge-capitalist-hong-kong