To see China through western eyes is to misunderstand China. These are some of my impressions after visiting Beijing and Shanghai this past summer and studying China’s modern revolutionary history over the course of the past two decades as a member and leader of the U.S. socialist movement. I have provided links to critical background materials for those who wish to understand China in more depth.

  1. The 1949 Chinese Revolution was a monumental event not just for the masses of poor peasants and workers in China but throughout the world. One of the great event of the 20th century, the Chinese revolution raised hundreds of millions of people out of destitution. The last became first and the Western-backed old ruling class was sent scampering to Taiwan where they planned for the overthrow of the revolution. In the 1950’s, ruling circles in the West obsessed over “Who lost China?” Students of political science and revolution the world over have a responsibility to study the lessons and challenges of the Chinese Revolution.
  2. William Hinton’s Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village is a snapshot of how class relations shifted. Fanshen (the word means to turn over and start anew) documents how peasant democracy and a planned economy under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) played out in one village. The American farmer and writer captured the self-sacrificing spirit behind the CCP cadre who mobilized the sleeping giant, the Chinese peasantry: “I often thought what hardship it must be for such a woman to live the life of a spartan revolutionary cadre in the bleak North China countryside… Yet she seemed to pay no attention whatsoever to cold, fatigue, lice, fleas, coarse food, or the wooden planks that served as her bed. For her this was all a part of ‘going to the people’ who alone, once they were mobilized, could build the new China of which she dreamed.”
  3. Post-1949 Red China was a beacon of hope for all oppressed people. China’s foreign policy was one of principled internationalism supporting colonial people’s struggles for self-determination across the globe. Robin Kelly’s article Black like Mao: Red China and Black Revolution explores what China meant to oppressed people here in the belly of the beast.
  4. The 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution was “a revolution within the revolution.” 50 years later, the Cultural Revolution still strikes fear into the capitalist class. Mao’s orders to the everyday workers, peasants and students “to storm the headquarters” meant the temporary crushing of capitalist and bureaucratic forces that threatened to creep back into the driver’s seat of the Chinese state. The Cultural Revolution is a stern reminder that our class, the working-class, is not the only social class that can be repressed. Elite circles in the US have seized every opportunity, 50 years after the fact, to heap slander on this momentous chapter in world revolutionary history. Our responsibility is to rescue the legacy of the Cultural Revolution and set the record straight.
  5. From the perspective of the struggle against bureaucracy and class inequality, the Cultural Revolution was the high point of the Chinese Revolution. It was also exhausting and divisive. Struggle sessions, constant denunciations and mobilizations staved off internal enemies but the excesses and extremes resulted in the political pendulum swinging back to the right. The mysterious death of Lin Biao, the death of Chou En Lai, Mao Zedong’s development of Parkinson’s disease and the swift repression of his successors (the left-wing of the CCP, known by their detractors as the “Gang of Four”) represented the end of principled communist leadership and the consolidation of the capitalist roaders, personified in the leadership of Deng Xiaoping.
  6. The secret 1972 visit of Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon—the genocidaires of Indochina, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, the Congo etc.—represented a sharp right turn in Chinese foreign policy and a knock-out blow to the vision of Soviet-Vietnamese-Chinese-Third world unity. The CCP leadership lost sight of the true enemy and succumbed to historic rivalries and chauvinism. These tensions became so pronounced that Vietnam invaded Cambodia in self-defense in 1979. China then unjustifiably invaded Vietnam. Instead of focusing on a common unity, China turned on a sister socialist state. The brunt of the blame must also fall upon the Soviets who chose accommodation with imperialism before international solidarity. China then beat the Soviets to the punch by shifting towards the US government. The Sino-Soviet split represented the complete collapse of the Marxist principle of internationalism. This is the largest blemish on Mao’s principled pedigree as a leading historical and global revolutionary spokesperson. Sam Marcy’s China: the struggle within and China: the suppression of the left, published by Worker’s World in the 1970’s and 1980’s, offers a profound evaluation of the struggles within the summits of Chinese leadership and their turn to the right.
  7. China’s reactionary foreign policy based on narrow nationalist interests played out in disastrous ways. As a result of seeing the Soviet Union as a “social imperialist” (an incorrect, non-Marxist formulation) and humanity’s number one enemy, China supported Pinochet in Chile, UNITA in Angola and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. China’s misleadership threw a purported 600 Maoist parties, who had been a tail to the CCP’s kite, into disarray around the world. With their center of gravity removed, the Maoist movement in the West crumbled and never recovered. Today in the Philipines, Nepal, India and beyond there is a powerful Maoist movement that controls large swaths of these countries.
  8. Like Mikhail Gorbachev, Deng Xiaoping was a darling of the West. Still, despite opening up China to foreign capital, he did not move at the pace that imperialism insisted upon. The West worked with Deng Xiaoping but the moment there was an anti-CCP movement within China that US intelligence calculated could undermine and overthrow the revolution, the US latched on. The 1989 seven-week long Tiananmen Square protest represented this opportunity for the US; they saw a potential rallying point for the overthrow of a system of centralized planning. The west cried crocodile tears for what they presented as defenseless students massacred by CCP tanks. The reality on the ground was quite different; there was repression but there were also pitched battles resulting in the death of Red Army soldiers. The Tiananmen Square students held up Gorbachev and the Statue of Liberty as beacons of “democracy” and the “free market,” revealing their vision for China’s future.
  9. Understanding the US’s approach to regime change in Libya and Syria offers clarity on its strategy towards China. The US government engaged with Gaddafi and Assad even though the two leaders maintained a sense of economic nationalism combined with neoliberalism. As soon as Western intelligence detected a small protest movement within (including elements of al-Qaeda and ISIS) that they could back, they switched from a strategy of working with Pan-Arabists to one of regime change. This is how we should understand US foreign policy towards China today, one of toleration until the moment is ripe for regime change.
  10. Chinese foreign policy today is based on what is good for the Chinese state, not proletarian internationalism. China’s expansion, from Ecuador to Angola, represents an important counterweight to US capital. This interactive New York Times map offers a sense of the emergence of China as a global rival to the U.S. China still seeks surplus and profits but on preferential terms for exploited countries compared to its capitalist rivals. This is preferable for exploited countries seeking to emerge from under the yoke of a unipolar world. The bourgeois media constantly attacks China’s foreign investment because “China invests in countries with poor human rights records.” What a joke! Perched atop a pulpit of bones, the imperialists pretend to be guided by a moral compass as they squeeze profits from every corner of the earth.
  11. Ecuador is one example of left-leaning, anti-imperialist Bolivarian state weaning itself off of Western debt and dependency. China’s massive investments in Ecuador, Venezuela and pre-Macri Argentina ensured that Western banks could not completely isolate and suffocate the Bolivarian nations’ growth. Washington’s meddling in the region aims to thwart the Bolivarian alliance. Zimbabwe—Africa’s Venezuela so to speak—receives 82% of its foreign investment from China.
  12. It would also be naïve to overlook the predatory nature of China’s capital abroad. There are two centers of power within China—the CCP and independent Chinese businesses. When left uncontrolled abroad, Chinese capital has proven itself capable of functioning like imperialist capital. The short documentary China’s African Takeover examines Chinese mineral extraction in Zambia and the Congo, providing evidence of the reality that there is a bi-polar Chinese system.
  13. Red China no longer exists. China today is a mixed bag, a half-way house between capitalism and socialism. The state-steered market develops a domestic and foreign capital in a planned and proportionate way. Socialism with Chinese characteristics means that the government supervises the market and resource allocation. This remains unforgivable from the point of view of China’s detractors and would-be neo-colonizers.
  14. Trump’s demonization of China is dangerous and faulty. It is true that much of the West’s manufacturing has set up shop in China where they can pay a fraction of the wages they paid in Chicago, LA or Cleveland. What Trump fails to mention however in his jingoistic crusade is that the US multinationals are primarily to blame for the deindustrialization and unemployment that afflict the U.S. Chinese and US capital is entangled; large sections of the US capitalist class benefit from trade with and exploitation of the Chinese labor force. Trump’s promises to restore jobs to the Rust Belt cities will prove empty because for-profit corporations will not return to the US because of some loyalty to American workers. As more workers (especially white workers infected by centuries of racism who voted for Trump) wake up to this reality, there will be large opportunities to shift consciousness to the left across the US.
  15. To the extent that the U.S. fears China, they fear both a capitalist global competitor, specifically in Asia, and an economy that is still state planned. The extent to which the New York Times, the Washington Post and other US foreign policy establishment mouthpieces critique China and warn of the Chinese menace in the South China Sea reflects their active fear of China’s emergence as a rival economic pole. Because China retains a great degree of self-determination, the Chinese state incurs the wrath of the “free world’s” press which labels it “totalitarian” and “tyrannical.” Seen through a class lens, what these meaningless labels actually mean is that China still retains some sovereignty. As anti-imperialists, we in the Party for Socialism and Liberation, defend a Workers’ state’s right to defend itself from all forms of hostile foreign encroachment.
  16. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) true crime is that is it no push over. The CCP still retains an imprecise monopoly over foreign trade. They partially manage foreign capital and redirect it towards the good of China. When the US labels China a dictatorship or a one party system, what they really mean is the CCP is an arbiter of foreign capital. For example, the Chinese firewall, the blocking of Facebook, google etc., functions as a partial break on imperialist penetration. While the West haughtily accuses of China of being backward and isolated, its internet technology is often superior to that of its Western rivals. The Economist notes that many of the apps we take for granted today in the US, such as Uber or WhatsApp, were in fact inspired by Chinese innovation.
  17. Because Chinese leadership represents a new potential Pan-Asian unity and a new captain in the Pacific, the US seeks to surround China with hostile neighbors. Obama’s visit to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to sell them weapons for the first time since the US’s “loss” of Saigon and their attempt to use the Philippines as a proxy power (which is no longer realistic with the nationalist Roberto Duterte’s presidency) reflects this encirclement strategy. Front page news story of China’s aggression in the South China Sea over some islets is an attempt to justify what was to be Obama’s highly touted “pivot” towards Asia. However the empire is bogged down in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, and because there are such deep rifts in US governing circles (ie the intelligence “community” vs Trump), the US has been so far unable to fulfill its plan to isolate China.
  18. In all of the Pentagon’s reports, China figures as the US’s number one long term concern. John Pilger’s documentary The Coming War on China is helpful to understand who the true aggressor is in the Pacific. China is surrounded by some 600 US military bases. Just in Okinawa, Japan, the US has 50,000 troops, only 400 miles off of China’s coast. China desires peaceful coexistence so it can focus on economic development. Its military spending is defensive versus the US which maintains a vast network over 1,000 foreign bases across the globe. In response to Trump’s pledge to increase the US military budget by $54 billion, China vowed to decrease its military budget.
  19. China remains focused on economic development and open trade as Trump vacillates between isolationism and aggression. Xi Jinping is poised to play the role of the anti-Trump and guide China as the undisputed economic powerhouse of the Pacific. In an ironic historical twist, the CCP is presenting itself as the global defender of free trade. In response to Trump’s anti-globalist posture, Xi Jinping promised another $75 billion of Chinese investment in the pacific.
  20. Goldman Sachs estimates that the Chinese economy will catch up to the US by 2025 and by 2050 it will be twice its size. As the capitalist camp has experienced recessions and crisis, industrial production is booming in China. China’s industrial production is 150% higher than the U.S. As industrial production sank in the US and Japan in 2009, it rose 7.3% in China. With decades of centralized planning, under its belt China is poised to outrace its capitalist competitors whose economies are based on the anarchy of the market. For these and many other reasons, imperialism fears that “the 21st century is the Chinese century.”
  21. The economic basis exists for a transition back to a more egalitarian socialism in China. However, there does not appear to be a strong or vocal tendency within the 90 million-strong Chinese Communist Party that defends a dictatorship of the workers at the present moment. China has more industrial workers than all of the capitalist countries combined. There are big trade union struggles in China. Here within lies the kernel of a potential united workers’ fightback movement against a bureaucracy committed to “market socialism.”
  22. The rise of China’s mega metropolises has come at the expense of the peasantry. China has rural-urban inequality that mirrors the divide between what the mainstream media calls the “first world” and “third world.” In this sense, China’s interior is a massive exploited country with a line of New York Cities dotting its east coast. The reality is one of uneven development. Remittances, accounting for more than what the provinces themselves produce, keep many families in the countryside afloat.
  23. There is no unified peasantry like there was under the CCP during the epic-making Long March, the 1949 revolution and the 1966 Cultural Revolution. The peasantry has been engaged in sporadic local uprisings against the Chinese state but has no unified national approach to organizing. Many in the villages see themselves as exploited and neglected. Will the Boat Sink the Water? The Life of China’s Peasants is a thorough exploration of the class inequality that persists in today’s China. The book was only available outside of China or photocopied and sold in the street. Its authors Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao document bureaucratic abuses of the peasantry of Anhui province and the impunity enjoyed by low-level party opportunists. According to Guidi and Chuntao, many local CCP “cadre” are not guided by revolutionary principles but by careerism. The peasantry is overtaxed and there are ongoing mobilizations against local petty tyranny. The CCP claims to have investigated these allegations and partially addressed peasant concerns.
  24. The general superstructure of China today is devoid of revolutionary enthusiasm. In Cuba, the ruling class makes an active effort to create billboards, school curriculum, television programs and general propaganda to promote the cause of international solidarity and world revolution. In the Eastern Chinese sea board, there is nothing of the sort. Every corporation—from Versace to Starbucks to Kentucky Fried Chicken—enjoys free reign across China. To the extent that Cuba had to institute economic reforms in order to survive in a hostile capitalist world, the Cuban leadership correctly identified them as necessary retreats to survive in a hostile world. The Chinese leadership has adopted faux Marxist rhetoric to justify its capitalist moves. When Cuba found it necessary to introduce foxes into a chickens’ coop, it correctly labeled the foxes and chickens. The CCP confuses foxes and chickens, friends and enemies.
  25. China is a mammoth social paradox. There was a Hooters a few blocks away from the Communist Youth League office. A museum of propaganda is housed in the basement of tenements buildings where the curators and historians struggle to attract visitors. The state shifted away from the promotion of socialist consciousness in the 1970’s and maintains these museums as artifacts of a bygone era. A Brookings Institute study showed the mixed reactions the Chinese have to Donald Trump. While many Chinese predictably decried his saber-rattling against their country, there were large segments of the population who admired his “business acumen.” How telling in terms of general state of Chinese consciousness today! Various professors I met were flabbergasted at the indifference of many Chinese students, even in comparison to the average U.S. college students! One professor used the term “politically neutered” to describe them, explaining that “with a few exceptions if you ask them for their views on politics, they seem almost aggressively apathetic in their views.” This made the old guard apprehensive about the future of Chinese leadership.
  26. If Time Square is a monument to capitalism, the shopping centers of Beijing and Shanghai surpass this and are monuments to the future of capitalism. The latest Hurun Wealth Report shows that in 2015 the number of billionaires in China (596) surpassed that of America (537). The richest 1 percent of Chinese families control one-third of all Chinese household assets. This is a level of inequality similar to the U.S. Chan Koonchung’s novel The Fat Years is an underground parody of the lavish lifestyles and corruption that characterizes life at the top in China. Completely turning on Marxist principles, the CCP allows capitalists, billionaires and exploiters (all three terms are interchangeable here) to be members and leaders of the communist party. The CCP has also periodically hands out prison sentences, or even death sentences, to corrupt bureaucrats and capitalists for abusing their power, something unimaginable in the US. Recognizing the drastic effects of pollution and global warming, the CCP has also cut down on carbon emissions. These policies stand in stark contrast to the unrestrained capitalism that Trump is now overseeing.
  27. The US media has never hesitated to attack General Secretary Xi Jinping. Xi Jinping is the son of two long march veterans. His father was a vice-premier of the CCP in the Mao era. Two of the lynchpins of Xi’s leadership are a relentless campaign against the corruption that crept back into daily life with the introduction of foreign capital and a return to some of the PRC’s and the CCP’s founding ideals. This makes Xi a target of Western propaganda. The New York Review of Books’ article on Xi is one sample of a lengthy, biased attack on CCP leadership.
  28. Are there a sense of social harmony and a unity of purpose in China today? From my perspective as an outside observer, China stands in stark contrast to the US which is rife with social implosions i.e. the election of the divisive, semi-fascist Trump, school shootings, terrorist threats, racist police terror, state declared emergencies because of drug addiction, etc. In comparison to the divided US ruling class, the CCP plays the role of the one captain directing China in a unified direction. For example, 90% of China’s 1.3 billion plus people identify “racially” as Han. There is a long, complex history to Chinese identity formation but many Chinese does not identify their country as multiracial. Of course, China has its social ills and national divisions (Tibet, the Uighurs, internal migration and exploitation, environmental crises) but some might consider them mild compared to what the US is experiencing.
  29. The US is long accustomed to seeing itself as the center of the world. China’s development at break-neck speed shows the superiority of a centrally planned system over the free market. In this speech, Guardian columnist Martin Jacques urges a Western audience to humble themselves before the shifting global relations and points towards a Chinese future.
  30. Our party’s (the Party for Socialism and Liberation) book China: Revolution and Counterrevolution is a deeper consideration of how to understand China, and all of its vicissitudes and contradictions, as anti-imperialists and revolutionaries in the 21st century. Our position, as I have laid out in this document, critiques China’s accommodation with imperialism after 1972 but still defends China vis-à-vis imperialist aggression.

 

1 COMMENT

  1. Good Afternoon , Mr. Shaw how you doing how is everything is going ?

    On Mar 9, 2017 11:58 AM, “CUNY Professor Daniel Shaw” wrote:

    > Professor Danny Shaw posted: “To see China through western eyes is to > misunderstand China. These are some of my impressions after visiting > Beijing and Shanghai this past summer and studying China’s modern > revolutionary history over the course of the past two decades as a member > and le” >

  2. Hi Danny

    Writing advice: never use clichés – good writers don’t, and when you say, “Arguably the greatest event of the 20th Century”….. you the writer conceded that it’s also arguably not that…… so either say it is, and justify it, or don’t, or say it was clearly one of the most important events of the 20th Century.

    Be your own best editor, and keep making your writing better….

    Best, always

    Alan

    >

  3. Gracias for your insights.

    On Mar 9, 2017 12:56 PM, “CUNY Professor Daniel Shaw” wrote:

    > Professor Danny Shaw posted: “To see China through western eyes is to > misunderstand China. These are some of my impressions after visiting > Beijing and Shanghai this past summer and studying China’s modern > revolutionary history over the course of the past two decades as a member > and le” >

  4. China is a big and powerful country, their history as a powerful country began with the Chinese Revolution what makes them the county they are today. To understand how china grew is necessary to understand their economy it has to mentioned that they were in a way a communist, keeping from it the most closest approach imperialism and then evolved to what today is, capitalism. China has been through many changes, and even going into those changes, they learned to become again as what they were. United States has been very related to China because of the big fear of China could become bigger than them. There’s a history behind the famous China, the biggest producer in long terms. Maybe it’s true that 21st century it’s Chinese Century and they are still working to be the biggest and powerful country in the whole world.

  5. China is taking the lead in Africa even though the U.S and some European countries are trying to inhibit China from doing much better. As opposed to those powerful countries that have been looting natural resources from Africa, China is contributing to the development of Africa. Not only they are investing and giving loan to poor countries, but they are also building infrastructures. Interestingly, they are cheaper than some European countries. For instance, if France would ask $1,000 to construct a bridge, China in contrast would ask $500. Some African leaders would like to enlarge freely their cooperation and diplomatic relations with China, but the ex-colonial powers are influencing their intentions. As neocolonialism still exists in Africa, some African leaders might be subject to Coup d’Etat if they don’t satisfy the interests of their ex-colonial powers

  6. China has such a complex history that made the country of what it is today which is a country that has resources because of the fact almost every product that is in America is made by china but of course throughout history America and china have been known to have several complication with one another. In which after reading this article America has a lot of debt with china considering the fact that they do most of our products but also have resources but the relationship between America and China is scarce because of the fact that America has a president that is very careless and does not have a good reputation. In addition another thing that caught my attention in the article is the comparison of time square and bejing and that its related towards capitalism because its a political and economic system that deals with trade in order to gain profit but know how America and China relationship status is not how it used to be there can be changes made among the political and economic system. In which as I read the article it made me realize and think about America which is that the country relies on others to do the work and for us to gain profit out of it only to be in so much debt that America just overlooks its problems and does not find the solution for it and just thinking about this made me realize that America is not what it seems. Overall the article provides a lot of information that is a lot to take in but its straight forward to the point that it tells us a giant social paradox in china but most importantly what I have learned from this article is that the political and economic industry between china and America is going to be chaotic at some point but overall China is a powerful country that has many resources while certain country’s remain in there own bubble not knowing when it will pop

  7. China played a importance roll into racism against America. Chairman Mao is the lidre of China a that time who believes in equality and that everyone should have the same rights. Chinese intellectuals were also hounded for the same reason : to prevent free thought. As the article “Black like Mao, Red China and Black Revolution” mentions that he wants to destroy the established order, red guards attacked educational and political institutions that were enemies of Mao. Mao contribute to Marxist thought grew directly out of the Chinese Revolution of 1949. He also proved to the black folks the he had the power to make revolution against any potency.

  8. China has a very interesting history, this is why the U.S depend upon china, since China has well marketing on manufacturing most of the products are sent to the United States. Plus, this is very beneficial for Chinese because their economic system would be well developed and successful. With this advanced economy Chinese can use the money to do big changes in the country, they can invest money in schools and other companies.

  9. China through western eyes is to misunderstand China. China is a big and powerful country that has a very interesting history on why they are a communist country and how they are so independent. Most of China’s history was ruled by powerful families called dynasties. In 1949 Red China was a beacon of hope for all oppressed people. Overall the article provides a lot of information about the Social Paradox in China. What I learned that the economic industry between other countries that does business with china can leads to many crazy thing when it comes to money.

  10. The Chinese tried to push out capiltism and revolution is in its blood. Capitalism is slowly making its way back into china and hopefully the youth does not see it as comfort and openly accepts it. Hopefully they can push it out now.

  11. Hello Professor Shaw,

    As I was reading the article “A Giant Social Paradox:China in 2017” I realized that not only China is viewed in such hideous way by the western eyes. There are other developing countries that are also misunderstood however, most of us an agree that China has improved tremendously weather or not the westerns accept it. I believe that we should all look at things deeply before drawing a conclusion. To expand our knowledge you should see beyond what’s being presented that is the only way we will learn and understand the truth story. I have recently visited Bangladesh and I felt like they live a better life than we do here. We are struggling and hustling for a better living condition working all day and night and people are so ignorant to see their own countries are lacking to develop but they point fingers at others because they feel Superior. There will be other countries that emerged among China and become strong, things will change for good then.

  12. China is capitalist country. China has the second largest economy of the world. Countries like the United States heavily depend on china however the US in in dept with China, but the US main concern is definitely not getting rid of that debt since the US is greedy. The poor people and peasants of China are the main people who bring wealth to China. Their needs weren’t being met and their human rights weren’t respected and constantly getting violated. Many people began to over throw leaders in their land and fight for their basic human needs throughout the world. The destitution in many places all over the world was devastating. Communist China gave hope for those prone to oppressed treatment.China was influenced by the Russian revolution to become communist as well. The struggle against bureaucracy and class inequality impact the revolution in China and put an end to a government who abused its power and stand for the best interest of the people. Mao’s theories were key for many communist throughout the world.

  13. China is a very powerful country and has the best resources known to man or maybe to just the US, China also has a very intriguing line of history, they have a well marketing and manufacturing of probably 99% of the products that are sent to the United States. Sometimes I wonder how is it that China isn’t the big brother to the US. Reading this article made me realize that the political and economics between the US & China will son become hectic, and I’m very sure that China has more then enough resources to win that battle.

  14. Western standpoints distinguish China as a growing, rival nation. The United States’ fear of China is not a new phenomenon – it stems from the 1910’s and 1940’s with the Red Scare. The Red Scare pivoted on communism or radical leftism would bring corruption. Chinese immigrants in the United States sustained massive discrimination and violence because of it. Propaganda became broadcasted nationwide in media and influenced antagonistic views on China and its people – who, to begin with, were welcomed in the 1800’s for cheap labor. Now, the agenda centered on driving Chinese immigrants out.

    To restrict China’s growth, Richard Nixon visited in 1972 and impacted its foreign policies and demolished the longstanding union between the Soviet and Vietnam. China resorted to historic rivalries and chauvinism. The goal of the United States is to surround the nation with hostile and broken alliances. Being classified as a long–term predicament, China is littered with 600 United States militia bases. Donald Trump wants to increase funding for militia by $54 million – China is planning to achieve the opposite with its own. The 1%, China’s affluent and elite, are dominant in its bureaucracies. Unlike the United States, it is not afraid in punishing those who abuse power. Punishments include prison or death sentences. China implemented laws and practices to decrease its carbon emissions due to its conscious acknowledgement of global warming.

    China is more advanced on a technological standpoint than the United States; its capitalist–orientated economics are enhancing under faux Marxist rhetoric. Xi Jinping, current president, promised to invest in the Pacific an estimated $75 billion. Capitalism saw an increase of 7.3% in 2009. The Goldman Sachs, a multinational finance firm, estimated China’s economy to be equal to the United States’ in 2025 and doubling size in 2050. Mega metropolises in Beijing and Shanghai are in development – massive urban spaces to be the hub for the nation in terms of commerce, finance, etc. Nonetheless, it is also a visual depiction of rural and urban inequalities in so–called “1st world” and “3rd world” countries.
    China is a nation that its growth is inextinguishable and is striking fear into the United States.

    To read this gives an insight on China’s historical context and its economics. Can a lesson be learned from China? The answer is plausible. However, it must be taken into account that it is two contrasting governments. Laws and practices which work for China is possible to fail in the United States. China is still a nation with divergent social, economic, and political standards.

  15. I enjoyed this piece as it offered insight in to how China became what we know it as today. It was impressive to see that for a massive country the people were able to carry out a revolution; Which I see as a feat as at the time to organize that amount of people to rebel must have been hard as with the technology at the time; For example today is easier to organize a bigger group of protesters as we have phones that allow for mass communication at a faster speed. The Chinese revolutionaries sought to make a China in which everyone had a better life by resetting the slate (taking out the people at the top who oppressed those below them); In order for there to a ruling class there has to be an oppressed class. I like the mentioning of how the US has grown to fear China but the reality is that, that fear comes from the fact that capitalist depend on China to make a better profit; We blame China from taking our jobs but the reality is that we gave those jobs away in order to make a better profit by using cheaper labor.A problem that has risen also is that in order to become a global power China has forgotten its citizens who live in rural areas.

  16. For years, China has tried to reassure the world (mostly America) about their intent for “Peaceful Rise.” America simply would not allow China to rise, peacefully or not peacefully. Just by rising, they have already become America’s enemy. This tells me that despite thousands of years of civilization, nations (at least western ones) are still behaving in a brutal, animalistic fashion toward potential rivals. The US is full of hypocrisy. The Chinese are taking care of its own business while the US is interfering every other nation in the world. Shame on the US.

  17. i do believe that China is a big, powerful and developing country. china is basically carrying the world economy, both as a resource vacuum and with its growing middle class. its no doubt that china is quickly replacing the United States as the engine of growth worldwide. reading this article i realized that china is a misunderstood country and by many viewed in a bad way. china has a great history in which it tells the story of how and why china became a communist and how they became the country that it is today.

  18. china is big country.I do believe that china became a multinatonalsm country just before the great depression in 1929.Through my point of view china is the most richest and developing country in the world .I approved what the document says about the US fear of china growth economic development.Because it can be seen in nowadays that most our apps are mostly chinese invention like Wish, Uber ,Whatsapp and even though the US doesn’t recognise there are more and more chinese in the US than the US habitants in china and those chineses help in the day and day business of the US and this shows the faster growth of china. China already conquered many countries in Africa like Cameroon,Congo,Ivory Coast etc which shows their economic growth and power around the world.Many of our clothes and cars and many things that we have here in the US come from china.China has the biggest world market ever and it is only growing which means that in some few years china will surpass the US in economic growth.It is true that the US military will always be over China but the fact is that Chna have partners all over the world like in Europe , Africa and even in South America.This means China is growing and will the next biggest country in all over the world and the thinks that makes China so powerfull is their unity there are unites amongst them selves which made them stronger unlike the US who is divided in two clans which is the unracist and the racist and with this knowledge the US will always be under China ne matter what they do

  19. In this article, Professor Daniel Shaw attempts to remove the misconception that many Americans have regarding China. Are they really the “boogey man” that politicians and corporate media attempt to convince the population of. Shaw utilizes firsthand knowledge of the country and some of its people as well as extensive research into the histories of China: the 1949 Chinese revolution and the Cultural revolution of 1966-1976, to explain that China is misunderstood due to “demonization” by western leaders.
    Much of the article refers to China’s “vision” for their growth and expansion by acquiring footholds and resources in impoverished or economically “unsafe” territories. An idea that does seem to fit in with American view of China. What is commonly overlooked or more likely hidden from the American people, is that these footholds are being established by investing in these countries’ infrastructure whilst creating business for itself. The proverbial “win-win”, which American’s love to believe is there world attitude, but the truth couldn’t be any further.
    During the times of China’s revolutions, particularly the “Cultural Revolution”, professor Shaw writes that the working class and other low social classes are banded together to “Storm the headquarters”. This action creates the political party known as the CCP or Chinese Communist Party, which is still in power now and attempts to lead a unified China into the future. The CCP is the state of China that governs ninety-nine percent of the masses with a small one percent of billionaire capitalist who run the businesses. This strategy is what appears to be the cause of China’s increasing growth according to Shaw.
    It is easy to allow mainstream media to distort world views, while being distracted by Facebook and other social distractors. One can simple read articles such as these and find a better view of a country that is helping the world while helping themselves. A cause much nobler than the “American” take, take, take… style.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here