In Socialist Roaders, I hear many people say that “China is capitalist”. What I’d like to ask as a response is “Is Sweden socialist?” Any Marxist will respond to that question with a resounding “no”. By analyzing class struggle, I have found a pattern. When the class that is not in power ramps up class struggle, the class currently in power has two options:
A) Offer concessions, or B) Double down.
In bourgeois states, both of these approaches have been taken in history. Option A has been taken by countries such as the Nordics, while Option B has been taken by a country like Nazi Germany. Option B leads to an all-out war between bourgeois and proletarian states. China, a proletarian state, is also faced with this dilemma due to the international bourgeoisie threatening socialism, but this time, it’s flipped on its head. As socialism is no longer as strong, China choosing Option B would likely result in WW3, which China would want to avoid. As a result, China chose Option A. However, just as concessions made to the proletariat in bourgeois states got rolled back as capitalism became the dominant mode of production, China will roll back concessions to the bourgeoisie once socialism becomes on an equal level, if not dominant.
Hey, I know you! 👀
I asked a similar question a while ago, which had people link plenty of useful resources:
https://lemmygrad.ml/post/796348
Though your post here makes me realise I never really considered the “capitalist” side of the class struggle. China is in a fairly unique situation, in that they have a capitalist class that doesn’t hold political power, so they will fight for it, the same way the proletariat will in a capitalist nation. I never really considered the “push and pull” of this before, but class struggle does cut both ways. I think seeing China’s current situation as giving “concessions” to the capitalist class, in a similar way to the Nordic countries giving concessions to the working class is a useful tool for analyzing the situation.
And I’ve whined before about Maoist analysis of China, where they seem to think that the capitalist world will just sit idly by and let a second cultural revolution happen without taking advantage of the situation to weaken or balkanise China (or fund their own forces to take power), and then once the people are all free and Maoist, the capitalist world will once again, just sit by and let them rebuild after what would essentially be a civil war. And that’s not even mentioning the ticking clock that is climate change. China putting their efforts there on hold due to a cultural revolution would be catastrophic for not just them, but the whole world. But at least the broken polluted world that emerges will have a brief window of ideological purity before the Maoist Party of China splits due to revisionists amongst their ranks.