It was recently said on this list that it is wrong to call China imperialist. That could be true, but I don't think it is as simple as that, since China seems to have features of imperialism.
China has cooperated with imperialism in the UN and I think I read that it sent troops to support the occupation of Haiti (along with Lula's Brazil). It also had soldiers in Lebanon, although that was probably not an occupation. Why would China cooperate with imperialism unless it is getting a benefit? I suppose they could be buying time before a war, but they semingly weren't afraid of war when they were technologically weaker, decades ago. China is moving towards capitalism, even if it isn't capitalist now (that is another debate), so theoretically shouldn't that mean that conditions are emerging for Chinese imperialism, imperialism being the modern variety of capitalism, even if it does not yet exist in China? China has many economic relations with colonial or semi-colonial type countries, which could potentially be imperialist relations. Japan hasn't had major external colonies since the end of WWII, but it is considered an imperialist country. Therefore couldn't China be imperialist without directly controlling colonies? For example, what is China's relationship with Nepal? Given that China has sent military supplies to Nepal, and is a huge neighbor of Nepal, shouldn't that government be at least slightly dependent on the Chinese? Is the reason Trotskyists call China imperialist the issue of Tibet? I don't know the recent history of Tibet, so I can't say whether I think that counts as a colony or not, but I can see other reasons to consider Chinese imperialism to be an open question. The most aggressive and reactionary imperialism is the USA and its main allies though. Michael Pollock __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list Marxist-Leninist-List@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
