I don't go so far as Henry. But there appears to me to be a huge gap between what a majority of Chinese think about the Chinese government and what Western leftists tend to think about it
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. Nuances are lacking, to put it mildly. -- Yoshie
I don't know. I find myself persuaded by these nuance-lacking Western Marxists when it comes to China. The worsening conditions of the working classes are pushing them rapidly in a more radical and militant direction. Within the ranks not only of the workers and peasants, but among many intellectuals and at least some of the broader new middle class as well, there is a deep and growing understanding that global capitalism has no answer to their situations, and that the revolutionary socialism that they built under Mao offers at least the outline of another way forward today. In the factories and on the farms, workers and peasants in China not only are resisting the new forms of capitalist exploitation, but have memories of another world that they already know is possible. From their lives during the socialist era before the reforms, they are aware that viable alternatives exist to the uncontrolled rampage of global capitalism. full: http://www.monthlyreview.org/0606weil.htm We believe, and argue in this book, that this celebration of China is a serious mistake, one that reflects a misunderstanding not only of the Chinese experience but also of the dynamics and contradictions of capitalism as an international system. In fact, an examination of the effects of China's economic transformation on the region's other economies makes clear that the country's growth is intensifying competitive pressures and crisis tendencies to the detriment of workers throughout the region, including in China. full: http://www.monthlyreview.org/0704intro.htm I even find much to agree with in this dispatch from some genuine Chinese, Asian, Eastern, Oriental people: In the past 28 years, the reactionary forces headed by capitalist roaders within our Party have usurped the state and Party powers and divided up state assets among themselves. Meanwhile, they have been spewing deep-seated hatred and venom against Mao Zedong and his socialist legacy. They have done their utmost to attack and slander Mao Zedong, by the use of such tactics as concocting Party resolutions, issuing official documents or reports, and publishing articles and editorials in official news media; moreover, in there attempt to smear Mao Zedong, they have resorted to such low blows as "Democracy Wall" posters, rumors and innuendos, personal memoirs and interviews with foreign journalists. full: http://www.monthlyreview.org/0105commentary.htm
