China’s Socialist Road — to Capitalism
One advantage to Communist leadership that even the most die-hard of Republicans will admit is the advantage of long term planning. There’s a wordy section found in the preamble of China’s constitution that is supposed to reinforce this notion:
We the Chinese people of all ethnic groups will continue, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, to uphold the people’s democratic dictatorship…
Admittedly, the whole preamble is just a history lesson as presented by the CCP. It’s not only formulated after America’s “We the people…”, but it’s useful for the political education of its people. It makes for a concise timeline of what the CCP considers good leadership, at the end of which is Xi Jinping Thought — the current evolution in the ‘socialist road’.
The Socialist Road
While the peasants movement was strong in the early days of Communist rule, the rise of capitalism in China has seen an evolution in the interpretation of socialism. Thus the ‘with Chinese characteristics’ part — meant to distinguish their system from the Soviet one. Some say it’s generous to even call it socialism anymore.
I would define socialism with Chinese characteristics as the implementation of Marxism-Leninism by the CCP in China. By this definition, the socialist road takes a new turn with each leader’s interpretation on how to reach the ‘New Era’. They are:
- Mao Zedong Thought: Mao aimed to win over the mostly agrarian population of pre-industrial China. “Workers and peasants” were the backbone of a “people’s war” to defeat the Kuomintang and take the rest of China. He thought these peoples’ wars would naturally arise across third world nations (the three-world model was prevalent in Maoist works) and that he could export the revolution that way. China did fight directly in the Korean War and later backed North Vietnam.
- Deng Xiaoping Theory: Mao died in 1976. His Cultural Revolution ruined lives and left China in poverty. There were those who wanted to blindly continue Maoist policies and pursue a Soviet-style economy, but the Party instead began a period of introspection. This allowed the ‘reform and open up’ policy that’s still being carried out. Access to western markets enriched China and allowed fast industrialization. ‘Made in China’ started with Deng.
- The Theory of Three Represents: with China’s fast rise to prosperity at the turn of the century, Jiang Zemin thought it would further the CCPs interests to allow capitalists into their ranks. It was considered inevitable that a richer population would have interests that aligned less with the peasant army of Mao and more with the intellectual class. This ‘peaceful evolution’ has so far worked in China.
- Scientific Outlook on Development: Hu Jintao said of socialism with Chinese characteristics that it ‘constitutes a series of scientific theories’. As such, he preferred consensus-based decision making as leader. The main holdover of the Scientific Outlook is that China is going green and plans to be zero carbon by 2060. Development has always been a goal of the CCP, with China still being classified as a developing country.
- Xi Jinping Thought: The current step, defined by China’s military build-up and efforts to combat American attempts at stifling its economy. He’s internalizing the Chinese economy and strengthening its blocs like the SCO and BRICS. He is considered the most powerful paramount in China since Mao. He ended term limits and consolidated his power.
There isn’t enough space to detail the full evolution of socialism in China, but it’s now the second largest economy in the world with the highest GDP by Power Purchasing Parity of any country.
One Country, Two Systems
Hong Kong and Macau were returned to China in 1997 and 1999 by the British and Portuguese. Because of their independent development outside of the CCP, they entered China with separate systems. As for how the cities were lost:
- Portugal was given Macau in 1557 to facilitate trade with Japan. The Portuguese paid rent to be there until sovereignty was ‘given’ in 1887.
- Hong Kong was ceded to the British in 1843 after the First Opium War.
The treaties that the Qing Dynasty signed to give sovereignty of the cities away are called the Unequal Treaties by China. If you’re wondering why the cities didn’t go independent when the treaties expired, it’s because they couldn’t. China had them removed from the list of colonies in Chapter XI of the UN charter. This means they lost the right to unilateral self-determination under international law (i.e. no referendum could be held).
China’s ‘one country, two systems’ policy towards Hong Kong and Macau allows the cities to have their own rules in place that make them profitable for the CCP as separate entities. But the status of democracy in the cities has been an issue, causing protests in Hong Kong that garnered unwanted attention in 2019 to 2020. There was an agreement that the cities’ autonomy would last “up to fifty years” after reunification that the protesters claim was being breached.
Unless Hong Kongers are just saving money to leave before the fifty years is up in 2047, they could be hoping that the current system is too profitable. Gambling in Macau is a fun pastime for party officials and those wanting to launder money always have Hong Kong. Who doesn’t love that?
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