Hi Belly,

China has a capitalist economy and a quasi-fascist political set-up. The residual Marxist in me suggests that no socialist state has ever really got off the ground, before it degenerated into a repressive system - Russia, China, Vietnam, the lot. That suggests that (Marxist) socialism is ultimately impossible - on implementation, its 'Perfect Blueprint' immediately hits real-world problems, not least of which is the objections of the workers and peasants whom it is supposed to champion (has any 'socialist' state ever had a worker or peasant in charge ?) Remember Kronstadt.

But it seems that the young children of the current 'Left' are blissfully unaware of all that; and since they will never achieve 'socialism' in Australia, they will never have to learn. If I live to 150, I would expect to see many of them, Gen Y, but middle- and old-aged, in their sensible clothing, walking their spaniels and attending rallies and sit-ins and waving placards (boy, that must feel good) , ever hopeful of a people's uprising, having learnt nothing in sixty years.

Come to think of it, when was the first time a leader rose up from the ranks of workers and peasants, or even as someone who was born AFTER the Revolution ? Gorbachev, born 1931, Ukraine, taking power in 1985, nearly seventy years after the Russian Revolution. Every Soviet leader before him was raised before the Revolution, had a lifelong career in the Party and took over already a decrepit relic: Kosygin, Brezhnev, Yobchenko, then Andropov. In China, where they do things more dynastically, this rule is varied only as some 'young prince' takes power, children of former leaders, like Xi Zin Ping. And in North Korea, where the Kim royal family has ruled over the people since 1945.

Joe

no socialist state has ever really got off the ground,
Loudmouth,
How could any as long as people are seeking reward for effort ? The whole world will go more towards Conservatism as time goes on because it really is the only way forward.
Too many can now see how too many have a good life on others' efforts.
Socialism is only good as a dream, in reality it is a nightmare !

Belly, I think you misunderstand my point. Governments rise and fall, and eventually if they don't step aside they get overthrown.

Just because the Chinese Communist Party are currently in control of China doesn't mean they ARE China.

And after today our trade is threatened
Belly,
If that means fewer non-citizens buying up land here & controlling vital infrastructure & fewer Australian greed-bags making less profit than that'd be a good thing.

Hi Aidan,

As an ex-Maoist, I have to agree that China will face some huge problems in the near future.

Demographically, with its failed One-Child policy, its population will hit a limit by 2050 (and only because people will be living longer), and decline from then on, to maybe as low as 400 million by 2100, while India's will pass 2 billion well before then. If I live to 150, (no: 160) I'll let you know if that happens. Either way that will mean a huge old-age population and relatively few workers and tax-payers to cover their costs - and many of those professional workers will migrate. Many to Australia.

China seems to be living on an inflated currency, based on an unofficial policy of 'monetary easing' and lending to countries involved in its Belt and Road Initiative. It may find itself saddled with innumerable infrastructure projects which they have part-funded but for which they can't get full repayment (the purpose of the Initiative, after all).

As a semi-fascist state (not 'semi-' in the eyes of the Uighur and Tibetans), the Chinese (sarcasm alert) socialist regime is busy repressing a growing proportion of its population, Uighurs, Tibetans (and 'Tibetans' mean millions of people living well outside Tibet), Muslims, etc, who - a contradiction of Chinese socialism - were not subject to the One-Child policy of the past forty years. So their numbers will grow healthily, if somewhat restively, along with those of many other national minorities in the south, and north, and west. I suspect that even the policy of Beijing dialect dominance will be challenged by Cantonese, Szechuanese, Hokkien, Hakka and all of the other national-minority groups.

Surely any decent society, such as socialism claims to be, has to build on democracy, if that's not a contradiction ? There seems to be preciously little of it in China.

Joe

Loudmouth nothing to disagree with there, I too was a Marxist in my lost youth
And yes we can, and do, hope the Chinese people will bring about a better freer China
Not an easy task, starting from what they now have
But that is much better than what they had under chairman Mao
Even today, here, to get even a seat in either party, you really need a degree and history of being someone's office manager