Some of the critics of China are not aware of how their legislative assembly operates. There are checks and balances too. There is a supreme court that is independent of the executive and the National Assembly. There are three political parties vying for representation: the planners, the marketeers and the agrarians. Whatever is the outcome of the elections reflects the current situation in China where the marketeers comprise the majority. The people of China have spoken. Market socialism is the trend nowadays among socialists and communists.
> Actually, contrary to poular belief in the West, Marxism is
> alive and well in China, the country where I've been living
> and raising a family for quite some time.
>
> Most Chinese experts say that China is now something akin
> to the USSR's old "New Economic Policy," with a large
> state-controlled sector and some limited free-market
> projects. Not surprisingly, the private businesses are rife
> with hazards and can be quite dangerous, especially private
> coal mines. According to the Labor Bureau's stats, a worker
> in a government-owned business has a life expectancy of 3
> years longer than one in a private-owned business. It's
> possible that the unsafe sites you saw were
> privately-owned. Also, although China is not affiliated
> with any foreign union groups, they do have their own, the
> All-China Federation of Trade Unions, which have the
> highest membership in the entire world, 100 million.
>
> Were things better off under Chairman Mao? I'd be wary of
> asking that. Naturally, everyone will have a different
> opinion. The opinion of the canal worker that you asked has
> been canceled out over and over again by people I've
> consulted who told me things are better now. No one who
> didn't live through the Maoist era can really know, I
> suppose.
>
> However, Marxist education is a requirement of every school
> course in China, and even 2nd and 3rd grade children know
> about Marx, Engels, Lenin, the Paris Commune, and even
> Trotsky. The 4th grade students I teach were hanging a
> picture of Charles Darwin beside the picture of Marx and Lu
> Xun (the famous Chinese author) in their classroom the other
> day and I just had to take a moment to appreciate that.
> Their school textbooks talk about Engels and have stories
> about the war against Japanese imperialism.
>
> Since the fall of the USSR, China has had to take on the
> burden of supporting almost all of the remaining socialist
> bloc as well as their own enormous population. I think a
> bit of limited market reform is probably a necessary evil,
> in that case. But I'm still convinced this is a socialist
> country. Note that ever since the Iraq war started and the
> global depression resulted in a rise of revolutionary
> feelings throughout the world (as Lenin predicted), China
> has been moving towards a more leftist platform: cementing
> relations with Venezuela, taking a more active interest in
> secular leftist groups in Palestine, instituting more
> socialist programs for the Chinese people, and so on.
>
> China has alot of potential. I wish people would recognize
> that. After all, there are more communists here than
> anywhere else in the world!
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