Addendum:
Given that China was able to construct an advanced railway system in the 1960s offsets whatever she was criticized to be lacking with. And whatever critics say, China was a rice granary whose staple food production has been as bountiful as ever. Other Asian capitalist countries during Mao's heydays were not able to construct their own railway systems. That's a big plus and success for China!!-stol schumacher, Chinese-Briton
> 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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