by Nat Winn
Describing the nature of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese state poses unique challenges for those coming from an anti-revisionist or Maoist oriented framework. Since the death of Mao and the implementation of market driven reforms that have come afterward, China has become a rare story of successful economic development, while in the once dominant capitalist West there has often been stagnation and decline.
The economic scholar Ali Kadri argues that development itself, the development of a national economy that raises the living standard of ordinary working people in a particular country is by definition anti-imperialist. Kadri argues that historically capitalism has amassed great profit through what he calls the accumulation of waste, whereby, wars and production for wars along with environmentally damaging economic practices reduce the lifespan of working people in the global south, thus bringing down the social cost of wage labor. Productive development is actual socialism, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist.
But is it true that development in and of itself is necessarily anti-capitalist or anti-imperialist? Doesn’t the nature and method of development matter? If a nation is able to develop through specifically capitalist means, then can’t it build national wealth, reduce poverty, challenge the existing world hegemon and still remain fundamentally capitalist in its nature? Can’t it even be seen as a potential imperialist rival to the existing hegemon.
First of all, let’s be clear on one thing. The people of China are not “our” enemies, and the U.S. and NATO that prepare on a daily basis both militarily and through propaganda and misinformation for war with China are ACTUAL enemies of the people of the world. The overwhelming majority benefit from peace and friendship between nations. Our responsibility is to prevent a war between the U.S. and China that would be a horror for the planet and threaten human existence itself.
Second of all, countries like China, Russia, Iran, and others have played a role in the world as a counterweight to the power of the United States and NATO and the deadly proxy wars they have carried out in Palestine and Ukraine. Some would argue that they have played a role that allows for the Palestinian people to exist and put up resistance to genocidal Israel.
These facts complicate the matter and forces anti-revisionists and Maoist oriented revolutionaries to sharpen their analysis. Is China, an anti-capitalist threat to the United States and the NATO alliance? Is it an emerging imperialist rival that is developing an imperialist bloc with countries such as Russia and Iran? What should our methods be for making such a determination?
These questions are meant to be an introduction to deepening our thinking about how we can define and relate to China, the BRICS, and the Resistance to genocidal Israel. We plan to continue with our thoughts and provocations into these important questions, which are ultimately about the type of world we want to live in and what type of alliances we need to forge to get to that world. Our hope is that you will join us in this discussion, deepen it, and that it will lead to more advanced strategy regarding how to build an egalitarian future that leads to a thriving humanity in harmony with mother earth.