• LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    China isn’t a communist country really. A state capitalist country would be better way to describe it, maybe. They participate in the markets and allow private ownership of companies. For instance BYD the fast coming EV manufacturer isn’t majority owned by their federal government, but is subsidized by it.

    People can argue if it is or isn’t capitalism, but in the end that doesn’t say communism. I’m no expert but I’d say maybe a social programs injected into a authoritarian capitalistic state.

    • zbyte64@awful.systems
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      16 hours ago

      Ehh, the capitalist class doesn’t call the shots in China though, the party does. And their private corporations don’t simply have shareholders, it has party representation embedded in the control structure making “ownership” moot because ultimately the party can veto or seize production at moments notice.

      That being said, when Xi starts claiming socialism is inevitable, he does so to delay it’s implementation.

      • zikzak025@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        That just sounds like a reframing of “the party are the capitalist class” though.

        If the party either controls the corporations or has the ability to seize control if their priorities aren’t met, where does one group begin and the other end?

        • zbyte64@awful.systems
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          4 hours ago

          Wouldn’t that have made the USSR capitalist as well? I think a key distinction is how authority within a party is established. If authority is derived from ownership then that is clearly capitalist. If authority is derived from the party itself, then that is something else.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        Yeah companies like BYD have investors like Berkshire and Blackrock but the key is Wang Chuanfu who is in the party, and is the CEO and largest owner apparently. So he gets a lot of say in making himself richer apparently. Sounds like what Musk would have wanted for Tesla if he could have got MAGA off the EV hate