Hi everyone and hope you’re all well. I’m Chinese and I’ve spent the past 30 years of my life in China. During this time, I’ve witnessed incredible changes that have taken place in the country. Having also traveled to many other countries, I’ve noticed that there can be a disconnect between the international media’s portrayal of China and the actual experiences of people living here.
In this post, I invite all of you to ask anything about China—whether it’s about daily life, culture, societal changes, challenges, or the negitive/positive transformations I’ve seen. I’m just an ordinary citizen, but I’m here to share my observations and experiences in the most honest and unbiased way possible.
Feel free to leave your questions in the comments, and I’ll do my best to provide insights into the real China as I’ve come to know it.
Would it be correct to describe China as a country whose extended goal is Communism, but decided that a mixed economy is better suited to the current times, but plans to eventually eliminate the capitalist elements that have been adopted and continue to pursue Communism?
but traveling in china is still good. won’t worry about it, in Beijing a lot ppl can speak English and a certain amount of ppl can speak some Japanese.
I did not expect to find anyone who could speak Japanese. In Korea, for unfortunate reasons, with older people I could speak Japanese with them if their English was bad. I don’t expect to use Japanese outside of Japan, though, like I said, the kanji can be helpful in China.
It’s really a good question. (I’m really impressed you asked that, seems you are an expert for Chinese history/politics). I’m just a normal guy, so I may only answer it from my view.
When we were young at school, we were told that as you described in the post. China decided to do mixed economy to develop and adapt to the world, but our goal is still communism. This is an ideal dream for the previous leaders of China, we all admire them, like Deng XiaoPing (Tough he was tough on some certain aspects). We call it the “Reform and Opening-up” (Since 1978).
Nowadays, people are still arguing whether this idea was good and whether China still has its initial dream to become a communism country, for some ppl in China believe the reform has failed because china has turned to be a total capitalism country inside like the western world.
But from my life experience, with the mixed economy idea, china developed so so fast, when ppl thought that we should put economy to the first instead of the political system during 1980(1978 is the exact year) to 2018. not only economy, but also arts/humanism/technologies.
However, things changed in the recent 5 years, with the covid destroyed the economy and Xi changed the Chinese constitution that he can be president forever (this is a huge thing in china for us, for it changed the whole political atmosphere, we all feel sad), and we don’t know why the current government becomes aggressive and has a lot conflicts with other countries. In this situation, China is not as energetic as it used to be. Many ppl think China has reached a crucial crossroads in its destiny now.
Thanks for the thoughtful and open reply. It sounds like it is at a crossroads. The wealth of the elite of capitalism is very tempting and has a strong pull. Even if they are now fully capitalist, the values of Communism still appear to exist in China. I think when AI and automation become capable of taking a large portion of jobs away, China is poised to react to that better than is the US. To keep money moving through the economy when ??% of people have no job, when Americans are shown the solutions, they’ll scream, “No, that’s socialism!” We’ll see.
yup. Still there are a certain amount of ppl still hold the communism dream, this conflict even appears inside the CCP. Many ppl just regard China as an one political party country, but inside the CCP, there are many divergent factions.
AI also is developing fast in China and you’re correct, nowadays, all Chinese state-owned enterprises and central enterprises are facing the same issues as US. but chinese companies decided not to do layoffs, but reducing the salaries of each individual where everyone still has a job as a response to this impact.
Really thanks for mentioning that, I forgot to say that although the economy has turning to capitalism, many state-owned companies still have an organization and operation as socialism. China describes it as “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”, that every Chinese student must learn.
I wonder how long they will accept that? Productivity, therefore profits have improved, while their standard of living goes down. Being happy that they still have a job at all will only last a limited time. They’re going to have to read up on their Marx.
yes, are you studying sociology or political science? You quickly got the main point. This approach also makes competition stronger, aiming for better pay or promotions to make sure the living standards don’t go down. In China, some voices are starting to say this. They believe that this no lay-off practice also goes against socialism. In this situation, we shouldn’t compete with your fellow workers, as they’re our comrades. The ones causing everyone to fight against each other and exploit everyone are the capitalists. We should come together and resist.