Looking for a model for Progressive policies? Check out China!

Dennis Etler

It is hard to read a newspaper in the United States without being told that China is an authoritarian human rights abuser and that the repressive black hand of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is behind all the oppression.

The efforts to paint the CPC as the epitome of evil in the corporate media, and in scholarly articles cranked out by various China experts, becomes more hysterical and fantastical by the day. As Americans become increasingly desperate watching their own government descend to the lowest levels of crass criminality, the risk grows that they will start to look around for a model of government that serves its people. They will not find it in Europe, where neo-liberals fight with neo-fascists to pursue ruthless economic policies behind a deceptive democratic façade. They will not find an alternative in Russia, where nationalist-flavored oligarchs have done their best to bury the socialist tradition that once made that country so influential.

But China is a nation whose leaders profess and discuss Marxism as a living, breathing doctrine, not an armchair philosophy divorced from practice, a nation where class issues are acknowledged and studied, a nation whose government is capable of putting the rich in jail for their crimes.

There are serious problems in Chinese society, as there are elsewhere, but the move to attribute them all to the “dictatorial” CPC is a ruse intended to distract us from the true source of the problems that we see in China, the persistence of traditional feudal values from Old China and the corrosive influence of bourgeois ideology that accompanied the “reform and opening up” policies of Deng Xiaoping and his successors. The breakneck industrialization of the Chinese economy that resulted from the implementation of “Dengism” had such negative results as environmental degradation, rampant corruption and a loss of faith in the efficacy of the CPC as a force for bettering the people and the nation.

The rise of Xi Jinping to power, however, was part of a movement to redress these grievances and to put China back on the path of socialist construction and national rejuvenation.

Nonetheless, the Western media, academics, and governments seek out only what is negative in China and refuse to report on the tremendous efforts of the CPC, and the Chinese government, to right wrongs and move in a progressive direction

This is done for one reason and one reason alone: so much abuse and negative associations must be heaped on the term “communist” that no one in the United States will even think that there is anything even vaguely positive about the concept. That task is getting harder and harder as more citizens long for social justice and see some form of socialism as the only means of resisting the ruthless assault of global capital.

There is another real danger lurking beneath the surface. Prior to the scourge of McCarthyism which destroyed the strong movement for socialism and communism in the United States, Communism was a viable political movement there. The Communist Party USA fought bravely for social justice in the United States and pioneered the struggle against segregation and the battle for labor rights. Those herculean struggles were later whittled away under successive Democratic and Republican administrations. In retrospect, it is ironic that the 1948 platform of the Communist Party USA presents what most true progressives in the United States today would like to see their political candidates advocate, rather than the “lipstick on a pig” efforts of the Democratic Party’s Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders who ask for universal healthcare while backing militarism and the rule of global capital in Washington. Back in the day, the CPUSA’s platform stated,

“The nation's industries are not operated for the public welfare, but for the private gain and power of the multi-millionaire ruling class. Prices continue to rise because of vast military expenditures and because the monopolies, through price-fixing agreements and other devious devices, extract exorbitant profits.”

So, we had better make sure that no American ever thinks that the Chinese system, which is presided over by a Communist Party, and which proclaims itself to be building socialism, offers any sort of an alternative, inspiration, or model to benchmark.

But, let us take a look (just you and me in secret) at what progressives like Sanders and Warren do not want you to know about the CPC.

1. The Chinese Communist Party is part of the government and it is regulated

Anti-China “progressives” will tell you that the CPC is so terribly oppressive because it runs the government. This fatuous argument does not stand up under even superficial scrutiny. The CPC is the governing party, but it represents a broad range of interests and it consults with a number of non-communist political parties, interest groups, and stakeholders in a process of consultative democracy mandated by the PRC’s Constitution. Its actions and behavior are codified and carefully delineated by laws. And contrary to Western biases, its activities are transparent and its members accessible.

Let us contrast the CPC with the parties that make American policy: The Democratic and the Republican parties. Although the leadership of these two parties makes policy (or approves policies given to them by corporate lobbyists and obscure consulting firms working for the super-rich) their role in government is not sanctioned by the US constitution.

The US constitution describes in detail the process for the formulation and application of policy through accountable, transparent government agencies. Nowhere does it refer to the Democratic, Republican or any other party. And now government officials have also been increasingly cut out of the picture through outsourcing and privatization. The result? Governance by the Democrats and Republicans is clearly unconstitutional, rife with corruption and criminal in nature.

It is not that China needs corporate-driven American “democracy” but rather that the United States needs a regulated and transparent political party which is accountable to the people like the much-criticized CPC.

2. The Chinese government makes long-term plans and carries them out.

China has come to the fore globally for how it is addressing the environmental crisis, modernizing and expanding its infrastructure, setting new records in the exploration of space, and developing in every other aspect of its society to a large degree because the government is capable of formulating (and implementing) long-term policies for 10, 50 or even 100 years. Incredible as it may sound, scientists, academics, and political leaders are consulted at all levels in the drafting and the implementation of policies intended to respond to long-term concerns. The impressive policies for the fortification of marine protected areas and afforestation in anticipation of climate change noted by Nature are examples of such visionary programs, but there are thousands of such efforts in China to respond to what will be needed in the future.

The United States, conservative or progressive, may talk a good game on TV, but it is incapable of any long-term planning at all. The airwaves are full of bright ideas, but the cold reality is that the United States is increasingly run by corporations in search of short-term profits and there is nowhere to run. There is literally no long-term plan for the well-being of Americans remaining.

3. The Chinese Communist Party can put the big criminals in jail

The Chinese government under the leadership of the transparent and accountable CPC has carried out a campaign over the last five years to arrest, prosecute and incarcerate corrupt bigwigs, including politicians, bureaucrats and business people within the CCP itself. Imagine asking the Republican or Democratic Parties to investigate themselves!

Those involved with kickbacks, bribery and other forms of malfeasance in China have fallen before this massive anti-corruption drive. It's as if banksters, financial fraudsters, and crooked politicians were arrested and tried in the US for their corrupt practices. The seriousness of the Chinese campaign is undeniable, and it has not been muted. The Chinese people overwhelmingly endorse the effort.

In the US, not a single person has gone to jail for the 2000 election fraud, for 9/11, for the Iraq War, the 2008 financial crisis, or for the illegal incarceration of immigrants in concentration camps. Billionaires rack up bigger and bigger fortunes with the help of the government because the government serves them, not us.

4. China can stimulate the economy, not just shower money down on billionaires

After the 2008 global financial collapse, the PRC engaged in a massive stimulus program of investment and construction of much-needed infrastructure, including a national superhighway system, mass transit, a modern national electrical grid, and the world's largest high-speed rail network. The United States bailed out billionaires and hedge funds while allowing infrastructure to crumble and education to wither away.

China’s efforts are beginning to bear fruit. China has been transformed, with transit times cut to a fraction of what they once were and a flourishing e-commerce that allowes netizens in the far reaches of China to enter the socialist market economy. Now Chinese prefer trains over airplanes and automobiles for long-distance travel because of the convenience and purchases are made electronically rather than with cash. That is a true commitment to public infrastructure.

These are the types of investments that the US Left has been clamoring after for decades with no result.

China's massive stimulus program saved the world from a depression that would have devastated the world's economy. Such an economic downturn would have hit the least developed and poorest countries hard. It was China’s decision to invest in real things, infrastructure and in people, rather than in shady investment banks, that saved the global economy.

China has literally saved millions of lives from poverty and destitution throughout the world as a result and through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) continues to do so. China even financed the continued build-up of US debt which has kept the US economy afloat for the last decade.

5. China is committed to renewable energy and it actually does what it says it will do

China has been a world leader in investment and construction of alternative energy sources, including solar, wind and other non-fossil fuel sources. It is moving rapidly in replacing dirty coal with much cleaner natural gas and is investing hundreds of billions of US dollars in environmental clean-ups which resulted from its unprecedented growth over the last two decades. Again these are the sort of programs and investments the US Left has been clamoring for.

China has taken the lead in combating climate change both at home and abroad, supporting the Paris climate accords and the UN, pledging billions of dollars to help poor and emerging nations deal with mitigation and adaptation. China has also vowed to forgive loans and debts of poor and developing countries and to increase financial aid.

This is unmatched by the US where foreign aid and debt forgiveness has been drastically reduced by a reactionary President and recalcitrant Senate. The Trump administration is moving to make renewable energy impossible at home, but the Democrats just look on in silence. The reason is simple. American politicians play different corporate clients off each other to their advantage. Chinese politicians have an institutional and ideological commitment to promoting the interests of the people.

6. China is committed to helping the disadvantaged through proactive policies

Over the last two decades, China has raised 800 million people out of poverty, over twice the population of the US. While the US Middle Class is dwindling the Chinese Middle Class is burgeoning and now numbers over 300 million, the size of the entire USA. But does the US Left herald that? No, they continually disparage China for the alleged “human rights” abuses that are touted by an array of US government-supported NGOs whose sole purpose seems to be to foment pro-American “democracy movements” and separatist campaigns that support US imperialism and global hegemony.

While the US economy stagnates, the Chinese economy is slowing down ON PURPOSE as part of a shift from an emphasis on exports to one based on consumption, not only of goods but services as well. The service economy in China does not mean low paying jobs such as baristas and fast food servers, but increasing social services, requiring trained personnel in the medical professions, education, childcare, and eldercare. That is because economic planning it undertaken by government officials and academics with a clear vision of the interest of the people, rather than being cooked up by analysts at private investment banks.

While the Chinese economy is being purposely slowed to become more sustainable it still outstrips US economic growth by a wide margin. Austerity in the West entails curtailing social services, while in China it means curtailing excessive government spending on ostentatious banquets and luxury automobiles.

7. China supports the sovereignty of nations and international law

Although we are told by the corporate media about how China oppresses its neighbors, in fact it respects the sovereignty of nations and international law and opposes the overseas intervention and interference of the US. The PRC has established a plethora of financial institutions and trade associations and it has invested in countless infrastructure projects worldwide through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that serves as an alternative to the US-dominated IMF and World Bank.

China has supported every progressive government in the world that the US Left loves, including Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador in Latin America, and other countries throughout the world who have stood up to US bullying and regime change color revolutions.

China pursues a foreign policy of peaceful co-existence and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, the antithesis of the imperialist foreign policy of the US, which has intervened against and invaded countries throughout the world, instigating so-called "color revolutions,” imposing stringent economic sanctions and other punitive measures to bully other nations into submission to its dictates. China has no foreign troops stationed abroad nor military bases around the world that are used as staging grounds for military interventions and posturing.

8. China has the largest labor movement in the world

Workers are free to strike and to demand redress of grievances against both foreign and domestic capitalists whom the government has allowed to conduct business. The government takes a hands-off policy towards daily management but tacitly supports labor actions for unpaid wages and benefits. The Chinese government has raised the minimum wage of workers in the lowest-paid industries 20% per year over the last few years while inflation remains low, increasing the spending power of migrant workers substantially while undertaking reforms that will allow migrants from rural areas to settle more easily in urban centers and to receive social benefits. All the while the US under Obama and Trump has deported millions of migrants from Latin America, who serve the same role as Chinese migrants from the countryside. And yet all the US Left can do is deride China for still having problems and contradictions in its developmental strategy.

9. China invests in the arts and culture, and education

Those over sixty can remember when the United States government helped finance the performing and visual arts in the 1960s. All that is gone now. But China has doubled down on its commitment to the arts, to the building of museums and cultural and educational resources throughout the country, many of which are free to the public.

This commitment to culture is a defining quality of socialism with Chinese characteristics. China is drawing on a profound commitment to culture as a key aspect of national policy that goes back for thousands of years and it is increasing the budgets for cultural production as the United States slashes them to the bone.

10. China regulates the critical elements of the economy to assure fairness and transparency while it encourages entrepreneurship in both small and large firms

China, while a socialist country in which the commanding heights of the economy are state-owned, encourages entrepreneurship and private capitalism on an unprecedented scale for a socialist country, allowing for a surge in innovation and job creation in the private sector. China thus has a more vibrant private economy than most developed capitalist countries, including the US.

Conclusion

China should be rightfully proud of its many accomplishments over the last 70 years. It has reduced poverty to levels unimaginable in the rest of the world. It has raised health standards to equal or surpass those of highly developed Western countries. It has educated its population such that its college graduates in the STEM disciplines far outpace those in the US and EU combined. Its people are housed, educated and healthy to a degree unprecedented in its long history. There should be no question that these accomplishments are the result of the latent skill, dedication and energy of the Chinese people unleashed by the Chinese revolution led by the CPC.

The strikingly progressive nature of Chinese politics and economics are thus no mystery, and increasingly they are becoming the benchmark in Africa, Central Asia, South America, and Southeast Asia. The mystery is rather why progressives in the United States bend over backward to paint China as authoritarian at the very moment the United States is becoming increasingly closed to the world.

China opposes the neo-liberal political and economic changes demanded by the United States because it has a core of committed intellectuals and public servants who can see how such neo-liberalism has destroyed other nations, above all, the United States. They have no intention of making China a stooge of the super-rich who run the United States for their personal profit. Besides all the above, there is no mystery to China’s very logical and entirely open and transparent policies. They do what they say and say what they do.

So why is there such animus against China among progressives?

Because China has a millennia-old political culture that is highly developed and differs from the Western “democratic” model that is dysfunctional and oligarchical? Because China tries to rein in corporate giants like Google and Facebook who want to control China's internet and lay waste to it as they have done in the US? Because China has vowed to protect its territorial integrity against US encirclement and containment?

The question is, rather, why it is that US Left engages in China-bashing rather than holding up China as a model? Why does the US Left cry out about human rights when China resists attempts at US-backed dismemberment by arch-reactionaries in Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, but somehow is able to denounce US aggression against Central America or the Middle East?

Could it be because they tacitly support US Imperialism’s attempts to destabilize China and to foment a neo-liberal color revolution there? Or is it because the US Left harbors a virulent anti-communist ideology anda latent racist attitude towards China and so cannot countenance its rise from an economic backwater to become the most powerful economy in the world?