Having recently read this article of Lenin’s on the adoption of the NEP and the dangers of “exaggerated revolutionism” you can easily see the rationale adopted later on by the Chinese after Mao. In fact, it’s so obvious to me that they were following the Leninist line on this issue that it surprises me a lot that American policy makers didn’t understand what was going on and assumed the Dengist reforms would somehow pave the way to a liberalisation of China.
What happened? How did the imperialists and their Sovietologists not see this coming? They were slap bang in the middle of an ideological struggle and yet they seem to have missed something so fundamental. What kind of internal screw ups might have occurred that duped the west so thoroughly on this issue?
Probably because it was lucrative for the West at that time.
'Ole Faithful strikes again
Cool article, I hadn’t read that before.
What happened? How did the imperialists and their Sovietologists not see this coming?
You do see occasionally see some prescient western economists whining about how US capitalists need to stop exporting production and technology to China. In the end tho the US is a capitalist dictatorship, and if they want to make short term decisions that will eventually wreck their country, no one can stop them because they control the political system. And China is happy to take that bargain, and accept limited exploitation in return for production and technology that can help them in the long term.
This is real the beauty of the whole thing. Now that Western companies have become dependent on the infrastructure in China there is no path for them to wean off of it even if they wanted to. Markets are structured so that companies have to keep posting quarterly profits, and moving stuff out of China simply can’t be justified in such a climate. Furthermore, any company that did decide to move infrastructure out of China would be at a competitive disadvantage with those that didn’t.
When the whole decoupling talk started last year I thought it was completely hilarious, and it was obvious that nothing of the sort could happen. Now we have proof of that with EU signing a big trade deal with China and RCEP deal in Asia.
It also looks like China has already caught up technologically to the West, they’re able to produce anything Western companies can produce, and they’re even leading in many areas. China educated a whole generation of scientists and engineers in top Western universities many of whom returned to teach at home. China now produces something like 8 to 1 STEM graduates compared to the states, and has majority of world’s high tech manufacturing facilities.
The main advantage of business ties for China is that it prevents any possibility of open conflict. Business interests dictate the policy in the West and as long as trade with China is profitable there is no possibility of any openly hostile action. You’ll see politicians moan and squirm, but in the end they will fall in line and do what’s good for business.
The really exciting part is that China appears to be confident enough to start flexing globally by doing things like putting sanctions on US forcing companies to choose whom they will trade with. This may lead to US being economically isolated going forward. EU signing the trade deal despite US protests is a sign of things to come.
I’ve never heard of that article either, but it’s so important to deal with the cult of Mao ultra-leftists. I don’t expect them to call Lenin revisionist lmao
They were probably thinking they will be able to defeat the CPC just like they did with the Soviet Union when it comes to that.
I definitely think so too.
Words from the White
peopleHouse:
“The more we opened our markets to China, the thinking went, the more we invested capital in China, the more we trained PRC bureaucrats, scientists, engineers, and even military officers, the more China would become like us.” (link)
Maybe the capitalists believed their system was superior and would win
Also, the capitalists need to grow their markets to survive
