Someone made a comment to me the other day over a glass of wine and it caused me to stop and think about it for a while, then, a day later, almost verbatim, the comment was made in response to a video I’d posted – I’m really sorry if you are the person who made this comment I didn’t record it at the time although I did reply to it – you’re getting a more extended reply now.
So, what was said to me, by two very different people in two very different forums was this: the West is getting more communist than China.
Let me explain first of all why this comment caused me to stop and think so hard.
The answer is a lot more complicated than a simple yes or no because it depends so much on your definition of communist
One definition of a communist is the kind that has read Marx and Engles, not me, it’s one who understands what Communist leaders such as Lenin, Stalin, Castro, Mao and others were trying to do and that’s not really me either, but one who actually realises what communism really is.
The other, Western media definition, has nothing to do with ideology and declares communism to be authoritarian, dictatorial, forcing people to bend to the will of the state and live in abject poverty under a yoke of oppression their entire lives.
One is based on an egalitarian society, which, admittedly does require a great deal of trust in government since the government will be the controllers of the destinies’ of most people, the other is based on, well, let’s call them misunderstandings because I live in a country that is a declared communist country and I see no authoritarianism, no dictatorship (other than that of the proletariat, which means the people tell the government what they want and hopefully, the government will provide it) and certainly I have a lot of freedom to live my life in the way that I want to, as do all my friends and my Chinese family.
I’ve lived in two western countries, the UK and Australia, my experience in both is that they are both more authoritarian than here, in China – now, you might say, I get special privileges because I’m a foreigner, a white guy, a guest in the country and that’s possibly true but my wife isn’t, her family aren’t and they seem to get along very well with their government.
In Australia, we used to use the nickname “nanny state” to describe the government – a government that imposes rules on us such as no alcohol on the beach, and, if you really want to know how strict they are, do yourself a favour and look at the BBQ laws for some states – I’ve linked one in the description.
Take a look at the alcohol sales restrictions, the bike riding requirement, the occupational health and safety laws and the rules on inclusion and diversity. Have a look at the National security laws that exist where you live and compare them to the laws that Hong Kong just imposed, or even China’s – you’ll find, if you’re in one of the Western countries, your laws are so much more restrictive and your penalties are stronger.
On the topic of being authoritarian that would normally mean the police are very strict – let me give you some real facts about this: in China, the police on average kill one person every 5 years – I’ve gone back 15 years and can only find three deaths – there were some armed conflicts during that period where trained and armed terrorists were confronted by special group known as the People’s Armed Police – which are a little like USA’s SWAT squads – highly trained, quasi military and used where firearms and terrorism are present – I’m not talking about them – I’m talking about ordinary police officers who are doing an ordinary job of keeping the peace, preventing crime and detecting it when it happens, you know the sort that say they “serve and protect” which is exactly what they do.
It the USA, the police on average kill a person every 7 hours. The US has the world’s highest population of incarcerated people with 1.7 million in prison, China is second with 1.6 million but China has 4 times the population of the USA. Which one is more authoritarian?
It's true. Western countries are more authoritarian, they have stricter controls and they oppress their people a lot more than China does, then of course you have democracy which does not serve the people and gives them little say in how their country and even their lives are managed - then yes, this is more of the false perception of communism than China is.
If of course we mean the government runs the country according to Marxist or Socialist principles then China is still more communist than the West but it does include a democratic process which allows people to have a greater say in their lives and the country is managed for the people, very much by the people, then no, China is still more Communist.
And here are two interesting points – since the inception of the Communist Party of China, there have been constant moves to maintain the democratic process – despite what Western media will tell you, Mao was all for democracy – he met with Roosevelt’s special envoy in 1943 to lay out a plan where China would become a democracy in the sense that the US wanted it to become, he signed a Five Point Agreement with Patrick Hurley to ensure that, after the war, all the Parties which had fought against the Japanese would have a power sharing structure and move to elections – the only person who wouldn’t sign it was Chiang Kai Shek. I don’t make this stuff up, this comes from US Archives, and I’ve linked a US based academic paper in support, that paper has links to US State Department historical archives.
The other interesting point is that there’s nothing in any Marxist theories or China’s Constitution, it’s laws or its policies that say no one can get rich – a walk around any town or city in China will prove that’s just nonsense.
Rich Chinese people leave China for studies, they go on international holidays and they come home richer for the experience – why would so many people, who are experiencing such a terrible life leave and return – for that matter, if China was such a terrible place, why would they even be allowed to leave in the first place!
Yes, the West is more authoritarian and dictatorial, not just my own experience but the overbearing presence of laws to control movements, actions and society. But no, the West is not more Communist than China – what most people get wrong by asking this question is not that the West is Changing, but that the definition of Communism has been widely misrepresented.