Zonie63
Posts: 2826
Joined: 4/25/2011 From: The Old Pueblo Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Musicmystery There has never been anything communist about them. They were socialists who have moved to a mixed economy. I think communism was the ultimate goal, while socialism was, theoretically, the means to achieve that goal. But the actual name by which they call their particular party might not fall in line with the actual definition. Just like the old joke about the Holy Roman Empire not being holy or Roman or an empire. Whatever they choose to call themselves or how we choose to react to them, one can't deny that China has sure come a long way since the devastation they were facing in the 1940s when the communists took power. After civil war, then war with the Japanese, then more civil war, they were in pretty rough shape. But they marshaled their manpower and resources and managed to build themselves up into quite a powerhouse, both militarily and economically. They're flexible enough to do business with the West and make some money, but that hasn't really changed their position in the world. We've also grown more flexible too, even though there is still some lingering Cold War era antagonism regarding China. Some people regard them as communist "in name only," so it gives us a certain amount of flexibility that wouldn't ordinarily be possible in an earlier era. But then, we're still somewhat at odds with them because of issues which arose during the Cold War and even before the Cold War. That doesn't mean that we're enemies, but we're not exactly close friends either. We still have a military presence in East Asia, too. So, perhaps on an economic level, they may not be "communist," but on a geopolitical level, we still kind of/sort of look at them that way, because our policymakers still seem a bit guarded and wary. They're still ruled by an authoritarian government, and issues like Taiwan and Korea present some barriers as well. I wouldn't consider them fascist, although that's another term that seems to be used in various contexts not strictly in line with the dictionary definition.
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