SpeedBoostTorchic 25 points26 points 1 month ago

Communism is an economic system - not a political one.

There is NO REASON a state can't be both Fascist and Communist.

The CCP owns a controlling minority in all of its top 10 companies. The CCP recently decried billionaires and forced Tecent to "donate" $50B RMB (Alibaba "donated" $100B RMB) to the party in the name of wealth redistribution.

Private land ownership doesn't exist in China. All land is property of the national government and is merely leased out for a set amount of time to individuals (max 75 yrs).

Multiple industries - including healthcare & television - are fully nationalized.

Higher education, while no longer fully public as it was in the 90's, is still nationally subsidized.

The idea that China is a laissez-faire capitalist hellscape is a characterization created by people who clearly don't know all that much about China's economy.

I think because many LGBT Redditors support communist & socialist ideals, they assume that all communists and socialists around the world must have the same values they do. Or perhaps because they're used to socialism being demonized in the west, they feel particularly defensive and need to validate that capitalism is evil while distancing themselves from China.

However, I think it's important to recognize that economic policy is NOT the same thing has human rights policy. And while it is true that a purely socialist country doesn't exist (just as a purely capitalist country doesn't really exist), by any meaningful metric, China's economy is more socialist than the USA.

And by itself, a socialist economy makes no guarantees for human rights, nor does it say anything meaningful about the morality of the society that uses it. If anything, a more tightly controlled economy becomes an incredibly powerful weapon in the hands of a fascist state like China.

My biggest pet peeve with social media political discourse is when Americans assume that their left/right divide looks the same everywhere in the world.

The Chinese do not see a fundamental contradiction between Authoritarianism and Socialism. In fact, the CCP literally argues the opposite, saying that it is impossible for socialism to survive in a democratic nation.

(Also, side note, the CCP pretty much only uses the word "socialist" (社会主义) to describe its current policy. When they use the word "communist" （共产主义） it usually more vaguely refers to party ideology or their long-term goals)