Hi all, Something that I'm curious about with regards to China and the CPC are the different ideological factions that exist in the present day, particularly with regards to economic strategy, at home and abroad.

Going off of @xiaohongshu@hexbear.net's many useful comments in the news mega regarding Chinese trade policy, its commitment to dollarization, and continuing the export-led growth model that it has benefited from, I am curious to know what kind of discussions are taking place within the CPC between what I assume to be various liberal and left factions related to these topics. I know the party is lock-step when it comes time to make decisions, but surely there are many CPC members within the national congress who have differing views about how they should navigate the evolving international situation with a belligerent US and a global south that desperately wants more sovereignty and an end to Western unilateralism.

Is there any way a Westerner can be privvy to these kind of conversations within the Chinese government? Thanks!

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[–] marx_ex_machina@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago (16 children)

Thanks! Seems like a good motivator for me to learn Chinese oh-shit . Are more Marxist voices less prominent in these debates?

[–] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 26 points 1 day ago (15 children)

There are no Marxist voices in the mainstream today. All the distinguished Marxist economists have long been banished to the humanities and social science departments long ago. They do write books, sometimes articles/blogs on the internet, and newspaper columns, but they have very little influence on policymaking. The mainstream is full on dominated by Western economists these days.

If you actually listen to the debate, both sides are openly making fun of the Mao era central planners for being inefficient lol.

Also FYI the correct term for Marxist economics in China is “political economy” (政治经济学). Nobody uses the word Marxist economics. Similarly, neoclassical economics is called “Western economics” (西方经济学). If you don’t know the correct terminology in Chinese, it can be very difficult to search for the relevant information you want.

[–] IvarK@hexbear.net 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Serious question, asking in good faith here as a non-mandarin speaking westerner:

If mainstream, policy-guiding economics is so overwhelmingly western (neoclassical), why is China on such a wildly different economic trajectory compared to the contradictory hellscape of the west? Is it the applications of these horribly unmarxist economics? Is it the remnants of mao-era policies? I’m very ignorant on this, but i’d love to learn more

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 12 points 1 day ago

I can't adequately answer the positive side of this question, but on the negative side it's worth noting that a lot of western economic policy, especially in the US, is notoriously bad and out of step with Keynesianism and its relatives, with the whole thing being steered by financiers who don't actually care about the generally economy running well.

On the positive side, I am way less qualified than our Mandarin-speaking friend, but I think a lot of what China gets right is either similar to what you also see the more rational capitalist states get right, or it is politically capable of doing things those other states can't because of the necessity of the state maintaining a degree of control over private power for national sovereignty reasons. I don't think it has much to do with Mao other than China being sovereign in the first place. It's really more of a nationalist thing than anything.

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