RE: Deranged Photography Contest - Tesla (A Modern Day Kitt from Knight Rider)
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I doubt how I should describe the so-called China-style Socialism. Just as a classical saying goes: on the political level, it belongs to socialism since its only governing party is the Communist Party; in the economical system, it is a kind of capitalism in nature.
Yeah, I think you are right completely, the only thing I would change would be the use of the word socialism as I always saw the Chinese system (especially in the 1980s before they joined the world markets and basically became a capitalist country pretending communism) as a communist system.
I see so much confusion among a lot of people (and I'm not meaning you here @kaixin as from your words I see you see exactly the crux of what happened in China) between communism and socialism as very different systems. Socialism can and has operated within the capitalist system (as in England for many decades where basically all that socialist government did was nationalise water, power and rail and also give the unions more power to defend the worker's rights), whereas communism sets itself completely apart from capitalism taking all wealth, regardless of profession and then dolling out resources, food, water, power etc to people from government-run distribution centres. I did study politics & philosophy in University for 2 semesters before I decided to ditch it and do creative writing instead... something my grandfather disapproved about massively 😂
What I was referring to in my comments to @steevc is how many - to put it bluntly - morons I've come across, especially on Hive who become very angry about socialism because they are confused between what communism and socialism are at their core. They're two completely different systems, yes both socialism and communism emerged from the philosophy of Carl Marx but they changed massively in their application as ideologies do when new people interpreted Marx's philosophy. The angry people who scream and shout and generally get their panties in a bunch are either so stupid (or brainwashed) that they don't think there is a difference between socialism and communism.
As you so rightly point out, China is a communist country in name only now, the wealth gap widens and industry in China works completely on a capitalist model in regard to how it interacts with the global economy. As you say the uber-rich in China can just buy a visa from somewhere like Portugal where they have 'golden visa' schemes and then they can act exactly as they please, enjoy certain freedoms of trade by setting up shell companies in places like the cayman islands, and make vast amounts of wealth. While the Chinese government really does treat the lower classes terribly if what I've heard is to be believed.
By the way, I never truly trust the western media about these things. The newspapers over here and the TV stations are as prone to propaganda as anywhere in times of crisis, and with Russia throwing a hissy fit at the moment our media has become even more prone to exaggeration and propaganda.
But I trust you a lot more as a friend I have made who lives in China.
Also, one of my best friends married a Chinese woman and she (along with my friend) has told me a lot about the realities of living in China. They emigrated back to England to live when their second child hit the age of 5 for various reasons.
Anyway, it is always nice to hear from you @kaixin and to get your perspective about a country that has always fascinated me. I honestly hope that the world, in general, opens up a lot more in the next 10 years as I would like to visit China one day, perhaps with my friend and his family as his wife has duel citizenship I think :)
Thank you for your trusting me so much! And I agree with you completely. Yeah, China is a closed system, only a few wealthy elites can go out and see the world. Just as you said, they can earn a lot of money by taking advantage of their global citizenship. However, Common Chinese are just brainwashed by government, living within the Great Firewall(although it seems the internet is ubiquitous in China, it is equal to domestic network unless using VPN). They have even never realized that they are treated by government terribly. On the contrary, they believe in the so-called Communism(so did I before, and we have no idea of voting, too).
Oh, thank you for your explaining the difference between Socialism and Communism. In China we are taught that Socialism is just the primary stage of Communism.
Now I can well understand the morons you came across on Hive. After all, commnon people are the same, no matter which country they are from. They are limited to their own circle/system/government, so it is not easy to think out of the box(except the elites). Unluckily, the modern technology--internet breaks down barriers of time and space, then people from different countries get the unprecedented chance to meet and conflict without going abroad in reality. Through your real-time update daily blog and our comment conversation, it seems that I am travelling in UK, and getting the first hand information...
I am so glad that you are interested in China. And I sincerely hope you can visit China in the near future, as well as Mongolia which is in your dream-places list. If you don't mind, since I once lived in the place--WuSu,Xinjiang, I would like to be a guide on the border of Mongolia and China. (Xinjiang is rather different from the inland region of China.)