----- Original Message ----- From: <uvj at vsnl.com> To: "lbo" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Monday, August 09, 2004 12:48 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Continuing China fever
> Marvin Gandall wrote:
>
> >But the parallel
> > rapid development of the Chinese domestic market lends support to the
view
> > that if the 19th century belonged to Britain and the 20th century to
theUS,
> > the 21st may well belong to China.
>
> The question is whether China can be regarded as an independent/sovereign
> nation. Moreover, China is not even a liberal democracy. It's hard to see
how China can dominate the world, if the Chinese state can not hegemonise
the Chinese society.
>
> Ulhas
------------------------------------------
Why would you question whether China is an independent state? Because of the extent of foreign direct investment? Autonomy pressures from the coastal provinces? By these criteria, China is certainly as independent as the US was in the 19th century, when the latter imported much of its capital and technology from Britain, and where freedom from federal intervention was jealously guarded to the point of civil war. In fact, I think it would be generally accepted that the power of the Chinese government to regulate the private sector and "hegemonize" the regions and popular institutions is still much greater than what existed in the US in the period of its rapid industrialization, and even since.
So it is not, as you say, a liberal democracy, but not everyone is in agreement that economic progress is only possible under this form of government. If the historic pattern holds, I think China could develop into a mature bourgeois democracy when a mass independent trade union movement forms, likely out of an economic downturn. Independent trade unions engage in political action to win and defend their right to organize and bargain, either on their own behalf as social democratic and labour parties, or as an adjunct of a bourgeois-led reformist party as in the US. In the absence of this kind of worker-based party, there is currently no alternative for the emerging capitalist class in China to gain political influence except through the CCP, and the one-party state remains entrenched.
Anyway, this is just speculation, based on the development of mass-based liberal democracy in the West. I'm no China expert, although at least in relation to your point about it not being a sovereign nation, I don't think you have to be one. But maybe I've misunderstood what you were driving at.
Marv Gandall