Der Spiegel on China's pragmatic communism

[Massive Quasars]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spi ... 07,00.html

5 pages, but it's an interesting read.

[*NoSleep*]

China has western economies by the balls thanks to it's huge number of slave-wage workers. This has enabled them to remove wage disputes from the backyard of countries like the US, whilst dismantling their industry in favour of addiction to cheap chinese goods.

According to my favourite podcast, China's stock market has fallen in the last week causing drops in many other countries...
http://karmabanqueradio.com/?p=392

[SplishSplash]

Without reading the article (will do so later) isn't communism in China pretty much a thing of the past? All the growth comes from western companies having their labor done over there and selling stuff to the chinese.
What does that have to do with communism? Nothing at all.

If anything, China is an example for authoritative governments being able to reform their countries faster and more efficiently. But saying "Communism works in China!" is a little disrespectful to the millions of people who starved during Mao's communist agriculture reforms.

Sounds like some people still don't get it. Wouldn't be that surprising, the Spiegel has always been leaning to the left more or less heavily.

[Massive Quasars]

Splish, the title is indeed misleading, but the article is fair. It doesn't actually make a case for pragmatic communism, there's not a whole lot that's planned about china's economic boom. Decentralized market processes of far greater complexity are driving this growth.

[Massive Quasars]

China has western economies by the balls thanks to it's huge number of slave-wage workers. This has enabled them to remove wage disputes from the backyard of countries like the US, whilst dismantling their industry in favour of addiction to cheap chinese goods.

According to my favourite podcast, China's stock market has fallen in the last week causing drops in many other countries...
http://karmabanqueradio.com/?p=392

It's all well and good to wax indignant about China's human rights record, but human rights tend to be a low priority in countries not affluent enough to concern themselves with it. That said, some accommodations can be made in the here and now to improve conditions for workers without burdening employers terribly. The government actively colludes with large employers to suppress strikes by employees.

China is taking the quick and dirty route to first world status. It's bad now, it was worse yesterday, and it'll likely be better tomorrow. The populace will grin and bear it as long as they continue to see incremental but noticeable improvement year after year. In absolute terms, the communist government is getting more powerful as China's economy grows, but in relative terms it's losing it's hold on the country. IMO it's only a matter of time before China compromises away what's left of it's burdensome socialism.

[*NoSleep*]

I wasn't picking China out for my indignancy particularly, merely pointing out that the west turned a blind eye, instead of questioning how cheap these goods were (whilst shutting down all their own factories). But everything comes at a true cost (eventually) and they have allowed China to flourish by their own decline.

[stocktroll]

if flourishing means living like a slave count me out
it will all balance itself out eventually with their inevitable revolt that will drive up wages and other social serives in China

[Massive Quasars]

This imagined future revolt isn't what would be required to drive wages up, wages are going up as we speak. The government hasn't stripped the right of it's people to shop around for the best job suited to their skills. Wages are rising and working conditions are improving.
Employee action against management plays little part in bolstering this trend because the government buckles down on that sort of activity (unfortunately).

If you want to support human rights, allow this bottom-up process to continue. In time the Chinese will become wealthy, complacent, and individually powerful enough to force the government to accommodate them on human rights protection legislation of some kind.