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In more optimistic news. Static management-style suppression and suspensions finally end in Shanghai, mostly. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/02/shanghai-reportedly-bans-media-use-lockdown-china

My previously positive opinion about competence of the Chinese regime experienced lately rapid downward update in lights of the new evidence. Their COVID policy is so unoptimal, that I assign non-insignificant probability that it can cause utter catastrophe...

I hope that people are aware how biased this thread can be. To be clear, it's not like information provided here is in any way untrue. It's just that almost everybody here focus only on bad news, while ignoring positive developments. Only electricity shortage is mentioned for example, and if the...

That is mostly solved. About two/three months ago there were problems with regulated prices of electricity making burning coal for electricity (price of coal was not as strongly regulated, and there was less supply and higher prices lately) loss-making at current prices. Government intervened to...

It's closer to 1935-Italy than 1935-USSR, yes!

In Russia people need political connections with the Kremlin to be truly rich, or they tend to end badly. In India, it's illegal to fire people from their work in bigger enterprises, without special permit. In the United States, it's often illegal to build a skyscraper without a few years of...

As is usually the case, it depends on how words are defined. If "communism" is understood as "country ruled by party with communist in name", then both China 1965 and China 2021 are "communist", indeed. If we understand "communist" as "a country with all significant means of production...

It's not a good idea to be a Chinese billionaire currently, lol, but I don't believe that they will nationalize currently private parts of industry. Some specific sectors may suffer, but full return to central planning is still unlikely.

You are surely not incapable of recognizing different factions in the Party and you surely understand that post-1976 CCP reformed into fascist corporatism, instead of using orthodox marxist central planning methods. Even under Xi it's still the case. Do not underestimate Chinese economics by...

It's a move that certainly suprised me. Even in democratic East Asian countries, Japan, South Korea - it's pretty much... cultural value to torture children with the most intensive education imaginable. I wouldn't expect Xi to decide otherwise, that's interesting and radical in a very weird...

Recently China basically outlawed private tutoring industry, limited homework to 1.5 hour/day, and abolished exams for 6 and 7 year-old children. They want to limit the race to have a perfect child but instead raise the birth rate...

I'm not sure that it's known where Jack Ma is, last I heard there were rumors that he was "disappeared" by internal security? He was showing his opinions outside of accepted democratic centralist (internal party meetings) ways I think. https://www.ft.com/content/1fe0559f-de6d-490e-b312-abba0181da1f

Country can always keep nominal prices of something rising. High enough inflation, and while real value will go down, nominal value and ability to pay back loans should be fine.

They could raise retirement age, automation is increasing, and if these measures prove insufficient then authoritarian government could for example institute mandatory 2.1-child policy (that would be very ironic).

Something from Chinese perspective, explanation (from a CCP point of view) as to why Western democracy should be abolished in Hong Kong: Hong Kong is not beholden to ways of broken Western democracies

It's called monetary policy, strictly speaking.

Communists during the early USSR era were honestly ideological, while I'm pretty sure that the PRC engages in doublethink. Chinese CCP elites are too heavily integrated with big business/corporate elites. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink By at the same time praising communism, Mao...

Well, there were once islamic acts of terror in China. This is no longer the case. Now, reeducation camps sounds like an excessive cure for religious fundamentalism, but I can understand somewhat.

The same concerns Vietnam, and yet people tend to like one-party "red" mixed economy Vietnam more. Perhaps because it's not threatening, not big, on the contrary, sounds like an ally against China. And perhaps some Americans are still ashamed about some excesses of the Vietnam War. Honestly...

One-party republic or dictatorship easily can be "capitalist", especially in the "mixed economy" sense. Fascist Italy was not communist. Calling a dictatorship with private corporations "communist" sounds like overuse of the term.