On 24 October 2024 in Moscow there took place a discussion organized by the RCP(i) and the «Politprosvet» Marxist club. The question was whether China could be considered a socialist state, or it’s just an imperialist predator in disguise. The two opposing views were represented by Doctor of Economics, Professor Pavel Pokrytan on one side, and a historian, a member of the Central Committee of the RCP(i), and a lecturer at the «Politprosvet» club, Sergey Novikov on the other side.
The position defended by Pavel Pokrytan could be formulated this way: if we admit that there’s no socialism in China, it will mean that there’s no alternative to capitalism, and the socialist idea has failed.
He noted that Joseph Stalin wrote in 1952 that China had abandoned capitalism and joined the camp of socialist countries. The speaker attributed the later critique of China to the worsening relations between the USSR and the PRC. Pavel Pokrytan identified the following criteria that allow us to see China as a socialist state:
- The leading role of the CPC as a communist party;
- The ideology based on Marxism, Marxism being taught at universities;
- Elimination of absolute poverty; ensuring the satisfaction of the main material needs;
- A higher standard of living for scientists, compared to that in Russia;
- Strictly controlled public order in the metro.
At the same time, Pavel Pokrytan admitted the important role of the private sector in China’s economy (over 70%) and its significant increase over the last decades.
Responding to these points, comrade Novikov noted that the question of the Chinese socialism is not that simple. He said that yes, there is an opinion that what’s happening in the PRC is «somewhat analogous to the „New Economic Policy“ in the early USSR, just with some specifically Chinese features». But this claim cannot stand up to scrutiny. The Soviet «New Economic Policy» was a temporary retreat of the Bolsheviks in the sphere of economy, that sphere remaining under their control. Whereas in China we are witnessing a weakening position of the proletariat, a growing role of business owners in the CPC, and other trends that are typical for capitalism.
What is being built in China is capitalism under a red flag — that was Sergey Novikov’s conclusion.