Roland Boer's Blog, page 38
December 8, 2017
Beijing Declaration on Human Rights
It appears there is no resting for the post-19th Congress CPC. First there was a forum to examine new modes of cooperation between the CPC and other world political parties (here and here), and yesterday the first forum on South-South Human Rights concluded. With over 300 delegates from 70 countries, it was a major event. And it has produced a major statement on human rights (copied below). A news report on the closing of the forum and its achievements can be found here.
Note especially the f...
Beware of European ‘foreign agents’
There seems to be some concern in Australia over foreign ‘soft power’ and spying, if not influencing social and political processes. Anyone working for, promoting or even speaking favourably about a foreign entity may soon have to register as a ‘foreign agent’. Apart from the problem that Australia has nothing really worth spying upon, the most obvious culprits as ‘foreign agents’ would have to be EU and European Studies Centres. They are directly funded by the EU and foster pro-EU positions....
December 5, 2017
Marxist orientalism
One of the narratives I hear from time to time concerning the CPC is what may be called Marxist orientalism. What I mean is that a number of international (or ‘western’) Marxists have assumed a position common among liberals as well. It goes like this:
In the late 1970s, Deng Xiaoping started – it is believed – the process of China becoming a capitalist market economy. However, Deng continued to speak of the socialist road in, for instance, the first of the four ‘cardinal principles’. So how...
The struggle over defining ‘market economy’: China and the WTO
Back in 2001, China was admitted to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). As a major player in that move, the USA felt that it could crowbar China into becoming a capitalist market economy. At the time, China was defined as a ‘non-market economy’, with stringent conditions. These conditions enabled the USA and the EU to deploy the new term for tariffs – ‘anti-dumping’ rules – against China.
However, the initial conditions have now passed, with the WTO set to include China as a full member. The...
November 28, 2017
More on China’s Toilet Revolution
Following on from an earlier post, the latest update on China’s toilet revolution from Xinhua news. Although this is usually the topic of light-hearted commentary, the article makes it clear that this is part of the larger poverty alleviation program that has so far lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty and is focused on the last 40 million. Rural areas in the western parts of China are now the focus, with Xi Jinping on his many visits to rural areas always asking about the state...
November 24, 2017
Liberalism Screws Your Mind
‘How do you deal with slavery in the ancient world?’ Someone asked the person who had just given a paper on class as a ‘reductionist’ category.
‘Well’, came the reply. ‘You need to consider the situation of each individual slave. One slave may be in the mines under brutal conditions, while another may be a slave in a wealthy household, or another may be a skilled artisan. Each individual situation is different, with many determining factors that need to be analysed. So it is not helpful to co...
November 21, 2017
Images from Chinese socialism today
Welcome to China, where hammers and sickles are everywhere:
Before and during the 19th congress of the CPC (shijiuda), banners, signs and slogans were all over the country;
Apart from following events very closely, I took myself to the local Xinhua Bookshop, to find a huge number of Xi Jinping’s books for sale – carrying on the tradition of communist leaders who actually think and write:
Almost 20 books to read over the southern summer, along with Mao’s works:
In many places, I...
November 16, 2017
Discovering Chinese Socialism: A Personal Account
Despite my best intentions, I had first come to China some eleven years ago with a pile of preconceptions and ways of understanding socialism. One by one they have been challenged, undermined and then crumbled. Since then, I have been rebuilding my understanding virtually from scratch.
Some of these preconceptions were superficial, although I was not aware I held them until after arrival. For example, I had been warned that a paranoid communist party would send spies to watch my every move. E...
November 13, 2017
Narratives of Betrayal: A ‘Western’ Trope
A characteristic feature of European-derived, or North Atlantic approaches to communism is the narrative of betrayal: at some point, a communist revolution was betrayed by someone, betrayed itself, ran into the mud, ‘failed’.
I was first struck by this narrative some years ago when I was working intensely on Lenin. And it was inescapable in much of the secondary literature when I was engaging deeply with Stalin. Recently, it has struck me once again while delving into the theory and...
Revolutionary leaders are not gods, but human beings: On Mao’s deviation
An article of faith among some ‘Western’ Marxists is that the ‘Great Cultural Revolution’ (1966-76) expressed the core communist position of Mao Zedong, indeed when communism itself began to be realised. Subsequently, the ‘revisionist’ Deng Xiaoping undid Mao’s legacy, engineered an about-turn and set out on the road to capitalism. After all, did not Mao dub him a ‘bourgeois’ and a ‘capitalist roader’? Case closed …
What if this is a misreading of the situation, part of the myopia or narrativ...
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