What to think about China

If someone will conduct a global survey on the topic that people think about the United States as a country and a world power, he will receive very clear answers. Everyone has some kind of opinion about the United States: in the north and in the south, the rich and the poor, among men and women, among the right and left, among young and elderly. Opinions are extremely different in the widest range from extremely favorable to extremely hostile. But people really feel as if they know what should be thought of the United States.

Thirty years ago, the same thing, probably, was true in relation to China. However, now this is not so. Many people, perhaps even most people around the world, are no longer sure that they think about China as a country or as a world power. Indeed, now this issue causes not only uncertainty, but also the most acute debate. It may be useful to consider what problems people outside of China are inclined to discuss when they talk about China. There are three such main problems.

The first and possibly the most well -known problem: whether China is considered a socialist or capitalist country? China itself, of course, still proclaims itself a socialist state. China continues to manage the Communist Party. On the other hand, it is obvious that it is the principles of the market that lie in the basis of China’s domestic trade processes, and even more so its international trade.

The views on this problem of left and right are different. Some right-wingers continue to insist that the market is just a facade that covers the true tasks of the Chinese government, which continues to strive to realize the historical goals of traditional Marxist-Maoist ideology. However, many among the right are sure that modern China is in a state of transition to an economy completely based on the market, and they consider the facade just ideology, not market processes.

The same is true for the Left camp. There are those who see in China a country that still pursues socialist goals, and regard market processes either as a tactical retreat, or as a colorful facade. But there are other left -wing ones, which either with cynicism belong to the current policy of China, or openly demonstrate their disappointment with it.

The next problem that there is a split in the views of people around the world is the question of whether it is part of the global south or has already become part of the global north. Thirty years ago, there was no doubt about this issue. China participated in the Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung in 1955, where he declared itself as a consistent expressiveist of the geopolitical interests of the global south. But today, China is seen as the strongest of the gaining power of world powers, which are “at the stage of formation”, and the second largest economy in the world. The world press speaks of the G-2 (United States and China), calling it the true ruler of the world. This is very different from the situation that took place in the late 1960s, when China spoke of the United States and the Soviet Union as “two superpowers” ​​against which all other countries should unite.

Thus, today many in the global north and in the global south are considered China as an important component of the global north. But there is another opinion, in the global north and in the global south, some continue to consider China to be the main mouthpiece of the global south. In the end, they say, a very large part of the population of China is still extremely poor, and its standard of living is extremely low.

Finally, perhaps the most controversial question: whether China is considered a state leading an anti -imperialist policy, or to consider it as an imperialist power. This issue is less discussed in the global north than in the global south. Many insist that China continues to play an important role in the struggle against American imperialism, which, as stated, remains the main imperialist force in the world.

In addition, supporters of the vision of China as an enemy of imperialism refer to how the PRC carries out the program of economic assistance to the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as the lack of those conditions that usually determine similar assistance from Americans and Europeans. The Chinese, they say, offer economic assistance extremely necessary for global south - this is a clear example of socialist cooperation.

But in the global south there are also supporters of a different point of view who see in Chinese assistance a method of guaranteed access to the most important raw materials resources, and in such forms that do not necessarily satisfy the optimal needs and needs of these countries. And there is also the position of those who expresses anxiety in connection with the influx of small Chinese merchants to these countries, and claims that their actions undermine the positions of local small merchants, representing the form of settlement colonization.

Today the debate is uncertain, and the separation lines between the positions are blurred. This is unlikely to continue for a very long time. Perhaps in ten years, and after twenty years, probably everyone will know what to think about China. Opinions (both for "and" against ") will again become certain.

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