China has the second largest economy and one of the largest stock exchanges in the world. Skyscrapers dotted with Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and other Chinese cities. On Chinese roads, you can find all brands of cars, and the Chinese citizens enjoy the latest models of smartphones.
So is China a Communist country, or is it a modern capitalist state?
The Communist party of China has adopted some aspects of capitalism, but to control all strategically important areas and strictly limits the right to freedom of expression, Assembly and belief. The political structure of the Chinese regime is a classic Leninist dictatorship.
The country would be unable to enjoy the results of the rapid GDP growth in recent years, if the party has not moved away from pure socialism in 1978 under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, when experiments were conducted with economic reform.
For many decades, the party gradually lost control over the means of production and allowed private enterprise to develop. The highest Chinese leadership now recognizes that the party no longer follows the classic methods of the command economy. She now applies the “neo-team” methods.
State enterprises account for only 3% of companies in China, but they produce an estimated 25 to 30% of the total industrial production. The party continues to “lead” economy, the highest party officials or members of their families owned enterprises in key sectors. For example, Jiang Mangan, the son of former Communist party leader Jiang Zemin, known as the king of telecommunications.
Impressive numbers of GDP growth of China is not quite true. In 2007, Li Keqiang, the current Prime Minister of China, said officials in the United States that the official figures are unreliable. He looks at the volume of railway freight traffic electricity consumption, as well as new loans granted by banks to correctly assess China’s economic growth.
Many large Chinese businesses are members of the Communist party, they are included in legislative or political Advisory bodies of the regime. Entrepreneurs to join the party because membership in the party ensures benefits for the business.
In accordance with the books of the Marxist doctrine, the party is the only true landowner in China, she rents out the land to the Chinese people.
Chinese society is still tightly controlled by the party.
The batch contains more than two million Internet police to censor and manipulate public opinion, and Chinese Internet users in the global network will not allow a powerful firewall. The party is forcing Chinese women to have forced abortions and sterilization exposes those who do not follow its policy of birth control.
© AP Photo, Greg Aceglatone Internet addiction through electric shock in Beijing
Dissidents and members of religious communities and members of civil society live under constant threat of being declared political opponents, after which they “invite to tea”, that is, questioning by the staff of the public security. They are subjected to ill-treatment, torture and forced labour in prison.
The regime controls the courts and provides an almost ideal number of convictions of political opponents. After a prolonged imprisonment of prominent dissidents are under house arrest.
The Chinese Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but the party ignores their own laws. For example, the former General Secretary of the Communist party Jiang Zemin in 1999, began to persecute adherents of the spiritual practice Falun Gong and created for this special bodies.
From a political point of view, China is still controlled by a Communist party, obsessed with total control.
Since 1949, the Communist party is the only political party in China. Other parties exist in the framework of the “United front”, but they have no independence from the Communists.
The leader or Secretary General of the party not creates his own Cabinet of Ministers and is part of the Politburo, whose members take all major decisions in the country. He is appointed by the veterans and elite of the party, and not by democratic elections.
Maybe in our days the leaders of China and replaced the gray uniform of the Mao era with five buttons and a Mandarin collar in black business suits. But as long as the hammer and sickle remain in the Great hall of the people, communism in China will not be in the dustbin of history.
