Red Creative by Justin O'Connor Xin Gu

Author:Justin O'Connor, Xin Gu [Justin O'Connor, Xin Gu]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Asian, China, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Government, Public Policy, Social Science
ISBN: 9781789382310
Publisher: Intellect Books Ltd
Published: 2020-10-08T04:00:00+00:00

Unlike Zhang Wei Wei, Lin Chun is fully aware of the ways in which labour – especially rural labour – was made to carry the burden of modernization and of the widespread unrest this caused. Similarly, she is clear about the ways in which this model is under mortal threat

of further political distortion and policy capacity fragmentation of the state; deeper privatisations of SOEs and other public assets and institutions; the persistence of inequalities and deficient public provision; and the destruction and decay of social commitment, power and citizenship.65

This is a very different account of the threats facing the Chinese socialist state than the index of open markets and liberal democracy versus closed authoritarianism. Chun is clear about how far China has been absorbed into global capitalism and its impact on the internal structure of state and society. Nonetheless, like Zhang, Chun is trying to assert the tasks facing a socialist China through a set of co-ordinates different from those of Western liberal commentators. Her account is one in which socialist China is a historical gain; not the obstacle to be overcome but the historical stake that needed to be defended. As with Zhang, China is not autochthonic but has learnt from the West; socialism’s provenance is Western modernity but at the same time is deeply rooted in China’s distinct (but porous) civilizational project.

This more open approach can be seen in the ‘New Left’ which emerged at the end of the 1990s. This is a complex and multivalent term, as it started as a term of opprobrium – the liberal right used ‘left’ as an automatic term of condemnation for those seeking a return to the past – and it was also used, by critics and supporters, to describe the revived Maoism of the early millennium.66

Barry Naughton takes the open view typical of New Left writers,67 asking the question in 2017 as to whether China could be considered socialist, a term he sees as having ‘evolved and thoroughly changed’ in contemporary China.68 His four tests were the state’s ‘capacity’ and ‘intention’ to intervene to shape economic outcomes; its success in effecting ‘redistribution’; reducing inequality and securing the well-being of the least well-off; and some form of ‘responsiveness’ to the population. The capacity and intention of the state are clearly established for Naughton, but he highlights the major failings of the Chinese state to effect ‘redistribution’, reducing inequality (this is as bad as the United States and United Kingdom)69 and poverty as well as dealing with widespread environmental degradation. This opens up China to much external criticism. Rather than talk abstractly about markets and democracy, Naughton links inequality and poverty with the lack of ‘responsiveness’.

When the predominant objective of policy was economic growth, it was not particularly important to whom policy was responsive, since all groups shared an interest in growth. Today, as the government tries to redistribute and provide more public goods, policy must reflect the interests and more diverse preferences of a broader population. So far, China has not found a way to do this.

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