Lessons from China

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

17 Apr 2024

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The author and delegation members in the Red Building at Peking University.

Socialist China is a powerful economic and diplomatic rival to the United States. Its success must be studied so that liberation may be possible and to prevent the declining U.S. from doing even more damage to humanity.

On a daily basis the corporate media, members of Congress, and courtier pundits who refuse to do a basic internet search, make reference to the non-existent Chinese Communist Party and to a non-existent abbreviation, CCP. There has been a Communist Party of China (CPC) for more than 100 years. The repetition of easily provable misinformation is just one indication of the degree of manufactured hostility towards the People's Republic of China and of the extraordinarily high levels of ignorance manufactured by the state in the U.S.

This columnist is currently participating in a delegation organized by Friends of Socialist China at the invitation of the China NGO Network of International Exchanges (CNIE). In the short time that the delegation has been in Beijing, the maturity and intelligence of the Chinese state are obvious to anyone who is a serious observer. The recklessness and amateurish nature of the U.S. is also clear to anyone who pays attention.

While Congress joins with greedy corporate interests to steal TikTok under the false claim that the platform is under the control of the mythical CCP, Joe Biden calls President Xi Jinping to tell him not to work with Russia, its ally, and sends Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to request that China end its economic success with complaints about “over capacity” while the misnomer CCP is in regular use.

The Friends of Socialist China delegation has thus far met with CNIE officers, and visited the Red Building at Beijing University which showcases the history of that institution’s role in the development of the CPC, while also engaging with a publishing house seeking international works for its catalog. The most serious subject for discussion is socialism, its history in China, and the means to develop it around the world.

It is both eye-opening and sobering to leave the United States and visit nations in which socialists have attained state power. Especially in this moment, as a presidential election approaches, we are once again reminded that the U.S. political system will permit no requests for change. The most minimal proposals are rejected outright, while the people's money is used to continue the failed Ukraine project and to support Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza. The precarity experienced by millions of people is explained away as a figment of their collective imagination or the result of their own stupidity.

Socialism is a necessity as the U.S. faces crises of its own making. Ocean temperatures rise because of continued capitalist fossil fuel production, wages stagnate, and the cost of food and housing continue to rise as corporations price gouge the public. Imperialism continues endangering the world as the U.S. has created a region-wide catastrophe in the Middle East.

As members of Congress outdo one another with calls for attacks on Iran in the wake of its justified response to Israel’s attack on its Syrian consulate, and corporate media regurgitate decades-old vilification of Iran, the Chinese media urge caution. “... all parties involved must exercise restraint and seek diplomatic solutions to prevent further escalation. The crisis highlights the complex dynamics of regional politics and the delicate balance of power in the Middle East. It serves as a reminder of the importance of dialogue, cooperation and conflict resolution to ensure peace and stability in the region.”

The same country that openly calls for bloodshed also engages in unending rhetorical attacks on China. Even proposals to end funding for the Ukraine project are not peace-making efforts. They are a tactic meant to target China instead, and not to bring peace to a country destroyed by U.S. fantasies of weakening Russia.

Claims of a democratic system are just denial of reality, a sad display of wishful thinking. There is no reforming the U.S. which is under the control of a predatory oligarchic class. Of course, the same system which tries to convince its people that they have no alternative, that there exists nothing else in the world for them to contemplate, vilifies China and any nation which dares to be a good example.

The same media that speaks of a CCP shuts out the world from its readers and listeners, lest they conclude they should fight for something else. They don’t want to discuss that housing and education and health care should be considered human rights, and not rewards to be dished out to an ever-shrinking number of fortunate people.

Of course, the historical paths of two different countries cannot be compared and that is why first-hand experiences and study are so important. How can a fundamentally racist, settler colonial superpower become socialist? It must, or it will literally be the death of its own people and of the whole world.

People in the United States are told to minimize their thinking about possibilities instead of broadening them. The result is despair, cynicism, and/or obedience to a failed state. If one has opportunities to travel, those countries demonized by the U.S. should be on the itinerary. Regardless of how well-informed one claims to be, it is life-changing to see people living with care for their human rights and to realize that those rights are consciously diminished and denied by the “democratic” U.S.

No system is without its problems and those must be debated and discussed with honesty and good intentions and not clownish characterizations from people who know better but choose to go along with a dangerous charade. There is no choice but to say clearly that capitalism and imperialism must end. What better way to do that than in a country that has fought against the capitalist and imperialist monster and emerged as a powerful rival? If it hadn’t done so well there would be no made up political party or demands for self-defeat. China has many lessons to teach.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.