alanjjohnstone
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I doubt it will gather many readers but this article tries to lift the lid off the common media narrative on the nature of China’s economy
China disavowed the communist model forty years ago. China’s contemporary economy is modelled after Germany’s 19th-century system, which can be described as state capitalism or industrial socialism.A bit sinophile about successes and little mention of the costs but a change.
We could take exception to the term ‘industrial socialism’ but we also challenged the term ‘state socialism’ too when that was in common usage.
(Again Robert Stafford’s scouring of the net brings up the goods)
I think it was because he was a scientist and was called out by other scientists on the actual science of his claim.
We still have some politicians, and they are also on the left, who suggest China is at least been negligible and involved in a cover-up. Fauci in the USA is being targeted as being complicit in a conspiracy to dismiss the lab-leak theory.
Being America, I think the next thing will be some sort of lawsuit by ambulance-chasing lawyers suing China for compensation for one of the victims resulting in some biased judge confiscating some Chinese assets and then a tit-for-tat response and a confrontation in the China South Sea and then thermo-nuclear war (just kidding)
Amnesty International adds their condemnation of China but stops short of calling it genocide, the media report using the term “crime against humanity”
the organisation’s research “did not reveal that all the evidence of the crime of genocide had occurred” but that it had so far “only scratched the surface”.So the G-7 is insisting upon a new investigation of the possibility of a Wuhan lab-leak.
Is this the WMD motive in the Game of World Domination? But if found to have occurred, for some, is the next stage to accuse China of maliciously releasing it? Who knows?
But already the expert who suggested that they had found the lab-leak ‘smoking gun’ has admitted he used hyperbole and a bad choice of words.
I can believe that sterilisations have been carried out but as part of the one-child policy that the authorities enforced throughout China.
But that one-child policy has been reversed, has it not, yet there is still an ongoing campaign of enforced birth control being implemented upon the Uyghur if we are to believe the claims.
Actually, the one-child policy permitted non-Han ethnic groups to have two children in urban areas, and three or four in rural areas.
It has always been a problem for ourselves of our policy of plague upon both houses, neither Washington nor Moscow, and now, neither Beijing.
We have always had partisans of one side or another challenging us on what they deemed fence-sitting stance. I’m sure CPers accused us of spreading slanders about Stalin’s gulags and the show-trials.
And there is an active ‘anti-imperialist'(meaning anti-American) left-wing busy siding with China and ignoring its imperialism particularly in Africa where the New Cold War is also playing out. (apparently, Chinese corporations are to be welcomed),
We walk a tight rope and we have to ensure our criticisms are nuanced enough to differentiate us from apologists of either side.
Sometimes that will be difficult to do but we encounter the problem repeatedly eg the Syrian Civil War where we take no side but are also subject to controversy such as the White Helmets and the chemical warfare, where our information is limited.
Sometimes we just have to hold up our arms and declare we don’t know what is true and what is not.
But other times we can reach some sort of judgement on events.
I’m with YMS, that we can from the evidence available to us, regardless of its source and despite attempts to block any independent investigation, accuse China’s government of systematic persecution of the Uyghur that is a crime against humanity, if we wish to avoid the term genocide.
As such we offer the Uyghur people our fullest sympathy for their pain and misery, actual physical solidarity and support being outwith our capability, but without any approval of the methods that they may choose to overcome their oppression such as separatism or armed struggle.
And we can add them to a very long list where capitalism has repressed and suppressed our fellow workers on all five continents and in practically every country.
I think it is exactly as Matt says, nothing unique to China but something that is part and parcel of the development of capitalism
The current news from Canada as well as in the USA and Australia we witness the indigenous peoples suffering an attempted genocide (and for certain particular tribal communities it succeeded) and by using the cover of “progress” and “welfare” children were ruthlessly abducted and imprisoned in schools to be “re-educated” to be good citizens. Nearer home, we saw similar where the Scottish Highlanders were denied the kilt, culture and livelihood until they were no longer a threat and became romantic figures, much like the “noble Red Indian”.
For ourselves, what the Chinese government is doing is not some history lesson and the connection to expanding capitalism should be at the forefront of our case for socialism.
The creation of the nation-state was the evolution of capitalism, and the homogenous citizenry is part of the goal.
I can’t recall the Socialist Standard article, but it pointed out the racial connotations of “multi-culturalism” was to incorporate and integrate different cultures and religions into capitalism and not as its proponents believed to advance individual identities (I’m not referring to identity politics here, but the freedom of diversity versus the McDonaldisation of consumer capitalism)
ALB is right that we do not yet see the mass murder or the ethnic cleansing in Xianang of the Uyghur, there are no gas chambers but as a distinct people they can be turned into “non-people” and by this, I make a comparison with the Roma.
I see the same fate of the Palestinians who are doomed to follow the footsteps of the Jewish exiles, becoming a diaspora with no homeland.
So my attitude is one of sympathy for the victim and as always making it clear it is the normal functioning of capitalism.
How we successfully do that, I’m open to ideas.
We just saw Ratko Mladic lose his appeal for acts of genocide in Bosnia. What was interesting was that one judge Prisca Matimba Nyambe from Zambia accepted Mladic’s defence that he acted for “humanitarian reasons”.
But I am sure that you are aware that your definition is not the full legal definition as determined by the United Nations.
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.Both these charges have been levelled at the Chinese Government, not as isolated events but systematic policy.
The originator of the word Raphael Lemkin defined genocide, a relatively new term to the English language, as follows:
“New conceptions require new terms. By ‘‘genocide” we mean the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group. This new word, coined by the author to denote an old practice in its modern development, is made from the ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin tide (killing), thus corresponding in its formation to such words as tyrannicide, homicide, infanticide, etc. Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. Genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group”
The UN further explains that genocidal acts include
Less obvious methods of destruction, such as the deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the group’s physical survival and which are available to the rest of the population, such as clean water, food and medical services;
Creation of circumstances that could lead to a slow death, such as lack of proper housing, clothing and hygiene or excessive work or physical exertion;
Programs intended to prevent procreation, including involuntary sterilization, forced abortion, prohibition of marriage and long-term separation of men and women;
Forcible transfer of children, imposed by direct force or through fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or other methods of coercion;
Death threats or ill treatment that causes disfigurement or injury; forced or coerced use of drugs or other treatment that damages health.The destruction of or attacks on cultural and religious property and symbols of the targeted group that may be designed to annihilate the historic presence of the group or groups;
Targeted elimination of community leaders and/or men and/or women of a particular age group (the ‘future generation’ or a military-age group);
Other practices designed to complete the exclusion of targeted group from social/political life.https://www.un.org/ar/preventgenocide/adviser/pdf/osapg_analysis_framework.pdf
So Joanne Smith Finlay’s description of a slow genocide and Zenz’s are if accurate in accordance with international law. China is not a member of the ICC and has refused admittance to any other independent investigatory team to directly verify these allegations
What grants him credibility is the accuracy of his research and I have seen little proof that he is mistaken in his conclusions that there is indeed a Chinese government policy to reduce the proportion of the Uyghur population in Xianyang.
And it is not racist nor a “yellow peril” trope to accuse the Chinese government of doing so even if some other political or religious currents may seek to take advantage of the situation for their own reasons.
But regardless of the ulterior motives of Zenz, is his research and conclusions credible? Or whether we rely upon the Chinese government-controlled CGTN and Global Times for accuracy in its denial claims? Are they more trustworthy sources?
So far the reports I have read have not questioned the findings of Zenz and as he uses publicly available sources, I’m sure it would be fairly easy to discredit him academically.
“Zenz’s research was accepted for publication by the Central Asian Survey, a quarterly academic journal, after peer review on June 3. Reuters shared the research and methodology with more than a dozen experts in population analysis, birth prevention policies and international human rights law, who said the analysis and conclusions were sound.”
Are we now in the field of conspiracy or do we simply acknowledge that there is a propaganda battle being played out and that one side is being deliberately deceptive?
I concur with YMS in his message
“It’s clear that meaningfully PRC is committing democide/genocide.”
He links to this study
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623528.2020.1848109A march by far-right nationalists and pro-settler groups through occupied East Jerusalem will go ahead.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/8/israel-to-allow-right-wing-march-through-jerusalems-old-city
So who is actually de-escalating tensions?
‘…Pursuit of a chimerical Palestinian state that, in any foreseeable political situation, is not going to be more than a collection of beleaguered Bantustans, has become a culpable diversion from seeking equal civil rights and personal security for Palestinians… Prolonged peaceful mobilisation of millions of Palestinians on the streets, wherever those streets may be, is their most powerful card and one which Israel would find it difficult to counter…As for the Palestinians, there are opportunities in the current turmoil, hobbled though they are by their useless leadership. This is not going to be displaced or relax its grip on formal power any time soon, but it could be bypassed. The best way forward for the Palestinians would be to establish a broad-based civil rights movement to mobilise their communities everywhere, using their great numbers to challenge systemic oppression and prevent further erosion of their rights’
Forget the Peace Process, the Focus Now Should be on Restoring Civil Rights to Palestinians
Even UK schoolbooks are subject to the Israeli version of events
I mentioned being cautious about the source. This Adrian Zenz appears to be the author of numerous damning reports on the Chinese Uyghur policy and does appear to possess his individual agenda being a born-again Christian but his research is judged to be reliable. So I don’t so readily dismiss it.
Sometimes propaganda happens to be based on real events.
You don’t doubt that regardless of the media manipulation from anti-China think-tanks, China has restricted and repressed pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong.
While we can recognise that political propaganda takes place, it doesn’t mean that the Uyghur people are not being persecuted using social engineering and it is a game-plan the Chinese have used decades before, purposefully re-locating ethnic Han Chinese into Tibet to change the demographics of the region.
Wherever and whenever fellow workers are oppressed, it is the concern of this website to draw attention to it, perhaps it is racial or religious or language or custom, we can discern that ultimately it is all about economic domination by a ruling class.
While trying to boost its birthrate, China tries to reduce the Uyghur future population.
Chinese birth control policies could cut between 2.6 to 4.5 million births of the Uyghur and other ethnic minorities in southern Xinjiang within 20 years, up to a third of the region’s projected minority population.
The only caveat is the researcher’s affiliation to the political bias ‘Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’
Paul Mattick Jnr’s take
https://brooklynrail.org/2021/06/field-notes/Both-Sides-Now
…There is in fact only one resolution to the problem — more properly, the social system — of exploitation, racism, war, inequality, and public corruption that Israel shares with every other nation of sufficient weight: the no-state solution. The function of each national state is to safeguard this social system of inequality and private property, with whatever local peculiarities ornament that structure. If you accept the system, you are stuck with the state…
