tl;dr - China is communist in name only. The reality is rampant capitalism with a bunch of whitewashers running around trying to keep it looking not entirely filthy. Also, when I say "China" I mean the mainland specifically. I can write about Taiwan, HK and Macau if you want but they're entirely different.
Based on my observations over the past year, the reality here is a much closer to caste-based feudalism than socialism. There's a hereditary monarchy and aristocracy (The Party) that has political control over a vast authoritarian government that is most concerned with looking good for Beijing. If you weren't born into a family that's already a part of The Party, then you'll never be able to be more than a minor functionary.
(source: My best friend is a minor Party functionary. When I suggested that she try to improve her rank within the party by working her own guanxi, she gave me a withering look and said (almost verbatim) "That might work in a company. I forgive [your ignorance] because you're a foreigner.")
For everyone else, it's a land of hypercapitalism where almost every man, woman and child spends their lives trying to make money at any cost.
If you're not one of the lucky ones born into the party then you might have been lucky enough to have been born into a rich merchant family. These scions live their lives in the same way that rich in any country do; they spend ridiculous amounts of money on lifestyle for no other purpose than peer acceptance.
The middle class compete in a hyper-pressure environment to go through 15 years of school and come out with a degree in a subject that was selected by their academic success, rather than any personal desire on how they'd like to contribute to society. Some then choose to chase a public service job, or some kind of professional job (bank worker, teacher, etc).
For the rural folk, there's little to no chance of bettering their lives. They don't have the money to get decent education and so will have trouble getting any kind of good job. My Chinese sister and her family are rural folk from Sichuan. They've moved to rural Taizhou now. Her husband is a lucky one who has a job in an office. They spent a considerable chunk of the family budget on sending my sister to an English college so she could get a job doing foreign trade. She's now working 9 hours a day, 13 days in 14, selling paper products overseas. They live in half a rented rural house with my sister's inlaws. No fridge, no TV, no air-conditioning. 10 minutes drive away is the airport. 20 mins drive away is the town centre, full of its rich scions with their BMW's and Audis, spending 10000 RMB a night getting drunk on imported liquor, making a KTV owner (often the brother of a person of local power (party or govt)) very privately wealthy.
Don't talk with authority on things you know nothing about.
[–] KidQuantum ago
Actually I have. It's communist but please, show us how China isn't communist.
Then I'll explain how the Communist Party of China, currently running the country, would disagree.
[–] pwn [S] ago
tl;dr - China is communist in name only. The reality is rampant capitalism with a bunch of whitewashers running around trying to keep it looking not entirely filthy. Also, when I say "China" I mean the mainland specifically. I can write about Taiwan, HK and Macau if you want but they're entirely different.
Based on my observations over the past year, the reality here is a much closer to caste-based feudalism than socialism. There's a hereditary monarchy and aristocracy (The Party) that has political control over a vast authoritarian government that is most concerned with looking good for Beijing. If you weren't born into a family that's already a part of The Party, then you'll never be able to be more than a minor functionary.
(source: My best friend is a minor Party functionary. When I suggested that she try to improve her rank within the party by working her own guanxi, she gave me a withering look and said (almost verbatim) "That might work in a company. I forgive [your ignorance] because you're a foreigner.")
For everyone else, it's a land of hypercapitalism where almost every man, woman and child spends their lives trying to make money at any cost.
If you're not one of the lucky ones born into the party then you might have been lucky enough to have been born into a rich merchant family. These scions live their lives in the same way that rich in any country do; they spend ridiculous amounts of money on lifestyle for no other purpose than peer acceptance.
The middle class compete in a hyper-pressure environment to go through 15 years of school and come out with a degree in a subject that was selected by their academic success, rather than any personal desire on how they'd like to contribute to society. Some then choose to chase a public service job, or some kind of professional job (bank worker, teacher, etc).
For the rural folk, there's little to no chance of bettering their lives. They don't have the money to get decent education and so will have trouble getting any kind of good job. My Chinese sister and her family are rural folk from Sichuan. They've moved to rural Taizhou now. Her husband is a lucky one who has a job in an office. They spent a considerable chunk of the family budget on sending my sister to an English college so she could get a job doing foreign trade. She's now working 9 hours a day, 13 days in 14, selling paper products overseas. They live in half a rented rural house with my sister's inlaws. No fridge, no TV, no air-conditioning. 10 minutes drive away is the airport. 20 mins drive away is the town centre, full of its rich scions with their BMW's and Audis, spending 10000 RMB a night getting drunk on imported liquor, making a KTV owner (often the brother of a person of local power (party or govt)) very privately wealthy.
Don't talk with authority on things you know nothing about.