So I've been putting off writing this for a long time and it'll probably need to be a series, but I've had a difficult time answering challenges from my friends who assert that China is either a Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie or of the Bureaucracy (i.e. state capitalists), and that it's a competing imperialist power along with America (and they also say Russia but I can answer that one being stupid on my own).
The problem with China Discourse is that there is a serious paucity of sources dealing with nuanced critiques rather than just "debt trap!" bullshit or whatever, since the objections of liberals and the objections of smarter ultras are very different. At the very least, the sources dealing with this Discourse are less accessible to me.
But now I'm extremely bored and also recently saw Comrade Queermmunist's excellent rebuttal against the claim of China doing imperialism in the DRC, which gave me some hope that Hexbear would be able to answer some of these claims with something at least plausible.
The main objects of concern are the for-profit national businesses causing bureacratic class antagonism, foreign policy in the form of UN peacekeeping contributions, and straightforward imperialism at the base of its supply chain, along with miscellany like this:
https://newworker.us/international/chinas-stock-market-a-lesson-on-what-socialism-is-not/
I don't know, it's all a mess and putting off ideological work causes problems. If nothing else, let this be a practical lesson to you:
To let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument because he is an old acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a schoolmate, a close friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old subordinate. Or to touch on the matter lightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms. The result is that both the organization and the individual are harmed. This is one type of liberalism.
It catches up with you and makes things worse in the end.
It's pretty obvious that they're doing a much better job at handling capitalism for the people than the western capitalists, but it's debatable if this will ever stop being a necessary measure to achieve socialism or if China will slip to reaction and lose its socialist roots.
Things seem to be taking a positive direction but time will tell. It's interesting what new possibilities would open if China overtook the USA for good and starts influencing the western world more than the US. I believe it would be much more able to defend and spread socialism after having overpowered the imperialist leader at their own game, and so would the new socialist states that are yet to come.
I hope that this is the path they'll take and become fully socialist for good when the threat of counter revolution is smaller. I also don't have any idea of the material conditions that all the different parts of China have, it's possible that less developed parts of the country require capitalism temporarily in order to achieve the massive concentration of means of production and socialization of work that makes socialist revolution possible.