The Once and Future Dalai Lama

Well, his Eminence the Dalai Lama is back in the news. One lucky fella, jet-setting around the world, hobnobbing with Hollywood and Washington elites, mouthing pious platitudes about peace, justice and the American way while sipping Pinot Noir with the likes of Richard Gere.

Of course the Dalai Lama historically was the God-King of a theocratic feudalistic mountain Shangri-la lording over skeletal serfs and indentured monks set off in monastic solitude to serve his every want and need. But that was in the past. Hey he didn't know any better in his previous incarnations. But with all those CIA subsidies that have sustained him over the years, he can still see the light at the end of the tunnel and envision an enlightened theocracy for his imagined rule over "Greater Tibet." Meanwhile, his US mentors still relish the notion of a splintered Chinese Empire reduced to rump status by the spinning off of its recalcitrant frontier regions.

But you say those evil Chinese invaded and are still invading Tibet and taking their land out from under their feet. Well, Tibetans are found all over China, because they are just as Chinese as other ethnic groups. China is a multi-national country that has affirmative action programs for its minority people and freedom of movement for all Chinese to settle anywhere in their own country. Sound familiar?

Flashback to 1875. Let's relive our past in light of our concern for the Tibetan present. OK if you live west of the Mississippi pack your bags and go home, for that matter any person of European, African or Asian ancestry should return to their respective home continents. Its 1875 and we have for years actively settled the area west of the Mississippi with ethnic Europeans. And now we are laying new rail links to make further settlement easier and faster. At some point, the majority of the entire US population may consist of ethnic Europeans loyal to Washington. If this happens, there will never be a free America. At least according to the apologists for the Dali Lama if they are to be consistent in their beliefs.

In actual fact, the US could care less about the Tibetan people, they are just pawns in the great game of Real Politique between East and West, and now between China and India. India lurks in the shadows as it now sees China as its main rival for economic and political hegemony in South Asia. The West, particularly the US, would love to see the dismemberment of China as it becomes more and more of an economic and political competitor. If Tibet were to obtain independence, then the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang, traditionally inhabited by non-Han Turkic Muslims, would be next in line, leading to a situation similar to the breakup of the Soviet Union. That was the fond dream of western imperialism in 1989, when China was threatened with internal disintegration that was thwarted by the Chinese government’s unwavering response to the Tiananmen provocation.

Let there be no mistake, the call for Tibetan independence, the cultist Falun Gong movement, human rights campaigns and support for the arming of Taiwan, are all part and parcel of US attempts to destabilize, dismember and ultimately overthrow Chinese sovereignty leaving it as a rump state like Russia. China of course will have none of this and they would be incompetent fools if they acquiesced to these anti-China imprecations.

China is concerned about retaining Tibet as an integral part of the Chinese nation state primarily because of it strategic geo-political position. Throughout the 1950s and 60s first British and then US intelligence agencies recruited the Dalai Lama and his entourage to serve as a fifth column to probe China's sensitive southern flank. A western dominated Tibet would serve as a dagger directed at the heart of Chinese nationhood. Pro-independence Tibetans are no sweet innocents in all of this. They also have imperial ambitions. They believe in a "Greater Tibet" which includes not only Tibet proper but also the Chinese province of Qinghai, and portions of Yunnan, Gansu and Sichuan where there are outposts of Tibetan people.


China is, however, a self-avowed multinational country with provisions made for the autonomy of its national minorities. The Chinese constitution guarantees its minorities protection for their national identities, cultural traditions, and language as part of the family of nations that make up the People’s Republic of China. If these rights are not fully recognized and implemented it is the duty of the Chinese people of all ethnicities to see that they are. That is an internal problem for the Chinese people to solve without outside intervention, just as the denial of democratic rights to minorities in the US has been and still is a problem for the US people, not the Chinese, to solve.

The Chinese people take the principled stand of non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations. Would that we followed their lead and retreated from our interventions in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Latin America and other regions of the world were we meddle in muddied waters to enforce our economic and political hegemony.

So if we are not prepared to return New Mexico, Arizona and California to the Mexicans, lands that we conquered and whose deeds we stole (and yes they should return their land in turn to the Hopi and other native people who had a spiritual civilization on a par with Tibetans) we should hold our tongues. Remember, we came and displaced the original inhabitants of the US. So go back east you men, both young and old, over the great waters, back to the continents from whence you came, and take your wives, mistresses and kids with you.

The Obama Debacle

Like most people of good will I was hoping that Obama would actually implement some of the changes he campaigned on. I never had any illusions about his ultimate political stance, he was and is after all a typical neo-liberal Democrat, but I thought that the times and emerging Progressive sentiments would force him to accommodate to the electoral base that elected him. I was, like so many others, quite moved by his ascension to the “throne.” It was, after all, a remarkable event. Nevertheless, I, like many others, was quickly disabused of our lingering illusions with his administration’s caving in to Wall Street interests and Health Care moguls. His political acumen, which many thought was his ace up the sleeve, has turned out to be not quite as astute as some had imagined. He has in fact facilitated, with the exponential growth of the Tea Party movement, the re-emergence of some of the most rabid elements in the American body politic to be seen in more than half a century. Now there is talk of a “course correction” to salvage whatever political capital he has left. Don’t hold your breath.

The great fallacy here is of course the two party system, with each party representing contending elements of the corporate elite. Whatever reforms are implemented are the crumbs that the ruling class deems sufficient to quell the discontent generated by decades of economic decline, foreign wars, a disintegrating domestic infrastructure and plummeting living standards. So far to no avail. The American people are thus faced with a ridiculous conundrum, either accept the half-hearted reforms that the Democrats have to offer, or show their displeasure by voting for the jingoistic opposition party even though they’ve been thoroughly discredited and rejected by the self same electorate.

The bankruptcy of the two party bourgeois democratic electoral system should be manifest for all to see, but we’ve been in this political cul de sac for far too long and most of us are inured to its failures. The high tide of the resurgent progressive movement will assuredly quickly recede as centrist Democrats will quickly accuse progressives of pushing the party too far to the left. This of course will only increase the cynicism of the electoral base (minorities, the young, anti-war activists and anti-corporatists) that helped elect Obama in the first place, deflect from their participation in the 2010 mid-term elections and lead to the Democrats being in an ever more precarious political position that plays right into the hands of the Republicans. So much for the Obama “revolution.”

Of course, neither the Democrats nor Republicans will fill the economic hole that we find ourselves in. As our economy stagnates and China’s continues to surge ahead, we will eventually have to face the fact that fundamental change in our socio-economic and political system needs to occur if we are ever again to meet the basic needs of the American people.

More thoughts on Socialism in China

The following is a comment I posted at the Marxist-Leninist website in August 2008

I’m glad to find this tread. I haven’t seen much discussion of the political economy of China from a Marxist perspective on the web. As far as I can tell most socialists and communists of every imaginable stripe see modern China as nothing but the supreme example of class betrayal, a bureaucratically deformed anti-proletarian, autocratic, authoritarian, one-party state capitalist monstrosity. No one seems to be able to put China into its proper context.

The fall of the Soviet Union was due to many factors, too numerous to discuss in this comment. The subsequent implosion of the eastern bloc was due to many of the same factors plus the whole question of nationalism, which became of overriding concern. China’s revolution was not imposed or imported from abroad. It was a completely indigenous development and it freed China from bondage to the West. China became a free agent and could finally determine its own destiny. Like a geopolitical Rip Van Winkle China awoke to the mid-twentieth century “Cold War” and had to respond to that reality. It had to take sides and given the political tenor of the times Mao put out his famous tract, “On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship”, that called for leaning to one side, the Soviet side, in the contention between the capitalist and socialist blocs. This set the tone for the first decade of the PRC, but the contradictions between the Soviet Union’s attempt to impose its geopolitical control on the socialist bloc and the needs of China to reassert its national interests sharpened, particularly after the de-Stalinization initiated by Khrushchev.

Why was de-Stalinization anathema to the PRC? Primarily because Mao understood that in order for China to amass capital through the process of primitive accumulation, the harsh marshal, collectivist practices of Stalin were necessary. Mao mobilized the revolutionary ardor of the Chinese masses to remake China as quickly as possible. It was of course at times an extremely wasteful, if not brutal but heroic period. It can also be argued that it was absolutely essential for the eventual triumph of the Chinese revolution and revival of the Chinese nation.

Primitive communist accumulation could not however go on forever as it had served its historic purpose. In little more than two decades the basic infrastructure for China’s resurgence had been laid. How else could China have had its remarkable economic growth rate over the last three decades if it had not been for the selfless efforts of its workers and peasants during the period of initial reconstruction? If China had followed the lead of Khrushchev and renounced Stalin, it would have meant a capitulation to the Soviets and made China’s development subservient to the demands of Soviet leadership. It would have spelled doom for the independent action of the CPC, its transformation into an appendage of the Soviet state and party apparatus and its eventual demise as occurred throughout the Eastern bloc of nations.

With the changing balance of power that resulted from the Sino-Soviet split and the consolidation of the Chinese Revolution by Mao the stage was set for a rapprochement with the US. Why did Mao endorse it? Mao must have known that this rapprochement would lay the essential groundwork for the next stage of the Chinese Revolution, the transition from primitive communist accumulation of capital to all around capital construction and modernization under the aegis of the socialist market economy, allowing for the socialized extraction of super profits from the working classes.

This is a necessary stage for the rapid, all around development of the productive forces and an essential condition for the eventual transition to true socialist relations of production based on advanced capitalist production capacity. For this transitional period to succeed, without the reversion to thoroughgoing revanchist capitalism as in Russia, the CPC needs to retain its leading role as the guarantor of the people’s democratic dictatorship, which is an alliance of all patriotic classes including workers, peasants, the petite bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie.

China at present is going through a period of capitalist development under the leadership of the CPC, not capitalist restoration as in Russia. This is an entirely new phenomenon and has led to a remarkably sustained growth rate. It has also led to all the contradictions of capitalist development, including the extraction of super profits from the peasantry and working class, but under the direction and aegis of the CPC. This is not to be condemned but commended.

Why do I say this? Because under unfettered capitalism this process of capital accumulation and construction was accomplished by hundreds of years of colonialism, genocide, slavery, and imperialist war that resulted in the death of untold millions upon millions of people and the impoverishment of hundreds of millions more. China has accomplished this process of accumulation and construction by using both foreign and domestic capitalism to develop the means of production at an unprecedented rate without the horrors that accompanied that process in the West..

The task for the CPC is to manage this transitional process in such a manner that it will lead to the full blown socialization of the advanced capitalist productive forces as envisioned by Marx . This must be accompanied by the growth of an advanced and democratized civil society founded on but superceding the bourgeoisie democracy of the West, again as envisioned by Marx. This will be the next stage in the development of socialism in China for only with the thorough democratization of society can true socialism be achieved, allowing the party and state to become superfluous.

This is not to say that class struggle is not occurring in China today. It is actually extremely acute. The question is will the CPC retain control and lead the nation to socialism based on advanced forces and relations of production or will the forces of capitalism so unleashed run amuck and lead to revanchist capitalist restoration as in the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe?

What is 21st Century Socialism?

A recent diary at Daily KOS calls on progressives to raise high the banner of "Socialism" as a winning political strategy. Unfortunately we've been immunized against "socialism" by nearly 100 years of propaganda. Why hit our heads against a brick wall? Rather than campaigning for "socialism" progressives should advocate for its underlying tenets. These can be put into pragmatic and realizable terms as follows:

1. Thoroughgoing political democracy,
2. Comprehensive social democracy and,
3. All around economic democracy

To elaborate, I would evaluate the status of these three democracies at present as follows:

1. Political democracy: Currently we have at best partial, adulterated political democracy. The two party system thwarts political expression and moneyed interests subvert the electoral process. Public financing and other reforms that open up the political process to average citizens are essential for establishing true political democracy. There are, of course, profound inequalities in the structure of our political democracy including the over-representation of small states in the Senate and the Electoral College that are at present unlikely to be changed without a constitutional convention. The latter is not, however, on anyone's radar.

2. Social democracy: Social democracy in the US is underdeveloped and in need of a complete revision and full implementation. Health Care Reform is a major front in expanding social democracy domestically. Free universal higher education, a total overhaul of our "criminal injustice system," and many other reforms are needed to make social democracy a reality in our country. Expansion of social democracy has been the modus operandi of Social Democratic parties in Europe and elsewhere for generations and is a hallmark of our Democratic Party. It was also implemented in the Soviet bloc before its collapse. The only guarantor of social democracy, however, is fully functioning political and economic democracy. Otherwise social democracy will be partial and subject to erosion or dismantlement.

3. Economic democracy: Economic democracy is virtually non-existent in our country. In order to have economic democracy there is a crying need for re-unionization of the work force, changes in the tax code making it more progressive, total overhaul of the banking and financial sectors, depersonalization of corporations with corporate boards composed of all social and economic stake-holders, the establishment of new forms of co-operative and communal ownership, and any number of other reforms too numerous to list here. Included under economic democracy are environmental laws and regulations to preserve the ecological commons that is our natural birthright (clean air and water, protection of natural resources, alternative energy sources, efforts to avert climate change, etc.)

In summary I would say we have partial political democracy, inadequate social democracy and woefully underdeveloped economic democracy, other than some essential environmental laws and regulations. We need to convince the electorate that political democracy without social and economic democracy is a sham, that an expansion of social democracy cannot be implemented without enhancing political and economic democracy and that economic democracy is the ultimate arbiter of both political and social democracy.

When socialism is attempted without political democracy, the economic democracy which is predicated on state ownership of the means of production devolves into oligarchic ownership of the means of production as in the late Soviet and post Soviet eras. This ultimately leads to the suspension of social democracy. When social democracy is implemented without economic democracy there are constant attempts to circumscribe and eliminate social benefits. When political democracy is practiced without social and economic democracy it becomes a playground for special interests. The three democracies are therefore co-dependent on one another and need to be fought for concurrently.

An all around campaign for the full implementation of these "three democracies" can serve as a clarion call for real political, social and economic change, couched in terms that Americans can understand and which represents in essence what "socialism" in the 21st century should be about.

China's Emerging Environmental Awareness

China bashers may scoff, but the PRC is beginning to take environmentalism seriously. Remember it took us decades to develop an environmental conscience and we still have a long way to go. In comparison the advance of environmental thinking in China is moving ahead at breakneck speed. This is happening with the formation of citizen action groups (both governmentally and non-governmentally sponsored), the development of a legal framework to litigate environmentally oriented lawsuits, a new interest in greening the economy by industrial enterprises and government oversight of environmental issues and concerns a la our EPA.

Some examples follow:

BEIJING, Dec. 18, 2009 (AP) -- An environmental group backed by the government said Friday it had won two lawsuits on behalf of residents threatened by pollution, marking the first time such an organization has been allowed to file a public interest case. (read more…)

BEIJING, Dec. 31, 2009 (UPI) -- With the world's highest level of greenhouse gas emissions and the largest market in the world by floor space, building "green" is becoming the architectural trend in China. (read more…)

BEIJING, Dec. 29, 2009 (Xinhua) -- China is speeding up construction of a system for environmental management to handle emergent environmental incidents, an official said on Tuesday. (read more…)

BEIJING, Dec 31, 2009 (WSJ) -- Chinese entrepreneurs and private citizens are starting to become more active in trying to address concerns over global warming, a nascent trend that could have significant long-term impact on the ability of the world's largest greenhouse-gas emitter to curb its effects on the climate. The shift is most pronounced among a small-but-growing group of private business executives, who are adjusting their business practices and helping to spread awareness more broadly among the public. (read more…)

Beijing, Dec. 9, 2009 (Bloomberg) -- Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, set new environmental and power standards for steelmakers and threatened closures to curb pollution and overcapacity. (read more…)

There are many more examples that could be cited, but the above articles convey the gist of what is happening. As China gears up its economy to advance alternative fuel consumption and energy conservation let's hope it becomes part of the solution to global environmental degradation rather than part of the problem.

China's Economy Booming while US Stagnates

Well the doomsayers and naysayers regarding China's ability to withstand the economic downturn have been proved wrong again. The latest stats show that China's measured response to changing economic realities has been a resounding success. This once again proves that China's pragmatic approach to socialist economic development is a net plus for its citizens. The AP reports as follows:

An index of China's manufacturing rose in December, expanding at its fastest rate in 20 months amid heavy government economic stimulus, an industry group reported Friday.

The state-sanctioned China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said its monthly purchasing managers index, or PMI, rose to 56.6 on a 100-point scale, compared with 55.2 in November. Numbers above 50 show manufacturing activity expanding. It was the biggest month-to-month expansion since last March, when the PMI rose to 52.4 from 49 in the previous month.

The rising index "shows the situation of China's economy is stable and the recovery has been further consolidated," a government economist, Zhang Liqun, said in a statement issued by the federation.

China is attempting to shift its manufacturing from an export-oriented strategy to one that emphasizes increased domestic consumption. This has the potential to make China the new economic engine of the world not only in manufacturing goods and supplying services but also in consumption, The US consumer has been the economic engine of the world economy for 50 years, soon to be replaced by the burgeoning middle class Chinese consumer. The hundreds of millions of Chinese who still live in relative rural poverty will be a boon to the Chinese economy as their incomes and expectations rise. They are the new consumers that will serve as a reserve for Chinese economic expansion for decades to come.

The AP story goes on :

Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus program has helped boost growth by pumping money into the economy through spending on public works projects. Economic growth rose to 8.9 percent from a year earlier in the quarter ending in September and the World Bank is forecasting 8.4 percent growth for all of 2009. Premier Wen Jiabao, the country's top economic official, told the government's Xinhua News Agency on Sunday that Beijing will continue its relaxed monetary policies in 2010 rather than drastically withdraw its stimulus.

Jing Ulrich, head of China equities at J.P. Morgan, said in a report that "we expect China's strong economic growth momentum to continue in 2010, with the major source of growth coming from a broad-based improvement in private consumption, and further strengthening in private housing investment, and a solid recovery in exports."
China's PMI index hit 59.2 in April 2008.

Economists see the PMI as a better measure of future economic activity than gross domestic product because it contains forward-looking information such as new orders. The Chinese federation's survey is based on responses from managers who oversee purchasing for some 700 Chinese companies.

So its clear that the Chinese economy is booming, wages are higher and living standards are rising. They are good socialists using capitalist economic tactics to integrate into the world market. The Soviet Union failed because they tried to go it alone and produce an alternative world market (the Soviet Bloc). Their strategy was ahistorical and doomed to failure. A socialist economy afloat in a capitalist sea must accommodate to economic reality and engage in world trade to succeed, so why not use capitalistic techniques in competing with your capitalist rivals while building your internal economy along socialist lines. Of course capitalist economic levers also need to be employed domestically for the length of the transition period to developed socialism all within the context of socialist economic development. The Chinese are employing a pragmatic versus ideological approach to Marxism.

China is, however, not immune to the ills of capitalist economic development. If you decide to use capitalist economic techniques and levers to spur socialist construction (a la the NEP and Bukharinism in the Soviet Union) you have to accept the downside as well. The Chinese have had many such bubbles and know how to deal with them by manipulating the banking system, interest rates and lending. They are not naive when it comes to regulating real estate booms and busts. There is a degree of over construction as is to be expected. But over the last decade China has built and continues to build a super highway system like our interstate highways, they are expanding their high speed rail network and doing many other capital improvements. There is plenty of work to be done in China for decades to come to raise living standards, improve environmental protections, etc., etc., etc. starting in the big coastal urban ares, spreading inward to the big industrial centers like Wuhan and then permeating into small and medium sized cities and rural communities

So all you China bashers - don’t cry your alligator tears. Just because China is doing what’s right for its continued economic and social development and we’re not doesn’t give us cause to criticize. It should give us pause to reflect on our own shortcomings.

Back on-line

This blog has been inactive for over a year. During that time I had some health issues but I'm doing fine now. Hope to begin posting again soon. Topics about which I most frequently blog include China, atheism, humanism, penal reform and American politics from an independent Marxist perspective.