"michael a. lebowitz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Dear Eric,
Good to hear of your existence. Actually, I do follow events in China and
am familiar with Deng's innovations and the subsequent 'one represents'
arguments. (In fact, I think most analysts outside the country know about
this.) It would be interesting to know if you are aware of the work of list
member Martin Hart-Landsberg on China and what you think of it.
best wishes,
michael
Hi Michael,
Thanks for your quick reply! How are you? I'm happy to hear from you. I
hope you read my article carefully, because despite your statement of
familiarity, there are elements here which I frequently miss in articles by
western world observers.
I'd like to begin our dialogue with the observation that my experience with
western world observors of China, progressive and non-progressive alike, is
much like what you reported from Venezuela:
"To outside observers who get their facts from the bourgeois media it would
seem that Chavez is going "too fast". But the ordinary working people of
Venezuela are demanding immediate action. They live in such conditions that
they can wait no longer.
I get questions like this regularly from friends who don't know much about
Venezuela but do know what they don't like (from reading the always unbiased
and objective capitalist press). Of course, I'm not alone in this respect:
others here get the same questions from outside: How can Chavez do this? How
can you justify this?"
I live permanetly in China, am married to a Chinese person, and am close to
the Chinese people. In my experience it has been almost impossible to convey
the reality of China and its programs to western world people who don't live
here. In a separate post I'll send you a short article detailing the
incredible filtering of Chinese reality by western world media.
Here I want to mention a number of other ponts to illustrate what may not be
clear to outsiders:
1. The communist party of China, which I will be a member of shortly, *is* a
communsit party. It participates - as an important member - in the annual
world conference of socialist and workers party's which was held this year in
Belarush. We are in the first stage of socialist construction and are using a
mixed economy to do so. Vietnam has also completely adopted Deng Xiao Ping
Theory type approach to socialist development, and Venezuela is on the same
general path. Both of these countries have close relationships with China and
if China is not a socialist country then neither are they!
2. Someone in the list mentioned that he is 'skeptical' about the possibility
that China can achieve a 'green socialism' or that it can use its economic
development to 'lift 100's of millions (of peasents) out of poverty'. In fact
this kind of success has been achieved here for some time. Much is made in
China - and abroad - of the income disparity between urban and rural people in
China, and about the difference between income levels of East coast Chinese and
those living in the western provinces. This income disparity is a serious
issue which is being strongly addressed in the new 'project to build a new
socialist countryside' which for the past two years has been bringing medical
insurance, modern medical systems, free public school education, the end of
rural income taxes on farm income, and much more to 1 billion Chinese farmers.
(note: This year our medical insurance program will be rolled out to all
Chinese people in countryside and the cities, after
experimentation in several rural areas.)
What I want to stress here, however, is that while there is an income
disparity, the *absolute* income level, and level of standard of living
throughout almost all of China's countryside has risen astronomically in the
past 25 years. While not rising as fast as the cities, it's currently rising
at about 5% or 6% per year.
Here I want to tell the story of a typical woman from the province of Inner
Mongolia Her farther worked as a rural school teacher and her mother was a
farmer and her grandmother provided childcare for the family. The family was
so poor in this woman's early childhood that they could not afford rice but had
to live on mashed up corn, and they were better off than their neighbours1
They had no electricity, no indoor toilet or modern plumbing, no TV, no modern
heating system, little access to modern medical care. Eating out in a
restaurant or other things North Americans take for granted was beyond
imagination.
Fast-forward to 2008: Now the family lives in a modern apartment. They have
electricity, TV, radio, access to medical care, plenty of delicious food, can
eat out in restaurants, and have managed to send both daughters through
univerity.
This story is the story of my wife Chen Chen, but it is also the story of
`100's of millions of Chinese peasent families, who have been raised up by Deng
Xiao Ping Theory.
4. For those interested in trade unions, new labour laws enacted this year
have given our unions real muscle for the first time and a massive
unionizaation drive is taking place throughout the country. The U.S.-China
chamber of commerce, and the multinationals have resisted but unionizationis
proceeding apace. One target is have all, or nearly all, of the foreign
companies unonized, for which the unionization of wallmart here was a
successful test case. Our 200 million Migrant workers are also being brought
into unions as well as workers in ordinary Chinese government and private
companies. A new contract law will require that all workers in the country be
covered by written labour contracts with their employers to ensure transparency
and honesty in worker-employer relations.
5. On wage levels, urban workers wages effecting 300 million city dwellers
plus 200 million migrant workers have shot up this year. A factory or service
sector worker who earned 3 RMB a year or two ago may be earning around 5 RMB or
even 7 now. This increase results from new minimum wage laws in the various
provinces and cities motivated by the new government emphasis on 'sharing the
wealth' plus new policies designed to boost domestic consumption to balance
out, and reduce reliance on, export trade.
6. On green china, hundreds of polluting and high-energy wasting factories
across China have been closed last year and more are being closed down daily.
New anti-pollution regulations are in place. Large-scale investment in clean
energy technology and research is also taking place, and much else is being
done, including very large projects involving construction - from the ground up
- of the world's first four eco-cities, with full recycling and super energy
efficiency planned in from the beginning.
7. Chinese people say: "Travelling thousands of miles is better than reading
thousands of books." To understand contemporary China, the best way is to live
here for as long as possible. In addition, studying 'the theory of scientific
development' which I beleive to be the most advanced theory available for third
world development will pay dividends.
8. All Chinese school children learn Deng Xiao Ping Theory and Marxism. My
wife was therefore dumbfounded when I told her that many people living outside
China in places like the U.S. think that capitalism is the final result of the
world process and that communism is impossible. "You mean there are people who
don't know about this," she said incredulously. She had thought that everyone
knew that the end of the world process is communism.
All the best from Beijng, Eric Sommer
"True development puts first those that society puts last."
-Mahatma Gandhi
"Dare to be naive."
- Buckminster Fuller
"Work for the world."
- Karl Marx
"A loving heart: In all the world this state of mind is best."
- ADM CEO
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