It would be odd if we did not recognise one of the most important events of the history of the 20th century, which has influenced the pattern of world politics ever since. The Chinese revolution was a major blow against imperialism in what had been a semi-colonial semi-feudal country. The Chinese Communist Party described the political system from 1949 as "New Democracy". Is China now socialist? What are the relevant issues to answer this question? Western journalists seem to touch on this superficially and give an impression that because China is not egalitarian and because individual capitalists exist in China, the country is not socialist. I do not think these are fundamentally the decisive questions. Nor is inward investment by overseas capital. Nor is the level of corruption, nor the fairly common use of the death penalty, nor general intolerance of homosexuality, nor infringements of socialist democracy in areas like Tibet which may restrict the right of nations to self-determination. In the era of imperialism what is decisive is whether finance capitalism is dominant. I am not persuaded that it is in China today. I am also persuaded by Barkley that the town and village enterprise sector of the economy is larger and more vibrant than western financial journalists report (no doubt because at best they are looking for investment opportunities in more established companies). At its most coherent, the Chinese Communist Party essentially argues that the move to socialism in the 1950's was premature, and that China needed a mixed economy for a long period of time. The parallel argument for the Soviet Union would be that the scenario that Lenin painted in "On Cooperation", really his last substantial theoretical article, written in 1923, should have been extended for half a century at least and probably a century. The time span might arguably be dependent on the speed of socialist revolution in other parts of the world. The issue is whether revolutions like those in Russian and China can safely and quickly draw on traditions of peasant communism to leap to a socialist or semi-communist political system without the means of production and the cultural level of the population developing to roughly the level at which a capitalist economy could change to socialist economy. In asking "Is China socialist?" we also have to consider whether there can be a clear cut answer. Most economies in history have mixtures of different ways of exchanging products of labour. A marxist analysis should try to identify the dominant mode but that may be finely balanced and the answer may depend on which aspect is primarily considered. I think I would say that in a world dominated by imperialism and finance capital China is clearly a major anti-imperialist force and is not itself dominated by finance capital. I think I would say its economy is at least semi-socialist. Undoubtedly there are be strong views on this question. I hope by emphasising the issues of what questions we ask, and how we answer them, any debate about this important anniversary would be in line with the moderators wishes for this list and can be engaged and constructive. Chris Burford London