Is China a communist, totalitarian country?

[brien]

Here is the official Chinese Communist Party's own website written by their own members:

Chinese Communist Party, Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded on July 1, 1921 in Shanghai, China. After 28 years of struggle, the CPC finally won victory of "new-democratic revolution" and founded the People's Republic of China in 1949. The CPC is the ruling party of mainland China (P.R. China).

The Communist Party of China is founded mainly on ideology and politics. The CPC derives its ideas and policies from the people's concentrated will and then turns that will into State laws and decisions which are passed by the National People's Congress of China through the State's legal procedures. Theoretically, CPC does not take the place of the government in the State's leadership system. The Party conducts its activities within the framework of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the law and has no right to transcend the Constitution and the law. All Party members, like all citizens in the country, are equal before the law.

The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, held in December 1978, decided to shift the focus of the Party's work to socialist modernization and set a policy of reform and opening up to the outside world.

Any Chinese who has reached the age of 18, accepts the Party's Program and Constitution and is willing to join and work actively in one of the Party organizations, carry out the Party's decisions and pay membership dues regularly, may apply for membership of the CPC. Its membership increased from 70 in 1921 to over 66 million in 2002.

The highest leading body of the Party is the National Congress and the Central Committee elected by it. The National Congress of the Party is held once every five years and convened by the Central Committee

.

I think it is plain as day that the Chinese consider themselves a country ruled by the Communist Party.

As far as being a totalitarian government, I dare anyone to go over there and disagree with the party line. You will disappear immediately and if you are a citizen, you will be thrown into prison as were the activists at Tiananmen Square.

Totalitarian China

China is most definitely a totalitarian state. It has visited unspeakable
atrocities on the poeple of Tibet, and it continues to do so. Deforestation,
torture and murder are commonplace. Tibetans, who as a result of a Chinese
invasion are now a minority, are routinely forbidden to practice their
religion.

The genocide of the Tibetans and the destruction of their culture rivals the
horrors of the Holocaust. But this remains largely ignored, perhaps
deliberately, by the type of money-loving people described in the article who
are eager to do business with China. The lure of profit that China dangles in
front the world indeed masks a "new form of economic imperialism."

CNN In-Depth Specials - Visions of China - Red Giant: Labor camps reinforce China's totalitarian rule

Labor camps reinforce China's totalitarian rule

Wu

But the longing for freedom and democracy persists
By Harry Wu

(CNN) -- Communism in China can be roughly divided into two separate phases, one "the Mao era" and the other "the Deng era."

In some respects, Mao and Deng were different in their means, modes and methods of rule. Deng, for example, allowed for much greater economic liberalization than Mao, and it has provided for advancement and a rise in the average standard of living.

COUNTERPOINT:
Lies will collapse on themselves

On a more fundamental scale, however, the two eras differ very little.

The nation has remained consistently under the absolute control of the Communist Party. Today's rulers clearly and continually maintain that they have no intention or inclination of giving up totalitarian control of the Chinese people.


Inmates work at a Beijing prison

Despite this totalitarianism, the spirit of those who long for freedom and democracy persists. Some people have taken a stand for freedom in events such as the Tiananmen protests of 1989, in the formation of political dissent groups such as the Chinese Democratic Party, and in religious activities by such groups as the Falun Gong sect and the underground church.

Oppression and infringement
Because of their beliefs and convictions, these people face oppression and serious infringement upon their basic human rights.

At the core of such human rights abuses in China today lies a systemized mechanism known as the Laogai that exists for the purpose of crushing human beings physically, psychologically and spiritually.

This system of at least 1,100 known forced-labor camps is driven by hard-line ideology, Communist Party directives and the whims of local cadres. It is designed as a repressive mechanism to control and, in effect, eliminate anyone whose political, religious or societal views differ from those of the Communist Party.


Chinese prison scene

The Laogai is not simply a prison system; it is a political tool for maintaining the Communist Party's totalitarian rule. A fundamental policy of the Laogai states that "forced labor is a means toward the goal of thought reform."

Communist economic theory maintains that human beings are the first and most basic productive force of a nation. Prisoners of course are not excluded.

They must be utilized as part of this productive force and must submit to Communist authorities. Submission is often achieved through violence, but psychological and spiritual submissiveness known as "thought reform" is considered the optimal goal.

Organ harvesting
As the Laogai crushes the human spirit and often tortures the human body, it also becomes an integral part of the Chinese economy through the sale and even export of products made in forced labor camps.


The execution notice of an inmate caught trying to escape is posted at a Beijing prison

Prisoners who receive the death sentence in China also become potential resources of government profit through a policy of organ harvesting known as the "provisional regulation on the use of executed prisoners' corpses and organs," which was passed on October 9, 1984.

Chinese officials admit that by 1996 around 20,000 kidneys already had been harvested from executed prisoners. The party, judicial and penal officials and even doctors perpetuate these inexcusable crimes through propaganda claiming "concern for the welfare of patients needing transplants" and "productive use of an otherwise wasted resource."

Throughout history, countless despots have killed millions for political, religious and racial offenses. In massiveness of scale, number of victims and cruelty of methods, the atrocities of the Chinese Communist authorities are no less significant and repulsive than those of any despot, including Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot.

Moreover, the Chinese Communists do what no other regime has done with its program of organ harvesting.

Barrier to peace and democracy
History scornfully remembers the crimes of Hitler in Germany and of Stalin in the Soviet Union. In China, a system exists today that is strikingly similar to those of Hitler and Stalin, and it is the Laogai, the world's most extensive system of forced labor camps.

MESSAGE BOARD:
Do you agree with the opinion you just read? Tell us your thoughts.

We cannot condemn the evil actions of the Nazi concentration camps and the Soviet Gulag while we ignore the continuing brutality of the Laogai.

The Laogai is the barrier for all those who strive to promote human rights and democracy in China. Most of the human rights abuses that are reported in China today occur in the Laogai. If you disagree with these human rights abuses you must confront the Laogai. If you wish to effectively promote human rights and democracy in China and to rid China of communist totalitarianism, you must also condemn the Laogai

I think it is fairly evident that many people in the Free world still consider China both a Communist State supported by a totalitarian government. Indeed the Chinese themselves, admit their country is run by the Communist Party. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either a Communist apologist or very mistaken.

[shrike]

Please, elaborate if you expect to be taken seriously.

What here to elaborate??Communism can not be implemented in human society end of story.

[RickSp]

Excuse me if this is a diversion, but I think it relates to the topic at hand.

Chinese Legislature Passes Landmark Laws

China's legislature passed a milestone property law Friday strengthening protection for private businesses and property and also revised a tax law to cut out preferential rates for foreign companies.

The property law was passed in a vote of 2,799 delegates in favor with 52 opposed and 37 abstaining on the final day of the annual two-week session of the National People's Congress.

The property law had been strongly opposed by a small but highly influential group of scholars and retired communist officials, who called it a threat to the state's guiding role and a vehicle for unrestrained privatization that will feed a growing income gap between rich and poor.

The new tax measure was approved by a vote was 2,826 in favor, with 37 opposed and 22 abstentions.

Such opposition and the communist leaderships ambivalence about reducing the primacy of state property caused the law to be kicked around for 14 years before a final version was submitted this year.

The property law intends to offer the same protection for private and public property, a recognition of the private sector's rise since the start of economic reforms in the late 1970s. The private sector, including foreign investment, has grown to account for 65 percent of gross national product and up to 70 percent of tax revenues.

With private investment representing 65% of the economy, it is hard to argue that China is still "communist" in any real sense. On the other hand opposition by leftists has delayed the passage of this law by 14 years.

It is difficult to characterize exactly what China may or may not be. It is clearly an ongoing struggle for the Chinese to define as well.

[Osborn F Enready]

Rick said:
With private investment representing 65% of the economy, it is hard to argue that China is still "communist" in any real sense.

How strong was Venezuelas laws for protecting private property investments and industry before Hugo Chavez nationalized those industries?

[Gods_Mercenary]

Communist?
Communism implies that the state has total control over the economy

That's really socialism, in communism everything is shared, with government ideally playing no part, in fact, a pure communist hates government.

[RickSp]

That's really socialism, in communism everything is shared, with government ideally playing no part, in fact, a pure communist hates government.

That is a theoretical definition of communism which has never existed as a form of government. The state have never withered in reality. In every self-identified communist state, the state has total control over the economy

[Milton Bradley]

Excuse me if this is a diversion, but I think it relates to the topic at hand.

Chinese Legislature Passes Landmark Laws

With private investment representing 65% of the economy, it is hard to argue that China is still "communist" in any real sense. On the other hand opposition by leftists has delayed the passage of this law by 14 years.

It is difficult to characterize exactly what China may or may not be. It is clearly an ongoing struggle for the Chinese to define as well.

Yeah, but note who the special treatment is for. Not it's citizens, but foreign investors.


The people still have nobody fighting their fight.

[RickSp]

Yeah, but note who the special treatment is for. Not it's citizens, but foreign investors.


The people still have nobody fighting their fight.

Read the article. The law also revised a tax law to cut out preferential rates for foreign companies. Foreign investors have always had greater protection than local Chinese entreprenuers. This legislation guarantees greater property rights for local investors as well.

Along with private businesses, the law also aims to bolster the rights of house buyers who have pushed the urban home ownership rate to more than 80 percent, as well as farmers who have frequently lost their land to infrastructure and housing projects, with little or no compensation.

The tax law unifies the tax rate for foreign-financed companies with those of Chinese enterprises at 25 percent, ending an era that saw China create special economic and technology zones with low taxes to attract nearly US$700 billion in foreign investment that has fueled this nation's rise to become the world's fourth-largest economy.

Under the old system, Chinese companies paid 33 percent of profits in tax, while new foreign investors were exempt from taxes for two years, get a 50 percent cut for three more and after that could receive breaks that kept rates as low as 10 percent.

[another day]

That is a theoretical definition of communism which has never existed as a form of government. The state have never withered in reality. In every self-identified communist state, the state has total control over the economy

And infact in the true communist ideology, total government control WAS a part of it. It was a step or phase along the way towards the Marxist final goal which was, in the end the abolition of government. It was an idealistic view that the total government control would eventually lead to a lack of need for it once everything settled in and the state would as you put "wither away". But we all know that will never happen because people like freedom and will immediatly do things they were forbidden to do once the regime stops controlling them.

That doesn't mean that a country in the first stage of communism cannot still be fairly labeled communist however.

[Gods_Mercenary]

That is a theoretical definition of communism which has never existed as a form of government. The state have never withered in reality. In every self-identified communist state, the state has total control over the economy

Yes, but calling it communism just serves to confuse people. It would be far more accurate to just call it socialism. Saddam called his state a democracy, but we never called it that.

[fushigi]

Here is the official Chinese Communist Party's own website written by their own members:

Chinese Communist Party, Communist Party of China

Again, the government also claims the country is a republic, but you wouldn't say it is, would you?

Totalitarian China

Harry Wu's one of those guys who, like Nick Kristof, has made a career out of criticizing China. Of course he would call it totalitarian. That's his job.

Yet not one single person has found a respected political scientist who describes China as "totalitarian." Why? Because it's not. It's authoritarian.

[fushigi]

How strong was Venezuelas laws for protecting private property investments and industry before Hugo Chavez nationalized those industries?

Come on, this is a totally specious argument and you know it. Rick made a very good point and you just ignore it so you can sustain your own incorrect and unfounded beliefs.

According to your argument, all countries can be considered "communist," because any government has the potential at any moment to expropriate private property.