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“China is an authoritarian dystopia.” That’s probably the totality of your understanding when it comes to Chinese society and the political system it’s governed by if all you know about China is what you hear on MSNBC or Fox News. But is that really accurate? Is China a dystopian, authoritarian police state? Or is that just propaganda force fed to the mass of Americans because it serves the interests of Western capital? Well—the answer is an obvious and emphatic “no.” China is not authoritarian—in fact, the opposite is true. Their system of democracy is arguably and demonstrably much, much deeper and more effective than ours here in our bourgeois society. Don’t believe us? Well, we’ve brought on an expert on China to help explain why.

Ken Hammond is Professor of History at New Mexico State University, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, or PSL, and the author of several books, including China’s Revolution and the Quest for a Socialist Future and most recently, China and the World.

In this conversion we dispel the myth that China is not a democratically run society. We take a deep dive into the mechanisms of democracy in China, exploring how democratic centralism and the mass line shape how the Communist Party of China and Chinese society practice and participate in democracy. We look at the history of Chinese democracy, get into the nuts and bolts of how democratic decision making and policy proposals take place, and end with an analysis of current geopolitical events when viewed within a historical materialist context.

This episode is Part 2 of our Patreon series on China. Part 1, A Socialist Introduction with Jason Hickel, was published two weeks ago. Part 3, if all goes as planned, will feature Vijay Prashad and will build on today’s conversation to really focus in on the differences between bourgeois democracy and socialist democracy—so stay tuned, we’ve got a lot of material on China planned for the coming months.

Artwork: The cover art for today’s episode is from 1804’s publication of Ken’s 2003 book, China’s Revolution and the Quest for a Socialist Future, designed by Hannah Craig.

Further resources:

China's Revolution and the Quest for a Socialist Future, by Ken Hammond
China and the World, by Ken Hammond
Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)
Pivot to Peace

Related episodes:

China Pt. 1: A Socialist Introduction w/ Jason Hickel
(Chinese) Socialism vs (U.S.) Capitalism
Climate Leninism w/ Jodi Dean and Kai Heron
[UNLOCKED] Voting for Socialism w/ Claudia De La Cruz & Karina Garcia

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[TEASER] China Pt. 2: Socialist Democracy and Democratic Centralism w/ Ken Hammond

Upstream

[TEASER] China Pt. 2: Socialist Democracy and Democratic Centralism w/ Ken Hammond