By MAYSA TORRES DOS SANTOS*
Commentary on the book organized by Ricardo Musse
The book Contemporary China: six interpretations brings high-level theoretical reflections on the main themes surrounding the debate surrounding so-called contemporary China. Considering the topicality and popularity of the topic, due to the rise of the Chinese economy and the international prominence that China has achieved in recent decades since the economic opening and reforms of 1978, the authors' contribution brings some controversial and non-consensual points , but also fundamental to the debate in Marxist political theory.
The first text, by Alexandre de Freitas Barbosa, entitled “The Chinese rise and the capitalist world-economy: a historical perspective”, presents introductory elements for the debate regarding contemporary China. The author provides a historical overview of the development of the Chinese economy and politics. In this sense, Alexandre de Freitas Barbosa explains in the first part of his text the reasons why he considers that capitalism has not developed in China. It is noted that, since the genesis of Chinese economic development, there has been strong state control which, according to Barbosa, is exercised through literate mandarins — in other words, state control is a Chinese characteristic that precedes the socialist mode of production. .
Among the authors of the book, Alexandre de Freitas Barbosa's difference is due to the fact that the author considers that the models used mainly by Western economists, such as “state capitalism” and “market socialism”, have reduced analytical potential to address of China, so that the main difficulty in analyzing the Chinese economy, in the author's point of view, would reside in the conceptual sphere. However, despite this assessment, the author considers China to be capitalist due to its global connection, even though it is surrounded by state power.
Despite distinct theoretical developments, the following two texts, respectively entitled “Notes on the geopolitics of China” (by Elias Jabbour and Alex Dantas) and “Comments on Chinese political economy” (by Wladimir Pomar), have similar conclusions, which is why which I will present the main reflections of these authors together. As previously stated, it is necessary to develop a historical analysis of state control in China to understand this country today. In this sense, the authors bring little-known elements of Chinese history to understand the causalities that led it to the position in which China finds itself today.
Let's start with the point where these authors converge with Alexandre de Freitas Barbosa's text: Chinese material abundance and the origins of state control in China. In the text by Elias Jabbour and Alex Dantas, as well as in the text by Alexandre de Freitas Barbosa, the authors demonstrate that the abundance of water and fertile soil led to a rapid development of material productive forces — a condition that, for the authors, led to the emergence of a broad market economy. However, Elias Jabbour and Alex Dantas introduce a concept present in the Marxist debate on the socialist transition: the Asian mode of production. Thus, the authors argue that China already appears as a primitive form of developmental state.
While Elias Jabbour and Alex Dantas demonstrate, from the context of material abundance in China, the emergence of a developmental-type State, Wladimir Pomar, in his text “The Chinese Political Economy”, takes up the history of China to understand the changes taking place. starting from the economic reforms of 1978. However, Wladimir Pomar begins his presentation from the Chinese Revolution, arguing that due to the backwardness of economic and social conditions, economic and social development was the fundamental guideline of Marxist political economy.
Regarding China's political economic model, Elias Jabbour and Alex Dantas defend market socialism as more applicable to contemporary China. In short, the authors maintain this position, mainly due to the large intervention of the Chinese State in the economy. The concept of “New Design Economy”, then, is adopted by the authors as a result of economic planning, organization and rationalization of large-scale production and the fact that they believe that conventional theories, both orthodox and heterodox, would not be sufficient to explain to China.
Bruno Hendler's text, entitled “Crisis of hegemony and US-China rivalry”, deepens and endorses the contribution of previous authors, as the author, although he does not focus on the discussion regarding the Chinese economic model, demonstrates, based on some indicators of development — the Chinese GDP compared to the North American one, the export and import index and the monetary debate —, how China managed to compete with the USA for the reorganization of the world economy.
Bruno Hendler's text makes us understand, or at least question, the scope of Chinese development in recent decades. If in previous texts we saw the type of economic model that exists in China and, above all, the strong state presence in the economy and politics, in this text it is possible to understand how the political economic model, regardless of the name defended by the authors, could reach the point of compete for world hegemony. The author's presentation, therefore, opposes the liberal ideological argument, according to which state intervention and economic planning are typical of backward economies or are also not capable of generating sufficient wealth to compete in the international market.
In his text “Simultaneism and fusion in Chinese landscape, culture and literature”, Francisco Hardman, unlike previous authors, reflects on Chinese culture and literature. Among Francisco Hardman's vast and sophisticated presentation, I thought it was relevant to highlight the following element brought by the author, as it resumes an ideological characteristic present in the Cultural Revolution: the fact that he states, beforehand, that he does not intend any type of geographic-historical dualism in analysis, but proposes to research the various mergers that occurred, also considering the changes determined by capitalist production relations.
It can be seen, therefore, that the author makes a very important move for studies on China by mobilizing aspects arising from the Cultural Revolution. The first of them is to consider the peasant issue as a determining factor in Chinese culture and, secondly, the fallibility of Western dualism in dealing with China.
Luiz Enrique Vieira de Souza's text brings up a theme that mobilizes scholars and, above all, critics of the Chinese model: the environmental issue. Although the Chinese government defends the notion of “ecological civilization”, Souza identifies the limits of this concept in China. In fact, Luiz Enrique Vieira de Souza makes a necessary addition: the meaning attributed to “ecological civilization” constitutes a field of dispute among Chinese political elites, despite its importance as a guideline for the formulation of public policies.
According to the author, the concept of ecological civilization, in this sense, was coined as an alternative to Western models of sustainable development. Souza concludes that the contradiction of this concept is that there are analogies with the insufficiencies of ecological modernization projects in Western capitalist countries: economic growth remains an unquestionable dogma, just as environmental reform processes are negotiated within the current production model.
Although the book addresses different themes, the concerns and perspectives shared by this important group of authors contribute to the understanding of contemporary China's economic policy, as well as that country's position in relation to the main issues that arouse the interest and criticism of scholars. of the subject.
*Maysa Torres dos Santos is a master's student in political science at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp).
Originally published in the magazine Marxist critique, No. 56 [https://econtents.bc.unicamp.br/inpec/index.php/cma/article/view/1880]
Reference
Ricardo Musse (org.). Contemporary China: six interpretations. Belo Horizonte, Autêntica, 2021. 208 pages. [https://amzn.to/46YLsYz]
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