this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
162 points (70.9% liked)
Memes
52810 readers
1307 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
OK but you said public ownership as a part of how “the working class” is in control of the state, and this sounds like not that.
The state is an extension of the ruling class, it isn't an independent entity. Ownership of the state is largely determined by which aspect is principle, private ownership, public ownership, etc. In China, public, collective ownership is principle, and the communists created a socialist state after overthrowing the nationalists.
I'm not seeing your point.
You said “the working class is in control of the state”, and I was looking for some argument to support that. I think Xi is in charge of the state, and I don’t think the working class gets much say in that.
Even from an anti-China perspective, this is a ludicrous statement. Xi has executive authority, but he only has it because he has the support of the Central Committee, which itself only has power thanks to the support of the rest of the national government. Xi is not a wizard who can make a billion people bend to his whims and he cannot wrestle them into submission. If you want to develop an anti-China position that is more useful (true or not), you still need to accept the basic fact that states are run by classes. So the question is, is China run by bureaucrats, private capitalists, or the people?
You don't need to answer that to me. My point is just that autocracy in the sense of one person controlling the state is genuinely a myth, whether it's Xi, Trump, Hitler, or King Henry. They were all supported by and ultimately needed to answer to their respective states' ruling classes (which themselves subjugated at least one other class and might be working cooperatively with one or more other classes).