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November 10, 2002

China: World's Last Major Right-wing Dictatorship

Times gets it right:

After a 20-year transition, the world's last major left-wing dictatorship, the Communist Party of China, has transformed itself. It is now, arguably, the world's last major right-wing dictatorship.

...Dictatorship of the proletariat has failed. So the party is giving plutocracy a chance.

...Foreigners have invested more money in China so far this year than anywhere else, including the United States. All that money is flowing because the party has used its near-absolute power to create favourable conditions for the capitalists. Companies setting up factories in Guangdong or Shanghai can employ workers from the hinterlands, often paying them less than $100 a month for 12-hour days.

Migrant labourers can stay in cities only so long as their employers need them; without urban residence permits, they have no local rights. The government does not allow independent unions.

Progressives have to confront a basic fact. The largest danger to freedom and workers rights globally is China, which has rapidly evolved into a regime only Mussolini could love-- or maybe he wouldn't, since his version of fascism was probably more friendly to labor.

In the long run, almost every other foreign policy issue pales in comparison to how the rightwing dictatorship in China will either spread its poison or slowly implode.

Posted by Nathan at November 10, 2002 09:01 PM

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