this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2026
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@Cowbee [he/they] I can't find the official interview (thought I'd saved it) but here is a good synopsis: #^https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/08/25/china-model-zhang-weiwei-interview/
What's being described here is really no different from any mixed economy that funds certain public services (so, basically every mixed economy in the first world). Only Americans look at the way China functions and think it's socialist, for the same reason so many Americans think universal healthcare is a form of socialism.
Dialectics, materialist dialectics, very specifically is not about principle. It's about material conditions, not ideals. "We have a mixed economy, but we have the people in mind" doesn't make something socialist from a dialectical perspective, but quite the opposite. "At the same time, the private sector, like Alibaba Group, made the best use of this availability of top-notch infrastructure, to provide internet services and e-commerce to the best of their capability" on the other hand, very much makes the economy not socialist. This isn't an argument that can be had. You can't judge the way an economy functions based on vibes; it either is, or it isn't, and China's top scholars and officials are well aware that it isn't. "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" means "socialism in the future, theoretically".
What you describe is how the socialist market economy is. All economies are mixed, really, even the DPRK with its Special Economic Zones. Public ownership governs the large firms and key industries, while market forces govern secondary and smaller industries. This is what it means to be the principal aspect.
A note on principal aspects: I do not mean principles as in ideals or morals, but the essence of a contradiction. From Mao's On Contradiction:
Public ownership is the principal aspect of the Chinese economy, not private ownership. I very well understand that materialism rejects idealism, and that material conditions matter above all. That's why I identified your use of simple ratio in identifying socialism as metaphysics, the 50/50 split is entirely arbitrary and says nothing of which aspect has dominance. The fact that the large and key industries are public means that the private sector is thoroughly under the control of the public sector.
A common example is the rubber factory and the rubber ball factory, the rubber factory has total control over how the rubber ball factory can function even if the rubber ball factory makes more profits or whatnot (a problem with focusing on GDP). China does this with all of its key industries and large firms, while allowing diverse forms of ownership (including private) to fill in the gaps left by the state owned and run industry, and in turn become folded into the public sector.
Returning to my quote from Xi Jinping:
The CPC fully believes (correctly) that SWCC is socialism now. What SWCC is not is static. The current market distribution is not a fixed, permanent position, but something that unfolds dialectically. As public ownership is principal, and is rising, the private sector gradually grows, socializes as markets do, and is folded into the public sector. This is the path of dialectical development, from lower to higher, from quantity to quality. It has nothing to do with vibes, but instead the recognition that the character of an economy is not determined by ratio, nor by the "one-drop" rule, but by the principal aspect of the economy.
In other words, by that which is dominant in the economy via controlling the large firms and key industries, and that which is rising. SWCC is socialism now, as it develops and grows from less developed to more. Again, see Cheng Enfu's diagram:
This is entirely different from Nordic style social democracy, which, while having sizable safety nets, has private ownership as principal, dominating the large firms and key industries, as well as the state. Some social democracies even have higher public ownership ratios as a portion of GDP than the PRC, and yet their results materially are dramatically different. This is proof that it isn't just an arbitrary, vibes-based ratio, but correct identification of that which is rising and dominant in an economy that determines its character, as dialectical materialism teaches us.
Comrade, with all due respect, I suggest you pay more attention to what our comrades in China are actually saying about their socialist system. I also implore you to not make the assumption that I don't know about the materialist aspect of dialectical materialism, it's insulting. I don't pretend to be an expert, but I did write a short overview of dialectical materialism you can check out if you feel the need to vet my "diamat cred."
@Cowbee [he/they]
This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what special economic zones are in the DPRK. They are not as they are in the PRC, where they are capitalist safehavens. In the DPRK, these are zones for international trade. All industry is still publicly owned.
This just isn't true, though. The public sector in China is the same as the public sector in most mixed economies: Transportation, parts of agriculture, some electrical and telecomms, etc. It is no different. In fact, China has a larger private sector compared to its public sector than some of these western countries. China's healthcare system is more privatized than most of these western countries. Your analogy with the rubber vs the ball just doesn't apply here; China's primary industries are all privately owned except for certain areas in agriculture. I do very much pay attention to this, because I am waiting with bated breath for it to change.
The DPRK does have limited private property in its Special Economic Zones. See A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom. Foreign investment and ownership happens there too, such as from the Emperor Group owning a casino and whatnot, a group based in Hong Kong.
Good news, public ownership does control the large firms and key industries in China:
Your point that some western counteies have higher ratios is exactly why we need to identify the principal aspect of the Chinese economy, and not compare simple ratio. Otherwise, western economies would have far more similar results than the dramatically different results they do. The private sector in China is relegated to small and medium secondary firms, and is about half sole-proprietorships and cooperatives. On wikipedia, there is a very good point:
In other words, although the number of people employed is smaller than the private sector, and the GDP is lower, state owned enterprises still dominate the economy because they are the largest and most important. This is only looking at SOEs, too, not the rest of the public sector.
That's why I suggest that you listen more to our comrades from China, rather than assume that every socialist model has to look exactly like the USSR. China's conditions are different, and their socialist system is working well and continuing to develop to higher stages of socialist development.
@Cowbee [he/they]
I've read the book. Yes, it's foreign-owned operating on DPRK soil. There is no private industry native to the DPRK as there is in China.
If China's mineral industry is publicly owned, that's news to me. My understanding that its mineral industry (most of what you've listed) is all private, including its overseas endeavours. I'll have to look more into this, thank you.
Regarding foreign ownership of industry in the DPRK, why would this not be counted? Dialectics teaches us that we can't just slice out parts which are in reality connected. As for mineral industries, again, wikipedia has this to say:
No problem on sharing this, I spend a good deal of time trying to understand China's model of socialism.
@Cowbee [he/they] It's not counted because it's not any more a part of the DPRK's economy than is any other foreign trade. The government allows foreign-owned businesses to operate on DPRK soil for the trade benefits inherent in that, but it is still foreign trade, as opposed to economic activity of the country itself.
Is it not? Foreign trade is also connected to the DPRK's economy. It isn't a hard line, but blurry. Not either-or, but both-and. Dialectics helps us see the interconnection, the link between the general and the particular.
@Cowbee [he/they] Well, if we take that to its natural conclusion, then no country can possibly be socialist because the global economy with which all countries trade and interact is broadly capitalist. Same reason that Korean teams working in Siberian lumberyards doesn't make Russia more socialist, the DPRK trading with capitalist countries doesn't make it more capitalist. Yes, there are connections, but as the world exists, with hard borders and economic measurements and ownership in terms of nationhood in most cases, the line is quite clear.
That's an example of the wrong lesson. I agree that we need to be careful with the general and the particular, but we cannot cleanly sever them. Again, it isn't either-or, but both-and, and we identify the nature of something by identifying its principal aspect. The DPRK is socialist because public ownership is the principal aspect of the economy and the working classes control the state. The USSR was socialist even when it was under the NEP, and even when it had black markets. Cuba is socialist despite having private property, same with China and Vietnam.