You are confusing the 'Belt and Road' initiative of China with BRICS. The Belt and Road Initiative would happen, and these deals would be made, with or without BRICS. It just makes a really neat photo op to have it in the background, and a useful term for Brazil or India to use instead of truthfully saying it is all part of the Belt and Road. No one calls it 'BRICS' when they talk about the train line between China and Europe, but that is also the Belt and Road.

Canada is making deals with the ASEAN countries without being party to the organization. You do not need an association to bring countries to the table. BRICS is NOT needed to bring the countries together, it just makes a nice photo op background when the leaders meet.

It is certainly not me that has a misconception of China. I am well aware of how the Chinese system works. For instance, it is not a 'one party' system, it is a 'no party' system. 'Communism' is simply a term (and an English term at that, the true term for China's system is, of course, in Chinese) the West has coined, then defined in the way the West wants it defined, and then applied to China, for the West to use in its anti-Chinese propaganda. But to the Chinese, the term they use defines how their democratic system works. Nothing to do with 'political parties' but a term used similar to our Canadian term of 'Parliamentarians, Parliamentary System, and Parliament.' It is their form of government, not a definition of a party. It is not necessary to have a 'political party' system in order to have a democratic government.

To the Chinese, 'saving face' is everything. No job, you lose face. It is not about being fed, housed, and cared for, it is about facing your fellow Chinese citizen. Automation or not, every Chinese citizen is promised a job by their government. So regardless of any social safety net, full employment is the reason why the current leaders are still in power, and they are fully aware that if they do not maintain full employment, the people will toss them out in fully democratic elections.

China is fully into automation because the Chinese population is in rapid decline, and they are currently in a transition period between having too many workers for the jobs available, and having too few workers. Japan has exactly the same problem, and is in the same transitory period.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 1 points 18 hours ago

China is a developing country because it started out from a position of utter devastation after the end of second world war, and they've been investing in development that's raising the standard of living for the working majority. The US is the direct opposite of that where the standard of living is now collapsing from the peak seen during the cold war.

I'm also not confusing BRICS and BRI, although there is overlap between them. The examples I gave you earlier were all from BRICS cooperation. I honestly don't know why you have such a hard time acknowledging that BRICS is a functioning economic bloc that's rapidly growing right now.

You're right that you don't strictly need an organization like BRICS, but it obviously helps. For example, BRICS stipulates that members cannot sanction each other, which has become a really important rule of late given American shenanigans.

Communism in Chinese context does actually mean Marxism. There are other parties in China, but their role is that of consultation. CPC is the party in charge. The system is quite different in nature from a parliamentary one we have under liberalism. I've written about it in detail here if you're interested https://dialecticaldispatches.substack.com/p/rethinking-governance-through-outcomes

Believe me I'm quite familiar with Chinese culture. I understand the whole saving face thing you're talking about perfectly well. I'll also refer you to the above link to see how elections actually work in China. There are plenty of solutions for reducing work while letting people feel like they're relevant in practice. For example, we have bullshit jobs in the west today where people do work that has absolutely no meaning of social value. There are plenty of better ways to solve the problem.

The reality is that it's unlikely that China is going to end up in a place where there's no need for human labor in the foreseeable future. There will always be some work to do, but the nature of the work will change, and possibly people will be working less overall.

Meanwhile, the problem of aging population exists pretty much in all developed countries. It's actually worse in the US than it is in China right now. Automation is largely removing hard manual work, and moving people into better jobs. There is a lot of reskilling happening in China right now. And the government is actively creating programs to help workers transition to new types of roles. Can highly recommend the summary of the two big recent political events focusing on these issues: