Where does the Communisty Party of China fit into the ideological spectrum?

[Crumpets]

Honestly, I have no idea. It seems to be simultaneously big-tent, nationalist, and pro-business, but with some definite left-wing elements left around from earlier years.

[tpfkaw]

AOTA (or, "it doesn't"), but it's returned to a more traditional leftist flavor under Xi.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

It first in with the idealogy of "remaining in power".

Weirdly they still do annual meet-ups with the internal group they belong to, which includes the KKE. That's some topkek

[Cory]

Big Tent/Nationalist

[dead0man]

Depends on how you define things of course, but I'll point out that:
the PRC owns all the land
the PRC owns all the banks/control lending
the PRC owns all the natural resource companies and the entire steel industry
the PRC owns all the transportation and media companies
the entire economy is controlled by the party
and it's a single party country

I don't know what it is, but it ain't liberal, pro-business conservative or "big tent" whatever the funk that's supposed to mean.  It sucks, that much is clear.

[Hydera]

Depends on how you define things of course, but I'll point out that:
the PRC owns all the land
the PRC owns all the banks/control lending
the PRC owns all the natural resource companies and the entire steel industry
the PRC owns all the transportation and media companies
the entire economy is controlled by the party
and it's a single party country

I don't know what it is, but it ain't liberal, pro-business conservative or "big tent" whatever the funk that's supposed to mean.  It sucks, that much is clear.

Business owners(usually those employing more than 100 people) get invitations to join the communist party and most take it just to network with other business people. Local meetings are more like a literal party where people meet others to chit-chat and build connections. Definitely not communist.

[dead0man]

It's more communist than it is any other option though.  (except for maybe some of the less ideological options)

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Remember 'pro business' does not necessarily mean free market.  In that sense the Chinese Communists are very 'pro-business'.

[dead0man]

And still have Communist in their name.  And still own all the land, banks, resources, media, etc

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Yes, well that doesn't really contradict what I'm saying right?

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

This might be a hot take: the CCP is misunderstood throughout the Western world because pundits and social analysts fail to recognize that left-wing social movements in "the Third World" primarily operated as nationalist vehicles for modernization. There's nothing incoherent about the CCP if it is understood that it garnered mass public support on the basis of its promise to modernize China in a manner aligned with social justice; as a result, the CCP attracted a large number of devoted public officials who were "reformist" or "heterodox" Communists. Many of them were purged but the CCP retained a surprising heterogeneity throughout the Mao years, a heterogeneity that came into full bloom in the years preceding the Tienanmen Square student protests. If anything, the Tienanmen Square protests evidence the CCP's heterogeneity: the Internationale was sung throughout the protests, the protests attracted large segments of the proletariat, who mobilized for the ability to form independent unions, the vast majority of students and workers professed loyalty to the CCP while advocating for democracy.

If the CCP is understood as a modernizing nationalist party of the left, its actions from Mao to Jinping fit a coherent rubric of constant experimentation rooted in the drive to achieve modernity on its own terms. In this regard, it has largely achieved its objectives but it has ignored alarming social trends and widening gulfs of inequality at its own peril. I'm not going to deliver the usual critique of the CCP, a critique that I largely agree with, because that can be found anywhere; it has certainly adhered to a ruthless form of state-based based development and that has remained a constant but the developmentalist or modernizing mode of politics remains relevant and I think it should be understood on its own terms rather than fitted and slotted according to European notions of politics.

Edit: I'd note that the Latin American left largely fits into this mode of politics.

[traininthedistance]

And still have Communist in their name.

Similarly, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia must be liberal and democratic.  It's in their name!

[dead0man]

Indeed, that by itself doesn't tell you much (other than the group in question wants to be labeled as Communist), but the other facts complete the picture a bit.  I'm not saying they are the perfect definition of communism.  It walks like a duck, it talks like a duck, it claims to be a duck....kind of looks like a turkey though.

[DavidB.]

This might be a hot take: the CCP is misunderstood throughout the Western world because pundits and social analysts fail to recognize that left-wing social movements in "the Third World" primarily operated as nationalist vehicles for modernization. There's nothing incoherent about the CCP if it is understood that it garnered mass public support on the basis of its promise to modernize China in a manner aligned with social justice; as a result, the CCP attracted a large number of devoted public officials who were "reformist" or "heterodox" Communists. Many of them were purged but the CCP retained a surprising heterogeneity throughout the Mao years, a heterogeneity that came into full bloom in the years preceding the Tienanmen Square student protests. If anything, the Tienanmen Square protests evidence the CCP's heterogeneity: the Internationale was sung throughout the protests, the protests attracted large segments of the proletariat, who mobilized for the ability to form independent unions, the vast majority of students and workers professed loyalty to the CCP while advocating for democracy.

If the CCP is understood as a modernizing nationalist party of the left, its actions from Mao to Jinping fit a coherent rubric of constant experimentation rooted in the drive to achieve modernity on its own terms. In this regard, it has largely achieved its objectives but it has ignored alarming social trends and widening gulfs of inequality at its own peril. I'm not going to deliver the usual critique of the CCP, a critique that I largely agree with, because that can be found anywhere; it has certainly adhered to a ruthless form of state-based based development and that has remained a constant but the developmentalist or modernizing mode of politics remains relevant and I think it should be understood on its own terms rather than fitted and slotted according to European notions of politics.

Edit: I'd note that the Latin American left largely fits into this mode of politics.

I think you are right on the money.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It isn't simply a matter of damn gringos not understanding though; confusion is quite natural when the language used is that of the Left elsewhere even if it frequently does not mean the same thing.

[dead0man]

Indeed, so we should just call them whatever they call themselves.

[Cory]

Indeed, that by itself doesn't tell you much (other than the group in question wants to be labeled as Communist), but the other facts complete the picture a bit.  I'm not saying they are the perfect definition of communism.  It walks like a duck, it talks like a duck, it claims to be a duck....kind of looks like a turkey though.

Except it doesn't walk like a duck. Not since the 1990's at least.

[warandwar]

Indeed, that by itself doesn't tell you much (other than the group in question wants to be labeled as Communist), but the other facts complete the picture a bit.  I'm not saying they are the perfect definition of communism.  It walks like a duck, it talks like a duck, it claims to be a duck....kind of looks like a turkey though.

How's that PhD coming?

[Middle-aged Europe]

Does the CPC really have an ideology besides "making China more powerful and richer"? It's more of a party of function and it's function is to perpetuate the existence of the political system, while providing people who joined the party with a piece of the action.

[dead0man]

Indeed, that by itself doesn't tell you much (other than the group in question wants to be labeled as Communist), but the other facts complete the picture a bit.  I'm not saying they are the perfect definition of communism.  It walks like a duck, it talks like a duck, it claims to be a duck....kind of looks like a turkey though.

Except it doesn't walk like a duck. Not since the 1990's at least.

It's still a one party country that owns all the land, money,important industries, the media and has a very firm hand on the entire economy.  Perhaps it doesn't walk exactly like a duck, maybe it walks more like Chuck Berry or Angus Young.

[Murica!]

dead0man, have you ever heard of the term "State-Capitalism"?

[dead0man]

Sure, and in many ways it fits the current system in China.  And in many ways it fits the current system in the US.

[Maxwell]

Pro-Business Communism, somehow.

[Murica!]

Sure, and in many ways it fits the current system in China.  And in many ways it fits the current system in the US.

Well no, here in the States we have as close to pure capitalism as possible. Hell, we don't even have much of the reformist welfare state which one could make a strong argument is state-capitalist. And that's quite surprising considering capitalism's(and the State's) quickness to protect themselves from revolution(see right wing reformism.)