Before we go explore the Yellow Crane Tower, one question I kept getting from friends and family about China is the question this post is titled as. Is china Communist? Now the answer to that question is much more than just a yes or no. It’s has layers like an onion. China is a weird mixture of capitalism and communism. First of all, I want you all to know that China is much more than just communism. I’m not writing this for the idea of that I think China is just a communist country. Like I mentioned before, China is a mixture. I want to spread light to this topic because some people in the USA and the West think China is some kind of a rich North Korea. I want to make sure that people know what is really going on in china. For that reason, my friends in Wuhan requested that I do not show our conversations on this blog. This is to make everybody just a little more informed about this topic. So, enough of me rambling and explaining myself like I was guilty of something. Here we go!
In my short time in China, it’s clear China is not as communist as we in the USA believe. When you are there, people live very conformable. When I compare China to Cuba, you can tell that Cuba is more communist than China. I will write a post about how the people really live and feel about living under a pure communist rule in Cuba. I didn’t write it yet out of my safety because I plan to travel to more communist countries. There are two in mind that I still have to go before I can “spill the beans.”
So going back to China’s vs Cuba’s communism, Cuba is pure communism to the core. A college professor gets paid the same as a front desk worker at a hotel. They have to live on about 20 dollars a month, according to my local friend. A taxi driver makes more money than a medical doctor because a taxi driver can charge tourists more than what is recommend by the government. Which is highly illegal but they do it anyways. However, there have been economic reforms since I last came there in May 2019. In Cuba, the locals also have a card that allows Cubans to get a monthly supply of food. Sometimes, it’s not enough but that’s another topic. While in China, a kid that works at a fast food place can start up a company called Alibaba. The CEO will not get paid the same as his/hers employees. From what I saw, there was no one in line at the supermarkets and shops waiting for their monthly supply of food. Everything is bought with a supply and demand without an equal share mentality. Very different than Cuba.
Now, comparing China’s vs Russia’s communism things get more complicated. China and Russia ( once known as the former soviet union) were once very similar. It wasn’t until the after the death of Joseph Stalin, that the Soviet Union wanted to be less oppressive to the common people. In other words, Russians didn’t want to be ruled under such a controlling government. China disagreed with Russia’s new ideals. China wanted to keep control of the general masses. Which in some forms, still goes on today. Currently, Russia is moving more towards a capitalistic economy like China. However, China kept it’s iron rule over the people. Meanwhile, Russia became less aggressive but still had some control over the lives of people.
Which now goes into the question that I keep getting asked. China is communist in the way they control the way the general masses think. They do not want the Chinese people to think negatively about their government. Religion is allowed but the holy scriptures like the Quran or the Bible have to be modified to fit their narrative. If one is caught with original copies, that person can go to jail for a long time or be sent to reprogram schools. Which is now currently happening to the Muslim community in China. The government wants order and people to be in that order. No chaos just order. So freedom of speech is not so free in China. There is a program that China has been pushing for. It is called a social credit. Instead of having a score based on the financial decisions you made. This social credit will be based on your good deeds. If you do something bad, your score will go down. You will not have the same privileges as someone who has a high scorer. In other words, the Chinese government will be watching over you 24/7. This is where China starts becoming communist. Through the country’s control of it’s people. For that reason, I do not feel safe sharing my conversations with friends I met in Wuhan. I do want them to have more issues than they already facing.
ps. I love the Chinese people and their culture. China is much more than the communist party. Once things calm down, I will definitely go there again.
pss. The death toll has risen to 1,400. All we can do for them is to pray and hope their souls are in peace. Please remember, life is a gift and not a right. Make sure you tell your close ones how much you care about them.
Blog update! There will be more content being pushed out on Tuesdays around noon. It will be about travel hacks, travel tips and showing love to places not many people think of traveling to. Hopefully, we can convince you all to go to some of the places someday!
Thank you so much for reading! Much love and safe travels!
We have partnered up with booking.com and working on TripAdvisor. Here are some links for each hope you all enjoy!
Here are links to hotels and other deals.
For Hotels, make sure to click here. For apartments make sure to click here. For Resorts click here. For villas click here. For bed and breakfast and for Guest houses, make sure to click the links!
And yet….. Cuba just wrote a new constitution. Every single citizen had input from beginning to end. Then it got voted on. The US doesn’t do this. And the US has easily hackable electronic voting machines. Please beware. Things are not as they seem on the surface. Cuba’s infant mortality rate is much lower than the US. They don’t use the chemicals that the US uses. It isn’t communism that limits Cuba. It is the 60+ years of US sanctions against them. The US is against any country they cannot gontrol and exploit.
Thank you so much for reminding me of the sanctions. It’s very true that USA is the main reason why Cuba is in the situation it is now. Also Venezuela as well. USA loves to play the bully of the world
Yes, the Venezuela situation is the same. Any time a country refuses to be bought off and controlled by the US, the US calls out their govt. as needing to be overthrown. Meanwhile, the US props up horrible dictatorships all throughout Central and South America, Africa, etc. If you haven’t read “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” and his other book, you might want to.
Regarding doctors making the same wage as others, in Cuba, remember that medical school is free. Americans and others can attend that school for free, too. The only requirement is that the graduate help out in a third world country or low income area in the US after graduation. Cuba sends many doctors to other countries to assist in their healthcare.
Regarding China,….they have death camps, and much ethnic cleansing going on, along with accusing and then imprisoning so called critics of their government. Facial recognition technology is used widely and the citizens have little privacy. Russia isn’t much better, with Putin silencing critics. But then, in the US, Trump and his administration is doing what it can to silence, investigate and/or discredit anyone speaking out against all the corruption.
Time for a new timeline 🙂
Your last sentence reminded me of an essay I wrote in college, many decades ago, when deterrence in foreign policy was not called diplomatic bullying but a strategy. Latinamerica suffered many of the so-called “deterrence” politics in the name of defending democracy against Soviet influence. Problem is, that international relations theorists haven’t come up with a better way to interact among nations other than manipulative economic sanctions, or direct threats (bullying). Unfortunately, I don’t see a change anytime soon, much the contrary, I see we are falling in reverse on social liberties and the gap between those abusing power and the rest of us just keep growing. Other than that, I really like your posts.
🙂
very true, i dont see how it can end anytime soon. usa becoming the global police is really hurting the country. it’s kind of how rome fell.
hey did you just trashed the comment? or did wordpress do it? you brought up a lot of interesting topics. I almost done with my reply and the comment disappeared
I didn’t touch it. I’m glad you liked my reply.
hey katelon, i really appreciated your reply 🙂 wordpress erased what i was typing. What I want to say was about the dictatorship. My family was heavily affected. They had to flee to Canada to survive. had a family member died because he went to cuba to fight back the dictator
cuba is medical doctors were awesome to speak. got to meet with some of them. they were really down to earth.
what china is doing to muslims and minorities is bad. i didnt know about the death camps. I was only aware of the labor camps and reprogramming schools.
lastly, i agree about the trump thing. I really dislike the guy. I hate speaking about politics but to me both sides like to question our intelligence. there is too much corruption in the government now. it is very true we do need a new and positive timeline
I’m so sorry your family suffered under Castro. I feel that the government now is much different than when the revolution first happened.
yeah it is very different now compared to what it was back then. unfortunately, communism is good on paper and has good intentions. however, there will always be a ruling class that lives better off than the rest of the population.
A long as the dark is in charge. Not on the new timeline.
WordPress is acting up.
With the way secret governments have operated around the world, it will take a new timeline for all governments and institutions to truly operate for the greater good of the all and not just a few.
i wouldn’t be surprised. it’s clear that there is a world government that keeps pushing a dark political agenda.
It is separate secret governments. They are in a turf war at the moment. They all want to be top dog.
Uggh i hate that. I mean It’s clear most of the epidemics and pandemics are human creations
I am really glad that you are addressing the complexity of communist/not communist duality, but it is even much more to what you’ve mentioned. For example, in Russia, there were not twp, but at least six different periods of history, starting from 1917, with very different levels of freedom of speech, At that time, there are many things which are objectively better in Russia, than in Chicana, and many things the opposite way, but what is more important is how the citizen of the respective countries feel about their situation. For that part one of my friends who has neither Russian nor Chinese roots commented that China is moving forward, and Russia is moving backward. But that’s a longer and more complicated story.
yeah, russia has a long and deep history with communism. In the current events happening in russia, russia’s economy mainly moscow is somewhat become more capitalistic. However, the country as a whole is becoming more fascist. I have been very reluctant to go to russia for that reason. Thank you for your comment and thoughts. 🙂
The terminology can easily become confusing. I just posted my impressions about Madeleine Albright book “Fascism” – I liked the book a lot, but I am not entirely buying her statement that “fascism is a method,” not an ideology. China’s methods against Uyghurs can be classified as fascists, for example. And as of Russia, I can tell you first-hand that at the time of the worst economic collapse we felt free for the first (and possibly last) time
I tried clicking on your website and it’s giving me error. Mind sending me a link? I would love to read it!
What i meant about fascism is putting the country and race over the people. Of course, im an outsider looking in. A lot of my friends were harassed in moscow and st. Petersburg due to them being from Azerbaijan. Also another friend from congo and studying for a semester there. He was beaten a few times because of his race. I dont know what is really going on and im sure my views are biased because i grew up in the usa. However, it’s what i noticed and some of my travel friends. I would love to learn more about russia. If you habe links please send them my way. I really want to go there but im just a little worried.
I do not blog about modern Russia because I live in the US for almost 24 years, and I do not think I have a right to speak as an insider, even though I visit often. But you might find it interesting to take a look at some of my “historical” posts at https://hettie.family/hetties-timeline/. I am adding stories here and there, hoping to have a complete timeline by the time my oldest granddaughter will turn eighteen 🙂
Here:
https://hettie.family/2020/02/23/madeleine-albright-fascism-a-warning-book-review/
I have three live blogs and the main one is deleted :). The one you might want to follow is https://hettie.family/
I enjoyed your post and getting a bit of an update on their current situation. I think there’s a universal truth to your assessment, with the point being that whether it’s called communist, capitalist or democratic, what really matters is how these government actually function and we’re ignoring the fact that almost all of these forms can easily give rise to fascism, though the trajectory can look quite different. Unless a people are truly empowered by their votes and equal weight is given to them all, until we achieve the right to self-determination, we all live with some level of fascism. We can call the US “democratic” all we want. It doesn’t make it true and while everyone believes the pretty lie and remains unable to fight for themselves, we’ll continue to slip further and further into fascism. Perhaps not a popular opinion, but it’s the conclusion I’ve come to.
that is actually very true. there is always a level of corruption. there is no true “democracy”. A system only really works when like you said, peoples votes and voices are truly heard then taken accounted for with equality
Interesting perspective. Thanks for sharing it.
thank you for reading!
This is so informative! I’ve learned a lot about China and communism by reading this. 🙂
thank you for reading! i’m glad you learn something! safe travel!!
I really enjoyed reading this post. I often remember that Mao and his party was able to control the population by destroying the very cultural fabric of the land. He and the people in power there still believe that the culture corrupts the mind and restricts people from thinking progressive. (I have nothing against the religions, in fact the opposite.!!!)
Isn’t it ironic how an ideal that was built to decimate tyranny in form of government and dogma in form of religion, turned into a greatest tyrant and dogmatist itself. Subduing more people into its dogma through brainwashing, pay offs and forceful submission.
i 100% agree. this was an awesome comment! thank you so much of your input! what is going on in china is disgusting but it is what it is