by SERGE HALIMI
Echoing what Mao Zedong said back in October 1949, his distant, and very different, successor, Hu Jintao, declared 60 years later: “China owes its place in the world today to the achievements of socialism.” A proud claim. It’s a long time since China was humiliated and carved up by Europe and Japan, and some of its people are prospering – but socialism, that’s a different story. The claim is so far from the truth that you can even argue that Chinese growth – 9.6% in 2008; 8.7% in 2009 – took over when the American machine broke down, helping the capitalist system weather the worst storm since 1929. Globalisation, wounded on Wall Street, recovered its strength in Shanghai.
The old claim that the wind from the east would prove stronger than that from the west meant something else back in the days when the sky was red. Not just that China would export more goods than any other country and become a goldmine for supermarket chains: Carrefour has 156 branches, Tesco 72, and the US giant Wal-Mart would not be where it is today without cheap Chinese labour to help it slash prices (and crush its competitors).
If these are the criteria by which world revolution is to be measured, western businessmen have nothing to worry about. The Wall Street Journal is licking its lips: “China remains a highly attractive market for western businesses in search of growth… it is the emerging markets which are leading the world out of recession” (1). The United Steelworkers union is not nearly so enthusiastic: it has called on Washington to bring an action against China for dumping…
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