Well, that would be called China, at least to the extent China can rightly be seen as still aiming to arrive at communism.
Mind you, if you spend much time in China, you'll find there's a lot to like about it. I can't say much about the political process there, but living there is quite a pleasurable experience, at least I find it so. I say that only to note that living under/in an environment like one of China's enterprise zones.
And China is the modern day form of slavery.
I am in the PRC weekly. I have multiple clients there, and I've been to their factories, their "company towns," the big cities, etc. I have a translator who accompanies most of the time. I have had numerous conversations about working conditions in the PRC. I can assure you that what they have going on, though in some places dissimilar to what we observe in the U.S. is not at all
slavery of any type. So, please, let's dispense with the inflammatory/morality metaphors, or at the very least, I ask that you reserve them for your discourse with other members.
I say that because china can manipulate it's currency on a whim. It shuts out any discourse with the government online. It
throws people in prison for displaying a cross.
You are not allowed to have an individual published idea. It gives the people just enough to stop them from rioting, and displays a large enough police state to further discourage that. They are very effective at displaying the carrot and stick.
It may not be real slavery like we see in the Middle East, but those people are far from free
And you perceive those things as having what to do with being/not being a mix of capitalism and communism/socialism?
Red:
I presume you are referring to
this. The man was incarcerated for protesting the demolition of crosses, not for displaying them.
Blue:
What does that mean? I'm aware that in the PRC,
enforcement of intellectual property laws isn't nearly as robust as it is in Western nations.
When it comes to ownership of companies themselves, there's no way around the fact that the details of a company's organization are neither as clearly stated nor widely disclosed as are its opposite numbers in the West.
Green:
One can say that of pretty much any government. All governments variously experience greater and lesser degrees of success at achieving that end. What do you suppose the Civil War was other than a major riot?
Pink:
Chinese people are free to do the things they want to do in most cases. They may lack the freedom to do some of the things we are, but then most of them aren't of a mind to do those things either.
Other:
As a nation, China is evolving. It entered the 20th century technologically behind the West and "then came Mao," who saw population growth as a key to gaining dominance. Looking at that policy's impact during Mao's term as Chairman, that may seem like a disaster. Looking at it now as China seeks to assert its place in the global economy, one can see China as being in much the same place the U.S. was in the 20th century -- a massive manufacturing powerhouse loaded with millions of laborers who demanded lower wages than their European counterparts, thereby allowing U.S. companies to thrive by selling goods both domestically and abroad because the U.S. produced goods were, as are Chinese made goods today, comparatively inexpensive.
That may have happened with or without Mao's push for increased population size, for at the outset of Mao's term, China already had a huge population, but that boost in size has resulted in China likely enjoying the fruits of a huge boom in manufacturing for longer than did the U.S.
As for political freedoms and the command nature of China's organization, one has to realize that it's a nation of 1.6B+ people,
over half of whom are illiterate. The place would be a huge mess were it to universally, as we do in the U.S., for example, have all the freedoms we enjoy. To get a sense of what I mean, imagine what it'd be like if you were to remove all the adult supervision from a large elementary school and leave the kids to their own devices. How good do you think their decisions would be? Quite simply, folks who are, through no fault of their own, ignorant (not stupid; they aren't the same things) must be led and controlled, otherwise, there's nothing but calamity going on.
Some might point to India which has nearly as large a population. India's literacy rate is ~75%. That's why they can have a democratic political system.
The preceding isn't in any way intended to advocate for China. It's to say that one must consider the nation and its policies objectively. What makes it onto our news presents China from the Western view of it as a competitor. That's all well and good, and seen from that perspective, the reality of China's domestic imperatives present challenges and sometimes opposing sets of needs/goals between the two. Looking at China from the standpoint of what it needs to do to boost the quality of life for its people, much of how they run their country isn't wrong, even if it denies some Chinese the freedoms we take for granted. Nevertheless, there being 1.6B+ Chinese, make no mistake, if they want to overthrow their government, they can. (Of course, seeing as China has the population size that affords it the potential to have more armed forces than the U.S. has citizens, there's not much else it can't overthrow if it wants to. LOL)
