“They don’t have any limits. They can take what they want, whenever they want, for no reason at all.”
True but that goes for any dictatorship, communist or not. My point is that the current dictatorship in China allows for people to own private property, which is the antithesis of marxist communism, and it is that that has allowed china to prosper so fast.
I don’t think they are stupid enough to kill the goose that’s laying golden eggs for them.
Not only that, but if they try to go back to maoism, they’ll have a revolution in their hands - they are very sensitive about keeping the masses quiet and reasonably happy, and that’s what keeps them from taking what they want when they want.
This is where I differ: At a fundamental level, China is no different than its previous iterations of its own brand of communism or any other kind of communism, Soviet or otherwise. It has a nice, shiny, exterior, but in the end, it is government control, which does not work, and which they will implement with no reservation.
People in communist societies have always been able to buy things with their own money. Phonographs, clothes, cars, etc. But it has always been with the understanding that it is never really theirs, that the state can step in and take it or dispose of it as they wish.
Communist China may have a mishmash of capitalism and communism, resulting in more production and available goods, and people have more disposable income, but the bottom line is, Chinese communist citizens have no recourse to government appropriation of their property.
They are all fooling themselves, because with the prosperity at hand, the government isn't stepping in and exerting their will. But I guarantee you, and without any hesitancy, in the case of any issue affecting the country with or without civil unrest, they will exercise communist control without any squeamishness whatsoever.
I don't disagree that there would be civil unrest if they did. And I also disagree with the concept that they are not stupid enough to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
They are communists. They believe in Marxism. That is proof they are stupid enough. They may be communists with a little "c", but just like a gallon of fresh water with a drop of sewage in it, that is enough.