[JDShu]

China is not Communist... maybe your question is can be restated as if China will adopt democratic system eventually? I personally believe the answer to that is that is has to, and yes it will probably be more stable compared to the collapse of the Soviet Union - China has that, and it's own history of revolutions, as a reference.

[theandrewbailey]

China not communist? It's right there in the name of the ruling party.

[Jacqued]

Well then I guess "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" is a republic with democratically elected officials.

There isn't a single communist country, and I don't think there has ever been any. You could argue that Russia was on a path to communism in 1917, but Lenin promptly put an end to it.

At most, China used to be (but isn't any more) a socialist country.

[leokun]

> There isn't a single communist country, and I don't think there has ever been any.

The Animal Farm problem I guess, maybe AI can help some day.

[gambiting]

Are you familiar with Ian Banks and his Culture books? This is basically what happens - people created "minds", computers which run their societies,but every person is provided with an infinite supply of anything they desire(it's fabricated on demand) and everything(and I mean everything) is allowed, with the exception of killing other people.

[theandrewbailey]

I haven't heard that the Great Firewall is gone. Seems you forgot about how the Arab Spring threw China into cringe mode, and arrested people like Ai Weiwei.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2011...

[toyg]

Undemocratic ≠ socialist. This should be a fairly obvious statement, in the Year of Snowden.

[petermcd]

I think "Communist" is a bit of a loaded word that in the my American mind is more linked to Stalin and Lenin than Mao and Deng, so I try to stay away from it.

It's probably much more accurate to say the Chinese government is authoritarian state-capitalist. Authoritarian: They don't care what you think, but you better do what they way. State-capitalist: there are large state-owned enterprises supported by preferential loans from the banks.

There is also a thriving private sector. The government's involvement in private sector businesses varies between "just please pay some taxes" for some types and sizes of businesses and heavy-handed regulation and interference in some sectors that makes success in those sectors without government friends nearly impossible.

To put this in perspective, do consider that the US government bailed out the banks and GM, and owns Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So it's not as though the US is hands off. GM seems to be better run than large Chinese state-owned enterprises, which is saying a lot.

The farms and all businesses were communized back in the 60's, but no longer are, so far as I'm aware. The state does own land, which you lease for decades at a time (this is the same as Hong Kong, which is quite capitalist, btw).

Relaxing the one-child policy is a big deal. Given that countries have fewer children as they industrialize, I expect it won't lead to a population explosion.

I very much wish they would work on reducing the abortion rate by better educating children about having protected sex. I know a Biology teacher here who said her kids know lots about sex from the Internet, so maybe there's some hope that even the attenuated Chinese Internet can help here.

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are all blocked over here doesn't frustrate the hell out of me.

[philwelch]

> The state does own land, which you lease for decades at a time (this is the same as Hong Kong, which is quite capitalist, btw).

In capitalist America, you can "own" land, unless you don't pay property tax or the government needs to build a bypass. A distinction without a difference.

[rayiner]

It is not a distinction without a difference, for the obvious reason that appreciation of land value goes to owners but not leaseholders.

[philwelch]

Unless you can sell your lease for a profit, which is the impression I got talking to someone in this situation.

American land ownership is "fee simple", which is derived from English law, where the Crown ultimately owns all the land, but grants the landowner unconditional fiefdom over it. You don't actually own property, but rather certain limited legal rights over it, which is how they can get away with property taxes and eminent domain.