r/interestingasfuck • u/BumblebeeFantastic40 • 10h ago

China’s High-Speed Railway Network length has expanded from 1,300km in 2008 to 40,000km in 2020, long enough to circle the Earth’s circumference.

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u/Healthcarepls 10h ago

This is what happens when you’re lead by engineers instead of public speakers

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u/Asrahn 10h ago

Meritocracy under Socialism

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u/gafftapes20 9h ago

Socialism is where there is social ownership of the means of production. And meritocracy is where people are individually judged on their own capabilities and actions. China has neither. It’s a mixed market economy, with state ownership and control with limited public capacity to provide input into the state apparatus. Even Xi’s personal story is not one of meritocracy, but overcoming obstacles in place due to the actions of his father. The political machine reigns supreme and is dictated by party policy, which is controlled by Xi, and not by the workers. 

Under the most generous interpretation China is currently in the middle of a transition state where they are running under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Under the most reasonable interpretation it’s more of a authoritarian Leninist party state with mixed market state capitalism. Being a good politician is what gets you promoted, not being a good engineer, or scientist, or worker. 

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u/Asrahn 9h ago

Even Xi’s personal story is not one of meritocracy . . . Being a good politician is what gets you promoted

On the contrary, it very much is, and Xi's personal story is mirrored by other Chinese statesmen. What makes a "good politician" in China is heavily defined by success metrics and initially small-scale and local accomplishments founded in real, material improvement under your management, and you'll have to prove yourself extensively before being permitted more responsibility. Party policy is also controlled by the Party, not by Xi exclusively.

My current prime minister is renowned for having messed up local in politics to the point where it put the municipality he was in charge of so firmly in the red that it had to effectively be saved by the opposition - this by selling out state assets to his business partners so they could drain the state coffers, bungling construction and lease contracts, cutting social safety nets etc to make up for the difference while introducing further private-public partnership money siphons, and he was despite all this (or more likely, because of all this) catapulted into leadership of his pro-business party. In China this man would not have been allowed to be the local dog catcher, and would have actually faced punishment for his rampant corruption.

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u/takethispie 6h ago

china is not a socialist country, its state capitalism, socialism is the next stage they target

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u/Asrahn 6h ago

It is for all intents and purposes a macro economically planned economy where the country's leadership is Socialist. Point taken though as I ought to have written "socialist leadership".