- cross-posted to:
- memes@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- memes@lemmy.ml
Bonus title: Fascism is Imperialism turned inwards
cross-posted from @jackeroni@lemmy.ml: https://lemmy.ml/post/33684635
Bonus title: Fascism is Imperialism turned inwards
cross-posted from @jackeroni@lemmy.ml: https://lemmy.ml/post/33684635
To call China fascist is definitely an… adventurous take. There are lots of criticism you can make of their government but fascism? It’s not just a word for when the government does oppressive stuff. Their military spend is small, they don’t have ambitions of military expansion and government control only really of Taiwan. While Han culture is promoted China is very clearly a multiethnic state and there are active efforts to preserve some diverse cultural heritage, they definitely don’t promote violent political struggle and stratification of the strong over the weak - really I would levy criticism towards the intense pursuit of order.
They are culturally very conservative, a massive surveillance state, censorious on some things, and harsh towards certain kinds of political dissidents but this doesn’t make a government fascist.
Words do mean things.
EARLY WARNING SIGNS OF FASCISM
Powerful and continuing nationalism
Disdain for human rights
Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
Rampant sexism
Controlled mass media
Obsession with national security
Religion and government intertwined
Corporate power protected
Labor power suppressed
Disdain for intellectual and the arts
Obsession with crime and punishment
Rampant cronyism and corruption
I’d say that China scores very highly across most of these. I’d almost give them a pass on Intellectual and the Arts, but even then only approved intellectualism and the Arts are allowed.
E.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_dissidents
If you want me to say that highly centralised surveillance states can easily fall to fascism then sure.
I think nation states are a terrible thing, china just isn’t a fascist one.