Thread by @DoveyWan

“Socialism” means one thing in theory and another thing in practice.

My grandparents, my parents, and myself have been through 3 mutations of socialist society in last 60 years of China 🇨🇳 Practical socialism is far from what’s in text book.

Here is socialism in reality 👇🏻

https://twitter.com/La__Cuen/status/1094246537847341056

1959-1979 The Era of “People’s Commue”

my grandparents were in their 30s who lived through a bizarre life as part of People’s Commue. The commue is a composition of a few thousand households, EVERYTHING IS SHARED: from private property (farms, livestock) to private kitchen

they said in some areas, even marriage as to be reported/approved by the commue. no one is allowed cook at home, people eat and work together "accordingly to commue's planning" Resources is not only controlled by the commue leader, but also the workers in the commune's kitchen

Basically if you have beef with the anyone working in the commue's kitchen, your and your family will be kept from food, which is a quite ironic result from this "collective ownership"

The commue is a unique play in China's history, to me its core is the same as any populism play nowadays - the slogan of commue is usually "eat free, and work hard" This is VERY appealing to average Chinese farmers back then as starvation was the biggest problem after WWII

there was almost no "money" and freedom of individual's life in this era, result in serious incentive problem, nobody cares about the public property and hard work returns the same as being lazy, which further leads to more starvation and low productivity

1979-1999 The Era of “Reform and Opening Up”

After Mao's death in 1976, Deng was able to abandon the ultra-counter-productive People's Commue. The ideal soliciam only comes after when resources is extremely abundant, when the sum is much more than what people can consume

my parents were in their 30s in this era ( i was born in 1989), it's an era full of unrest and opportunities.

The big slogan of this era is "time is money, efficiency is the king" (below), which is a drastically different social ideology from "eat free and work hard"

Mao was trying to implement a text book version Socialism but was too ahead of the time, Deng instead developed a blue print was later evovled into "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism…

Deng is a big pragmatist comparing with Mao, starting 1979 he implemented de-collectivization of properties, special economic zones like Shenzhen (where the first McDonald's in China located)

All these are now in a form of "state-controlled capitalism" or "market socialism"

Deng has a famous saying of "black cat, white cat" this is also a core in his pragmatic view of socialism - incentive matters to raise the morale and enthusiasm of work, a proper reward is what motivates people to work to his full potential.

The means to the end can vary

the result of Deng’s pragmatism is impressive, GDP/capita in China grows from $180 in 1979 to $900 in 1999

In my parents’ childhood, food stamp was more valuable than money. But in their 30s they bought their first car which used to be considered as symbol of “evil capitalism”

1999-2019 The Era of “Violent Delight”

China's economy growth has been on sky rocket in this era. GPD/capita further grows from $800 in 1979 to over $8000 till end of 2018. My generation has witnessted a double in living standard always every 7 years at the 10% yoy GDP growth

I remembered vividly mi was sitting at the back of my mom's bicycle in my early childhood, and sit on the motorcycle the first time in primary school, and sit in our car during my primary school graduation ceremony.

My dad is the first regeneration computer engineer in 🇨🇳 I’m lucky to access computer early in my life.

They move to Guangdong province (similar to California in many aspects) to pursue career, where is the base to Tencent, Xiaomi, and many giant tech firms which marked history

Being growing up in the highest growth period of China, my friends and I are highly adeptive to change, lured to asymmetric return, reckless, optimistic and opportunistic.

There is also one big problem tho: we all take hyper growth as granted, the party seems will never end

The pragmatism of Deng has massively unleashed the individual's wealth and greed. The transformation from a saving-oriented society to a credit-oriented is quite notable, together with a record high M2 monetary supply, non-financial sector debt and housing price

The property right in China is a unique product of "Chinese Socialism" - all lands are owned by the state, but you can acquire the right attached to the usage of the land up to 70 years for a residential purpose or 50 years for commercial purpose

Tho housing market in tier 1 cities of China has seen the biggest bubble after Japan, for all frenzy house buyers they only own the property rights of the house instead of land

Property rights and market of lands is fundamental to capitalism which China hasn't embraced yet

The concept of "社会主要矛盾" (principal contradiction, or primary social conflict) is a key to understand both the economic and political aspects of China. Both Deng and Xi have summarized during their tenure of what's the principal contradiction of Chinese society

The last time a principal contradiction was set was in 1981 by Deng Xiaoping.

It was then described as a conflict between "the ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people and backward social production" - with an emphasis on economic and productivity growth

The recent one was set by Xi. It's updated as

"It makes clear that the principal contradiction facing Chinese society in the new era is that between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life.

The era of “Violent Delight” is ending with a great pain in deleveraging now

Xi’s administration realizes what can go wrong of the wealth gap and the unrealistic expectation of hyper growth. Hence the next 20 years of Socialism in China will more “controlled” to avoid unrest

Many confusion in the west are due to mixing up political idology with economic market structure.

The pragmatic socialism in China implemented by Deng shares lots of similarity with Singapore’s capitalism created by LKY as far as I can tell after living in both places

Finally, there are lots of merits in Chinese socialism through its unique implementation, I’m very optimistic in its future for next 20 years

Today is last day (the 7th day of lunar new year) of Chinese New Year break (大年初七)💁🏻‍♀️

Wish everybody a fruitful year of golden pig 🐖