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Is China an Imperialist Country?: considerations and evidence
Whether or not China is now a capitalist-imperialist country is an issue on which there is some considerable disagreement, even within the revolutionary left. This book brings together theoretical, definitional and logical considerations, as well as the extensive empirical evidence which is now available, to demonstrate that China has indeed definitely become a capitalist-imperialist country. Indeed, the issue is raised of whether the current world imperialist system is in fact in the early stages of bifurcating into two competing imperialist blocs, one led by the United States and the other led by China.
184 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2015
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September 2, 2024
A Marxist-Leninist-Maoist take on China. Defines imperialism (capitalist imperialism) today as the “modern stage of capitalism” in which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital (merger of industrial and financial capital that becomes so intertwined that it becomes a new configuration altogether) is thoroughly established. In this new stage, again building off Lenin’s definition of Imperialism, the “export of capital” has “pronounced importance”, the world has been completely divided up between “trusts” (AKA conglomerates, multinational or transnational corporations, etc), and all territories around the world have been divided between the major capitalist powers. According to this, imperialism today is still the monopoly stage of capitalism, and Lenin is still ultimately correct in his analysis of imperialism. There is an imperialist system today; although it is dominated by the U.S. there are other imperialist countries within it. These include: Japan, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, China, Holland, Belgium, Canada, and South Korea. Today, instead of having direct colonies, there is a system of neocolonialism (or post-colonialism) whereby the “neocolony” is the collective property of all imperialist powers. Why does the U.S. allow other imperialist powers to join in the plunder? Because it must have some level of consent in order to remain the de facto head of the international capitalist system; even with its massive military, proliferation of military bases, vast nuclear arsenal, and disproportionate power in institutions such as the IMF and UN, America cannot control the entire globe by itself. It must allow some benefits to accrue to its allies (underlings) or risk global pushback against its dominance. China was brought into this system under the conditions that it:
1. Continued its capitalist restoration at home.
2. Opened up its economy to foreign investments from MNCs while allowing them to exploit low wage Chinese laborers
3. To play by the rules of the U.S. led capitalist system, especially those laid out by the IMF and WTO
In exchange for this, China was:
1. Given membership to the WTO
2. Allowed to acquire foreign technology
3. Allowed to export capital to other countries in the world imperialist system (such as buying up mines or companies in Africa, setting up subsidiaries in foreign countries, and allowing China to buy up assets around the world)
China was also allowed to build up a huge trade surplus as long as it used large portions of this surplus to buy up U.S. government debt; this is the only thing keeping the system afloat.
Looking at China today, it seems naive not to consider it imperialist if you believe we are in the imperialist stage of capitalism, simply due to the fact that it is the largest economy in the world. Monopolies and finance capital have also thoroughly established dominance in modern China. Homegrown Chinese monopolies, or more accurately oligopolies (a handful of producers share the market), dominate China. SOEs still make up half of China’s economy in terms of assets owned, and about 1/3 in value-added production, but only employ around 20% (as of 2012) of China’s workforce (as opposed to 60% in the 1990s). SOEs themselves operate like privately owned corporations. In the 1970s the benefits of the iron rice bowl system, which guaranteed workers in SOEs an 8 hour day, fairer wages and promotions, free medical benefits was dismantled, pensions, paid maternity and sick leave, subsidized food, subsidized housing, and subsidized child care, were all stripped away and are no longer obligations. In 1984, new SOE regulations gave the SOEs more leeway to produce what was profitable, versus what was required by state planning; allowed them to set prices for themselves, to choose their own suppliers, and to have more control over hiring, firing, and wages. Therefore, both SOEs and private enterprises operate under the coercion of the profit motive and exploit the working class. While many enterprises are run by members of the communist party (and almost all have CCP members on their boards of directors), in 2001 the party lifted their ban on having capitalist members. This was a follow up to the capitalist takeover that happened in 1992, when the party began encouraging members to start their own enterprises and corporations while providing them the political muscle to do so.
China in a sense looks like America under the New Deal/Keynesian state. Most major corporations have a member of the CCP on their board of directors, giving China a vast interlocking directorate under control of the CCP. China’s banking system is also wholly run by the CCP. 4 of the 10 largest banks in the world are Chinese, including the world’s largest bank The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Just looking at ICBC shows the staggering scale of Chinese banking, for that bank alone controls around $2 trillion and employs over 400,000 people while having 4 million corporate clients and 14,000 branches. Chinese banks hold around 98% of all Chinese financial assets, and the big 4 banks as well as the regulatory agencies are all led by high ranking CCP members. State control over the financial system allows the Chinese government to supervise the entire economy, much like New York banks almost exclusively had control over investment in the U.S. economy until the 1970s (read Lachmann’s First Class Passengers on a Sinking Ship for more). Usually these investments take the form of massive debt-financed infrastructure projects to absorb China’s large labor force and keep employment high (and thus subvert widespread unrest). These take the form of things such as massive city building projects or China’s robust high speed railway system which stretches across the entire nation.
So China is pretty obviously a capitalist nation according to the book, and as far as I can tell this seems readily apparent to me as well. However, what makes it imperialist? All nations today are capitalist, but not all are imperialist. The book posits that the ruling classes of all capitalist nations “operate in the same imperialist way to the extent that they are able to do so”, but most simply aren’t able to at any real degree. The book points out that it would be ridiculous to consider impoverished nations such as Haiti, Cambodia, or Nepal imperialist. Although there are ultra wealthy capitalists in each country (even Nepal has a single billionaire who runs a massive global conglomerate), the ruling classes of most nations are “largely subservient to foreign imperialism” and the global imperialist system. Most ruling classes today are “forced into the position of being… de facto agents of foreign imperialist powers.”. For those who try and become independent from this system for their own narrow benefits or for the benefits of their national bourgeois, the world-imperialist-system will discipline them through hybrid warfare (economic + military warfare). If a national ruling class develops enough strength to resist such discipline, it will begin to take advantage of the current imperialist system by maintaining/imposing asymmetrical relationships with weaker nations/ruling classes (i.e it will imperialize others for its own benefit). Countries like India and Brazil (as well as most members of the BRICS bloc) are both exploited by foreign imperialist powers while simultaneously exploiting weaker neighbors. It is acceptable for the world-imperialist-system to, in true gangster fashion, allow some local “bosses” to keep order in their region and loot surrounding neighbors (to an acceptable degree) much like Saudi Arabia does in the Middle East or Brazil does in Latin America.
One of the key determinants in the Leninist conception of imperialism is whether a nation exports capital to a large degree. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) entails a foreign country (either the state or private entities within that nation) owning assets in another country, such as “factories, mines, or businesses”. FDI can take the form of building new structures such as factories in another country (greenfield investment) or by purchasing an existing company or a controlling share in an existing company (brownfield investment). This means that China’s holdings of U.S. treasury bonds don’t count as FDI, but they are still considered an exportation of capital (Lenin termed this as “usury capital”). When this book was written (2013), China’s holdings of U.S. treasury securities were nearly $2 trillion. China’s export of capital therefore takes the form of investments in foreign securities (again, especially U.S. treasury bonds) over FDI, although China is trending towards more FDI. China’s total stock of outward FDI is much lower than other imperialist countries, but its rate of outward FDI growth was the highest in the imperialist world when this book was written.
China is also building up its military, whose annual military spending in 2012 was 3x larger than it was in 2002. By building up its nuclear arsenal, China has likely forestalled any direct inter-imperialist war with the American/Atlantic bloc. However China, along with other weaker/sub-imperialist nations, are building large numbers of aircraft carriers. These are completely obsolete in inter-imperialist wars due to the efficacy of modern torpedoes and supersonic missiles which cannot be dodged or blocked. These carriers are only useful in imperializing weaker nations who do not have these weapons. Aircraft carriers are essentially mobile bombing centers that can be used to bring entire air forces into range, which can then be used to bomb weaker nations into submission. China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) was originally a “brown water” navy, meaning it was designed to stick near China’s shores functioning as a coast guard. It is shifting into a “green water” navy, which has somewhat more long range capabilities, but still stays close to mainland China and only ventures out as far as Japan, Okinawa, and the Philippines. The PLAN is currently attempting to transform itself into a full fledged “blue water” navy which can patrol all oceans across the world, and thus bring it deeper into the Pacific towards Guam and Australia. These deep sea ventures have already begun taking place, as the navy has “fought pirates” in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of Somalia. Militarily, China already intervenes in countries, helps facilitate regime change, sells weapons to governments it favors, and trains foreign troops. In 2002 China was the #7 largest arms dealer in the world, by 2012 it had moved up to #3, and it remains in the top 5 today. China has sent soldiers to Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Ivory Coast, and the Democratic Republic of Congo on “UN peacekeeping missions”.
1. Continued its capitalist restoration at home.
2. Opened up its economy to foreign investments from MNCs while allowing them to exploit low wage Chinese laborers
3. To play by the rules of the U.S. led capitalist system, especially those laid out by the IMF and WTO
In exchange for this, China was:
1. Given membership to the WTO
2. Allowed to acquire foreign technology
3. Allowed to export capital to other countries in the world imperialist system (such as buying up mines or companies in Africa, setting up subsidiaries in foreign countries, and allowing China to buy up assets around the world)
China was also allowed to build up a huge trade surplus as long as it used large portions of this surplus to buy up U.S. government debt; this is the only thing keeping the system afloat.
Looking at China today, it seems naive not to consider it imperialist if you believe we are in the imperialist stage of capitalism, simply due to the fact that it is the largest economy in the world. Monopolies and finance capital have also thoroughly established dominance in modern China. Homegrown Chinese monopolies, or more accurately oligopolies (a handful of producers share the market), dominate China. SOEs still make up half of China’s economy in terms of assets owned, and about 1/3 in value-added production, but only employ around 20% (as of 2012) of China’s workforce (as opposed to 60% in the 1990s). SOEs themselves operate like privately owned corporations. In the 1970s the benefits of the iron rice bowl system, which guaranteed workers in SOEs an 8 hour day, fairer wages and promotions, free medical benefits was dismantled, pensions, paid maternity and sick leave, subsidized food, subsidized housing, and subsidized child care, were all stripped away and are no longer obligations. In 1984, new SOE regulations gave the SOEs more leeway to produce what was profitable, versus what was required by state planning; allowed them to set prices for themselves, to choose their own suppliers, and to have more control over hiring, firing, and wages. Therefore, both SOEs and private enterprises operate under the coercion of the profit motive and exploit the working class. While many enterprises are run by members of the communist party (and almost all have CCP members on their boards of directors), in 2001 the party lifted their ban on having capitalist members. This was a follow up to the capitalist takeover that happened in 1992, when the party began encouraging members to start their own enterprises and corporations while providing them the political muscle to do so.
China in a sense looks like America under the New Deal/Keynesian state. Most major corporations have a member of the CCP on their board of directors, giving China a vast interlocking directorate under control of the CCP. China’s banking system is also wholly run by the CCP. 4 of the 10 largest banks in the world are Chinese, including the world’s largest bank The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Just looking at ICBC shows the staggering scale of Chinese banking, for that bank alone controls around $2 trillion and employs over 400,000 people while having 4 million corporate clients and 14,000 branches. Chinese banks hold around 98% of all Chinese financial assets, and the big 4 banks as well as the regulatory agencies are all led by high ranking CCP members. State control over the financial system allows the Chinese government to supervise the entire economy, much like New York banks almost exclusively had control over investment in the U.S. economy until the 1970s (read Lachmann’s First Class Passengers on a Sinking Ship for more). Usually these investments take the form of massive debt-financed infrastructure projects to absorb China’s large labor force and keep employment high (and thus subvert widespread unrest). These take the form of things such as massive city building projects or China’s robust high speed railway system which stretches across the entire nation.
So China is pretty obviously a capitalist nation according to the book, and as far as I can tell this seems readily apparent to me as well. However, what makes it imperialist? All nations today are capitalist, but not all are imperialist. The book posits that the ruling classes of all capitalist nations “operate in the same imperialist way to the extent that they are able to do so”, but most simply aren’t able to at any real degree. The book points out that it would be ridiculous to consider impoverished nations such as Haiti, Cambodia, or Nepal imperialist. Although there are ultra wealthy capitalists in each country (even Nepal has a single billionaire who runs a massive global conglomerate), the ruling classes of most nations are “largely subservient to foreign imperialism” and the global imperialist system. Most ruling classes today are “forced into the position of being… de facto agents of foreign imperialist powers.”. For those who try and become independent from this system for their own narrow benefits or for the benefits of their national bourgeois, the world-imperialist-system will discipline them through hybrid warfare (economic + military warfare). If a national ruling class develops enough strength to resist such discipline, it will begin to take advantage of the current imperialist system by maintaining/imposing asymmetrical relationships with weaker nations/ruling classes (i.e it will imperialize others for its own benefit). Countries like India and Brazil (as well as most members of the BRICS bloc) are both exploited by foreign imperialist powers while simultaneously exploiting weaker neighbors. It is acceptable for the world-imperialist-system to, in true gangster fashion, allow some local “bosses” to keep order in their region and loot surrounding neighbors (to an acceptable degree) much like Saudi Arabia does in the Middle East or Brazil does in Latin America.
One of the key determinants in the Leninist conception of imperialism is whether a nation exports capital to a large degree. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) entails a foreign country (either the state or private entities within that nation) owning assets in another country, such as “factories, mines, or businesses”. FDI can take the form of building new structures such as factories in another country (greenfield investment) or by purchasing an existing company or a controlling share in an existing company (brownfield investment). This means that China’s holdings of U.S. treasury bonds don’t count as FDI, but they are still considered an exportation of capital (Lenin termed this as “usury capital”). When this book was written (2013), China’s holdings of U.S. treasury securities were nearly $2 trillion. China’s export of capital therefore takes the form of investments in foreign securities (again, especially U.S. treasury bonds) over FDI, although China is trending towards more FDI. China’s total stock of outward FDI is much lower than other imperialist countries, but its rate of outward FDI growth was the highest in the imperialist world when this book was written.
China is also building up its military, whose annual military spending in 2012 was 3x larger than it was in 2002. By building up its nuclear arsenal, China has likely forestalled any direct inter-imperialist war with the American/Atlantic bloc. However China, along with other weaker/sub-imperialist nations, are building large numbers of aircraft carriers. These are completely obsolete in inter-imperialist wars due to the efficacy of modern torpedoes and supersonic missiles which cannot be dodged or blocked. These carriers are only useful in imperializing weaker nations who do not have these weapons. Aircraft carriers are essentially mobile bombing centers that can be used to bring entire air forces into range, which can then be used to bomb weaker nations into submission. China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) was originally a “brown water” navy, meaning it was designed to stick near China’s shores functioning as a coast guard. It is shifting into a “green water” navy, which has somewhat more long range capabilities, but still stays close to mainland China and only ventures out as far as Japan, Okinawa, and the Philippines. The PLAN is currently attempting to transform itself into a full fledged “blue water” navy which can patrol all oceans across the world, and thus bring it deeper into the Pacific towards Guam and Australia. These deep sea ventures have already begun taking place, as the navy has “fought pirates” in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of Somalia. Militarily, China already intervenes in countries, helps facilitate regime change, sells weapons to governments it favors, and trains foreign troops. In 2002 China was the #7 largest arms dealer in the world, by 2012 it had moved up to #3, and it remains in the top 5 today. China has sent soldiers to Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Ivory Coast, and the Democratic Republic of Congo on “UN peacekeeping missions”.
October 8, 2025
Yes, China is a capitalist-imperialist country. “For the working people and poor of the world the hope of the future is not to be found in either of
the two developing imperialist blocs, or in vainly attempting to support one of them against the
other. On the contrary, our task is to build an international revolutionary force in all lands to
overthrow the world capitalist-imperialist system as a whole! World imperialism is in growing
crisis and ever more serious disarray, and the material conditions for world revolution are
developing rapidly. Let us imbue the masses with the revolutionary spirit necessary to free the
world from the perpetual horrors of capitalist-imperialism!”
the two developing imperialist blocs, or in vainly attempting to support one of them against the
other. On the contrary, our task is to build an international revolutionary force in all lands to
overthrow the world capitalist-imperialist system as a whole! World imperialism is in growing
crisis and ever more serious disarray, and the material conditions for world revolution are
developing rapidly. Let us imbue the masses with the revolutionary spirit necessary to free the
world from the perpetual horrors of capitalist-imperialism!”
January 25, 2020
17 century concepts wielded aptly by a scholar that would amaze any 16 century intellectual.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews