• lil_tank [any, he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    China in the ‘global south’ post 2008 is patently ridiculous. I really want to see what these percentages would say if China was included in the ‘global north’.

    China did not industrialize on the basis of a colonial empire so putting it in the global south makes sense. You could define the global north/south as a rich/poor division but it isn’t super useful in terms of recent historical material dynamics since the south will eventually get richer despite colonialism while the north will struggle because it doesn’t know how to develop without colonialism

    • impartial_fanboy [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      3 months ago

      China did not industrialize on the basis of a colonial empire

      It didn’t industrialize directly from a colonial empire, yes. However the capital that flowed into it certainly was, if China had not opened itself up to foreign capital it would not have industrialized anywhere near as fast as it did.

      since the south will eventually get richer despite colonialism

      Until they saturate their markets and start to look outside their borders for new markets.

      while the north will struggle because it doesn’t know how to develop without colonialism

      Colonialism is a product of capitalism, if you got rid of the entire global north but let the global south continue capital accumulation they would recreate colonialism, by necessity. No one knows how to develop without colonialism because no one knows how to develop without capitalism.

      • lil_tank [any, he/him]@hexbear.net
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        3 months ago

        However the capital that flowed into it certainly was, if China had not opened itself up to foreign capital it would not have industrialized anywhere near as fast as it did.

        They found a strategy to avoid being cold-wared by the global north, that’s not something a global north country does by definition

        Until they saturate their markets and start to look outside their borders for new markets.

        It’s not just capitalism in a vacuum, it’s a set of specific things that systematically happened in capitalist global north nations because they were dictatorships of the bourgeoisie. The phenomenon includes monopolies, banks and financial markets, three things that China is actively keeping under control.