Treehugger wonders what happens “when China’s green goals clash against red ones” as encouraging environmental activism would seem contrary to the jailing of those who do just that (not that China is the only country to do something like that.)
Meanwhile, in an almost comical development, Citic, a Chinese state-owned investment company, is considering buying a stake in major Wall Street investment bank Bears Stearns. Everyone seems to be dancing around the obvious fact that this would mean a major piece of a capitalist titan would then be owned by a communist government.
I would say that China is, and always has been, more a state capitalist system with state controlled social services rather than anything like a communist system? The state has always controlled the production, what will be produced and how much, and the workers have always been wage earners with little or no control over production. That in no way equates with a communist society. The only real difference is that recently it has allowed foreign capital to enter its domain. When it refused this development it was the enemy of the West, when it agreed to this it became a friend of Western capitalism and no longer sold as the “enemy”.