China and Socialism: Preface

The Chinese economic experience remains the source of important lessons about the challenges of building socialism. However, the current lessons are mostly negative. Tragically, the Chinese government's program of "market reforms," which was allegedly supposed to reinvigorate socialism, has instead led the country down a slippery slope toward an increasingly capitalist, foreign-dominated development path. The resulting domestic and international social costs have been enormous. Compounding the tragedy is the fact that many progressives, including many who continue to support socialism, remain defenders of Chinese economic policies and encourage those in other countries to adopt similar policies.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.