China is helping Russia ramp up its defense industrial base at such a large scale that Moscow is now undertaking its most ambitious expansion in military manufacturing since the Soviet era as it continues its war against Ukraine, according to senior Biden administration officials.

The support China is providing includes significant quantities of machine tools, drone and turbojet engines and technology for cruise missiles, microelectronics, and nitrocellulose, which Russia uses to make propellant for weapons, said the officials.

Chinese and Russian entitles have also been working jointly to produce drones inside of Russia, one of the officials said.

  • BigFig@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    “war against capitalism”

    Don’t fool yourself into believing China is communist though. At this point they’re just a different flavor of capitalism.

    My Chinese history professor said that every citizen is a good member of the communist party, and every smart citizen buys and sells at the Shanghai stock exchange.

    • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      China doesn’t claim to have a communist economic system though. They understand perfectly well that they have a market economy. Their rationale for this apparent contradiction is that they believed they couldn’t grow quickly enough in isolation. They thought that by building a market economy they could trade with the western world and therefore rapidly develop. I think that gambit has clearly paid off. It’ll be interesting to see what decisions China makes once their economy is strong enough that the US cannot legitimately threaten it.

      • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        So what communist system do they have? Control of idiots? I’m genuinely confused when I encounter “china communism” discussions as it always turns into shrodinger’s semantics.

        I think China has been very clear with their image projection: it’s a totalitarian regime that only cares about Han chinese.

        • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          They don’t have a communist system. As I said, they don’t claim to have one either. It’s not Schrödinger semantics. They do want to build a post scarcity society where every person is given the resources they need to thrive, aka communism. During the Mao era they thought they could achieve that through revolutionary fervor. After the failure of many of Mao’s campaigns they turned towards a model that prioritized economic growth. That meant they were willing to leverage a market economy for however long it was useful.

          You can just go and read their self assessment on past actions and their development plans. They aren’t shy about it and there’s no real indication they’re lying about their intentions. They’re pretty explicit about why they think maintaining the political supremacy of the CPC is important.

          They also don’t put out any statements to indicate they believe in Han supremacy. That’s honestly silly to me especially when you consider the vast ethnic and cultural diversity that’s contained within the Han ethnic group. The CPC is however very concerned about maintaining national integrity which means they do suppress independence movements within the country. That goes for both ideological movements such as the protests in Hong Kong and Taiwanese independence or ethnic movements as in Tibet and Xinjiang.

      • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Building a cryptofascist empire will turn into a luxurious fully automated communism with a push or a button surely any day now…

        • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Wrong:

          According to Xi, “the consolidation and development of the socialist system will require its own long period of history… it will require the tireless struggle of generations, up to ten generations.”

              • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
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                8 months ago

                The people today kinda live in a temporary fascism with the promise that some day some future generation might live in a garden of Eden

                • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  Think about it. If 1.4 billion people were starving and unhappy, don’t you think there would be wall to wall coverage on the evening news? China has problems like any other country, but they managed to lift their people out of poverty and industrialize. Hate them all you want, it doesn’t make a difference to them.