Kerim's Triptych ❧ Capitalist China, Land Acknowledgments, Good Night Doon

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1️⃣ China is Capitalist

One of the unfortunate side-effects of the DeepSeek AI story last week has been a resurgence of the phrase "socialism with Chinese characteristics" in lefty circles. This is often used to praise China's ability to compete, despite (according to the logic of those using this phrase) not having embraced western-style capitalism.

Now it is true that the Chinese state has disciplined its tech bros in ways that many of us now wish the US had been able to do, but I'd argue that this is simply a case of an autocrat disciplining potential rivals, not unlike Putin and the Russian oligarchs. The simple truth, as China labor scholar Eli Friedman (no relation) has put it, is that China is capitalist.

Here are a few choice quotes from an article that deserves to be read in full:

as with every other capitalist society, that proletarians must figure out some way to attach themselves to capital if they are to live. Basic needs such as food, housing, education, health care, transportation, and time for leisure and socializing are not guaranteed as a matter of course. Rather, the vast majority of people in China can only secure such items if they are first able to make themselves useful for capital.

. . .

Workers without a contract do not enjoy legal protections, making it extremely difficult to address labor rights violations. Furthermore, social insurance—including health insurance, pensions, workplace injury insurance, unemployment, and “birth insurance”—is employer-based. Being relegated to labor informality produces other forms of exclusion and market dependence for people living outside their area of hukou registration.

. . .

How does the state respond when workers employ the time-honored tradition of withholding their labor from capital? While strikes inevitably each have their own unique character, the police intervene almost exclusively on behalf of the boss, a service they provide to private domestic, foreign, and state-owned enterprises alike. There are innumerable instances in which police or state-sponsored thugs have used coercion to break a strike.

. . .

An astonishing concentration of plutocrats in the NPC and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress is most indicative of the formalization of capital’s political power: as of 2018, the wealthiest 153 members of these two central government bodies had an estimated combined wealth of USD $650 billion.

Besides Eli's work, I also recommend the Made in China journal as a good place to read accounts that go beyond propaganda to present the point of view of Chinese workers.

2️⃣ Land Acknowledgments in Taiwan

While land acknowledgements have become commonplace among global Indigenous communities and their supporters, they have not been as widespread in Taiwan. I mostly hear them at international events in Taiwan, not at local ones. What I hear instead is a brief introduction made in a Taiwanese Indigenous language. What is said in such introductions is often less important than the language used to say it.

I recently came across this wonderful article by Leeve Palray (Rukai), a PhD candidate in Anthropology at Cornell University. In it she investigates the history of land acknowledgements and discusses their use (or lack thereof) in Taiwan.

I won't share the whole thing, but I especially loved this poem by Jenny L. Davis, a Chickasaw scholar and professor of anthropology, which is included in the article:

Dear Officially Nondenominational Deity:
Please let me say these names right, or at least pretty close.
Why are there so many syllables?
And so many tribes?
Why couldn’t they just pick one and go with it?
Are there any Indians in the room?
I hope not. They’ll know if I said the names wrong.
Isn’t there an abbreviated version somewhere? I have a lot
to get through and last time I forgot to thank
the provost and she didn’t talk to me for a month. So please
don’t let me forget again—I’d never hear the end of it.
Where was I, oh right, the land acknowledgement statement.
Amen.

3️⃣ Goodnight Doon

Julia Yu created this wonderful Doon-esque homage to the classic children's book back in 2011 and updated it in 2021.

In a great green room, tucked away in bed, a young bunny gazes upon the two remaining moons of Arrakis…

Endnote

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