The book offers analysis on what is really happening behind the emergence of China as a giant powerful country, and by its own words in the preface, tries to answer the thorniest of political questions: Where is China going? The book analyzes the working class future in China as well as the political orientation of the ruling Communist Party, especially questioning its direction which is obviously on the capitalism track.

According to this book, China is plugged into the global capitalist system by a million different cables. The most important channels are a) capital flows and investment, b) trade, and c) the transnational corporation that use China as final link in an all Asia and indeed global production chain. Surely, the economic growth shown by the rapid increase of GDP takes place at the expense of the suffering of working class. The rapid growth of China economy has turned China into the world’s largest proletariat, numbering upwards of 260 million. As hukou,thehousehold registration system, still discriminates against migrant workers from benefitting from social rights; they constitute the bulk of cheap labours working in the sweatshop. The authors of the book argues that they are opposed to all forms of discrimination whether on the grounds of ethnicity, sex, age, religious beliefs or place of birth. Repealing hukou must also be followed by massive programme of public investment to recreate vital services such as healthcare, education, public transport and a social security system, which have been downsized or dismantled under 30 years of pro-capitalist ‘reforms’, especially since the 1990s.

The book emphasizes that the claim that democracy goes hand in hand with massive foreign investment is merely a myth. Foreign capitalists invest their money in China because of the dictatorship, the absolute control over workers. In terms of the democracy issue, clearly all forms of mass struggle are a threat for mainland China. The book pinpoints the way capitalism in China has been recreated under the tutelage of the Stalinist ruling party.

So where is China going? The recent Olympic game was, for the Chinese government, a display of China as a big nation. Yet behind all the glamorous performance shown is the sweat and blood of the people. Meanwhile, political process taking place in Hong Kong, like the success of LSD (The League of Social Democrats) in the recent elections, according to this book, should be supported by a strong mass movement to counter efforts from Hong Kong capitalists hand in hand with China government to halt the democratic process. Political dynamic in Hong Kong could be influential as Macau and Guangdong province people follow the process through television. The book argues that the financial crisis will usher in a new period in China, when there will be an eruption of mass movements, and the balance within the ‘Shanghai faction’ and the Hu faction will be shaken. 

Price: HK$60