Taiwanese journalist and insomniac Brian Hioe examines the recent ‘China and the Left’ conference with long critique titled “Manichaeism with Chinese Characteristics.” Originally a 500+ live tweet marathon, Hioe details the many questionable assertions, such as China cannot be a colonial power toward Uyghurs and Tibetans because it’s a manufacturing power, or that since the largest four banks in the world by total assets are Chinese government-owned, they are owned by the people and thus not a sign of the financialization of China.
“Broadly speaking, many of the speakers at the “China and Left” conference seemed to only ever view the state as fundamentally opposed to the free market, failing to note how despite their neoliberal self-understanding, capitalists often bank on the state to bail them out when necessary.”
Hioe has also dissected earlier publications of the conference co-hosts, the Monthly Review and the Qiao Collective.