Why do so many people on Y!A think China is a communist country?

"The government (the "people") should own the means of production. True in China? No." Actually, the government owns controlling interest in all companies operating in China.

"The government should manage all labour and its rewards ("from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs"). True in China? No." It does indeed control labor and it's "rewards". It has been forcing men from the country to the city for the last two decades. As for the rewards, there are few, and the government has absolute say in that because they control the living and working conditions.

"Market forces should have no impact on management of the economy. True in China? No." You are right, but we are talking about companies that produce products for the rest of the world. Within China, they control everything. And yes, they favor the companies that are making products for the west, but then the government gets a huge chunk of that money.

"There should be a concerted move towards collectivism in all fields. In China? Moving away towards a classic capitalist model." China is using the ability to cheaply produce things the west wants, to destroy capitalism.

There is not and has never been a true communist state. There have been dictatorships that called themselves communist.

If you have ever been to an "open' meeting, you know why true communism can't work. A horde of people with completely different viewpoints all haggle and then go home leaving the main matter still in chaos.

In those states calling themselves communist, there is a central committee which dominates the Party and basically decides on the membership.

It is still heavily state controlled centralized planning.

They have no freedoms of speech or assembly and run their people like the Soviets did a gulag camp.

Their best athletes are taken from their families at a young age and become subjects of the state.

They are still very much like the Soviet Union. Just a better run system due in part by letting successful companies come to China to put their slaves to work.

The government in China still owns most of the means of production through state run corporations, they just sound like the ones we have in the west. see list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Government-o...

While their economy certainly as aspects of capitalism, it's their social policies that reek of Communism.

There's more to a ideology than just it's economic principles

The argument you make, all the elements you present, are true but what is also true is that the government could, and would, end this "grand experiment into limited capitalism" if it threatened the existence of the state society. Most people, as you point out, have a limited understanding of economics and all too often use the word "communism" as a synonym for a dictatorship, in other words, when most people use the word communism to describe a society it usually relates to how much control is in the hands of a few rather than the economic aspects of the model.

They call themselves Communist BUT.

well a guy just told me that Arizona sucks

so I ask him

are you ever been in Arizona?

he say no

it's basically the same thing for all idiots who say stuff about China

they just don't know wtf they're talking about

****

IT's because of tha GEEEEEEEE OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH PEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! And all the smarmy political people who use smarmy political phrases