On Imperialism of Russia……. and China(!)


Dear IBT comrades,


I recently read IBT’s No.41 stipulating Russia as imperialist power in articles following: Imperialist Rivalries Escalate Russia: Capital Export & Global Power; Imperialists Tear Ukraine Apart; Split from the IBT Confusion, Empiricism & Sectarianism. It seemed inconsistent with Trotskyist line what IBT advocate for decades in first sight since we all know Leninist concept of Imperialism is not just military struggle but usage of armed force by financial capitals and Russia has far less developed economy than its competitors, but with your comparison to Tsarist Russia I understood that it appears reasonable to call modern Russia as relatively weak and newly arised imperialist state with backwardness. Still what I think necessary for acknowledging Russia as Imperialist is analysis on Russian capital export in neo-colonial countries and especially in Georgia, Crimea, Eastern Ukraine before and after Russian occupation, as Lenin did in his . Do you have that kind of data? Are they already on your publications?


Besides, if Russia can be imperialist power with backward economy than USA and western Europe, how about capital export and imperialism of China on the basis of worker’s state? As IBT clarified, Chinese Stalinist bureaucracy, who had no more capacity to run bureaucratic planned economy but cannot allow worker’s democracy which is only possible solution for protection and progress of Chinese worker’s state, permitted rebirth of Chinese bourgeoisie and allied with them. Though until now state ownership have been at dominant position, private owned capitals of China are mega-corporations up to international standard despite of their domestic inferior status. Productivity of China that GDP per capita indicate is now higher than global average. There is clearly attraction for Chinese capitals to invest in ‘countries profits are usually high, for capital is scarce, the price of land is relatively low, wages are low, raw materials are cheap’(Lenin). Then what bars Chinese bourgeoisie from exporting capital to neo-colonial countries and receive super-profits? Cannot state-owned enterprises do same thing and exploit oppressed people for bureaucracy? What if the former, latter or both make Chinese Stalinists mobilize PLA to protect their exported capital and to make better environment for their exploitation? Is this imperialism? Should we call this ‘deformed worker’s state in which internal bourgeois element ascended to imperialist stage’? (Very weird, but degenerated/deformed worker’s state itself is also one of most weird thing in human history.) 


Yes, state-capitalism theorists would say this is already happening and China is capitalist and imperialist, pointing ‘Belt and Road’, but in my opinion it is in the realm of conjecture yet. Chinese Department of Commerce announced their annual overseas investments was ‘second place’ big in the world in 2016, but 58.2% of them went to Hong Kong and 8.7% to USA, followed by corruption hideouts Cayman islands, Virgin islands. Neo-colonial countries as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam were less than 1%. May Chinese worker’s state would collapse by proletariat or bourgeoisie before this situation come true, but what if not? China can be imperialist?


One more question is about defense of Chinese worker’s state against capitalist states, strong or not. We Trotskyists supported victory of Soviet Union against ‘small and pathetic’ Finland because their victory would eradicate Finnish bourgeoisie. (Surely we didn’t support starting the war since it would harm national sentiment of Finnish workers and undermine defense of Soviet worker’s state.) but is this the case for People’s Republic of China? If Chinese Stalinists conquer, for example, Mongolia in near future, would there be collectivisation as they did in Tibet? They ‘conquered’ Hong Kong two decades ago and nothing happened to Hong Kong bourgeoisie. What was Bolshevik-Leninist theory on countries under political, military submission to worker’s state but remain as bourgeois states like Baltic states before 1940s?   


p.s. As a Trotskyist in South Korea, I am curious about the fate of IBT member organisation here. 볼셰비키 그룹(Bolshevik group), which I understand that liquidated tie with IBT in 2018, has no official statement on IBT yet and I have no personal contact with them. Is there still IBT branch and members in South Korea or not?   


Comradely, from Incheon

OOOOOO OOO




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