Hello everybody and welcome back to Rev Left Radio.

On today's episode, we have on Zhao from Goods for the People and also the author of the essay will be discussing,

entitled Chinese Characteristics of Socialism, Civilizational factors, and CPC governance.

And the idea behind this episode is to kind of talk about some of the pre-existing cultural traditions within China

that perhaps give rise to inform, influence, and emerge within its version of socialist experimentation, starting with the primary

stage of socialist transition.

And so we start off the conversation with a basic Marxist-Leninist perspective on China and

how it meets the criteria laid out by Lenin and Mao of a legitimate socialist transitionary state. And then we go into

the traditions of China, specifically Confucianism, but also to a lesser extent, Taoism and

legalism. We talk about ancient China and as well as contemporary China. We talk about socialism

with Chinese characteristics. We talk about

what socialism, you know, might look like as it manifests in different cultures with different

histories and historical patterns and traditions to draw from. We end the discussion on a broad,

wide-ranging conversation about how every human culture has within it these emancipatory

kernels deep in its history that can that can be resurrected and put to use for the present

and the future without escaping to a nostalgic romanticized past, right?

Which is the reactionary move.

And then we end the discussion, I think, fascinatingly and perfectly,

on a universalist and evolutionary note,

tracing our lineage as homo sapiens back to the deeply social and communal nature of our species.

And in fact, it is the decisive element that gave rise to human civilization,

our ability to communicate and cooperate in increasingly sophisticated ways,

...