Is China to the Left of the United States?

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By China, I mean the People's Republic of China and not Taiwan. Unlike the United States, China has had a civil war between nationalists and communists and is still controlled by a communist party; traditionally, communism has been considered the far left in the U.S., and communists and socialists have never done well politically here. Nevertheless, China seems to be very much to the right of the mainstream U.S. Left on numerous issues: freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, minority rights (e.g., racial-minority rights and gay rights), environmentalism (Three Gorges Dam, water, factories), popular democracy (China is a top-down, one-party authoritarian state, after all), cultural appreciation (their Cultural Revolution), and consumer and labor protections (surprisingly, Marxism was born of the 19th-century labor movement!). On many of these issues, China is significantly to the right of the U.S. overall and not just the U.S. Left! It even has legally distinct classes (the rural peasant class has much less opportunity than the urbanite, and there are legal restrictions on the peasants moving to the cities). In contrast to the anti-war demonstrators and pacifists of the U.S. Left, China has an expansive Red Army and has become increasingly bold in diplomatic affairs. China's legal/judicial system also seems to be lacking in basic protections like due process of the law; judges will even outright ignore China's own written law to silence political dissidents.

None of this sounds very leftist about China.

i don't think it can really be boiled down to left/right - China is a particular variation of the Stalinist state and certainly doesn't permit the freedoms enjoyed in America (though those in the US aren't exactly at their full extent, and there are many roads to silencing dissent) however China's planned economy has transformed a gargantuan nation. Still it's a terrifying place to live.

well, only surprising if one thinks of the Stalinism of the USSR (and that forced on eastern europe) and Maoism as representative of Marxism - which they are not.

China is a perfect illustration of why the left/right axis is poor description of politics.

Politically, China is less free than the U.S. Traditionally, though, both the "left" and "right" ends of the spectrum have been dominated by totalitarian states. Personal political liberty is something that both the left and the right seem to approve of, but only when it's convenient for them.

Economically, modern China has actually changed to be more like the model of the Pacific rim, and is now more free than the U.S. A lot of people own their own little businesses in China, unlike the U.S. where the vast majority have to take jobs with large corporations. Taxes are also lower in China. But is economic freedom "left" or "right"?

By the way, "legally distinct classes" does not really accurately describe the situation in China. There are restrictions on moving, but a lot of people do move from farms to cities. Rural families are also allowed more latitude to deviate from the one child rule than urban families. It's also to be noted that the specific laws often vary from province to province.

politicalcompass.org has a much better way of splitting up the political spectrum. Also has some other neat stuff worth checking out if you are interested in politics.

Left/right is economy. Left being socialism/communism, right being neo-liberalism.

Up/down is control. Up being fascism, down being libertarian/anarchism.

China is embracing capitalism, but not democracy.

Thus it is simply moving from Communism to facism ( authoritarian goverment but with a free enterprise economy) without making a stop at democracy.
Though its rulers would never call themselves "facists".

So its hardly surprising that its starting to resemble Mussolini's Italy.
Like Mussolini's Italy its very pro-business, anti labor, and has milaristic tendancies.
Just what youd expect.
As far as the rule of law and respecting individual rights and respecting dissadents: a move from Mao to Mussolini is not moving at all. China rulers have the same undemocratic tendencies as they always had- labeling it 'right' or 'left' is kind of irrelevent. Whats important is that they are not democratic.

I've always equated the far left with statism and less freedom so I don't see where you're coming from.

Message from planet Earth:
The far left equals Stalin. The far right equal Hitler!
Its the "far" thats significant -not whether its followed by left nor right.

Where Im "coming from" is simply stating the obvious.

Hitler,mussolini,and Franco were considered the antithesis of Stalin (the extreme right) in prewar Europe.
But in practice they were more like Stalin than either they or stalin were like the Western democracies. Both extemes resulted in totalitarian dictatorships.

The Ayatollah was hardly a godless communist- but he ruled Iran more like Stalin than like Thomas Jefferson.Take any creed to its extreme and you're like to have a totalitarin dictatorship.

The same regime runs China that ran it under Communism.
The regime realized that Capitalism made for a more dynamic economy than communism so they freed up the country's economy, but without freeing up the political system (except in cosmetic ways) for the obvious reason that they want to stay in power and not risk getting voted out. So theyve simply moved from communism to a dictarhip-with-capitalism. There's a word for that setup- its "facism" ( which is normally considered "right wing"). They moved from Stalin to Hitler. Theorically its going to the opposite extreme (from the far left to the far right) but in practical effect on freedom its hardly a change at all.

This is not to say that China couldnt become truly democratic, but it would have to suffer some significant upheavals for that to happen because the current regime would have to go.