China’s Position in the Hierarchy of Global Capitalism

The question of China’s place in the international order is central to characterizing where the world capitalist system is heading. This article is part of an ongoing and as yet unconcluded process of elaboration and discussion on the topic within the Trotskyist Fraction–Fourth International (as part of which we have been publishing a variety of contributions). The positions taken below are the author’s own and do not reflect those of the Trotskyist Fraction as a whole.

The Chinese State Places Limits on Technology Giants

On the geopolitical significance of the humiliation of Chinese millionaire Jack Ma.

A Tour of Views on China’s Relationship to Imperialism

To complement “China and Imperialism: Elements for the Debate,” which explores how to characterize China within the imperialist system, this article presents some of the alternative positions.

China and Imperialism: Elements of the Debate

The question of China’s place in the international order is central to characterizing where the capitalist world system is headed. It has been the subject of a debate in which we find quite divergent positions — a sign of its complexity. This article is part of a process of elaboration and discussion underway in the Trotskyist Fraction–Fourth International.

Fifteen Asia-Pacific Countries Sign World’s Largest Free Trade Agreement

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was signed November 15 by 15 Asia-Pacific countries, to great fanfare in China’s pro-regime press. Currently of relatively limited economic scope, it could in the long term be a fulcrum in the fierce struggle between the major powers to conquer Asian markets.

The Final Debate: More of the Same With a Mute Button

Stripped of political theater, the final debate of the 2020 presidential election showed clearer than ever before that Donald Trump and Joe Biden want to present themselves as candidates of bourgeois “stability.” Though they differ in tactics, their responses showed that they share a vision of shoring up U.S. capitalist interests and revitalizing the decaying U.S. imperialist regime — and that they are more than willing to sacrifice the working class and oppressed across the world to do it.

Imperialism Today: Toward “Systemic Chaos”?

The U.S. elections will determine whether Donald Trump continues for another four years or the Democrats return to the White House with Joe Biden. Either scenario could mark a turning point. One salient characteristic of Trump’s first term has been his breaking — with uneven of the mechanisms through which the United States has articulated its dominance since World War II, shunning the more “multilateral” aspects of that dominance in favor of a more exacerbated unilateralism.

Disputes Between U.S. and China Dominate UN General Assembly

This Year's remote meeting of the United Nations General Assembly reflected the continued global health crisis as well as the ongoing and increasingly sharp economic battle between the US and China.

New Technologies, TikTok, Competition, and “Free” and Human Labor: An Interview with Economist Paula Bach

Economist Paula Bach, in an interview, addresses the future of work, new technologies and their relationship to the capitalist crisis, and how capitalism’s search for profit keeps new technologies from fulfilling their promise of vastly improving the lives of the great majority of people.