I find that many Western Marxists fall into a libertarian-strained economics trap when they are thinking about China:

They will contend that China is imperialist and will use Lenin's thesis on imperialism to prove it. In short, monopoly overtakes all enterprises (across borders), finance capital merges with industrial capital, and export becomes primary.

The counter argument, at least from observing current conditions is: why would US foreign policy be centered around Balkanizing China if China is indeed imperialist? Monopoly is key. If China is imperialist, they would be part of the monopoly economy, not a competitor to it.

The Western Left will then contend that China is a rival imperialist nation and this is where the fallacy begins. Marxists believe in the inherent tendency of capitalism towards monopoly.

However, these "Marxists" will maintain Lenin's definition of imperialism while adhering to the libertarian thought that competition can freely exist. Capitalists have always worked together to form monopoly and dominate markets. Suddenly free competition is back?

Imperialism, in the Marxist definition, literally means the end of competition. Imperialism is not a larger, greater competition. The reason China is such a threat is that it largely exists out of the imperialist economic system while keeping some investments in it as protection.

An example of this is when the US state took a further right stance over HK than some US corporations. These corporations were forced to defend China at some level because their investments were sitting in China. This doesn't not mean that China is running an imperialist economy.

A nice breakdown of Chinese economy: https://monthlyreview.org/2018/10/01/on-the-nature-of-the-chinese-economic-system/

The year is not 1917. The year is 2020. New forms of economy have emerged and we should not force understandings of these economies onto conditions Lenin described in this moment. Instead we should harness his methods so we can run our own analysis and understanding.

In his moment*

I'd love reflections on my thinking...criticisms or more nuance