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Okay so in this thread I'm gonna outline how China is an imperialist country. This probably won't convince any dengists but for my own satisfaction
So let's familiarise ourselves with Lenin's definition of imperialism (because that's the correct one and it's never wrong ever)
So what monopoly capital is dominant within the Chinese economy? Put simply, it's the state and the various state-owned industries which dominate the market, forming a monopolistic cartel which is led by the state, which controls the prices and profits of these various companies
Before we move onto the next point we must distinguish between monopoly capitalists and monopoly capital. A group of capitalists can work together in order to fix prices and share profits acting to form a monopoly-like arrangement
So point 2, is there a merging of industrial and bank capital in China? Yes. The five largest banks in China are state-owned, with the largest being the *Industrial and Commercial Bank of China*, which also conveniently happens to be the largest bank in the world in total assets
Point 3 should be obvious, as over 10,000 Chinese businesses operate within Africa and likely thousands more throughout the world https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/middle-east-and-africa/the-closest-look-yet-at-chinese-economic-engagement-in-africa#
Point 4, again, there are hundreds if not thousands of branches of various Chinese state owned and private banks operating within Africa, Latin America and South East Asia
Point 5 is pretty hard to establish, granted we do not live in the age of colonialism or neo-colonialism (with the exception of countries like France .etc), however, 4/5 characteristics being met clearly point to China being imperialist
A couple of things I want to address at the end of this thread, China's imperialism does not cease to be imperialism even if they may give foreign aid or cancel debts
Foreign aid mind you is one of the number one tools of neo-colonialism. When France gives Mali aid in Euros what do you expect them to spend that money on? French commodities
This manifests itself in unequal exchange, which is not a key characteristic of imperialism, however, it does occur, especially in the case of China. One example is my country, Uganda, which sees high rates of unequal exchange https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/uga/
Lastly, China does not cease to be imperialist because it builds roads that may provide some benefit to a country. The British and the French did this and even Lenin talks about this in Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism
