China opening "Economic Zones" in DPRK

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/as...353453229.html

China and North Korea have formally started construction of two joint economic zones near their border, on the North Korean islands of Hwanggumpyong and Wihwa on the west, and the Rajin-Sonbong area on the east.
Ceremonies marking the start of the projects took place during consultations held in China's northeastern provinces of Liaoning and Jilin from Tuesday to Thursday, the Chinese commerce ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The sides agreed that the economic zones should be developed along "government-guided, enterprise-based and market-oriented" principles, the ministry said.
Present at the event were: Chen Deming, the Chinese commerce minister; Jang Song-thaek, the vice-chairman of North Korea's powerful National Defence Commission and brother-in-law of the North's leader Kim Jong Il; and various officials of the local district councils, it said.
The officials said the ceremony was held "in the historical period [following a recent visit to China by] Kim Jong Il ... recording a new chapter in the history of the traditional DPRK-China friendship", North Korea's official KCNA news agency reported, also on Thursday.
DPRK refers to North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Elusive projects
Little is known about plans for the development projects and what they will have to offer.
Both countries have divulged little information, save for the fact that the zones will improve freight transportation by opening up access to sea for China's northeast provinces.
The Hwanggumpyong and Wihwa Islands on the Yalu River near the Chinese city of Dandong, have "favourable conditions for emerging a world trade and investment hub connecting Northeast Asia with Europe and North America," officials said in their congratulatory remarks, KCNA reported.
"... it is linked with the DPRK, China and Russia bordering on the Tumen River and has [the] East Sea.
"Smooth progress in the joint development and operation of the zone would promote from a new angle the economic development, in not only the two countries but also Northeast Asia, and give affirmative effect on the global economic development," they said.
KCNA said that the ceremony at the Rajin-Sonbong special economic zone, often abbreviated as "Rason", broke ground for the construction of a road and a cement factory and saw the launch of Chinese domestic freight transportation via Rajin Port, and a private car tourism project as the first phase initiatives.
Rason, located near China's northeastern Yanbian county, could bring "about a turn in freight transit transportation and tourism by speedily solving the issue of electricity and winding up the projects for modernization of Rajin Port and reconstruction of Rajin Port-Wonjong road through positive cooperation within this year," the report said.
Unclear prospects
The joint projects follow Kim's visit to China last month, his third within a year, which was seen a sign of desperation for the reclusive North's ailing economy.
Pyongyang has been hit by various UN sanctions, imposed after a May 2009 atomic test, in order to pressure it for a return to six-country nuclear talks.
China, the North's closest and most crucial ally, has pressed Kim to adopt changes to revitalise his nation's industry and agriculture, but is unclear how far he is willing to go.
Beijing has been careful to forestall the regime's collapse, as it could unleash political chaos and send waves of refugees across its border.
At the same time, China has increased its investment in improving the economy in its northeastern provinces along the border shared with North Korea, looking for a way to access the sea on the Korean peninsula's east, and allow transportation of goods.
North Korea has been attempting to follow the Chinese economic model, introducing various laws, tax breaks and special economic zones like the Rason, which was first established in 1991 to introduce foreign investment.
It attempted at a second special economic zone in the border city of Sinuiju, but the plan was abandoned after China arrested Yang Bin, the Dutch-Chinese businessman who was leading the project.

Aww, the state capital is getting hitched, how cute . Market principles ... don't worry kiddies, the workers may be getting exploited, but at least Glorious Leader Kim and the Chinese state capitalists can still get their cognac!

[Demogorgon]

The leaders of two glorious working class states are uniting to drive forward the cause of socialism.

[Revolutionair]

"The workingmen all have the Chinese nationality, and they are proud of it."
- Karl Marx, hidden pages Communist Manifesto

[Kiev Communard]

This once again shows the fallacy of state socialism that pretends that the State takeover of means of production would somehow make a social formation non-exploitative, and also that of the so-called "anti-imperialism", which is actually just an attempt to portray all other capitalist powers opposing the U.S./the E.U. as somehow "good", while in fact, as this article among other things shows, the former are literally indistinguishable from the latter in their modus operandi. So much for the "workers' states"!

[piet11111]

Ah so North Korea is going to turn itself into a cheap labor country for chinese capitalism.

[Chimurenga.]

Aww, the state capital is getting hitched, how cute . Market principles ... don't worry kiddies, the workers may be getting exploited, but at least Glorious Leader Kim and the Chinese state capitalists can still get their cognac!

So just how comfortable is your armchair?

*picture*

"The workingmen all have the Chinese nationality, and they are proud of it."
- Karl Marx, hidden pages Communist Manifesto

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that line. Perhaps you are an apologist for the Dalai Lama and Taiwan?

Edit: It's also pretty LOL that people assume "economic zone" strictly means private enterprises.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

So just how comfortable is your armchair?

Ah so North Korea is going to turn itself into a cheap labor country for chinese capitalism.

That's what it looks like.

[Queercommie Girl]

Another thing is that there are lots of single young Chinese men who can't find wives (partly due to the single-child policy and partly due to the huge income gap in China today), so millions of women are being "imported" from North Korea into China, sometimes working as prostitutes.

[Kiev Communard]

So just how comfortable is your armchair?

And yours?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that line. Perhaps you are an apologist for the Dalai Lama and Taiwan?

No, they are just as bad as Messrs. Kim Jong-il and Hu Jintao.

Edit: It's also pretty LOL that people assume "economic zone" strictly means private enterprises.

Yes, because for "anti-imperialists", as long as a capitalist carries a CP member card, he is a revolutionary proletarian comrade. Here in Ukraine we have a plenty of those types, and as I saw in China in 2005, the Chinese "communist" capitalists are nothing better. In addition, I would like to remind you that even if these enterprises were not private (i.e. did not belong to individuals), they would still be exploitative, as workers would have no say over the production and would have to surrender their product to the members of proprietary capitalist class, even if the latter is organized as a singular centralized structure.

[Тачанка]

Edit: It's also pretty LOL that people assume "economic zone" strictly means private enterprises.

It does, and it's a very bad kind of private enterprise, for that matter.

[Chimurenga.]

Not exactly. See, I'm in a revolutionary working class party and I'm actually an active member. Meanwhile you live on the internet and espouse your chauvinism all over this forum.

You're as much as an armchair reject as most of the users on this forum.

[Chimurenga.]

No, they are just as bad as Messrs. Kim Jong-il and Hu Jintao.

Two puppets of the West are just as bad as Kim Jong-il and Hu Jintao? Might I ask just what fucking planet you live on?

[Kiev Communard]

Two puppets of the West are just as bad as Kim Jong-il and Hu Jintao? Might I ask just what fucking planet you live on?

On the planet which is dominated by different capitalist powers vying for dominance and mercilessly extracting surplus value from their exploited classes, wrapping this in the banner of "democracy" in the "West" (which is far from a monolithic unity, by the way) or "socialism" in "People's China" (which has already begun capital exports into Africa and Latin America, exploiting local proletarians without regard for their elementary rights). And where do you live, I wonder?

[Chimurenga.]

It does, and it's a very bad kind of private enterprise, for that matter.

Actually no. Special economic zones can have state-owned enterprises.

Also, the DPRK has had SEZ's before. It doesn't take away from the fact that they are still a workers state.

[Chimurenga.]

And where do you live, I wonder?

In the world where China still plays a progressive role in countries like Venezuela, Bolivia, Nigeria, Cuba and so on and in that, is in contrast to the United States. But who gives a damn about that, anyways?

[Kiev Communard]

In the world where China still plays a progressive role in countries like Venezuela, Bolivia, Nigeria, Cuba and so on and in that, is in contrast to the United States. But who gives a damn about that, anyways?

Tell me what this "progressive" role exactly consists in (save for selling its own military equipment for proprietary gains). I would be very glad to hear your point.

[Chimurenga.]

Tell me what this "progressive" role exactly consists in (save for selling its own military equipment for proprietary gains). I would be very glad to hear your point.

One example.

http://www.chinese-embassy.org.za/eng/zxxx/t318837.htm

vs

http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2009/10/09ABUJA1907.html

[Kiev Communard]

Actually no. Special economic zones can have state-owned enterprises.

I have already noted that from strictly historical materialist point of view the formal juridical type of ownership is irrelevant, the social content of its relationship is what determines the type of society, not the formal proclamations about "socialist" state property. Otherwise we would have to conclude, for instance, that Inca Empire with 100% state property on land was socialist, as well as a brutal Third Dynasty of Ur with its primitive system of central planning and absence of private property in land. At least the rulers of these ancient empires were more intellectually honest than Kim Jong-il and did not pretend that their serf-labourers supposedly "own" the state-run estates.

[caramelpence]

See, I'm in a revolutionary working class party and I'm actually an active member

Yeah? Well I'm a member of the glorious vanguard of the proletariat that is fighting revolutionary war and is leading the massed ranks of the workers and peasants of the world to ever-greater victories in their struggles against revisionism, opportunism, and all forms of bourgeois decadence. I'm a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, in fact.

"I am the leader of the workers
And I'll tell you why the Left is suspect
Because there's something you don't understand
Only my line is correct
'Cause I am the vanguard of the masses
And all of you should just follow me
If you doubt my analysis
You must be in the petty bourgeoisie!"

Sing along, everyone!

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Not exactly. See, I'm in a revolutionary working class party and I'm actually an active member. Meanwhile you live on the internet and espouse your chauvinism all over this forum.

You're as much as an armchair reject as most of the users on this forum.

Um, I dont live on the internet, I use the internet just like you do to check and post on this forum sometime. You're either a hypocrite, or you don't understand the principle of internet anonymity. Good for you, you are open about your PSL membership, I'm content to keep my political activities to myself that has nothing to do with the content of my post. I don't see it as relevant at all to whether or not SEZs are appropriate for two self-proclaimed socialist countries to set up.

Are you the enraged spirit of holier-than-thou lefties? Do you have any rational argument or is it limited to "I kool cuz I have party card"? Talk about chauvinism ... Are you a paid Chinese government spokesperson, or do you just have unquestioning loathing for anyone with anything critical to say about your favorite pet government?