This is a video of a discussion on China, Japan and the U.S. in the contemporary moment of crisis, which took place in Toronto on Feb. 5, 2010. Participants include: Leo Pantich, R. Taggart Murphy, Ho-fung Hung, Johanna Brenner, and Sam Gindin.

Three left critiques of the recent liberal call (by 13 newspapers on March 1) to reform the hukou system, and my brief comments on the debate.

Update: A friend volunteered to translate something representative of Chinese left perspectives on this issue. We’re still trying to decide on an appropriate article. One existing English text is “The Hukou System and China’s Rural Development” by Han Dongping, published in The Journal of Developing Areas no. 33 (Spring 1999).

The important Taiwanese journal “Critique and Transformation (批判與再造)” now has a highly recommended website/e-zine.

The New Legalists have responded to my critical post on their nationalization of capitalist antagonism. They counter my argument by stating that they “neither fail to see the mutual accommodation and complementarity between Chinese and Western thought nor ignore class divisions in China and the West in the past or at present.” The problem, as I pointed out in my last post, is that when talking about national differences the New Legalists stress dichotomy, and when talking about class differences they stress harmony.

　现在国家和不少企业都意识到“中国制造”的模式带来很多困境，比如说我们是劳动密集型产业，技术含量很低，创新性也很低，加工耗费了那么多的能源，用了那么多廉价的劳动力，可事实上社会获得的收益很少，大部分被其他的经销商赚去了。玩具是他们设计的，在中国加工，运过去有毒，就说是我们的问题。整个的产业链就是这样运转的，所有的灾难都落在自己这个社会里，社会出了混乱，政府就要承担所有混乱的责任。政府的职能好像也发生了重大转变，好像是在帮跨国资本做警察，维系内部的安全，让那些大资本家获得最大的利益，而那些大资本家为此付出了成本和代价吗？