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against the landscape of decay evident of Western civilization, and when the idea of a historic hope for humanity seemed to have been extinguished, I undertook a trip to China. He did not seek to confirm any previous thesis; The displacement was almost accidental. However, that experience profoundly altered my vision of the contemporary world, showing me that another type of civilizational project was no longer a distant utopia, but an ongoing reality, and that history can teach us to project possible alternatives, even in the midst of global chaos.
Today, ancient China stands as one of the most dynamic forces of our time. It represents the fastest growth of a country in modern history and a unique economic and political system. It has managed to overcome immense historical difficulties to consolidate a civilization that celebrates its ancient past and projects itself with determination into the future.
In the year I was born, 1978, Deng Xiaoping began China’s great economic opening without abandoning the socialist principles of his predecessor Hua Guofeng or Mao. He managed to bring together visions that seemed incompatible from the liberal perspective: a State rooted in a socialist vision along with the activation of an economic model driven by foreign investment, giving rise to a mixed economy under the full regulation of the Communist Party.
During the 1990s, China went from being the large cheap maquiladora in the global market to becoming a high-value manufacturing center. This process, consolidated since 2010, transformed it into the technological and industrial power that we know today. Since 2016, it is the world’s leading economy, according to the International Monetary Fund.
None of this would be possible without meticulous planning of social, political and economic development. For liberals who defend the free market without State control – and present themselves as absolute enemies of communism – it is worth remembering that this entire organization is the result of the five-year plans emanating from the Communist Party, initiated in 1953 with Mao in power. This is also possible thanks to the history of a country that went through civil wars, famines and external interventions. China calls the 19th century “the century of humiliation,” a period in which it lost strategic territories and accepted unequal treaties imposed by Western powers and Japan. From that experience emerged a deep sense of national unity, sovereignty and protection of its borders.
Two thousand years of influence of Confucian thought have shaped a political perspective different from that of the West. The Chinese political fabric is solid, the product of long historical processes; It cannot be judged superficially. It is often said that there is no democracy in China, but the reality is that the people participate much more directly in the political direction than in the West, in a form of “substantive democracy”, exercised through local consultations, unions, popular assemblies and the National People’s Congress. It is not multiparty – a model that generates instability in its alternation – but rather it has a system based on meritocracy: the one who has demonstrated merit as a thinker, leader and public servant governs.
China redefined socialism: the market functions as a means, not an end, and strategic sectors such as energy, transportation or banking depend on the State, which regulates the economy to guarantee healthy competition. From the time of Mao until today, there are schools of Marxism in every university and training in Marxist philosophy, history of the Communist Party and the thought of Mao, Deng and Xi is mandatory. Marxism in China is studied and practiced, it is not propaganda.
I recently read an article in The Economist which amazed me: the founder of Huawei, one of the large multinational technology companies, owns only one percent of his company, the rest belongs to the workers and a union committee that administers the share ownership program. This specific example clearly shows the social difference between China and the West: although there are rich people, the State and the Party regulate their actions to prevent unlimited enrichment. That principle marks one of the deepest structural differences between China and contemporary liberal democracies.
China not only generates wealth: it builds equity, stability and a civilizational project with historical meaning. Today, this process offers a lesson for the contemporary world: think the impossible and project towards a shared future, where coordination between State, society and culture allows the construction of viable and sustainable alternatives.
* Stage creator, composer and actress
