>>63999281
>They've managed to create this synthesis, of fascism, communism and capitalism, that's taken a life all of its own. The fact that they are trying to recreate the exact same sort of hegemonic empire as the Brits while trying to larp as the Neo-Tang Dynasty simultaneously I think deserves far more attention than it gets currently.
The way I look at it, the culture is like a mix of traditionalist Chinese culture (pre-communist), the "red" culture (imported from Russia and includes socialist realism) that tried to wipe out the existing culture but didn't succeed, and lastly imported Western culture (which also includes modern Japanese, South Korean cultural influences) that fused into a weird mush. Wang Huning, a top party ideologist who looks like Nosferatu, has this whole theory about how China lacked a coherent ideological system after the Cultural Revolution. They smashed up the traditional culture but the belief in Marxism also weakened in the 80s/90s. Too much Westernization is bad as well (his view) so I think they're trying to take bits from each and combine them.

The statists like him are not like the Iranians or to some extent the Russians (or more revanchist, anti-Western Russians like Dugin) who flat-out reject everything Western. Like technology, certain ways of running the economy and universities. It's more like the political theory of government they reject and some other things.