Brian Hioe

At this late stage in the game, one should not be surprised at how incredibly poor the western left’s understanding of China is. Many western leftists remain unable to conceptualize any imperial or capitalist power outside of the US and therefore romanticize or downplay China’s authoritarianism because it seems to them at least an alternative to US global hegemony. This is the case, then, with respected leftist magazine Monthly Review’s recent August issue, featuring such writers as Asian American tankie commentator Mark Tseng-Putterman, and no less than the diasporic ethno-nationalist Qiao Collective. It proves of some hilarity to see the Monthly Review, which once hosted the Brenner debates and writing by luminaries such as Herbert Marcuse, Noam Chomsky, C. Wright Mills, and others, now platform the Qiao Collective...