10/01/2009 5:05:17 am
Only oppression Left. Communism is essentially an economic theory. Its main message is that capitalism is unsustainable - and unfair. To save society and improve lives for ordinary people, thus, capitalism needs to be abolished. A dictatorship needs to run things temporarily, until paradise emerges.

Three decades ago, the Chinese government started to liberate the economy - thus reintroducing capitalism. Prosperity has exploded, with hundreds of millions of poor people getting living standards previously unimaginable.

The same goes for Vietnam. In Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), which I visited two days ago, there are red stars and propaganda from the Communist Party. It is a dictatorship. But the economy is booming, thanks to market-oriented reforms. New hotels are built, people drive SUV:s, some modern residential areas should impress Europeans or Americans.

The Communist Parties thus realised that communism was completely wrong all the time, in its core economic aspects. And they reversed it. What only remains now is the political oppression, perhaps the essence of what the rulers sought all along?