When they changed over the system from Maoist Communism to "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" (as Hu Jintao put it during the last 60th anniversary parade), the CCP apparently decided not to tell anyone what the C in their name really meant. At least according to this video by Doing Business in China, which asks a bunch of Chinese people (some of whom are famous) to define "communism" - with dumbfounding results.
Source: James Fallows



Is this guy naive or just plainly uninformed? Asking direct questions about communism and talking about politics as if it was the sports section, in China, in English??? Why is this guy even making videos.
I second automata's comment.
Asking "what is communism" in English to non-native speakers and expecting a pat answer is ridiculous.
Could you imagine a Chinese reporter going to America and asking Americans in Chinese what capitalism is?
Whoever made this is very naive if they really think Chinese people don't know the definition of communism - all throughout their education, Chinese students take entire courses on Communism, Marxism, etc...Asking Chinese individuals what they think communism is with no context is difficult anyways because in China it could be defined in a number of different ways. Does the interviewer mean communism the philosophy as conceived by Marx and Engels? Communism as defined by the Chinese government? The Maoist version Communism? Communism in word but not deed? Or something else perhaps? To me, it seems like people being interviewing are not baffled by the question of communism, but rather by what context the interviewer would like to hear the definition in.
communism is bad mmkay