China’s path to socialism? A conversation with Mick Dunford

We recently had the chance to speak with Michael Dunford – geographer and China scholar – about China’s development path and its global role. Dunford helped us unpack how Chinese thinkers like Cheng Enfu view socialism not as a fixed blueprint, but a historical process unfolding in stages: Seizing state power (1949); Reform & Opening-Up (1978); The New Era (2012–today). This long-durée, dialectical view contrasts with the binary thinking of western commentators, (including some western marxists) that label China capitalist or imperialist by idealist standards. For Dunford, these views ignore China’s strategic use of markets within a state-directed project. We explored how the US shifted from welcoming China into the WTO to launching the Pivot to Asia. Why? Because China refused to be japanified – resisting financial liberalisation and retaining control over its development path. On South-South cooperation, Dunford argued China’s global investment strategy reflects mutual development, not extraction – grounded in the same logic Mao once articulated: combine internal accumulation with selective external support. Post-2008, China reduced dependence on US Treasuries and launched the Going Out strategy. Is this a reaction to domestic limits, or a vision for a multipolar economic order? Dunford leans toward the latter. Finally, we discussed tech revolutions in AI, clean energy, and robotics. While labour-saving innovation can trigger capitalist crisis, a socialist polity like China may plan its way through these contradictions – if it continues to prioritise employment and social welfare. A fascinating exchange on the contradictions and possibilities of 21st-century socialism.