Exclusive | Mamdani’s DSA Party pushing China propaganda in new monthly ‘political education’ seminars
The Democratic Socialists of America are devouring Chinese propaganda as if it were candy, insisting that only state ownership of private industry can rescue workers from the “oligarchy.”
To tap a growing curiosity about the Chinese Communist Party, the DSA launched a new monthly seminar called “modern China and lessons for US socialists,” which convened Thursday night.
The organization—and its figurehead, Mayor‑elect Zohran Mamdani—continually stresses that they identify as socialists, not communists, claiming that socialism seeks to reform capitalism while communism intends to abolish it. Yet the focus on the CCP in these talks blurs that line.
The series began last year as an internal pilot, and, after a successful run, the group decided to bring it to the public eye, Anlin Wang of the International Committee explained.
As part of the DSA’s “political education” offerings, the session featured sweeping claims, such as asserting that the communist state enjoys a “strong democracy.”
Ben Norton, an American Marxist researcher in Beijing and founder of the conspiracy blog Geopolitical Economy Report, opened the discussion by presenting data from the Democracy Perception Index and noting, “This is of course a controversial issue in the West.”
He pointed out that China has some of the highest levels of government approval on earth—a fact critics label as “crazy propaganda”—and explained that the country adopts a different conception of democracy.
Norton omitted mention of China’s tight censorship on free speech, which would have heavily colored public sentiment. He also urged that the U.S. replicate Beijing’s model by nationalizing major enterprises—from banks to tech firms—claiming it would curb billionaire wealth and benefit workers.
He asserted that state intervention is why “China is now the largest economy on Earth,” correcting later that China is actually the world’s second‑largest economy by GDP. “There’s no comparison to the level of output coming from China right now. And this was not just because of private market forces,” he added, arguing that “Reducing inequality is literally the number one goal of the Chinese Communist Party.” “People just make up so much nonsense about China,” he said.
Those claims were disputed by Jack Bernam, a China analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He reminded the audience that China’s boom only began after the party eased its rigid grip on industry in the late 1970s, allowing state firms to profit from market forces—a shift that followed a period of excess control that contributed to the famine that killed 45 million under Mao Zedong. “The allowance of market forces is directly responsible for China’s rise as a contemporary, modernized economy,” Bernam said, cautioning that recent declines—from growth to deflation and stagnation—stem from heightened government oversight.
Mamdani and his DSA allies repeatedly proclaim themselves proud socialists, not communists. “That recent record of poor performance I would argue is directly the fault of the Chinese Communist Party, particularly on the clamping down on private enterprise, and the ramping up of more centralized, more aggressive centralized economic planning,” he added.
The two‑hour webinar, punctuated by technical glitches, ran long as Norton answered roughly 40 questions from eager DSA participants who wanted to understand China’s allies better.
This isn’t the DSA’s first flirtation with admiration for the CCP. Last September, a delegation of five—including Wang—journeyed to Beijing to celebrate the party’s 80th‑anniversary victory over Japan. “It was an impressive display of ‘unity in multi‑polarity’ featuring Russian President Putin, Indian Prime Minister Modi, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un,” wrote NYC DSA member Dee Knight. “Beijing buzzed with excitement.”
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