askchapo

they were too focused on the USSR and the Eastern Bloc as well as cuba and helping some colonizers in Africa to care, all during the period of the cold war after the sino soviet split and once mao was out of power ,they were still focused on the things I said and thought China was on the road to neoliberal capitalism ,they were too late to recognizes their mistake

Also Cuba and the DPRK are still communist nations and I think that's a million times more impressive than china surviving imo

I've been wondering about this too. Besides the good answers given here, I suspect / speculate that it also has to do with a national pride after the opium war. Even though China didn't manage to fully shake off the corruption of the elites then or now, there is a strong desire to make the country better and to invest in education, research, prosperity and healthcare. Because that was how their enemy the British Empire beat them. Like they believe in something other than money.

They also avoided entering an arms race with the US. Maybe they were (seen as) less ideological. They saw themselves as Chinese instead of "Sovjiets".

Then you also need to be clever with how to deal with foreign propaganda influence. You can't have a free press if you're on the US radar.

Maybe the answer is as simple as "they had better / stronger leaders" while USSR was too repressive / purged any opposition.

They seized the means of production. Then they did their best to take from each citizen what was their ability and give to them their needs. Like, it is incredibly hard to get thr basic right like that but it works

As others mentioned part of how the CPC stayed in power was definitely that the Sino Soviet split diverted attention and allowed some reprieve. But that's definitely not all of it.

Keep in mind China went through the opium wars, rebellions killing tens of millions (Taiping rebellion), Japanese invasion, civil war, then was isolated by the US like other socialist countries until the Sino Soviet split.

Even then the US kept pressure on China, think Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang where and are all places the US stokes tensions and attempted to foment collapse.

Compared to lots of other communist nations, I think the CPC was able to maintain a higher level of credibility and support from its population. Some of that came from maintaining consistent improvements in people's lives. Notably a 2012 paper noted that:

The pace and scale of China’s economic transformation have no historicalhe pace and scale of China’s economic transformation have no historical precedent. In 1978, China was one of the poorest countries in the world.precedent. In 1978, China was one of the poorest countries in the world. The real per capita GDP in China was only one-fortieth of the U.S. levelThe real per capita GDP in China was only one-fortieth of the U.S. level and one-tenth the Brazilian level. Since then, China’s real per capita GDP hasand one-tenth the Brazilian level. Since then, China’s real per capita GDP has grown at an average rate exceeding 8 percent per year. As a result, China’s real pergrown at an average rate exceeding 8 percent per year. As a result, China’s real per capita GDP is now almost one-fifth the U.S. level and at the same level as Brazil.capita GDP is now almost one-fifth the U.S. level and at the same level as Brazil.

China has obviously since continues growing. Keep in mind, before the reform and opening up China was already growing, it was inconsistent (great leap forward) but it was growing. Many metrics like life expectancy and literacy increased substantially in that period. China's reduction is poverty is so great it accounts for ¾ of the global reduction since 1982 per a world bank report

I don't like the graph because if China was on the top, you would see global poverty hasn't changed much if you exclude China.

Anyways, in comparison to other communist countries, while they all have incredible achievements in their own right, because of the radical improvements in people's lives the party was bale to maintain very high credibility and standing with the people. As I mentioned, the US tries to cause conflicts in China, but it's more difficult with such high support. You can see this Harvard study for more details, in short approval of the government is high and increased during the duration of the survey from 2003-2016.

It might not be an exact answer, and it would take a lot of time to explain how China was able to accomplish what it did (which might be more of the answer your looking for) but hopefully this context is helpful.

China evaded US fuckery because they sided with them during the cold war (when the USSR planned to invade them) so because they were so strategicly important ally it made no sense for the USA to try to change their goverment

Then when Deng took power and opened the country the USA saw a way to kick off its new economic model (neoliberalism) by using cheap chinese labour to get an economic boom and get an edge over the soviets so they were still important even after the fall of the USSR because there was an economic interdepence between both countries

Also USA arrogance played a part too, because they saw that via economic interdependence between US-China would lead to a liberization of Chinese politics and eventually they would accept neoliberalism too (they were into the end of history stuff) so during the 90's they did thing like using their power to push the WTO to accept China and had the G8+China meeting

But that didnt happen which lead to a problem to the US because by financing China's economy they help them become one of the great economies of the world but they werent loyal to the US, but its also important to remember that if China became a liberal democracy it would still be a rival of the US because the bigger they economy would get the more they would threaten to take the US hegemonic influence away.

Specially since the US hegemony is only in military matter nowdays (unimultipolar world)

Since I haven't seen it mentioned it, what role did reeducation and cultural revolutions play in China to help it resist Western influence? Many other communist revolutions had a disaffected petite bourgeoisie class that resented the new system and worked to undermine it through subterfuge. Did the effects of the Chinese civil war and later reforms have enough staying power to change people's general ideas of property and government?