News 10/13

The problem with Xi promoting the study of Marxism is that when he or the CPC say Marxism they mean what ever the government is doing. They don't mean actually study Marx and try to implement labor unions or combat rentiers. To the typical Chinese, Marxism means neoliberalism. Now it is good that they said to study Marxism because that means at least some Chinese are going and studying Marx as evidence by the arrests of college Marxists.
If the trade war persist China has 2 options. First is to continue with capitalism and increase imperialist exploitation of Africa and Latin America. Second is to rebuild socialism. The imperialist path would be easier to take domestically since no change in the economic system is required. China wants to keep it's factories running and selling commodities but if it's trade partners cannot afford the commodities then the crisis of overproduction persists. It also means more military spending is necessary for China to protect it's overseas trade and to protect weak but friendly foreign governments. In the long run this could backfire as military spending is ultimately unproductive and it's not certain that China will be able to extract much besides raw materials and agricultural products from the less developed countries.
Reimplementing socialism will be much more difficult to achieve since there is opposition from domestic capitalists and CPC members. But it would mean that China could greatly reduce export industry and shift labor to more productive areas of its economy (anti desertification, health and elder care, etc). There's not need to rely on a market to determine labor allocation with centralize planning. Planning does not exclude trade with other countries but it gives more flexibility in determining how much of the economy requires international trade to stay afloat. Planning also allows more direct action be taken against climate change and pollution which China needs to do.
I suspect option one is the choice. The new silk road projects and the naval build up for power projection are all signs that China wants to continue relying on international trade and have the military power to keep the sea open. But who knows, if playing imperialism does not go well enough maybe they will consider socialism. What's the point of winning the imperialist game if the planet goes to shit in 30 years.