Richard Wolff， an American Marxian economist and professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst， shared his observations on the role of the Communist Party of China （CPC） in Chinas development and China-U.S. ties in an exclusive interview with Beijing Review reporter Ma Miaomiao. This is an edited excerpt of his views：

On CPC-induced synergy

The first book I ever read about China was The Good Earth by Pearl Buck， presenting the stories of poverty and suffering across the Chinese countryside in the early 20th century. What she described in the book actually didnt take place too long ago， but when you look at what China has achieved over the past years and then compare it to what Buck wrote about， it makes for an incredible feat.

Since 1949， when the communist revolution succeeded， U.S. foreign aid did not go to China because the latter was a socialist country. U.S. foreign aid was， however， dispatched to every other Third World country across Asia， Africa and Latin America. Nevertheless， China has done better economically than every other country that did receive the assistance.

What does that tell us about getting aid from the West？ Its not the path to economic growth， it never was. The reality is that the path to economic growth was not to take aid from the West， but to rely on yourself. The Soviet Union once helped China， before the 1960s， but in general， the Chinese achieved it mostly by themselves. Thats a very powerful message all over the world.

Today， there is a sense of anxiety in the U.S. that the Chinese， over the last 30 years， have figured out a way to outcompete Western capitalism. Once upon a time， the hope had lingered that through reform and opening up， somehow China would move away from a powerful government and stateowned enterprises， and become like the West—an economic system in which large private corporations take on the dominant role. Thats what they hoped for and thats what actually did not happen.

In China， major private corporations and government sectors exist side by side， but all governed by the CPC. The Party formulates plans with a set of goals that enable private and public resources to synergize. Thats what the West could never achieve.

For example， real wages， as in “what an average worker gets adjusted for the prices that have to be paid，”in the U.S. have been stagnant and have not changed much over the last four decades. Yet in China， they have gone up more than four times. Subsequently， the average living standards of the Chinese working class， too， are on the rise.