Revolutionary Left Radio

In this episode, Breht sits down with Ashwin Shantha to discuss the argument that China's green development is not only an environmental achievement, but also a profoundly political one. Drawing on Ashwin's essay "China's Green Development is Both Anti-Imperialist and Socialist," the conversation explores how China became the global leader in solar, wind, and electric vehicles through long-term planning, industrial policy, state capacity, and the disciplining of capital to broader social goals. Together, they examine the relationship between green development, national sovereignty, and anti-imperialism, asking why China has been able to carry out a large-scale green industrial transition while Western capitalist states have largely failed. The discussion also takes up the deeper theoretical question at the heart of the essay: whether China's model is best understood not as "state capitalism," but as a socialist market economy in which capital is subordinated to national development, ecological sustainability,