One theory I’ve heard about the accelerating of the worsening conditions of western proletariat is that the USSR used to provide a bulwark against things getting too bad. People would point at the USSR and the illusion that capitalism was better for individual prosperity would collapse in comparison. Then, with the USSR gone things have been deteriorating for the past ~30 years.
If that is true, even somewhat, why haven’t we seen a similar effect from China’s example? Is the theory simply wrong? Maybe western capitalism is just unable to even offer scraps from the table at this point. Maybe people are unaware of how things are in China? Could we dare to expect that China’s example will force a lifting of the boot from our necks?
One of the reasons is that with the fall of the soviet block came the fall of the communists parties of the commintern, all the influential communist parties in europe and north america started to rot away so to speak, they became revisionists, were hijacked by feds, often abandoned the revolutionary path and repeatedly split into many lesser parties of ever declining influence.
The USSR was not only on the doorstep of the western world but also allied to the western communists movements and openly assumed this role of international beacon of socialism that China has never tried to take over, the USSR was promoting it’s model as an example of socialism that they advised worker movements to take inspiration from where as China never tried to be this role model for the world and keep to themselves a lot more.
There is also the fact that unlike the soviet union, a lot of peoples are arguing that China isn’t socialist and as such these peoples don’t see it as a model of socialism.
And of course, socialism is a lot more tangible when over a dozen countries are socialists vs only 5 right now. The fall of the socialist block was a hard blow to the movement worldwide as it was understood by most as a decisive victory of capitalism over socialism.