THE WORLD IS NOT BLACK AND WHITE

Many people like to categorize governments into communist/capitalist and democratic/non-democratic.

This is especially common among Americans. Americans generally like to view themselves as a capitalist democracy, and therefore calling other countries otherwise makes it easier to see how great America is.

Now, America is great, and it definitely is capitalist and democratic. However, there are many socialist elements in its economy like government spending money to build bridges or nuclear power plants, and do not forget the great (and not-very-great in the eyes of red people) Social Security. To say the USA is a democracy is also too shallow. It is, more specifically, a republic - a rather partisan republic (how many independent presidents do you know?).

This can also be applied to the ROC (some foreigners like to call it Taiwan). Yes, it is a democracy, but it is not as socially open as somewhere like the USA, if you recall the protesting about the 集遊法. It is also a republic - an extremely partisan one (at least it used to be, when the DPP was still alive). Yes, the Taiwan market is capitalist, but what about the 民生 (of the Three Principles) under the revolutionary land reforms?

Finally, what about the PRC? (Some foreigners like to call it China.) It is most commonly referred to as an communist authoritarian/non-democratic/dictatorship. How is it completely communist with all the rich people in very-highly-developed cities and poverty almost everywhere else (and in the cities also)? How is the PRC totally authortarian when it (accidentally) neglected the condition of many tainted products from the badly-reputed Chinese secondary sector? All the poisonous toys and milk powder overseen by the PRC does not make the PRC similar to Big Brother in 1984.

To end, here is another example of ignorant American understanding of socialism: "Under a big government, more taxes and uh ... what you thought was yours, would really start belonging to somebody else ... and everybody else ... Barrack Obama is a socialist." - Sarah Palin, somewhere in Iowa