I am a Marxist in China
Orthodox Marxists in the Chinese internet community often view Russia and Iran as weak links in imperialism, rather than as anti-imperialist forces .However, in the view of Chinese Marxists, opposing the global hegemony of the United States takes precedence over opposing secondary imperialisms (Iran, Russia).
The person in the picture is Yang Heping, a US citizen with a Chinese green card, and he is the most popular orthodox Marxist-Leninist-Maoist self-media figure on the Chinese internet (with 3 million followers on Tiktok and 800,000 on Bilibili). Yang Heping advocates that whether it’s Ukraine, Russia, or Iran, “the truth is on the side of the proletariat, not on the side of any government or capitalist.”
In China, those who unconditionally support Iran and Russia are usually nationalists or national leftists.
I wonder if the differences between the left-wing in Europe and America and the left-wing in China are really that significant?
Yes, almost all Asian countries have this. It seems to be determined by the globalized market economy model—late-developing countries cannot achieve a technological leapfrog through moderate means.
The most terrifying thing about this college entrance exam system is that, during its operation, due to the diminishing marginal returns of educational resources (high school > junior high > primary), a group of people have already lost the competition in primary school. This inevitably produces a group of ‘de facto proletarians’ and ‘nominal useless classes’—people who are in fact working-class, yet do not enjoy any of the traditional prestige of workers. In this way, the ideological red line (the red line of social Darwinism) can be bypassed, leaving the working class to wallow in self-pity rather than awakening class consciousness, while society can ‘legitimately’ look down upon workers.