Is China yet a socialist country? This question is doing the rounds amongst the radical intelligentsia for the last two decades or so. From some reliable sources, we get the snippets which may substantiate the claim that China is no longer socialist : 1) China has developed many a SEZs where workers have to put in labour for staggering hours. They are provided with sub-standard food, dingy dormitories to live and they are ill-treated by the factory managers. 2) Farmers are charged with excessive taxes and they are not insured against bad crops. Large stretch of lands are forcibly acquisitioned to favour the developers and SEZs. Landless labour teem the countryside and out of job they turn towards the cities with no guarantee of job. Their number is as high as 2oo millions. 3) 48 million workers were laid off from the state enterprises 1n 1995-2000 alone. 4) Communes in the countryside have been disbanded as a result of which public health system has collapsed in the countryside. SARS broke out epidemically in 2003 because of this callousness. Peasants are now selling their blood to survive which contributed to AIDS crisis. 5) Free market economy has its bad impact on the rural economy. Rural schools are now being financed by tuition and other charges. The result is that poor villagers cannot afford to send their children to school. 6) Prostitution is rampant in cities. Female feticide has become a common practice. There is a burgeoning practice of intravenous drug use and sex industry. 7) Cities are fraught with pollution danger. Industrial wastes are pouring into the rivers. Forest cover is being depleted. Do these trends speak for the Red Star Over China?