Sri Lankan blogger Samarajiva on Monday sparked a fierce debate with a scathing critique of capitalism's inefficiencies, pointing to China’s rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and electric vehicles (EVs). "Isn't it ironic? A hundred EV companies have bloomed under communism, while capitalism subsidizes one moron. A startup has trained an AI for $5.5 million under communism, while capitalist AI requires $500 billion in government support. And they (DeepSeek) did it ahead of schedule," he wrote on X, adding that a lot of this is happening within markets that put America to shame for competitiveness.
Samarajiva praised China’s competitive spirit under its "socialist market economy," quoting Deng Xiaoping: “It is wrong to maintain that a market economy exists only in capitalist society... Developing a market economy does not mean practising capitalism.” He contrasted China’s achievements with America’s stagnation, where companies like Tesla dominate but fail to innovate beyond a few models. “Meanwhile in China, BYD alone sells over 40 models, and there are hundreds of NEV companies engaged in ruthless competition,” he said.
The blogger argued that capitalism’s focus on "irrational growth" has led to inefficient resource allocation. “The problem is that capital is not actually very good at allocating capital. Communism...is capable of allocating capital for a different purpose beyond just reproducing capital,” he wrote, pointing out China’s ability to produce affordable, functional EVs and efficient AI models.
Samarajiva’s comments come as China’s DeepSeek shocks AI players in the US. The one-year-old Chinese company unveiled an AI model, R1, which rivals ChatGPT at a fraction of the cost. DeepSeek claimed to have spent only $5.5 million on computing power for its base model, compared to the hundreds of millions — or billions — invested by US companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta.
The announcement sent shockwaves through the US tech industry. Nvidia, a major supplier of GPUs for AI models, lost nearly $600 billion in market value as investors reacted to DeepSeek’s disruptive potential. US stocks in the tech sector also fell sharply.
“Conversational AI was the last place where western capitalism could be said to work... But now that lead has been obliterated by DeepSeek,” Samarajiva wrote.
EVs and AI as National Power Symbols
The blogger also drew parallels between EVs and AI as markers of national strength. He criticised Tesla’s limited offerings, calling them "toy-trucks that brick if you wash them," and contrasted this with China’s vast and competitive EV market. He noted that China's innovations in AI follow a similar pattern, producing functional, cost-effective products while Western capitalism focuses on luxury goods and profit-driven ventures.
“China produces cheap, functional EVs and not luxury virtue-signaling devices. China produces cheap, efficient AI and not luxury investment vehicles. Communism has a reason behind production while capitalism is just irrational growth for growth’s sake,” he argued.