تفطر الشيوعية في الصين بينما تتعشى الرأسمالية الحكومية

[HotIcyDonut]

I'm looking for a good-sounding English rewording or an idiomatic translation of the sentence, as short as possible:

تفطر الشيوعية في الصين بينما تتعشى الرأسمالية الحكومية​

I understand the claim's meaning (communism is just a motto, state capitalism is the real deal) but…

I can't come up with anything better than "in China, communism is at rest while state capitalism is at work". Help?

شكراً مقدماً

 

[elroy]

What is the context? Where did you read this? How did you arrive at that interpretation?

 

[HotIcyDonut]

What is the context? Where did you read this? How did you arrive at that interpretation?

Copypasted a response from a Facebook chat on advantages of market capitalism vs socialism a week ago (I sometimes save interesting phrases/sentences into .txt files when stumbling upon them to examine them later ). It was a response by a consistent capitalist advocate to someone who proposed China's development as a proof of socialism superiority against capitalism, and it was obviously a critical snub

P.S. if memory serves me right, the guy was from Tunisia acc. to profile, so maybe it's some Tunisian idiom or local expression contrasting "having a dinner" to "having a breakfast".

 

[cherine]

This sounds incomplete, and a bit weird to be honest. Unless there’s really a Tunisian idiom contrasting between breakfast and dinner, I can only see that the sentence refers to China having both communism (not socialism) and state capitalism, just displaying them at different times according to the State’s needs maybe.

 

[Finland]

This is interesting! My interpretation would have been completely the opposite ,"Communism is only having breakfast in China while state capitalism is eating dinner" meaning "communism is only getting started and will continue to thrive, whereas state capitalism is at the end of its story" or something like that. But yes, the larger context of the entire discussion can of course make the expression sound completely different. I suppose in some way and with "supporting evidence" from the context, it could be interpreted to mean something like "China might have started by applying communism, but at the end of the day, it will end up having state capitalism as its founding principle"?

 

[djara]

Unless there’s really a Tunisian idiom contrasting between breakfast and dinner,

The Tunisian idiom on which this is based says: "Eat him for breakfast before he eats you for dinner" (or other forms of successive meals such as dinner and suhur); meaning: be prompt in getting rid of your enemy because if you don't, he will.
However, the sentence in the OP doesn't seem to have that meaning at all and I tend to agree with #Cherine when she says:

I can only see that the sentence refers to China having both communism (not socialism) and state capitalism, just displaying them at different times according to the State’s needs maybe.

The other possibility is that China is a threat and will eat you sooner or later whether with its communism (for breakfast) or with its state capitalism (for dinner)

 

[Finland]

The Tunisian idiom on which this is based says: "Eat him for breakfast before he eats you for dinner" (or other forms of successive meals such as dinner and suhur); meaning: be prompt in getting rid of your enemy because if you don't, he will.
However, the sentence in the OP doesn't seem to have that meaning at all and I tend to agree with #Cherine when she says:

The other possibility is that China is a threat and will eat you sooner or later whether with its communism (for breakfast) or with its state capitalism (for dinner)

Nice! How do you phrase that in Tunisian?

 

[djara]

Nice! How do you phrase that in Tunisian?

أفطر بيه قبل ما يتعشى بيك ufṭur bīh qbal mā yitʿašša bīk

 

[cherine]

We have almost the same saying in Egypt اتغدّى بيه قبل ما يتعشى بيك etghadda bih able me yet3ashsha bik
But I didn’t make a connection because, like Djara said, it’s about preemptive measures against someone, and I don’t see how this can be the meaning of the Chinese- related sentence.

 

[Mahaodeh]

Nice! How do you phrase that in Tunisian?

The idiom is pretty old, I recall reading it in أخبار الحمقى والمغفلين, which was written some 900 years ago. I don’t think its used only in Tunisian Arabic.

 

[Sadda7]

The idiom is pretty old, I recall reading it in أخبار الحمقى والمغفلين, which was written some 900 years ago. I don’t think its used only in Tunisian Arabic.

This is interesting. I've found the saying in an earlier book البصائر والذخائر by التوحيدي.