not really strange at all to see that the commies have finally...

not really strange at all to see that the commies have finally some to their senses to a degree and have discovered that some form of capitalism is essential for their countries to prosper in any way.

It is just that it has taken some time for these communist dictators to figure out a way to allow a limited capitalism for their people while preserving their communist dictatorship and absolute power and privilege, for themselves and of course their family members into perpetuity.

As for the Western countries seeming to embrace socialism recently that also is not so strange.

After all as Margret Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money to spend. The richer western countries have a relatively prosperous middle class to loot, at least for a while until the money runs out as we see is happening in some European countries and so these richer western economies become a primary target of the socialists.

The education system, media and government structures in western countries has for years been effectively infiltrated and corrupted by leftie ratbags (products of previously mentioned corrupted leftie run education system) who have systematically over the years worked at distorting the system.

This is usually referred to as creeping socialism and as we see is very difficult to reverse. It is a bit like a ratchet tightening over time or more correctly, a python wrapping tighter around its prey with each breath out of the helpless prey until eventual death of the prey. It does not reverse much without some major disruption.

A certain and growing portion of the community(crippled by learned helplessness and lack of critical thinking skills from previously mentioned corrupt education system) quickly become dependent on welfare state handouts and are very reluctant to give anything up. They have been educated and conditioned to immediately resort to organized street violence to counter any threats to the welfare state.

The wealthier western capitalist economy countries have always been the main target of the international socialist movement since that is where the money is and the middle class who have a portion of this money can be easily influenced by a corrupt media.
(why rob banks? that is where the money is.)

The unions are typically the sharp end of this international socialist movement and have been quite successful to one degree or another recently.

For example in Australia the labor party is more just a front for the unions than a political party. By way of this front and a corrupt media the unions have managed to seize political control of the government of Australia. Of course the payoff from rorting and corrupting the economic and social systems with the current huge capital flows from the mining industry is massive.

A slightly different scenario played out recently in the US elections with Obama beholding to several large socilaist unions for his victory. A similar looting of the public funds has been underway there.

Unfortunately these socialist experiments do not usually end well.

While history doesn't always repeat it does tend to rhyme and we are likely to see the widespread economic and social devastation we see playing out across some European countries and even starting in the US emerge in other formerly prosperous western economies as the socialist poison spreads.