how would unions work?

They would represent workers, you should look into actual communist theory if you don't understand the point of unions.

if you have a socialist economy, an independent union is essentially bargaining with all of society.

Yes, to think that's a bad thing is insane. Do you oppose public sector unions too? Fucking teachers are essentially bargaining with all of society do you think that's bad?

Also all unions are bargaining with society, the capitalists are extracting profit but they are also part of the market and some costs/conditions will be passed on to the rest of society.

Plus docks in most of the world are publicly owned! Do you oppose the ILWU refusing to unload Israeli ships because they are holding the rest of society hostage.

how would unions work?

Also there was literally a model for this in the USSR before Lenin crushed them, the SOVIETS, there are a bunch of other models too.

Unions are even useful in cooperatives, maybe spend less time reading theory and more time helping workers organize and you'd realize how dumb it is to think that workers (who are a part of society) are evil and selfish.

I mean FFS you're LARPing as a communist, yet you think workers are too selfish and evil to run society, WTF is wrong with you?

but from my understanding there is a fair amount of labour organizing going on there.

Yeah illegal organizing done in secret like every other authoritarian regime, worse than in social democracies. Also from my understanding much of the organizing is done amongst immigrant communities who are treated worse and often have their passports held in conditions on par with UAE & Saudi Arabia.

They trapped him in his office and the police didn’t raise a finger to free him. Fat chance in hell that you’d see that in any western country.

Firstly, look into the French & Korean Labor movements. But secondly that doesn't mean shit, a king can allow pedants to kill a corrupt Lord/Sheriff that doesn't make him a socialist.

As for public healthcare, there is, it’s just not completely free. The cost is very low, however, and the same goes for high shool. They just recently expanded affordable public childcare as well. Their recent anti-poverty program was also very successful.

Ridiculous excuse, you are claiming China is more socialist than social democracies where workers get free access to healthcare & education, which are part of the means of social reproduction, how is it more socialist for workers to have less control over the means of production?

A lot of it was due to the struggle of the domestic labour movement, yes, but a big part of it was also the threat of the Soviet Union

Lol, sorry you can't be serious, labor unions predate the USSR and while the USSR violently crushed labor organizing within it's borders, the Russian revolution was led by labor (who then stupidly stayed in the war and were replaced by the Bolsheviks)

On one hand, China does not have a global empire to extract profits from

Lol, economic extraction bad when US does it, good when China does it 🤦‍♂️

I'm sorry but defending China as socialist because the state is doing well at developmentaliam, is dumb, Indian is doing a lot of terrible developmentalism, that doesn't make it socialist.

The main reason, however, is that capital is not in control of China. Capital is allowed to exist, and has a seat at the table, but it is constrained by the state. If capitalists cross certain lines, if they get too corrupt, act against the national interest, or act egregiously against the interests of society, they are dealt with very harshly, up to and including execution.

You're describing a social democracy, except in a well run system you don't need executions to scare people into compliance.

they’re doing so much better than any western country, where capital is unconstrained,

By what metric?

Also capital isn't unconstrained in social democracies, it's funny that you stealman China as if workers hold any real power, but strawman social democracies where workers actually do.

Sorry but if you think you can have a socialist state without worker control of the means of production, you're delusional to the point of making something definitionally impossible and thinking you've made a point, it's like arguing with a fundamentalist Christian who just says "God has a plan" when confronted with kids with bone cancer.