We are pleased to publish below the text of the speech given by Margaret Kimberley to the meeting, ‘China at 75: Changes Unseen in a Century’, initiated by Friends of Socialist China and held in New York City on September 29.
Margaret, who is the Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, began her remarks with a strong condemnation of recent and ongoing Israeli war crimes against the peoples of Palestine, Lebanon and the entire region, and continued:
“But this is connected. We understand that this effort, imperialist effort to wage war on the entire region of Western Asia, makes this commemoration all the more important. We’re not just commemorating a successful revolution, but also the beginnings of changes in power relationships around the world, which coincided with the post war stirrings for independence across the Global South.”
Contextualising her remarks, Margaret said:
“This year, I had an amazing opportunity to visit China as part of a Friends of Socialist China delegation, as guests of the China NGO Network for International Exchanges, visiting Beijing, Zhejiang and Jilin. I saw for myself why China has leapfrogged over the rest of the world in its economic development, the dedication to the principles of socialism and a commitment to worldwide cooperation that has made relations with China attractive to the entire continent of Africa.”
Margaret reviewed the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that had been held in the Chinese capital Beijing earlier in the month, including drawing attention to some of the contradictions inherent in such a diverse gathering. She made special mention of Eritrea as “the one [African] country that has maintained its commitment to socialism, which is why it’s always under attack.” She mentioned that Chinese companies have agreed to invest up to $7 billion in infrastructure projects as part of their mining agreements in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
She concluded:
“I think it’s important to mention not just the nations of the African continent, but the relations of the African diaspora. Dr. [Gerald] Horne referred to Shirley Graham DuBois, and there has been constant, on the part of revolutionaries, this urge to connect with China, to see China as this example. Which is why, in general, anti-Chinese propaganda is so dangerous. It’s an effort to indoctrinate. It’s an effort to stop revolutionary activity. And so, WEB DuBois visited China, and Paul Robeson reached out to China, and Huey Newton visited China. It’s all connected, and tells you how important it is that African people maintain these relationships, see China for ourselves and judge for ourselves, and the fact that that is something that is condemned so strongly, tells us quite a lot.”
Thank you all again for being here as we’re just two days away from the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. And I would be remiss if I did not speak of what’s happening in Lebanon with the continuation of Israeli and US war crimes, the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the deaths of, as I said, nearly 200,000 people. But this is connected. We understand that this effort, imperialist effort to wage war on the entire region of Western Asia, makes this commemoration all the more important. We’re not just commemorating a successful revolution, but also the beginnings of changes in power relationships around the world, which coincided with the post war stirrings for independence across the Global South.
I’m going to talk about Africa and its relationships with the People’s Republic of China, which began first as China was an example of the possibility of freedom from the capitalist, imperialist world. This year, I had an amazing opportunity to visit China as part of a Friends of Socialist China delegation, as guests of the China NGO Network for International Exchanges, visiting Beijing, Zhejiang and Jilin.
I saw for myself why China has leapfrogged over the rest of the world in its economic development, the dedication to the principles of socialism and a commitment to worldwide cooperation that has made relations with China attractive to the entire continent of Africa. Recently 53 nations, there are 54 nations in Africa, so that means every nation but one attended the recent Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, known as the Forum in Beijing. Why would they all attend? Well, I guess a better question is, why wouldn’t they, considering the ways in which African nations are treated by the capitalist West. And here’s an example. We all know that the US imposed sanctions on Russia two years ago, but they gave no thought to the relationships, the needs, the commerce between African nations and Russia for grain, for fertiliser, and they just said, “Well, we’re going to sanction you if you keep buying it.”
There were agreements worked out. But the UN representative, Linda Thomas Greenfield, she was shaking her finger at the Africans, and if you deviate from this, we’re going to sanction you all. So why wouldn’t African nations want to get away from those toxic relationships. China is devoted to cooperation, providing debt forgiveness, the Western nations, the World Bank and the IMF, do they ever forgive debts? I don’t think so.
And during the forum, President Xi Jinping promised better trade relations and market access for the so-called least developed countries (LDC), including 33 on the African continent. “China will voluntarily and unilaterally open its markets wider, giving LDCs that have diplomatic relations zero tariff treatment for 100% tariff lines.” And so, we have the possibility of something new. And we hear about the debt trap, and China is, you know, just taking resources from Africa. There is that. I’ll get to some of that. But there is nothing like this, this willingness to change the structures of economic relationships around the world.
Now there are contradictions, of course, because these 50 odd African nations are all very different. So for example, all these heads of state showed up, so you would have Rwanda and Uganda there, but they’ve spent decades violently pillaging the Democratic Republic of Congo. But all three were there. There’s a newly formed alliance of Sahel states, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, they’ve been under attack by some of their neighbours in the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, which is supposed to be an economic grouping, but it’s under the thumb of the US which even threatened military intervention against those same countries.
So we have the Western stooge nations and those who are seeking independence that were all present. And I want to point out, if I talk about African nations, I think we should always mention Eritrea, the one country that has maintained its commitment to socialism, which is why it’s always under attack. That’s why it’s, you know, it’s considered a slur. It’s called the North Korea of Africa, you know, as if North Korea, the DPRK, is some kind of weird slur. Eritrea is just a country that has maintained its independence that doesn’t want to take loans from the World Bank, and it suffers because of sanctions.
But it’s important, very important, that China maintain its commitment to having more equitable relationships and not be like you the US and Canada and Europe and merely extract. Chinese construction companies in DRC, Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, have agreed to invest up to $7 billion in infrastructure projects as part of their agreements in mining there in the DRC, which is very important, you know, what happens in the DRC is a human rights catastrophe. We’ve all seen the images of men, women and little children just with a bucket and a shovel mining minerals and resources that other people use to get rich.
So, I think it’s very important that we keep an eye on this, and the Chinese corporations live up to these commitments, to change these relationships, so there’s not merely extraction from that country. So, the theme of the forum was a flowery title, Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High Level China Africa Community with a Shared Future. Great title, but it encapsulates how China is approaching nations of the Global South, and that explains why African nations want to join the BRICs. Originally, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.
Now, Iran, Ethiopia, UAE and Egypt, and the BRICS have yet to create their own currency. But just this effort, the beginnings of an effort to escape dollar domination and to fight against the terrorism of the US sanctions regime, is enough to create endless screeds against China and against these countries which are just seeking to live free from domination.
And I wanted to, I realize I should mention, coming up is the anniversary of the founding of AFRICOM, the US Africa Command, founded in 2008 in the last few months of the George W. Bush administration, really ramped up under Obama. Now, most, almost every African country, except for two or three, have a military relationship with the US. Why? They were trying to stop China’s relationship, economic relationship with the African continent. And as you probably know, the US has divided the whole world into command structures, NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, INDOPAKCOM and AFRICOM, and as part of the Black Alliance for Peace, we are having our annual Month of Action against AFRICOM. And so I wanted to mention that too, because that is also connected with China’s relationships.
And there’s something else that occurred to me that doesn’t appear to be connected, but I think it is. Secretary of State Blinken, a couple of weeks ago, attacked RT, the Russian based network, and said it was a tool of Russian propaganda, and it should be sanctioned even more. That was not surprising, but he also singled out an African network called African Stream. It’s a platform. It’s a very good platform. And he said they were Russian propagandists, without any evidence. And it was very odd. Why would he turn on African Stream, which has now been deplatformed by Meta, all the Facebook platforms, de-platformed by YouTube, taken off of Stripe, so far still on X/Twitter, but who knows for how long?
And I think it’s connected with China’s outreach to African nations, Russia’s outreach to African nations, that this online platform which dares to present a different narrative, is turned into an enemy, and they seek to destroy it, because if people have even the most basic information, then you will question the US actions in Africa, actually, all over the world. So I thought that was important to bring up in talking about China’s relationships with African nations. The US and Europe want to cut off those relationships, as it does for the rest of the world. They don’t want African nations to have a different relationship. And as African people throughout the diaspora, they don’t want us to have different relationships.
And I think it’s important to mention not just the nations of the African continent, but the relations of the African diaspora. Dr. Horne referred to Shirley Graham DuBois, and there has been constant, on the part of revolutionaries, this urge to connect with China, to see China as this example. Which is why, in general, anti-Chinese propaganda is so dangerous. It’s an effort to indoctrinate. It’s an effort to stop revolutionary activity. And so, WEB DuBois visited China, and Paul Robeson reached out to China, and Huey Newton visited China. It’s all connected, and tells you how important it is that African people maintain these relationships, see China for ourselves and judge for ourselves, and the fact that that is something that is condemned so strongly, tells us quite a lot. So, I brought in a lot, but I know I’m approaching my seven minutes, so I will wrap it up here.
Long live the People’s Republic of China! Thank you so much.
