February 2025 - Page 3 of 3 - Friends of Socialist China

Trump, tariffs and the working class

The two articles below address the tariffs recently announced by the US against China, Canada and Mexico.

The first article, written by Friends of Socialist China advisory group member and International Manifesto Group convenor Radhika Desai, republished from CGTN, points to the cynical economic motives for these tariffs: to rob from the poor to pay the rich. Since the cost of tariffs is passed on to consumers, they constitute a stealth tax on ordinary Americans, and will help make up for the loss of revenue resulting from the Trump regime’s tax cuts for the super-rich.

The cost of the tariffs will be paid by ordinary US consumers. And they will pay in order that the richest US taxpayers can enjoy greater tax cuts, which is the key reason why Trump needs the tariff revenues.

Tariffs will also drive up inflation, further impacting living conditions of the working class.

The putative aim of the tariffs is to bolster US manufacturing. However, “for US capital, given its decades-long reluctance to invest productively at home, it’s going to take a lot more than tariffs. US capital needs to be turned away from the unproductive, predatory and speculative financial ventures in which it is engaged and towards serious productive investment.”

The second article, republished from Workers World, details the likely negative impact of the tariffs on the US economy, and denounces the Trump administration’s threats against the BRICS countries.

Attacks against BRICS are detrimental to workers in G7 countries… BRICS countries are displaying self-sufficiency and independence from Western imperialism and settler colonialism. Relations between China and Russia have also strengthened because of BRICS. Many countries in the Global South have less of a need to trade with the U.S. than they did in previous decades, and therefore they have more leverage to maintain sovereignty.

The article concludes:

Trump’s promotion of tariffs is harmful to workers all over the globe. Imperialist protectionism and isolationism are an obstacle to working-class unity, and they should be opposed. International solidarity is necessary in resisting anti-worker tariffs and defeating the racist, xenophobic “America First” agenda. Workers and oppressed peoples of the world, unite!

Trump’s empty tariff brinkmanship

After days of keeping the world guessing whether he would commit to such a disastrous course, U.S. President Donald Trump has started his trade wars against his country’s three most important trade partners, Canada, Mexico and China.

In announcing the tariffs on exports from these countries, Trump was self-contradictory, claiming they were a negotiating tool designed to deal with U.S. trade deficits, and then that they were not. Their true extent remains unclear: From the apparently blanket tariffs of 25 percent on Canada and Mexico and 10 percent on China, he has already reduced tariffs on oil, natural gas and electricity from Canada to 10 percent, and uncertainty prevails over exactly which goods they will hit, how, and by how much.

The Financial Times called it “a trade war on steroids” while the Washington Post declared it “the dumbest trade war in history.” Many others said these sky-high tariffs could not be expected to last forever.

So, as the world tightens its seatbelt for a bumpy ride through the Trump quadrennial, let’s parse the real wheat from the rhetorical chaff so we can better anticipate the course of the trade wars Trump has started. The key is that Trump’s tariffs are incoherent in conception and applied for the wrong reasons.

Trump is certainly using them as negotiating tools. He claims they are superior to sanctions, which scare other countries from the dollar system he wishes to save. Exactly how adding the weaponization of trade to the weaponization of the dollar is going to help the U.S. is anyone’s guess.

Is DeepSeek China’s Sputnik moment?

In the article below, reprinted from People’s World, CJ Atkins examines the geopolitical significance of the success of China’s DeepSeek R1 model, which has been taking the world by storm in recent weeks, and which was responsible for chip manufacturer Nvidia suffering the biggest ever fall in share price in a single day.

Atkins notes that the Biden administration’s export ban on the most sophisticated microchips has clearly backfired. “The export bans simply spurred Chinese developers to get creative, pushing them to come up with cheaper and more efficient ways of using the older chips they already had access to. They discovered means to train and operate AI models using less memory and less computing power. This resulted in a model that was cheaper to build and less damaging for the planet to operate than those developed by the U.S. tech monopolies.”

Importantly, DeepSeek’s developers made their model open source, allowing anyone to use it for free. “That means they showed their work for the world to see and adapt for further development. Other scientists and coders can build on DeepSeek-R1 to create their own AI models.” The article cites Liang Wenfeng, the founder of DeepSeek, as saying that “our starting point is not the opportunity to make a quick profit, but rather to reach the technical frontier and drive the development of the entire ecosystem”.

The stunning success of DeepSeek’s model highlights the fact that China is now a major player in the global tech industry, and is increasingly setting the pace in terms of innovation. This is testament to the effectiveness of China’s economic model, and calls to mind Deng Xiaoping’s 1984 comment that “the superiority of the socialist system is demonstrated, in the final analysis, by faster and greater development of those forces than under the capitalist system”.

Atkins warns that the DeepSeek phenomenon will likely trigger a deepening of the US’s trade war against China, along with an expansion of its campaign of containment and encirclement. “We can expect a ramping up of military tensions over the long term. The weapons dealers and neocon warhawks will seize the moment to beat the drums of a real war against China. There will be a tightening of U.S. imperialism’s military encirclement of China, and a propaganda onslaught warning of the ‘China threat’ will wash over the American people. Anti-Asian racism will figure prominently, just as it did during the pandemic.”

The article concludes by noting that China’s consistent call is for peaceful coexistence and international cooperation between countries with different social systems. The US and China could and should be working together to push science and technology forward in the service of humanity, but the US ruling class cannot be expected to pursue such a path in the absence of mass pressure. “The tech monopolists will do anything to protect their own profits and power, even if it means keeping the world divided and holding back shared progress.”

In 1978, just months before China initiated the reform and opening up of its economy, Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping told a meeting of researchers:

“Our science and technology have made enormous progress since the founding of New China…. But we must be clear-sighted and recognize that there is still an enormous gap between our level and that of the most advanced countries and that our scientific and technical forces are still too meager.”

If he were alive to witness the events of the last few days, would Deng be shocked?

The release of the DeepSeek-R1 chatbot, a Chinese-developed large language model (LLM), threw the global artificial intelligence industry into chaos and wiped a trillion dollars off the values of some of the biggest tech corporations on the New York Stock Exchange—overnight.

Is this China’s “Sputnik moment,” comparable in historic significance to the Soviet Union’s inauguration of the space age with the launch of the first artificial satellite in 1957?

Back then, U.S. capitalism made the mistake of assuming that blockading the socialist half of the world via trade walls and embargoes would keep it technologically backward forever. The same error is being made again with China.

No chips for China

Export bans on the most sophisticated microchips that power advanced AI applications, along with chip-making equipment and software, were imposed by the Biden administration in 2022, using “national security” as a justification.

With Trump campaigning last year to go even further, Biden toughened his restrictions in December. The graphics processing units (GPUs) that are the go-to for training AIs like ChatGPT and DeepSeek were put on an export blacklist, forbidden from being shipped to China or companies in third countries that do business with the People’s Republic.

But the U.S.’ economic aggression now appears to have backfired. The export bans simply spurred Chinese developers to get creative, pushing them to come up with cheaper and more efficient ways of using the older chips they already had access to.

They discovered means to train and operate AI models using less memory and less computing power. This resulted in a model that was cheaper to build and less damaging for the planet to operate than those developed by the U.S. tech monopolies.

Sino-British Concert: East-West Dialogue, Spring Sequence of New Sounds

On February 2, 2025 the ‘Sino-British Concert: East-West Dialogue, Spring Sequence of New Sounds’ was held at London’s Royal Academy of Music. David Peat, Secretary of Friends of Socialist China (FoSC) Britain Committee, attended the event on invitation. The following is his report.

On Sunday 2nd February, visitors to London’s central Shaftesbury Avenue and surrounding streets were able to take part in Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations. The breadth of China’s historic culture and modern development were all displayed: exuberant traditional ‘Lion Dances’ took place next to China’s cutting-edge high-tech electric BYD vehicles. People could purchase good fortune souvenirs, and enjoy street snacks and the sounds of firecrackers, all along the temporarily pedestrianised thoroughfare. Each year London’s main Chinese New Year celebration, which expanded beyond the bounds of Chinatown proper since the mayoralty of Ken Livingstone, can be enjoyed by both tourists and residents of the capital city. With the recent viral success of the Xiaohongshu [Red Note] app, western users have been able to witness the amazing CNY celebrations that take place all over China, so no doubt some attendees were keen to enjoy that closer to home.

To the west of Chinatown proper, another event was held, which was a stunning display of musical skill and proof that artistic cultures – and cultures in general – benefit from sharing traditions and influence across borders. This event was the Sino-British Concert: East-West Dialogue, Spring Sequence of New Sounds, hosted by the Sino-British Ensemble, the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU), and the UK Beijing Arts Centre.

In attendance at the event was Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang and his wife Counsellor Hua Mei, along with Minister Zhao Fei. Among others present were representatives of organisations that have sought to build connections and understanding between China and the UK, including Special Guest Michael David Wood, historian and SACU President, who is especially known for his book and BBC documentary on China’s iconic Tang dynasty poet Du Fu. Prior to the performances, Professor Wood gave a brief talk outlining the history of musical exchanges between the west and the east and highlighted the ongoing potential for artistic collaboration to build bridges between nations and peoples.

This sold-out event was held in the beautiful Duke’s Hall of the Royal Academy of Music. The program was expansive and diverse, with more than 80 musicians performing 10 ‘dialogues’, in which one piece of music from the western tradition and one from the eastern were performed alternately, or even directly in conversation with one another. The Sino-British orchestra features musicians from China, the UK, India, Germany, Italy, Romania and other countries, and also foregrounded pieces and musical styles from China’s ethnic minority musical traditions.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has highlighted how China in its history has long cherished the notion of “harmony without uniformity.” In a speech at UNESCO headquarters in 2015 titled ‘Exchanges and Mutual Learning Make Civilizations Richer and More Colorful’, President Xi quoted Yan Zi, prime minister of the State of Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), who is recorded as observing: “Only by combining the texture, length, rhythm, mood, tone, pitch and style adequately and executing them properly can you produce an excellent melody… Who can tolerate the same tone played again and again with one instrument?”^[1] This observation matches the purpose of the concert: appreciating the new connections and possibilities that can be created when diverse musical traditions and peoples are brought into contact. As the enormous interest in apps like RedNote has shown, people in both East and West are intensely curious to make connections with one another, and the results are ‘win-win’ when they do. Events like the Sino-British concert are a wonderful way to establish and strengthen these sorts of links.

For those interested in similar events in future, check SACU’s website at Home – Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU)

^[1] Xi Jinping, The Governance of China Vol 1, pp. 283 – 289.