Author: Friends of Socialist China

The antibiotics crisis and the case for socialism

Ara Darzi – surgeon, Labour peer and author of the 2024 review of the NHS – has written in the Financial Times that the West has handed China “the keys to the medicine cabinet”, warning of the “peacetime weaponisation” of pharmaceutical supply chains. China supplies around 94 percent of the key raw materials for amoxicillin and nearly half of global antibiotic ingredient exports.

The following article by Carlos Martinez takes the sinophobic framing apart. China has never withheld medicine from anyone, while the United States is currently obstructing medical supplies to Cuba, Iran and Venezuela, and held up ventilator and PPE shipments during a pandemic. However, what Darzi concedes along the way is of interest.

Darzi’s own diagnosis is that antibiotics are a permanent market failure: a drug whose value rises the less it is used cannot recoup its research costs, so Novartis, AstraZeneca and Sanofi have all quit the field, and the company that brought a new antibiotic to market in 2018 was bankrupt within a year. As former British Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies put it, a medicine that cures you in a week is a worse business proposition than one you must take for life. Meanwhile some 4.71 million deaths were associated with antibacterial resistance in 2021, with the heaviest burden falling on South and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa – precisely where the market is least likely to step in.

Darzi’s conclusion is that antibiotics should be treated not as a commodity but as critical infrastructure, planned and publicly supported. The article agrees, and observes that when China applies exactly that logic – to antibiotics, solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, high-speed rail or semiconductors – it is denounced as overcapacity and distortion, and met with tariffs. Darzi has written a very persuasive argument for socialism, and appears not to have noticed.

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Xi Jinping’s speech at the gathering commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Jiang Zemin

On the morning of August 17, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the State Council, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and the Central Military Commission held a grand gathering at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Marxist, proletarian revolutionary, politician, military strategist, diplomat, and outstanding leader of the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Comrade Jiang Zemin. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the country, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended the conference and delivered an important speech.

The following is the full text of the speech. It was published in Chinese by the Xinhua News Agency and has been machine translated and then sub-edited by us.

Comrades and friends,

Today, we gather solemnly to commemorate the centenary of Comrade Jiang Zemin’s birth, deeply commemorate his great achievements, deeply study his noble character, and inspire the entire Party and people of all ethnic groups across the country to continuously advance the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Comrade Jiang Zemin is an outstanding leader recognised by the entire Party, the military, and people of all ethnic groups nationwide, enjoying high prestige and outstanding leadership, a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, politician, military strategist, diplomat, a long-tested communist fighter, an outstanding leader in the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the core of the Party’s third generation central leadership collective, and the main founder of the important thinking of the ‘Three Represents’.

A hundred years ago today, Comrade Jiang Zemin was born into a patriotic intellectual family in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. From his youth, he was determined to pursue truth and actively participated in patriotic and progressive student movements. In April 1946, he joined the Communist Party of China, dedicating his life to the cause of the Party and the people.

After the founding of New China, Comrade Jiang Zemin worked successively in enterprises, research institutes, and national ministries, fulfilling his duties and working diligently in every position, dedicating his passionate years to the cause of socialist revolution and construction. In the early days of reform and opening up, Comrade Jiang Zemin served as Deputy Director and Secretary-General of the State Administration of Import and Export and the State Foreign Investment Administration Commission, and later as First Vice Minister and Minister of the Ministry of Electronics Industry, making extensive pioneering work in reform and opening up. At the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party, he was elected as a member of the Central Committee.

In 1985, Comrade Jiang Zemin was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Mayor. In 1987, at the First Plenary Session of the 13th Central Committee, he was elected as a member of the Central Political Bureau and served as Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. During this period, Comrade Jiang Zemin led the broad masses of cadres and people in Shanghai to boost morale and courageously explore, led the formulation of Shanghai’s economic development and urban construction plans, promoted Pudong’s development and opening up, and made outstanding contributions to advancing Shanghai’s reform, opening up, and socialist modernisation. At the turn of spring and summer in 1989, China experienced serious political turmoil. Comrade Jiang Zemin resolutely supported and implemented the correct decisions of the Party Central Committee, effectively maintaining stability in Shanghai.

In June 1989, at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th Central Committee, Jiang Zemin was elected as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and General Secretary of the Central Committee. In November of the same year, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 13th Central Committee decided to make him Chairman of the Central Military Commission, forming the third generation of the Party’s central leadership with Jiang Zemin at its core.

Continue reading Xi Jinping’s speech at the gathering commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Jiang Zemin

Brazil’s election is a test case for the Global South

The following article by Sara Vivacqua, a Brazilian lawyer and investigative journalist, examines the campaign of legal, diplomatic, economic and military pressure being waged by the Trump administration against Brazil ahead of the presidential election on 4 October. With Venezuela under military assault, Cuba under siege, new US bases in Argentina and Paraguay and marines deployed in Ecuador and Bolivia, Brazil stands as one of the very few remaining obstacles to Washington completing its sphere of influence across the hemisphere.

Of particular interest is the article’s account of China’s role. On 27 July, the day after Lula responded to a fresh 25 percent tariff with an op-ed in the Washington Post, Xi Jinping telephoned him to say that China highly values Brazil’s international status and influence and supports Brazil in safeguarding its sovereignty and independence and opposing external interference. Wang Yi reaffirmed that support once the tariff took effect.

The support goes well beyond communiqués. China is now the destination for 28.7 percent of everything Brazil exports and supplies just over a quarter of its imports. Chinese investment reached $6.1 billion in 2025, a 45 percent rise that made Brazil the single largest destination for Chinese outbound investment. BYD assembles vehicles at Camaçari, in Bahia, on the site Ford abandoned in 2021; Brazilian purchases of Chinese cars rose 147 percent year on year in the first five months of 2026, taking Brazil from sixth place in the world to first. The Salvador–Itaparica bridge, which will be Latin America’s largest cable-stayed cross-sea bridge, is being built by Chinese companies.

Most consequential of all is the monetary architecture. Brazil and China now settle trade directly between the real and the yuan, backed by a central bank swap line of 190 billion yuan, clearing the next working day through China’s own cross-border payment system. Transactions that once had to pass through correspondent banks in New York no longer need to – which, as Sara puts it, is the quiet reason the tariffs bite less than they once did. The more of the relationship that sits outside the dollar system, the less leverage a hostile US Treasury has.

None of this is lost on Washington. The article notes that the “Shield of the Americas”, an 18-member hemispheric intelligence-sharing coalition ostensibly aimed at transnational crime, is widely understood to be directed at China – whose trade with Latin America has risen from $12 billion in 2000 to over $500 billion in 2024. Latin America, the author concludes, has become a priority in the US campaign of encirclement against China and its war on multipolarity, and Brazil’s election now sits at the epicentre of that project.

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New Zealand foreign minister’s racist outburst damages relations with China

A July 29 racist incident in the New Zealand parliament has served to further sour the country’s once cordial relations with China.

That day Green Party MP Dr. Lawrence Xu-Nan heckled Foreign Minister Winston Peters about his vaccination status during a parliamentary debate. Peters responded by shouting: “I know you just came here five minutes ago. Go back where you come from, you loud mouth!”

Writing in his Solidarity blog, Eugene Doyle notes: “For the record Xu-Nan, born in Tianjin, China, arrived in New Zealand as a child in the 1990s. He is the Green Party’s first Chinese MP and says he ‘hopes to create bridges across various tauiwi [ethnically diverse] communities and bring together the collective wisdom of these communities to find solutions to the bigger challenges facing Aotearoa [New Zealand].”

In contrast, he continues, “in the space of 30 seconds, the undiplomatic foreign minister racially insulted a fellow MP, derided the Chinese government, cast slurs on immigrants and rehearsed talking points better suited to a MAGA rally in Eastern Kentucky than the New Zealand Parliament.”

He adds that “his insult to the ambassador and the Chinese system of government is gratuitous and will not be welcome in Beijing where New Zealand’s share price has been dropping sharply since the [Christopher] Luxon government ramped up both anti-China rhetoric and moved rapidly to more deeply integrate with the US military. Ludicrously, the PM simultaneously says he wants to double trade with China!”

Bianca Ranson of Anti-War Aotearoa, which advocates for a more respectful engagement with China, said Peter’s comments were deliberately insulting to China and the Chinese people. “He’s not fit to be foreign minister. At a time when tensions are heightened around immigrants and racism, we have Winston Peters reaching for the far-right playbook, emboldening racists and giving them an example of how to treat others. New Zealand’s support for Israel has already damaged our standing in the world and this just underlines that something has gone seriously wrong.”

New Zealand has long had good political and thriving economic relations with China, especially when the New Zealand Labour Party was in office, but these have deteriorated sharply since Labour lost the November 2023 general election.

China’s public response to Peters’ outburst was extremely measured. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy, referring to him only as “a certain politician”, “urged the New Zealand side to value the equal and mutually beneficial relationship between China and New Zealand and to do more things conducive to bilateral relations rather than the other way around,” adding that the, “absolute majority… of the Chinese community in New Zealand abide by local laws, actively integrate into the mainstream society, and have made important contributions to New Zealand’s economic and social development, and therefore deserve to be recognised and respected.”

However, China was less restrained when, shortly after, Peters unsuccessfully attempted to cajole the countries of the South Pacific, meeting at the Pacific Islands Forum Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in the Fijian capital Suva, into condemning a recent missile launch by China.

An article carried on the embassy website said that Peters had turned the meeting, “into a stage for his own political performance, pushing hard for the forum to issue a joint statement on China’s test launch of a strategic missile by a submarine last month. Before the meeting, Peters had accused Pacific Island countries of ‘missing an opportunity’ by failing to collectively criticise China… However, the outcome delivered Peters a resounding slap in the face. Pacific Island countries clearly showed little interest in the agenda he promoted, and no joint statement was adopted…

“In recent years, New Zealand has echoed Australia in hyping up the so-called ‘China security threat’, treating the South Pacific as its own sphere of influence and repeatedly pointing fingers at Pacific Island countries’ diplomatic choices. Whenever a country carries out normal economic, trade or security cooperation with China, it is immediately stigmatised as being ‘influenced by those outside the region’.

“As a close follower of the US and Australian camp, New Zealand, despite knowing that the majority of Pacific Island countries hold different views, still attempted to force through a statement targeting China, even at the cost of creating divisions among regional countries. At its core, this was an attempt to consolidate its regional discourse power by aligning with the geopolitical strategies of external powers and seeking to become the ‘regional decision-maker’.”

A third statement by the embassy, issued on August 14, responded to the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) release of its report entitled ‘New Zealand’s Security Threat Environment 2026’. It stated:

“Steeped in Cold War mentality, the report once again fabricates and hypes the so-called ‘China interference’ and ‘China threat’ narratives. Its false allegations against China either smear normal exchanges and cooperation as so-called espionage or interference or are entirely groundless and fabricated out of thin air. We firmly oppose this and will never accept it.”

It added that it formed “part of a new wave of attacks, slander and vilification against China orchestrated by certain international forces and may well itself be a product of foreign interference.

“It also reflects the reluctance of certain forces, both within and outside New Zealand, to see the sound development of China-New Zealand relations. By resorting to every possible means to fabricate disinformation, they seek to drive a wedge between our two peoples, create a chilling effect on the public including the Chinese community, undermine bilateral mutual trust, and obstruct the growth of the relationship — all in service of their own geopolitical agendas and the narrow, short-sighted political interests of a few…

“Our message to those forces and individuals attempting political machinations is this: do not sacrifice the hard-won, mutually beneficial China-New Zealand relationship for selfish gain, and do not act against the interests of New Zealand and its people. Serving as a pawn for anti-China forces will ultimately backfire. Manufacturing distractions in foreign relations will not solve New Zealand’s own problems — it will only prove counterproductive. We urge these forces and individuals not to quench their thirst with poison, and not to lift a rock only to drop it on their own feet.

“China values its relationship with New Zealand. We stand ready to work with the New Zealand side, on the basis of the consensus reached between the leaders of our two countries, to advance exchanges and cooperation across the fields of political mutual trust, practical cooperation and people-to-people ties, for the greater benefit of both peoples.

“That said, the development of China-New Zealand relations is not up to China’s efforts alone. We hope the New Zealand side will work in the same direction as China, rather than the opposite. Should it fail to do so, the responsibility for any consequences that may arise will not rest with the Chinese side.”

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Study shows Belt and Road Initiative cuts debt and corruption

A team at Nanjing University’s Centre for Asia-Pacific Development Studies has published what appears to be the most comprehensive statistical test yet attempted of the “debt trap diplomacy” thesis – examining 197 countries and regions over 2000 to 2023, including the 146 that have signed Belt and Road cooperation agreements. It found no evidence that participation raised financial vulnerability. Indeed, it found the opposite: the more Belt and Road infrastructure a country actually built, the further its debt burden fell.

The following article by Carlos Martinez sets out the study’s findings and the mechanism behind them – productive assets generating returns, widening the tax base and reducing the need to borrow simply to service previous borrowing – along with the associated gains the researchers identify in political stability, government effectiveness and the reduction of corruption. It notes that these conclusions are consistent with what Chatham House, Deborah Bräutigam of Johns Hopkins and the campaign group Debt Justice have found whenever they have examined the evidence.

For a decade, anyone following Western coverage of the China-initiated Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been fed the same story: that Beijing lends recklessly to poor countries, waits for them to default, and then seizes their assets. This notion of “debt trap diplomacy” has been repeated so often as to acquire the status of established fact.

A team from Nanjing University’s Centre for Asia-Pacific Development Studies, led by Professor Mao Weizhun, has now published in the peer-reviewed Quarterly Journal of International Politics what appears to be the most comprehensive statistical test of the thesis yet attempted. Reported by the South China Morning Post, the study examined data from 197 countries and regions over the period 2000 to 2023, covering the 146 countries that have signed Belt and Road cooperation agreements and the 135 where projects have actually been launched or completed.

The headline finding is unambiguous. Testing whether participation in the BRI raised debt risk – using indicators including government debt and fiscal capacity – the researchers found no evidence whatsoever that taking part in the initiative increased financial vulnerability. Indeed, they found the opposite.

The research team tracked countries across three distinct stages: signing up to BRI projects, beginning construction, and bringing completed projects into operation. At the first stage the effect on debt was slightly negative but statistically insignificant. Once construction was under way it became significant, and once the infrastructure was operating it was stronger still. In other words, the more Belt and Road infrastructure a country actually built, the further its debt burden fell. Mao Weizhun writes that “this parallel trend test on debt levels shows the fallacy of the ‘debt trap’ argument”.

How does the BRI reduce debt?

The mechanism is not particularly mysterious. The investment gives rise to productive assets – ports, railways, power networks, communications systems, industrial estates – and productive assets generate returns. Better logistics and energy supply raise industrial output, which in turn widens the tax base, allowing the debt to be serviced.

The study’s authors write that “large-scale infrastructure construction not only brings direct economic benefits to the countries taking part but also optimises their economic structures and strengthens their independent development capacity”. As that capacity grows, participating states “can make better use of domestic resources rather than relying on external borrowing to repay debts”.

Borrowing simply to service existing loans is precisely the pattern that has historically undermined developing economies. Borrowing to build a railway is not the same act as borrowing to service previous borrowing – and the latter is what a great deal of Global South sovereign debt actually finances.

The study also found a number of associated gains: improvements in political stability, in government effectiveness, and in reducing corruption. Public infrastructure, the researchers argue, goes beyond steel and concrete; it strengthens a state’s capacity to allocate resources, deliver public services and integrate remote regions. They describe the result as a “development-infrastructure-security” cycle, citing the China–Laos Railway, the Jakarta–Bandung high-speed line and the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The researchers cite estimates that participating countries’ combined GDP rose by 39.6 percent in the five years after joining, with over half of that growth attributable to infrastructure improvements. The World Bank has estimated that Belt and Road infrastructure could deliver annual benefits worth 1.3 percent of global GDP – some $1.6 trillion – by 2030, with around 90 percent of the gains accruing to participating countries.

Consistent findings

Critics will point out that this is a study by Chinese academics in a Chinese journal. This is true. But its conclusions are entirely consistent with what Western researchers have found whenever they have troubled to examine the evidence.

Chatham House dismantled the thesis as long ago as 2020, noting that the BRI “is not geared towards advancing coherent geopolitical aims” and that “recipient countries (such as Sri Lanka and Malaysia) are not hapless victims, but actively shape outcomes within China’s development financing system”. Deborah Bräutigam of Johns Hopkins University, who runs a detailed empirical research programme on Chinese lending, has spent years documenting that the “debt trap” narrative does not survive contact with the data. Chinese lending to Africa is overwhelmingly infrastructure finance: some 40 percent has gone to power generation and transmission, and around 30 percent to transport, on a continent where more than 600 million people still have no reliable electricity.

Who is actually responsible for debt distress in the Global South? According to World Bank figures, Western multilateral institutions and commercial creditors between them hold close to three-quarters of Africa’s external debt. Research by the British campaign group Debt Justice found that African governments owe just 12 percent of their external debt to Chinese lenders, against 35 percent to Western private lenders – and that the private loans carry an average interest rate of 5 percent, compared with 2.7 percent on Chinese lending.

“Western leaders blame China for debt crises in Africa”, Debt Justice’s Tim Jones has said, “but this is a distraction. The truth is their own banks, asset managers and oil traders are far more responsible, but the G7 are letting them off the hook”. When the G20 established its debt service suspension initiative during the pandemic, China took part, deferring roughly $5.7 billion in debt service payments, representing 63 percent of total bilateral suspensions. Western private creditors did not participate.

The debt trap does exist. It has been laid over decades by Western banks, bondholders and the international financial institutions that discipline debtors on their behalf, and it works by lending at punitive rates for consumption and refinancing rather than for production – often accompanied by conditions of structural adjustment: privatisation, deregulation, liberalisation, and the sale of public assets.

The Belt and Road is something else entirely: a programme of South–South cooperation that builds the productive capacity by which countries might eventually escape that trap altogether. That, rather than genuine concern for the financial wellbeing of Zambia or Sri Lanka, is why it attracts such sustained hostility from the mainstream media.

China’s poverty alleviation: lessons to study and obstacles to global poverty reduction

Concluding his series of articles on his recent visit to China at the invitation of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (IDCPC), David Peat, Secretary of Friends of Socialist China Britain Committee, was requested to write a paper on the topic of China’s poverty reduction, and its impact globally, including any possible application to the writer’s home country and local conditions, in connection with the ‘Path to Modernisation: Takeaways from China’s Theory and Practice of Poverty Alleviation’ conference which took place in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, in July 2026.

In his paper, David charts the world-historic achievement of China’s poverty alleviation and notes how Global South countries in particular are paying close attention and applying what lessons they deem appropriate for their national conditions from China’s experiences. The paper goes on to contrast this achievement to the resurgent and under-reported levels of poverty in the “developed” western countries. He emphasises that the primary global obstacle to achieving sustainable poverty alleviation in any country (Global South or North) remains US-led imperialism, and even the best-intentioned and best practice examples can be undermined or even reversed by US economic and military action. As such, Global South nations seeking lessons from China’s experience should also recognise that the foundation of its success has been built fundamentally on the basis of its own hard-won political and economic sovereignty. Though China was able to achieve this sovereignty through its successful revolution, that is not necessarily the only path for other countries to do likewise, and newly emerging forms of alternative global development infrastructure, such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), BRICS+, and others, can be successfully utilised, in collaboration with the demands of their own citizens, to forge new development paths, not dependent on (or subjugated by) the imperialist-dominated system.

The earlier articles in the series reported from Gansu, where poverty alleviation was examined in theory and practice, and from Ningxia, where the Global South gathered to study China’s ‘Long March’ to abolish absolute poverty.

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Holding the line: Jiang Zemin at 100

Monday 17 August marks the centenary of the birth of Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002 and President of the country from 1993 to 2003 – the leader of the People’s Republic whom much of the Western left finds it easiest to write off as a “capitalist roader”.

The following article argues that the charge rests on a false premise: that the realistic alternative available to China between 1989 and 2003 was some purer or more advanced form of socialism. It was not. Jiang took office six months before the people’s democracies of Eastern Europe fell, and two years before the Soviet Union ceased to exist, and the working assumption in most Western capitals was that China would be next.

The article weighs the real costs of the period – a Gini coefficient rising from around 0.32 to over 0.42, state enterprise employment falling from 77 million to 42 million, corruption and ideological decay – against what was achieved, and against what happened in Russia over the same decade, where economic output halved and male life expectancy collapsed to around 57. It also examines the admission of private entrepreneurs to the Party, the Theory of the Three Represents, and Jiang’s record of solidarity with Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam and Laos.

The following original article is by Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez. It has been translated into Dutch by our friends at China Square.

Monday 17 August marks the centenary of the birth of Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002 and President of the country from 1993 to 2003. Of all the leaders of the People’s Republic, he is perhaps the one that many on the Western left find it easiest, at least according to their own paradigm, to dismiss as a “capitalist roader” and revisionist.

Such labels are applied because Jiang presided over a period of extraordinarily rapid economic growth and integration into the global economy; the dismantling of the “iron rice bowl” of job security for life, steady income and public benefits; and because he allowed suitably qualified private entrepreneurs to join the Communist Party.

But the charge as usually made rests on the assumption that the realistic alternative available to China between 1989 and 2003 was some kind of pure or more advanced socialism. It was not. The alternatives on offer at that moment in history were rather more brutal, as we discuss below.

A revolutionary life

Jiang was born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, in 1926, into a country under warlord rule and, before he reached his teens, under Japanese occupation of much of China. His uncle and adoptive father, Jiang Shangqing, died fighting Japan in 1939. Jiang took part in the anti-Japanese student movement, and joined the CPC in 1946 while studying electrical engineering – three years before liberation, at a time when Party membership under Kuomintang rule was an extremely risky business; in many instances a death sentence.

He then spent three decades as an industrial cadre rather than a politician. He organised the production of canned food for the Chinese People’s Volunteers in Korea. He trained at the Stalin Automobile Works in Moscow in 1955, and also worked as an engineer in Romania for several years in the 1970s. He oversaw the design of China’s first domestically produced turbo-generator. He was Minister of the Electronics Industry, then mayor and Party secretary of Shanghai. He came to the leadership as an engineer who had spent his working life building things and making them work.

Continue reading Holding the line: Jiang Zemin at 100

Hawks dressed as doves: the Guardian’s case for a harder line on China

In the following article, written for the Morning Star, our co-editor Carlos Martinez takes apart a recent Guardian column by Simon Tisdall whose complaint, running through every paragraph, is not that the West has been too aggressive towards China but that it has not been aggressive enough.

Carlos works through the column point by point: the claim of Western “debilitating fatalism” towards a country already facing a tariff war, semiconductor export bans, AUKUS, the Quad, RIMPAC and a chain of US bases from Japan to Australia; Tisdall’s unfortunate choice of Wales as an analogy for language rights; the assertion of “brutal re-education camps” offered without evidence, source or argument, resting on the discredited work of Adrian Zenz and the arms-industry-funded ASPI; and the verdict that Xi is an “unelected autocrat”, delivered without reference to the five levels of People’s Congresses, the consultative apparatus that precedes their votes, or the satisfaction ratings that no Western government has approached in living memory.

The article’s conclusion is that this is liberal hawkishness in its purest form – deploring Trump in one paragraph and demanding his policy in the next – and that it is more dangerous than the honest belligerence of the right, because it recruits people of genuine conscience to a war they would otherwise oppose.

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The Cypriot struggle and the Long March spirit

With the impending 90th anniversary of the victorious conclusion of the Long March undertaken by the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, the magazine China Today has been publishing a series of articles by international friends.

In the following article, Nikos Ioannou, a member of the Central Committee of the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) of Cyprus, writes that:

“For a Cypriot communist, and a member of the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL), the Long March (1934-1936), a strategic military relocation undertaken by the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, speaks not only of military endurance or strategic relocation. It speaks of the capacity of a people’s movement to survive under conditions of extreme danger, to reorganise its forces, to keep faith with its ideals, and to transform hardship into a source of moral and political strength.”

He adds: “This is why the Long March can be understood as a universal revolutionary metaphor. It represents the refusal to surrender when the balance of forces appears overwhelming. It represents discipline, collective courage, unity, sacrifice, and the belief that history is not made only by the powerful, but also by those who organise, endure, and struggle for justice.

“Mao Zedong captured this meaning in December 1935, in ‘On Tactics Against Japanese Imperialism’, when he wrote that: ‘The Long March is a manifesto.’ He described it also as ‘a propaganda force’ and ‘a seeding-machine’, because it had proclaimed the heroism of the Red Army and carried to millions the message that the road of the Red Army was the road to liberation. This is a crucial point.”

According to Ioannou, “From Cyprus, this symbolism has a particular resonance. Cyprus is a small island in the Eastern Mediterranean, but its modern history has been shaped by great international struggles. Colonial domination, the anti-fascism and anti-colonial movement, the fight for workers’ rights, the struggle for peace, and the continuing demand for freedom and reunification. AKEL was born and developed under these conditions. Its roots go back to the Communist Party of Cyprus, which emerged from the historical need of the Cypriot working class to organise itself politically and socially, to acquire consciousness of its role, and to connect the struggle for social justice with the struggle for national and democratic rights.”

He argues that the party’s internationalist tradition “was expressed with particular clarity during the years of the Second World War. Cyprus was then a British colony. The Cypriot people lived under colonial rule, without national freedom and with severe restrictions on political and civil rights. For the communists, repression was even harsher. Organisations were banned, leaders were exiled, and censorship and persecution were widespread. Yet when fascism threatened humanity, AKEL did not treat the struggle as someone else’s war.

“On June 16, 1943, the Central Committee of AKEL took one of the most important decisions in the history of the Party and of the Cypriot people. It called on its members and supporters to voluntarily enlist in the Allied forces, under the Cyprus Regiment, in order to fight Nazism and fascism. This was a conscious anti-fascist and internationalist act. AKEL understood that the defeat of Hitler-led fascism was necessary not only for the liberation of Europe, but also for the future of all oppressed peoples, including the people of Cyprus.”

As a result: “The anti-fascist experience became part of the anti-colonial struggle. It helped shape the generation that would demand democracy, workers’ rights, social progress, and the end of British colonial rule. This is where the symbolism of the Long March acquires deeper meaning for Cypriots. A revolutionary journey is not only the movement from one place to another. It is the transformation of people through struggle.”

He further notes that, “the internationalist tradition of the Cypriot left did not begin in the Second World War. Before that, in the 1930s, Cypriot anti-fascists had already taken part in one of the most moving expressions of international solidarity in the 20th century: the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Around 60 Cypriots, many of them from working-class backgrounds and having suffered from poverty, migration, unemployment and political persecution, travelled to Spain to defend the country against fascism. Among those Cypriot volunteers were figures who would later become central to the history of the Cypriot left, including Ezekias Papaioannou, who later became general secretary of AKEL.”

Updating the story, he writes: “Today, when China speaks of building a community with a shared future for humanity, this idea can be understood against the background of these long histories of internationalism. Humanity again faces dangers that no people can confront alone: war, militarism, poverty, climate crisis, inequality, racism, new forms of colonial domination, and the return of dangerous bloc politics. The answer cannot be the fragmentation of the world into hostile camps, nor the imposition of the will of the powerful upon the weak. The answer must be cooperation, mutual respect, peace, common development, and the recognition that the future of each people is tied to the future of all.

“For a small country such as Cyprus, this is not an abstract principle. Cyprus knows from its own experience what occupation, foreign intervention, and division mean… This is why the Cypriot left has always connected the struggle of Cyprus with the struggle of all peoples for freedom, peace, and justice.

“The vision of a community with a shared future for humanity can therefore be approached not as a diplomatic slogan, but as a historical necessity… From the perspective of AKEL, this idea resonates with the deepest meaning of internationalism. Internationalism is not the denial of one’s own country. It is the highest form of genuine patriotism, because it understands that the freedom of one people cannot be secured through the oppression of another. It understands that a small country’s independence is protected not by submission to powerful alliances, but by a world order based on peace, law, solidarity, and respect for sovereignty.

He concludes: “There are no identical histories. The mountains and rivers crossed by the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army are not the same as the colonial streets, villages, and battlefields that shaped the Cypriot left. Yet between them resonates a common echo of people who understood that liberation is never given as a gift. It is won through endurance, organisation, sacrifice, and solidarity.

“Today, as humanity searches for a path beyond war, inequality, domination, and division, that echo remains alive. From the Long March to the anti-fascist volunteers of Cyprus, from the battle against colonialism to the contemporary struggle for peace and social justice, internationalism continues to offer a compass. It tells us that the future cannot belong to hegemony and exploitation. It must belong to the peoples.”

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China mourns Lao revolutionary leader

Saysomphone Phomvihane, a member of the Politburo of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee and President of the National Assembly of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) passed away on August 8 at the age of 69.

On August 11, Chinese Ambassador to the LPDR Fang Hong conveyed a condolence message from Zhao Leji, Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), to the National Assembly of the LPDR.

In his message, Comrade Zhao Leji said that Comrade Saysomphone Phomvihane had devoted his life to the Lao revolutionary cause and made valuable contributions to advancing the building of a China-Laos community with a shared future in the new era.

The message reaffirmed China’s strong commitment to consolidating and developing the traditional friendship between China and Laos. China stands ready to work with Laos to fully implement the important strategic consensus reached by the top leaders of the two Parties and two countries, deepen exchanges and cooperation across various fields, and advance China-Laos relations and the respective socialist causes of the two countries.

Saysomphone Phomvihane was the son of President Kaysone Phomvihane, the leader of the Lao revolution.

At the age of six, he left his family to pursue his primary and secondary education in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the People’s Republic of China. He eventually gained a doctorate in the former Soviet Union.

A state funeral was held in the capital Vientiane on August 12.

In his eulogy, Lao party and state leader Thongloun Sisoulith highlighted Saysomphone’s extensive knowledge and capabilities across various fields, broad vision and firm political convictions. He was also remembered for his revolutionary ethics, strong sense of responsibility, patriotic spirit, selflessness and unwavering loyalty to the Party, the nation and the people.

Throughout his decades of public service, Saysomphone remained committed to the Party’s ideals and was noted for his perseverance, prudence and ability to respond effectively to the responsibilities entrusted to him. His experience across different areas of work enabled him to make practical contributions in each position he held.

Saysomphone devoted his life to the cause of protecting and developing the country, consistently placing the interests of the Party, the nation and the people above personal interests. He was also remembered for his modest and frugal lifestyle and his close ties with the people. He was described as sincere toward his comrades, generous toward those around him, firm on matters of principle and disciplined in his work. These qualities earned him the respect and trust of his colleagues, the Lao people of all ethnic groups and international friends.

Among the international delegations present was a high-level delegation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, led by Tran Cam Tu, Politburo Member and Permanent Member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee.

A memorial meeting was also held in the Lao Embassy in Beijing on August 10.

Continue reading China mourns Lao revolutionary leader

China at UN: “The lives of the Palestinian people are as precious as those of all other peoples”

China’s Ambassador to the United Nations Fu Cong has once again spoken out strongly in defence of the rights of the Palestinian people.

Addressing a UN Security Council Emergency Briefing on the Palestine-Israel Issue on August 11, having expressed China’s concern over the situation, he said that: “Against the backdrop of growing instability in the region, the Palestinian question must not be ignored or marginalised,” and went on to make three points:

  • We must get to the root of the problem and truly respect the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people. For some time now, the situation in the West Bank and Gaza has deteriorated sharply, and the Palestinian people have endured ever greater suffering. At its root, this is because the basic principles of international law have not been upheld, while the Palestinian people’s rights to survival and development have long been disregarded. The lives of the Palestinian people are as precious as those of all other peoples.
  • We must take decisive and effective action to stop conflict and violence. The situation in the West Bank is escalating dangerously. The occupying Power is advancing settlement expansion plans, desecrating and vandalising religious sites, blockading refugee camps and carrying out mass arrests, while settler violence is intensifying. The protection of civilians is not an empty slogan, but an obligation under international law that the occupying Power must fulfil. The situation in Gaza is equally concerning. Even after the Board of Peace announced progress on the arrangements for the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, Israel has continued to refuse to halt its military operations. More than 300 days have passed since the ceasefire agreement was reached, yet a lasting ceasefire has still not been achieved. The fundamental problem is not a lack of ceasefire proposals, but a lack of political will to implement them.
  • We must stay the course and make every effort to revive the political prospects of the two-State solution. Both Gaza and the West Bank are integral parts of the State of Palestine. Israel must end its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories as soon as possible and cease undermining the foundations of governance of the Palestinian National Authority. The international community should fully respect the will of the Palestinian people, [and] advance post-war reconstruction in Gaza in accordance with the principle of “Palestinians governing Palestine”.
Continue reading China at UN: “The lives of the Palestinian people are as precious as those of all other peoples”

Sunlight against the blockade: China and Cuba’s solar revolution

China has delivered a second consignment of 5,000 photovoltaic systems to Cuba, destined for rural communities, health centres, day nurseries and bank branches – the latest instalment in what has become one of the fastest energy transitions anywhere in the world. With Chinese equipment, finance and technical support, Cuba has installed around 1,000 MW of new solar capacity in two years, with 92 medium-sized parks due for completion by 2028, while Chinese solar exports to the island have risen from $3 million to $117 million in as many years. All of this is taking place against a grid pushed towards collapse by Washington’s energy siege, with available capacity at times barely a third of peak demand.

The following article by Carlos Martinez sets out why this amounts to considerably more than an infrastructure project: oil tankers can be intercepted, suppliers threatened and banks sanctioned, but sunlight cannot be blockaded.

China has delivered a second consignment of 5,000 photovoltaic systems to Cuba, destined for rural communities, health centres, day nurseries and bank branches. Receiving them, President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Cuba “deeply appreciates this gesture by the Chinese people and government, which adds to the efforts Cuba is making to change its energy mix, amid the genocidal blockade”.

The donation is a small part of what has become one of the fastest energy transitions anywhere in the world. Over the past two years, with Chinese equipment, financing and technical support, Cuba has installed around 1,000 MW of new photovoltaic capacity. This forms the first half of a programme to construct 92 medium-sized parks, each generating approximately 21.8 MW, with a combined capacity approaching 2,000 MW by 2028. Alongside this credit-financed programme, China is donating a further 120 MW through a network of smaller parks. Solar supplied roughly 10 percent of Cuba’s electricity over the course of 2025; during daylight hours its contribution is now considerably higher, at times approaching half of national generation around midday.

The scale of this expanding cooperation can be read in the trade figures. Chinese exports of solar equipment to Cuba came to $117 million in 2025, against just $3 million two years earlier. Havana furthermore has scrapped tariffs on photovoltaic systems, solar water heaters, wind turbines, biodigesters and renewable-powered air conditioning.

Continue reading Sunlight against the blockade: China and Cuba’s solar revolution

Dr Fauci and his inquisitors

The following article by Stephen Millies, a retired railroad worker and longtime writer for Struggle La Lucha, reports on the vote by a US Senate committee on 6 August to hold Dr Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress. It is the culmination of a campaign that has rather less to do with public health than with the New Cold War on China.

Rand Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and who convened the hearing, has spent five years insisting that Covid-19 escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. Fauci’s real offence is that he has declined to supply the testimony that theory requires. As Millies puts it, the targeting of the 85-year-old scientist “is part of his campaign to blame the People’s Republic of China for the COVID-19 pandemic”.

The ‘lab leak’ story never had evidence behind it. The joint study conducted by the World Health Organisation and Chinese scientists concluded in 2021 that a laboratory origin was “extremely unlikely”, and the successive US intelligence reviews commissioned to overturn that finding produced nothing. As Robert Griffiths set out in the Morning Star, and as Joshua Cho documented for FAIR, the theory was a political construction from the beginning – a means of deflecting attention from the West’s own catastrophic handling of the pandemic, and, as we argued at the time, a racist trope.

Millies’ comparison with the McCarthy period is apt. A major part of the organising logic of the original McCarthy witch hunt was the issue of “who lost China?” The victory of the Chinese revolution in 1949 had to be explained as a betrayal from within rather than as something the Chinese people had accomplished for themselves, and so the State Department’s China specialists – John Service, John Carter Vincent and John Paton Davies – along with the scholar Owen Lattimore, had their careers destroyed for the crime of having reported accurately that the Guomindang was losing.

Three-quarters of a century later, a Senate committee is once again demanding that an inconvenient truth about China be recanted, and once again threatening a witness with prosecution for declining. Then the unbearable fact was the fall of Chiang Kai-shek; now it is that socialist China contained the virus and saved millions of lives while the United States lost more than 1.2 million people.

Obscuring that contrast is precisely what the inquisition exists for, and Millies supplies the answer that Senator Paul’s committee took care not to look for. The reason the US death toll so far exceeded China’s – and Cuba’s – has nothing to do with Wuhan and everything to do with 50 years of hospital closures, a health system organised around profit, and a systemic racism that largely determined who died. The elimination of “excess” hospital beds, as he writes, “amounted to social murder”.

Continue reading Dr Fauci and his inquisitors

Former premier Zhu Rongji passes away

Former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, a key architect of China’s economic reforms and of the country’s transition to a socialist market economy, died of illness on August 12 at the age of 98.

Zhu had served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 14th and 15th Central Committees of the Communist Party of China (CPC). An official obituary extolled him as an excellent Party member, a time-tested and loyal communist fighter, and an outstanding proletarian revolutionist, statesman and leader of the Party and the state.

Zhu was born in October 1928 in Changsha, Hunan Province. He studied in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University from 1947 to 1951. He joined the CPC in October 1949.

In March 1998, he was appointed premier of the State Council. Facing the impact of the Asian financial crisis and the catastrophic flooding in China, he implemented the plans of the Party Central Committee to shift from a moderately tight fiscal and monetary policy to a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy, expand domestic demand and deepen reforms in key areas, thereby sustaining steady and rapid economic growth.

Whilst a staunch proponent of economic reform, Zhu was always deeply concerned about the immediate as well as the long-term interests of the working class and the majority of the people.

He worked to establish the basic living security system for laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises, the unemployment insurance system, and the minimum living guarantee system for urban residents. He also made great efforts to address issues such as wage arrears and the re-employment of laid-off workers.

The obituary stressed that Zhu had deep affection for the people. He emphasised that government officials must always bear in mind that they are public servants and should have the courage to speak the truth, not fear giving offence, and refrain from seeking special privileges. He also stressed the need to take the initiative, with a strong sense of responsibility, to shoulder heavy burdens, take on tough problems and go all out to deliver real results for the people.

After retiring from leadership posts, he steadfastly upheld and supported the CPC Central Committee with Hu Jintao as general secretary, and then the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at its core. He continued to care about the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and firmly supported efforts to improve conduct, promote integrity and fight corruption.

The obituary concludes that Zhu’s life was a revolutionary, fighting and glorious one. His death is a great loss to the Party and the state.

Continue reading Former premier Zhu Rongji passes away

Xi Jinping acclaims Fidel Castro on his centenary

A number of international political events have taken place in Cuba to mark the August 13 centenary of the birth of Fidel Castro, the founder of socialist Cuba and one of the outstanding figures in the history of the international socialist movement and of human history in general. The events acquire particular significance as they take place in the midst of an intensified genocidal blockade of the heroic socialist island imposed by US imperialism.

Liu Haixing, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), led a Communist Party of China delegation primarily to attend the First International Colloquium “Fidel, Legacy and Future” hosted by the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) on August 10.

Immediately prior to the opening of the event, Liu met with Miguel Diaz-Canel, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and Cuban President.

Diaz-Canel asked Liu to convey sincere greetings from Cuban Revolution leader Raul Castro and himself to General Secretary Xi Jinping and expressed gratitude to General Secretary Xi and the CPC Central Committee for attaching importance to and supporting Cuba’s commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Fidel Castro. Diaz-Canel stated that the visit by the Chinese cadres represents firm support for Cuba during a difficult time and embodies the fraternal friendship between the two Parties, the two countries, and two peoples. He thanked the CPC, the Chinese government, and people for the long-term support and assistance for Cuba. Cuba stands ready to work with China to further advance the special and friendly relations between the two Parties and the two countries. Attaching great importance to learning from the CPC’s successful experience in party governance and state administration, particularly the experience in reform and opening up, Cuba is ready to deepen exchanges and mutual learning with China to better advance Cuba’s economic and social transformation.

Liu conveyed the warm greetings and best wishes from General Secretary Xi Jinping to Raul Castro and Diaz-Canel and handed over a letter signed by General Secretary Xi Jinping addressed to them. Liu stated that General Secretary Xi Jinping and the CPC Central Committee attach great importance to the commemorative events marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Fidel Castro and have specifically dispatched a CPC delegation to Cuba to attend these activities. China and Cuba are good friends, good comrades, and good brothers. Having withstood the test of over six decades of a changing international landscape, the relations between the two countries have become a model of solidarity and cooperation among socialist nations and of sincere mutual assistance among Global South countries.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the colloquium, Liu first read out the personally signed letter from General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jinping to Cuban Revolution leader Raul Castro, and Miguel Diaz-Canel, First Secretary of the PCC Central Committee and Cuban President, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Fidel Castro. He emphasised that Fidel Castro was an outstanding leader of the PCC and the cause of the Cuban revolution, who devoted his entire life to the magnificent cause of the Cuban people’s struggle for national liberation, safeguarding national sovereignty, and building socialism. He made immortal historic contributions to the Cuban people as well as to the development of the world socialist cause. Fidel Castro was the founder and promoter of China-Cuba relations and made historic contributions to the development of bilateral relations. It was precisely thanks to his vision and foresight and personal efforts that Cuba became the first Latin American country to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. Through the long-term joint efforts of both sides, China-Cuba relations have become a model of unity and cooperation among socialist countries and of sincere mutual assistance among Global South countries. Under the current complex and volatile international situation, China firmly supports Cuba in exploring a path of socialist development suited to its own national conditions, firmly supports Cuba in safeguarding national sovereignty and security and opposing foreign interference.

Continue reading Xi Jinping acclaims Fidel Castro on his centenary

Ningxia: the Global South meets to study China’s ‘Long March’ to abolish absolute poverty

Continuing our series of articles related to the ‘Path to Modernisation: Takeaways from China’s Theory and Practice of Poverty Alleviation’ conference which took place in Yinchuan, Ningxia, in July 2026, David Peat, Secretary of Friends of Socialist China Britain Committee, recounts his experiences in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, including local site visits, attending the conference, meeting local leaders, and highlighting how all of China’s regions worked together (in ‘paired assistance’ programmes) to achieve the goal of abolishing absolute poverty, and tying together the many ethnic minorities, varying geographical regions, and different levels of development in the Chinese nation.

David’s first article can be read here.

Our delegation continued overland, crossing the border from Gansu to Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China’s smallest autonomous region or province, and one equally known for its rugged terrain and (up until recently) persistent poverty. Even in this area, however, high-speed rail can be found and we enjoyed a journey taking in the changing landscapes. As its name also denotes, the region is an area with a relatively large ethnic minority population (38% Hui Muslim, with 62% Han) and as such it is one of China’s five designated ‘autonomous regions’, which have the ability to exercise certain additional rights, relative to standard Chinese provinces. China’s territory and population is enormous and extremely diverse, and, as will be seen below, its success has been due to a combination of finding solutions that work for local conditions, as well as cooperation between regions.

The delegation’s first stop in Ningxia was Minning Town, a flagship poverty alleviation project and moreover a case study of the ‘paired assistance’ model, which sees more developed regions of the country pairing with less developed ones in order to support their journey to achieve better living conditions for their residents. This particular partnership, which has been in place for 30 years, is revealed in the town’s name ‘Minning’, which is built out of the old name ‘Min’ for today’s Fujian, a relatively wealthy coastal province in China’s southeast, and ‘Ning’ from Ningxia. The story of the partnership, and Minning’s overall journey, is vividly portrayed in a popular Chinese television drama Minning Town, and the entire series is available to watch for free with English subtitles on YouTube.

This model was put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was then Deputy Party Secretary of Fujian Province. In 1997 he visited a site where the new town would be built (and would be populated by villagers who would relocate from their older, unsuitable residencies.) The paired assistance model involves the sharing of resources, expertise, funding and investment, and personnel, between the two regions. Those with technical knowhow were able to come from Fujian to improve the capacities of the rural residents, and alternately, those from Ningxia were able to share agricultural expertise with those in Fujian who could assist with wider rural revitalisation projects. Furthermore, financial support between the regions allowed for major infrastructural improvements to take place in the poorer districts. The evidence of the success of this long-term partnership can be seen in income levels: annual per capita disposable income for rural residents in Ningxia has risen from about 1,400 yuan in 1996 to more than 20,000 yuan in 2025. The model of East-West collaboration within China (such as that between Fujian and Ningxia) has shown huge success, as exemplified by Minning, and is set to continue to expand to support China’s ongoing development goals.

As seen in Gansu, any poverty alleviation project requires consideration of both the development of basic infrastructure to support wellbeing, as well as the development of ways of making a living for the residents. Minning is no different, and our delegation was able to witness (and even participate in) one aspect of its economic development: its e-commerce infrastructure, which has been put into place to assist residents to expand the market access for their (primarily agricultural) products. Local villagers reported how they had received vocational training, and how in particular this kind of work provided opportunities for those with disabilities, who represented 30% of the workforce in the company we visited. One villager remarked on their change of circumstances: “Previously we didn’t know how to use computers, but now we are able to become e-commerce influencers.” Delegates were given the opportunity to appear directly on a livestream and assisted the locals in selling their products (which, at that time, was goat milk). A local news report captured some opinions of delegates at the site.

A book launch event was held in Minning, which told its redevelopment story, alongside other such stories from the length and breadth of the country: Leaving No One Behind: China’s Stories of Poverty Alleviation, published by Contemporary World Press. The book is available in English and the launch was to celebrate its translation into Khmer language, for distribution in Cambodia.

Following the explorations of the rural regions on the road from Gansu to Ningxia, we arrived at the region’s capital of Yinchuan, which sits on the Yellow River, considered the “mother river” of Chinese civilisation. Several delegations, with over 120 representatives from more than 55 countries, who had inspected poverty alleviation projects in other parts of the country, all convened here for the conference on the theme of ‘Path to Modernisation: Takeaways from China’s Theory and Practice of Poverty Alleviation’, which took place on July 9, 2026.

The conference was convened by International Department of the CPC (IDCPC) Vice Minister Sun Haiyun, who remarked that Ningxia had been chosen as the location since it was so central to General Secretary Xi Jinping’s vision for poverty alleviation, as represented by the Fujian-Ningxia East-West paired assistance model, and stated that the purpose of the gathering was for all attendees to be able to apply some of the lessons learned in their own national contexts. Vice Minister Sun also noted the timeliness of the gathering, taking place not long after China had celebrated the 105th anniversary of the founding of the CPC.

Continue reading Ningxia: the Global South meets to study China’s ‘Long March’ to abolish absolute poverty

George Bernard Shaw’s 1933 Shanghai visit recalled

The brief 1933 visit to Shanghai by the famed Irish playwright and socialist George Bernard Shaw was the theme of the third Shanghai Public Relations Academic Symposium on Irish Literature, held on July 26.

An article published in this regard by the website Sixth Tone notes: “Before his arrival, articles about Shaw had been published in various newspapers and magazines. Some discussed his communist advocacy in Hong Kong, while others talked about how his satirical writing style had influenced European society.”

Shaw was welcomed to the city by Soong Qingling, the widow of China’s first president Dr. Sun Yat Sen, who remained true to his revolutionary ideals and ended her days as Honorary President of the People’s Republic of China and with her long-standing wish to be admitted to membership of the Communist Party of China granted.

With help from Soong, Shaw met and talked with several leading left-wing Chinese intellectuals, including Yang Xingfo, a social activist and patriotic democrat, former Peking University president Cai Yuanpei, literary icon Lu Xun, writer and linguist Lin Yutang, and the American journalists Harold Isaacs and Agnes Smedley. He also met Mei Lanfang, the renowned Peking opera artist and founder of Shanghai’s Left Theatre Club.

According to Sixth Tone: “Although Shaw spent just over eight hours in Shanghai, his visit sparked considerable discussion and reverberations among the city’s left-wing intellectual circles. The writer and poet Yu Dafu wrote in Free Talk, a supplement of the Shun Pao newspaper, that he hoped Shaw could tell the world, in his own sarcastic tone, about Japanese imperialism and its invasion of China.”

Following the visit, a group of left-wing writers and cultural workers, including Lu Xun, began compiling reports from various newspapers and periodicals about the Irish writer’s short visit. The collection was published in March 1933 by Yecao Shudian, or Wild Grass Bookshop, under the title ‘George Bernard Shaw in Shanghai’.

In his preface, Lu Xun wrote: “Those who truly welcomed him were the Chinese people, as well as the literary and artistic circles that stood by the people. The Chinese people did not regard him as a ‘revolutionary leader’ or a ‘thoroughgoing socialist writer,’ much less as an idol. They regarded Shaw as a loyal friend of the oppressed people of the world, and of China.”

In a video address to the symposium, Chinese Ambassador to Ireland Zhao Xiyuan said that despite the great distance between China and Ireland, the two countries share long histories, splendid cultures, and rich literary traditions. He emphasised that three years ago, President Xi Jinping put forward the Global Civilisation Initiative (GCI), highlighting the need for civilisations to live together in harmony.

“As long as the two countries remain committed to openness, inclusiveness, and mutual learning, and continue to transcend estrangement through dialogues, overcome conflict through exchanges, and transcend superiority through mutual respect and inclusiveness, we will further strengthen the public foundations of China-Ireland friendship. In doing so, we will make new contributions to the sustained and sound development of China-Ireland relations, and to the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.”

Former president of Ireland Michael D. Higgins also made reference to Shaw’s visit to Shanghai during his state visit to China in December 2014.

In a speech delivered at the Sun Yat Sen Museum on December 11, he noted:

“A Nobel Prize winning playwright and novelist, Shaw was also an essayist and polemicist, a free-thinker and a stout defender of the rights of the working classes and the marginalised.

“George Bernard Shaw continues to inspire us as the epitome of the engaged public intellectual, somebody who put his talent to the service of emancipatory change. Indeed, Shaw was an astute observer of his times but never a bystander – he consistently sought to translate his ideas into actual, public realisations. For example, he was a co-founder of the distinguished London School of Economics, and he helped to establish the New Statesman magazine; two ‘institutions’ which have been handed on to us.

“Shaw’s visit to Shanghai coincided with an era of great turbulence globally – a period when foreign powers were pushing rival claims onto China, as the Chinese people struggled to assert national sovereignty and define both an appropriate form of government and a new model of society for themselves.

“As a Fabian, Shaw was undoubtedly alive to the possibilities of a wider socialist awakening in China. As an Irishman he would have been sensitive to the Chinese calls for national sovereignty. At the same time, he was mindful not to be prescriptive in his conversation with his Chinese counterparts – conscious as he was of the travails of Europe’s own economic and political affairs.

“In the message he addressed to the Chinese people on the occasion of his visit, Shaw thus wrote:

“‘It is not for me, belonging as I do to a quarter of the globe which is mismanaging its affairs in a ruinous fashion to pretend to advise an ancient people striving to set its house in order.’”

Higgins concluded by, “by saluting all the academics and students in the Irish Studies Network who are here with us this afternoon. Shaw recognised no boundaries in the commitment to international solidarity. I believe that your interest in our culture and language, as well as the revived interest in your great civilisation currently manifest in Ireland, offer a robust and fruitful base for the future of Irish and Chinese relations.

“May the relations between our two peoples, Irish and Chinese, continue to be infused by the spirit of cross-border friendship and mutual curiosity which animated George Bernard Shaw’s visit in 1933.”

Continue reading George Bernard Shaw’s 1933 Shanghai visit recalled

Chinese ambassador reiterates support for Palestine

Chinese Ambassador to the State of Palestine Sun Zhen has reaffirmed China’s unwavering commitment to supporting the Palestinian cause, continuing to provide humanitarian and development assistance, and working to elevate Palestinian-Chinese relations to new levels.

Speaking at a press conference held at the Chinese embassy in Ramallah on August 1, he said that his meetings with the Palestinian leadership had reinforced his awareness of the hardships facing the Palestinian people, stressing that China will continue strengthening bilateral ties, particularly as this year marks the third anniversary of the establishment of the China-Palestine strategic partnership. He added that China is working on implementing development projects in the West Bank, including infrastructure projects such as artificial turf fields, a Chinese school, Beijing Street, and the Palestinian-Chinese Friendship Square.

Sun Zhen reiterated his country’s support for Palestinian national rights, stating that China supports the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. China rejects all measures that undermine this solution, including settlement expansion in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. China also prohibits investment in and employment in Israeli settlements.

The ambassador explained that China is cooperating with the World Food Programme to alleviate food insecurity in the Gaza Strip. He also noted that China has provided clothing benefiting 38,000 children in the Strip and concluded by affirming that China, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, will continue its unwavering support for the Palestinian cause.

Continue reading Chinese ambassador reiterates support for Palestine

Caring for the Tangshan earthquake survivors half a century on

July 28 this year marked the 50th anniversary of the devastating Tangshan earthquake. Measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, it struck the city in north China’s Hebei province in the early hours of the morning claiming more than 240,000 lives, injuring over 160,000 and leaving 3,817 survivors paralysed while hundreds of buildings were destroyed.

Marking the 50th anniversary of this terrible tragedy, Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited the city entrusted by General Secretary Xi Jinping. He commended the collective endeavour of the people of Tangshan to rebuild a modern city from the ruins of a devastating earthquake, saying that its transformation is a vivid example of the Party leading the public in overcoming great difficulties and challenges. He described the disaster as unforgettable and the relief efforts as deeply moving and inspiring, adding that on the city’s new journey, it is important to carry forward the spiritual strength derived from battling a disaster and rebuilding lives.

During his inspection tour, Li called for continuously improving mechanisms for disaster monitoring and early warning, emergency response, rescue and relief, and post-disaster reconstruction, enhancing disaster prevention, mitigation and relief capabilities, and effectively safeguarding the lives and property of the people. He also called for strengthening support for emergency response equipment and using technology to enhance the precision and safety of rescue operations and for vigorously carrying out science promotion to enhance the awareness and ability of the public to escape danger when a disaster strikes.

Touring a rehabilitation centre for quake survivors he called for improving medical rehabilitation and daily care services as well as strengthening the application of technological innovation in rehabilitation to constantly enhance the services for the disabled.

In a feature article for China Daily, Zheng Jinran writes movingly about the care needs of survivors half a century on:

“Born in an emergency medical team’s field tent just two hours after the devastating 1976 Tangshan earthquake struck, Yang Zhensheng’s destiny was bound to the tragedy. His parents named him Zhensheng, which literally means ‘born after the earthquake’, and in 2001, he started working at the Tangshan Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre.

“For a quarter of a century, Yang has witnessed the courage and determination that have enabled the survivors to endure.

“‘When the rehabilitation centre first opened, many residents had lost not only the use of their legs, but also the courage to live,’ said Yang, who is now the centre’s director. ‘We soon realised that treating injuries alone was not enough. Before helping them recover physically, we had to help them regain the confidence to live.’”

Gao Qingfeng, 69, is among the more than 130 paraplegic survivors of the Tangshan earthquake who still live at the centre.

After being pulled from the rubble and sent to Beijing for treatment as a 19-year-old, he was told by the doctors that there was a chance he might walk again. He had faith, and took his physiotherapy seriously, but never walked again.

“‘The hardest time was right after the earthquake,’ Gao recalled. ‘I didn’t even know what paraplegia was. I never imagined I would spend the rest of my life this way. When I moved into the rehabilitation centre in 1981 and saw so many people living the same life, I no longer felt I was facing it alone. We trained together, lived together and encouraged one another. Their companionship helped me gradually accept reality.’”

During a visit to the rehabilitation centre in July 2016, Xi Jinping encouraged its residents by saying: “If people in sound physical condition can live fulfilling lives, people with disabilities can do so as well.”

To take one example: “Li Dongmei remembers little about the day the earthquake struck. She was 13 when the disaster left her a paraplegic. Li also suffered a brain trauma injury and did not regain consciousness until more than a month later.

“In 1984, she learned about China’s first National Games for Persons with Disabilities. ‘It was as if I suddenly saw hope again,’ she recalled… Li trained for wheelchair racing by wearing gloves and wrapping black tape around the push rims of her racing wheelchair to improve her grip. Within days, both her hands were covered in blisters that later hardened into thick calluses. Three years later, she earned a place on Hebei’s team for the second National Games for Persons with Disabilities, launching a sporting career that spanned decades… Over the following decades, Li won dozens of medals in domestic and international competitions.”

Zhao Lili, a rehabilitation physician, said: “The biggest fear isn’t illness. It’s wondering who will be there when you need help.”

She has spent nearly three decades watching Tangshan’s paraplegic survivors grow older. “When I joined the centre in 1998, rehabilitation was about helping them return to society. Today, our focus is on managing the complications of long-term paraplegia and aging, so they can maintain the best possible quality of life.”

Centre director Yang said the institution represents a promise carried across generations. “From the day it was established, it has embodied the Party and government’s commitment to people affected by the disaster. The survival of 3,817 people left paraplegic by the earthquake — and their ability to go on living meaningful lives — was itself extraordinary. That achievement did not come from one medical breakthrough. It came from a commitment that no one would be left behind.”

Tang Yandong, dean of the School of Emergency Technology and Management at the Institute of Disaster Prevention and vice-chair of the Earthquake Emergency Rescue Committee under the China Association for Disaster Prevention, said Tangshan’s experience has broadened the understanding of what post-disaster recovery means.

“From the perspectives of sociology, psychology and emergency management, recovery is a long-term, systematic process that often lasts a lifetime,” he said. “The most valuable experience is not what happened immediately after the earthquake, but what happened over the following decades.”

He added that the experience has also helped shape China’s approach to post-disaster recovery by shifting the focus from rebuilding infrastructure to improving survivors’ long-term quality of life.

Continue reading Caring for the Tangshan earthquake survivors half a century on

China’s exports support Global South development

In the following article, which was originally published by the South China Morning Post and is reproduced here from the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) in Beijing, Zhou Xiaoming takes issue with western narratives that allege that China’s exports are stifling the development of the rest of the Global South. On the contrary, he argues that China’s export portfolio constitutes a positive-sum diffusion of industrial growth.

Zhou enjoins us to “look at the sector where you would expect the fiercest head-to-head competition – labour-intensive consumer goods. If China were truly monopolising the export space of others, its share would be stable or climbing. In reality, it is falling. China’s share of global garment exports fell to just under 30 per cent in 2024, a significant drop from its peak of over 40 per cent about a decade ago.”

China, he continues, “is not shipping goods to outcompete Global South producers; it is shipping the building blocks that make factories viable. According to an Oxford Economics report, nearly half of China’s total exports are intermediate goods – components and raw materials that feed into other countries’ production lines rather than finished products for consumers.

“Take Southeast Asia. Customs data from the first half of 2026 shows China’s intermediate goods exports to Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states rocketed 24.5 per cent year on year to 2.86 trillion yuan. These kinds of inputs help Vietnamese electronics assemblers, Thai auto-part makers and Malaysian chip packagers produce and export their own finished goods. This is deep integration.”

He continues: “Beyond components, there are capital goods. China’s enabling role also comes into play here. For decades, a major barrier to industrialisation was the staggering cost of capital equipment. Today, Chinese-made industrial machinery is dramatically more affordable… As Chinese capital and equipment are building industrial capacity across the Global South, China is turning itself into the ‘mother machine’ of the industrialising world, transforming technology and production know-how that Western development aid never delivered.”

He concedes that, “Yes, China runs surpluses with multiple developing nations. But look closer. Take Vietnam for instance. Its 2025 trade deficit with China stood at around US$115 billion. Yet imports of capital and intermediate goods tell the real story. In 2025, capital goods such as computers, electronics, and machinery accounted for over half of its total imports. Vietnam’s deficit is a receipt for industrialisation.”

Whilst, “we are witnessing a historic reorganisation of global production – one that offers developing nations their first genuine shot at industrialisation without waiting for Western handouts… China’s exports pose a challenge to sectors such as automobile and home appliances in South Africa and Brazil. However, China’s exports are primarily the scaffolding on which other Global South countries are erecting their own industrial futures. Tear that scaffolding down, as some want, and you deprive scores of developing economies of a route out of underdevelopment.”

He also reminds us to look at imports: “China is the top export destination for 79 countries and regions. In May, it expanded its zero-tariff import policy to 53 African countries. Painting China as a threat to development ignores how Beijing is widening its doors to products from the Global South.”

He concludes: “Western critiques are rather paternalistic, assuming developing nations are passive victims, incapable of making rational choices about their own trade relationships. That condescension, echoing the ‘white man’s burden’, is the real obstacle to the Global South’s prosperity.”

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