Author: Friends of Socialist China

Book Review: The East is Still Red by Carlos Martinez

We are pleased to reproduce below a review of Carlos Martinez’s The East is Still Red – Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century, from the blog Explore the Mundane: Ordinary Notes from a Taiwanese Chinese American Adoptee.

The book is described as being a necessary read, “both as a person newer to Marxism-Leninism and as a person born in Taiwan trying to understand the historical and present relationship between China and Taiwan.”

The reviewer, Kayla, highlights in particular the sections covering the early history of the Chinese Revolution; the response to the “Mao as monster” narrative; The Communist Party of China’s continuing commitment to Marxism; and the importance of opposing the US-led drive to war with China.

Kayla concludes:

The East is Still Red is a significant contribution to combat the West’s anti-China, anti-communist propaganda and to demonstrate the increasing escalation of the new Cold War to contain China. This book is an extraordinary guide for organizers and activists alike, and I would encourage folks especially on the left, to study this extraordinary resource and to learn about socialist China.

The East is Still Red can be purchased in paperback and digital format from the Praxis Press website.

Author and political activist Carlos Martinez writes a compelling case about the necessity of socialism, rooted in the revolutionary science of Marxist-Leninism, in his book The East is Still Red.

Learning about history, though essential, can be a daunting task because of how much research is digested and how dense the text itself can be. This is not the case with The East is Still Red. Martinez’s work is incredibly accessible and digestible, with each chapter being relatively short and broken into clear subsections. It’s easy to follow along with the arguments that Martinez presents, backed with ample evidence and sources.

The East is Still Red was necessary for me to read, both as a person newer to Marxism-Leninism and as a person born in Taiwan trying to understand the historical and present relationship between China and Taiwan. Through Martinez’ research and compelling writing, it’s also opened other avenues and resources to learn about socialist China. (I wrote more about this in January’s monthly reflection, “On Coming Out of the Fog” which you can read HERE.)

The U.S. ruling class is trying to maintain its hegemony, and we’ve seen the ongoing and increasing escalations to ‘contain’ China. These anti-China policies are bipartisan, as we saw with the Obama administration’s 2012 ‘Pivot to Asia’. Regardless of whether the Democratic party or the Republican party are in office, they both serve U.S. imperialism where there is no place for socialism, a direct threat to their existence. 

Note: The summary below does not do justice to the thorough research and analysis that author and political activist Carlos Martinez conducted for The East is Still Red. As with all book reviews and reflections, I’ve done my best to highlight key takeaways as a reader (though I cannot emphasize enough to check out this book for yourself). 

PAST

It’s impossible to discuss the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 without mentioning the multifarious ways that war, occupation, and foreign policy have contributed to China’s history, including the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. And, in nearly all of these wars, the U.S. played an insidious role whether it was its failed attempts to negotiate an agreement between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist Party of China (CPC), its declaration to contain communism in the Truman Doctrine, or its (ongoing) military support for Taiwan.

This broader context of global relations is necessary to understand the long fight against foreign domination and exploitation, to understand the economic conditions of China, and to contextualize its historic achievements of evolving from a semi-feudal country towards a socialist country. 

Continue reading Book Review: The East is Still Red by Carlos Martinez

US Defense Secretary Hegseth wants to overthrow China’s government, in ‘crusade’ against left (and Islam)

In the following article on Geopolitical Economy, Ben Norton exposes the extreme anti-China views of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Ben notes that, in his 2020 book American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free, Hegseth describes the Chinese as “literally the villains of our generation” and warns: “If we don’t stand up to communist China now, we will be standing for the Chinese anthem someday”.

This anti-China sentiment is not restricted to the past. “As defense secretary, Pete Hegseth has pushed for extremely aggressive policies against Beijing”, commenting just this month on Fox News that the United States is prepared to go to war with China. He calls for the US to stop trading with China and to do everything within its power to stop China’s rise.

These alarming views are combined with flagrant islamophobia, misogyny and homophobia.

Hegseth is not the only China hawk in Trump’s cabinet. As we have noted previously, “Marco Rubio is an anti-China fanatic, who stands for more tariffs, more sanctions, more slander, more support for Taiwanese separatism, more provocations in the South China Sea, and more destabilisation in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Mike Waltz has long pushed for closer military cooperation with India, Japan, Australia and other countries in the region in preparation for war against China.”

Increasingly, there is consensus within US policy circles in favour of an escalation of the campaign to encircle and contain China. Progressive and anti-war movements in the West must resist this dangerous trajectory.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is a self-declared “crusader” who believes the United States is in a “holy war” against the left, China, and Islam.

In his 2020 book American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free, Hegseth vowed that, if Trump could return to the White House and Republicans could take power, “Communist China will fall—and lick its wounds for another two hundred years”.

Hegseth declared that the Chinese “are literally the villains of our generation”, and warned, “If we don’t stand up to communist China now, we will be standing for the Chinese anthem someday”.

In Hegseth’s conspiratorial worldview, Chinese communists and the international left are conspiring with Islamists against the United States and Israel, which are sacred countries blessed by God.

Under Trump’s leadership, Hegseth promised, “Israel and America will form an even tighter bond, fighting the scourge of Islamism and international leftism that will never fully abate”.

“Islamists will never get a nuclear weapon but will be preemptively bombed back to the 700s when they try”, he added.

In the book, Hegseth heaped praise upon the medieval Crusaders, and he argued that Western conservatives in the 21st century should continue the holy war they started a millennium ago.

One of his chapters is titled “Make the Crusade Great Again”.

On the first page of the book, Hegseth proudly said his “American crusade” is a “holy war”, and he insisted that leftists are not “mere political opponents. We are foes. Either we win, or they win—we agree on nothing else”.

Hegseth also stated with certainty that there will soon be a civil war in the United States, between the right and left.

Continue reading US Defense Secretary Hegseth wants to overthrow China’s government, in ‘crusade’ against left (and Islam)

World Association for Political Economy call for papers

We publish below the Call for Papers for the 18th Annual Forum of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE), which will be held from August 6-8, 2025, in Istanbul on the theme, ‘Multipolarity in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities in Political Economy’.

WAPE is an important initiative to bring together Marxist and socialist scholars worldwide in which the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences plays an important role. Friends of Socialist China is supporting the Forum and encourages participation.

18th Annual Forum of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) TURKIYE

Theme: “Multipolarity in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities in Political Economy”

Dates: August 6-8, 2025  Location: Yeditepe University Kayışdağı Campus, Istanbul, Turkiye

The World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) is pleased to announce its annual meeting, themed “Multipolarity in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities in Political Economy.” We invite scholars, researchers, activists, and practitioners to submit their papers for consideration.

As the global order transitions from a unipolar to a multipolar configuration, new dynamics are emerging that reshape international relations, economic systems, and global governance structures. This year’s theme aims to explore the implications of multipolarity for political economy, focusing on the diverse dimensions of power transitions, regional integration, and the reconfiguration of trade, investment, and development paradigms.

We welcome papers that address theoretical, empirical, or policy-oriented dimensions of multipolarity and its intersections with topics such as:

  • The law of uneven economic development and the new patterns of international economic development.
  • The rise of emerging economies and their impact on global power structures, including BRI international cooperation and BRICS development.
  • The challenge to the dominance of the dollar and the creation of alternative mechanisms for international economic relations such as a new common curreny.
  • The role of regional blocs and institutions in shaping multipolar governance.
  • The ecological challenge and resource politics in a multipolar world.
  • Shifts in labor relations and production systems under multipolarity.
  • The geopolitical economy of technology and digital governance.
  • Historical and theoretical insights into past transitions to multipolarity.
  • New developments in left-wing international political economy theory.
  • Proposing solutions to the challenges faced by global south countries in democratization, wealth distribution and people’s involvenment in governance.
  • The political economy of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the prospect for full automation, and the future of surplus value exploitation.
  • The social classes in world and countries within the context of digitalization and multipolarity.
  • Explaining the decline of (neo)liberalism and the advent of nationalist and right-wing parties in the West and beyond within the context of multipolar world.

Contributions that critically engage with the concept of multipolarity from a political-economy perspective, including its potential to challenge or reproduce existing inequalities and power asymmetries, are also welcome.

Submission Guidelines:

Important Dates:

  • Abstract submission deadline: April 30, 2025
  • Notification of acceptance: June 1, 2025
  • Final paper submission deadline: June 30, 2025

For more information, visit www.wapeweb.org or contact us at adnanakfirat@gmail.com, ndemircan11@hotmail.com, safak.erdem.h@gmx.de.

Registration Fees:

  • 150 euros: for online payment before June 15, 2025
  • 200 euros: for online payment after June 15, 2025 or on-site payment
  • 75 euros: reduced rate for unemployed, retired and students for online or on-site payment. 

We look forward to your contributions to what promises to be a vibrant and intellectually stimulating discussion on multipolarity and its implications for political economy.

World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) 

Chairman of WAPE 2025 Turkiye:           

M. Adnan Akfırat – (WAPE Vice Chairman, Chairman of the Belt and Road Initiative Quarterly-BRIQ Journal)  adnanakfirat@gmail.com  

Academic Advisor: 

Dr. Efe Can Gurcan (London School of Economics)

efe.gurcan@istinye.edu.tr

Academic Coordinator: 

Dr. Can Ulusoy (Cappadocia University)
can.ulusoy@kapadokya.edu.tr

Deputy Academic Coordinator:

Dr. Necati Demircan (Shanghai University Global Studies Institute) ndemircan11@hotmail.com  

Secretarial Works:  

Safak Erdem (Leibniz University Hannover)
safak.erdem.h@gmx.de

Isikgun Akfirat (Bogazici University)
iakfiratt@gmail.com                          

Ye Zhangxu (Shanghai University)
yezhangxu926@gmail.com

Tolga Disci (Bilkent University)
tolgadisci@gmail.com

Ambassador Zheng Zeguang: Two Sessions demonstrates the Chinese people’s confidence, resolve, and spirit of unity

The Chinese Embassy in the UK organised a symposium on March 20 for friends of China to learn about and discuss China’s recent parliamentary ‘two sessions’.

Introduced by Minister Zhao Fei, the proceedings began with a keynote speech by Ambassador Zheng Zeguang, who had just returned from attending the meetings in his capacity of a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

He said that the Two Sessions demonstrated the Chinese people’s confidence, resolve, and their spirit of unity and readiness to take action. They also projected China’s main economic and social development targets and outlined a series of important policy measures. 

He added that amid growing global uncertainties, China and the UK should act upon the important common understandings reached by the leaders of the two countries, earnestly implement the outcomes of the China-UK Strategic Dialogue, the China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue, and the China-UK Energy Dialogue, and uphold the principles of mutual respect, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit. Both sides should seek common ground while resolving differences properly, and advance dialogue and collaboration across various sectors to benefit the people of both countries. He expressed the hope that people from different sectors in both countries would work together to promote the steady and sustained development of China-UK relations.

Following the Ambassador’s opening, remarks were made by:

  • Andy Brooks, General Secretary of the New Communist Party (NCP) of Britain.
  • Ella Rule, Chair of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) (CPGBML)
  • Ruth Styles, Chair of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB)
  • Stephen Perry, Honorary President of the 48 Group Club
  • Lord (Neil) Davidson of Glen Cova, Labour member of the House of Lords and former government minister
  • Martin Jacques, former Senior Fellow of Cambridge University and author of ‘When China rules the World’
  • Keith Bennett, Co-editor of Friends of Socialist China
  • Helen Jones, Director of Global Engagement of the Science Museum Group
  • Sam Daws, Senior Advisor to Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative
  • Hugh Goodacre, Secretary of the Xi Jinping Thought Study Group (Institute for Independence Studies); and
  • Frances Wood, former curator at the British Library, Sinologist, historian and author.

A brief contribution from the distinguished sociologist Professor Martin Albrow, who was unable to be present, was read by Counsellor Kong Xiangwen.

The discussion continued over lunch, with further contributions, including from Maise Riley, Chair of the Young Communist League (YCL) of Britain, and David Peat, Secretary of the Friends of Socialist China Britain Committee.

We reprint below the report that was published on the website of the Chinese Embassy, along with Keith Bennett’s remarks in the discussion.

The Chinese Embassy in the UK Holds Symposium for People from Various Sectors in the UK to Highlight Key Takeaways from China’s Two Sessions

On 20 March 2025, the Chinese Embassy in the UK hosted a symposium with representatives of people from various sectors in the UK to introduce the key messages of China’s Two Sessions, during which, Ambassador Zheng Zeguang delivered a keynote speech, and participants engaged in discussions.

In his speech, Ambassador Zheng emphasised that the recently concluded Two Sessions were a significant event in China’s political agenda. Given the evolving international and domestic landscapes, this year’s Two Sessions attracted even greater attention and carried profound significance.

The Two Sessions demonstrated the Chinese people’s confidence, resolve, and their spirit of unity and readiness to take action. The Two Sessions also projected China’s main economic and social development targets and outlined a series of important policy measures. 

China remains committed to advancing Chinese modernisation through high-quality development. Measures will be taken to implement proactive and effective macroeconomic policies, boost consumption, expand domestic demand and effective investment, advance technological innovation andfoster new quality productive forces. Efforts will also be made to promote high-standard opening-up,and stabilise foreign trade and investment. Despite the challenges and difficulties, we are confident in achieving the goals set out at the Two Sessions.

Continue reading Ambassador Zheng Zeguang: Two Sessions demonstrates the Chinese people’s confidence, resolve, and spirit of unity

Could China’s rise be Britain’s opportunity?

We are pleased to reprint below the report by Morning Star editor Ben Chacko, carried in that newspaper, of the meeting ‘China in Springtime: Sharing Opportunities with the World’, organised by the China Media Group together with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the UK (CCCUK) and the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC), with the support of the Chinese Embassy, and held at the Bank of China, in the City of London, the capital’s financial district, on March 17. The key purpose of the gathering was to report on and discuss China’s recent two (parliamentary) sessions and the resulting prospects for business and economic cooperation between China and Britain from the policies rolled out there.

Reporting on the keynote speech delivered by Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang, Ben notes how he, “referenced President Xi Jinping’s three signature initiatives, the Global Development Initiative (for economic co-operation in place of trade systems that benefit corporations in rich countries at the expense of the Global South), the Global Security Initiative (replacing concepts of security based on power blocs like NATO with an inclusive international security architecture) and the Global Civilisation Initiative, which promotes multipolarity and argues for a world order based on respect for different civilisations, rather than one whose institutions have all been designed in the framework of the European political tradition.”

China would meet its five per cent growth target and its role as a scientific innovator should be recognised, he argued, pointing to its leading role in the global green transition (non-fossil fuels accounting for 40 per cent of Chinese electricity generation last year and 70 per cent of all electric vehicles worldwide being sold in China) as well as its progress in quantum technology and AI, most notably with DeepSeek, the “low-cost, open source large language model [which] has stunned the world.

“On sci-tech, we were playing catch-up but have now become a frontrunner.” But unlike the US, which seeks to stymie China’s development by blocking access to chips and software, “we don’t believe in ‘small yard, high fence’ — we believe in mutual learning and sharing.”

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Chairman of CBBC, contrasted China’s “serious government” to too many in the West, pointing out China has a record of achieving its economic growth targets and should be seen as a key export market for British goods and services.

Lord (Neil) Davidson, Labour Member of the House of Lords and former government minister, said London should view China’s advances as opportunities, not threats.

The City should pay close attention to the “BRICS-Pay project – another platform for trade finance as an addition to the dollar-based system… this could be characterised as a threat to dollar hegemony, but historically the City has looked to assess financial innovations for their objective effects rather than rhetoric,” he argued, hinting that Britain too could benefit from an end to US financial supremacy.

“The view that China can be pressured into policies it rejects, if ever true, is plainly bankrupt. The view that China is dependent on the West for technology is eroding speedily. The view that China is merely a low-cost provider of goods belongs in the past,” he added.

We also carry below the report on the event published on the website of the Chinese Embassy. It noted Ambassador Zheng as stating:

“China will promote the development of new quality productive forces, fostering industries such as biomanufacturing, quantum technology, embodied AI, and 6G, and continuously advancing the AI Plus initiative and AI application in different industries. China will expand higher-standard opening up, strengthening policies to stabilise foreign trade and foreign investment, and increasing the number of countries eligible for visa-free entry. China will promote green and low-carbon transition, improving incentives for green consumption, and accelerating the development of a green and low-carbon economy.”

The Ambassador also pointed out that China and the UK should seize opportunities, expand collaboration and create a new future of mutually beneficial cooperation. In the face of a turbulent and changing world, a stable and constructive China-UK relationship is even more important to both countries and the world.

“The two sides must uphold the principles of mutual respect, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs and equality, and properly handle differences and sensitive issues. We must say no to those who have been trying to talk China down. We must say no to those who have been trying to undermine normal exchanges between our two countries. We must say no to those who have been trying to disrupt China-UK collaboration.”

Following the formal proceedings and a networking reception, Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force, a 2025 historical blockbuster, was screened.

Could China’s rise be Britain’s opportunity?

Will Labour take a more rational approach to China than the Tories did? Or continue the drive to trade decoupling and war led by the United States?

Optimism was in the air at a China Media Group meeting bringing together the country’s ambassador to Britain Zheng Zeguang and business figures earlier this week. The Donald Trump government was not named, but its disruptive character was referenced — Zheng observed that “unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise and power politics runs rampant;” the chairman of the China-British Council, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, spoke of the “orange-coloured elephant in the room.”

China in Springtime reported back on the recent Two Sessions, as the simultaneous meetings of China’s national policy-making forums — the legislative National People’s Congress, and the advisory People’s Political Consultative Conference — are known.

Zheng countered propaganda depicting China’s rise as a threat to a “rules-based” — read US-policed — world order. “China champions an equal and orderly multipolar world and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation.”

Here he referenced President Xi Jinping’s three signature initiatives, the Global Development Initiative (for economic co-operation in place of trade systems that benefit corporations in rich countries at the expense of the global South), the Global Security Initiative (replacing concepts of security based on power blocs like Nato with an inclusive international security architecture) and the Global Civilisation Initiative, which promotes multipolarity and argues for a world order based on respect for different civilisations, rather than one whose institutions have all been designed in the framework of the European political tradition.

Continue reading Could China’s rise be Britain’s opportunity?

Daniel Ortega: The continuing Chinese Revolution brings peace, wellbeing and solidarity

We are pleased to republish this article from the Tortilla con Sal website, consisting of the speeches given on March 8, International Women’s Day, at the latest ceremony to mark the handover of buses as part of the comradely support of the People’s Republic of China to the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua.

Speaking first, Santi Zhou, representative of the Yutong Company, the bus manufacturer, said:

“Since the start of our collaboration, we have introduced several batches of buses, with a total of 2,000 units in Nicaragua. Yutong accompanies Nicaraguans in their development.

“We thank Compañero Comandante Daniel Ortega and Compañera Rosario Murillo for the opportunity to contribute to the modernisation of Nicaraguan public transport, which is now not only present in Managua… but also expanding to other territories.

“It gives us pride to strengthen the bonds of friendship between our peoples, expanding new horizons for the growth of transport and the important tourism industry, promoting access to the beautiful landscapes of Bluefields and Bilwi… Our team is committed, living and working here, to provide the greatest possible support to the Nicaraguan people.”

Fátima del Carmen German, a transport worker, said: “On this special day, March 8th when we celebrate this important date, we commemorate the struggle that women waged for equal rights; and likewise, we celebrate the strength, resilience and passion of every woman… On behalf of all these strong, brave, hardworking and empowered women, we reiterate our gratitude to our good government and our brothers and sisters in China for having confidence in us.”

China’s Ambassador to Nicaragua Chen Xi noted that this was the fifth time that he has participated in the handover of Chinese vehicles to Nicaragua.

“I wanted to salute the Nicaraguan people for the recent publication of the Constitution of the Republic of Nicaragua, unanimously approved by the Legislators of the National Assembly of Nicaragua. A revolutionary and democratic constitution, a constitution that strengthens and further consolidates the rights of education, health, security, wellbeing and all the rights that assist the honourable Nicaraguan people.

“I also want to salute Co-President Daniel Ortega, Co-President Rosario Murillo, for their great responsibility and commitment, their determination to lead the Nicaraguan people to a brighter future.

“Of course, I also cannot fail to salute you, the Nicaraguan transport workers, for the successes you have been able to achieve, to improve the means of transport, supported by the Sandinista government led by your Co-Presidents, so that you can, with all your goodwill, with all your professionalism, improve the transport service to the Nicaraguan people, so that the Nicaraguan people can enjoy better bus services, which have been a very important means of transport for the country and the people, to achieve a better development.

Noting that due to its special geographical and climatic situation, Nicaragua is particularly susceptible to national disasters and the effects of climate change, the Ambassador said that:

“But really human beings now do not have to face this with just their bare hands, we can now resort to technology, and China is an immense country but also vulnerable to natural disasters, we too face typhoons, earthquakes, floods, and so on but thanks to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese government, and the efforts of the Chinese people, of the technicians, we have been able to develop some experiences, some very efficient, advanced technologies, to face all those emergency situations.

“And we have wanted to share those experiences, those Chinese technologies, with the Nicaraguan people, so that we can fight together against all those emergency situations, all those natural disasters; so that our peoples can enjoy life in tranquility, in security, more and more every day… And to sum up, China is willing to work together with our Nicaraguan brothers and sisters to develop many other projects, especially projects dedicated to the social sector, so that the Nicaraguan people can enjoy the benefits of our friendship, of our brother and sisterhood.”

Co-President Daniel Ortega began his speech by noting that March 8 was International Women’s Day. Noting its history, he said it was, “Clara Zetkin, who in 1910 at a Conference of Socialist Women, in Copenhagen, proposed and approved the celebration of Working Women’s Day, because it was mainly working women who were marginalised and exploited. And very soon, the following year, in the month of March, the first commemoration took place.

He went on to say that this is a “struggle that we have been waging here in Nicaragua as well, to defeat and eliminate, to extirpate, from our nation, the manifestations of machismo, which in some cases result in causing pain, even tragedy in some families.

“And there, fighting for the peace and security of the Nicaraguan people, the right of women was incorporated, and has also been enshrined in the laws, that when aggression and crimes are committed against working women, Self-sacrificing Women, then the maximum penalty goes to those who commit this type of crimes.”

Ortega pointed out that the ceremony was taking place at the Comandante Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías Roundabout and highlighted the role that the late Venezuelan revolutionary leader had played in the resumption of diplomatic relations between Nicaragua and China:

“A few days ago, on March 5th, we commemorated the 12th Anniversary of his Departure on the Journey to Immortality, but he is present here with us and we remember him well for how he connected with the Nicaraguan people.

“And I remember, dear Ambassador, that on the occasions when I would talk with Comandante Hugo Chávez, he would say to me: Well, and when…? The brothers of the People’s Republic of China are waiting for us. And he loved the People’s Republic of China, like the love we have too have for China.

“But, unfortunately, when the neoliberal governments arrived, they broke our relations with the People’s Republic of China, and three neoliberal Governments passed. And we had to return to the government and achieve a majority in Congress, in the National Assembly, to finally make Comandante Chávez’s dream come true.

“And we can tell you: Here we are, united as brothers and sisters, with the People’s Republic of China, with the Chinese people, with the Chinese Communist Party, and we are proud of that unity, which is a unity in which, we well know, the heroic people of China made an extraordinary revolution led by Mao Zedong, one to which President Xi Jinping has come giving it continuity and new brilliance.

“That is, the revolution in China has not stopped, the revolution in China continues, and now offers itself to the world as a revolution bringing peace, bringing wellbeing, bringing solidarity to the peoples. It does not carry sanctions, nor does it carry threats, nor does it carry wars. It is a revolution of peace, the revolution led by the Chinese Communist Party.”

The final speaker was Co-President Rosario Murillo, who said:

“While Comandante Daniel was talking about that plague, the plague of machismo, which is still something in our culture that we have to combat and overcome, I was remembering how we always thought and said that without revolution it is difficult to achieve women’s rights. And 45 years after the triumph of the revolution, 45 years later, what do we see? That it has been possible to achieve justice for us women, from us as women, because we have a revolution, a revolution in which we all participate with our strength, with our work, with our pride, with our sense of national dignity…

“For years immemorial, the years of the guerrilla Sandinista struggles, women have been there… But now women are in power! At that time, women were combatants, guerrillas, fighters, warriors, and we have always been warriors, fighters and combatants, but now we also constitute power, institutional power.”

Address by Compañero Santi Zhou
Representative for Central America from the Yutong Company

Dear Co-President-Comandante Daniel Ortega; dear Co-President, Comrade Rosario Murillo; dear Ambassador Chen Xi, of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China.

Dear Gentlemen, Compañero Laureano Ortega; Vice Minister Mauricio Aguilar; Compañero Fidel Moreno; Compañeras Fátima and Idalia and your compañeras and compañeros.

Compañeras and compañeros, cordial greetings. A very good afternoon to everyone, and a happy Women’s Day to all the Compañeras present today.

It is a pleasure and an honor for me to be present here. On behalf of Yutong, I want to express to you our pleasure at being able to continue as part of the growth and development of public transport in Nicaragua by supporting its People.

We have been part of this vision of the Government since 2023 and we are grateful to have been chosen for this important development. Yutong is a partner in this challenge and proof of this is our interest and commitment to accompany you throughout the process.

Since the start of our collaboration, we have introduced several batches of buses, with a total of 2,000 units in Nicaragua. Yutong accompanies Nicaraguans in their development.

We thank Compañero Comandante Daniel Ortega and Compañera Rosario Murillo for the opportunity to contribute to the modernization of Nicaraguan public transport, which is now not only present in Managua, Ciudad Sandino and Tipitapa, but will also expanding to other territories, such as Chinandega, Carazo, Masaya, León, Matagalpa, Estelí, Jinotega, Boaco (…)

In addition, it gives us pride to strengthen the bonds of friendship between our Peoples, expanding new horizons for the growth of transport and the important tourism industry, promoting access to the beautiful landscapes of Bluefields and Bilwi.

We are working and moving forward together to offer new Yutong products in the future. Our Team is committed, living and working here, to provide the greatest possible support to the Nicaraguan People, and guarantee accompaniment throughout the life cycle of our products.

Finally, I sincerely hope that the quality of life of the Nicaraguan people continues to improve every day.

Thank you very much, everyone.

Continue reading Daniel Ortega: The continuing Chinese Revolution brings peace, wellbeing and solidarity

Why should we study China?

We are pleased to publish below the speech given by Dr. Jenny Clegg to our meeting to launch People’s China at 75: The Flag Stays Red, held on Thursday March 20, at the Marx Memorial Library in central London.

Jenny makes a number of important points in her speech, noting how the process of socialist revolution and transformation in China had its antecedents in the country’s experience of World War 2. With this year being the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression and the global anti-fascist war, she argues strongly for seeing the conflict as a people’s war and as one with important lessons for today’s international situation, itself displaying ever greater dangers of another global conflagration. Jenny further argues that the left needs to take a realistic view of China and to build that into our own political perspectives and practice.

Jenny is an independent writer and researcher, specialising in China’s development and international role; and a former Senior Lecturer in Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN). She is the author of China’s Global Strategy: towards a multipolar world (Pluto Press, 2009) and Storming the Heavens – Peasants and Revolution in China, 1925-1949 – from a Marxist perspective (Manifesto Press, forthcoming).

People’s China at 75 is available from the publishers in paperback and digital formats. Note that, for the month of March 2025, to celebrate the launch meeting, Praxis Press are running a 25 percent discount on their full catalogue – the discount code is 25FOR25.

This book looks at China’s experience of, and contributions, to socialism. But how did socialism in China come about?  My chapter covers those first few years from 1949 to 1956 when the nationalist, peasant and worker movements converged to establish the system of public ownership in industry and agriculture.

But there is more to be said to explain where socialism in China came from – the extreme privation, the near national extinction through war and the need to resist, a history I want to suggest which is very relevant to the question today: why study China?

Today the world is in turmoil – Trump kicking off; the spectacular failure of Biden’s leadership with 70 years of the international political liberal order down the drain.  When Biden and Starmer supplied Zelensky with long-range missiles to strike deep inside Russia, we came perilously close to World War 3.

How on earth did things come to this?  From history we may gain perspective.  As we stand at the brink of WW3 let’s recall WW2 and how it sparked China’s trajectory to socialism through mass mobilisation.

China was the country most changed by WW2: 35 million causalities, the majority civilians; some 100 million, nearly one fifth of the population, uprooted from their homes, wandering aimlessly. Out of the terrible suffering came the revolutionary will to fight for a new, an independent China. 

Continue reading Why should we study China?

China’s flag stays red

The meeting room of London’s Marx Memorial Library was packed on the evening of Thursday March 20, with others joining online, for the launch of People’s China at 75 – The Flag Stays Red, edited by Keith Bennett and Carlos Martinez, the editors of this website.

The meeting was chaired by Carlos Martinez, with speakers, Keith Bennett, Professor Radhika Desai and Dr. Jenny Clegg. They were followed by a lively round of discussion and questions and answers. Andrew Murray was also due to speak but unfortunately was not able to make it.

We publish below the text of Keith’s opening speech. The meeting can be viewed on YouTube (and the video is also embedded below).

The book is available from the publishers in paperback and digital formats. Note that, for the month of March 2025, to celebrate the launch meeting, Praxis Press are running a 25 percent discount on their full catalogue – the discount code is 25FOR25.

Thank you for coming this evening and thank you also to those who have joined us online and those who will watch online in the days to come.

We’re fortunate to have a number of the authors who contributed chapters to this book with us this evening and doubtless they’ll introduce their work and the themes they sought to address.

As co-editor, along with Carlos, I want to say a bit about why and how we came to produce it.

There are two well-known sayings in English that I’d like to mention here.

The first is: Never judge a book by its cover.

And the second is: There’s an exception to every rule.

So, please take a look at the beautiful cover of our book.

I’m sure many of you have already seen it. I submit that it represents one of the exceptions to the rule. In words, as well as graphically, it sets out what we want to say and where we stand.

As Friends of Socialist China, we conceived of this book as part of our celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which fell on October 1st last year. And thanks to the stupendous efforts of our publisher, comrade and friend, Kenny Coyle, who also contributed a highly thoughtful and enlightening chapter on the antecedents of socialism with Chinese characteristics in Lenin’s explorations on the ways of building socialism, we got it out in time for our celebration and conference, held in London’s historic  Bolivar Hall on the last Saturday of September.

With a day-long conference attended by well over 100 people, a book, and a special supplement in the Morning Star, it was a landmark in the development of our work.

Some comrades have kindly said that we must have worked very hard to produce the book. I’ll let others be the judge of that. But I’ll just say that we did so in about three months – if I recall correctly – from start to finish; from conceiving the idea to the published product.

We could do so thanks to the amazing cooperation we had from all our authors and, as I’ve just mentioned, the sterling efforts of our publisher.

Continue reading China’s flag stays red

TikTok and the threat to cultural hegemony

The following article by Carlos Martinez responds to a recent article in The Times complaining about TikTok users not being sufficiently anti-China. The only explanation the Times journalist can muster is that TikTok’s algorithms must be weighted to promote pro-CPC content.

Carlos observes that TikTok users are predominantly young, and posits that young people are less vulnerable to anti-China hysteria than older generations – at least in part due to China’s leading role in the battle against climate breakdown; its concerted efforts to reduce poverty and improve living standards; and its orientation towards peace, which contrasts starkly with the West’s orientation towards war.

Carlos concludes that imperialist cultural hegemony is under threat:

Throughout the Western world, people are learning to question and reject the crass propaganda pumped out by the mainstream media’s State Department stenographers in relation to Palestine, China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran, the DPRK and more. This is an entirely welcome development.

A recent article in The Times, entitled Why TikTok ‘makes people more eager to visit China’, worries that “people who spend hours scrolling on TikTok are more likely to want to visit China — possibly because the platform censors material that portrays the country in a negative light”. The article’s author is particularly concerned that TikTok users might “see an airbrushed view of China and its human rights record”.

Researchers found that, horrifyingly, users searching on TikTok for terms such as “Tiananmen” or “Tibet” were exposed to a significant number of results that failed to denounce the Communist Party of China. Indeed, it seems that heavy TikTok users typically rate China’s human rights record as “medium”, whereas non-TikTok users rate it as “poor”.

Lee Jussim, a co-author of the research on which the Times article is based, said: “We did the studies because there was ample reason long before our studies to suspect CCP manipulation of TikTok. It’s one thing to suspect, it’s quite another to find it empirically.” He concludes: “Social media companies should be required to publicly disclose how their algorithms determine what content users can access.”

Imperialist propaganda losing its impact?

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s classic 1988 work Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media explores the connection between the economic interests of the ruling class and the ideas that are communicated via mass media: “The media serve, and propagandise on behalf of, the powerful societal interests that control and finance them. The representatives of these interests have important agendas and principles that they want to advance, and they are well positioned to shape and constrain media policy.”

Western media hostility to China has reached fever pitch in recent years. The accusation that China is committing a genocide (or “cultural genocide”) in Xinjiang has been repeated so often as to acquire the force of truth, in spite of the notable absence of any meaningful evidence in its support. Rioters in Hong Kong are presented as saintly defenders of democratic principles. Chinese weather balloons, kettles and smart TVs are all spying on us, and inscrutable Chinese scientists are sending our secrets directly to the People’s Liberation Army.

Fu Manchu is back, and this time he wants to take our freedoms away.

In Britain as in the US, the bourgeoisie is divided on many issues, but there is a clear consensus when it comes to waging a propaganda war on China. And yet it seems that anti-China propaganda is losing its impact, particularly among young people.

The statistical categories presented by the authors of the research are “those who don’t use TikTok” and “those who spent more than three hours a day on the platform”. Age is fairly obviously a confounding variable here: a significant majority of TikTok users are under 30, and only 27 percent are over the age of 45. Young adults (18-24 years) make up over half of TikTok content creators.

So inasmuch as we can derive anything useful from the research, it’s that younger generations are less invested than their grandparents in idiotic Cold War narratives. That may be partly a reflection of the fact that TikTok’s algorithms – in flagrant violation of the well-known and universal rules of social media – don’t actively boost anti-China content and suppress pro-China content. But it also speaks to the genuine concerns and interests of young people.

For example, surveys consistently show that young people are more worried about the prospect of climate breakdown and are more likely to consider the environmental crisis as an existential threat to humanity. As such, they might be expected to welcome the news that China will account for 60 percent of all renewable energy capacity installed worldwide between now and 2030 (according to the International Energy Agency); that China has likely already reached its 2030 goal of peaking carbon emissions; that China is fast phasing out fossil fuel vehicles; that China leads the world in afforestation and biodiversity protection; and that China’s investment in renewables has led to a 80 percent reduction in the cost of solar and wind energy globally.

Furthermore, young people are notorious for having a curious predilection for peace, and perhaps many of them are impressed by the fact that China hasn’t been to war in over four decades; that it has one overseas military base, compared to the US’s 800; that it has a consistent policy of no first use of nuclear weapons, while the US has a consistent policy of nuclear bullying; that it has worked diligently towards peace in Gaza and Ukraine, while the US has been financing, arming and promoting genocide and war.

While TikTok doesn’t actively suppress negative stories about China, what makes it unique among major social media apps is that it also doesn’t suppress positive stories about China. Users are exposed to a variety of voices, including those who highlight China’s extraordinary development, its contributions to climate change solutions, its successes tackling poverty, and its appeal as a travel destination.

Continue reading TikTok and the threat to cultural hegemony

China: Israel must renounce its obsession with the use of force and immediately cease military operations in Gaza

Speaking at a briefing meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), called by non-permanent members Algeria and Somalia, China has strongly condemned Israel for its breach of the ceasefire and its new crimes committed against the civilian population of Gaza, which have seen hundreds killed, a huge number of them children, in a single day.

At the March 18 meeting, Ambassador Fu Cong said: “With the implementation of the ceasefire on January 19, people in Gaza had a long-awaited respite, and the humanitarian disaster was relieved to some extent… In spite of the strong calls from the international community to extend the Gaza ceasefire and the strong desire of the Gaza population for the resumption of peace and tranquility, the situation has moved in the opposite direction. On March 2, Israel announced the decision to halt the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza. On March 9, it cut off the supply of power to Gaza. Just yesterday, Israel launched large-scale airstrikes against Gaza, causing hundreds of civilian casualties. China regrets the harm done to the hard-won ceasefire and is gravely concerned about Israel’s resumption of hostilities in Gaza. We strongly condemn this.” 

China, he continued, urged Israel, “to renounce its obsession with the use of force, immediately cease military operations in Gaza, and stop the collective punishment of the Gazan civilians,” adding:

“We strongly oppose the weaponisation and politicisation of humanitarian aid. As of today, for 17 consecutive days, no humanitarian supplies were allowed into Gaza, and the loss of power disabled a desalinisation plant, worsening the water shortage crisis. The use of humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip is in violation of international law, especially international humanitarian law. China condemns such practice.”

China supports, “the Gaza recovery and reconstruction plan jointly initiated by Egypt and other Arab states and supports an early launch of reconstruction underpinned by the principle of Palestinians governing Palestine, whereby the Palestinian people can rebuild their homes in their own territory.”

The following is the full text of Ambassador Fu Cong’s remarks. It was originally published on the website of China’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

President, 

I thank Algeria and Somalia for initiating today’s meeting, and thank Under-Secretary-General Tom Fletcher for the briefing. 

With the implementation of the ceasefire on January 19, people in Gaza had a long-awaited respite, and the humanitarian disaster was relieved to some extent. However, as the first phase of the ceasefire expired on March 1, the ceasefire agreement failed to enter the second phase. In spite of the strong calls from the international community to extend the Gaza ceasefire and the strong desire of the Gaza population for the resumption of peace and tranquility, the situation has moved in the opposite direction. On March 2, Israel announced the decision to halt the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza. On March 9, it cut off the supply of power to Gaza. Just yesterday, Israel launched large-scale airstrikes against Gaza, causing hundreds of civilian casualties. China regrets the harm done to the hard-won ceasefire, and is gravely concerned about Israel’s resumption of hostilities in Gaza. We strongly condemn this. 

We strongly urge the abandonment of the logic of supremacy of force. Military means is not the way to solve the Palestinian-Israeli issue. The stark contrast between 15 months of bloody conflict and 42 days of ceasefire clear shows that the indiscriminate use of force is not the right way to bring back hostages and may even put them at greater risks. China urges Israel to renounce its obsession with the use of force, immediately cease military operations in Gaza, and stop the collective punishment of the Gazan civilians. 

We strongly demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Since the ceasefire agreement was reached, it should be fully and seriously implemented in good faith, and no attempt should be made to alter or undermine it midway. China calls on the parties to implement the ceasefire agreement fully and continuously, and expects the ceasefire guarantors to adopt a fair and responsible approach to facilitate the continuous implementation of the three-phase agreement and ensure the realization of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. 

We strongly oppose the weaponization and politicization of humanitarian aid. As of today, for 17 consecutive days, no humanitarian supplies were allowed into Gaza, and the loss of power disabled a desalinization plant, worsening the water shortage crisis. The use of humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip is in violation of international law, especially international humanitarian law. China condemns such practice. We urge Israel to fulfill its obligations as the occupying power under international humanitarian law and immediately restore full humanitarian access to Gaza. 

We strongly call for the revitalization of the political prospects of the two-State solution. The implementation of the two-State solution is the only viable way to resolve the question of Palestine. Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are all inseparable parts of the Palestinian state. We support the Gaza recovery and reconstruction plan jointly initiated by Egypt and other Arab states, and support an early launch of reconstruction underpinned by the principle of Palestinians governing Palestine, whereby the Palestinian people can rebuild their homes in their own territory. The international community should step up its efforts to advance the political process of the two-State solution and provide necessary support to this end. 

President, 

For some time now, we have witnessed a dangerous sign in the Middle East. As the international rule of law and international order are violated and undermined, the law of the jungle seems to reign. This is worrisome and concerning. The Security Council, as the primary body for maintaining international peace and security, should put a prompt end to such chaos. We support further actions by the Council to bring about a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, restore peace in the Middle East, and achieve a comprehensive, just, and lasting solution to the Palestinian question. 

Thank you, President.

China, Britain pledge to jointly address climate change

Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang met with Ed Miliband, British Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, in Beijing on Monday 17 March. According to a UK government press release, this was the first formal bilateral discussion between the two countries on climate action in nearly eight years.

At the meeting, Ding Xuexiang stated that developing stable and mutually beneficial relations between China and the UK serves the common interests of the two peoples, facilitates global economic growth, and promotes joint efforts to address global challenges.

Xinhua reports: “Miliband said the UK government sincerely hopes to enhance engagement with China, is committed to developing a long-term and constructive bilateral relationship, and stands ready to strengthen cooperation with China on energy security and addressing climate change.”

Miliband also met with Wang Hongzhi, head of China’s National Energy Administration, after which meeting the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding, outlining key areas of cooperation including power grids, battery storage, offshore wind power and green hydrogen.

As Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez commented to the Morning Star, it is a positive sign that Miliband has visited Beijing and that the British government is exploring opportunities for cooperation with China around the climate emergency.

After all, China is the world’s only renewable energy superpower, and is leading the way globally in terms of electric transport, afforestation, biodiversity protection, pollution reduction, sustainable water management, and more. A report from Yale School of the Environment notes:

Today, China has more than 80 percent of the world’s solar manufacturing capacity. The extraordinary scale of China’s renewables sector output has driven down prices worldwide, and this is a key factor in reducing the cost barrier to renewable systems for poorer countries. Today China not only holds important positions in wind and battery technologies, but a Chinese company, BYD, has become the world’s biggest EV manufacturer, and China is poised to pose a formidable global challenge in all aspects of electric transportation to established vehicle brands.

The idea that the West can solve the climate crisis while simultaneously “decoupling” from China is thus entirely unrealistic, and clearly there is a great deal Britain can learn from China.

Miliband’s visit to Beijing is a step in the right direction. Less helpful are his remarks in the Guardian on 14 March 2025, promising to “raise issues including forced labour in supply chains, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and human rights in Hong Kong”.

The slanderous accusations of forced labour in Xinjiang have been used to impose sanctions on Chinese renewable energy materials, and as such form a direct impediment to global climate action.

Meanwhile it’s Miliband’s own government which is basing its growth strategy on the expansion of the arms industry rather than pursuing a Green New Deal. This same government has actively contributed to NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine, which is having a disastrous environmental impact – aside from its tragic more immediate human impact.

Furthermore, the British government’s recent cuts to its overseas aid budget will “make it more difficult for the government to deliver on a promise to increase climate finance to developing countries”. This doesn’t compare favourably with China’s construction of a Green Belt and Road, providing investment in renewable energy and green infrastructure projects across the Global South.

British politicians would do well to drop their empire nostalgia and to avoid hectoring their Chinese counterparts. When it comes to humanity’s shared project of preventing climate catastrophe, Britain has more to learn than to teach. While China has established itself as by far the global leader in renewable energy, Britain “has lost its position as a global leader on climate action”.

Miliband is correct to say that “it is simply an act of negligence to today’s and future generations not to engage China.” Parroting Washington’s anti-China Cold War propaganda will only create friction in this important relationship. It is to be hoped that Miliband’s trip to Beijing is a springboard for further cooperation.

FoSC joins annual Karl Marx commemoration in London

A delegation from Friends of Socialist China joined the annual commemoration of the death of Karl Marx, organised by the Marx Memorial Library and the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), at his tomb in north London’s Highgate Cemetery, on Sunday, 16 March 2025.

In her address to the ceremony, which was attended by hundreds of people, Ismara M. Vargas Walter, the Ambassador of Cuba, said that “the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 was not just the fall of a tyrant; it was the birth of a socialist project inspired by Marxism, by the belief that the workers and peasants must be the true owners of their destiny… Marxism is not a relic in Cuba; it is a living practice… Despite the relentless attacks against our right to self-determination, Cuba stands firm, proving that socialism is not only viable but necessary in the face of capitalist crises, growing economic inequality and environmental destruction… When Cuba sends doctors, not bombs; when we develop vaccines, not monopolies; when we educate, not exploit, this is Marxism in action. Marxism is not a dogma; it is a tool for liberation… We must continue to innovate in how we teach and apply Marxist principles, ensuring that they speak to the challenges of our time: digital capitalism, climate change and the need for a multipolar world.

“Cuba’s Marxist Revolution stands with Palestine, demanding an end to genocide. Cuba’s Marxist Revolution stands with Venezuela and Nicaragua against US criminal unilateral coercive measures. Cuba’s Marxist Revolution stands with all nations resisting imperialism because Marx taught us that capitalism’s exploitation is global, and so too must be our solidarity.

“From Havana to Gaza, young people are rediscovering Marxism not as a 19th century doctrine but as a road map for survival and resistance. And they are proving that the fight is not over, that the revolution is not a relic, but a necessity.”

The Cuban Ambassador was followed by Dr. Ashok Dhawale, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) and National President of the All India Kisan Sabha (All India Farmers Union).

He referred to the rightward shift in many countries, “which sometimes takes the form of far-right and neo-fascist attacks on racial, religious and other minorities, including immigrants,” adding that “the political and ideological bankruptcy of social democratic parties and their unprincipled compromises have helped the far-right to advance.

“The opposite trend is the leftward shift in some countries of Latin America, Asia and Europe, where left forces could win over sections of the people.

“On this occasion, we salute the socialist countries like Cuba, China, Vietnam, Laos, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the left-led countries of Latin America and Siri Lanka, who are working hard to ensure the rapid and just socio-economic progress of their people.”

Following the speeches, floral tributes were laid by the CPB, the Marx Memorial Library, the Young Communist League and the Morning Star, followed by the diplomatic representatives of China, Vietnam, Laos and Sri Lanka. Flowers from Friends of Socialist China were presented by Professor Radhika Desai, a member of our Britain Committee as well as our Advisory Group. Other tributes were paid by representatives from communist parties of Iran, Chile, Cyprus, Iraq, Spain, Sudan, Greece, Palestine, Malaya and Italy, as well as the New Communist Party (NCP) of Britain and the London District of the CPB.

The ceremony, which was chaired by Professor Mary Davis, the Secretary of the Marx Memorial Library and of the Marx Grave Trust, concluded with the singing of the Internationale.

China’s democracy: how the National People’s Congress works

We are pleased to republish below an article by Jenny Clegg for the Morning Star explaining how China’s democracy works, focusing on the National People’s Congress (NPC), which met in early March.

Jenny points out that, while the Western media insists on disparaging the NPC as a “rubber stamp” parliament, it is in fact a key institution in China’s system of people’s democracy. While this system of democracy is different from Western “liberal” democracy, it is nonetheless a legitimate political form seeking to empower and represent the people.

Jenny explains that laws passed by the NPC “undergo a prior long and arduous process of deliberation, consultation and revision to ensure disagreements and differences are addressed and ultimately consensus is reached”. The People’s Congress system “involves nearly 3 million deputies, 95 per cent at township and county levels; non-Communist Party members make up at least a third of these. Villages are self-administered — elections, introduced in 1998, are conducted every 3-5 years”.

The article notes that NPC deputies “are expected to serve as ‘a bridge between party, state and people,’ spending the bulk of the recess period conducting research, carrying out inspections and extensive consultations, and then formulating proposals to be subject to rigorous debate and revision.” Trade unions, women’s and other mass organisations are consulted on all relevant pieces of legislation, and those laws that particularly concern the immediate interests of the wider public are put out in draft form for public debate.

Importantly, at a time when democratic processes are under attack in the West, Jenny observes that “the modernisation of socialist democracy in China is a work in progress”, and is being constantly reviewed and updated in order to better serve the people and encourage mass participation.

Jenny is an independent writer and researcher, specialising in China’s development and international role; and a former Senior Lecturer in Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN). She is the author of China’s Global Strategy: towards a multipolar world (Pluto Press, 2009) and Storming the Heavens – Peasants and Revolution in China, 1925-1949 – from a Marxist perspective (Manifesto Press, 2024).

China’s nearly 3,000-member National People’s Congress (NPC) has just gathered for its annual meeting in Beijing. Western mainstream media continually disparages China’s main legislature as a “rubber stamp parliament” — mindlessly repeating the phrase to numb readers’ minds to any thought other than that China must be a dictatorship.

That there are other forms of democracy — the idea of democratic centralism, deliberative democracy, has been around for over 100 years — the mainstream media cannot comprehend.

True, the NPC only meets for two weeks a year and never seems to reject any piece of legislation put before it. However, the reason why laws are passed unanimously is that they undergo a prior long and arduous process of deliberation, consultation and revision to ensure disagreements and differences are addressed and ultimately consensus is reached.

Borrowed from the USSR in 1954 alongside the systems of public ownership and five-year plans, the people’s congress structure operates through tiers reaching from townships up through counties and provinces to the national level. It involves nearly 3 million deputies, 95 per cent at township and county levels; non-Communist Party members make up at least a third of these. Villages are self-administered — elections, introduced in 1998, are conducted every 3-5 years.

The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee — the other part of the “two sessions” — forms parallel tiers serving in an advisory and consultative capacity. It includes the eight democratic parties which originally took part in China’s revolution and today continue to represent intellectuals and professionals.

Nominations for congress deputies are encouraged from workplaces, rural and urban communities, trade unions, women’s and other mass organisations. Front-line workers, farmers and national minorities are represented right up to the national level under a quota system. The party and higher state levels oversee elections, approving candidates both to ensure inclusivity across diversified social groups and to vouch for candidate competence.

However, the system relies not simply on elections — it also involves consultations, decision-making, management, and oversight. In line with the Marxist perspective, and contrary to the liberal myth of the separation of powers, executive, legislative and judiciary work closely together, with the party formulating views to be re-examined and substantiated through the people’s congresses, and then transformed into legislation forming the basis for the governance system.

Deputies are expected to serve as “a bridge between party, state and people,” spending the bulk of the recess period conducting research, carrying out inspections and extensive consultations, and then formulating proposals to be subject to rigorous debate and revision.

After ceasing to function during the Cultural Revolution, the NPC has passed an enormous raft of legislation since 1978 — by international standards, the laws are generally progressive. To ensure laws are implemented, congress deputies are also expected to keep contact with courts and supervisory institutions.

So that laws are practicable and feasible, as well as in accord with and understood by the wider public, consultations take place with trade unions, women’s and other mass organisations — as well as with experts and the democratic parties. Laws that particularly concern the immediate interests of the wider public — such as women’s and labour rights — are put out in draft form for public debate and comment: the draft 14th five-year plan received one million suggestions from the public within two weeks.

In 2016 a number of urban districts were selected to serve as basic legislative contact points for the NPC standing committee to increase participation in policy-making. These grassroots units use street-level and “courtyard” forums, with public hearings held in districts, industries, small and medium-sized enterprises as well as government offices, to collect opinions and gather suggestions for legislation and improvements of draft laws.

The Hongqiao Street grassroots legislative unit in Shanghai, for example, held more than 50 forums for legislative proposals in 2020, its first year of existence — more than 1,000 people participated in the call for comments and finally 366 legislative amendments and recommendations were submitted of which 66 were adopted by the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress. The Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests (Revised Draft) drew considerable public interest, receiving the most comments and suggestions, backed by a degree of NGO lobbying.

The popular “12345 hotline” set up in Chinese cities serves as a mechanism not only for citizens to seek advice, but also to express complaints and criticise the work of local government, helping to highlight areas where both regulations and cadres’ performance required improvement.

In 2018, the NPC also set up a National Supervisory Commission to strengthen Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption system. And in 2021, in a major step forward, a new law was passed to give citizens the right to criticise and make suggestions and complaints about state organs and officials, including the right to sue government officials.

The NPC officially decides economic policy and has this year committed to the same targets as 2024: 5 per cent GDP growth; the creation of 12m jobs; incomes to keep pace with growth; a military spend of 7.2 per cent, that is, above the rate of growth but still below Nato’s soon-to-be-broken 2 per cent of GDP. Support will go to technology investment, green development, increased consumer spending, private and small businesses and a stock market clean-up.

“Too broad and vague,” say Western commentators, but the fact that China is sticking with last year’s targets, stabilising employment, trade and currency, speaks volumes as to the government’s confidence despite Trump’s turmoil.

China’s deliberative democracy still has a long way to go — gender representation for a start is poor, held back in part by differences in retirement age between men and women. Strengthening grassroots participation, representation, accountability and the implementation of the law — all are needed to advance the people-centred approach. The modernisation of socialist democracy in China is indeed still a work in progress.

Lao foreign minister: Laos and China are socialist comrades and brothers

Foreign Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) Thongsavanh Phomvihane met in Beijing on March 13 with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, becoming the first foreign minister to visit China since the country’s recent parliamentary ‘two sessions’.

Wang Yi said, since the establishment of diplomatic relations 64 years ago, the two parties and the two countries have always stood together through thick and thin and helped each other, and the comprehensive strategic cooperative relationship between the two sides has become ever more robust and resilient. As changes unseen in a century are unfolding at a faster pace, China has always viewed and advanced China-Laos relations from the strategic perspective of a priority in its neighbourhood diplomacy and the future of socialism. Wang Yi extended congratulations to the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party on its 70th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. He said that China firmly supports the Lao side in strengthening Party leadership, advancing reform and opening up, and elevating its international standing.

Wang Yi noted that China’s ‘two sessions’ have just concluded successfully, setting an economic growth target of around five percent for 2025. This reflects a scientific attitude of seeking truth from facts, an enterprising spirit of striving hard to deliver, and the resolve to meet difficulties head-on. As a comrade and brother, China welcomes Laos to seize the new opportunities of China’s development and join hands to march toward modernisation. China is ready to deepen and expand practical cooperation, advance the development of the China-Laos Economic Corridor, expand and strengthen the China-Laos Railway, accelerate comprehensive development along the route, and expand cooperation in energy, artificial intelligence, digital economy and other fields.

Thongsavanh Phomvihane extended congratulations on the successful convening of China’s ‘two sessions’ and the important outcomes and commended China’s leapfrog development in spite of a complex external environment. Laos and China are socialist comrades and brothers who share weal and woe and move forward shoulder to shoulder. Laos firmly pursues the one-China policy and supports the Belt and Road Initiative and the three major global initiatives put forward by President Xi Jinping. Laos is willing to work with China to deliver on the new action plan on building the Laos-China community with a shared future, promote the Laos-China Railway to exert a greater economic effect, make it into a “golden route” and a “road of friendship” between Laos and China, and further promote the vision of interconnected development of Laos, China and Thailand.

The following day, Thongsavanh Phomvihane met with Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

Ding said that, as socialist comrades and brothers, China and Laos should earnestly implement the important consensus reached between the top leaders of the two parties and countries, intensify high-level exchange, deepen political mutual trust, and work together to safeguard security and development interests. He also called on both countries to expand cooperation in the fields of artificial intelligence and the digital economy.

Thongsavanh congratulated China on its successful convening of the ‘two sessions’, noting that Laos firmly supports China in safeguarding its core interests. Laos is willing to deepen its comprehensive, practical cooperation with China and push the construction of a Laos-China community with a shared future to a new level.

The following articles were originally published on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and by the Xinhua News Agency.

Wang Yi Holds Talks with Lao Foreign Minister Thongsavanh Phomvihane

March 13 (MFA) — On March 13, 2025, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Lao Foreign Minister Thongsavanh Phomvihane in Beijing.

Wang Yi said, since the establishment of diplomatic relations 64 years ago, the two parties and the two countries have always stood together through thick and thin and helped each other, and the comprehensive strategic cooperative relationship between the two sides has become ever more robust and resilient. General Secretary Xi Jinping had a successful meeting with General Secretary Thongloun Sisoulith on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan last year, injecting strong impetus to deepening the building of a China-Laos community with a shared future in the new era. As changes unseen in a century are unfolding at a faster pace, China has always viewed and advanced China-Laos relations from the strategic perspective of a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy and the future of socialism. Wang Yi extended congratulations to the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party on its 70th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. He said that China firmly supports the Lao side in strengthening Party leadership, advancing reform and opening up, and elevating its international standing. China is ready to enhance strategic mutual trust with Laos, strengthen solidarity and coordination, and accelerate the building of a China-Laos community with a shared future.

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China, Russia and Iran condemn unlawful unilateral sanctions

Against a background of US President Donald Trump’s heightened threats to Iran, unmistakably contained in his recent letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, ostensibly offering dialogue, and the aggravated threat of a general and all out war in West Asia, an important meeting, at Deputy Foreign Minister level, between China, Russia and Iran, was held in Beijing on March 14.

It was chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu of the People’s Republic of China, with participation of Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov Sergey Alexeevich of the Russian Federation and Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The three countries engaged in in-depth discussions on the latest state of play with regard to the Iranian nuclear issue and the question of sanctions lifting and issued a joint statement.

The statement emphasised the necessity of terminating all unlawful unilateral sanctions and reiterated that political and diplomatic engagement and dialogue based on the principle of mutual respect remain the only viable and practical option. Relevant parties, they noted, should be committed to addressing the root cause of the current situation and abandoning sanction, pressure, or threat of force.

They also reiterated the importance of upholding the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as the cornerstone of the international non-proliferation regime. China and Russia welcomed Iran’s reiteration that its nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes and not for development of nuclear weapons.

Iran and Russia commended China for its constructive role and for hosting the Beijing meeting. The three countries agreed to continue their close consultation and cooperation in the future. They also exchanged views on regional and international issues of common interest and agreed to maintain and strengthen their coordination in international organisations and multilateral arrangements such as BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Also on March 14, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with the Deputy Foreign Ministers of Russia and Iran.

Wang Yi said that over the past year or so, tensions in the Middle East have continued to escalate, with the regional security situation deteriorating significantly and hotspot issues emerging one after another. He added that there are enough issues in the Middle East, and all parties should focus on addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an unresolved historical injustice lingering since World War II, rather than creating new tensions or even crises.

The Chinese Foreign Minister put forward a five-point proposal on the Iranian nuclear issue, the first of which is to stay committed to peaceful settlement of disputes through political and diplomatic means and to oppose the use of force and illegal sanctions.

Meanwhile, in the days immediately before the meeting, China, Russia and Iran held joint naval drills in the Gulf of Oman. It was the fifth year for the three countries to hold such joint drills, which begun near the Iranian port of Chabahar.

The Chinese newspaper Global Times reported that the exercises featured three phases – an assembly and preparation phase, a maritime drill phase and a harbour summary phase.

The maritime drill phase featured such training courses as maritime target strikes, VBSS (visit, board, search and seizure), damage control, as well as joint search and rescue operations. Exercises included live-fire shooting of heavy machine guns against maritime targets, night live-fire shooting practices, light communication practices, rescuing simulated hijacked commercial ships and a fleet review.

Zhang Junshe, a Chinese military affairs expert, told Global Times that the exercises had boosted the three navies’ maritime combat capabilities through maritime strike and damage control trainings. Routine joint exercises among the three sides continuously enhance their navies’ interoperability, he added, and the three sides’ joint command and control as well as joint strike capabilities were displayed through the drill courses.

Qatar based Al Jazeera noted that the exercises had got underway at a time when Iran accused the US of bullying. It noted that the Russian Ministry of Defence reported that “the ships’ crews conducted daytime and nighttime fire from large-calibre machine guns and small arms at targets simulating unmanned boats and unmanned aerial vehicles of a mock enemy.”

Al Jazeera further noted that Iran’s Press TV reported that naval groups from Azerbaijan, South Africa, Oman, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Qatar, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka also observed the drills.

The following articles were originally published on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Joint Statement of the Beijing Meeting between China, Russia and Iran

March 14 (MFA) — The Beijing Meeting between China, Russia and Iran was successfully held on March 14, 2025. The Beijing Meeting was chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu of the People’s Republic of China, with participation of Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov Sergey Alexeevich of the Russian Federation and Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

China, Russia and Iran engaged in in-depth discussions on the latest state of play with regard to nuclear issue and sanctions lifting. The three countries emphasized on the necessity of terminating all unlawful unilateral sanctions.

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Statement: Say no to Trump’s tariffs and anti-China policy

The following statement has been issued by the Friends of Socialist China US Committee in response to the Trump administration’s announcement of new tariffs on Chinese imports.

The Trump administration’s decision to slap additional tariffs on the People’s Republic of China is something that should be condemned by every person who cares about peace and progress. These moves are making the world a more dangerous place and are part of a larger anti-China policy being pursued by the Trump administration – a policy begun under the Obama administration and deepened during the Biden administration.

These tariffs are in effect a tax on working people here in the United States and will result in rising prices for our necessities and wants. They will have no impact whatsoever on the lifestyles of the billionaires. Indeed, the money raised from increased prices will be used to fund the Trump regime’s tax cuts for the super-rich. Furthermore, these tariffs will harm the U.S. economy more than China’s. People’s China has a more diversified economy, more trading partners, and a greater share of world trade.

To quote Mao Zedong, “Lifting a rock only to drop it on one’s own feet is a Chinese folk saying to describe the behavior of certain fools.” This certainly applies to Trump and his wealthy backers.

The tariffs against China exist in a larger context. The U.S. empire is in a state of stagnation and decline, while People’s China is developing at an incredible speed. Wall Street and the Pentagon are working to “contain” and encircle China. They are increasing the spending for war preparations, attempting to draw countries in the region into hostile alliances aimed at China, and encouraging separatist forces in Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang. The tariffs supplement the hundreds of U.S. sanctions against China in textiles, solar energy, computers and more.

For the past decade, U.S. policy makers have talked about “decoupling” the U.S. economy from that of China. Washington DC’s trade war is a part of that process, and it cannot be separated from preparations for other kinds of war in the Pacific, including those fought by military means.

Socialist China has made incredible achievements. China has waged a real war on poverty, while the U.S. government is waging a war on working people. China is by far the world leader in renewable energy production, electric transport, biodiversity protection and afforestation. China takes public health seriously. That’s why its life expectancy consistently goes up. Here in the U.S., we have measles outbreaks, and vaccine “skeptics” running the show. China wants peace. No serious person can say that about the U.S. today.

We demand that the tariffs directed at China be rolled back. We oppose the Trump administration’s anti-China policy, including any and all preparations for war. And we stand in solidarity with socialist China as it heads into a bright future.

Cybernetics with Chinese Characteristics: How big data is eliminating poverty and building socialism

We are pleased to republish below an article by Taylor Dorrell on China’s use of big data and other digital technologies to tackle poverty and improve livelihoods.

Describing the unprecedented successes of China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) program, Taylor notes that the immense human effort associated with the program (involving the deployment of several million cadres to work in impoverished areas and collect raw data on household poverty) has been greatly facilitated by the use of digital technologies. For example, at the Information Center of the State Council Office of Poverty Alleviation, “billions of pieces of data are mobilised like ammunition to wage a decentralised war against poverty”. Meanwhile:

In the province of Guizhou, the government established the “Guizhou Poverty Alleviation Cloud” information system, which connected data from different government departments, sharing housing, education, and medical care data with industrial departments and data from poor households. Guizhou Renhe Zhiyuan Data Service Co., Ltd. collected data from over 20,000 villages to create a customized training program for workers based on skills and employment. It’s just a small example of how cybernetics has been used to address poverty.

Taylor joins the historical dots from the Soviet Union’s early experiments with cybernetics (to improve economic planning), through to the Allende government’s Cybersyn project in Chile, and on to China’s contemporary use of big data to eliminate poverty.

Using big data and modelling, China has been able to track and eradicate absolute poverty, a feat never taken on, not to mention achieved, by any country in history.

This article originally appeared on People’s World.

In China’s countryside, it is common to find elderly farmers moving from their ancient homes to new developments sprouting up across the land. Houses discovered to be in the path of disasters like floods and landslides, or houses that are simply too old, are being left for new condos closer to industrial or post-industrial jobs.

When Peng Lanhua’s 200-year-old home was designated unsafe to live in by the government, she turned down the opportunity to move to a new community an hour away, and instead, despite her age, or perhaps because of it (she’s approaching 90 and has seen China transformed from being a feudal state occupied by Japan to becoming an economic superpower), she chose to stay in the dilapidated structure.

Were Peng born in a crumbling shack in West Virginia, she might find herself with few prospects. Living with Alzheimer’s on a modest pension and low-income insurance, there would be little hope of fixing up her home, securing basic amenities, and improving her material conditions in her final years.

There is no government or party cadre visiting every trailer home in West Virginia villages to learn how the state and private markets can be mobilized to secure a minimum standard of living. There is no team following up to verify the conditions and see who has been raised out of poverty. However, Peng doesn’t live in Appalachia, but rather a remote village in Guizhou Province, a place that has been a part of China’s poverty alleviation program and was the subject of a recent study carried out by the international left-wing institute, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

In 2013, China began the “targeted” phase of its long-running poverty alleviation program. Spending $246 billion to build almost 700,000 miles of rural roads, bringing internet to 98% of the country’s poor villages, renovating homes for more than 26 million people, and building new homes for almost 10 million people, China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) program is not tailored solely towards satisfying strict income requirements and quantitative improvements.

Following the slogan “one income, two assurances, and three guarantees,” the program addresses what’s called Multidimensional Poverty. “One income” refers to raising the daily income above the UN poverty line of $1.90; “two assurances” refers to food and clothing; and “three guarantees” is in reference to access to basic medical services, safe housing with clean drinking water and electricity, and free education.

Continue reading Cybernetics with Chinese Characteristics: How big data is eliminating poverty and building socialism

Friendship between China and Ireland rooted in history and culture

The following is a brief commentary written by our co-editor Keith Bennett following the recent visit to Ireland by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in which he draws attention to the long history of friendly relations between the peoples of Ireland and China, rooted in shared experiences of struggling for national liberation, economic ties, culture and sports.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently reaffirmed his country’s strong commitment to friendship with Ireland, saying that Beijing is committed to enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation with Dublin so as to achieve shared development and prosperity.

Wang made these remarks at a February 17 meeting with Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Michael Martin. Although Ireland is a small country, it evidently enjoys an important place in Chinese diplomacy. Wang’s visit came just 13 months after that by Premier Li Qiang, which marked 45 years of bilateral diplomatic relations.

With its welcoming attitude to foreign investment, a number of Chinese companies have chosen Ireland for their European headquarters. They include TikTok, Huawei, Temu and Shein. As Wang observed, relations with Ireland have developed in tandem with China’s reform and opening up.  In 1980, late President Jiang Zemin, then holding vice-ministerial rank, took part in a three-week training program in the Shannon free trade zone. China’s first special economic zone, in Shenzhen, was established that same year.

However, the friendship between the Chinese and Irish peoples is also underpinned by their common history of struggling against foreign aggression and occupation and to achieve national liberation and reunification.

During his stay in Europe, of the fifty-seven articles that China’s future Premier Zhou Enlai wrote between 1921-22 for the progressive newspaper Yi Shibao, a number were on the brutality of British attempts to suppress the Irish war of independence.

From Japan, Guo Moruo, subsequently famous for his poetic dialogue with Mao Zedong, had followed the 1920 hunger strike of the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney in south London’s Brixton prison with four poems, later included in his ‘Selected Poems from The Goddesses’.

Indeed, culture has played a significant part in the people-to-people friendship between China and Ireland.

In 1890, the Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, whose own works were first translated into Chinese in 1909, wrote a review of the first complete translation into English of Zhuangzi (Zhuang Zhou), the Daoist scholar from the Warring States period (4th century BCE). In Zhuangzi, Wilde is said to have discovered a kindred spirit, one whose ideas resonate in his own only explicitly political essay, ‘The Soul of Man under Socialism’.

During his December 2014 state visit to China, Irish President Michael D. Higgins, in a speech delivered at the former Shanghai residence of Sun Yat Sen, the leader of China’s 1911 democratic revolution, and his wife Song Qingling, later the Honorary President of the People’s Republic of China, recalled the 1933 visit to the same house of the great Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw:

“Today’s gathering… is not just an opportunity to recall the seminal role played by these three figures in the history of Ireland and China. Commemorating Shaw’s encounter with Song Qingling and several other Chinese writers and intellectuals [who included Lu Xun] also provides a valuable occasion to celebrate and assert, together, the value and abiding importance of international exchanges of ideas.”

Describing Shaw as “an essayist and polemicist, a free-thinker and a stout defender of the rights of the working classes and the marginalised,” President Higgins added that his “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… 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.’”

Words which surely have lost none of their contemporary resonance.

The following day, speaking at Fudan University, Higgins noted that Marco Polo’s chronicles of his adventures in China had been translated into the Irish language within a century and around 150 years before an English translation.  And although diplomatic relations were not established until 1979: “Ireland was one of a small number of Western countries who, between 1957 and 1971, was anxious to support the process which led to the representation of the People’s Republic of China at the United Nations… In 1971, Ireland therefore supported the People’s Republic of China’s recognition and admission to the UN.”

The build up to the establishment of diplomatic relations saw an intensification of people-to-people ties in which sport also played a significant part.

At his reception to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, then Chinese Ambassador to Ireland He Xiangdong gave a special welcome to Kevin Carey, Patrick Dwyer, John McGrath, Norman Plunkett, Brian Purcell and Martin Moran, describing them as among the earliest Irish ” envoys” to the new China. In 1976, three years before the establishment of diplomatic relations, together with their teammates of the University College Dublin (UCD) football team, they had paid a three-week visit to six cities in China and had “shared their experiences in Irish newspapers, opening a window for the Irish people at that time to know something about China.”

On his February 2012 visit to Ireland, Xi Jinping, then Vice-President of China, displayed his skills at both Gaelic football and hurling at Dublin’s Croke Park. The home to Ireland’s Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Croke Park is also a hallowed place in the Irish people’s struggle for independence, being the scene of the November 21, 1920 ‘Bloody Sunday’ massacre of 13 spectators and one player by paramilitary police.

Xi Jinping’s passion for sport, and particularly his respect for Ireland’s indigenous games, made a tremendous impression on people in Ireland (although in the British media it was generally misreported as soccer), and years later keen observers of his New Year message noted the photo of his kicking off displayed in his office. It remains a powerful and touching symbol of the deep-rooted friendship and mutual respect between the peoples of China and Ireland – one that has the potential to make their bilateral relationship a model for those between countries of different sizes and with different social systems.

CPC congratulates Brazil’s Workers’ Party on its 45th founding anniversary

The Communist Party of China (CPC) has sent a warm message of greetings to the Workers’ Party (PT) of Brazil on the occasion of its 45th founding anniversary.

The message notes that since the PT returned to power in 2023, Brazil’s economy has grown steadily, with rising comprehensive national strength and international influence and status. Alluding to the PT’s stance of promoting national development, poverty alleviation and the interests of working people, its commitment to BRICS and the Global South, and its socialist orientation, the message says that the CPC and the PT share similar ideals, adding that they have understood, trusted and supported each other for a long time, and forged a deep friendship.

The following article was originally published on the website of the CPC International Department (IDCPC).

Recently, the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC) sent a congratulatory letter to the National Executive Committee of the Workers’ Party (PT) of Brazil on the Party’s 45th anniversary. 

The IDCPC expressed in the letter that since the founding of the PT 45 years ago, it has played an active role in promoting Brazil’s economic and social development, advancing regional integration in Latin America, and upholding international fairness and justice. Since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the PT came to power again in 2023, they have been committed to reform and proactive in making progress. As a result, Brazil’s economy has grown steadily, with rising comprehensive national strength and international influence and status.

Sharing similar ideals, the CPC and the PT both regard pursuing happiness for the people and national development as the mission. The two Parties have understood, trusted and supported each other for a long time, and forged a deep friendship. In the new era, the CPC is willing to deepen the traditional friendship with the PT, consolidate friendly cooperation, strengthen experience exchanges and mutual learning of party building and state governance, promote the construction of each Party and the development and revitalization of each country, and constantly enrich the significance and strategic connotation of China-Brazil community with a shared future, so as to better benefit the two countries and peoples.

What the West can learn from Xinjiang

The following article, written for CGTN by Dr Ali Al-Assam, Managing Director of the NewsSocial Cooperative and member of the Friends of Socialist China Britain Committee, contrasts the dystopian picture painted of Xinjiang in the Western media with the reality: “a region of remarkable development, technological advancement, and cultural vibrancy”.

While we are constantly told far-fetched tales about genocide or “cultural genocide” in Xinjiang (by the same politicians and journalists that deny a genocide is taking place in Gaza), the fact is that “cultural coexistence and harmony in Xinjiang have existed for thousands of years, and the Communist Party of China has only strengthened this diversity.” Ali writes that “Xinjiang is home to 13 officially recognised ethnic groups, including Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Hui, and Tajiks, who have lived together for centuries. The Chinese government has invested in preserving and promoting this cultural diversity. The translation of the Quran into Mandarin, Uyghur-language newspapers, and the protection of mosques and religious practices counter the simplistic Western narrative of religious repression.”

Meanwhile, “Xinjiang has emerged as a leader in clean energy, robotics, transport, and manufacturing. The region is home to some of the largest solar and wind farms in the world, making it a cornerstone of China’s transition to renewable energy.” High-tech and digital industries are flourishing, and Xinjiang is blazing a trail in the area of smart farming, “with over 90 percent of its agriculture mechanised, integrating automated irrigation, drone technology, and AI-powered crop management.”

Ali considers that the West would do well to end its ideologically-motivated propaganda campaign against Xinjiang and instead focus on what it can learn from Xinjiang’s innovations in technology, green energy and sustainable agriculture, as well as its successes in promoting cultural diversity and protecting cultural heritage.

Instead of fueling a new Cold War, why not explore the possibility of collaboration? What policies could the UK, the U.S., and Europe adopt from Xinjiang’s advancements in green energy, transport, and industrial automation? How could they learn from China’s approach to managing ethnic diversity in a way that fosters national unity?

The article concludes:

The choice is simple: Continue engaging in ideological battles or embrace the opportunity to understand, collaborate, and grow together. Which path will the West take?

For years, Xinjiang has been at the center of a global political storm. Western media and governments have painted a picture of oppression, forced labor, and cultural erasure, often without verifiable evidence. The United States, UK, Canada, and the European Union have imposed sanctions, banned imports, and accused China of human rights violations, including claims as severe as genocide. Yet, few in the West have sought to understand Xinjiang beyond these allegations.

The reality on the ground is strikingly different. Those who have visited Xinjiang describe not a dystopian landscape of repression but a region of remarkable development, technological advancement, and cultural vibrancy. Xinjiang is not just a geopolitical talking point – it is a living, breathing example of how economic progress, technological innovation, and cultural diversity can coexist in a modern society. What lessons, then, can the West learn from Xinjiang’s successes?

A personal perspective

I traveled to Xinjiang in June 2024 and learned to love it and its people for two profound reasons. First, as part of socialist China, where so much has been achieved for the people over the last few decades, Xinjiang stands as a testament to development and progress.  

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