Friends of Socialist China, Author at Friends of Socialist China

Hangzhou’s two transformations: frontier technology and ecological civilisation

In the following article, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez draws on a recent visit to Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, to examine how the city has become at once a centre of frontier technology – home to DeepSeek, Unitree Robotics and Alibaba – and a testing ground for ecological civilisation.

Carlos traces both transformations back to Zhejiang’s “Eight-Eight Strategy”, launched in 2003 when Xi Jinping was provincial Party secretary, and shows how public institutions have created the conditions for innovation while directing it towards wider developmental goals. He sets out the material record of the green transition – distributed solar overtaking coal, clean rivers and a restored West Lake, a metro network that has grown fivefold in seven years – while also confronting the contradiction at its heart: the AI and cloud-computing industries that make Hangzhou a technology leader are among its fastest-growing sources of electricity demand.

The direction of technological change, he concludes, is a political choice, requiring “long-term planning, public investment and institutions capable of subordinating private profit to the common good”. The article complements Gary Wilson’s recent analysis of the US chip blockade and the discussion on AI and the new quality productive forces at our recent Socialist China Conference.

Socialist China Conference 2026 in pictures

On Saturday 3 October 2026, more than 150 people gathered at the Cypriot Community Centre in Wood Green, north London, for the third annual Socialist China Conference, marking the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Across six and a half hours, an opening rally, three panels – on AI and the new quality productive forces, on China’s foreign policy and the making of a multipolar world, and on resisting the New Cold War – and a closing rally brought together activists, scholars, trade unionists and representatives of the Chinese, Cuban and Laotian embassies.

Here are some images from the day. For a full account, see our report of the conference (or the shorter version in the Morning Star); recordings of all the sessions are available on our YouTube channel.

The US blockade that helped bring down the Soviet Union is failing against China

In the following article, Gary Wilson, writing for the US Marxist newspaper Struggle-La Lucha, examines Washington’s attempt to choke off China’s access to the most advanced computer chips and chipmaking equipment, and compares it with the technology blockade that imperialism waged against the Soviet Union for four decades.

Gary recalls how, from 1949, the CoCom system barred the sale of advanced machinery, electronics and computers to the socialist countries, backed by the threat of nuclear annihilation. Forced into a ruinous arms race, the Soviet Union came late to the computer revolution, and was then pulled into a second race – in computer technology – just as the Reagan military build-up intensified. Rather than using the plan to master the new technology, the Gorbachev leadership abandoned planning altogether, opening the road to capitalist restoration.

China, the article argues, faces the same test under very different conditions. Its Five-Year Plan treats artificial intelligence as a tool of production, putting it to work in factories, hospitals, railways and schools to raise productivity across the economy. And unlike the Soviet Union, China stands deep inside the world market – the source of around one-seventh of global goods exports – so it cannot be cut off without disrupting production worldwide. Each ban slows its access to the newest technology but pushes it harder to develop its own.

Gary also highlights the material foundations of AI – chips, data centres, power grids and nuclear reactors – where China’s planned build-out contrasts sharply with a US in which private monopolies restart old reactors to feed their own data centres. And crucially, China spends less than two percent of its GDP on its military, avoiding the burden that bled the Soviet economy.

The decisive question, he concludes, is who controls the productive forces and for what purpose: private profit or society’s needs. As Gary has argued previously, a class analysis of AI is badly needed on the left.

A tale of two genocides: US congressman says it’s OK for America to sell massive bombs to Israel but not coffee in Xinjiang

On September 29 the Xinhua News Agency reported that: “International coffee chain giant Starbucks on Tuesday opened two stores in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, marking its debut in the region and the latest expansion in China, its second-largest market after the United States.

“The stores are located in Urumqi, the regional capital – one in the iconic Grand Bazaar and the other at Urumqi Tianshan International Airport…

“‘Entering Xinjiang not only marks a further expansion of our store network but also allows us to engage deeply with this vibrant market and build sincere, lasting connections with our customers there,’ Molly Liu, chief executive officer of Starbucks China, said in a written statement.”

Leaving aside that we would personally recommend China’s Luckin coffee over American Starbucks any day, this investment into Xinjiang’s thriving services sector represents one more nail in the coffin of the great ‘Xinjiang genocide’ lie. How many Starbucks franchises are being opened in Gaza or in the occupied West Bank?

Precisely for this reason, this modest investment has prompted a somewhat hysterical reaction in the United States. Responding in his regular column in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, the redoubtable Alex Lo writes:

“‘Morally bankrupt’? Was Michigan Republican John Moolenaar talking about himself? Last week, the chairman of the House Select Committee on China demanded that Starbucks ‘immediately reverse course and close its stores’…

“The way Moolenaar talked about it, you would think Starbucks was committing genocide and crimes against humanity or at least being complicit in them.

“A committee press release said: ‘This week, Starbucks opened stores in Xinjiang, the Chinese region where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is committing genocide against Uygurs and other minorities.’”

In a tone dripping with utterly well-placed and appropriate sarcasm, Alex responds:

“I don’t know, maybe the Uygurs and other minorities might sometimes want to take a break from constant oppression by Han Chinese and buy an American cuppa or a frappuccino? There is a danger, I admit, that they might be compelled to work as baristas under China’s forced labour regime.”

And adds in more serious vein: “While Moolenaar expresses outrage at Starbucks trying to sell a few more cups of coffee, he and the majority of US members of Congress, including most of those on his committee, have gone out of their way to support Israel with massive bombs that vaporised humans during the war in Gaza…

“According to an Al Jazeera investigation, Gaza civil defence teams have documented 2,842 Palestinians who ‘evaporated’ in blasts, leaving almost no remains. Experts and witnesses attribute this to thermal and thermobaric weapons. The investigation links US-made MK-84 and BLU-series munitions to these disappearances. Metal powders have reportedly been added to the explosive mix to push temperatures to 2,500-3,000 degrees Celsius (4,500-5,400 Fahrenheit).”

Seeking truth from facts he continues:

“I strongly recommend the following reports related to Palestine for Moolenaar’s reading pleasure:

Amnesty International (December 2024)
International Criminal Court (November 2024)
Human Rights Watch (December 2024)
B’Tselem (July 2025)
International Association of Genocide Scholars (August 2025)
Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (December 2023)
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (July 2025)
United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (August 2025)”

And concludes: “The congressman has been a consistent and staunch supporter of Israel. He unfailingly supports military and foreign aid packages to the country and has publicly called for unwavering alignment with it. These include his April 2024 vote in favour of a US$26 billion US aid package designated to support Israel’s military operations.

“So, selling Israel 2,000lb bombs that vaporise women and children is perfectly fine, but selling chocolate mocha and espresso in Xinjiang? Now that’s complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity.”

From Norman Bethune and Dwarakanath Kotnis to Hussam Abu Safiya – medicine in the fight for national liberation

October 7, 2026 marked the third anniversary of the Al Aqsa Flood, when fighters of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas and other militant Palestinian resistance organisations broke out of Gaza, aptly described as the greatest concentration camp in the contemporary world, by air, land and sea, taking the war to the zionist enemy.

It also marks the third anniversary of an ongoing, relentless and pitiless genocide against the Palestinian people, distinguished from nazi barbarism only by its brazenness and boastfulness.

Amongst the myriad of statistics it could have chosen to cite on this occasion, Palestine Chronicle notes a report from Palestine’s education ministry that a total of 20,748 Palestinian students and 1,058 educational and administrative staff were killed in Gaza and the occupied West Bank during the last three years of genocide.

“The overwhelming majority of the deaths occurred in Gaza, where Israeli attacks killed 19,189 school students and 1,386 university students. Another 28,586 school students and 3,082 university students were injured.”

Another report from Gaza’s Ministry of Social Development highlights that 71,846 children have lost one or both parents during three years of Israeli genocide, while the number of widows has reached 64,413.

Hospitals, their patients and their heroic staff have been particular targets of the genocidal onslaught. In his Substack, Journal of International Solidarity, A. Shantha notes that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya was first illegally captured and interned by the Israeli military on December 27, 2024.

He notes that the health of Dr. Abu Safiya, whose dignity, courage and heroism has moved and inspired the world, has severely declined since his internment. “His weight dropped by one-third of what it previously was as he continues to be underfed and is forced to sustain brutal and barbaric physical abuse and medical negligence [at the hands of] his Israeli captors. Dr. Abu Safiya remains in Israeli captivity alongside at least 160 other medical professionals, including 20 doctors.”

In solidarity with Dr. Abu Safiya, Shantha republished on August 19, an article he originally posted on February 12, 2025, just over a month after Dr. Abu Safiya was first illegally captured and interned by the Israeli military on December 27, 2024.

He writes: “I am republishing this article as a modest attempt to join this broader chorus drawing attention to the situation of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. In particular, this article attempts to situate the events of Dr. Abu Safiya’s abduction and internment within the broader context of a protracted anti-colonial national liberation struggle and seeks to address the role played by healthcare workers in resisting the colonial drive to de-develop and genocidally lay waste to indigenous societies. This article looks at the case of Palestine alongside the historical context of China’s national liberation struggle and two doctors – Dr. Norman Bethune (Canada) and Dr. Dwarakanath Kotnis (India) – who were internationalists and sought to contribute to China’s struggle for sovereignty and, ultimately, the Chinese people’s collective right to life.”

This year also marks the 90th anniversary of the victorious conclusion of the Long March and Shantha writes:

“The 1930s were a tumultuous decade in recent Chinese history. The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the movement it led suffered a major strategic setback in the civil war against the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang – KMT), resulting in the need for the Communists to retreat from a base area in the south to another base area up in the north. This retreat became known as the Long March. Freedom fighters literally walked approximately 10,000 km from Jiangxi to Shaanxi while continuing to fend off attacks from the KMT. This year-long… journey started with 100,000 people while only around 8,000 reached Shaanxi – many perished as a result of war, exhaustion, and hunger, while many others discontinued and stayed in villages along the route. The sacrifices made during this year-long ordeal for national liberation are unimaginable.”

He further notes: “One could argue that both Dr. Bethune and Dr. Kotnis would be much less known (if at all) in Canada and India respectively, if it were not for China’s commitment to keeping their memory alive domestically as well as diplomatically. This commitment on the part of the Chinese people indicates an understanding of the immense hardship and sacrifice required to achieve national liberation. There is an understanding that these two individuals – by virtue of their medical expertise – contributed significantly to the Chinese people’s collective struggle for the right to life, in opposition to imperial Japan’s desire to deprive them of that right.

“One would wish that the unfathomable sacrifices made in the Chinese national liberation struggle, and those of the South Asian, West Asian, African, and Caribbean liberation struggles of the mid-20th century remained relegated to that era. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The imperialist force from which these liberation struggles attempted to break has – though weakened – transformed its mechanisms of domination in order to continue its hegemony. [These] kinds of unfathomable sacrifices… continue to be made at the hands of imperialism, most acutely in Palestine today.”

And despite three years of genocide, supported by the most powerful imperialist states, the heroic Palestinian people, of whom Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is an outstanding symbol and representative, remain unbroken, undefeated and unbowed. The zionist entity is unable to secure control over Gaza. And the Israeli regime and its backers have never been more isolated and more hated across an entire world whose peoples stand with Palestine. As the Irish hunger strike martyr Bobby Sands, himself much loved in Palestine, wrote in his Prison Diary:

“If they aren’t able to destroy the desire for freedom, they won’t break you. They won’t break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart.”

Communist Party of Ireland celebrates China’s national day

On 22 September, the Chinese Embassy in Ireland hosted a reception marking the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

In an article published in the October edition of Socialist Voice, the newspaper of the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI), Gearóid Ó Machail reports on the party’s participation in the event, alongside more than 400 guests, and adds:

“The CPI’s engagement with the People’s Republic of China extends well beyond the annual National Day celebrations. In early October, the Party will co-sponsor and send a delegate to the Friends of Socialist China conference in London.”

Gearóid also writes: “Later in October, the CPI will host a high-level delegation from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) at our Party offices… For the Communist Party of Ireland, these engagements reflect our longstanding commitment to international solidarity and to the development of cordial relations between Irish and Chinese communists. The CPI has consistently supported the right of every nation to determine its own path of development, free from external interference, and stands in solidarity with the Chinese people in their remarkable progress in building socialism and modernisation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.”

The website of the Chinese Embassy in Ireland notes that among the more than 400 attendees at the reception were Minister of State Noel Grealish, Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces Rossa Mulcahy, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, government officials, TDs and Senators, Lord Mayors and Cathaoirleachs, friends from various sectors, and diplomatic envoys to Ireland.

Ambassador Zhao Xiyuan vividly outlined the significant contributions of the Communist Party of China in advancing Chinese modernisation, promoting ethnic unity and progress, and advancing global governance. He emphasised China’s readiness to work with Ireland to foster the healthy and stable development of China-Ireland and China-EU relations, and to join hands in building a community with a shared future for humanity.

Minister of State Grealish shared his experiences from three visits to China, noting the close high-level exchanges and deep people-to-people friendship between China and Ireland, as well as the fruitful cooperation in areas such as the economy, agriculture, and education. He stressed the importance of further deepening practical cooperation between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the October edition of Socialist Voice also carried a letter from Graham Harrington addressing the question of relations between China and Cuba. Graham writes:

“Many seem to believe that China holds the silver bullet for helping the Cuban Revolution, struggling at the moment against the intense and vicious US blockade, and threats of military invasion. This is a simplistic criticism of Beijing that essentially amounts to wanting China to do a deus ex machina and break the blockade at one stroke. Reality is more complex.”

He further notes: “For China to directly break the US blockade in the way people are calling for… would also be directly provoking imperialism to respond by doing similar on China’s Taiwan, possibly causing war… China has indeed stepped up with meaningful political support for Cuba, beyond just rhetoric condemning the blockade, with efforts in transforming Cuba’s energy matrix away from oil, towards solar power, supply of spare parts for the necessary machinery and supply of needed food items.

“The Cuban Revolution and people are putting up a great struggle and need concrete political solidarity, not tokenistic gestures that would make leftists in the imperial core feel better about China. The emphasis should not be put on criticising China’s supposed lack of action, but instead on putting it up to the Irish government, and certain Irish opposition parties, who all claim to be against the blockade but say nothing to their friends in Washington about it, and take no meaningful political action on challenging the blockade.”

China Daily reports on the Socialist China Conference 2026

China Daily has published a report by its London correspondent Xing Yi on our third annual Socialist China Conference, held in London on 3 October to mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

The report notes that speakers from left-wing and anti-war organisations, embassies and academia called for China’s peaceful rise, its contribution to the Global South and its vision of a shared future for humanity to be better understood in the West. It summarises the conference’s three panels – on AI and technology, on China’s foreign policy and the making of a multipolar world, and on resisting the New Cold War – and covers the launch of the book China’s Foreign Policy and the Making of a Multipolar World, edited by Keith Bennett and Carlos Martinez.

For a fuller account of the day, see our own report of the conference. Recordings of all the sessions are available on our YouTube channel.

DPRK commentary: Taiwan’s return to China is a matter of time

On October 7, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published a commentary written by Kim Myong Chol, a well-known international affairs analyst in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), accusing the United States of acting rashly over the question of China’s Taiwan.

Noting that the US and its allies constantly speak of “peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait, Kim notes that in fact the US has “systematically destroyed regional stability and persistently escalated the situation”.

The US sale of fighter jets to the island province is another typical example of the US’ peculiar contribution to “peace and stability” of the Taiwan Strait:

“This is nothing but a shameless act of planting a bomb at the gate of other’s house and asserting that the bomb is for ensuring the security of the house.

“When the People’s Republic of China and the US established their diplomatic relations, the latter recognised the government of the former as the only legitimate government of China and Taiwan as a part of the former. But the US made it its policy and obligation to sell weapons to Taiwan, irrespective of the change of its administration, and has supported the separatist forces pursuing ‘Taiwan’s independence’ and challenging the ‘one-China principle’.”

Pointing out that the Taiwan issue is an internal affair of China, so how to settle it is entirely the affair of the Chinese people, and no outside forces have the right to interfere in it, the commentary adds:

“The US should think twice whether it is ready to stand in frontal confrontation with the powerful national power of the People’s Republic of China for the security of Taiwan and whether it can cope with its consequences. If it is worried about the consequences, it had better think and act rationally.

“Justice is not afraid of confrontation with injustice. No one should question the ability and will of the People’s Republic of China to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity and core interests. China’s effort to retake Taiwan is an indispensable and just sacred cause for making abnormalities normality, making injustice justice and making instability stability… Taiwan’s return to China is a matter of time.”

“We need to see China as it actually is” – China Daily hosts ‘Vision China’ in London

Intended to showcase vibrant and vivid examples of people-to-people links, China Daily organised a ‘Vision China’ event, held at the global headquarters of the Institution of Civil Engineers in central London, on September 17, with the theme, ‘Listen to Each Other, Open New Horizons’.

With opening addresses by Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, and Zhao Fei, chargé d’affaires ad interim of the Chinese Embassy in London, the event also heard from renowned British Sinologist Frances Wood, who is also a vice president of the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU). For Frances, mutual learning was not just a ‘good-to-have’, but also central to her nearly 35 years of work at the British Library, which involved the conservation and digitisation of some 7,000 complete manuscripts and 6,000 fragments of ancient scrolls from Dunhuang, in northwest China’s Gansu province, dating from the third to the 10th century CE.

Michael Spence, president and provost of University College London (UCL), noted the contributions of the college’s 15,000 Chinese students and its many more Chinese alumni, as well as its role in promoting Chinese language learning in schools across the country. Listing some daunting global challenges – from fighting climate change to governing artificial intelligence – Spence said he does not see any “reasons for pessimism”, because what British and Chinese students, scholars and researchers have already achieved through collaboration is “proof of what is possible”.

Other speakers included Chen Junyan, winner of the second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2024, Mike Longhurst, a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and Richard Trainor, provost of the Rhodes Trust at the University of Oxford.

Also addressing the event was Ondřej Dostál, a member of the European Parliament from Czechia (Czech Republic), who began by noting with reference to his country’s socialist period: “I was born in Czechoslovakia, which was never a colonial power, but always helped the developing countries across the world with technologies and education.”

Referring to how times are changing, he continued: “When I was eight, we had elections and I remember seeing posters: ‘With the Soviet Union. Forever and never otherwise.’ When I was eleven, the Soviet Union was no more.”

Disillusioning experiences followed with the United States and the European Union, however: “I first visited China in 2008 to attend a conference on health law.

“After I was elected to the European Parliament, I decided to visit China again. I had the honour of being the only Member of the European Parliament present at China’s Victory Day parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism. [On September 3, 2025.] And, just over a month ago, on 15 August, I laid flowers at Chairman Mao’s statue in Shaoshan, and saw, not only in the museum, but also in real life, what China has achieved over a mere three generations.

“I saw the incredible development of China in cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Changsha and Ningbo. I saw how China has become the world’s leader in innovation, patents and high-quality productive forces and in technologies that will shape our future.”

But there is still “an enormous gap between the real China and perceptions of China in the West”.

Dostál thinks there are two reasons for that:

The speed of China’s growth has been extraordinary. For many people in the West, their perceptions have simply failed to keep pace with reality.
But there is also “the purposeful smearing of China in parts of our political discourse and media, designed to prevent our friendship and mutually profitable engagement. And to contain China’s rise. It is the narrative of a ‘China as a threat’.”

He argues: “We need to understand China as it actually is. Its achievements and its contradictions. Its history and its aspirations. Its government and its people.

“Only when we see China as it actually is, can Europe formulate a China policy based on reality rather than projection.”

From coast to coast: China’s national day marked in Canada

In the following article, Arnold August, Canadian author, political activist and an active contributor to the work of Friends of Socialist China, takes the recent celebration of the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China as an occasion to assess the prospects for both enhanced bilateral relations and greater people-to-people friendship.

This year’s anniversary found echoes right across the vast land of Canada, from Prince Edward Island in the Atlantic to British Columbia facing the Pacific. Arnold lays particular emphasis on the role of Canada’s Chinese community, who, often in the face of discrimination and oppression, have, particularly since mass settlement began in the 1850s, made such an important contribution to building and developing their adopted nation and at the same time acting as the sturdy bridge of friendship back to their ancestral homeland.

He also assesses the recent positive developments in the relations between Canada and China, following a somewhat grim period, and especially since Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit in January this year. Ambassador to Canada Wang Di provides a comprehensive survey of the present state of the relationship in an article contributed to a special supplement of The Hill Times. The Ambassador’s article is reproduced in full in the body of the article below.

Finally, Arnold notes: “Should this new situation mean we should still be careful not to overestimate Canada’s current positive role, since there are always pressures to throw a wrench into this present trend? Yes, it is right to be cautious. On the other hand, should one underestimate the Carney government’s role? The answer to this is no.”

Socialist China Conference 2026: another landmark in building friendship and solidarity with China

On Saturday 3 October 2026, Friends of Socialist China held its third annual Socialist China Conference at the Cypriot Community Centre in Wood Green, north London, to mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. More than 150 people attended, and a remarkable number stayed for the full six and a half hours.

Alongside the opening and closing rallies, there were three panels: on artificial intelligence and the new quality productive forces; on China’s foreign policy and the making of a multipolar world (launching the new book of that name); and on resisting the New Cold War.

Opening rally

Andreas Grigoriou, Secretary of AKEL (Progressive Party of Working People of Cyprus) in Britain, welcomed everyone on behalf of the Cypriot Community Centre. Chairing the opening rally, Professor Radhika Desai of the University of Manitoba took issue with the currently fashionable description of our moment as a Gramscian interregnum – loosely paraphrased as a ‘time of monsters’, in place of Gramsci’s ‘morbid symptoms’ – in which the old is dying and the new cannot be born. The old North Atlantic world is certainly dying, she said, but the new world is not struggling to be born: it is already being actively constructed, and socialist China is leading that process. China demonstrates in practice what capitalism insists is impossible: that prosperity and justice can be planned at scale, with markets harnessed through regulation rather than left to rule.

Jiang Zhouteng, Minister Counsellor at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the UK, said his country had produced two miracles rarely seen in the world – rapid economic development and long-term social stability – citing fourteen consecutive five-year plans completed and the 15th now begun, and a contribution to global economic growth that exceeded 35 percent in 2025.

Pablo Ginarte Sampedro, First Secretary for Political Affairs of the Cuban Embassy, outlined what is the hardest period in Cuba’s modern history: eight collapses of the national grid this year, and more than 100,000 patients – among them 11,000 children – waiting for surgery delayed by the blockade. He praised the Chinese contribution of 900 megawatts of solar generation, 144 solar parks and 10,000 household photovoltaic systems, all of which has lifted the renewable share of Cuba’s electricity from around three percent to 21 percent in the space of a single year. “The United States cannot blockade the sun”, he remarked. For Cuba, multipolarity is not an abstraction but the difference between being able to survive and being crushed by imperialism.

Mick Wallace, a former MEP (Member of the European Parliament) for Ireland South, asked whether war is inevitable, and answered that it is not: the peoples of Europe and of the Global South do not want war, and neither does China – which matters, because China is the new big player, and the world is a different place both for its rise and for the approach it takes. China has not dropped a bomb on anyone in 47 years. While it now takes more minerals out of Africa than Europe and the US combined, there is no coercion involved, and it invests dramatically in infrastructure: a couple of years ago, in the same month that the US completed its 29th military base on the African continent, the Chinese completed their 29th major infrastructure project. He noted too that China has been consistent in upholding the UN Charter at a time when the West has effectively abandoned it.

By video from Beijing, renowned CGTN journalist Li Jingjing conveyed the atmosphere of the anniversary flag-raising in Tiananmen Square, drawing attention to the second slogan on the rostrum, too often forgotten: “Long live the great unity of the people of the world.”

Czech MEP Ondřej Dostál also sent a video greeting, observing that socialism with Chinese characteristics has carried China in three generations from utmost poverty to today’s success story.

Russia, socialist countries greet China’s 77th National Day

Leaders of socialist and progressive countries have extended their greetings to the People’s Republic of China on the occasion of its 77th national day, which fell on October 1st.

In his message of greetings to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote that:

“Under your leadership, China is achieving impressive success in the socioeconomic, scientific, and technological spheres and making a significant contribution to addressing key regional and global issues.”

He added that: “I am confident that our meeting during the APEC summit in Shenzhen this November will be productive and will contribute to further strengthening the comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction between Russia and China.”

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko wrote to Xi Jinping: “Under your leadership, China is confidently advancing toward the comprehensive rejuvenation of the great Chinese nation, demonstrating impressive achievements in developing new quality productive forces, strengthening technological sovereignty and modernizing its economy.”

Ahead of the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Aleksandr Lukashenko renewed his invitation to Xi Jinping to pay an official visit to Belarus next year. “Your visit would give special significance to the anniversary and mark the starting point for a new stage in Belarus-China relations.”

The leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un wrote to his Chinese counterpart: “Since the founding of new China, the wise and diligent Chinese people have made world-startling progress in the whole realms of the development of the state and built a modern socialist China, weathering through all challenges and trials of history by dint of perseverance and united efforts.

“The noteworthy successes, being achieved in recent years in the fresh course of realizing the socialist ideology of the new era with the Chinese characteristics on a full scale in response to the spirit of the 20th Congress of the Party, enhance the country’s overall national power and international position and, at the same time, clearly show that nothing can check the Chinese people’s cause of building a powerful country and promoting the national prosperity.

“We are sincerely rejoiced over the achievements made in our socialist neighbor, and are convinced that the Chinese people will surely achieve the great prosperity of the Chinese nation under the correct leadership of the Communist Party of China with esteemed Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping as its core.”

He added that: “The history of the DPRK-China friendship, which was forged at the cost of blood and has been carried forward with genuine comradely friendship, can never be shaken no matter how the international situation may change, and it is the steadfast will of our Party and government to steadily develop the traditional relations of unity and cooperation with socialism, the common ideal, common banner and common cause, as the core.”

Additionally, DPRK Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui wrote to her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, noting that through the historic Pyongyang meeting and talks in June, the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries reconfirmed the steadfast will to build a beautiful future of the two peoples together on the road of struggle for socialism.

The DPRK Association for Cultural Exchange with Foreign Countries and the DPRK-China Friendship Association hosted a reception on September 29.

Speakers noted that the Chinese people have brought about world-startling miracles and changes, braving all challenges and trials, closely united around the Communist Party of China for the past 77 years since the founding of the new China.

They expressed the belief that the traditional DPRK-China friendship would, in the future, too, grow stronger in response to the requirements of the times, saying that it is the steadfast stand of the parties and governments of the two countries to strengthen and develop the friendly relations between the DPRK and China.

A reception was also hosted by Wang Yajun, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK. Kim Hyong Sik, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK said that the founding of the People’s Republic of China is an epochal event that opened up a new phase in shaping the destiny of the Chinese people and laid a firm foundation for them to proudly emerge in the world arena and achieve the prosperity of the Chinese nation.

He expressed the will to make joint efforts, together with the Chinese comrades, to promote exchange and cooperation in all fields and consolidate the DPRK-China friendship in the interests of the peoples of the two countries, true to the spirit of the important agreement between the top leaders of the two parties and two countries.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee and President To Lam, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung, President of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man, and Standing Member of the CPV Central Committee’s Secretariat Tran Cam Tu wrote to General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and President Xi Jinping, Premier of the State Council Li Qiang, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress Zhao Leji, and Cai Qi, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Secretary of the CPC Central Committee’s Secretariat and Chief of the CPC Central Committee’s Office.

They expressed their belief that under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, with General Secretary and President Xi at its core, China will successfully achieve its goal of building a strong, prosperous, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful modern socialist country, while making positive contributions to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world.

The Vietnamese Party and State always consider the consolidation and development of a friendly neighbourliness and comprehensive cooperation with China a consistent policy, a strategic choice and a top priority in Vietnam’s foreign policy, they said, affirming Vietnam’s readiness to work with Chinese Party and State leaders to maintain regular exchanges and strengthen strategic guidance.

Additionally, Bui Thi Minh Hoai, Politburo member, Secretary of the CPV Central Committee and President of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF), sent a congratulatory message to Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

In the message, Hoai expressed her delight that under the wise leadership of the CPC, with General Secretary and President Xi Jinping at the core, the Chinese people have achieved tremendous accomplishments in the cause of reform and opening up and the building of socialism with Chinese characteristics, with the National Committee of the CPPCC making important contributions to these achievements.

“We wish to work together with the National Committee of the CPPCC to further deepen cooperation between the two organisations in the time ahead, with a focus on promoting high-level and multi-level delegation exchanges and enhancing communications and education among people from all walks of life, particularly younger generations, on the traditional friendship between Viet Nam and China.”

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Lam Thi Phuong Thanh attended and addressed a reception marking the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

She extended her warm congratulations on the major achievements attained by the Communist Party of China, the Chinese state and people over 77 years of national development.

In particular, over the past decade, under the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, with General Secretary and President Xi Jinping at its core, China has successfully built a moderately prosperous society in all respects, bringing greater prosperity and happiness to its people. The country has continued to grow in strength and stature and has played an increasingly important role in global security, development, civilisation and governance.

Wang Qun, Chargé d’Affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam, said bilateral relations are currently enjoying a very positive period of development. He affirmed that, as the two countries enter a new historical starting point, China stands ready to work alongside Vietnam and continue its efforts to support the industrialisation, modernisation and socialist development of both countries.

Additionally, Vietnamese and Chinese artists shared the stage at the Ho Guom Opera House in Hanoi on October 1 for a vibrant celebration of friendship through music. The concert was jointly hosted by Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security and the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam and staged by the Ho Guom Opera and China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts.

The evening closed with Do Nhuan’s “Vietnam–China”, bringing together Vietnamese and Chinese soloists, the Hanoi Philharmonic Orchestra and the choirs in a powerful finale. Singer Truong Linh said he was honoured to perform alongside artists from both countries, describing the concert as a meaningful opportunity to showcase Vietnam’s cultural identity while discovering more about Chinese music and culture.

Celebrations were also held in the two countries’ border areas. Vietnam’s Nhân Dân newspaper noted: “Viet Nam and China are friendly neighbouring countries, with mountains and rivers connected. The friendship painstakingly cultivated by generations of leaders of the two countries is a precious asset shared by the two parties, two states, and peoples of the two countries.”

It added that: “In the coming period, under the strategic guidance of the senior leaders of the two parties and two states, Quang Ninh City and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region will continue to make effective use of exchange and dialogue mechanisms and translate signed agreements and cooperation arrangements into concrete actions. This will contribute to strengthening friendship between the border localities and building the Viet Nam-China Community with a Shared Future with a higher level of strategic significance in the new era.”

General Secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee and President of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) Thongloun Sisoulith also sent congratulations to President Xi Jinping.

President Thongloun noted that the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949 marked an important turning point in the country’s development and its pursuit of socialism with Chinese characteristics. He said Laos viewed China’s development achievements as an encouragement for its own efforts in national defence, construction and development.

The Lao leader also expressed appreciation to the Party, Government and people of China for their support and assistance to Laos over the years, including during the country’s current national development efforts.

He wished the Chinese people continued success in building a modern socialist country with Chinese characteristics under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and conveyed his best wishes to President Xi for good health, happiness and success in his duties.

On social media, Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez wrote: “On the occasion of the 77th anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, we extend our warm congratulations to Comrade Xi Jinping, to the Party, to the Government, and to the Chinese people. We express our gratitude for the steadfast solidarity with Cuba, grounded in mutual cooperation and solidarity.”

The Telesur news agency added: “This week, Beijing’s ambassador to Havana, Hua Xin, said that his country and Cuba are ‘a community with a shared future’ and stressed that the Asian nation has consolidated itself as the island’s ‘main trading partner.’ He reiterated that China ‘does not stand idly by in the face of the difficulties faced by the Cuban people’ and highlighted the Asian giant’s contributions to ‘the energy and food sectors’ amid the severe crisis affecting Cuba… China has provided Cuba with two donations of photovoltaic panels totaling 5,000 home solar systems, which have been installed in different parts of the country to provide electricity to homes in rural areas. In addition, Beijing will complete a donation of 60,000 tons of rice this year.”

Telesur also reported that Venezuela congratulated China on its National Day, recognising the achievements of the Chinese people and reaffirming bilateral friendship, cooperation and strategic partnership.

The statement of the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela said that: “On this day of profound historical significance for the Chinese nation, Venezuela recognizes the important achievements of the Chinese people while reaffirming the bonds of friendship, cooperation and strategic partnership that unite our two countries. Venezuela wishes the Chinese people well-being and prosperity, as well as the continued strengthening of the fraternal friendship between our two nations.”

Workers World salutes socialist China at 77

In the following editorial, the US communist newspaper Workers World salutes socialist China on the 77th anniversary of its foundation (October 1, 1949 – October 1, 2026).

Surveying New China’s achievements, it notes: “Today, in 2026, China’s achievements have astounded the world. Before the Revolution less than 20% of the population could read and write. Now literacy stands at 95%. Before 1949 extreme poverty was widespread, and famines occurred regularly. But socialist China has eliminated extreme poverty for 800 million people.”

Citing leading Workers World Party member Sara Flounders, writing in the book China Changes Everything, the editorial continues: “A significant portion of China’s free higher education starts with an emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, graduating some 3.5 million STEM graduates each year. This is approximately 10 times as many as those from U.S. educational institutions… Women, who were brutally oppressed in the old, patriarchal China, now comprise a large number of these graduates.”

China, it adds, has extended solidarity to Iran and Cuba in the midst of US imperialism’s hostility towards both countries. It has also provided vital technology to Global South countries, especially in Africa.

The article references a 1949 speech by Mao Zedong in which the Chinese leader warned that the country’s former imperialist rulers “are sure to engage in sabotage and create disturbances by one means or another, and every day and every minute they will try to stage a come-back,” and adds: “This remains true 77 years later.”

Concluding, it states that what makes China’s achievements possible “is that China is a socialist country, where the betterment of the masses comes before the profits of a handful of billionaires.”

AUKUS at five

In the following article, which was originally published in the Morning Star, Jenny Clegg notes that five years have passed since the shock announcement of AUKUS – a three-way military pact between Australia, Britain and the US.

It is also, she notes, five years since Labour CND’s emergency motion opposing the deal gained over 70 per cent of the vote at the Labour Party conference. AUKUS, the motion stated, was in breach of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) stipulation that exchanging non-nuclear for nuclear technology must be for peaceful purposes.

But it is, Jenny continued, as if this vote never happened, “the Labour government now has not only embraced Aukus but expanded its commitment”.

“Australia has become the first country to break its non-nuclear status by acquiring nuclear-powered submarines. In the absence of proper public debate, peace groups and trade unions have now launched an independent public inquiry into the project sponsored by a new initiative – the Australian Peace and Security Forum.”

Adding that now seems as good a time as any to take stock of what it is exactly the British government has committed to, Jenny proceeds to give a detailed breakdown and concludes that former prime minister Keir Starmer had “saved AUKUS”:

“Britain then is deeply implicated in the violations of the NPT, in placing Australia on the front line of a US war on China and stoking a new arms race. As well Australia has become alienated from its regional neighbours — the south-east Asia states and Pacific Islanders, who after decades of nuclear testing now see their hard-won Nuclear Weapons Free Zones brushed aside.”

The government, Jenny writes, “claims that Aukus offers a ‘generational chance to revitalise the UK industrial base’ but CND’s Alternative Defence Review (2025) exposes the wastefulness of ‘military Keynesianism’ sucking desperately needed funds and skills from areas more beneficial to the economy. By the 2050s, when they are made fully operational, the submarines will likely be outdated. Spending billions is clearly a decision heavily influenced by the profit motives of the arms industry.

“Progress is slow too on Pillar 2’s Darc — Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability system — in Wales linking with facilities in North West Australia and Texas as part of Trump’s Golden Dome. Local opposition is building.”

Jenny concludes: “With the US military now swarming over Australian bases, the independent inquiry, due to report later this year, has been holding hearings in different locations around the country. Supported by crowdfunding through trade unions, environmental and other NGOs as well as individuals, the inquiry is led by a former environment minister with a team including a former admiral, a former state politician and leader of the Australian Labour Party, a human rights lawyer and a representative of the country’s First Nations.

“With a remit covering costs and jobs, strategic rationale, nuclear non-proliferation and environmental impact, it provides the space to conceive a different future for Australia which may prove to be the spark for a really broad popular front against militarisation. The anti-war movement in Britain should take note.”

Full details of the Australian inquiry, including all the submissions it has received, can be found here.

China, Brazil, and the building of socialism in the 21st century

During a recent visit to Brazil, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez was interviewed by Flora Villela of Brasil de Fato in Belo Horizonte, where he was taking part in the debate “China and Socialism in the Global Geopolitical Dispute”, organised by the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST).

In the interview, Carlos makes the case for the socialist character of contemporary China; discusses Western media stereotypes and what democracy actually means in Britain and in China; sets out the transition from a US-led imperialist system towards a multipolar world; and addresses what China can and cannot do in defence of countries under attack by the US, as well as the wars in Iran and Ukraine.

We are pleased to reproduce an English translation of the interview, which first appeared in Portuguese in Brasil de Fato.

China and the construction of socialism in the 21st century: expert discusses conflicts and prospects

Author, researcher and activist Carlos Martinez defends the socialist character of contemporary China

By Flora Villela

We are living through one of the most tense moments in global geopolitics: not since the Second World War has the planet seen a period with so many simultaneous armed conflicts and wars.

At the centre of these challenges are military arbitrariness and economic policies imposed on various countries by the world’s greatest power – the United States; new technologies represent civilisational challenges for every nation; authoritarianism is regaining ground and eroding democracies; and the conflicts threaten to produce economic crises that would generate widespread poverty.

Despite this scenario, China continues to emerge as the world’s new economic power, following, by all indications, a path centred on peace. And the defence of multilateralism as a solution to the crisis is gaining strength, particularly in the so-called Global South. Nonetheless, “there is a whole campaign of defamation, a propaganda war in an attempt to win public support for increasingly hostile policies towards China, which at the moment take the form of a Cold War with tariffs, semiconductor restrictions, sanctions and unilateral, coercive economic measures”, argues Carlos Martinez.

A co-editor of the Friends of Socialist China website, an author, researcher and activist, Martinez has written the books The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century and The End of the Beginning: Lessons from the Soviet Collapse. His work focuses on dispelling what he considers an “enormous misunderstanding in relation to China”.

“Even on the left, there is an assumption that China is just another capitalist country and that the conflict between the US and China is an example of imperialist rivalry or the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’. So in my work I try to explain the true nature of China and of Chinese socialism, and at the same time to counter anti-China propaganda”, he explains.

During a visit to Belo Horizonte to take part in the debate “China and Socialism in the Global Geopolitical Dispute”, the author spoke to Brasil de Fato MG. In the interview, we discussed the conflicts under way around the world, the role of Brazil and of this year’s elections, the dispute over global hegemony, and the path of multilateralism and peace.

“It will be a long and painful process towards our post-imperialist world, but I believe that in the end humanity will get there”, says Martinez.

John Ross: What’s behind the positive Xi–Trump summit?

In a recent interview on India & Global Left, British economist John Ross, senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, discusses the significance of Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States. In his view, the summit was positive mainly for what did not happen: Washington launched no new attack on China. The relative stability between the two countries reflects not goodwill but China’s strength – after Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs ran into China’s counter-measures on rare earths, the US switched to going after other targets.

That approach, John argues, has largely failed. The attempted “reverse Kissinger” to detach Russia from China has gone nowhere; Cuba has not buckled under the oil blockade; and in the war on Iran, “this is a fifteen-round contest and we’re probably up to about round five – but so far Iran’s won all five of the rounds.”

He characterises the New Cold War as, to an extent, the reverse of the first one. The Soviet Union was a military equal of the US but never an economic one, so Washington shifted the contest onto economic terrain. Today China is outgrowing the US and leading in EVs, batteries, drones, biotech and parts of AI, so the US seeks to shift the contest onto military terrain – hence the encouragement of German and Japanese rearmament, the military pressure on Venezuela, Cuba and Iran, and the attempts to stir up trouble in the South China Sea.

The interview also covers the security picture in East Asia, Europe’s self-defeating subordination to Washington, and why the Global South will keep trading with China regardless.

John will be among the speakers at the Socialist China Conference in London on Saturday 3 October. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.

China isn’t imperialist – here’s the proof

Is China simply another imperialist power, differing from the US only in degree? It’s a claim heard increasingly often on the left, from the Communist Party of Greece to Jacobin. This video sets out why that claim doesn’t survive scrutiny.

Working from Lenin’s classical definition of imperialism, Carlos Martinez examines whether China exhibits the super-exploitation of foreign labour that has always been imperialism’s economic core – and finds the opposite: China has been on the receiving end of value extraction by Western capital, not a source of it. The video looks at the real record of the Belt and Road Initiative against the “debt trap” accusation, at China’s strikingly peaceful military record since 1949, and at whether the underlying class dynamics of Chinese society could ever produce an imperialist foreign policy. And it closes by asking what China’s promotion of a multipolar world order means for the long-term prospects of overcoming imperialism altogether.

The video is based on Carlos’s chapter in the newly-released book China’s Foreign Policy and the Making of a Multipolar World, co-edited by Keith Bennett and Carlos Martinez, available now from Praxis Press.

Ma Haide – a bridge of friendship between China and Lebanon

Marking the 90th anniversary of the successful conclusion of the Long March, we recently republished an article from China Today introducing the contributions made at that time by two young Americans, Edgar Snow and George Hatem (Ma Haide).

The below article, which was originally published in The Beiruter, introduces Hatem’s connection to his ancestral home country of Lebanon, with the help of exclusive interviews with his family, unpublished letters, rare photographs and original reporting, and outlines how this connection still helps to form a bridge of friendship between the Chinese and Lebanese peoples.

It recounts how, in an October 1983 letter to family members, Hatem thanks his relatives for the olives they had sent from Lebanon. He asks about Hammana, his family’s hometown. He worries about the civil war then consuming his ancestral homeland. And he sends warm wishes to every member of the family.

“Thousands of kilometers away, the physician revered across China as Ma Haide, the man who helped transform the country’s fight against leprosy and sexually transmitted diseases, and [one of] the first foreigner[s] to become a citizen of the People’s Republic of China, was writing not as a revolutionary or a national hero, but as George, a relative who had never stopped thinking about home.”

Like thousands of Lebanese emigrants at the turn of the twentieth century, Ma Haide’s father, Nahoum Salameh Hatem, left Mount Lebanon in search of opportunity in the United States. Although raised in America, George spent summers in Hammana with relatives, forging a connection to Lebanon that distance would never erase.

After studying at the University of North Carolina, the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the University of Geneva, the newly graduated physician boarded a ship to Shanghai in 1933 with two fellow American doctors. The plan was simple: gain experience, practice medicine and eventually return to the United States.

He never did. Arriving in Shanghai, he opened a dermatology and venereal disease practice. Beyond the city’s modern façade, he soon discovered a different China. Patients suffered from illnesses driven as much by poverty, overcrowding and exploitation as by disease itself, leading him to question not only how to treat illness, but the conditions that created it.

He also met people who would shape his future. Through American journalist Agnes Smedley, he was introduced to Soong Ching-ling, widow of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of modern China, and later to Zhou Enlai, who would become the first premier of the People’s Republic of China.

In 1936, Hatem left Shanghai for the communist base area of Yan’an together with American journalist Edgar Snow, convinced he was going not where life would be easiest, but where a doctor was needed most.

Unlike the many foreigners who passed briefly through Yan’an, Hatem chose to stay. In 1937 he became a member of the Communist Party of China. According to family accounts, Mao Zedong waived the usual probationary period, telling colleagues that Ma Haide had already proven his commitment through his work rather than words. And in 1950, he was one of the first foreigners to become a citizen of the newly-founded People’s Republic of China.

He would serve as Chairman Mao’s personal physician while helping establish medical services for the Red Army, training healthcare workers and building the foundations of a modern military health system and then leading the country’s post-liberation fight to eliminate leprosy. He later described his time in Yan’an as “the happiest, most meaningful and most extraordinary years” of his life.

After decades apart, he finally met his father again in 1962, in the Syrian capital, Damascus, it not being possible for him to visit Lebanon as a Chinese citizen at that time. He was finally able to visit the country in 1974.

The article adds: “His connection to Lebanon did not end with those visits. Decades after his death, it continues to bring China back to the mountain village where his family’s story began.

“‘I was working when two young women approached me speaking English,’ [his cousin Joseph] Rached said. ‘“Is your mother Mary Hatem? Is this Dr. Hatem’s family home?” I said yes. Then they told me, “The Chinese ambassador wants to meet you.”’

“According to Rached, that visit marked the beginning of a tradition that continues today. Every Chinese ambassador appointed to Lebanon has visited the Hatem family in Hammana to pay tribute to Ma Haide… The Chinese Embassy later erected a bronze statue honoring Hatem in the village where his family’s story began, a lasting symbol of the bond between China and Hammana.”

Workers Party leader George Galloway: “We want an economy like China’s”

The Chinese weekly political magazine Beijing Review recently carried edited excerpts from an interview with George Galloway, former member of parliament and leader of the Workers Party of Britain (WPB), with its reporter Zhang Shasha, in which George shared his views on the country’s five-year plans, whole-process people’s democracy and economic transformation; challenged Western perceptions of China’s rise, and discussed how competition can coexist with cooperation in an increasingly uncertain world.

According to George: “Socialism with Chinese characteristics is one of the most important theoretical developments in human society since the Industrial Revolution… China has created something new, something that the world has never seen before.”

The Western political system, he says, is incompatible with long-term planning, “because elections are the only thing that ultimately matter… And if you are only thinking four years ahead, you are inevitably going to make mistakes, even if you have the good intentions, but most of them do not.”

Citing his interest in infrastructure, he refers to a recent visit he made to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, “which was a very poor place only a few decades ago. Today, it has new infrastructure, new development and public services that are comparable with much richer areas. In many Western countries, a region like Xinjiang would simply be left to decline.”

Asked about the concept of whole-process people’s democracy, he replies: “I hope China continues to get that system right, and everything I hear suggests that the developments China has made are moving in a positive direction.

“For generations, our people believed that we were the democracies, and that countries like China were dictatorships. But it turns out that China has more democratic elements than we do. And that is quite a cultural shock for many people in the West to come to terms with.”

On the economy, he takes air conditioning and cars as examples and concludes, “our political system and our economic system are no longer suited to the 21st century. China’s system is. That is why my party, the Workers Party of Britain, is unapologetic. We say openly: We want an economy like China’s. We want to be like China – but with British characteristics.”

He sounds a note of caution on the international situation: “We are facing a very dangerous period. The recklessness of some political leaders when it comes to matters of war and peace is something I have rarely seen in my lifetime. I thought I grew up in uncertain times, but looking back now, those years seem much more stable compared with what we are experiencing today.

“If countries continue to look at each other with suspicion and treat each other as permanent enemies, we will not be able to solve the challenges facing humanity.”

George Galloway is the Workers Party of Britain’s candidate in the October 8 by-election for the parliamentary seat of Holborn and St. Pancras in north London, caused by the resignation of former prime minister Keir Starmer.

A total of 15 candidates are contesting the seat. Seeking to hold it for the Labour Party is Sagal Abdi-Wali. Currently the leader of Camden Council, in which the constituency is located, she originally came to Britain as a child refugee from Somalia. However, she is firmly on the right of the party and known to be close to Starmer. The leader of the Green Party Zack Polanski is seeking to become his party’s first London MP. He previously contested a by-election for a council seat in the constituency in 2015 for the Liberal Democrats.

Han Zheng at the UN: China will join hands with all other countries to make the world a better place

The 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) general debate was held in New York, September 22–28.

Han Zheng, Vice President of the People’s Republic of China addressed the assembly on September 26.

Having referred to the four major global initiatives put forward by President Xi Jinping, starting with the Global Development Initiative, proposed five years ago at the 76th session, Han said:

“At a time when countries of the world find their future so closely linked, more and more of them want to join hands to shoulder the historic mission of addressing difficulties and challenges, and advancing the well-being of all humanity.”

With this in mind, he proposed four steps:

We should safeguard the postwar international order and foster lasting peace based on common security. The world wants peace, not war. We should turn into action the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security, and reject the Cold War mindset and bloc confrontation. We should settle differences and disputes through dialogue and consultation and oppose unilateral military actions that violate the UN Charter and circumvent Security Council authorisation. Major countries shoulder special responsibilities for safeguarding international peace and security, and they should take the lead in complying with rules, upholding rule of law and doing what’s right.

He added: “China calls for advancing the governance of the West Bank and the post-conflict reconstruction of Gaza in accordance with the principle of the Palestinians governing Palestine… China urges the relevant country to immediately stop using threat of force against Cuba and immediately and completely lift the blockade and sanctions against Cuba.”

We should address the global development predicament and promote prosperity for all through openness and cooperation. It is important to give priority to key areas including poverty reduction, food security and energy transition, step up resource input, and increase support for countries in the Global South. Developed countries should honour their commitment to development financing and climate financing. Facing a new scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, especially the dynamic development of artificial intelligence, we should take a people-centred approach and develop AI for the positive and for good, narrow the digital divide, and promote development that is universally beneficial.
We should advance exchanges and mutual learning among civilisations and rebuild unity and mutual trust through communication and dialogue. We should reject ideological prejudice and respect the development paths and social systems decided on independently by the people of all countries. We should deepen the sharing of governance practices and jointly explore ways to tackle challenges facing our times.
We should stay committed to multilateralism and take steps to safeguard fairness and justice. Multilateralism is the choice made by humanity after going through scourges, and fairness and justice are the joint pursuit of the people of all countries. China holds that all countries, big or small, are equal members of the international community, and that world affairs should be handled by all through consultation, and rule of law, fairness and justice in international affairs should be jointly upheld. The UN should effectively address global challenges including climate change and public health security, improve governance rules in such areas as cyberspace, outer space and polar regions, and truly increase the representation and voice of the Global South.

Noting that it was on October 25, 1971, that the General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758 by an overwhelming majority, by which the UNGA decided to restore all the rights of the People’s Republic of China in the UN and recognise the representatives of the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representatives of China to the UN, Han continued:

“Over the past 55 years, China has been a stabilising force in times of volatility. China is firmly committed to pursuing peaceful development and has the best track record on peace and security among major countries. It is the largest contributor of peacekeepers among the permanent members of the UN Security Council. It also took the initiative that led to the issuance of the first joint statement of the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states on preventing nuclear war. China has been a main engine driving common development. China has created two miracles at home, namely, fast economic growth and long-term social stability, and it has, over many years, contributed around 30 percent to global growth. China has joined hands with more than three fourths of the countries in the world in pursuing high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, it has mobilised over 23 billion US dollars and carried out more than 2,000 projects under the Global Development Initiative, and it has granted zero-tariff status to all the African countries and least developed countries having diplomatic relations with it to empower the Global South in pursuing modernisation. China has been a progressive force in an era of change. China has always spoken up for the Global South, stood up for the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries, and continued to work toward a more just and equitable global governance system. In October, China will host the Global Governance Forum in the Xiong’an New Area. You are welcome to attend the forum and join the discussion about the way forward in global governance.”

He concluded: “China will join hands with all other countries to build a community with a shared future for humanity and make the world a better place for all of us.”