Friends of Socialist China, Author at Friends of Socialist China

Celebrating a different form of modernisation

The following article by Sara Flounders marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, reflecting on China’s distinctive path to modernisation – one achieved “without colonialism, without enslavement, without wars of conquest” – and on what the CPC’s record means for the countries of the Global South.

Sara is a member of the Friends of Socialist China US committee and a longtime anti-imperialist organiser with the International Action Center.

This article first appeared in Workers World.

The 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 90th anniversary of the victory of China’s Long March on July 1 were barely noted in the U.S. media. However, there were big celebrations in hundreds of Chinese cities. The focus was on reinforcing the “socialist direction of China in building Socialist Modernization in all aspects.”

The anniversary was celebrated as a confident assertion of the way forward. Events were organized to focus on the strong vitality of Marxism and socialist planning and as a preparation for and warning of future global upheavals.

President Xi Jinping’s major address on July 1 underscored the importance of meeting the goal to fully realize socialist modernization by the middle of the 21st century. President Xi cautioned: “We must be prepared to withstand major tests involving high winds and rough waves, or even stormy seas.”

The CPC has grown from a small group of just over 50 founding members — meeting secretly in 1921 in Shanghai, China — into the world’s largest governing party, a workers’ party with 101 million members that has tremendous global influence.

In 1921, China was fragmented and impoverished. It was reeling from the collapse of the feudal Qing Dynasty, carved apart by foreign imperialist exploitation into zones of colonial control and weakened by the British and U.S.-imposed Opium Wars to enforce the sale of opium. China was confronted with the chaos of contending factions of oppressive warlordism.

China was overwhelmingly a peasant country in 1921, 85% to 90% rural, with millions of landless, impoverished and illiterate peasants living in undeveloped areas and relying on subsistence farming.

From its founding the CPC declared that its goal was to overthrow imperialist domination and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat — the organization of society by workers and peasants.

Wang Quanying, last surviving female Long March veteran, dies at 105

Wang Quanying, who has died at the age of 105, was the last surviving woman to have taken part in the Long March – the epic fighting retreat of 1934–36 that saved the Chinese Red Army and laid the deepest foundations of modern China.

Born Wang Guixiang in 1921 – the very same year the Communist Party of China was founded – into a poor Tibetan family in Jinchuan county, Sichuan, she was orphaned as an infant and sent to labour for a local landlord. In 1935, aged just fourteen, she joined the Fourth Front Army’s Women’s Independent Regiment, serving as a battlefield medical orderly: guiding troops, carrying grain, cooking, and nursing the wounded with the herbal remedies she knew.

Separated from her unit in fierce fighting near Danba in 1936, she crossed the snow-capped mountains on foot, surviving on wild plants and losing a toe to frostbite, before settling anonymously in Wenchuan county, where she lived quietly for decades. Her service was only officially recognised in the 1980s.

After the founding of the People’s Republic she changed her name to Quanying, to express her conviction that “all Red Army soldiers across the nation are heroes”. She died just months before the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, which falls later this year.

DPRK’s solidarity with China and Cuba has socialism as the core

The following is the text of a speech given by Keith Bennett to a recent public meeting on the theme of ‘The Importance of Solidarity with the DPRK and its People in Today’s Global Situation’.

Keith concentrates his remarks on two aspects of this question. First, the recent developments in the comradely relations between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the People’s Republic of China, which Kim Jong Un stresses have socialism as their core, as illustrated by Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to the DPRK in June 2026 and subsequently by Kim Jong Un’s greetings on the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

Second, Keith analyses a 1968 article written by DPRK founding leader Kim Il Sung marking the first anniversary of the death of Che Guevara, noting in particular its continuing relevance to understanding the vital need to defend the Cuban revolution and its relationship to the situation in Latin America as a whole.

Amy Yang: Paying tribute to the red flag of the hammer and sickle by learning from the Long March

The following essay by the writer Amy Yang, who publishes on China and socialism on Substack, was written to mark the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Taking the red flag of the hammer and sickle – its yellow standing for the faith of workers and peasants in a communist future, its red honouring the more than 3.7 million martyrs who died between 1921 and 1949 – as her starting point, Yang argues that the party is best understood through the enduring lessons of the Long March.

She highlights two of these lessons. The first is that Marxism is a scientific method rather than a fixed dogma, and that no single development path suits every country: the early communist movement failed when the Comintern imposed Soviet, city-first strategies on a society that was overwhelmingly based in the countryside. It was Mao Zedong’s strategy – restored at the Zunyi Conference of 1935 – that corrected the error.

The second is that popular support decides victory: the poorly armed Red Army prevailed because it treated ordinary people, and especially China’s ethnic minorities, with discipline and respect.

Yang carries both lessons forward – to China’s reform and opening up, and to its insistence on non-interference and the people’s well-being as the measure of global governance. Each generation, she concludes, faces its own Long March.

A reply to Greg Godels on China’s road to socialism

Greg Godels has published a thoughtful response in ML Today to Carlos Martinez’s recent reply to Jacobin on China and exploitation. Godels argues that the exploitation of the many by the few remains a central driving force of the Chinese economy, and questions whether China’s market reforms and its billionaire class can be squared with a socialist trajectory.

In the article below, Carlos argues that the decisive Marxist question is not simply whether wage labour and surplus value exist, but which class holds state power and in whose interest the economic surplus is directed. On that test – the class nature of the state – China’s billionaires answer to the state rather than command it; its reforms were a conscious strategy to develop the productive forces and build the material basis for a more advanced socialism; and China provably does not participate in imperialist super-exploitation.

Greg Godels has written a considered response in ML Today to my recent reply to Jacobin on China and exploitation. Unlike much of what passes for left commentary on China, Godels writes as a comrade, not a Cold Warrior. He admires the Chinese revolution, insists that China’s fate must be decided by the Chinese people, and closes by affirming that, whatever its difficulties, “it is China’s road”. On all of that we agree. Where we part company is over a question that Godels, for all his fidelity to the classics of Marxism, never quite poses: which class holds state power?

State and revolution

Godels’s central charge is that the debate over China too rarely invokes “the exploitation of the many by the few”, and that when I ask for exploitation to be “contextualised”, I am really relativising and rationalising it. He is right that exploitation belongs at the centre of any Marxist analysis. But there is a second important category that is missing from his account entirely: the class nature of the state.

For Marx and Lenin alike, the question of whether a society is advancing towards socialism was never settled simply by cataloguing the presence or absence of wage labour and surplus value at the point of production. It was settled principally by asking which class holds power, and in whose interest the state directs the economic surplus. This is the whole point of the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and of Lenin’s insistence, throughout the period of the New Economic Policy, that market mechanisms within a workers’ state are something categorically different from capitalism under a bourgeois state.

Under the NEP in the Soviet state, private capital, wage labour, rich peasants and market relations all flourished. Lenin did not conclude that the October Revolution had thereby been cancelled. He concluded that the proletarian state would make use of capitalist forms, on its own terms and under its own control, in order to build the material foundations of socialism.

Wang Huning visits DPRK to mark treaty anniversary

A party and government delegation of the People’s Republic of China led by Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), paid an official goodwill visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on July 15-17 at the invitation of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and the government of the DPRK and attended the celebrations of the 65th anniversary of the conclusion of the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance. The visit was reciprocal to the July 10-12 China visit by a DPRK party and government delegation led by Pak Thae Song, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK, vice-president of the DPRK State Affairs Commission and premier of the DPRK Cabinet. The exchange of high-level delegations to mark the treaty anniversary was confirmed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping along with his DPRK counterpart Kim Jong Un during the former’s state visit to the DPRK, June 8-9.

Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the WPK and President of the State Affairs of the DPRK, met with Wang Huning and his delegation on July 16.

Noting that the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, an inter-state treaty which defines the strategic character of the bilateral relations and advances its strategic direction, has played an important role in defending the basic interests of the two countries and ensuring regional and global peace and security, Kim Jong Un said that it is the steadfast policy of the WPK and the DPRK government to more vigorously develop the traditional friendly and cooperative relations with socialism as the core in several fields on the basis of the spirit of the treaty and in line with the requirement of the changing times and the aspiration and desire of the two peoples.

He further affirmed that the WPK and the DPRK government would as ever support the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics in the new era led by Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping, sincerely hoping that the Chinese people, who significantly celebrated the 105th anniversary of the foundation of the CPC, would make greater achievements in the historic course of comprehensively building a modern socialist power and achieving the great prosperity of the Chinese nation under the leadership of the CPC.

On the same day, a reception was given at the Yanggakdo International Hotel to mark the 65th anniversary of the conclusion of the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance.

Pak Thae Song made a welcoming speech. He said that the DPRK-China friendship has entered a new stage of development in various fields under the direct guidance of the top leaders of the two parties and two countries, expressing the steadfast stand of the WPK and the DPRK government to steadily develop the friendly and cooperative relations with socialism as the core.

He further expressed the will to firmly join hands with the Chinese comrades as ever in the course of actively promoting the coprosperity and new development of friendship of the two countries, opposing hegemonism and victoriously advancing the socialist cause.

For his part, Wang Huning said it is a vivid feature of the relations between China and the DPRK that they support and cooperate with each other, share destiny and protect and help each other, adding that Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping and Comrade General Secretary Kim Jong Un met seven times to lead the traditional China-DPRK friendship to open a new chapter of history.

He added that the firm stand of the Chinese party and government placing great importance on China-DPRK friendship will remain unchanged and the firm support for the cause of Korean socialism led by Comrade General Secretary Kim Jong Un will never be changed, adding that the Chinese side will, together with the DPRK side, hold aloft the banner of socialism and ensure that the baton of China-DPRK friendship is handed down through generations.

On the previous day, Wang held talks with Jo Yong Won, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Central Committee of the WPK.

Jo Yong Won said that the ever-changing present international political situation has required the two countries to further strengthen the militant unity, support and solidarity and steadily intensify and develop the friendly and cooperative relations for the victorious advance of the common cause of socialism in conformity with the basic spirit of the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance. And he expressed the stand to expand and develop the bilateral relations in a many-sided way while maintaining close strategic communications and tactical cooperation between the two parties and two countries.

Wang Huning said that the conclusion of the treaty between China and the DPRK laid a legal foundation to consolidate the militant friendship formed at the cost of blood, stressing that it is an important common understanding of the top leaders of the two parties and two countries to splendidly mark the 65th anniversary of the conclusion of the treaty.

On the same day, Wang paid tribute to the martyrs of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army at Pyongyang’s Friendship Tower and wrote in the visitor’s book, “Let Us Glorify the Traditional Friendship by Inheriting the Intention of Martyrs”.

The next day he also visited the Chinese People’s Volunteers cemetery in the Sunan district of Pyongyang municipality.

He also visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun to pay high respects to former DPRK leaders President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il as well as visiting the WPK’s Central Cadre Training School.

On July 17, accompanied by Jo Yong Won, Wang Huning visited the Wonsan Kalma coastal tourism area.

Commenting on the resort, which was officially opened on July 1, 2025, Wang Huning said it amazed him that the DPRK built in a short span of time the tourist area where the splendid structures harmonise with the natural landscape in a unique way and which has been landscaped on a high level, adding that such wonderful facilities for the people are the embodiment and manifestation of the people-first principle of the WPK.

Concluding their visit, Wang Huning and his delegation departed for home from the Wonsan Kalma Airport.

Young British communist visits Xinjiang: “Not at all what Western media says”

Amar, a 22-year-old activist from London, visited Xinjiang in April 2026, wanting to see the region for himself after years of Western media coverage alleging genocide there. In this interview with Xinjiang Today, recorded in a coffee shop in Urumqi, he describes what he found.

He talks about the ordinariness of daily life in Urumqi, and the surprise of local people that a visitor would think to ask whether their lives are normal at all. He recounts a conversation with a barista about how the region has changed since his childhood – the journey from Urumqi to Kashgar cut from around 40 hours by rail to roughly 11, and the four-day bus trip across the Tianshan Mountains reduced to a few hours by the 22-kilometre Tianshan Shengli Tunnel, the longest expressway tunnel in the world, which opened in December 2025. Infrastructure on that scale, Amar argues, is built because it improves people’s lives rather than because it returns a profit, and would never be undertaken in a society run by a capitalist class.

He also discusses the very different relationship between the public and the police in China compared with Britain, why his family came to see China as a beacon of hope, and what worries and encourages him as a young person facing the prospect of imperialist war.

Xi Jinping outlines China’s vision for the future of artificial intelligence

On 17 July, Xi Jinping delivered the keynote address at the opening of the 2026 World AI Conference in Shanghai – his first in-person appearance at the conference since it began in 2018, and coming a day after 29 countries signed the agreement establishing the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO), a new intergovernmental body headquartered in Shanghai. The event was attended by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Prime Minister Hun Manet of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul of the Kingdom of Thailand, Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres, and official representatives, business leaders, scholars and researchers from more than 100 countries and international organisations.

In the following analysis for Friends of Socialist China, Carlos Martinez examines the significance of Xi’s speech and the launch of WAICO. He argues that they represent a direct alternative to Washington’s approach – encapsulated in the Trump administration’s “Winning the Race” AI action plan, with its export controls, model restrictions and pressure on allies to join a technological blockade of China.

Where the United States treats artificial intelligence as a weapon in a zero-sum contest for supremacy, Xi calls for “open source, openness, collaboration and sharing”, and for AI to be developed as a common asset of humanity, with its benefits extended to the Global South. It is, Carlos writes, a democratic, multipolar and socialist vision: technology as a public good, serving people before profit.

Chinese AI models achieve Mythos-level performance in cybersecurity benchmark

The following original contribution for Friends of Socialist China is by İbrahim Can Eraslan, a Turkish socialist and student of Chinese Law and Governance at Tongji University in Shanghai. He examines a striking development in the global technology race: the emergence of Chinese artificial intelligence systems that now rival the most advanced Western models in the strategically sensitive field of cybersecurity – achieved, remarkably, under conditions of escalating US technological warfare.

Eraslan shows how Washington’s campaign of export controls and suppression is producing the opposite of its intended effect. By restricting access to the United States’ AI systems – even shutting down Anthropic’s frontier models worldwide at three days’ notice – the US is driving governments and enterprises across the Global South towards cheaper, open-weight Chinese alternatives that cannot be embargoed or switched off by executive order. In closing the gap through algorithmic ingenuity and open development rather than raw computing power, he argues, China’s socialist system is once again outcompeting monopoly capitalism in the technologies that will define the twenty-first century.

Around the world, China is viewed more positively than the United States

A newly published survey by the Pew Research Center – covering more than 42,000 people across 36 countries – has found that China is now viewed more positively than the United States in most of the countries polled, with more people worldwide expressing confidence in Xi Jinping than in Donald Trump. It is a striking measure of how far Washington’s global standing has fallen.

In the following article, Carlos Martinez, co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, examines what lies behind this historic shift. He argues that the single most important factor is the war on Gaza – a genocide watched in real time by a global public that has also seen the governments of North America and Western Europe arm, finance and shield it, all while lecturing the world about a “rules-based order”. The same collapse of credibility, he notes, has quietly buried the “Uyghur genocide” narrative, and has been compounded by the US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran.

RIMPAC naval exercises threaten China at the expense of indigenous peoples and the environment

On June 24, the United States launched the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises off Hawaii – the world’s largest international naval war games, bringing together 31 countries, more than 25,000 personnel, dozens of warships and submarines, and 140 aircraft. Running until July 31, RIMPAC represents a further escalation of Washington’s preparations for war on China, militarising the Pacific and normalising the prospect of conflict through ever-larger exercises and an expanding web of alliances and military bases.

We reproduce below a selection of critical coverage examining what RIMPAC means for the peoples and environment of the Pacific – from the diversion of resources amid a deepening climate emergency, to the participation of NATO states and Israel, to the dispossession and militarisation of Hawai’i and its indigenous Kanaka Maoli.

SCO debates sovereign financial infrastructure for the Global South

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) – which now represents some 42 percent of the world’s population – is increasingly turning its attention to building financial infrastructure independent of the US dollar. At a forum held on the sidelines of the 14th World Peace Conference in Beijing, officials and analysts from Iran, Russia, China, Belarus and Uzbekistan debated how the bloc might construct alternative settlement mechanisms capable of insulating its members from Washington’s unilateral sanctions.

The context is the growing use of sanctions as a weapon of economic warfare against independent states – Iran, Russia, Belarus, Venezuela and Cuba among them. As the following report from Press TV explains, the proposals under discussion build on an initiative advanced by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at the SCO’s Tianjin summit: expanding trade in national currencies, developing secure digital infrastructure for cross-border payments, and establishing a multilateral swap fund to cushion members against financial shocks.

For its proponents, such a system is about more than evading sanctions. It is about establishing a sovereign financial architecture for the Global South – one that would allow nations to decouple from Western financial hegemony and conduct their trade, investment and development on their own terms. It is a further sign of the emerging multipolar order.

Nkrumah’s daughter looks forward to “greater and better things” with China

The Chinese Embassy in Accra, capital of Ghana, recently held an “inter-party” roundtable to mark the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Speaking at the meeting, Samia Yaba Nkrumah, daughter of the revolutionary Pan-Africanist and Ghana’s first President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, said China’s success influenced her father’s decision to pursue a development path tailored to Ghana’s own pace and national circumstances as a way of “overcoming poverty and building our manufacturing base.”

“We look to the future to build our technology and industries. We look forward to greater and better things between us,” she said.

Kwesi Pratt Jr., general secretary of the Socialist Movement of Ghana, said that China’s development story exemplifies the country’s journey from winning the struggle for national independence to achieving sustained economic growth.

He praised the longstanding ties between China and Africa, dating back to the era of China’s founding leaders and Africa’s independence movements. He also commended China’s commitment to Africa’s development through initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative and its recent zero-tariff policy.

Benjamin Anyagre, general secretary of the Ghana-China Friendship Association (GHACHIFA), praised China’s four global initiatives, saying they respond to the demands of the current era and seek to help chart a course for the future.

Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Cong Song said that although the four global initiatives are rooted in China’s development experience, they benefit the entire world. “They tackle current challenges while paving the way for a brighter future for humanity.”

Indian communists celebrate CPC anniversary

The Chinese Embassy in India held a seminar on July 9, celebrating the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Ambassador Xu Feihong delivered a keynote speech and around 50 people attended from Indian political parties, think tanks, media, youth and other sectors.

Xu stressed that the CPC’s commitment to putting the people first is the fundamental guarantee behind its great achievements, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground is the key to its enduring vitality, and maintaining a global vision is a valuable experience of its ability in leading the times. He emphasised that CPC’s century-long journey has also witnessed the history of friendly exchanges and shared development between China and India.

Leaders of a number of India’s communist parties took part in the seminar, including the general secretaries of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) and the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), as well as a central committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPIML) Liberation.

The CPI(M)’s social media reports that General Secretary MA Baby conveyed his warm greetings and heartfelt wishes to the CPC, its leadership and the people of China. He congratulated the CPC on its historic achievements in lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty, eliminating absolute poverty, advancing science and technology, and leading China’s remarkable economic and social transformation. He also reflected on the centuries-old civilisational ties between India and China, the shared legacy of anti-imperialist solidarity and the continuing relevance of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and emphasised the importance of strengthening cooperation through platforms such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation for the benefit of both countries and the entire Global South.

China and DPRK strengthen historic relations with socialism at the core on treaty anniversary

The China-DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance was signed on July 11, 1961, by then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and DPRK Premier Kim Il Sung. It remains the only such treaty between China and another country. This year, both countries have taken the treaty’s 65th anniversary as a major occasion to reaffirm their continued solidarity and friendship with socialism at the core in the new era.

The top leaders of the two countries, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un, exchanged messages marking the anniversary.

In his message, Xi said that in 1961, the older generations of leaders of China and the DPRK signed the China-DPRK Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, laying an important political and legal foundation for consolidating the friendship forged in blood between the two peoples.

The treaty has played an important role in carrying forward China-DPRK friendship and safeguarding peace and stability in the region and beyond, he said.

Xi pointed to his successful state visit to the DPRK in June, when he reached important consensus with Kim on consolidating and carrying forward the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK and enriching it with new dimensions, providing strategic guidance and a new blueprint for the development of China-DPRK relations in the new era.

No matter how the international landscape evolves, the firm position of China’s Party and government to attach great importance to the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK will remain unchanged; the firm support for Kim in leading the DPRK’s socialist cause will remain unchanged; and the determination to safeguard the common interests of both sides and maintain a favourable strategic environment will remain unchanged, Xi emphasised.

For his part, Kim said the two sides signed the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance 65 years ago, laying a solid legal foundation for the enduring development of the fighting friendship and unity of mutual assistance and cooperation between the DPRK and China, forged in the bloody struggle for independence against imperialism and for the great cause of peace and socialism.

Over the past period, through all the vicissitudes of history, the DPRK and China have stood by each other with unwavering support and close cooperation, fully demonstrating to the world the everlasting and unbreakable nature of their friendship — a relationship that is special in terms of traditional bonds, shared socialist cause, and firm commitment to carrying it forward from generation to generation.

It is the unwavering position of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and the DPRK government to advance the traditional friendly and cooperative relations between the DPRK and China, with socialism at its core, to keep pace with the changes of the times and the aspirations of the two peoples and to achieve more dynamic development in all fields, he added, and in conclusion noted:

“I am ready to develop the DPRK-China friendship with good history and tradition as its foundation into a model of the most powerful and strategic relations between socialist countries by guiding it to a new height, together with you, Comrade General Secretary.

“I hope that the Chinese people, who significantly celebrated the 105th anniversary of the founding of the CPC with a proud history of development, will make bigger epoch-making successes in accomplishing the gigantic cause of comprehensively building a modern and powerful socialist country and achieving the great prosperity of the Chinese nation under the leadership of the CPC with you, Comrade General Secretary, as its core.”

At the invitation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the government of the People’s Republic of China, a party and government delegation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea led by Pak Thae Song, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, vice-president of the DPRK State Affairs Commission and premier of the DPRK Cabinet, paid an official visit to China and took part in the event marking the 65th anniversary of the conclusion of the treaty from July 10-12.

On the afternoon of July 10, President Xi Jinping met with Pak Thae Song at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

President Xi Jinping noted that last month, I paid a state visit to the DPRK, during which General Secretary Kim Jong Un and I provided the strategic guidance for consolidating and growing the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK and continuously enriching it in keeping with the times. The China-DPRK relations have always been defined by lasting friendship, sharing weal and woe and mutual help. The China-DPRK Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance laid important political and legal foundations for cementing the friendship forged by our peoples in struggle and blood. General Secretary Kim Jong Un and I agreed that we should take the joint and grand commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the Treaty as an opportunity to always bear in mind the original aspiration and mission of the older generations of leaders of the two parties and countries and encourage the two peoples to carry forward our traditional friendship, so that our bilateral relations will continue to thrive in the new historical period.

Both China and the DPRK should maintain firm strategic resolve, enhance strategic confidence, accelerate the implementation of the consensus reached between me and General Secretary Kim Jong Un, and ensure that the relations between our two parties and countries keep pace with the times and continue to develop in a direction that serves our respective socialist cause and modernisation. We should steadily advance practical cooperation, build greater public support, and make good use of our shared revolutionary history and resources, so that young people of both countries can remember the historic contributions of the Chinese People’s Volunteers and the great China-DPRK friendship can be passed down through generations.

Premier Pak Thae Song first conveyed warm greetings from General Secretary Kim Jong Un to General Secretary Xi Jinping, noting that on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, General Secretary Kim Jong Un wishes General Secretary Xi Jinping new and continuous achievements in the lofty cause of leading the CPC and the Chinese people.

Pak further extended warm congratulations on the 105th anniversary of the founding of the CPC and on General Secretary Xi Jinping leading the Chinese people in achieving remarkable development accomplishments. General Secretary Xi’s first overseas visit this year was to the DPRK, and the top leaders of the two parties and countries had a historic meeting, setting a new milestone in bilateral relations and further consolidating public support for DPRK-China friendship. Guided by the spirit of the Treaty, the two countries have supported each other, jointly advanced the cause of socialism, and worked hand in hand to safeguard regional and world peace. The solemn commemorative activities held by the two countries for the Treaty’s 65th anniversary once again demonstrated that DPRK-China friendship has withstood the test of changing international circumstances and is of great strategic significance. General Secretary Kim Jong Un gave the instruction of developing DPRK-China relations into the strongest strategic relationship. The DPRK side will resolutely implement the important consensus between the top leaders of the two parties and countries, firmly support China in safeguarding its core interests on issues such as the Taiwan question, and make every effort to bring DPRK-China solidarity, friendship, and the socialist cause of the two countries to a new and higher level.

Under the deep care of the top leaders of the two parties and two countries, the events for marking the anniversary of the conclusion of treaty are to be held with splendour this year, strikingly demonstrating once again the strategic character of the DPRK-China friendship, the premier noted, saying that the DPRK would as ever do its best to actively promote the revolutionary unity, the co-prosperity and development and the socialist cause of the two countries at a new high stage as required by the new era.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang also held talks with his DPRK counterpart on the same day.

Noting that China and the DPRK are friendly neighbours with a shared future and mutual support, Li, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said that it has always been the unwavering policy of the CPC and the Chinese government to maintain, consolidate and develop China-DPRK relations.

He said China stands ready to work with the DPRK to act on the important common understandings of the top leaders of the two parties and two countries, continue to uphold the spirit of the China-DPRK Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, intensify high-level exchanges, consolidate political mutual trust and expand practical cooperation.

China is ready to align development strategies with the DPRK, steadily expand economic and trade exchanges, promote connectivity, deepen cooperation in people’s livelihood sectors including healthcare and education, and improve the well-being of the two peoples. He also called for carrying forward the China-DPRK traditional friendship and strengthening people-to-people and cultural exchanges.

Pak Thae Song said that the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance is a firm political and legal guarantee for dynamically promoting the development of the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries, adding that the complicated international political situation requires the two parties and two countries to continue to give full play to the spirit of the treaty with defending the unity, cooperation and common interests for the victorious advance of the socialist cause as the core.

Noting that the DPRK-China friendly relations have reached a new high level thanks to the direct interest and wise leadership of Comrade Kim Jong Un and Comrade Xi Jinping, he stressed that the DPRK would make positive efforts to steadily strengthen the DPRK-China friendship and solidarity, true to the noble intention of the top leaders of the two parties and two countries.

A ceremony was also held at the Great Hall of the People to welcome the Party and government delegation of the DPRK and Premier Pak Thae Song, reviewed the guard of honour of the People’s Liberation Army.

Zhao Leji, chairman of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee met with Pak and his delegation on July 10.

At the meeting, Zhao pointed out that the strategic guidance of the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries is the greatest strength and fundamental guarantee of bilateral relations.

He said that China is willing to work with the DPRK to implement the important consensus reached by the top leaders, carry forward traditional friendship, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, enhance exchanges among legislative bodies, share experience in governing the Party and the country, and promote a greater development of bilateral relations.

The meeting expressed the will to successfully implement the important common understanding reached between the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries, add lustre to the traditional friendship, strengthen the mutually beneficial cooperation and deepen exchange and cooperation between legislative bodies so as to promote greater development in the DPRK-China relations.

Senior CPC leader Cai Qi and Pak Thae Song attended and delivered speeches at the reception commemorating the 65th anniversary of the treaty signing on July 10.

Cai, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, said China stands ready to work with the DPRK to take the important consensus reached by the two leaders as the fundamental guideline and strategic orientation, carry forward the traditional friendship, and strive to elevate the socialist causes and traditional friendly cooperative relations of the two countries to new heights.

In his speech, Pak said:

“During the historic Pyongyang summit in June, Comrade Kim Jong Un and Comrade Xi Jinping discussed the issues of strengthening the strategic coordination and cooperation between the two parties and two countries, firmly safeguarding the sovereignty, security and development interests of the two countries and jointly defending peace and development in the region and the world and reached a consensus of views on them.”

Pak and his delegation also laid a wreath at the Monument to the People’s Heroes in Tiananmen Square. The participants paid tribute to the memory of the heroes who fought for the freedom and liberation of the Chinese people.

They also visited various places in Beijing and Tianjin, including the Museum of the Communist Party of China. Pak Thae Song made an entry in the visitor’s book, hoping that the Chinese people continue to achieve fresh successes in building a modern socialist country under the leadership of the CPC. Among other places visited was the Green Low-Carbon Circular Economy Demonstration Base of the China Resources Recycling Group Co. Ltd. in Tianjin Municipality.

Concluding his official visit to the PRC on July 12, Pak addressed a message of thanks to Premier Li Qiang.

The message expressed deep thanks to General Secretary Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang, Chairman Zhao Leji, the Chinese Party and government and the fraternal Chinese people for warmly greeting and according sincere hospitality to the Party and government delegation of the DPRK.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of the two countries also extended greetings on the treaty anniversary.

The message to DPRK Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, said that for 65 years both sides have trusted and supported with each other, making positive contributions to providing happiness for the peoples of the two countries and ensuring regional peace and stability. The message expressed the will to resolutely implement the important shared understanding of the top leaders of the two parties and two countries and make steady efforts to consolidate and develop the traditional China-DPRK friendly and cooperative relations.

For her part, Choe Son Hui expressed the will to further strengthen communication and cooperation in the diplomatic field in order to develop the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries into the model of the most powerful and strategic relations between socialist states, true to the noble intention of the top leaders of the two countries, and wished the DPRK-China friendship steady strengthening and the People’s Republic of China prosperity.

Interview: Fighting spirit has allowed the CPC to survive and adapt over a century

The following is the full text of an interview given by Carlos Martinez, co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, to the Global Times, marking the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). An abridged version was published by the Global Times on 12 July 2026 as part of a special series of interviews with international scholars reflecting on the party’s century-long journey.

In the interview, conducted by GT reporter Xia Wenxin, Carlos explores the meaning of the CPC’s “fighting spirit”, or “spirit of struggle” – a concept he argues is routinely misread in the West as blind confrontation or factional intrigue, but which in fact flows directly from the dialectical core of Marxism. Struggle, in this sense, is not a mood but a method: the recognition that development happens through contradiction, and that a serious revolutionary party must identify the principal contradiction of each period and mobilise the masses to resolve it.

Tracing this thread from Mao Zedong’s 1945 parable of the Foolish Old Man who removed the mountains through to the present day, Carlos discusses how the same method has allowed the party to survive and adapt across a century that saw so many other revolutionary projects defeated. He examines the CPC’s practice of self-revolution and its unrelenting campaign against corruption; the targeted poverty alleviation drive that lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty; and the fundamental difference between the Chinese dialectical understanding of struggle as productive and the Western view of conflict as terminal.

Finally, he considers how this fighting spirit will be tested on the new battlefields of the 15th Five-Year Plan – high-tech self-reliance under conditions of US containment, the green transition, and the assorted domestic challenges on the road to the Second Centenary Goal of 2049. As he concludes, “on the record of the last 105 years, I would not bet against the CPC and the Chinese people surmounting these new challenges.”

Dear You – A poignant tale of patriotism, solidarity and resilience

Our co-editor Keith Bennett is moved by China’s surprise film hit of 2026 – a story of the struggles and sacrifices of overseas Chinese and their families back home.

‘Dear You’, which was released in the UK and Ireland on June 26 by Trinity CineAsia, is China’s surprise film hit of the year. It was produced on a low budget of just over $2 million, featuring mostly amateur actors rather than big stars, filmed in a local dialect, and without the glitzy or dramatic special effects that increasingly characterise films produced in China as well as the West.

Going on nationwide release in China on April 30, in time for the May Day holiday, it rapidly became the country’s second highest grossing film of 2026, with box office receipts soon approaching the equivalent of $250 million.

The film is really a journey of discovery that operates on multiple levels. It has little overt political content yet is rich in political meaning. Progressively revealing the cruel realities that lay behind the waves of Chinese migration in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, it depicts how millions of Chinese people struggled and made a life – in the face of the pain of separation from home, family and motherland, and of poverty, exploitation, discrimination and exclusion.

Early in the story, Den Musheng (Bhagseng), also known as Iron Fish, is forced to leave his home in Teochew (Chaoshan), in the northern tip of Guangdong province, to avoid forcible conscription by the Kuomintang forces as they attempt to stave off their ultimate defeat at the hands of the Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army. Leaving his wife, Sogriu (Ye Shurou), who herself had abandoned a life of privilege in a wealthy land-owning family to marry her poor lover, and their three young children, Bhagseng travels first to Malaya, then still under British colonial rule.

His time in Malaya proves short-lived in the face of British oppression and extreme exploitation. By this time, largely thanks to its rubber and tin resources, Malaya was the most profitable colony in the British Empire. With the “Malayan Emergency”, correctly known as the Anti-British National Liberation War, erupting in 1948, repression of the Chinese community in particular reached intolerable levels.

Life in Thailand is scarcely easier, with poverty, exploitation, corruption and repression still the defining features. Chinese language teaching is banned and Bhagseng helps establish an ‘underground school’ in the basement of the decidedly down at heel inn where he is struggling to rent the least salubrious room.

Namibia and China reinforce traditional friendship with a commitment to build a shared future for the new era

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of the Republic of Namibia paid a state visit to China from July 5-11, 2026. It was her first visit to China since she became her country’s first female head of state in March 2025.

President Nandi-Ndaitwah arrived in Beijing on July 8, after first visiting Guangdong and Sichuan provinces. She met with President Xi Jinping on the afternoon of July 10, and the two presidents jointly announced the elevation of bilateral relations to a China-Namibia community with a shared future for the new era.

President Xi Jinping noted that China and Namibia enjoy profound traditional friendship and share common aspirations for development. He made three proposals for building a China-Namibia community with a shared future for the new era:

We need to firmly support each other and deepen the convergence of our visions. The two sides need to maintain close high-level exchanges, deepen experience-sharing on governance, and stay in regular communication on issues of overall and strategic importance in our bilateral relations.

We need to tap the potential of cooperation and take it to higher levels. China has enacted a zero-tariff policy for all the 53 African countries that have diplomatic relations with China. This is a groundbreaking move in expanding China’s high-standard opening up, and much-needed assistance that helps African countries accelerate their development. We hope Namibia will make full use of the zero-tariff access, the upgraded fast track for Namibian exports to reach China, and other favourable policies, so that more high-quality Namibian products will come in at a faster pace.

We need to uphold solidarity and coordination to safeguard multilateralism. As important members of the Global South, China and Namibia share extensive common interests and similar values. The two sides should strengthen solidarity and coordination, firmly support each other, and jointly safeguard international fairness and justice. China stands ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Namibia and other African countries to enhance the strength and voice of the Global South and make new contributions to building a community with a shared future for humanity.

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said that the friendship between Namibia and China goes back a long way, and bilateral relations have made impressive progress over the years. She extended warm congratulations on the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and hailed China as a great country, noting that under the strong leadership of President Xi Jinping, China’s remarkable economic and social achievements have won global admiration. The SWAPO Party of Namibia looks forward to enhanced inter-party exchanges and closer communication and cooperation with the CPC. China has long provided selfless support and assistance to African countries, including Namibia, and has always upheld a just position in international and regional affairs. Namibia will enhance communication and coordination with China to safeguard the common interests of developing countries and jointly build a community with a shared future for humanity.

Following the talks, the two presidents witnessed the signing of multiple cooperation documents in areas such as economy and trade, healthcare, education, and human resources.

The two sides issued the Joint Statement Between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Namibia on Building a China-Namibia Community with a Shared Future for the New Era. Among the salient points covered in this detailed document are:

The two sides agreed that China and Namibia enjoy a deep traditional friendship and that it has grown stronger with the passage of time. China and Namibia established diplomatic relations in 1990 [on the day after Namibia’s independence] and the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in 2018, and the two countries have continued to consolidate mutual political trust, achieved fruitful gains in practical cooperation, coordinated and collaborated in international affairs, setting an inspiring example of China-Africa friendship and South-South cooperation.

Namibia commended the sound guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era and the people-centred development philosophy of the Communist Party of China. Namibia believes that the successful practice of Chinese modernisation provides useful reference for developing countries to explore their paths towards modernisation.

China appreciated the visionary leadership of H.E. Dr. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, President of the Republic of Namibia, and supports Namibia’s pursuit of economic growth, industrialisation and prosperity.

Both sides committed to strengthen their mutually beneficial friendly cooperation under new circumstances, which meets the common development aspirations of the two peoples and helps to work together to promote a more just, equitable international order. To this end, the two sides decided to elevate bilateral relations to a China-Namibia community with a shared future for the new era.

China commended the SWAPO party of Namibia for writing “socialism with Namibian characteristics” into its party constitution and supports President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah in leading the SWAPO party on a sustainable development path suited to Namibia’s national interests. China supports Namibia in safeguarding its national sovereignty, security and socio-economic development interests, and in resolutely opposing external interference.

Both sides agreed that the Communist Party of China and the SWAPO Party of Namibia enjoy a profound friendship, close cooperation and shared ideologies, a model of inter-party cooperation between China and Africa. China is ready to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation and continue to deepen the relations with the six sister parties in Southern Africa. [Besides Namibia’s SWAPO, these are South Africa’s ANC, Zimbabwe’s ZANU-PF, Angola’s MPLA, Mozambique’s FRELIMO and Tanzania’s CCM.]

Namibia commended the full implementation of zero-tariff treatment granted to African countries having diplomatic relations with China, and believes that amid rising unilateralism and protectionism, this move demonstrates China’s responsibility as a major country and determination to firmly expand high-standard opening up. Both sides are committed to the mutual reinforcement between the zero-tariff policy and the needs of Namibia to expand exports, attract investment and create jobs.

Namibia commended President Xi Jinping’s four propositions on safeguarding and promoting peace and stability in the Middle East, as well as his three observations on China and Africa joining hands to address the spillover challenges of the Middle East situation. The two sides call on relevant parties to stay committed to peaceful solutions, resolve differences through dialogue and negotiation, and bring peace and stability back to the Middle East region.

The two sides emphasised that all sides should respect the diversity of civilisations across the world, uphold the common values of humanity, strengthen inter-civilisational exchanges, and champion equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness between civilisations, in a pursuit of progress of human civilisation. Taking the opportunity of the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges in 2026, the two sides are ready to deepen communication and cooperation and forge a closer bond between the peoples.

The two sides committed to deepen healthcare exchanges and cooperation in such forms as medical personnel training, disease control and health emergency response, and explore cooperation in the production of pharmaceuticals in Namibia. China will actively support Namibia in building its healthcare system and continue to send medical teams and strengthen cooperation with partner hospitals.

The two sides reaffirmed strong commitment to promoting greater unity and strength of the Global South, jointly safeguarding international fairness and justice, and maintaining solidarity and cooperation of the international community. Both sides will firmly uphold the UN-centred international system, the international order based on international law, and the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, oppose hegemonism and power politics, and practice true multilateralism.

The two sides applauded the successful visit of President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to China, which both sides believe, holds great significance for the development of bilateral relations and the building of an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era. President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah expressed heartfelt appreciation to President Xi Jinping and the Chinese government and people for the warm hospitality extended to her during her visit, and invited President Xi Jinping to visit Namibia at a convenient time.

Nandi-Ndaitwah met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang the previous day.

Noting that Namibia is an important partner of China in Africa, Li said China is willing to work with Namibia to carry forward traditional friendship, firmly support each other’s core interests and major concerns, and promote mutually beneficial cooperation, in order to advance the modernisation of the two countries.

The two sides should deepen exchanges and cooperation in areas such as tourism, health, education, science and technology, and youth, said Li, adding that China is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Namibia under mechanisms such as the United Nations and work with all parties to promote true multilateralism, implement the four major global initiatives proposed by China, advance an equal and orderly multipolar world and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation.

Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, met with the Namibian head of state on July 10.

He said that China’s NPC is willing to enhance exchanges and cooperation with the Parliament of Namibia, deepen collaboration on multilateral platforms such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and contribute to common development.

Noting that the friendship between Namibia and China has a long history and continues to grow stronger, Nandi-Ndaitwah said that the Namibian side adheres to the one-China principle and stands ready to carry out close cooperation with China in various fields, including the economy and trade, infrastructure, agriculture and minerals.

China and Bangladesh upgrade relations to a community with a shared future in the new era

Tarique Rahman, Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, paid an official visit to China from June 22 to 26, 2026, which included attending the 17th Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2026 (Summer Davos) held in the northeastern city of Dalian.

Rahman met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on the morning of June 26 and the two leaders jointly announced the decision to build a China-Bangladesh community with a shared future in the new era, elevating bilateral relations to a higher level.

President Xi Jinping noted that China has all along attached great importance to the development of China-Bangladesh relations and stayed true to the policy of good-neighbourliness and friendship toward all the people of Bangladesh. No matter how the world changes, China will not waver in its commitment to the overall direction of China-Bangladesh friendly relations, and will always be a trustworthy good friend, good neighbour, and good partner of Bangladesh. This year marks the 105th anniversary of the Communist Party of China. Looking back over its history, the CPC has united and led the Chinese people in emerging from poverty and weakness and blazing a path of Chinese modernisation. Its strength lies in independence and self-reliance, and in keeping the future of national development and progress firmly in its own hands. China supports Bangladesh in upholding national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and rejecting foreign interference. China is ready to work with Bangladesh to increase exchanges of governance experience, enhance ties at all levels, deepen strategic communication, strengthen political mutual trust, and continue to support each other on issues concerning the respective core interests and major concerns of the two countries.

China supports the new government of Bangladesh in its governance efforts, and stands ready to work with Bangladesh to carry out high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, further align development strategies, exchange development experience, make sound plans for orderly cooperation in priority areas, explore cooperation potential in green and low-carbon development, digital economy, information technology, and artificial intelligence, conduct exchanges in healthcare, culture and education and at subnational levels, and advance the development of the China-Myanmar-Bangladesh Economic Corridor for greater regional connectivity. China is ready to strengthen communication and coordination with Bangladesh within multilateral frameworks including the UN, so as to jointly promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation and better uphold the legitimate rights and common interests of the two countries and the interests of the Global South.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman extended congratulations on the 105th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. He said that China is a great country, holds a significant place in Bangladesh’s foreign policy, and is a valued and trusted partner of Bangladesh. He was pleased that bilateral relations have been raised to a new level of a Bangladesh-China community with a shared future in the new era. Under the strong leadership of President Xi Jinping, China has made great development achievements, and Chinese modernisation is an example for Bangladesh to learn from.

The two countries released a 15-point Joint Communiqué. In it, the two sides agreed to promote high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and work together to realise their goals of modernisation. China will pursue greater synergy with Bangladesh on development plans, promote both major signature projects and “small and beautiful” livelihood projects, and continue to support Bangladesh in advancing industrialisation and enhancing agricultural modernisation and resilience.

Bangladesh appreciated China for the zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent of tariff lines and will foster a favourable environment for Chinese enterprises to invest in Bangladesh. The two sides agreed to deepen cooperation in such areas as integrated water resources management, water resources planning, hydrological forecasting, flood prevention and disaster reduction, and river dredging, and related technology sharing.

China supported Bangladesh in playing a greater role in multilateral institutions such as the UN, and supported Bangladesh to participate in the BRICS and the application of Bangladesh to become a partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The two sides expressed readiness to continue promoting multilateral cooperation in the region and welcome more regional countries to join in the process.

Bangladesh commended China’s constructive role in promoting the resolution of the issue concerning the forcibly displaced people from the Rakhine State of Myanmar who have taken shelter in Bangladesh. The Chinese side commended Bangladesh for providing humanitarian assistance to those people, and supported Bangladesh and Myanmar in finding a mutually acceptable solution through friendly consultations. China will continue to facilitate this process to the best of its capabilities.

The previous day, Rahman had met with his Chinese counterpart Premier Li Qiang, who said that China stands ready to work with Bangladesh to consolidate strategic mutual trust, expand practical cooperation, and bring more benefits to the people of both countries.

China is also ready to work with Bangladesh to uphold good-neighbourliness and friendship, consolidate strategic mutual trust, expand practical cooperation, promote continuous new and greater development of China-Bangladesh relations, and bring more benefits to the people of the two countries.

China is also willing to work with Bangladesh to promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, import more high-quality products from Bangladesh, support capable Chinese enterprises in investing in Bangladesh, and expand cooperation in emerging industries such as new energy, digital economy, artificial intelligence and information and communication with the Bangladeshi side.

Li also noted that China stands ready to closely coordinate and cooperate with Bangladesh in multilateral affairs, safeguard common interests, promote unity and self-reliance among developing countries, and make greater contributions to the joint development of the Global South.

Rahman expressed his gratitude to China for the valuable support it has provided to Bangladesh’s economic and social development over a long period of time, noting that Bangladesh looks forward to maintaining close high-level exchanges with China and strengthening the alignment of their development strategies.

Bangladesh firmly defends the post-war international order and highly agrees with and supports the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity and the four major global initiatives proposed by China. Bangladesh is also willing to cooperate with China on multilateral platforms.

Rahman met with Zhao Leji, chairman of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, on June 26.

Zhao said China is willing to work with Bangladesh to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, carry forward and practice the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, deepen political mutual trust, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and promote the continuous development of China-Bangladesh relations.

The previous day he met with Liu Haixing, Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee (IDCPC), in his capacity of Chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Rahman said that China is a trustworthy old friend, a good friend and the most important development partner of Bangladesh. Bangladesh cannot achieve development and security without China’s assistance and support. Bangladesh firmly upholds the one-China principle and stands ready to work with China to carry forward the tradition of friendship, deepen mutual support, expand practical cooperation across all sectors, including livelihood projects in such areas as water infrastructure, industrial parks and hospitals, and push Bangladesh-China relations to a new height, so as to deliver greater benefits to the two peoples.

Liu noted that since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1975, friendship has always been the defining feature of China-Bangladesh relations, and continuity is a defining feature of the friendship. Today, with unprecedented changes unfolding at a faster pace, the two sides should further consolidate political mutual trust through mutual support, draw a blueprint for win-win outcomes through practical cooperation, strengthen the bonds between the two peoples through people-to-people exchanges, and uphold international equity and justice through multilateral collaboration, ensuring that the friendship between China and Bangladesh is passed down through generations and continues to brim with new vitality. The CPC attaches great importance to its friendly relations with the BNP, and stands ready to take the signing of the memorandum of understanding on exchanges and cooperation between the two Parties as an opportunity to further deepen institutionalised inter-party exchanges, raise the level of the exchange of experience in state governance and administration, and promote cooperation in such areas as sub-national, youth, media and livelihood affairs through the “political party+” channel, so as to contribute the strength of the political parties to the continued development of China-Bangladesh relations.

Tarique Rahman became the 11th Prime Minister of Bangladesh on February 17, 2026, following the BNP’s decisive victory in the general election of February 12, where it won two thirds of the parliamentary seats. The Awami League, winner of the last four elections, was banned and could not contest. Rahman’s late father and mother previously served respectively as president and prime minister of Bangladesh.

Manufactured outrage: the truth about China’s ethnic unity law

The following article by Carlos Martinez, co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, responds to the coordinated storm of condemnation that greeted the entry into force on 1 July of China’s Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress – a campaign that seeks to revive the discredited “Xinjiang genocide” narrative and extend it to Xizang (Tibet) and beyond.

Carlos examines what the law actually says, and contrasts China’s record on minority rights – rising life expectancy, the elimination of absolute poverty, and the protection and flourishing of minority languages – with the treatment of minority communities in the West.

He traces the long history of Western sponsorship of separatism in China, from the CIA’s two-decade Tibetan programme to the National Endowment for Democracy’s funding of exile groups today, and locates the current hysteria in the failure of the propaganda war: as polling shows steadily warming attitudes towards China, particularly among the young, the ideologues of the New Cold War are increasingly desperate to re-toxify China’s image. What China is building is strength through unity in diversity; what its adversaries want to see is disunity and disintegration.

NB. This article has been translated into Dutch by our friends at China Square.

On 1 July, China’s Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress came into force – the country’s first comprehensive national law on ethnic affairs, adopted by the National People’s Congress in March.

Within days, a remarkably well-coordinated storm of condemnation had been whipped up: denunciations from Washington and Brussels, a resolution in the European Parliament, and a wave of media coverage announcing that China had ordered its minorities to “assimilate”. The thoroughly discredited “Xinjiang genocide” narrative is being dusted off and relaunched – this time with Xizang (Tibet) added to the charge sheet for good measure.

What does the law actually say? It stipulates that upholding national unity and ethnic solidarity is the responsibility of all Chinese citizens, and it prohibits discrimination and suppression against any ethnic group. It strongly re-affirms the right of all peoples to use and develop their own spoken and written languages. It directs central and local government to strengthen infrastructure, industry, public services and environmental protection in minority regions, and to ensure that no ethnic group is left behind in China’s modernisation.

As such, it continues a long-standing programme of what would be called, in Western terminology, affirmative action: preferential university admissions for minority students, bilingual education, protected minority-language broadcasting, and formal autonomy arrangements from Inner Mongolia to Yunnan – to which one might add that China’s national minorities were exempt from the one-child policy throughout its existence. Altogether, strange provisions indeed for a programme of persecution.