Author: Friends of Socialist China

Xi’an’s Covid response: Preserving human life is preserving freedom

This article by Keith Lamb, originally published in CGTN, counters the Western media’s critique of China’s Zero Covid strategy and of the comprehensive virus suppression measures currently being enforced in the city of Xi’an. The author points out that the Covid death rate in the US has been almost a thousand times as high as in China; on that basis it would surely be appropriate to learn from China’s experience and to cooperate with it in tackling the pandemic.

With the total number of new COVID-19 cases since December 9 reaching 1,573 in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province, local and central government, backed by voluntary citizen support, are doing everything in their power to extinguish the epidemic. China’s Vice Premier Sun Chunlan has advocated for decisive and resolute measures to curb the outbreak, and, in response, the local government has backed up her words with concrete action.

With all of Xi’an’s approximately 13 million residents under lockdown, supply chains have been kept efficient to ensure that essential items such as food and medicine are available to all, especially those in need. Ten medical teams and a 24-hour hotline provide treatment to those isolated. Donations of food and supplies are not just pouring in from neighboring local governments but private citizens too.

Continue reading Xi’an’s Covid response: Preserving human life is preserving freedom

Zhang Tailei: ‘Thunderstorm’ of China’s revolution

In this paper, presented at the Fifteenth Forum of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE), held 18-19 December 2021 at the Shanghai International Studies University and online, John Riddell introduces the life of an early pioneer and martyr of the Chinese revolution, honoured in his own country, but who deserves to be better known internationally. John, a lifelong socialist activist, is the founding editor of the Comintern Publishing Project and probably the foremost contemporary scholar of the early Communist International (Comintern) working in the English language. He has translated and edited numerous volumes of Comintern proceedings. We are grateful to him for making his paper available to us.

To understand the rise of China, it is helpful to get acquainted with the life and work of lesser-known figures who contributed to the liberation struggle. Such an activist is Zhang Tailei (1898–1927), whom I learned of while translating the proceedings of a global Communist congress held in 1921.[1] Little documentation on Zhang is available in the West. This brief sketch aims to highlight his main achievements; I hope it may help lead us to an account based on fuller access to Chinese sources.

Among the early leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Zhang Tailei was one of the first to propose unity in action of diverse political forces to defend China against aggression by the imperialist powers. Zhang was a respected leader not only of his party but also of a world revolutionary association, the Communist International.[2]

Continue reading Zhang Tailei: ‘Thunderstorm’ of China’s revolution

New Year address by President Xi Jinping

We reprint here President Xi Jinping’s New Year Address for 2022 delivered from Beijing on New Year’s Eve. In direct and vivid language, the Chinese President succinctly covers a broad canvas ranging from nature to sports to space exploration. He reflects on the great achievements of an extraordinary year that saw the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the adoption of a major resolution on party history:

Standing on the Tian’anmen Rostrum, one could only marvel at the extraordinary journey traveled by this major Party, a journey of Chinese Communists leading the Chinese people, in their hundreds of millions, in an unyielding struggle against all obstacles and challenges, and scoring spectacular, epoch-making achievements over the past century.

China’s historic victory over extreme poverty was naturally another major theme. As a seasoned Marxist, in his Address, Comrade Xi integrated the general with the particular on the basis of the mass line:

The myriad of things we attend to all boil down to matters concerning every household… The concerns of the people are what I always care about, and the aspirations of the people are what I always strive for.

Reviewing his country’s signal contribution to the global battle against Covid-19, the Chinese President noted:

Only through unity, solidarity and cooperation can countries around the world write a new chapter in building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Embedded below the text is CGTN’s video version of the speech, with English subtitles.

My greetings to you all. The year 2022 is approaching. From Beijing, I extend New Year wishes to all of you!

The past year has been a year of exceptional significance. We have lived through landmark events in the history of our Party and our country. At the historical convergence of the Two Centenary Goals, we have set out on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in all respects and are making confident strides on the path toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Continue reading New Year address by President Xi Jinping

Radhika Desai: The pandemic has turned out to be a tale of two systems

This insightful article by Radhika Desai, originally published in CGTN, seeks to understand why the advanced capitalist countries – particularly the most neoliberal and financialized ones – have performed so poorly in the face of Covid-19; and why socialist countries have done so much better.

As the world marked the second International Day for Epidemic Preparedness (IDEP) on December 27, 2021, nothing is clearer than the world’s richest and most powerful countries’ un-readiness before the pandemic. The highly transmissible Omicron was causing flight delays and cancellations by infecting flight crews, especially in the U.S.

Why are the richest countries doing so badly against the virus? It is not just that they have hogged available vaccine supply, giving second and third doses, while the virus rages and mutates elsewhere. It is not just that they have left China to donate 600 million vaccine doses to Africa even as the U.S. leads a new Cold War with it, dividing the world, rather than participating in any united world effort against the pandemic.

The fact is that the pandemic has turned out to be a tale of two systems. The world’s richest countries, led by the most neoliberal and financialized ones, the U.S. and the UK, have performed abysmally while socialist countries, led by China, have performed far better.

Continue reading Radhika Desai: The pandemic has turned out to be a tale of two systems

Theoretical and practical innovations in regard to party diplomacy of the Communist Party of China

We are very pleased to be able to make available this important paper by Pan Jin’e, Director and Professor of the International Communist Movement Research Department of the Academy of Marxism, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). It was delivered at the Cloud International Workshop on “New Forms of Human Civilization from a World Perspective,” held by the School of Marxism, Dalian University of Technology (DUT), 29-31 October 2021. In his paper, Professor Pan outlines the development of the CPC’s international relations through different historical periods, relating it both to the situation in China and the world as well as to Marxist-Leninist theory. We are grateful to the DUT Translation Team for their work as well as to Professor Roland Boer for his meticulous sub-editing.

Party Diplomacy’s Significant Contributions to the Creation of A New Form of Human Civilisation: Theoretical and Practical Innovations in Regard to Party Diplomacy of the Communist Party of China

Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), commented in his speech at the ceremony marking the CPC’s 100th anniversary that socialism with Chinese characteristics has created a new form of human civilisation: “We adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, promoting the coordinated development of material, political, spiritual, social and ecological civilisations, and thereby creating a new path of Chinese-style modernisation and a new form of human civilisation.”[1] These “five civilisations” are not only a profound summary of the development of socialist civilisation with Chinese characteristics, but also an important connotation of the “new form of human civilisation.”

Continue reading Theoretical and practical innovations in regard to party diplomacy of the Communist Party of China

Elias Jabbour: Boycotts, hypocrisy and the organic intellectuals of imperialism

In this important article for CGTN, Elias Jabbour discusses the so-called ‘diplomatic boycott’ by some Western countries of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, explaining that the boycott forms part of a set of behaviours and slanders that are designed to delegitimise China’s government and to prepare public opinion in the West for further attacks on China. He notes that, sadly, some pseudo-Marxist intellectuals in Europe and North America are participating in this imperialist Cold War project.

It was early December when breaking news took the political and diplomatic circles around the world by surprise: the United States has declared a so-called “diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

According to U.S. government spokeswoman Jen Psaki, the country would not treat the Olympics as something normal given the “atrocities” in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. As expected, England and Canada announced something similar later. Same posture Australia. Repeat a lie a thousand times and it becomes the truth?

Since then, EU countries have been pressured to take a similar stance, but for the time being, only Belgium has followed this lead, and in Latin America, there are no signs in this direction. As symbolic as this act can be, it is interesting to note the degree of isolation of U.S. imperialism in countless initiatives.

We must read this attitude in different ways. This “boycott,” although isolated and almost symbolic, is serious. The U.S. doubles its bet on the proliferation of lies for political purposes with a view to delegitimizing the government of the People’s Republic of China in the international community while continuing yet another colonial war.

Let us be under no illusion. What the U.S. plots against China is a colonial war with the purpose of subjugating the country to an order based on violence, blind obedience and punitive wars, applied to those who dare to leave the radar of imperialism’s control. As for the accusations of “genocide” in Xinjiang, the facts show that what we are seeing is an old policy, very similar to what was used by the Nazi propaganda machine. A simple survey is enough to demonstrate that, in reality, these charges are fallacies.

For example, one of the accusations is that China has a policy of mass sterilization, which would have seen the Xinjiang Uygur’s population falling from 15.5 births per thousand to 2.5 per thousand. However, according to the seventh national census report released in May, the Han population growth rate was 4.93 percent, while China’s ethnic minority population increased by 10.26 percent compared to 2010.

Specifically, the population of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang has grown by 14.27 percent in that same period. It is also good to remember that the birth control policies implemented in the early 1980s were not applied to Chinese ethnic minorities.

Another lie concerns the alleged “cultural genocide” preventing Uygur Muslims from freely practicing their religion, including restrictions on the use of their typical clothes and violation of mosques.

However, Xinjiang has more than 24,000 mosques, an average of 530 Muslims per mosque. This number is more than double the total number of existing mosques in the U.S., Britain, Germany and France. On the other side, in the name of “democracy” and “human rights,” U.S. soldiers looted relics from the Historical Museum of Baghdad in 2003.

For that, it is clear that this “boycott” is not supported by data, but by lies and a sea of hypocrisy. The deep contradictions of U.S. society, which was born under the combination of slave labor and reactionary ideologies that support theses such as “indispensable nation,” “manifest destiny” and “New Canaan,” are known by many.

The human rights situation is dire to the point that a 2021 national poll by researcher John Zogby found that 46 percent of the U.S. population believed that a future civil war was likely, another 43 percent thought it was unlikely and 11 percent were unsure.

War seemed more likely for young people (53 percent) than for older ones (31 percent), and for those residing in the South (49 percent) and Central/Great Lakes region (48 percent) compared to those in the East (39 percent).

Meanwhile, a real disaster is taking place in the country with the death of more than 817,000 people by COVID-19. Right-wing ideologies twist the minds of about half of the country’s population by spreading scientific denial, racism and hate crimes against blacks, Latinos and other minorities.

Finally, the new feature of this attempt of a “diplomatic boycott” is the strong resurgence of intellectuals within the so-called progressive camp at the service of the demoralization of socialist experiences.

This was something very common during the Cold War, and was usually due to the co-option, by imperialism, of European Marxist intellectuals, that were induced to criticize the former Soviet Union. Now, there are figures like the philosopher Slavoj Zizek, signatory of a petition pressing the French government to “boycott” the Winter Olympics.

The cultural war against China involves the mobilization of “intellectuals” to criticize China. History repeats itself, but now as farce.

China’s ‘dynamic Zero Covid’ policy remains a model for the world

This article from Danny Haiphong, first published in CGTN, discusses key recent developments in the Covid pandemic, including the emergence of the Omicron variant and the announcement of a lockdown in the Chinese city of Xi’an. Danny notes that China’s strategy of early detection, mass testing, quarantine and properly-supported lockdowns continues to represent a model of a people-first approach to managing the pandemic.

The Omicron variant represents another troubling chapter in the COVID-19 pandemic. Countless travel plans have been canceled as scientists and infectious disease experts attempt to gain a greater understanding of the latest variant. In the United States, shortages in tests and healthcare workers have placed immediate strains on society. Forecasts for global economic growth have become less optimistic.

Bloomberg magazine, a U.S. media outlet known for its anti-China bias, recently admitted that China’s “dynamic zero-COVID” policy has been an effective measure against the pandemic. The report stated that China’s average daily COVID-19 cases would rise to 637,155 if the country adopted a U.S.-style approach to the pandemic. Bloomberg quickly changed the subject to more anti-China talking points and avoided any elaboration on the factors for China’s success against COVID-19.

Bloomberg repeated a trend in U.S. media which either ignores the success of the “dynamic zero-COVID” policy or calls it “authoritarian.” This has come at a great cost to the people of the United States and Western countries, who have suffered the worst consequences of the pandemic. Yet the U.S. and Western media have taken part in endless speculation about China’s policy to deflect from the failed COVID-19 responses of their own nations.

The truth is that China has by far been the most successful in protecting human life over the course of the pandemic. China has experienced three deaths per million in the population from COVID-19. The United States, which leads the world in the total number of COVID-19 cases and deaths to the pandemic, averages more than 2,400 deaths per million in the population.

U.S. and Western media have claimed China’s policy cannot be emulated in so-called free and democratic societies. China is accused of irrationally attempting to prevent transmission entirely, the costs of which are too high for Western societies that prioritize the economy over the health of the public.

This is problematic for several reasons. First, China’s strategy does not seek to eliminate transmission entirely but rather to reduce the human and economic costs of the pandemic as quickly and effectively as possible.

Second, the depiction of China’s “dynamic zero-COVID” policy as “irrational” and detrimental to the economy ignores the fact that Western economies have experienced the harshest economic fallout from the pandemic. U.S. economic growth had only begun to catch up to a 2 percent GDP year-on-year average growth in recent months before Omicron reignited economic uncertainty. China was the fastest major economy to achieve growth amid the pandemic and, according to World Bank estimates, is set to grow at two to three times the rate of the United States in 2022. Clearly, China’s “dynamic zero-COVID” policy has taken economic development into account from the very beginning.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the U.S. and Western rejection of China’s “dynamic zero-COVID” policy is that it reflects how effectively misinformation has spread within societies that have adopted a wrongheaded, anti-China political agenda. The United States, for example, was wracked with such high levels of distrust in both the government and healthcare system that an “infodemic” took hold very early on in the pandemic. Former President Donald Trump only aided in spreading misinformation about the pandemic by blaming China for the U.S.’s woes and frequently employing the term “China virus” during his briefs to the country. Current President Joe Biden has done little to increase confidence in the U.S.’s capacity to protect human life beyond a change in rhetoric.

Misinformation has only worsened social fractures in the U.S. and West and weakened already threadbare public health systems. Under such circumstances, China’s “dynamic zero-COVID” policy remains an important model for the world. China’s policy focuses on rapidly addressing outbreaks and establishing long-term strategies for pandemic control and containment. The policy is currently being employed in the city Xi’an, which was placed under lockdown as of December 23 following an outbreak of the Delta variant. Residents have undergone several rounds of mass testing, schools have closed, and local authorities have coordinated with all sectors of society to ensure people have their basic needs met.

China’s “dynamic zero-COVID” policy has been a consistent example of a people-first approach to the pandemic amid a period of global uncertainty. According to chief epidemiologist at China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention Wu Zunyou, the policy has protected 950,000 Chinese lives over the course of the pandemic. This is nothing short of a miracle. U.S. and Western observers would thus benefit from taking an unbiased view of China’s “dynamic zero-COVID” approach rather than the politicized orientation that has been adopted by the media and political establishment.

Health care for profit is more deadly than Covid-19

We reproduce below a valuable article from Workers World contrasting the response of the socialist and capitalist countries to the coronavirus pandemic. The author observes that the success of China, Cuba and others in suppressing the virus can be attributed to a political and economic system based on the interests of the people rather than the protection of private profit.

The ominous toll of 800,000 deaths from COVID-19, reached in the U.S. Dec. 14, confirms that health care for profit is more deadly than the virus itself. The U.S. has consistently had the most COVID-19 deaths of any country. (tinyurl.com/3nunmuv7) 

Since the omicron variant surfaced here Dec. 1, infection rates have jumped off the charts with 193,305 new cases on Dec. 17. The CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) forecasts more than 1 million new COVID-19 cases during Christmas week. (tinyurl.com/sjy4ch2k) 

Yet China, where COVID-19 was first identified and brought under control, has had no deaths from COVID-19 in 2021. This fact alone confirms that a scientific approach with fully accessible health infrastructure, universal vaccination and national coordination at every level is decisive.

Continue reading Health care for profit is more deadly than Covid-19

Happy Birthday Chairman Mao

An increasingly strong, prosperous, modern, socialist China is your greatest legacy.

We must hold high the great banner of Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao’s banner is the banner of the united revolution of the whole Party, the whole army and the whole nation, and the banner of the international communist movement.

Deng Xiaoping

Zhao Lijian: US democracy is based on an inextricable link between wealth and power

American-style democracy has become a money game for the rich. The 2020 US presidential and congressional elections cost as much as $14 billion. US politicians make promises in exchange for electoral funding and spend a fortune on publicity. When in office, the politicians engage in corruption considered legitimate by openly exchanging power for money through lobbying and political donations. When their term ends, they would smoothly move from political circles to business sectors through the ‘revolving door’. Such whole-process corruption with no missing link is strictly punished in other countries. It is contemptible that corruption is legitimized and openly practiced in the US.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s Regular Press Conference on December 22, 2021

Abayomi Azikiwe: Africa-China relations could serve as bulwark against imperialist hegemony

In this speech to a recent webinar entitled Africa/China Relations: Challenges of Cooperation and Development (organized jointly by the International Manifesto Group and the Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa), Abayomi Azikiwe (editor of the Pan-African News Wire) discusses the evolving relationship of friendship and solidarity between China and Africa, and contrasts this with the behaviour of the imperialist powers of Europe and North America.

The full webinar can be watched on YouTube. The text was first published in Fighting Words.

A ministerial summit of the Forum on China and Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held on November 29-30 in Dakar, Senegal reinforced the continuing bonds between Beijing and the 55-member African Union (AU).

FOCAC was formed in 2000 during an important period which was marked by several years of substantial economic growth on the continent of Africa and in the People’s Republic of China.

Continue reading Abayomi Azikiwe: Africa-China relations could serve as bulwark against imperialist hegemony

Hong Kong elections deal a blow to US imperialism

We’re pleased to republish this interesting article by Christopher Helali, international secretary of the Party of Communists USA, about the recent Legislative Council elections in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Helali observes that these elections constitute a step forward for the people of Hong Kong in combatting attempts by the imperialist powers to interfere and destabilize. The article was first published in CGTN.

On December 19, citizens in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will vote for the seventh-term Legislative Council (LegCo) election. This is a major step in bringing order, stability and peace to Hong Kong following a tumultuous period that saw riots and protests rock the city.

The HKSAR suffered tremendously during the violence and chaos of the past few years. The political system was destabilized by street violence, social unrest, disorder and political instability. This not only harmed the residents but also businesses and investments in the city.

Continue reading Hong Kong elections deal a blow to US imperialism

Have you been lied to about Xinjiang, human rights − and China?

This statement from the International Action Center thoroughly dismantles US-led imperialist propaganda about alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and exposes how these are being leveraged to build public support for a reckless and aggressive anti-China strategy that offers nothing to ordinary people in the West.

Claiming that it is acting in defense of human rights, the U.S. tries to cover its own criminal record on internal human rights violations and its record of endless wars, assassinations, coups and devastating sanctions by making charges and targeting other countries.

Propaganda fuels U.S. wars 

The “2021 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community,” issued April 9 by Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence, labeled China as “the greatest threat to the United States.” Numerous other reports and official statements claim Washington must prepare an intensifying level of U.S. intelligence operations, cyberattacks and investment in military technology to counter China.

The U.S. military has encircled China. With joint Democratic and Republican Party backing, the U.S. has imposed economic sanctions, an onerous trade war and canceled cultural exchanges and visas for tens of thousands of Chinese students. This campaign is cynically justified as a defense of human rights.

Continue reading Have you been lied to about Xinjiang, human rights − and China?

The CPC at 100 – An exemplar in the innovation and adaptation of Marxism

The 12th World Socialism Forum was held on December 21st 2021, hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and organised by the World Socialism Research Centre, the Academy of Marxism and the Research Centre of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era of CASS. It was held in the Chinese Academy of History of CASS, with both offline and online participation.

The theme of the event was the Preservation and Innovation of Marxism in the 21st Century, with a key focus on:

  • The Major Achievements and Inspiring Experience of the Communist Party of China over the Past Century
  • The Contribution of the Path of Socialist Political Development with Chinese Characteristics to Political Civilisations of Humanity
  • Lessons and Insights from the Downfall of the Soviet Communist Party and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union
  • Upholding and Developing Marxism in the 21st Century

The Forum heard a total of 23 presentations, including 13 from leading Chinese Marxist thinkers and theoreticians as well as from the Cuban Ambassador to China; Egon Krenz, former leader of the German Democratic Republic (GDR); two speakers from Russia, including the Vice Chair of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF); Keith Bennett, Co-Editor of Friends of Socialist China; and speakers from Argentina, Italy, Cameroon, Venezuela and Vietnam.

We print below Keith Bennett’s speech to the Forum.

Dear Comrades and Friends

On behalf of Friends of Socialist China, a platform established earlier this year to support the People’s Republic of China and spread understanding of Chinese socialism on the basis of Marxism, I’d like to extend our thanks to the World Socialism Forum for inviting us to attend this important meeting and to submit a paper. We also extend warm greetings to everyone participating and hope that we can find concrete ways of working together in the future.

Continue reading The CPC at 100 – An exemplar in the innovation and adaptation of Marxism

Want to know how to beat Covid? Look at China

We are pleased to republish this very useful article by Scott Scheffer, originally published in Struggle for Socialism, about the successes of China’s struggle against the Covid-19 pandemic, and contrasting these with the deadly failures of the United States.

The world is now nearing the end of the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States has the highest death toll in the world – 823,390 as of Dec. 16. 

With all the scientific resources available, and billions of dollars in the vaults of the richest capitalist class in history, the U.S. should have been able to succeed in a vaccination campaign and treat everyone before they were infected. Vaccines should have made their way throughout the world, including the global south where the challenges of poverty magnify the horrors of the pandemic. 

Instead, the White House and U.S. intelligence agencies have taken their cue from the Trump administration and continued apace with a manufactured narrative that slanders and blames China for the pandemic. Their goal is to cover up the global calamity created by the giant multinational corporations they serve and turn people’s attention away from the incredible success of the Chinese socialist public health system in fighting the pandemic. 

Continue reading Want to know how to beat Covid? Look at China

Slanders about China’s treatment of Uyghurs are aimed at bolstering the military-industrial complex

Interviewed by Jacquie Luqman for Sputnik’s By Any Means Necessary radio show, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez discusses the US’s new Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the Washington Post’s ‘smoking gun’ report linking Huawei to surveillance technology in Xinjiang. The full radio show can be found here.

Danny Haiphong: China-Russia partnership is a model for global cooperation in the 21st Century

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a virtual meeting on December 15th amid increasing aggression against both countries led by the United States. Friends of Socialist China co-editor Danny Haiphong published the following article in CGTN where he argues that China-Russia relations serve as a model for global cooperation and solidarity in the 21st century and beyond. The two heads of state are next scheduled to meet in person at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing.

On December 15, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a virtual meeting that emphasized the growing cooperation between the two countries amid unprecedented global challenges. Both sides agreed that relations between Russia and China represent a model for global cooperation in the 21st century. 

The meeting came less than a week following a series of moves on the part of the U.S. that have intensified its cold war posture toward China and Russia. These include the spread of rumors of a so-called Russian “invasion” of Ukraine, the Biden administration’s “diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and U.S.’ facilitation of a “Summit for Democracy” which directly targeted China and Russia’s political legitimacy.

There is no denying that U.S.-led aggression toward both China and Russia has driven the two countries closer together. The simultaneous U.S. expansion of NATO along Russia’s border and the exponential growth of the U.S.’ military presence in the Asia Pacific represent very real threats to China and Russia’s national security. Furthermore, both China and Russia have been targeted by U.S.-sponsored riots in China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Ukraine, and Belarus to name a few. U.S.-led hostilities have also come in the form of economic sanctions. China and Russia have responded to U.S. aggression by strengthening cooperation in the fields of defense, trade, diplomacy, and cultural exchange.

Continue reading Danny Haiphong: China-Russia partnership is a model for global cooperation in the 21st Century

Danny Haiphong: The West distorts the China-Africa relationship in order to justify its own imperialism

In this speech to a recent webinar entitled Africa/China Relations: Challenges of Cooperation and Development (organized jointly by the International Manifesto Group and the Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa), Danny Haiphong explores the evolving win-win relationship between China and Africa, and exposes the West’s distortion of this relationship. The full webinar can be watched on YouTube.

Then and now: Proletarian internationalism and Friends of Socialist China

What follows is a presentation on the Western left’s solidarity with the Chinese Revolution and the People’s Republic of China over the years, and the motivation for setting up Friends of Socialist China. It was delivered at the the Fifteenth Forum of the World Association for Political Economy (hosted by the Shanghai International Studies University, China, and held online on 18-19 December 2021), and was jointly written by Friends of Socialist China’s co-editors.

The accompanying slides can be found at SlideShare.

Dear Comrades

On behalf of Friends of Socialist China, I would like to express our thanks to the World Association of Political Economy for inviting us to participate in this important conference and to extend our greetings to all our fellow participants.

Friends of Socialist China was formed in May 2021 by a small group of activists in Britain and the USA with a long record in the progressive movement and specifically of solidarity with the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese revolution. 

Our analysis of our tasks and our understanding of our work flow from the basic tenets of Marxism, starting from the observation by Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto that, unlike other parties in the working-class movement, communists bring to the fore the interests of the working class as a whole, independent of all nationality. This premise was further elaborated and developed by Mao Zedong, who noted that the people of countries yet to win their liberation have a duty to support the socialist countries, whilst the socialist countries have the responsibility to support the countries and peoples who are still struggling for their liberation.

Continue reading Then and now: Proletarian internationalism and Friends of Socialist China

Keith Lamb: Why the Uygur Tribunal is another sham that seeks to ignite atrocity

In this article Keith Lamb, following up on a piece published last week, further explores the sham nature of the ‘Uygur Tribunal’ – its spurious sources, its funding, its flagrant bias towards Uygur separatism, and its use by the Western military-industrial complex to further the drive to war on China. Republished from CGTN.

In my previous article, using the examples of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, I outlined a system where Western elites can further their geopolitical ends and drive up their profit margins through the atrocity of war. Essential for instigating these atrocities is a superb propaganda system that indoctrinates Western citizens into supporting these wars through exaggeration, decontextualization and distortion.

A simple narrative of “good” versus “evil” is laid out to justify Western belligerence. However, the tail wags the dog, the geopolitical and profit motives are the prime mover and then the atrocity is constructed.

For example, Afghanistan, and the never-ending war on terror, were always going to be a “fantastic” money-spinner for a military-industrial complex devoid of a cold war with the Soviet Union. Then Iraq and Libya, both rich in oil, were plundered of their resources. Furthermore, the independence asserted by all three states was not to be tolerated by the West.

Continue reading Keith Lamb: Why the Uygur Tribunal is another sham that seeks to ignite atrocity