Author: Friends of Socialist China

Report: International Civil Society Solidarity Conference on the Global Development Initiative

On August 12, some 400 people from around the world attended an online and offline meeting organized by the China NGO Network for International Exchanges, with the guidance of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, and on the theme, ‘International Civil Society Solidarity Conference on the Global Development Initiative’.

The Global Development Initiative (GDI) was advanced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in his September 2021 address to the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly, and the conference was focused on helping to implement the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The meeting opened with the reading of a message of greetings from President Xi, in which he said that China is ready to join hands with all so as to contribute more to building a community with a shared future for humanity and to usher in a new era featuring prosperity and development.

His message was followed by a keynote report from CPC International Department Minister Liu Jianchao and contributions from a number of heads of state or government.

Pakistan Prime Minister and President of the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz, Shehbaz Sharif, welcomed the GDI as another visionary development following the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), of which the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a flagship project. In the course of promoting global development, China has provided valuable help and support to developing countries. China’s own unprecedented achievements in economic, social, and industrial development have encouraged the vast number of developing countries. China has successfully lifted 800 million out of poverty in just a few decades, leaving a deep impression on the world. Stressing the strong and durable relations between his country and China, Sharif said that Pakistan, as the 2022 Chair of the Group of 77 Plus China, was ready to play its part in pushing for global development.

Faure Gnassingbé, President of Togo and Chairman of the Union for the Republic, said that the great initiative of President Xi effectively responded to the urgent need of all countries in the world, especially the developing countries, to accelerate post-epidemic economic recovery and realise the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Praising China for its unremitting efforts to “leave no country behind”, he added that the country had just won its battle against extreme poverty at an unprecedented and amazing speed, and the valuable experience accumulated by China in this process will be of benefit to human society.

Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica and Leader of the Dominica Labour Party, praised the long-standing friendly relations between the governments and peoples of Dominica and China, and said that the Global Development Initiative proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping is highly consistent with the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity, and will inject new and strong impetus into the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The GDI provides small states with an important way to promote development, benefiting small island developing countries such as Dominica in a number of areas, such as poverty reduction, food security, financing for development, climate change, the digital economy and connectivity. As an important cooperation platform provided by China to the world, the GDI will certainly receive extensive support from the international community.

Skerrit said Dominica thanked General Secretary Xi Jinping for his commitment to increase the capital of the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund by US$1 billion and to integrate and upgrade the fund into a Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund. He particularly expressed thanks to China for its support to the Caribbean region, not least during the pandemic. China has played an important leading role in promoting the equal distribution of vaccines and the global supply of public goods. China has also been vigorously supporting the Caribbean region in addressing climate change, enhancing regional climate change response capabilities, and helping regional disaster relief and post-disaster reconstruction.

Skerrit called on all people to unite to deepen multilateral cooperation and jointly build a new era of balanced, coordinated and inclusive global development. Dominica is willing to actively respond to the appeal made by General Secretary Xi Jinping to all countries in the world, work with partners to promote global development and security, work together to translate global development initiatives into practical actions, ensure that no country is left behind, and contribute to building a fairer, more sustainable, and safer world.

Bertie Ahern, former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, from the Fianna Fáil party, and Co-Chairman of the InterAction Council, noted China’s commitment to advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and expressed his hope that China will work closely with international civil society, so as to make greater contributions to promoting global development.

Other speakers included Martin Schulz, former President of the European Parliament and Chairman of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (the think tank associated with the German Social Democratic Party); Wang Yaping, China’s second woman taikonaut (astronaut), who has completed two space missions, becoming the first woman taikonaut to perform a space walk and the Chinese taikonaut who has so far spent the longest cumulative period in space; and Stephon Marbury, former African-American basketball player and currently Head Coach of the Beijing Royal Fighters. Marbury praised China’s zero tolerance response to Covid-19 and expressed his strong personal commitment to promoting ‘sports diplomacy’, as a way to enhance people-to-people friendship.

The following two reports were first published on the websites of the Xinhua News Agency and the CPC International Department respectively.

Xi calls on international community to build development partnership

Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the international community to gather consensus on promoting development, create an enabling environment and foster new driving forces for global development to jointly work for a global development partnership.

Continue reading Report: International Civil Society Solidarity Conference on the Global Development Initiative

Will the US push on Taiwan determine Canada’s Indo-Pacific policy?

In the following article, originally carried by The Canada Files, William Ging Wee Dere analyses the fallout from Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, and the continued provocations by the United States, joined by a number of its junior imperialist partners, with particular reference to the impact on different political and economic circles in Canada.

William notes that just days before the Pelosi visit, a Taiwanese delegation was in the Canadian capital Ottawa, lobbying for support for its application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade deal.

However, he notes that divisions are opening up within the Canadian ruling circles – for example, some corporations were not happy with having to dismantle Huawei equipment for ideological reasons, disguised as security concerns, whereas the military industrial complex sees confronting China as a way to make billions of dollars.

“Within the ruling class,” he argues, “there are some with a bit of backbone to stand up to the US Cold War mentality against China.” Unfortunately, this does not include the spineless Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

For their part, the writer concludes: “Anti-imperialists are pushing for an independent Canadian policy free from the US domination and in the interest of the Canadian people. It is in our interest to engage with China in a normal and respectful manner without name-calling and prejudice.”

William Ging Wee Dere is the author of ‘Being Chinese in Canada, The Struggle for Identity, Redress and Belonging.’ He was a leading activist in the two-decade movement for redress of the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia:

“The Chinese head tax was enacted to restrict immigration after Chinese labour was no longer needed to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Between 1885 and 1923, Chinese immigrants had to pay a head tax to enter Canada. The tax was levied under the Chinese Immigration Act (1885). It was the first legislation in Canadian history to exclude immigration on the basis of ethnic background. With few exceptions, Chinese people had to pay at least $50 to come to Canada. The tax was later raised to $100, then to $500. During the 38 years the tax was in effect, around 82,000 Chinese immigrants paid nearly $23 million in tax. The head tax was removed with the passing of the Chinese Immigration Act in 1923. Also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, it banned all Chinese immigrants until its repeal in 1947. In 2006, the federal government apologized for the head tax and its other racist immigration policies targeting Chinese people.”

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s provocative and reckless middle of the night visit (Aug 2) to Taiwan has shifted the status quo of the island province to Beijing’s advantage. Turning a bad thing into a good thing: the dialectical method often used by Mao Zedong during the Chinese revolution, is how the Chinese reacted to Pelosi’s 17-hour trip to Taiwan. The People’s Liberation Army used this opportunity to test out their equipment and resources in a war game situation, since, unlike the US, Canada and other Western powers, China has not had any actual experience in warlike combat in over 40 years.

The Chinese people now fully understand that the US and its Western allies cannot be trusted to maintain the One-China policy, internationally recognized since 1971 by the United Nations and the global community including Canada and the US. The US is back-sliding on the issue of Taiwan independence, with its economic and military deals and the many political delegations to the island since the Trump administration. Activities by both US political parties are egging on Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party towards independence under the American sphere of influence.

Only 12 days after Pelosi’s visit, another delegation of US lawmakers visited Taiwan on Aug 14. The 5-member delegation, led by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, will meet President Tsai Ing-wen and other officials to discuss U.S.-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade, investment among other issues. Other Western countries from the European Union are lining up for their pilgrimage to Taiwan. Canada has a trade office in Taipei. Will Canada follow suit with a delegation to the island and will Canada continue to provoke China by sending its frigates through the Taiwan Strait?

China wants peaceful reunification with Taiwan

China has accelerated its pace for a peaceful reunification of Taiwan with the mainland. The Chinese White Paper on Taiwan was released on August 10, 2022. Observers noted the conciliatory tone of the Paper which says in part,

“We will work with the greatest sincerity and exert our utmost efforts to achieve peaceful reunification. But we will not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures. This is to guard against external interference and all separatist activities. In no way does it target our fellow Chinese in Taiwan. Use of force would be the last resort taken under compelling circumstances.”

Canada responded in its usual wish-washy approach to international affairs by tailing behind the US. With the other countries in the G-7, it issued a statement condemning China’s military exercises around Taiwan following the Pelosi visit. At the same time, without embarrassment, Canada sent two naval frigates and an undisclosed number of military personnel to the Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) war games under the US command.

Taiwan separatists on the Offensive

Days before Pelosi’s visit to Taipei, a legislative delegation from Taiwan’s ruling DPP visited Ottawa to gain support for its application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Taiwan applied to join the trade pact September 2021, less than a week after China’s application. Taiwan is campaigning to break out of its diplomatic isolation in trying to join various international organizations. China and Taiwan previously worked out an agreement for the island province to join the World Trade Organization under the name of Chinese Taipei. It is not certain that such a compromise can be reached again now that Western countries are more aggressive in pushing for Taiwan separation. 

This July, Chiu Chih-wei headed the Taiwanese delegation which met with Liberal MP Judy Sgro, chair of the Canada Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group and Conservative MP Michael Cooper who promised to revive his private member’s bill to support Taiwanese membership in international organizations. Chiu is taking this occasion to promote Canada-Taiwan relations: “Given the anti-Chinese sentiments [in the West], we have to use that macro environment for momentum.”

Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy

Meanwhile, there appears to be division within the Canadian economic, political, military and security establishment on how to deal with China and the developing multi-polar international world order. The government has enlisted a coterie of academics, economic and business experts as an Advisory Committee to work out a made-in-Canada policy on the Indo-Pacific region. Apparently, from a leaked draft,  the division or the hang-up is whether China should be considered as a strategic threat in the new policy statement.

Countries in the G7 and Canada’s western allies have developed Indo-Pacific strategies much in line with the American policy that came out in February 2022. The American strategy uses loaded words such as, “economic coercion,” “bullying,” and “harmful behaviour” to describe China’s involvement in the Indo-Pacific region and clearly identified China as an existential threat.

A Globe & Mail article gave prominent space to Peter Jennings, former head of the weapons manufacturers financed Australian Strategic Policy Institute as he lambasted Canada for not taking an aggressive enough position on China. He said that Canada is not being taken as a serious player by the “big boys” since it was not invited to join the QUAD (a security alliance of the US, India, Japan, and Australia), or the military AUKUS alliance (containing the UK, and again the US, and Australia).

Countering Jennings, the G&M article attributed to Stephen Nagy, a senior associate professor of politics and international studies at Japan’s International Christian University as saying that countries in the Indo-Pacific region would want Canada to distinguish itself from the U.S. in its approach. “I think the last thing they want is something that seems like it’s just a carbon copy of a U.S. strategy, because they would like to see Canada as an independent actor that can bring value to the region,” Nagy said. “It has to be built on an engagement process that recognizes the needs of the region, and how they reflect Canadian interests,” including mitigating climate change, he added.

Nagy is also a Senior Fellow of the McDonald-Laurier Institute. Although Nagy seems to sound sensible here, the MLI has supported the independence of Taiwan. The Canada Files Editor-in-Chief, Aidan Jonah, exposed that the MLI receives financing from the Taiwan area government and it essentially acts as the lobby for the DPP in Canada.

Divisions on Canada’s approach to China

This division in the draft of the Indo-Pacific Strategy reflects the divisions within Canada’s ruling class. There are those that wish to continue engaging in business with China. Witness the years-long delay on Canada’s decision on banning Huawei. Corporations like Bell and Telus, likely to lose millions in hardware replacement, were not happy to dismantle Huawei equipment for ideological reasons under the guise of security. They will likely ask Ottawa for compensation.

Lurking behind the scenes are the security and military establishment who are pushing the government to take a hardline towards China. Then, there is the military-industrial complex that stands to make billions by producing weapons, such as the F-35 jet fighters and the new frigate program, to confront China.  

Within the ruling class there are some with a bit of backbone to stand up to the US Cold War mentality against China. This includes politicians like former PM Jean Chrétien and ex-cabinet minister and former Royal Bank chief economist, John McCallum, among others, who campaigned for the release of Meng Wanzhou, Hauwei’s CFO. This push was against  having Canada just follow the bidding of the US in its war to cripple Huawei, the world leader in 5G and 6G technology. Another former cabinet minister who advocates engagement with China is Pierre Pettigrew, a member of the Advisory Committee and who is also chair of the board of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, which promotes closer trade ties with China.

However, Prime Minister Trudeau appointed the hawkish Jody Thomas, formerly deputy minister of defence, as his new National Security Advisor in January 2022. She replaced another anti-China hawk, Vincent Rigby, who was in the job for less than two years. Rigby still argues that “the China threat has to be acknowledged” and that an Indo-Pacific Strategy that “doesn’t deal with China will undermine our credibility.” Thomas, also, does not appear to be a fan of engagement with China. In true aggressive cold war mindset, she pushes for the deployment of the Canadian navy to contain China, “The deployment of the Navy in particular to the South China Sea is one of the messages that can be sent.” As deputy defence minister, Thomas pushed alongside Five Eyes “allies” such as the US, for the cancellation of the joint winter survival training of the Canadian Armed Forces with China’s People’s Liberation Army in 2019. The training was supported by Global Affairs Canada but the Canadian military was not able to withstand the weight of the US which “urged” the cancellation. 

An indication of the belligerent nature of Canada’s Department of National Defence is the latest pronouncement by Minister Anita Anand to continue to deploy two navy frigates under Operation Projection and Operation Neon in the Indo-Pacific waters to menace the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea over US instigated sanctions. 

Mélanie Joly, minister of foreign affairs, outlined what she would like to see in an Indo-Pacific Strategy, “Canada is actively investing in the Indo-Pacific region to support a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific that contributes to a rules-based international order.” This much bandied about phrase, “rules-based international order,” has replaced the American “liberal international order.” It gives whoever says it a tone of moral superiority, but therules are never spelled out. Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan province violated the international rules of sovereignty and territorial integrity, yet according to the West, the rules are what the Americans define them to be. Canada routinely sends its frigates through the Taiwan Strait which China claims to be its territorial waters, but Joly says they are “international waters.” Joly’s assertion is not based on any international rules *or decisions?*.

On the far right of the Canadian spectrum are other hawkish anti-China forces. They are pushing the Taiwan independence pressure point to try and destabilize China. These forces are members of the Conservative party; academics in the Munk School of Global Affairs, whose director Janice Gross Stein, is co-chair of the Advisory Committee; polemicists in right wing organizations like the McDonald-Laurier Institute; and agit/prop specialists of the various anti-China journalists in prominent national mainstream media.

Using their platform in the House of Commons: former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, aspiring leader Pierre Poilievre, and MP’s like Michael Cooper are pushing for a de-facto recognition of Taiwan independence.  Cooper spoke about his proposed private member’s bill in a tweet, where he claimed that “Canada cannot fully support #Taiwan on the world stage until we recognize it at home. It’s time for Canadian institutions & corporations to stop calling Taiwan a province of China.”

These various forces in the Canadian political establishment are competing to set Canada’s policies in the Indo-Pacific, and its relationship with the People’s Republic of China for decades to come. Anti-imperialists are pushing for an independent Canadian policy free from the US domination and in the interest of the Canadian people. It is in our interest to engage with China in a normal and respectful manner without name-calling and prejudice. 

China, Ghana celebrate 61st anniversary of friendship treaty

We are pleased to reproduce this short piece from the Xinhua News Agency regarding the celebration organised last week in Accra by the Ghana China Friendship Association (GHACHIFA), marking the 61st anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship between China and Ghana. Joined by Ghana’s Chinese community, GHACHIFA also took this occasion to honour their founder Kojo Amoo-Gottfried. 

Amoo-Gottfried founded GHACHIFA in 2000, when he retired from the diplomatic service and returned home from his posting as Ambassador to China. A lifelong friend of China, he was, as a schoolboy, inspired by the victory of the Chinese revolution in 1949. He first visited China, representing the West African Students Union (WASU), in 1959, for the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic. On that occasion he was received by Chairman Mao Zedong and he has maintained close friendships with successive generations of Chinese leaders since then, as well as with many other leading revolutionaries and statespeople worldwide, notably Malcolm X, Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro. He was among the many tens of thousands in Beijing’s Workers’ Stadium to witness the 1962 signing of the Friendship Treaty by Presidents Liu Shaoqi and Kwame Nkrumah. When the progressive government of Jerry Rawlings came to power, Kojo served successively as his country’s Ambassador to Cuba (and concurrently to many regional countries including revolutionary Nicaragua and Grenada), to the United Nations in Geneva and finally in China (and concurrently to the DPRK, Vietnam and Cambodia).

Kojo Amoo Gottfried is a member of the Friends of Socialist China advisory group and a much-loved friend and comrade.

The Chinese community and their Ghanaian counterparts late Thursday celebrated the 61st anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship between China and Ghana.

The celebration, organized by the Ghana-China Friendship Association (GHACHIFA), was also used to honor Ghana’s first ambassador to China and founder of GHACHIFA Kojo Amoo-Gottfried.

Chinese ambassador to Ghana Lu Kun said in his keynote message that the relations between the two countries have grown rapidly, with China providing development assistance to Ghana as Ghana continued to support China on the global stage.

Lu lauded the role of GHACHIFA in deepening the time-honored friendship and fostering genuine and dynamic people-to-people diplomacy and cultural relations between the two countries.

“Long distance separates no bosom friends. Even though China and Ghana are geographically far apart, our longstanding friendship, rooted in shared historical experiences and practical cooperation, has stood the test of time and will surely keep flourishing in the years ahead,” added the Chinese ambassador.

McArios Akanbeanab Akanbong, the director of the Legal and Treaties Bureau of Ghana’s Foreign Ministry, said China is a dependable friend of Ghana. “And because we want to go far, we will continue to walk with China,” he said.

During the celebration, GHACHIFA presented a citation to Amoo-Gottfried for establishing the association in 2000 and his contributions to the friendly relations between China and Ghana.

The DPRK affirms its strong solidarity with China

Over the last month, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has strongly affirmed its militant alliance and strong solidarity with its socialist neighbour, the People’s Republic of China, on a number of occasions.

Following Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which was followed by an equally provocative jaunt to south Korea, besides a statement from the DPRK Foreign Ministry, the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) sent a letter on August 9 to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in which the US Speaker’s visit was slammed as “an unpardonable political provocation aimed to defame the authority of the CPC and disturb the successful holding of its 20th Congress.” 

The letter noted that the Asia-Pacific strategy developed by the United States since the 1950s had now been revised as an Indo-Pacific strategy, “with the main aim of checking the growth and development of socialist China and its cause of national reunification at present”, adding that, “the US has applied such stereotyped method most intensively and despicably in the moves to isolate and stifle socialism of the DPRK and China.” The WPK further stressed that the vicious anti-China moves of the US would never “break the steadfast will of 1.4 billion Chinese people to accomplish the complete reunification of the country.”

Previously, on August 1, the 95th anniversary of the founding of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), DPRK Defence Minister Ri Yong Gil greeted his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, noting that the armies of the DPRK and China, which had fought shoulder-to-shoulder in wars against both Japanese and US imperialism, were now “reliably guaranteeing the cause of socialism with arms,” adding that the Korean People’s Army, “would closely wage strategic and tactic coordinated operations with the CPLA in order to jointly guard peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world.”

Meanwhile, on July 28, the day after the Korean people celebrate their victory in the Fatherland Liberation War against US imperialism, top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un visited the Friendship Tower to honour and pay tribute to the martyrs of the Chinese People’s Volunteers, who had sacrificed their lives in the joint struggle waged on Korean soil. The Friendship Tower is located in a prestigious spot in the centre of the Korean capital Pyongyang, directly opposite the Chinese Embassy. Kim Jong Un stressed that, “the DPRK-China friendship, sealed in blood and further cemented in all sorts of trying ordeals of history, would be carried forward and developed generation after generation along with the dynamic advance of the socialist cause.”

The following reports were originally carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

C.C., WPK Sends Solidarity Letter to C.C., CPC

The Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) sent a solidarity letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on August 9 in connection with the issue of Taiwan.

The WPK Central Committee said in the letter that the public junket to Taiwan, made by an incumbent U.S. high-ranking official despite China’s strong protest and solemn warning and the universal opposition of the international community, was a serious infringement on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and an unpardonable political provocation aimed to defame the authority of the CPC and disturb the successful holding of its 20th Congress.

Noting that the Asia-Pacific security strategy, raised by the U.S. since the 1950s, has been revised as the “India-Pacific strategy” and enforced with the main aim of checking the growth and development of socialist China and its cause of national reunification at present, the letter said that it is the U.S. inveterate method of executing its policy to fabricate the root cause and mislead the international opinion before realizing its strategic scheme on the plea of controlling it and that the U.S. has applied such stereotyped method most intensively and despicably in the moves to isolate and stifle socialism of the DPRK and China.

The WPK Central Committee bitterly denounces the U.S. shameless provocation as a grave challenge to the socialist cause of China, ruthless interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state and a serious threat to regional peace and stability, it said.

In the letter, the WPK Central Committee expressed full support and solidarity with all the strong, just and legitimate steps taken by the CPC and the Chinese government to resolutely repulse the U.S. arbitrariness, safeguard the territorial integrity of the state and achieve the reunification cause of the Chinese nation.

The letter stressed that any reckless and vicious anti-China offensive by the U.S. and its vassal forces would never impair the authority of the CPC, which has opened up a turning point in exploring and developing the destiny of the Chinese nation and performed great historic feats, nor break the steadfast will of 1.4 billion Chinese people to accomplish the complete reunification of the country.

Saying that the WPK Central Committee will as ever fully support the just stand and all the determinations of the CPC over the Taiwanese issue and always be with the Chinese comrades on the road for its realization, the letter expressed the conviction that the CPC would successfully hold its 20th Congress, to serve as an important milestone in a new historic journey for the great prosperity of the Chinese nation, under the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping.

DPRK Minister of National Defence Sends Greetings to His Chinese Counterpart

Ri Yong Gil, minister of National Defence of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, sent a message of greeting to Wei Fenghe, state councilor and minister of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China, on the occasion of the 95th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

The message congratulated the CPLA on winning the victory of the revolution, safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state and making excellent achievements in the struggle for building a modernized army under the leadership of the Communist Party of China with Xi Jinping as its core for the past 95 years.

Noting that the armies of the DPRK and the PRC, which fought shoulder to shoulder in the anti-Japanese and anti-U.S. wars, are reliably guaranteeing the cause of socialism with arms, the message stressed that the Korean People’s Army would closely wage strategic and tactic coordinated operations with the CPLA in order to jointly guard peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, a congratulatory floral basket in the name of the DPRK Ministry of National Defence was conveyed to the Ministry of National Defense of the PRC.

Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Visits Friendship Tower

Kim Jong Un , general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, visited the Friendship Tower on Thursday on the occasion of the great war victory day.

He was accompanied by Jo Yong Won, Pak Jong Chon, Ri Pyong Chol, Ri Il Hwan, Ri Yong Gil, Jong Kyong Thaek, Ri Thae Sop, Kim Song Nam, Ri Son Gwon and Choe Son Hui.

A wreath in the name of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un was laid at the tower amid the playing of the wreath-laying music.

Also laid there were wreaths in the names of the WPK Central Committee and the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK.

Written on the ribbons of the wreaths were the letters “Martyrs of the Chinese People’s Volunteers will always be alive”.

Kim Jong Un paid high tribute to the martyrs of the Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) who unsparingly shed their valuable blood in the same trenches for repulsing the imperialist aggression for the sake of the common cause.

There was a march past of the guard of honor of the Korean People’s Army.

Kim Jong Un went round the Friendship Tower together with cadres accompanied.

He stressed that the brilliant combat merits and feats of the CPV officers and men, obviously recorded in the history of the great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War, would be immortal and that the DPRK-China friendship, sealed in blood and further cemented in all sorts of trying ordeals of history, would be carried forward and developed generation after generation along with the dynamic advance of the socialist cause.

Nicaragua’s strategic cooperation with Russia, China, and Iran

In the following video, which we embed below, Bolivian revolutionary journalists Camila Escalante and Ollie Vargas, in an episode of their Latin American Review on Tortilla Con Sal, interview Laureano Ortega Murillo, Nicaragua’s presidential adviser for the promotion of investment, trade and international cooperation.

Laureano speaks in detail about his country’s increasing and strategic cooperation with China, Russia and Iran. He notes that whilst diplomatic relations between his country and China were only resumed late last year, the relations between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) go back a long way, citing the first period of FSLN governance in the 1980s, following the victory of the revolution. (It is also worth noting that the FSLN was among the global political parties and organisations whose condolences on the death of Chairman Mao Zedong in 1976 were reported by the Chinese media.)

The Nicaraguan politician notes that the CPC and FSLN share the same political objectives and ideology of socialism and communism and hence the two countries are making rapid progress in areas that benefit people’s lives, such as housing, water and sewerage. He further explains in detail how the same pro-people policies also characterise Nicaragua’s relations with both Russia and Iran.

In the second part of the interview, Laureano and Ollie construct a dinner party, in a conversation that ranges over cultural topics from boxing to opera.

Expanding China-Africa friendship and cooperation

On August 18, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired, by video link from Beijing, the Coordinators’ Meeting on the Implementation of the Follow-Up Actions of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

At this meeting, Wang announced that China is forgiving 23 interest-free loans for 17 African nations. Writing on Multipolarista, the website he edits, Benjamin Norton notes:

“This is in addition to China’s cancellation of more than $3.4 billion in debt and restructuring of around $15 billion of debt in Africa between 2000 and 2019. While Beijing has a repeated history of forgiving loans like this, Western governments have made baseless, politically motivated accusations that China uses ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ in the Global South.”

Wang Yi’s speech contained a wealth of detail on the progress in China-Africa cooperation since the ministerial meeting was held last November, including that:

  • China has completed major projects in Senegal, Kenya, Cameroon and Egypt.
  • Provided emergency food assistance to Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea.
  • Provided 189 million doses of anti-Covid vaccines to 27 African countries, with joint production capacity in Africa having now reached around 400 million doses.
  • Undertaken resilient and sustainable development initiatives in Zambia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Seychelles, Madagascar and Mozambique.

Presenting a number of proposals to develop the cooperation still further, Wang welcomed the initiative by Tanzania and Zambia to restart the Tazara railway, a huge project built by China in the 1970s to help those countries get out from the vice-like economic grip exercised by the countries to their south that were still under white racist and colonial rule.

On August 22, the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported that, “the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation has been appointed to carry out a feasibility study on the project, the Chinese embassy in Zambia announced.

“‘China is making every effort to prepare for the reactivation of the railway upon Zambian and Tanzanian request again,’ Chinese ambassador to Lusaka Du Xiaohui said, adding that Beijing will engage the Zambian and Tanzanian governments to explore ways to make Tazara profitable.”

Noting that some 70 Chinese workers and engineers sacrificed their lives in the course of building the railway, the newspaper further reported that, on August 10, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema commissioned a memorial park in their honour in Chongwe, near to the national capital, Lusaka.

We reprint below the article by Benjamin Norton and the full text of Minister Wang Yi’s speech. They were originally carried respectively by Multipolarista and the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

China forgives 23 loans for 17 African countries, expands ‘win-win’ trade and infrastructure projects

The Chinese government has announced that it is forgiving 23 interest-free loans for 17 African nations, while pledging to deepen its collaboration with the continent.

This is in addition to China’s cancellation of more than $3.4 billion in debt and restructuring of around $15 billion of debt in Africa between 2000 and 2019.

While Beijing has a repeated history of forgiving loans like this, Western governments have made baseless, politically motivated accusations that China uses “debt-trap diplomacy” in the Global South.

Continue reading Expanding China-Africa friendship and cooperation

Xi stresses revitalization of northeast China

Chinese President Xi Jinping recently conducted an extensive inspection tour of Liaoning province. Situated in north-east China, Liaoning is one of China’s old industrial bases and borders the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). 

President Xi visited a revolutionary memorial, a river and lake management project, an enterprise and a residential community, meeting people from all walks of life. The party’s goal of realizing common prosperity was a major theme of his tour and the President stressed that no political consideration is higher than the people – so long as the party maintains its ties with the people, breathes the same air as the people, shares the same destiny, and stays connected to them, it can obtain the power to triumph over any difficulty.

He also noted that the local people had sacrificed a great deal for the liberation of north-east China and made massive contributions to the development of New China and the victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, adding that, “We will never allow our socialist country to change its nature. Nor will the people.”

Xi also laid stress on ecological conservation and green development, flood control and prevention, independent innovation, promoting self-reliance in science and technology and boosting the country’s grip on core technologies, and developing elderly care programs whilst also ensuring healthy growth of the younger generation. 

He told local residents that Chinese-style modernization means common prosperity for all, not just a few. “More efforts must be made so that the people feel the CPC serves the people wholeheartedly and is always with the people,” he stressed.

The below report was originally carried by the Xinhua News Agency.

President Xi Jinping has stressed greater sense of responsibility and endeavors in the revitalization of China’s northeast region in the new era.

During his inspection tour in Liaoning Province from Tuesday to Wednesday, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for breaking new ground in the revitalization and development of the northeastern province.

Xi called for coordinating the COVID-19 response with economic and social development, balancing development and security imperatives, fully and faithfully implementing the new development philosophy, and firmly promoting high-quality development.

Efforts should be made to promote common prosperity for all, advance the modernization of China’s system and capacity for governance, and deepen the Party’s full and rigorous self-governance, to set the stage for the 20th National Congress of the CPC, said Xi.

During the inspection, Xi went to the cities of Jinzhou and Shenyang, where he visited several places, including a revolutionary memorial, a river and lake management project, an enterprise, and a community.

Continue reading Xi stresses revitalization of northeast China

What the media gets wrong about Taiwan’s place in China

We are pleased to republish the below article by Brendan Devlin, which was originally carried by the Canadian publication Passage.

Brendan sets out some vital contemporary and historical facts with regard to the Taiwan situation as a necessary corrective at a time when the corporate media essentially serve to uncritically amplify the US-led narrative. He shows how China’s 1842 defeat in the first Opium War, waged by British imperialism, set the scene for Japan’s seizure of Taiwan in 1895 and that any idea of partitioning China was solely an imperialist project, as, for example, enunciated by Winston Churchill in 1902, and continues:

Thus, in 1949, there was no split between Taiwan and China. Instead, there were two governments claiming to be the sole legitimate government of all of China. One was based in Beijing and controlled the whole of mainland China, while the other was based in Taipei and controlled Taiwan and a few other small islands. Both governments espoused the One China principle, which holds that there’s only one China and that Taiwan is part of it.”

Brendan explains that the separatist elements that have emerged in Taiwanese politics since the 1990s have throughout been deeply connected to US imperialist strategy, with the US arming and training military forces on the island, regularly sailing warships through the Taiwan Strait, and President Biden openly contradicting his own government’s ostensible policy on several occasions.

United States House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan earlier this month received extensive media coverage across the globe. In North American media, this coverage was framed by self-interested distortions about the history of China and Taiwan.

Most articles briefly explained that China claims Taiwan as its own territory, and then moved on without any further explanation. Some added that Taiwan will “be annexed by force if necessary,” that China opposes visits by foreign governments and/or that China considers relations with Taiwan as an internal matter of sovereignty. Certain articles also briefly and selectively quoted Chinese officials to bolster the above points. 

Meanwhile, many articles uncritically included claims that Taiwan is a sovereign country. When discussing China’s response to Pelosi’s visit, an Associated Press (AP) article published at the CBC wrote simply that “Taiwan decried the actions, saying they violate the island’s sovereignty.” The article also quoted the President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-Wen, saying: “We will firmly uphold our nation’s sovereignty and continue to hold the line of defence for democracy.” Both this article and another one from AP published at Global News quoted an official from Taiwan’s Defence Ministry saying the Chinese response to the visit “equals to sealing off Taiwan by air and sea, such an act severely violates our country’s territorial sovereignty.” 

Continue reading What the media gets wrong about Taiwan’s place in China

US media hide military threats against China

This insightful article by Sara Flounders, originally published in Workers World, exposes the incredible hypocrisy shown by the ‘free’ media – giving non-stop coverage to China’s allegedly aggressive response to Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit whilst studiously ignoring the RIMPAC maneuvers being carried out at the same time by the US naval command.

Sara notes that the US maintains a constant military presence in the region, and connects this back to the imperialist domination of China, starting with the First Opium War nearly 200 years ago. Just as the Opium Wars were fought to impose British imperial hegemony, so is the current escalation in the Pacific region being carried out in order to impose US imperial hegemony. The difference being that, following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the CPC-led government has been able to “rebuild a strong, united China which is increasingly able to defend its coastal waters and resist US imperialist demands.”

The author points out that the US is conducting a “desperate imperialist strategy to reverse its declining global position”, and is wreaking havoc in the process. Progressive and pro-peace forces worldwide must join hands against this menace.

Consider what is being said, as well as what is totally omitted, in the U.S. coverage of China’s naval action around Taiwan.  

The U.S. naval command RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific Amphibious Assault Training) was carrying out maneuvers involving 170 aircraft, 38 ships, four submarines, and 25,000 military personnel from all the G7 imperialist countries. Some 19 other Asia Pacific countries were pulled in for symbolic participation. RIMPAC is the world’s largest international maritime exercise.

This aggressive maritime action took place from June 29 to Aug. 4. In other words, it was going on as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was visiting Taiwan.

The shaping of information is all pervasive. Whether it is FOX News, CNN, AP, the New York Times or the Washington Post, the multibillion-dollar media are part of and totally intertwined with U.S. military industries. They collaborate in hiding U.S. war plans and provocations. 

The role of the corporate media in totally distorting the news on China must be challenged.

Continue reading US media hide military threats against China

Video: Chinese democracy far more effective than Western democracy

Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez was recently interviewed by China Daily about the differences between Chinese and Western democracy. Citing the examples of China’s commitment to eradicating poverty, suppressing the Covid pandemic and preventing climate breakdown, Carlos asserts that Chinese democracy is proving itself far superior to the Western model in terms of being responsive to the needs and demands of the people.

The interview is embedded below.

The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era

The White Paper, ‘The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era’ was published by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council and the State Council Information Office on August 10. It is the third such White Paper published by China. The previous ones were issued in 1993 and 2000. 

Besides a preamble and conclusion, the document is comprised of five main sections as follows:

I. Taiwan Is Part of China – This Is an Indisputable Fact

II. Resolute Efforts of the CPC to Realize China’s Complete Reunification

III. China’s Complete Reunification Is a Process That Cannot Be Halted

IV. National Reunification in the New Era

V. Bright Prospects for Peaceful Reunification

The preamble notes that realizing China’s complete reunification “is indispensable for the realization of China’s rejuvenation. It is also a historic mission of the Communist Party of China (CPC)” and the first section goes on to explain how Taiwan has been a part of Chinese territory since ancient times, noting how the aggression of Dutch colonialists in 1624 and Japanese in 1894-95 had been resolutely resisted by the Chinese people. In the context of the world anti-fascist war, the Cairo Declaration of 1943 and the Potsdam Proclamation of 1945 affirmed that all Chinese territories that had been stolen by Japan, including Taiwan, must be restored to China’s sovereignty. The One China Principle is enshrined in United Nations Resolution 2758, which restored China’s UN seat to its legitimate government, namely that of the People’s Republic. 181 countries, including the United States, have so far established diplomatic relations with China on that basis.

The second section outlines the persistent efforts of successive generations of Chinese leaders to realize the goal of peaceful reunification, resulting in the formulation of the concept of ‘One Country Two Systems’, the 1992 Consensus between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits and the thriving ties between the mainland and Taiwan.

The third section notes that: “External interference is a prominent obstacle to China’s reunification. Still lost in delusions of hegemony and trapped in a Cold War mindset, some forces in the US insist on perceiving and portraying China as a major strategic adversary and a serious long-term threat. They do their utmost to undermine and pressurize China, exploiting Taiwan as a convenient tool. The US authorities have stated that they remain committed to the one-China policy and that they do not support ‘Taiwan independence’. But their actions contradict their words.”

It further notes that, even when the People’s Republic had just been founded, and the country had to be built from the ruins left by decades of war, China won a resounding victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. “We defeated a powerful and well-armed enemy through gallantry and tenacity.” Today, “under the strong leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people and the Chinese nation have stood upright, won prosperity, and grown in strength. A moderately prosperous society in all respects has been built on the mainland, where a large population once lived in dire poverty. We now have better conditions, more confidence, and greater capabilities. We can complete the historic mission of national reunification, so that both sides of the Straits can enjoy a better life.”

The fourth section makes clear: “We will work with the greatest sincerity and exert our utmost efforts to achieve peaceful reunification. But we will not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures. This is to guard against external interference and all separatist activities. In no way does it target our fellow Chinese in Taiwan. Use of force would be the last resort taken under compelling circumstances.”

The fifth section explains how Taiwan’s people, economy and society will all enjoy better prospects after national reunification.

We are pleased to make available the full text of this very important document below. It was originally carried by the Xinhua News Agency.

Preamble

Resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China’s complete reunification is a shared aspiration of all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation. It is indispensable for the realization of China’s rejuvenation. It is also a historic mission of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The CPC, the Chinese government, and the Chinese people have striven for decades to achieve this goal.

The 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012 heralded a new era in building socialism with Chinese characteristics. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core, the CPC and the Chinese government have adopted new and innovative measures in relation to Taiwan. They have continued to chart the course of cross-Straits relations, safeguard peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, and promote progress towards national reunification. However, in recent years the Taiwan authorities, led by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), have redoubled their efforts to divide the country, and some external forces have tried to exploit Taiwan to contain China, prevent the Chinese nation from achieving complete reunification, and halt the process of national rejuvenation.

The CPC has united the Chinese people and led them in fulfilling the First Centenary Goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects as scheduled, and in embarking on a new journey towards the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a modern socialist country.

The Chinese nation has achieved a historic transformation from standing upright to becoming prosperous and growing in strength, and national rejuvenation is driven by an unstoppable force. This marks a new starting point for reunification.

The Chinese government has published two previous white papers on Taiwan. One was The Taiwan Question and Reunification of China in August 1993, and the other was The One-China Principle and the Taiwan Issue in February 2000. These two white papers provided a comprehensive and systematic elaboration of the basic principles and policies regarding the resolution of the Taiwan question. This new white paper is being released to reiterate the fact that Taiwan is part of China, to demonstrate the resolve of the CPC and the Chinese people and their commitment to national reunification, and to emphasize the position and policies of the CPC and the Chinese government in the new era.

Continue reading The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era

Argentine ambassador reflects on the successes of socialism in China

In this fascinating interview with Global Times, Argentina’s Ambassador to China, Sabino Vaca Narvaja, reflects on the extraordinary progress made by the Chinese people since the establishment of the People’s Republic. Vaca Narvaja talks about hearing the song Without the Communist Party, there would be no new China during the centenary celebrations of the CPC in July 2021. The lyrics captured his attention “because they explain why China has made such unprecedented achievements in human history, and why China has changed from a feudal society to an advanced country.”

Vaca Narvaja notes that he spent his childhood in Cuba and had the opportunity to experience socialism first-hand, which immunized him from the prevailing anti-communist ideology in the West. He calls on people in the West to drop the “end of history” narrative, to reject Cold War propaganda, and to make an effort to study and understand China.

“‘Without the Communist Party, there would be no new China.’ These lyrics succinctly capture the fundamental reason why China has achieved unprecedented progress in human history,” Argentine Ambassador to China, Sabino Vaca Narvaja told the Global Times in an exclusive interview.

The Ambassador said one thing that impressed him the most in China was the moment when he heard the song “Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China” at Tiananmen Square one early morning at a ceremony marking the centenary of the founding of the CPC in 2021, because the lyrics also expressed his true feelings. Narvaja said he was impressed by China’s admirable economic, technological, and social development particularly in relation to people’s livelihoods over the last decade, especially in its efforts to reduce poverty and address the inequities brought about by development.

When speaking of the ambassador, many Chinese people are instantly curious about his Chinese name, Niu Wangdao. Why does an ambassador from Latin America have such a bookish Chinese name? How does his Chinese name Niu Wangdao express his feelings and thoughts about China?

Narvaja told the Global Times that before coming to China, he had noticed that many Chinese immigrants in Latin America gave themselves a Spanish name to facilitate communication with the locals, which he believed is a friendly move. Therefore, after coming to China as ambassador, he decided to take a Chinese name to express his goodwill to China. So, the name “Wangdao” occurred to him.

Continue reading Argentine ambassador reflects on the successes of socialism in China

Webinar: China encirclement and the imperialist build-up in the Pacific

Our next webinar takes place on Saturday 24 September 2022, 11am (US Eastern) / 8am (US Pacific) / 4pm (Britain) / 11pm (China).

Register on Eventbrite

This event will address the rising aggression of the US and its allies in the Pacific region. We will discuss the Biden administration’s increased support for Taiwanese separatism; Western power projection in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits; the hysteria surrounding China’s security agreement with the Solomon Islands; the AUKUS nuclear pact; developments in Korea and Japan; and more.

Confirmed speakers

  • Liu Xin (Host of the opinion show The Point with Liu Xin, CGTN)
  • Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (Author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States)
  • Judge Lillian Sing (the first Asian American female Judge in Northern California, retired to start the “Comfort women” Justice Coalition)
  • Ken Hammond (Organizer with Pivot to Peace; author of From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History)
  • Li Peng (Dean of the Graduate Institute for Taiwan Studies, Xiamen University)
  • Qiao Collective (Grassroots media collective of diaspora Chinese writers, artists, and researchers)
  • Ju-Hyun Park (Organizer and writer with the Nodutdol collective)
  • KJ Noh (Peace activist and expert on the geopolitics of Asia)
  • Zhong Xiangyu (Political commentator and Chinese hip-hop artist)
  • Keith Bennett (Co-editor of Friends of Socialist China)
  • Moderator: Radhika Desai (University of Manitoba / International Manifesto Group)

Topics include

  • AUKUS and the attempts to construct an Asian NATO
  • The rightward shift in Japan and South Korea
  • The West’s incitement of Taiwanese secessionism
  • The role of modern colonialism in the project of containing China (Okinawa, Hawai’i, Guam)
  • Attempts at a new Monroe Doctrine in the Pacific
  • Western power projection in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits
  • China encirclement – from 1949 to the present day
  • Building unity between the peoples of the Pacific and the oppressed peoples of the United States

Co-sponsors

Please register and spread the word!

China’s agenda: a multipolar world order with shared security and prosperity

This insightful article by CGTN reporter Zhou Jiaxin, first published in the Morning Star, analyses the increasingly hostile rhetoric employed by US politicians in relation to China – in particular that China is undermining the “rules-based international order”. Such rhetoric provides a cloak for expanding NATO’s scope to the Pacific and for developing anti-China military alliances such as AUKUS and the Quad. Zhou Jiaxin contrasts the aggressive actions of the US and its allies with China’s consistent multilateralism, its support for organisations such as BRICS, its emphasis on cooperation, and its role in “counterbalancing and reshaping the world into one that is no longer dominated by only Western powers”.

When USAF C-17 took off from Kabul International Airport last year, shocking videos showed people plunging to their deaths as hundreds of Afghans tried to cling onto the final departing flight. It marked the bloody and chaotic end to the US’s longest war overseas.

Almost a year later, the world order remains threatened by what Beijing calls the politics of “small circles” — and this is creating confrontation and insecurity.

“Some countries are now seeking absolute security via expansion of military alliances to force other countries to take sides and create bloc confrontation, to overlook other countries’ interests and rights and seek supremacy,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the latest Brics summit, attended by major developing countries Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa.

The message from Beijing closely follows rhetoric from Moscow that has described six rounds of Nato eastward expansion as a threat amid Ukraine’s anticipated accession to the military bloc.

Continue reading China’s agenda: a multipolar world order with shared security and prosperity

Imperialism becoming more aggressive and more dangerous to world peace

This statement by the Communist Party of Ireland, posted on the CPI website on 11 August 2022, situates the increasing provocations against China within a broader strategy by the US-led imperialist camp to strengthen its military presence in the region. This is a component of the overall crisis of imperialism, in which “monopoly capitalism cannot overcome its growing contradictions”, leading the US to pursue a path of militarism “as the means of securing its hegemony and overcoming its declining power and influence.”

There are increasing tensions in and around the Asia-Pacific region, particularly resulting from the calculated actions by Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives, in visiting the Chinese territory of Taiwan.

US imperialism is attempting to shore up its declining economic dominance and to strengthen its general military presence around the globe and in particular in the South China Sea. The visit by Pelosi was part of its strategy of raising tensions in the region and provoking the People’s Republic of China into an arms race.

This is a similar strategy to that being pursued in the current conflict in Ukraine, in which the United States and European Union are using the NATO military alliance to fight a proxy war against Russia. The escalation of that conflict poses a grave danger to peace in Europe and globally.

Monopoly capitalism cannot overcome its growing contradictions, while the United States is resorting to increased  militarism as the means of securing its hegemony and overcoming its declining power and influence.

The subservient role being played by the Irish government and state, in the interests of imperialism, is reflected in its attitude and its statements in relation to both the proxy war taking place in Ukraine and these latest provocations against the People’s Republic of China.

The Communist Party of Ireland calls for an end to such provocations. There is an urgent and growing need for a worldwide movement of peace forces to demand an end to militarism, aggression and interference by imperialism and for respect for international law as well as for the national independence and sovereignty of nations and peoples.

We express our respect for and our solidarity with the people and government of the People’s Republic of China.

US Peace Council statement: Stop all provocations against China!

We are pleased to republish this powerful statement from the US Peace Council, denouncing Nancy Pelosi’s visit to China’s Taiwan and calling for “an end to the belligerent foreign policy of the United States against China, Russia and the other nations of the world.” The statement points out that the Pelosi visit was carried out with two key purposes in mind: to bolster the rising militarization of the Indo-Pacific region, which forms the cornerstone of the long-term strategy to contain and suppress China; and to distract the attention of ordinary people in the US away from their just and legitimate demands for peace, for healthcare, for decent jobs with a living wage, for a sustainable energy system and for civil and human rights.

The U.S. Peace Council condemns in strongest terms the latest U.S. government provocation against the People’s Republic of China and against peace in the world.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi imposed herself into the Taiwan Province of China without an invitation from the Chinese government. We have to examine the questions of why such an imposition and why now in light of U.S. imperialism’s increasing global weakness and its attempt to retain global hegemony through war and militarism. We have to understand this provocation as part of the stated U.S. policy of “Full Spectrum Dominance.”

Pelosi’s provocative trip is in violation of the One-China policy established between China, the U.S. and the rest of the world, which recognized Taiwan as a province of China, not an independent country. This trip makes it clear that the present U.S. administration gives only lip service to the One-China policy while its actions are aimed at undermining it.

We view Nancy Pelosi’s provocation in the context of the long-term and now accelerating U.S. and its allies’ militarization of the Indo-Pacific region. The hundreds of military bases surrounding China; the recently signed AUKUS Pact, which expands U.S. and UK nuclear weapons into Australia; the Quad military alliance between United States, India, Australia and Japan; and the RIMPAC multinational war exercises — are all aimed at threatening China. We must view the U.S. government provocation in light of nuclear war fighting exercises the U.S. runs annually against North Korea, and the THAAD first-strike missile systems situated in South Korea that also threaten China. What the U.S. has been trying to do against Russia in Ukraine, is now being replicated against China in Taiwan. What the United States government and monopoly corporations are attempting to accomplish is to deny China’s sovereignty.

The U.S. government is attempting to distract the people’s movements from demanding an end to these crises so that they agree to more vast military spending that in total destroys the quality of life of the people. At the approach of the November elections, the U.S. government, including Speaker Pelosi and the Biden Administration, is trying to distract the citizenry from responding to the huge array of unresolved crises, very limited victories and giveaways of huge subsidies to monopoly capital by voting their party out of office.

Among the crises the U.S. government and private capital are incapable of solving and that led to this latest distraction and provocation — from ensuring affordable food and housing, child care and livable wages, to providing efficient and inexpensive mass transit, to providing universal health care, to guaranteeing civil rights and ending official police violence, to creating a sustainable energy system and livable environment, among others.

On the occasion of the current United Nations review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the world’s leaders that we are a single misstep away from nuclear annihilation. Yet the United States is prepared to take that misstep by provoking China.

We call on the people of the United States, the people’s movements, and people’s leaders to actively oppose this latest provocation against China, which brings with it the threat of yet another war and the use of nuclear weapons.

We must put an end to the belligerent foreign policy of the United States against China, Russia and the other nations of the world.

Roger Waters refutes US war propaganda in CNN interview and World Beyond War webinar

As co-founder of the band Pink Floyd, Roger Waters occupies an iconic place in the history of British rock music. He is also a progressive political activist, who does not hesitate to take a stand on anti-imperialist issues. The following article, originally carried on the World Socialist Web Site, reviews Waters’ recent interview on CNN and his participation in a webinar hosted by World Beyond War. Waters exposes US and NATO culpability for the conflict in Ukraine and also speaks about China, asserting that “Taiwan is part of China” and that, “the Chinese didn’t invade Iraq and kill a million people in 2003.”

On Saturday and Monday, English-born musician-composer and activist Roger Waters denounced the role of the US government in the war between Russia and Ukraine and discussed other contemporary political issues in two public appearances.

Waters, currently on a 38-date concert tour in North America entitled “This is Not a Drill,” appeared on Saturday morning in a short interview on CNN with Michael Smerconish and was featured in a 90-minute webinar on Monday hosted by World Beyond War.

The appearances are noteworthy—and newsworthy—because the US media in general is as tightly censored and as submissive to the authorities as that existing under many authoritarian regimes. Opposition to the US-NATO war with Russia and/or the campaign to demonize China is simply not encountered on American television or in the pages of the daily newspapers.

In the course of the CNN interview, Waters took the opportunity to explain why, during his concerts, he includes President Joe Biden as a “war criminal” who is “just getting started” on a list along with every other US president since Ronald Reagan.

In reviewing the facts that prompted the characterization of Biden, Waters showed that Smerconish—who presents himself on his weekly CNN program and in other journalistic pursuits as a “balanced” commentator—is merely another mouthpiece for US propaganda.

Continue reading Roger Waters refutes US war propaganda in CNN interview and World Beyond War webinar

Taiwan is part of China

We are pleased to publish this useful article from The Socialist Correspondent about the US’s recent moves to undermine the One China principle and to expand the New Cold War. As the author points out: “An empire in crisis, the US is provoking war after war as it seeks to preserve its world domination at any cost.” The US and its allies are aiming to create an environment in which they can justify the expansion of their military infrastructure in the Pacific and deepen their project of China containment. Their aims will certainly be frustrated.

The island of Taiwan is part of China. One-China means exactly what it says: that there is only one country called China, including Taiwan. It is a principle agreed upon by the UN and 181 countries in the world, including the USA, UK, Europe, Japan and Australia. Only fourteen countries have given Taiwan diplomatic recognition – down from fifteen after the Solomon Islands established closer ties with China this year.

After Japan was defeated in WW2, all Chinese territory it had occupied was returned to China under treaties signed by the victorious Allied powers. It is these treaties the US is seeking to tear up.

So the visit to Taiwan, a renegade province of China, by Nancy Pelosi – Speaker of the US Congress, and a hugely influential politician, third in line to the presidency after Vice-President Kamala Harris – was designed to provoke. Breaking decades of US diplomacy in its relations with China, the visit served no other purpose than to challenge the One-China principle. Representing the strategic aims of US foreign policy, Pelosi was trying to goad China into a response that could serve as a pretext for future war in the Far East.

Continue reading Taiwan is part of China

China: COVID, computer chips, airliners, and US imperialism

This interesting article by Chris Fry, writing in Fighting Words, analyzes the escalating tech war initiated by the Trump administration and being carried forward under Biden. Desperate to slow down China’s economic and technological rise, the US is spreading all manner of lies in order to impose sanctions on China.

In dealing with China, the primary goal of each successive administration is to successfully maintain U.S. hegemony, to assert the power of the U.S. ruling class to profit from exploiting Chinese workers as well as the rest of the global working class and oppressed nations without restrictions.

These sanctions will inevitably fail to prevent China’s development, but in the meantime are already impacting the livelihood of the working class in the West. As Mao Zedong famously remarked in 1957: “‘Lifting a rock only to drop it on one’s own feet’ is a Chinese folk saying to describe the behavior of certain fools. The reactionaries in all countries are fools of this kind.”

The leadership of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) likes to describe its social and economic structure as “Socialism with Chinese characteristics.” But we can describe the U.S. system, driven by its insatiable greed for profits and global hegemony, as “Imperialism with imperialist characteristics”.

A July 5th Bloomberg article revealed that the Biden administration is pressuring the Netherlands to force Dutch companies to stop selling computer chip manufacturing equipment to China:

The US is pushing the Netherlands to ban ASML Holding NV from selling to China mainstream technology essential in making a large chunk of the world’s chips, expanding its campaign to curb the country’s rise, according to people familiar with the matter.

A computer chip ploy for a vast subsidy for Big Tech

Since the 1970s, U.S. Big Business has closed thousands of plants and factories across the country, while finance capital has invested trillions in overseas facilities to exploit low wage workers. Currently, the predominant manufacturer of the leading edge 5nm computer chip is the Taiwan based TSMC Corporation in Taiwan.

Senator Sanders stated in a July 14th  editorial for the Guardian describing a current piece of chip-industry pushed legislation for $52 billion in subsidies to build a TSMC chip facility in the U.S.:

Let’s review some recent history. Over the last 20 years, the microchip industry has shut down more than 780 manufacturing plants in the United States and eliminated 150,000 American jobs while moving most of its production overseas – after receiving over $9.5bn in government subsidies and loans.

In other words, in order to make more profits, these companies took government money and used it to ship good-paying jobs abroad. Now, as a reward for that bad behavior, these same companies are in line to receive a giant taxpayer handout to undo the damage that they did.

Continue reading China: COVID, computer chips, airliners, and US imperialism

Biden administration continues to unravel while increased US provocations threaten world peace

The below article was originally published by the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), which is registered for electoral purposes as the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada. Calling out Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan as “yet another U.S. provocation against China”, the Canadian comrades state:

This hooligan behaviour is paraded as being necessary to uphold a rules-based international order, despite the fact that it destroys all norms of international relations between countries and of international diplomacy.

Noting the Chinese warning that those who play with fire will get burned, the CPC(ML) points out:

The fact is that the U.S. has already been burned, as the peoples at home and abroad have witnessed one failure after the other of the current U.S. president’s foreign relations and increasingly see the U.S. government wracked in disagreements and unable to hold its ranks in check. Repeatedly resorting to more violence and wars of destruction will not provide humanity or the U.S. a way out of the crisis caused by its striving for world hegemony. Certainly, having witnessed the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan few consider the U.S. could succeed against China.

The top leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, decided to visit Taiwan, which is Chinese territory. She did so without securing the permission of Chinese authorities and against clearly stated Chinese objections. This hooligan behaviour is paraded as being necessary to uphold a rules-based international order, despite the fact that it destroys all norms of international relations between countries and of international diplomacy.

It is yet another U.S. provocation against China, which in recent months have included sailing U.S. ships through the Taiwan Straight which are strategic waters between China and Taiwan, holding war games in the vicinity, issuing threats of sanctions if China in any way supports Russia and so forth. Four U.S. warships, including the USS Ronald Reagan are now standing by. U.S. fighter jets, along with those of Taiwan, are flying above Taiwan, further increasing tensions and bringing Chinese jets into the area. All of this has the complicity of Canada.

Biden has said more than once that he would come to Taiwan’s aid militarily if China were to attempt to forcefully reunify the country. He has not reversed measures taken by former President Trump which lifted U.S. government rules prohibiting interactions between U.S. diplomats and their Taiwanese counterparts. Such interactions are contrary to recognition of the Chinese government as the government of China, including Taiwan, and respecting international relations between sovereign countries.

Continue reading Biden administration continues to unravel while increased US provocations threaten world peace