Author: Friends of Socialist China

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

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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

Nancy Pelosi, Taiwan and Baltimore

In this article, first published by Struggle/La Lucha, Stephen Millies situates US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week against the background of her family’s reactionary history. Both her father and brother were mayors of Baltimore, with a notorious track record of racism and segregation. Setting out some of the true history of Taiwan, he also unmasks Pelosi’s utterly specious claim to be upholding human rights, whether in Taiwan, the rest of China or the United States.

Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S House of Representatives, landed in Taiwan Province on August 2. Her trip is a dangerous provocation against the People’s Republic of China.

Pelosi arrived on the 58th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson claimed Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin had attacked a U.S. Navy destroyer.

The Pentagon Papers later admitted this was a lie, a complete fabrication. That it was a lie didn’t stop LBJ, who used the lie to start bombing Vietnam.

Even the United States government concedes that there’s only one China. Because it’s an island, Taiwan is the only part of China that wasn’t liberated in 1949 by the People’s Liberation Army during the Chinese civil war.

With U.S. assistance, the defeated dictator Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan Province in 1949. His regime had already slaughtered 28,000 or more people in Taiwan during a massacre that began on Feb. 28, 1947. 

It’s doubtful that TV’s talking heads will mention that atrocity or that “democratic” Taiwan was under martial law from 1949 until 1987.

Continue reading Nancy Pelosi, Taiwan and Baltimore

Pelosi’s one-night stand in Taipei accomplished her goals

In this short article, originally published on his Edu/Pol Newsletter, veteran US progressive activist Mike Klonsky draws a connection between Pelosi’s Taiwan visit and the shady dealings of her venture capitalist husband, currently under investigation for an insider trading scandal involving semiconductors made on the island.

If Nancy Pelosi’s aim was to destabilize the region and pull the rug out from under Biden’s upcoming meeting with Xi, her stopover in Taiwan was a resounding success. Her visit to Taiwan could also have a large impact on the semiconductor business, which has a heavy presence in China and Taiwan.

China now says it is canceling or suspending all dialogue with the U.S. on issues from climate change to military relations and anti-drug efforts in retaliation.

AP reports this morning

China is canceling all communication between its area commanders and defense department, along with talks on military maritime safety. Cooperation on returning illegal immigrants, criminal investigations, transnational crime, illegal drugs, and climate change will also be suspended.

China also announced unspecified sanctions on Pelosi and her venture-capitalist husband, Paul, who is currently under investigation for an insider-trading scandal involving semiconductors, made in Taiwan.

Can’t say they weren’t warned.

Early in July, it was disclosed that Paul Pelosi had exercised call options for as much as $5 million worth of Nvidia stock ahead of deliberations in Congress about a bill that would boost the U.S. semiconductor industry.

It wasn’t the first time Paul Pelosi had invested in a semiconductor company as momentum built behind congressional funding for the industry, which produces computer chips needed for a broad range of technology.

On her brief stopover in Taipei, Pelosi met with Mark Liu, Chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor, a company with a market capitalization of more than $430 billion. The recently passed CHIPS Act provides funding to the semiconductor sector and encourages the building of foundries in the U.S., something that was likely discussed between Pelosi and Liu.

Pelosi, who has said the CHIPS Act could create an opportunity for U.S. cooperation with Taiwan, recently came under scrutiny for her husband exercising call options of NVIDIA Corp. The Pelosis eventually sold their shares in NVIDIA.

Taiwan Semiconductor is building a $12-billion plant in Arizona.

Get it?

In July, Pelosi claimed that her husband has “absolutely not” made any stock trades based on information from her.

Paul Pelosi was also busted recently for causing a crash while driving his Porsche while drunk.

Pelosi’s Taiwan visit places the US on the wrong side of history

Co-editor of Friends of Socialist China Danny Haiphong summarizes the reasons for Nancy Pelosi’s reckless trip to Taiwan and how this provocation toward China has placed the United States on the wrong side of history. Danny notes that Pelosi’s trip “did not occur in a political vacuum” and that the US has been “steadily eroding its commitment to the one-China principle in action while claiming to abide by it in word.” The US’s end-game is clear: “to encircle China, to provoke China, and to undermine China’s rise on the global stage.”

This article first appeared in CGTN.

On August 2, U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi led a Congressional delegation to Taiwan despite numerous warnings from China’s Foreign Ministry and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to reconsider. Pelosi’s military aircraft snuck into Taiwan late in the evening.

The next day, the second-in-line to the U.S. president met with authorities in Taiwan. Pelosi’s actions represent a blatant violation of the one-China principle. They place United States firmly on the wrong side of history by further accelerating the deterioration of its relationship with China.

The one-China principle is the foundation of China-U.S. relations. In 1971, The United Nations recognized the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as China’s rightful government under Resolution 2758. This came after more than 22 years of sanctions against China led by the U.S.

Continue reading Pelosi’s Taiwan visit places the US on the wrong side of history

The real agenda behind Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan

In this detailed discussion on BreakThrough News, Brian Becker and Ken Hammond discuss the historic significance of Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to China’s Taiwan. Dismissing the comments by President Biden and Antony Blinken that Pelosi was visiting in some sort of unofficial capacity, they point out that Pelosi herself described the visit as a “bipartisan Congressional delegation”. The trip simply could not have taken place without the tacit blessing of the ruling cirles in the US. As such it is clearly meant to send a message of support to separatist forces in Taiwan, to provoke a response from China, and to mark an escalation in the ongoing US-led hybrid warfare aimed at containing and encircling the People’s Republic of China and rolling back the Chinese Revolution.

Brian and Ken powerfully debunk the notion that the US interest in relation to Taiwan has anything to do with “protecting democracy”. After all, the US gave its enthusiastic military, economic and diplomatic support to the military dictatorship led by Chiang Kai-shek from 1949 onwards – including manipulating the UN such that China was represented on the Security Council and the General Assembly by the Taipei regime. Martial law in Taiwan was only lifted in 1987 – eight years after the signing of the Taiwan Relations Act by the Carter administration.

The discussants make another crucial point: China has not changed its position regarding Taiwan; there has been no increase in aggressive rhetoric or activity on the Chinese side. The Chinese position has been clear and consistent: the issue of reunification is an internal matter that will be settled by Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait; that reunification is necessary and inevitable; and that it should be achieved preferably via peaceful means. It is the US and its separatist proxies in Taipei that are engaged in bellicose rhetoric and behavior, that are trying to justify an expanding US military presence in the region in order to further the US’s long-term strategy of containing China and suppressing its rise.

Statement condemning Nancy Pelosi’s reckless visit to China’s Taiwan

Organizations wishing to add their signatures to this statement should contact us at info@socialistchina.org

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the provocative and war-mongering visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to China’s territory of Taiwan.

Pelosi is a reactionary, anti-working-class imperialist politician with a long record of inveterate hostility to Socialist China and the Chinese people. Her visit to Taiwan is a major political provocation that carries with it a grave danger of leading to regional and even world war. It is a gross violation of international law and, in particular, of UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 and the clear provisions of the three joint communiques by China and the United States.

There is only one China in the world and its sole legal government is that of the People’s Republic of China. This is an absolute and immutable fact on which there is no room for compromise. This much is recognized by 180 countries around the world, including the US, as well as by the United Nations. When and how China completes its historic goal of complete national reunification is the internal affair of the Chinese people and the Chinese people alone. No outside interference of any kind is acceptable.

Pelosi’s visit once again makes clear to all humanity that the United States is the world’s number one rogue state. Its diatribes about a so-called ‘rules based international order’ are nothing but a fig leaf for its hegemonic behavior, its gangster-like bullying and its flagrant disregard for international law.

The idea that Pelosi’s visit is some kind of unilateral action, for which the US administration is somehow not responsible, is ridiculous. She is constitutionally the second in line of succession to the Presidency. As Pelosi’s military aircraft landed in Taipei, the US assembled a veritable armada in waters off Taiwan’s east coast, including an aircraft carrier strike group, a guided missile cruiser and a destroyer. As Commander-in-Chief, President Biden bears full responsibility for this.

Pelosi’s visit caps – and escalates – a series of moves by both the present US administration and its predecessor to encourage the separatist element in Taiwan, to undermine the One China principle, to escalate the militarization of the region, and to gravely threaten peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and indeed the world. This includes public remarks by Biden himself on several occasions. As President Xi Jinping solemnly pointed out to Biden in their recent telephone conversation, those who play with fire will end up getting burned. The United States bears full responsibility for its egregious actions and for all the consequences arising therefrom.

We stand by the Chinese people, government and military in their just response to this serious infringement of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We join with the brave people of Taipei who gathered outside Pelosi’s hotel, to demand, in words that echo and resonate from Cuba to Korea and from Venezuela to Iran: “Yankee, go home!”

Statement issued by Friends of Socialist China.

Organizational signatories

Report: CPC and World Marxist Political Parties Forum

On July 28, Friends of Socialist China Co-Editor Keith Bennett joined more than 300 delegates from more than 100 Marxist political parties and organisations from more than 70 countries at the CPC and World Marxist Political Parties Forum held online with the theme, Adapting Marxism to the National Conditions and the Times of the 21st Century, organised by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

In the opening ceremony, delegates were informed that Comrade Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and President of the People’s Republic of China, had attached importance to the event and his message of greetings to all participants was then read. This was followed by the messages of greetings from Nguyễn Phú Trọng, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam; Miguel Díaz-Canel, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic of Cuba; and Gennady Zyuganov, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

Xi Jinping pointed out that Marxism is an open ended theory that never ceases to develop. And it can only thrive when adapted to national conditions. Socialism with Chinese characteristics had been created by integrating Marxism with China’s specific conditions and fine traditional culture. Faced with changes unseen in a century, Marxism lights up the way forward for humanity and the Communist Party of China wishes to exchange experiences with Marxist parties worldwide.

In the plenary session, a keynote speech was given by Liu Jianchao, Minister of the CPC International Department, who stressed that the ‘end of history’ will never happen and that the contradiction between socialism and capitalism on a world scale was tipping in favour of socialism.

He was followed by Comrade Pany Yathotou, Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and Vice-President of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic; leading comrades from the Cuban and Vietnamese communist parties; Solly Mapaila, the newly-elected General Secretary of the South African Communist Party; Jeronimo de Sousa, General Secretary of the Portuguese Communist Party; and Rossana Cambron, Co-Leader of the Communist Party of the USA.

Following the plenary session, two parallel sessions were held, in which, besides representatives of the CPC, leaders of the following parties presented their contributions:

  • Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova
  • Communist Party of Argentina
  • Communist Party of Belarus
  • Communist Party of Brazil
  • Communist Party of Chile
  • Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
  • Communist Party of India (Marxist)
  • People’s Party of Kazakhstan
  • Communist Party of Kenya
  • Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan
  • Labor Party of Mexico (PT)
  • Communist Party of Uruguay
  • Communist Party of Australia
  • Communist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist-Leninist)
  • Worker’s Party of Belgium
  • Socialist Party of Egypt
  • Iraqi Communist Party
  • Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center)
  • Palestinian People’s Party
  • And-Jëf/African Party for Democracy and Socialism (Senegal)
  • Vatan (Patriotic) Party of Türkiye
  • Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)

This was an extremely important and inspiring event – a potential landmark in strengthening the unity and cohesion of the international communist movement around the advanced experience of the socialist countries and their theoretical innovations. We are pleased to republish the following four reports. The first from the Xinhua News Agency reports on the message sent to the forum by Comrade Xi Jinping. This is followed by a report carried on the website of the CPC International Department and then reports from Nhan Dan, the main newspaper of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and from the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, highlighting their countries’ contributions to the event.

Xi says Marxism shows new vitality in 21st century

First published in Xinhua.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that Marxism has been showing new vitality in the 21st century, calling on all Marxist political parties to make the theory more relevant to the national conditions and the times.

Continue reading Report: CPC and World Marxist Political Parties Forum

Statement by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan

The following statement was released by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs shortly after Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan. Pelosi’s visit is a gross violation of China’s sovereignty and the One China principle that the US has claimed to uphold since 1972. Furthermore it is an affront to the dignity of the Chinese people and a dangerous escalation in Washington’s New Cold War.

On 2 August, in disregard of China’s strong opposition and serious representations, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited China’s Taiwan region. This is a serious violation of the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiqués. It has a severe impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and seriously infringes upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It gravely undermines peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and sends a seriously wrong signal to the separatist forces for “Taiwan independence”. China firmly opposes and sternly condemns this, and has made serious démarche and strong protest to the United States.

There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, and the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. This has been clearly recognized by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, 181 countries have established diplomatic relations with China on the basis of the one-China principle. The one-China principle is a universal consensus of the international community and a basic norm in international relations.

In 1979, the United States made a clear commitment in the China-U.S. Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations — “The United States of America recognizes the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China. Within this context, the people of the United States will maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan.” Congress, as a part of the U.S. Government, is inherently obliged to strictly observe the one-China policy of the U.S. Government and refrain from having any official exchanges with China’s Taiwan region. China is all along opposed to the visit to Taiwan by U.S. congressional members, and the U.S. executive branch has the responsibility to stop such visit. Since Speaker Pelosi is the incumbent leader of the U.S. Congress, her visit to and activities in Taiwan, in whatever form and for whatever reason, is a major political provocation to upgrade U.S. official exchanges with Taiwan. China absolutely does not accept this, and the Chinese people absolutely reject this.

The Taiwan question is the most important and most sensitive issue at the very heart of China-U.S. relations. The Taiwan Strait is facing a new round of tensions and severe challenges, and the fundamental cause is the repeated moves by the Taiwan authorities and the United States to change the status quo. The Taiwan authorities have kept seeking U.S. support for their independence agenda. They refuse to recognize the 1992 Consensus, go all out to push forward “de-sinicization”, and promote “incremental independence”. The United States, for its part, has been attempting to use Taiwan to contain China. It constantly distorts, obscures and hollows out the one-China principle, steps up its official exchanges with Taiwan, and emboldens “Taiwan independence” separatist activities. These moves, like playing with fire, are extremely dangerous. Those who play with fire will perish by it.

The position of the Chinese Government and people on the Taiwan question has been consistent. It is the firm commitment of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people to resolutely safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is the common aspiration and sacred responsibility of all Chinese sons and daughters to realize the complete reunification of the motherland. The will of the people is not to be defied, and the trend of the times cannot be reversed. No country, no forces and no individual should ever misestimate the firm resolve, strong will and great capability of the Chinese Government and people to defend state sovereignty and territorial integrity and to achieve national reunification and rejuvenation. China will definitely take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity in response to the U.S. Speaker’s visit. All the consequences arising therefrom must be borne by the U.S. side and the “Taiwan independence” separatist forces.

China and the United States are two major countries. The right way for them to deal with each other lies only in mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, no-confrontation and win-win cooperation. The Taiwan question is purely an internal affair of China, and no other country is entitled to act as a judge on the Taiwan question. China strongly urges the United States to stop playing the “Taiwan card” and using Taiwan to contain China. It should stop meddling on Taiwan and interfering in China’s internal affairs. It should stop supporting and conniving at “Taiwan independence” separatist forces in any form. It should stop its acts of saying one thing but doing the opposite on the Taiwan question. It should stop distorting, obscuring and hollowing out the one-China principle. It must take credible actions to observe strictly the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiqués, deliver on the “five noes” commitment made by the U.S. leadership (i.e. not seek a “new Cold War”; not seek to change China’s system; the revitalization of its alliances is not against China; not support “Taiwan independence”; not look for conflict with China), and not go further down the wrong and dangerous path.

With RIMPAC, South Korea expands its military footprint

In this article, part of the Feminist Peace Initiative’s joint campaign with Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) against the militarization of the Asia-Pacific region, coinciding with the annual US-led RIMPAC exercises and originally published by FPIF, leading South Korean peace activist Choi Sung-hee notes that after the US, South Korea is the second largest participant in this year’s war games.

She notes that: “When RIMPAC began, the NATO summit meeting also started in Madrid. It is the first time that a South Korean president joined the NATO summit meeting. Yoon Suk-yeol, elected as the new South Korean president on May 9, has talked dangerously about the possibility of a ROK-US-Japan military alliance, which even other conservative presidents had abstained from openly talking about because of the past imperial-colony relationship between Japan and Korea. Already a NATO partner country, South Korea will likely increase its involvement in the US-led domination game against ‘enemy forces.’ Under the previous president Moon Jae-in, South Korea became the first Asian country to join the NATO cyber defense group. South Korean participation in RIMPAC risks inflaming military tension against China in the Pacific.”

“The current South Korean government”, she notes, “is strengthening trilateral coordination with the United States and Japan to put pressure on North Korea and contain China. But it would be in Seoul’s interest to reduce tensions in the region, not exacerbate them. China is the number one trading partner of South Korea, so it makes no sense for Seoul to participate in the anti-China efforts of the United States. Improving relations with North Korea—for instance by formalizing the end of the Korean War with a peace treaty—would also help to remove one of the key drivers of conflict in the region.”

On June 22, 2022, 20 civic groups held a “No RIMPAC!” press conference in front of the Jeju Naval Base in Gangjeong Village, Jeju Island, South Korea. Beginning with the words “Aloha ʻĀina,” the press conference expressed solidarity with the people and all living beings in and off Hawai’i and southern California. It also demanded “peace practice, not war drills” and closure of the Jeju Naval Base.

In Hawaiian, “Aloha ʻĀina” means love and care of the land and sea. Many friends from Hawai’i have visited Gangjeong in solidarity for peace during the last few years. One of them was Pua’ena, who urgently appealed to people in Jeju not to let the warships in Jeju head for Hawai’i during the current RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) exercises, the biggest U.S.-led multinational maritime war drill, which is held every two years.

Continue reading With RIMPAC, South Korea expands its military footprint

Time for pursuing common prosperity

The following article by Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez, written for China Daily, outlines the progress made in China over the past decade, and describes the rising emphasis on common prosperity and sustainable development.

After eradicating absolute poverty at the end of 2020 following the most systematic and extensive poverty alleviation program in history, China achieved its goal of becoming a moderately prosperous society in all respects. This achievement is nothing short of extraordinary, and reflects the enormous commitment of the Chinese leadership, government and people to fundamental human rights.

What’s more, the goal of eliminating extreme poverty was fulfilled while the country was concurrently battling the COVID-19 pandemic which has driven millions into poverty around the world.

What does it mean for a Chinese person to have risen out of extreme poverty? It is more than simply surpassing the World Bank-defined income threshold of $1.90 per day. China’s definition also includes two assurances (for adequate food and clothing) and three guarantees (access to medical services, safe housing with drinking water and electricity, and at least nine years of free education).

Anyone who has visited rural areas elsewhere in the developing world－whether in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East or the Caribbean－will understand that for a huge country of 1.4 billion people to be able to meet the basic needs of every citizen is a historic accomplishment. Such an accomplishment is built on the firm foundations of the Chinese revolution, the strength and wisdom of the Communist Party of China, and the system of whole-process people’s democracy.

With the completion of the targeted poverty alleviation campaign and the accomplishment of the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, China has scored an important victory. Yet the war on poverty continues, with focus now shifting toward tackling relative poverty: improving per capita GDP, revitalizing rural areas, and reducing inequality between regions and groups. It is time for “making the cake bigger and better and sharing it fairly,” as Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin put it recently.

Continue reading Time for pursuing common prosperity

Africa, China, and US imperialism

This important essay by US scholar Joel Wendland-Liu, originally published on the CPUSA website, provides a serious and detailed comparison of the US-Africa relationship and the China-Africa relationship. Referencing numerous recent studies indicating that Africans – and particularly younger Africans – have a more favorable opinion of China than of the US, the author contrasts the West’s record of military, economic and political coercion on the continent with China’s record of extensive, mutually-beneficial cooperation.

Wendland-Liu notes that China’s loans and investment terms are consistently more favorable than those of the US, and that China’s interest rates are lower and repayment terms more flexible. Most importantly, Chinese financing does not come with strings attached, and investment is not linked to an undermining of African sovereignty – as is the case with the Western financial institutions. Meanwhile, it is the US and its allies that are engaged in assorted and escalating military projects in Africa, in particular via AFRICOM.

The assorted (and unsubstantiated) claims about Chinese “debt traps” and imperialistic behavior in Africa, generated by the Western ruling class media but unfortunately parroted by sections of the left, serve to demonize China and to distract attention from the West’s very real ongoing imperialist objectives on the continent. As such, it is crucial that these myths be comprehensively exposed.

The U.S. government has become obsessed with Africa. Not with fostering its strength, independence, health, or economic development, mind you. Instead, it is worried about why Africans don’t like us much. Recent polling in 29 African countries shows that African youth hold more favorable opinions of China than of the U.S. More than eight in 10 respondents see China’s influence in their country as both more prominent than that of the U.S. and more positive. Upbeat views of China are nearly unanimous in Nigeria, Malawi, and Uganda.

Separate data reveals that since 2015 the number of African students from English-speaking countries who gained admission to Chinese universities surpassed that of those who attend universities in the U.K. and the U.S.

This data shows a considerable shift in African perceptions of China, to the detriment of the dominant neocolonial powers.

After four centuries of the European/American slave trade, colonialism, and neocolonialism, followed by decades of neglect, the U.S. government in 2021 called Africa “the southern flank” of NATO. Large chunks of the massive annual $800 billion military budget fund the complex of military installations, intelligence networks, and interventionist political projects called AFRICOM.

Continue reading Africa, China, and US imperialism