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China and South Africa to boost cooperation on renewable energy, digital economy and AI

With the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit being held in Beijing from September 4-6, as the country’s greatest diplomatic event of 2024, leaders of some 50 African countries began arriving in the Chinese capital from the beginning of the month.

Among President Xi Jinping’s first bilateral meetings with his visitors was that in the afternoon of September 2 with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who also paid a state visit to China that day.

At their meeting, President Xi pointed out that the friendship between China and South Africa stems from their mutual support in the fight for national liberation, from their mutual assistance in advancing national development, and from their unity and coordination in pursuit of international equity and justice. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and also the 30th anniversary of the new South Africa. Despite changes in the international landscape, there has been no change to the mission of China and South Africa to pursue modernisation, no change to their commitment to promoting China-Africa cooperation, and no change to their aspiration to improve global governance. Greater unity and cooperation between China and South Africa meet the expectations of the two peoples and is consistent with the historic process of the growth of the Global South. It has important significance for the times and implications for the world.

The Chinese leader further stressed that transformation unseen in a century is accelerating across the world and human society is facing unprecedented challenges. The more complex the international landscape, the more important that countries of the Global South stay committed to independence, solidarity and coordination to jointly safeguard international equity and justice.

President Ramaphosa recalled the fourth successful state visit by President Xi to South Africa last year where the two sides celebrated the 25th anniversary of their diplomatic ties and brought the relationship into a golden era. South Africa and China enjoy strong political trust and deep friendship and share similar positions and the same goals on many issues, he stressed.

Following the signing of a number of bilateral cooperation documents, the two countries issued the Joint Statement Between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa on the Establishment of an All-Round Strategic Cooperative Partnership in the New Era.

The two sides reaffirmed that they cherish the special and ever-growing friendship between the two countries and recommitted to working together towards building a high-quality China-South Africa community with a shared future. To carry forward the friendship, consolidate mutual trust, expand cooperation and enhance coordination, the two Heads of State agreed to elevate the bilateral relationship to an all-round strategic cooperative partnership in the new era, underpinned by strong political ties and focused on a prosperous future with balanced trade and accelerated transformative economic growth.

China congratulated President Ramaphosa on his re-election as President of the Republic of South Africa, and believes that under his leadership, the South African Government of National Unity will achieve success in building a united, just, equal and prosperous country as espoused in the National Development Plan, including maintaining an independent and non-aligned foreign policy based on the principle of progressive internationalism. China firmly supports national unity and the path of economic and social development that South Africa has chosen and respects efforts by the South African government to safeguard its national interests so as to improve the lives of all South Africans. The South African government reaffirmed its commitment to the One-China Policy, recognised that there is but one China in the world, the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. South Africa supports efforts made by the Chinese government to achieve national reunification.

Regarding economic cooperation, the two sides agreed to work on strengthening cooperation and synergy between China’s Belt and Road Initiative and South Africa’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan and to continue implementing the 10 Years Strategic Programme of Cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa (2020-2029).

They agreed that promoting modernisation is the joint goal in building a high-level South Africa-China community with a shared future. The two sides will deepen cooperation in traditional fields such as agriculture, health, medical sciences and infrastructure development. However, they will further seize opportunities presented by the new scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, focusing on key areas such as the digital economy, new energies and artificial intelligence, boost cooperation on new quality productive forces, and further expand mutually beneficial cooperation in renewable energy, energy storage and power transmission and distribution.

China is committed to sharing with South Africa experience in poverty alleviation and rural revitalisation, in building poverty alleviation model villages, and offering support for South Africa’s coordinated urban and rural development. The two sides further agreed to continue to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the areas of culture, women, health, youth, education, sport, media, tourism, and other people-to-people cooperation fields.

The two sides applauded the recent 70th Anniversary of China’s Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, as these were espoused in the buildup to the Asia-Africa Summit of 1955 in Bandung and were later adopted as the main goals and objectives of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

They also expressed deep concern about the serious humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip. Both countries called for the earnest implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2728 and an immediate ceasefire and end to all fighting, and support resuming a process of political settlement of the Palestinian question. Alluding in particular to South Africa’s case against Israel, brought to the International Court of Justice, China commended the positive role that South Africa has played in activating the role of the international community in the conflict in Gaza and is willing to work together toward a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement at an early date. South Africa expressed its appreciation to China for successfully inviting various Palestinian factions to hold a reconciliation dialogue and to sign the Beijing Declaration.

We reprint below the report on the meeting, which was released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, as well as the full text of the joint statement as published by the Xinhua News Agency.

China and Africa safeguard global peace and promote development

The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will be held in Beijing, September 2-4. It is six years since the summit was last held in China and it will be the country’s largest diplomatic event for this year.

In advance of the summit, on August 31, the Xinhua News Agency published a guest opinion contributed by Li Xiang, China’s Ambassador to Eritrea. The Ambassador notes that:

“Politically, China and Africa share the same aspirations and vision. China and Africa have supported each other in fighting imperialism, colonialism and racism, based on similar suffering in recent history. In the struggle for national independence, China and Africa, as members of the Global South, have been united in their common goal, extending mutual assistance and having been the most distinctive, steadfast and major supporters of each other’s anti-imperialist, anti-colonial and anti-hegemonic struggles.”

On economic matters, he reiterates that: “China will always walk side by side with Africa on its path to modernisation and join hands with Africa to inject strong impetus into the promotion of an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation.”

Both China and Africa, Li underlines, “have had the tragic experience of being colonised, and we cherish the golden rule of sovereign equality, oppose the big abusing the small and the strong bullying the weak, advocate the equality of all countries, large and small, and oppose interference in the internal affairs of other countries.”

Noting that, following his historic state visit to China in May 2023, President Isaias Afwerki will lead the Eritrean delegation to the summit, and alluding to the inspiration that the Eritrean people drew from the experience of the Chinese revolution during their liberation struggle, Ambassador Li writes: “China and Eritrea have established a strategic partnership and are in a unique position to build a closer community with a shared future. The two countries share similar philosophies, and their people maintain close contact.”

Meanwhile, in the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s regular press conference on August 30, spokesperson Lin Jian said that China and Africa endured colonialist and imperialist suppression and invasion, and the two sides supported each other and fought together on the road of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism and won the independence of their countries and the liberation of their nations.

“Therefore, we deeply cherish independence, self-determination, fairness and justice; we agree on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence; we are committed to building an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation; and we both aim to make the international order more just and equitable.”

China and the African countries stand for bridging the gap between rich countries and poor ones, reject all forms of interference by big powers and economic coercion, and ask developed countries to face up to their historical responsibilities and deliver on their development commitments.

“At the upcoming FOCAC Summit next week, the two sides will enhance unity and cooperation among developing countries to augment the strength of the Global South, jointly champion international fairness and justice, and advance the peace and development of the world,” Lin said.

The following articles were originally published by the Xinhua News Agency.

Jointly build a closer China-Africa community with shared future to push forward China-Eritrea strategic partnership

October 31 (Xinhua) — by Li Xiang (Chinese ambassador to Eritrea).

The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will be held in Beijing on Sept. 4-6. Chinese and African leaders will gather in Beijing again after six years to discuss future development and cooperation and exchange governance experience. H.E. President Isaias Afwerki will lead the delegation of Eritrea to attend this summit, following his historic state visit to China in May 2023. Through this summit, China and Africa will enhance their long-standing friendship and deepen unity and collaboration to open up new vistas for faster common development and start a new chapter for a China-Africa community with a shared future.

The world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century. The waves of anti-globalization, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise. Global crises such as geopolitical conflicts and climate change occur frequently. Humankind is at a crucial crossroads, and China-Africa cooperation and development are facing more uncertainty. China’s answer to the question of “where is human society headed and how can China-Africa cooperation develop” is to build a closer China-Africa community with a shared future. This is the trend of the times and the common voice of the people of China and Africa.

Remy Herrera: the foundations of China’s economy clearly distinguish it from capitalism

The following text is the English translation of an interview with Rémy Herrera, a research analyst at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the Sorbonne in Paris. The interview was carried out by Tang Xiaofu for the Observers’ Network, Beijing, and was recently posted in Workers World. While covering similar ground to the interview we published in June 2024, it contains a number of additional insights and is well worth reading in full.

In the interview, Herrera firmly rejects the characterisation of China by David Harvey and others of “a neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics”, and points to the foundations that clearly distinguish China’s system from capitalism:

1) The persistence of powerful and modernized planning; 2) a form of political democracy, obviously perfectible, but making collective choices possible; 3) extensive public services, conditioning political, social and economic citizenship; 4) ownership of land and natural resources that remains in the public domain; 5) diversified forms of ownership, adequate to the socialization of productive forces and boosting economic activity; 6) a general policy which consists of increasing labor remuneration more quickly compared to other types of income; 7) a desire for social justice displayed by public authorities in the face of rising social inequalities since 1978; 8) the priority given to the preservation of the environment, the protection of nature being now considered inseparable from social progress; 9) a conception of economic relations between States based on a win-win principle; and 10) political relations between States based on the search for peace and more balanced exchanges between peoples.

Herrera goes on to discuss the unique role of the state-owned enterprises in China’s economy, in particular that “the compass that guides them is not the enrichment of private shareholders, but the priorities given to productive investment and the service provided to their customers”.

The public sector “still represents a large part of industrial assets (in construction, steelmaking, basic materials, semi-finished products, etc.) and almost all of them in strategic areas for the country’s, like infrastructure in energy, transport, telecommunications, and of course armaments — in addition to the banking and financial sectors.” As such, public ownership sits at the heart of – and is able to guide – China’s development strategy.

The planning system “is the place where collective choices are developed and decided, as expressions of a general will. It is the authentic space where a nation chooses a common destiny and the means for a sovereign people to become its own master, in all areas of its existence: way of life, ways of consuming, housing and occupying or developing the national territory, precise definition of the relationships maintained by human beings with their environment and nature.”

Herrera also addresses the US’s trade war, launched by Trump and continued by Biden, assessing that the “problem” from the US’s point of view is that the unequal relationship between the US (an imperialist country) and China (a developing country) is becoming less unequal – “there is an erosion of the advantage of the United States in the exchange”. The trade war “was an attempt by the administration led by President Trump to curb the slow, continuous erosion of the advantage of the United States, observed for decades in trade with its emerging rival, China.”

The interview concludes with an appeal to move beyond a moribund imperialism. “We must dismantle the logic of crisis and war driven by high finance by imposing democratic control on it, and therefore think about alternatives to capitalism. The defense of peace and the reactivation of the socialist project are today’s priorities. In this context, China has a fundamental role to play in these transformations.”

I. How the West interprets China

Tang Xiaofu: 1) You have visited China multiple times, but now many scholars are trying to distort Socialism with Chinese Characteristics into State Capitalism. What’s your view towards State Capitalism? And what’s the difference between State Capitalism and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics?

Rémy Herrera: The speeches of many current leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) suggest that China would still be in the “first phase of socialism,” that is to say, in a stage considered essential for developing the productive forces and which would take a long time to reach its goal. According to them, the historical goal sought would indeed remain that of developed socialism — even if, it is true, the contours of the latter are far from being clearly and precisely defined. However, in Western countries, many researchers claim that these official political declarations claiming the persistence of socialism in China are only a facade, or the cover-up of a hidden form of capitalism, and that socialism is really dead and buried in China. I do not share the opinion of these Western researchers. On the contrary, I think that these statements by Chinese leaders deserve to be taken seriously.

Moreover, even within the debates among Western Marxists, a clear majority of them affirm that the Chinese economy would henceforth be purely and simply capitalist. This is the case of certain well-known Marxists, such as David Harvey, who believes he has seen, since the 1978 reforms, “a neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics” where a particular type of capitalist market economy has incorporated more and more neoliberal devices operated in the framework of very authoritarian centralized control. This is also the case of Leo Panitch, for example, who analyzes the contemporary integration of China into the circuits of the world economy as the duplication by China of the role of “capitalist complement” formerly held by Japan, as a support that China would provide to the United States through capital flows allowing the latter to maintain its global hegemony, and as the trend towards the liberalization of financial markets in China leading to the dismantling of instruments of control of capital movements and undermining at the same time the bases of the power of the CPC. I do not agree with these researchers either. I defend the idea that today, the Chinese system still contains key elements of socialism, and the interpretation I give of its nature is compatible with socialism.

Thus, I read the Chinese political-economic system as a market socialism, or socialism with a market, based on some pillars which still distinguish it quite clearly from capitalism. I will cite, among these foundations: 1) the persistence of powerful and modernized planning; 2) a form of political democracy, obviously perfectible, but making collective choices possible; 3) extensive public services, conditioning political, social and economic citizenship; 4) ownership of land and natural resources that remains in the public domain; 5) diversified forms of ownership, adequate to the socialization of productive forces and boosting economic activity; 6) a general policy which consists of increasing labor remuneration more quickly compared to other types of income; 7) a desire for social justice displayed by public authorities in the face of rising social inequalities since 1978; 8) the priority given to the preservation of the environment, the protection of nature being now considered inseparable from social progress; 9) a conception of economic relations between States based on a win-win principle; and 10) political relations between States based on the search for peace and more balanced exchanges between peoples. Socialism “with Chinese characteristics” is not very far from this reading grid.

State intervention an indispensable factor in China’s economic success

The following article by Michael Roberts reviews and summarises a new book by Brazilian Marxist economists Adalmir Antonio Marquetti, Alessandro Miebach and Henrique Morrone, entitled Unequal Development and Capitalism: Catching Up and Falling Behind in the Global Economy.

The central focus of the book is measuring the progress of Global South countries in catching up with the imperialist countries in terms of economic development. Roberts summarises the authors’ key finding as follows: “The ‘follower’ countries (the Global South) will generally have higher profit rates than the ‘leader’ countries (the imperialist Global North) because their capital-labour ratio (in Marxist terminology, the organic composition of capital) is lower.” However, “as these countries try to industrialise, the capital-labour ratio will rise and so will the productivity of labour.” As a result, “capital productivity will tend to decline and this eventually will slow the rise in labour productivity.”

Consequently, “many Global South countries will never ‘bridge the gap’ on labour productivity and thus on living standards because the profitability of capital in the Global South will quickly dissipate compared to the Global North”.

How to overcome this contradiction where increased productivity of labour leads to a falling rate of profit, thereby decelerating development? The book’s authors write: “This issue is observed in many middle-income trap countries. In these cases, state intervention becomes essential, expanding investment even as the profit rate declines, as in China.” To which Roberts comments: “Exactly. China’s success in catching up, which so frightens US imperialism now, is down to state-led investment overcoming the impact of falling profitability on capital investment.”

China has “a model of development based on dominant public ownership of finance and strategic sectors and a national plan for investment and growth”. As a result, “only China is closing the gap on per capita GDP with the imperialist bloc”. This chimes with Samir Amin’s observation that “China is the only authentically emergent country”.

Brazilian Marxist economists Adalmir Antonio Marquetti, Alessandro Miebach and Henrique Morrone have produced an important and insightful book on global capitalist development, with an innovative new way of measuring the progress for the majority of humanity in the so-called Global South in ‘catching up’ on living standards with the ‘Global North’.

In this book Marquetti et al argue that unequal development has been a defining characteristic of capitalism. “Throughout history, countries and regions have exhibited differences in labor productivity growth – a key determinant in poverty reduction and development – and although some nations may catch up with the productivity levels or well-being of developed economies at times, others fall behind.”

They propose a model of economic development based on technical change, profit rate and capital accumulation, on the one hand, and institutional change, on the other. Together these two factors should be combined to explain the dynamics of catching up or falling behind.

They base their development model on what Duncan Foley called the ‘Marx-bias’ and what Paul Krugman has called ‘capital bias’; namely that in capitalist accumulation there will be a rise in the organic composition of capital (rising mechanization compared to labour input) leading to an increase in the productivity of labour, but also a tendency for the profitability of accumulated capital to fall.

Angolan President: We know what colonisation is and the Chinese are not colonising Africa but cooperating with us

Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço paid a state visit to China from March 14-17 at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Whilst in China he gave an exclusive interview to He Yanke for the CGTN series Leaders Talk.

He Yanke noted that Lourenço has visited China on numerous occasions since 2000, including as the Secretary General of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), as the Special Envoy of his predecessor, and this is his third visit as head of state.

Summing up his impressions from all these visits, Lourenço remarked that what impressed him most was that China was continually making progress and bringing surprises to the world.

Noting that last year saw the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Angola, he described the relationship as exemplary. During very difficult times for his country, for example the period of post-war reconstruction, China had lent a helping hand. And the same was true, not only for his country but for the world, when humanity was suddenly faced with the Covid pandemic.

Asked for his views on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), he recalled that China has provided Angola with strong financial support for infrastructure construction, including for roads, ports, airports, and hydropower plants, all of which are necessary for development. In his last few days in China, he had talked with 24 major companies, who had shown willingness to take risks and invest in his country.

Noting that China was building what will be Africa’s largest hydropower plant in Angola, and also training local personnel for the project, that will not only meet his country’s needs but also produce surplus electricity to be supplied to neighbouring southern African countries, Lourenço was asked, given that Chinese companies are providing tens of thousands of jobs in Angola, how he would respond to the accusations levelled against China’s role in Africa from some quarters.

His answer was emphatic. Not just the Portuguese colonialists, he said, but the Europeans in general, including the British and French, had been in Africa for centuries. They had never engaged in the kind of infrastructure construction that we are seeing now. They are not just critics but slanderers acting out of malice. The facts are clear: China has not invaded any African country. The Chinese in Africa are not there for colonisation. We know what colonisation is and the Chinese are not colonising Africa but cooperating with us. China did not come to us fully armed but with funds and technology and a willingness to work with us.

The results are plain to see. In 2002 (when Angola’s long-running civil war finally ended), our country was in ruins. Thanks to the help from China, we now have land-based infrastructure connecting provinces and cities which didn’t exist before.

The construction of roads, bridges, ports and railways was all done with the help of China. If these critics want to be part of the process, then they must act and do better than China. But we don’t believe they can.

Asked about President Xi Jinping’s three global initiatives, on development, security and civilisation, President Lourenço described the Chinese leader as a visionary and insightful statesman. Without peace and security, there can be no development – this is true both from the Angolan experience and also on a world scale.

The full interview with President Lourenço is embedded below.

China and the struggle for peace

The following text is based on presentations given by Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez at Morning Star Readers and Supporters meetings in Manchester (19 February), Leeds (13 March) and Brighton 24 March), on the subject of China’s global strategy.

Carlos responds to the assertion by Western politicians and media that China is an aggressive and expansionist power, comparing China’s foreign policy record with that of the United States. He shows that China’s foreign policy is based on the principles of peace, development and win-win cooperation, and explains how this approach is rooted in China’s history and ideology, and is consistent with China’s overall strategic goals.

Carlos also takes note of China’s contribution to the global struggle for multipolarity and to the project of global development. He highlights the Belt and Road Initiative and China’s role in the struggle against climate catastrophe.

The text concludes:

On questions of peace, of development, of protecting the planet, China is on the right side of history. It’s a force for good. As socialists, as progressives, as anti-war activists, as anti-imperialists, we should consider China to be on our side… Those of us who seek a sustainable future of peace and prosperity, of friendship and cooperation between peoples, have a responsibility to oppose this New Cold War, to oppose containment and encirclement, to demand peace, to promote cooperation with China, to promote understanding of China, to build people-to-people links with China, and to make this a significant stream of a powerful mass anti-war movement that our governments can’t ignore.

The Manchester event was also addressed by Jenny Clegg; the Leeds event by Kevan Nelson; and the Brighton event by Keith Bennett.

I’m going to focus my remarks on China’s international relations and its global strategy. This is a subject about which there’s a great deal of misunderstanding and obfuscation, particularly in the context of an escalating New Cold War that’s being led by Washington and that the British ruling class is only too happy to go along with.

The mainstream media is full of hysteria about China’s “aggression” or “assertiveness”. When China reiterates its position on Taiwan – a position which in fact has not meaningfully changed in the last seven decades, and which is completely in line with international law – it’s accused of ramping up the threat of war.

When China refuses to go along with the US’s illegal, unilateral sanctions (for example on Russia, Iran, Syria, Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, Eritrea and Zimbabwe), it’s accused of “subverting the international rules-based order”.

When China establishes bilateral relations and trade agreements with Solomon Islands, Honduras, Nicaragua and Nauru, it’s accused of engaging in colonial domination.

When Chinese companies invest in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific, they’re accused of imposing debt traps.

And unfortunately much of the left takes a fairly similar position to the ruling class on these issues, considering that China’s an imperialist power, that it’s engaged in a project of expansionism.

This sort of analysis on the left leads inexorably to a position of “Neither Washington Nor Beijing”, putting an equals sign between the US and China; putting China in the same category as the imperialist powers. According to this analysis, the basic dynamic of global politics is today that of inter-imperialist rivalry between the US and China.

And of course if that’s the case, if China’s just another imperialist power, and its only interest is growing its own profit margins and competing with the US, Britain, the EU, Canada and Japan for control of the world’s resources, labour, land and markets, it goes without saying that the global working class and oppressed – the vast majority of the population of the world – cannot possibly consider China to be a strategic ally in the pursuit of a better, fairer, more peaceful, more equal, more prosperous, more sustainable world.

China’s view of international relations

How does China consider its role in the world? What does the Communist Party of China propose regarding China’s foreign relations?

What the Chinese leadership calls for is “building a global community of shared future, with the goal of creating an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity.”

China consistently expresses its commitment to multipolarity; to peace; to maximum and mutually beneficial cooperation around economic development and tackling climate change, pandemics, and the threat of nuclear war; to working within the context of the UN Charter and international law in support of peaceful coexistence.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi, at his recent Meet the Press session, talked of China “advocating vigorously for peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit”, and urged that “countries should rise above their differences in history, culture, geography and system, and work together to protect the Earth, the only inhabitable planet for us all, and make it a better place.”

Xi Jinping often talks about China’s orientation towards peace: “Without peace, nothing is possible. Maintaining peace is our greatest common interest and the most cherished aspiration of people of all countries.”

All of this is of course a pretty beautiful and compelling vision. But to what extent does it line up with reality? To what extent is China actually working towards peace, development and sustainability? To what extent does China diverge from the model of international relations pursued by the US and its imperialist allies?

A rising China and a rising Africa? This is doubly frightening to the imperialist powers

What follows below is the text of a speech given by Fiona Sim on behalf of the Black Liberation Alliance at the recent Friends of Socialist China event Africa, China and the Rise of the Global South, held at the Marx Memorial Library on 16 March 2024.

Fiona describes the blossoming relationship between Africa and China – which even extends to South Africa and China collaborating to build a research base on the moon – and contrasts it with the “playbook of neo-colonial extraction and political puppeteering” that the West has used to exploit Africa for centuries. The China-Africa partnership is inspiring fear and loathing in the West, representing as it does a challenge to the global hegemony of the US and its allies:

“A rising China and a rising Africa? This is doubly frightening to the imperialist powers. It is the precursor to the fall of western hegemony altogether.”

The West’s response has been to ramp up its propaganda war against China and to try to drive a wedge between China and Africa – most obviously by denouncing Chinese “imperialism” and slandering its investments as “debt traps”. But the reality is that “China’s loans to African countries have some of the lowest interest rates, no political strings attached, mass debt relief programmes, and the massive infrastructure projects they fund and build result in positive net growth.” Chinese loans and investment are paving a road out of poverty and underdevelopment.

Fiona concludes by calling for solidarity with China and Africa in their struggle against imperialism, for countering the lies and distortions of the Western media, and for resolutely opposing the New Cold War.

It is my great honour to be included in this panel alongside our esteemed comrade from the Communist Party of Kenya and all these powerful organisers and activists. There is nothing more powerful than being united in struggle with comrades who are not only from across the diaspora but from around the globe.

It is a reminder of the importance of internationalist, anti-imperialist solidarity that transcends borders and bureaucracy. Our struggles are connected by the chains of imperialist domination and sown from the seeds of destruction left by colonial conquest. But our joint history stretches back centuries further.

While Europe was in its so-called Dark Ages, Africa, Asia and the Islamic world were experiencing their Golden Ages. The renowned Chinese Muslim naval navigator Zheng He led peaceful expeditions along the ancient Silk Road, with voyages as far as East Africa, where the seas connecting the two continents would go on to establish trade routes and friendly relations for years to come.

Now, centuries later, with the Silk-Road-inspired Belt and Road initiative, we are seeing the rebirth of Africa-China relations and establishment of South-South cooperation at an unprecedented scale. The relationship between Africa and China could not be stronger. Kenya is China’s number one trade partner in East Africa. South Africa and China are collaborating to build a research base on the moon. After the uprisings in the Sahel, the coup governments formed were quick to affirm their relations with China, which reiterated its policy of non-intervention and non-interference in African politics. Burkina Faso’s President Traore declared that he considered China an important trade partner early on, and Niger’s interim President General Tchiani has reportedly met with the Central and North African representative for BRICS in the last few weeks.

It is no wonder that the countries of the West – where whole civilisations have been built on the foundations of plunder and pillaging of the global South – see this as a threat. The West has seen that Africa has taken great interest in the rise of China especially in the last decade and it is running scared. Scared that its playbook of neo-colonial extraction and political puppeteering is no longer going to work on its former colonies.

Let us be clear. The West only sees China as a threat to its hegemony because it cannot conceive a country that less than a century ago was one of the poorest in the world is now a global powerhouse whose economy rivals the US. Since the 1990s, China has been the only country whose GDP has grown exponentially, increasing on average by 9 percent a year. In 2023, China’s GDP increased by 5.2 percent – the highest among the major powers, with the US in second place at 1 percent.

BRICS+ and the future of the international order

This thought-provoking article by Elias Jabbour – associate professor of theory and policy of economic planning at Rio de Janeiro State University, and member of the Friends of Socialist China advisory group – explores the shifting dynamics of global power and the emergence of BRICS+ as a significant factor in the evolving international order. The article underlines the significance of China’s socialist development in particular – which has positioned it at the centre of a rising multipolar world – and an emerging “globalisation with Chinese characteristics” which promotes development, peace and common prosperity, in contrast to the enforced inequality and violence that characterise imperialist globalisation.

Elias notes the resurgence of the Global South as a key factor in the transformation of the international order, and the role of BRICS+ in this process. While the Global South is made up of “a heterogeneous set of countries, with differentiated levels of development”, these countries collectively “have the ability to converge on some fundamental issues for their own future, and for that of humanity itself.” Put in other words, the countries of the Global South have a shared interest in opposing imperialism, defending sovereignty and pursuing peaceful development. China stands at the centre of the process of uniting the countries of the Global South in promoting a multipolar, democratic and fair system of international relations.

The article also highlights the significance of the Belt and Road Initiative as a key component of China’s global strategy, and the potential for BRI to transform the global economic landscape by promoting infrastructure development, economic integration, and a shift away from the financialised neoliberal model associated with the US.

Elias discusses the disastrous consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the concurrent global imposition of neoliberalism. On the other hand, the US’s moment of triumph did not last long, and the last decade and a half have witnessed “the erosion of the ability to reinvent capitalism due to financialisation and the emergence of a socialist country (China) as an economic power whose path reflects nothing of the neoliberal recipes sold by the IMF and the World Bank have contributed to the acceleration of a systemic transition, in which a new globalisation centered on China is only its greatest expression.”

In conclusion, the article argues that the political future of BRICS+ and the broader Global South is intricately linked to China’s trajectory and its ability to offer a developmental model that counters neoliberalism. It suggests that the global struggle against underdevelopment and for independence is gaining momentum, with BRICS+ playing a pivotal role in shaping a more equitable global order.

This article first appeared in Geopolitical Economy Report.

The emergence and rise of new poles of power to the detriment of existing ones is nothing new in history. Since the 18th century, there have been countless examples of transitions in international hegemony. This accelerated with the emergence of industrial capitalism in England, which was more advanced than the Portuguese and Spanish commercial capitalism that for centuries had dominated much of the world, especially Latin America.

Even the capitalist dynamic inaugurated by England has characteristics that are not unfamiliar to economic historians with great theoretical and conceptual rigor.

Well known is Vladimir Lenin’s discovery of the uneven nature of the development of nations and the tendency of the most developed countries to lose dynamism while others begin to enjoy what economist Alexander Gerschenkron called the “advantages of backwardness”.

So the international order cannot be observed, from a historical point of view, as a march where countries change positions like in a military parade.

The emergence of monopolistic capitalism brought with it the tendency toward war, for example. We have witnessed two great world wars where the center of the dispute was world power, with results that consolidated new political actors on the international stage, mainly the United States.

A new systemic transition

I start from the historical principle that reality has shown Lenin to be correct, regarding the uneven development of the system and the tendency toward stagnation in the developed centers. These processes open spaces of power in the world.

I also say that we will have little to offer in terms of explanation for the future if we do not relate the transformation of the United States into a unified continental economy at the end of the 19th century, and its impacts on the development of the international capitalist system, with what we have witnessed in China over the past decades: the emergence of a unified continental economy in the third-largest country in the world, which is generating huge impacts on the international political economy – and is still little investigated by so-called experts.

This is a fundamental point when we want to develop a sophisticated thinking about the BRICS+ and the future of the international order. I will return to this point.

On the other hand, we are witnessing a new wave of systemic transition today. This time, there is the emergence of new poles of global power on one side, while on the other there is an accelerated stage of political, social, moral, and economic decomposition of a hegemonic power: the United States of America.

It is interesting to note that the new order that is emerging is itself the product of the order created by the United States after World War II, which accelerated in the late 1970s with the rise of neoliberalism, and especially after the end of the Soviet Union.

Globalization led by the powerful finance of the United States was a reality that transformed the economic geography of the world, but which is eroding within its own limits. Since the moment when financialization became the dominant dynamic of accumulation in capitalism, and neoliberalism won hearts and minds around the globe, the world has entered a spiral of greater instability and unpredictability.

Liu Jianchao: Working together to build a modern Global South

The following is an important article by Liu Jianchao, Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee (IDCPC), concerning the current state and prospects of the Global South.

Minister Liu begins by noting that the world today is confronted with unprecedented and accelerated changes. An important feature of the changes is that the collective rise of developing countries is gaining momentum. The rise of developing countries, as a whole, is based on and reinforced by their collective modernization.

Thus, he argues, an in-depth discussion on the modernization of the Global South is urgently needed, not only in response to the call of developing countries for peace, development, and progress, but also to meet the aspirations of the people of all countries for modernization and human advancement.

According to Liu, the Global South is where the hope lies today. The term “Global South”, he goes on, has first and foremost a “south” dimension.

“However, the ‘South’ in the Global South is not a geographical term but a byword for emerging markets and developing countries. It is an identity and representative of a community of countries with similar historical experiences, political pursuits, and development goals.

“The term also has a ‘global’ dimension. It symbolizes a prominent worldwide trend of the collective rise of developing countries and reflects their strong wish for solidarity and self-reliance. The countries of the Global South once suffered from aggression, colonization, suppression, and plunder. It is through years of struggle and hard work, along with the evolving changes in this century, that the Global South has gradually become an important force driving the reforms in the world order and seeking political independence, national rejuvenation and international justice.”

Arguing that the Global South is a “a leading champion of a new type of globalization”, Liu writes that, “unilateralism, protectionism and populism are rearing their ugly heads today. Attempts to build ‘small yards with high fences’ to ‘decouple’ from other economies, sever industry and supply chains and stoke bloc confrontation are rampant… At this crucial moment, the countries of the Global South have chosen to confront difficulties head on.”

“In particular,” he continues, “countries of the Global South, upholding the principle of ‘planning together, building together, and benefiting together’, have pressed ahead the Belt and Road cooperation to a new stage of high-quality development, thus injecting new impetus into global growth, creating new opportunities for global development, and building a new platform for international cooperation.”

According to Liu, the Global South is “the source of strength for global multipolarity.” And it is, “a key force promoting greater democracy in international relations. Over the years, the voice of the Global South has been muted on the world stage and the reasonable concerns of developing countries have not been addressed.

“The few traditional powers that have dominated the right to set the international agenda and rules have always put their own interests first. Their hegemonic, domineering, and bullying practices have disturbed the normal international order and undermined international justice and fairness. Under the new circumstances, more and more Global South countries have realized the [reality of the] ideological and institutional yoke of imperialism and colonialism. And they are more determined than ever to seek strategic autonomy, practice true multilateralism, and promote greater democracy in international relations.”

On the question of modernization, he notes that:

“The Global South must take measures to break the myth that modernization equals westernization. For a long time, people believed westernization is modernization. In fact, modernization is not a single answer question. Different historical conditions lead to different choices of paths to modernization. The modernization of the West started with the expansion of capitalism and reached its peak with the help of colonialism, large-scale exploitation of other countries and the use of power politics. It is an unjust path and by no means a viable choice for the Global South.

“To realize modernization, the countries of the Global South must find a path that best suits their respective national condition and is in line with the trend of the times.

“Besides, they should share their useful experiences, rise up to challenges together, and support each other’s exploration of paths in the pursuit of modernization, so that the Global South and the wider world have more options to achieve modernization.”

He adds:

“China is ready to contribute the country’s strength to advancing modernization for the Global South. While addressing the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August, President Xi Jinping asserted that China is a member of the Global South. China and most countries of the Global South share similar historical experiences and journeys of struggle. And all of them emerged from the fight against colonialism, hegemony, and power politics… China is rooted in the Global South; it cares about the Global South. It has always stood in solidarity with other countries of the Global South through thick and thin, and has been an advocate for and an important player in South-South cooperation…

“China will never forget its roots and will remain a member of the big family of developing countries and the Global South. No matter how the international situation evolves, China will always be committed to the principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness to develop relations with its neighbors, follow the principles of sincerity, real results, affinity, and good faith to develop relations with African countries, and adhere to the principles of equality, mutual benefit and common development to develop relations with Latin American countries.”

In conclusion the IDCPC minister writes: “We believe the modernization of the Global South will become an unstoppable trend in the near future. A stable, united, strong and prosperous Global South will no longer be a forlorn dream, and humanity will eventually enjoy progress, lasting peace and sustained development.”

The Belt and Road Initiative: A Key Pillar of the Global Community of Shared Future

On 10 October 2023, China’s State Council Information Office released an important white paper: The Belt and Road Initiative: A Key Pillar of the Global Community of Shared Future. The document presents the achievements of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) since its announcement in September 2013.

A significant number of historic infrastructure projects in the developing world have already been built within the framework of the BRI. For example, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway is the largest infrastructure project carried out in Kenya since independence. The China-Laos Railway – an electrified railway directly connecting Kunming (in China’s southwestern Yunnan province) to Vientiane, the capital of Laos – was completed in 2021. The white paper notes:

“As an important part of the central section of the pan-Asia railway network, the China-Laos Railway has helped Laos to realize its long-cherished dream of becoming a land-linked country from a landlocked one. It has promoted transport, investment, logistics and tourism, and injected new impetus into the economic development of Laos and areas along the line. By August 31, 2023, the railway had recorded a total of 20.79 million passenger trips and carried 25.22 million tonnes of cargo. It has become a safe and efficient international passageway connecting Laos with its neighbouring countries and regions and generating mutual benefits.”

The Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway – the first high-speed rail system in Indonesia – has achieved an operational speed of 350 km per hour, reducing the journey time between these important cities from 3.5 hours to 45 minutes.

A huge number of energy production and distribution projects have been built as part of the BRI, connecting China, Russia, Mongolia, Central Asia, Pakistan and further afield.

The white paper makes it very clear that, while the BRI was launched by China, “it belongs to the world and benefits the whole of humanity”, and that “irrespective of size, strength and wealth, all countries participate on an equal footing.” The aim is not to travel the well-trodden path of imperialist modernisation but rather to build a global community of shared future – “an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity, charting a bright future for human development.”

This is a model of development and international relations that “diverges from the exploitative colonialism of the past, avoids coercive and one-sided transactions, rejects the centre-periphery model of dependency, and refuses to displace crisis onto others or exploit neighbours for self-interest. Instead, it aims to achieve win-win outcomes and shared development and prosperity.”

Rather than competing with other initiatives, the BRI has successfully integrated and cooperated with many other strategies including Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union framework, Kazakhstan’s Bright Road economic policy, Indonesia’s Global Marine Fulcrum initiative, Vietnam’s Two Corridors and One Economic Circle plan, South Africa’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, and Egypt’s Suez Canal Corridor Project.

“By June 2023, China had signed more than 200 BRI cooperation agreements with more than 150 countries and 30 international organizations across five continents, yielding a number of signature projects and small-scale yet impactful projects.”

The document notes that the fruits of economic globalisation have hitherto been dominated by a small group of developed countries. Rather than contributing to common prosperity at a global level, globalisation “has widened the wealth gap between rich and poor, between developed and developing countries, and within developed countries. Many developing countries have benefited little from economic globalisation and even lost their capacity for independent development, making it hard for them to access the track of modernisation. Certain countries have practiced unilateralism, protectionism and hegemonism, hampering economic globalisation and threatening a global economic recession.”

The focus of the BRI is precisely on contributing to a form of globalisation that generates common prosperity, that brings benefits particularly to developing countries. As such, “most participants are developing countries, all seeking to leverage collective strengths to address challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, lagging industrial development, limited industrialisation, insufficient capital and technology, and a shortage of skilled workers, to promote their own economic and social development.”

Hence the BRI stands in defence of greater globalisation and economic integration, but in a form that is beneficial to all. It stands against certain concepts that have become popular in the West recently – “decoupling” and “derisking” – which seek to impede global cooperation, exchanges and mutual learning. “In a world full of uncertainties and instabilities, all countries should urgently bridge differences through dialogue, oppose rifts with unity, and promote development through cooperation.”

Especially in the last few years, the BRI has embraced green and low-carbon development, “emphasising respecting and protecting nature and following its laws, and respecting the right of all parties to pursue sustainable and eco-friendly growth.” Hence for example China pledged in 2021 to stop building new coal-fired power stations overseas, and is actively building financing mechanisms to encourage sustainable energy and infrastructure.

The document also discusses progress made under the BRI in numerous fields that are largely overlooked, for example cooperation in public health, digital governance and people-to-people exchanges and tourism.

All in all, “the BRI has become the world’s largest platform for international cooperation” and is providing a springboard for progress and prosperity throughout the world.

We publish the full text of the white paper below. It can also be downloaded as a PDF. It was first published in English on Xinhua.

Note that Friends of Socialist China and the International Manifesto Group are holding a webinar – Building a multipolar world: Ten years of the Belt and Road Initiative – on Saturday 4 November 2023, featuring an array of interesting speakers including Erik Solheim (President, Green Belt and Road Institute), Professor Zhang Weiwei (Director, China Institute, Fudan University), Li Jingjing (Journalist and political commentator, CGTN), Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi (Political analyst, Iran), Senator Mushahid Hussain (Chair, Pakistan-China Institute), Martin Jacques (Author, When China Rules the World), Fred M’membe (President, Socialist Party Zambia), Camila Escalante (Editor, Kawsachun News), Keith Bennett (Co-editor, Friends of Socialist China) and Radhika Desai (Convenor, International Manifesto Group). Registration is free via Eventbrite.

The Belt and Road Initiative: A Key Pillar of the Global Community of Shared Future

The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China

Preamble

Over two millennia ago, inspired by a sincere wish for friendship, our ancestors travelled across grasslands and deserts to create a land Silk Road connecting Asia, Europe and Africa, leading the world into an era of extensive cultural exchanges. More than 1,000 years ago, our ancestors set sail and braved the waves to open a maritime Silk Road linking the East and the West, beginning a new phase of closer communication among peoples.

Spanning thousands of miles and years, the ancient silk routes were not only routes for trade but also roads for cultural exchanges. They made a great contribution to human progress. In the 1980s, the United Nations and some countries began to envisage the Eurasian Land Bridge, the Silk Road Initiative, and other plans, reflecting a common wish to engage in communication and cooperation.

In March 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed the vision of a global community of shared future; in September and October that year, he raised the initiatives of joining with others to build a Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI). The Belt and Road Initiative is a creative development that takes on and carries forward the spirit of the ancient silk routes – two of the great achievements in human history and civilization. It enriches the ancient spirit with the zeitgeist and culture of the new era, and provides a platform for building a global community of shared future.

Putin: the Belt and Road Initiative is a truly important idea, facilitating a fairer, multipolar world

At the opening ceremony of the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, held in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on October 18, the speech of Chinese President Xi Jinping was immediately followed by that of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

Noting that the forum was being held on the tenth anniversary of President Xi proposing the Belt and Road Initiative, President Putin described the BRI, as “a truly important and global idea that is spearheaded into the future, towards creating a fairer multipolar world and system of relations,” adding:

“We pointed out on numerous occasions that Russia and China, just as the majority of other countries, share the striving for equal and mutually beneficial cooperation towards universal, sustainable and lasting economic progress and social welfare based on respect for civilisational diversity and the right of every state to its own development model.”

Putin asserted that BRI is based on these fundamental principles and therefore fits very well with the integration processes underway in many regions:

“It also rhymes with our idea of creating a greater Eurasian partnership as an area of cooperation and interaction among like-minded nations and the alignment of various integration processes, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which Russia is successfully developing with its post-Soviet partners. It is notable that Russia and China have reached a practical agreement on a concurrent and coordinated development of the EAEU and the Belt and Road Initiative.”

President Putin took the opportunity to outline the various projects and plans of the Russian Federation in this regard, such as work to connect Russian ports on the Baltic and Arctic seas to ports in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, including seamless rail connectivity from Murmansk in the far northwest of Russia to the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf.

Concluding, President Putin noted that, “when a major project is launched, everybody hopes that it will succeed. However, to be honest, it is difficult to expect that all its elements will be successful, considering the global scale of the initiative advanced by the President of the People’s Republic of China 10 years ago. Our Chinese friends are working successfully. We are happy for them, because this also concerns many of us.”

His speech was followed by those of the Presidents of Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Argentina, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The following is the full text of President Putin’s speech. It was originally published on the official website of the President of Russia.

President Xi, my dear friend,

Ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to express gratitude to President of China Xi Jinping for inviting me to the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

The forum is being held on the 10th anniversary of the initiative Mr Xi advanced, a truly important and global idea that is spearheaded into the future, towards creating a fairer multipolar world and system of relations. It is a global plan, without a doubt.

I agree with the President of China that the Belt and Road idea ties in logically with multilateral efforts to promote creative and constructive interaction throughout the international community.

We pointed out on numerous occasions that Russia and China, just as the majority of other countries, share the striving for equal and mutually beneficial cooperation towards universal, sustainable and lasting economic progress and social welfare based on respect for the civilisational diversity and the right of every state to its own development model.

The Belt and Road initiative is based on these fundamental principles and fits in very well with the integration processes that are ongoing in many regions. It also corresponds to the Russian ideas of creating an integration contour that will ensure the freedom of trade, investment and employment and will be complemented with interconnected infrastructure.

Building an open, inclusive and interconnected world for common development

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF III) at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on October 18, 2023.

The Chinese leader was joined at the opening ceremony by state leaders from more than 20 countries, including:

President of Argentina Alberto Fernández;
President of Chile Gabriel Boric;
President of the Republic of Congo Denis Sassou-N’Guesso;
President of Indonesia Joko Widodo;
President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev;
President of Kenya William Ruto;
President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith;
President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhna;
President of Russia Vladimir Putin;
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić;
President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe;
National Leader of the Turkmen people and Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov;
President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev;
President of Vietnam Vo Van Thuong;
Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Manet;
Prime Minister of Egypt Mostafa Madbouly;
Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed Ali;
Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán;
Prime Minister of Mozambique Adriano Afonso Maleiane;
Prime Minister of Pakistan Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar;
Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea James Marape;
Prime Minister of Thailand Srettha Thavisin;
Vice President of Nigeria Kashim Shettima;
Special Representative of the President and Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi;
Special Representative of the President and former Prime Minister of France Jean-Pierre Raffarin;
and Senior Representative of the Prime Minister and Minister of Development of Greece Kostas Skrekas, as well as heads of international organisations, including United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and President of the New Development Bank (NDB) Dilma Rousseff.

Presidents Vladimir Putin, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Joko Widodo, and Alberto Fernández, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, and Secretary-General António Guterres also delivered speeches at the opening ceremony.

Under the title, ‘Building an Open, Inclusive and Interconnected World for Common Development’, and noting that this year marks the tenth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), President Xi said that it draws, “inspiration from the ancient Silk Road and, focusing on enhancing connectivity, aims to enhance policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity, inject new impetus into the global economy, create new opportunities for global development, and build a new platform for international economic cooperation.

“Belt and Road cooperation has extended from the Eurasian continent to Africa and Latin America. More than 150 countries and over 30 international organisations have signed Belt and Road cooperation documents.”

Belt and Road cooperation, he noted, has progressed from ‘sketching the outline’ to ‘filling in the details’, and blueprints have been turned into real projects. A large number of signature projects and ‘small yet smart’ people-centred programs have been launched.

“Belt and Road cooperation has expanded from physical connectivity to institutional connectivity. Important guiding principles for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation have been laid down, which include the principle of ‘planning together, building together, and benefiting together,’ the philosophy of open, green and clean cooperation, and the goal of pursuing high-standard, people-centred and sustainable cooperation.

Over these 10 years, we have endeavoured to build a global network of connectivity consisting of economic corridors, international transportation routes and information highway, as well as railways, roads, airports, ports, pipelines and power grids. Covering the land, the ocean, the sky and the Internet, this network has boosted the flow of goods, capital, technologies and human resources among countries involved and injected fresh vitality into the millennia-old Silk Road in the new era.

Hydro, wind and solar energy based power plants, oil and gas pipelines, and the increasingly smart and interconnected power transmission networks are removing the development bottleneck caused by energy shortage and fulfilling the dream of developing countries to achieve green and low-carbon development. These energy projects have become the oasis and lighthouse for sustainable development in the new era.”

The Chinese leader went on to note that, “when COVID-19 struck, the Belt and Road became a life-saving road. China provided more than 10 billion masks and 2.3 billion doses of vaccines to other countries and jointly produced vaccines with over 20 countries, making a special contribution to BRI partners’ efforts in fighting COVID-19. And China also received valuable support from more than 70 countries when it was hit hard by the pandemic.

“Belt and Road cooperation is based on the principle of ‘planning together, building together, and benefiting together.’ It transcends differences between civilisations, cultures, social systems, and stages of development. It has opened up a new path for exchanges among countries, and established a new framework for international cooperation. Indeed, the BRI represents humanity’s joint pursuit of development for all.”

He also stressed that:

“We have learned that humankind is a community with a shared future. China can only do well when the world is doing well. When China does well, the world will get even better… We have learned that win-win cooperation is the sure way to success in launching major initiatives that benefit all. When countries embrace cooperation and act in concert, a deep chasm can be turned into a thoroughfare, land-locked countries can become land-linked, and a place of underdevelopment can be transformed into a land of prosperity. Countries taking the lead in economic development should give a hand to their partners who are yet to catch up. We should all treat each other as friends and partners, respect and support each other, and help each other succeed… Viewing others’ development as a threat or taking economic interdependence as a risk will not make one’s own life better or speed up one’s development… Belt and Road cooperation is based on the belief that flame runs high when everyone adds wood to the fire and that mutual support can get us far. Such cooperation seeks to deliver a good life not only to people of just one country, but to people in other countries as well… Ideological confrontation, geopolitical rivalry and bloc politics are not a choice for us. What we stand against are unilateral sanctions, economic coercion and decoupling and supply chain disruption… We need to remain clear-eyed and undisturbed in a volatile world, and we need to be keenly aware of our responsibility for history, for the people and for the world. We should jointly address various global risks and challenges, and deliver a bright future of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit for future generations… The modernisation we are pursuing is not for China alone, but for all developing countries through our joint efforts. Global modernisation should be pursued to enhance peaceful development and mutually beneficial cooperation and bring prosperity to all.”

President Xi also outlined eight major steps that China will take to support the joint pursuit of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

The following is the full text of President Xi’s speech. It was originally published on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Your Excellencies Heads of State and Government,
Heads of International Organizations,
Representatives of Various Countries,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,

Today, we are meeting here for the opening ceremony of the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF). On behalf of the Chinese government and Chinese people and in my own name, I wish to extend a very warm welcome to you all!

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) I proposed. The BRI, drawing inspiration from the ancient Silk Road and focusing on enhancing connectivity, aims to enhance policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity, inject new impetus into the global economy, create new opportunities for global development, and build a new platform for international economic cooperation.

Life for Angolans is changing for the better with the support of China

The following article, first published in Global Times, is based on an interview with João Baptista Borges, Angolan Minister of Energy and Water.

Borges, who was attending the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, addresses the accusations of “debt trap” that have been leveled against the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). He calls such claims “untrue and unfair”, noting that the infrastructure projects China is involved in – related to energy systems, water treatment and more – “have benefited millions of Angolans” and that Angola’s cooperation with China “is very important and strategic for us in terms of the great changes it has brought to our lives… If you ask anybody in Angola, they will tell you that our lives have changed with these supports from China.”

Borges insists that Angola’s participation in the BRI is based on mutual respect and mutual benefit, and that Angola makes its own decisions about what projects to pursue. “China has never imposed any projects on us; each project was selected by us.”

Furthermore, while Angola is a major fossil fuel producer, it is developing ambitious plans to carry out a green transition, and considers that Chinese experience and investment will be crucial in this regard. “We are talking in terms of hundreds of millions of dollars to construct solar power plants and hydro transmission systems in order to eliminate gradually the consumption of fossil fuels. Our priority is really to transform our economy in order to provide not only more power but also clean power to the people at affordable prices.”

The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has generated numerous opportunities for partner countries, including Angola, as noted by João Baptista Borges, the Angolan Minister of Energy and Water, in an exclusive interview with the Global Times, during which he conveyed appreciation for the positive changes that Chinese companies have contributed to his country’s development, notably in sectors including water, energy supply, and green transformation.

The Angolan minister has also refuted the West’s intensified allegations over the so-called “debt trap” issue targeting the initiative, calling it both “untrue and unfair.”

These remarks were made on the sidelines of his visit to China on behalf of Angolan President João Lourenço to attend the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF), which was held in Beijing from Tuesday to Wednesday.

China’s increased support for Angola can be traced back to the early 2000s when the country was emerging from a decades-long civil war and was in dire need of extensive rebuilding, the minister said.

At that time, there was a pressing need for rebuilding, and the country had already begun receiving substantial financial support from the Chinese government for various critical infrastructure projects, such as water and energy supplies, Borges explained.

The cooperation with China has later increased substantially, with a range of major projects, including water treatment systems and transmission systems, being built to help secure the energy supply of the country and improve the living standards of local people.

China’s development path, 1949-2022

We are very pleased to republish this important and extremely informative article by Michael Dunford, surveying and explaining China’s development path, 1949-2022. Michael, who is Emeritus Professor at Sussex University in the UK and a Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is also a member of our Advisory Group.

In his article, China’s path is conceived as a transition from an economically underdeveloped and semi-colonised country of the Global South into a modern socialist country in a multipolar world, where successive steps were shaped by China’s external environment and a succession of contradictions and crises encountered along the way.

Three phases are examined: a turbulent phase of socialist construction in a context of capital shortage and US embargoes; a phase of reform and opening up in an era of neoliberal globalisation, whose early roots lay in the early 1970s’ rapprochement with the US; and a New Era, dating essentially from Xi Jinping’s election as General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee. In each phase, Michael argues, crises and contradictions saw waves of reform, involving successive joint transformations of economic structures and institutions, while each phase was anticipated in the years that preceded it, so opening up actually started in the early 1970s with the rapprochement with the US, and aspects of the New Era, concerned with innovation, green development, common prosperity and an equitable global order, also started to emerge earlier.

For example, the New Era was anticipated as early as the start of the new millennium, when reform and opening up continued, yet with greater attention to the goal of ‘common prosperity’ and the correction of all kinds of imbalances and contradictions associated with the reform era. In addition, it was shaped by a changing international environment in which the US and its allies sought, and are still seeking, to prevent the return of China and ensure continuing US global dominance and control.

This interpretation challenges the notion that the events set in motion at the very end of 1978 amounted to an ideological change of course, not least as the opening to Western capital and integration into world markets dated from at least the early 1970s and were, in fact, envisaged in the years up to 1949. Second, it challenges common negative assessments of the first 30 years of the New China and, indeed, sees them as laying the foundations for later developments in an overall transition to socialism. Third, it emphasises the significance of successive reforms designed to address internal and external contradictions. Fourth, it suggests that the entire path is connected with earlier phases laying the foundations for later phases and with reforms at each stage addressing contradictions generated at earlier stages.

The article notes that Deng Xiaoping repeatedly argued that:

“Predominance of public ownership and common prosperity are the two fundamental socialist principles that we must adhere to. The aim of socialism is to make all our people prosperous, not to create polarisation. If our policies led to polarisation, it would mean that we had failed; if a new bourgeoisie emerged, it would mean that we had strayed from the right path. In encouraging some regions to become prosperous first, we intend that they should inspire others to follow their example and that all of them should help economically backward regions to develop. The same holds good for some individuals.”

Michael then goes on to argue that in the first three decades of reform and opening up, China achieved sustained high rates of GDP growth, but the priority attached to increases in GDP and letting some get rich first was responsible for a series of negative consequences: serious environmental damage, resource depletion, growing inequalities in income and wealth, growing rural–urban and regional disparities, increasing corruption, and a rapid increase in mass incidents relating to employment, land acquisition, demolitions, pollution and official conduct. Addressing these issues from around the turn of the millennium, in 1998, the party leadership took up issues of greatest concern to farmers and, the next year, China’s western development was set in motion to expand domestic demand and drive economic growth in the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis, and to contribute to ‘common prosperity’. Measures to support North-east and Central China followed.

In conclusion, Michael observes that the new China that emerged from a semi-colonial state and civil war in 1949 was one of the poorest countries in the world. As of today, it is an upper-middle-income country that has lifted all of its 1.4 billion people out of extreme poverty. In terms of material production, it is the largest economy in the world, and as a global actor, it envisages a new international order centred on the equality and sovereignty of all nations, and their right to choose their own development paths.

China’s own progress is a result of: a socialist model that is people- rather than capital-centred and in which politics (what is called ‘Chinese whole-process democracy’) rather than capital rules; avoidance of debt-traps that afflict many developing countries; its ability to preserve its sovereignty in an unjust and unequal world; its capacity to effectively mobilise the energy of its people; and its ability to maintain high rates of investment to drive catch-up industrialisation, urbanisation and rural–urban co-evolution.

China emerged from the turbulent Mao era with a core sovereign socialist industrial system, a doubling of life expectancy, an immense young, healthy and educated population, and a high degree of equity. After relations with the US improved, China embarked on reform and opening up under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping to accelerate the development of the productive forces and allowed some people and places to get rich first in the expectation that others would get rich later. Although almost everyone’s livelihood improved overall (though not at certain times and in certain places), a dramatic growth in inequality and serious environmental and social problems, as well as a need to innovate and reduce reliance on low-wage and low-skilled industries, caused China to address more strongly the goals of common prosperity, green development and economic modernisation. Between 2013–20, it successfully completed an extraordinary campaign to end extreme poverty. At the same time, modernisation goals involve a commitment to more measured and higher-quality development, and scientific, technological and industrial upgrading. In the New Era, however, China is also seeking to identify a distinctive Chinese path to modernisation, that is innovative, ecological, spiritually rich and equitable, and that enriches the lives of all of its people.

This thoroughly researched and detailed article deserves to be studied carefully and widely discussed. It was originally published in the journal Global Discourse.

Abstract

China’s path is conceived as a transition of an economically under-developed and semi-colonised country of the Global South into a modern socialist country in a multipolar world where successive steps (modes of regulation) were shaped by China’s external environment (uneven and combined development) and a succession of contradictions and crises encountered along the way. Three phases are examined: a turbulent phase of socialist construction in a context of capital shortage and United States (US) embargoes, a phase of reform an opening up in an era of neo-liberal globalisation whose early roots lay in early 1970s rapprochement with the US, and a New Era dating from 2017. In each phase crises and contradictions saw waves of reform involving successive joint transformations of economic structures and institutions, while each phase was anticipated in the years that preceded it, so opening-up started in the early 1970s with the rapprochement with the US and aspects of the New Era concern with innovation, green development, common prosperity and an equitable global order started to emerge earlier.

1 Introduction

China is one of the world’s most ancient civilizations marked by the reproduction of recognizable Chinese social, political and cultural characteristics. These characteristics were shaped by several thousand years of dynastic and imperial rule, by earlier socio-political orders made up of an ocean of local rural communities centred around patriarchal families, a single centre of political power and hierarchical administrations occasionally removed as a result of the loss of the Mandate of Heaven (expressing the dependence of the political legitimacy of ruling elites on the consent and wellbeing of the great majority of the Chinese people) and by Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist, Legalist and more recently Marxist values and thought that exercise important influences to this day.

Until the Eighteenth Century, China was a world leader in science and technology. In 1750 it accounted for 32.8% of world manufactures. By 1860, however, its share had declined to just 19.7%, and, by 1913, it was a mere 3.6% (Bairoch 1997: volume 3, p. 860). In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries neither the crisis-ridden Qing (Manchu) Dynasty nor the post-2011 Nationalist (Guomindang) governments managed to overcome the obstacles to industrial modernization, and the devastating impacts of the military, political and commercial penetration of China by foreign colonial powers and of Japan’s attempt at conquest. In more than one hundred years of humiliation, China was forced to sign unequal treaties, cede sovereignty and territorial rights to nineteen foreign powers and pay huge financial indemnities, while its real GDP per capita declined from 2011 US$ 926 in 1800 to 439 in 1950 (Bolt and van Zanden 2020).

A Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals and Actions

On 26 September 2023, the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China issued a white paper titled “A Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals and Actions”, setting out China’s high level foreign policy and describing a bold vision for building a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable future for humanity.

The central theme of the document is succinctly stated in the preface:

To build a global community of shared future, all peoples, all countries, and all individuals – our destinies being interconnected – must stand together in adversity and through thick and thin, navigating towards greater harmony on this planet that we call home. We should endeavor to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity, turning people’s longing for a better life into reality.

The white paper describes the current division in geopolitics; the fork in the road, with one direction characterised by a “Cold War mentality that deepens division and antagonism and stokes confrontation between blocs” and the other aimed at developing common wellbeing of humanity, solidarity, cooperation, openness, equality and respect. “The tug of war between these two options will shape the future of humanity and our planet in a profound way.”

The paper can be considered as a modern reiteration of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-Existence – mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; mutual non-aggression; non- interference in each other’s internal affairs; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful coexistence – which have been the lodestar of Chinese foreign policy since their announcement in 1954. Core to these principles is the notion – embedded in the UN Charter – of the sovereign equality of all states. The white paper observes:

The world needs justice, not hegemonism. No country has the right to dominate global affairs, dictate the future of others, or monopolize development advantages. Countries should safeguard the international order based on international law, uphold the authority of the international rule of law, and ensure equal and unified application of international law. The practice of double standards or selective application of law should be rejected.

This stands in contrast with the much-vaunted ‘rules-based international order’, which is in fact a euphemism for the primacy of the US and its allies, and the imposition of their will on the rest of the world.

The document reiterates China’s commitment to environmental sustainability and to the highest level of international cooperation in preventing catastrophic climate change.

We should reconcile industrial development with nature, and pursue harmony between humanity and nature to achieve sustainable global development and all-round human development. We should respect nature, follow its ways, and protect it. We should firmly pursue green, low-carbon, circular and sustainable development… We should make our world clean and beautiful by pursuing green and low-carbon development… We must follow the philosophy of harmony between humanity and nature and observance of the laws of nature and pursue a path of sustainable development, so that everyone is able to enjoy a starry sky, lush mountains and fragrant flowers.

Recognising the potentially catastrophic consequences of war in the nuclear age, the white paper also re-states China’s commitment to the principle of no-first-use of nuclear weapons, and to the goal of complete nuclear disarmament.

China actively advocates the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons, and it is the only nuclear country that has publicly committed to no-first-use of nuclear weapons, and not using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states and nuclear-weapon-free zones.

While “it is normal for countries to have differences”, there is always the possibility for these to be overcome through peaceful means and within a framework of international law. “No conflict is too big to resolve and no ice too thick to break.”

Quoting a number of powerful proverbs from around the world – including the Russian proverb “Together we can weather the storm”, the African proverb “One single pillar is not sufficient to build a house” and the Arabic proverb “If you want to walk fast, walk alone; if you want to walk far, walk together” – the document notes that the concept of a global community of shared future is not unique to China but runs deep through the history of civilisation. It is a unifying dream of humanity, which can inspire this generation to work seriously towards its realisation.

If the peoples of the world can work together to build a global community of shared future, “emerging countries and established powers can avoid falling into the Thucydides trap” and can “find the right way to get along in mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.” (Thucydides trap is a term popularised by US political scientist Graham Allison, describing a tendency towards war when an emerging power threatens to displace an existing great power).

The white paper describes the ways in which China, particularly over the last decade, has worked tirelessly towards building a global community of shared future. This includes the Belt and Road Initiative, which has already brought tremendous benefits to the people of Pakistan, Laos, Greece, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tajikistan and many other countries. The Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative – proposed by China in 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively – provide an important framework for helping to meet humanity’s collective need for material prosperity, peace, and cultural progress and mutual learning.

The document concludes with a powerful call to joint action:

In the face of common challenges, no person or country can remain isolated. The only response is to work together in harmony and unity. Only by strengthening coordination and cooperation, and ensuring that the interests of the people of every country will be kept in line with those of all others, can all countries move forward towards a global community of shared future…

When all countries unite in pursuing the cause of common good, plan together, and act together day by day towards the right direction of building a global community of shared future, we can build an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security and shared prosperity, and jointly create a better future for all of humanity.

We reprint the full text of the white paper below. It was originally published on the website of the State Council Information Office.

A Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals and Actions

The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China
September 2023

Minister Liu Jianchao: Promoting a human community with a shared future

We reprint below an important article by Liu Jianchao, Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, which first appeared in China Daily.

In his article, Minister Liu outlines the key points and significance of the three major initiatives put forward by President Xi Jinping, namely the Global Development Initiative (GDI), Global Security Initiative (GSI) and Global Civilisation Initiative (GCI). According to Liu, together they promote “global organic unity… in order to build a human community with a shared future.” This unity, “following the trend of human progress and in response to the unprecedented changes in the world, points to the direction in which the world, which now is at a crossroad, should go.”

He further outlines the essence of each initiative, as follows:

“The GDI, from the perspective of growth, answers the question of what development philosophy people need and how to achieve global development. It is aimed at creating the material foundation for a human community with a shared future. The GSI, from the viewpoint of security, focuses on the issue of what sort of security humanity needs and how to achieve universal security. It is aimed at providing security guarantee for the community. The GCI… answers the question of how to view different civilisations and promote exchanges and mutual learning among them. It aims to build the cultural foundation for the human community.”

Targeting issues like humanity’s survival, development, and modernisation, the GDI effectively responds to the strong aspiration and urgent need of the international community, developing countries in particular, to achieve faster economic growth. It also focuses on tackling the unbalanced and inadequate development within and among nations, thus setting the direction for the cause of global development and global cooperation on development.

China’s success in brokering a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and its commitment to promoting the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis through peace talks, are all examples of how we address security dilemmas by following the GSI. Targeting issues such as misunderstandings, estrangement, lack of mutual trust and inclusiveness among civilisations, the GCI aims to achieve dialectical unity based on the commonality and notwithstanding the diversity of civilisations, by seeking the common ground among them while fully respecting that diversity.

Whilst also outlining the influence of traditional Chinese culture and philosophy on the initiatives, Liu particularly emphasises how they are rooted in and embody Marxism.

“The vision of building a human community with a shared future and the three global initiatives are scientific. They encapsulate the stances, viewpoints, and methods of Marxism, reflecting the hallmarks of Marxism, and demonstrating salient theoretical characters. Underpinned by dialectical and historical materialism, the vision and the three global initiatives reveal the laws governing the development of human society and its future direction.”

They are also people-centred: “Focusing on the aspiration for a better life of the peoples across the world, the vision and the three global initiatives highlight the overall interests of humanity and strive to improve the common wellbeing of all peoples.

“Moreover, their vision of caring for every individual is self-evident. Responding to the yearning of peoples of different countries for peace, development and cooperation, the vision and the three global initiatives are committed to creating the right conditions to realise and guarantee each individual’s well-rounded development.”

Concluding his arguments, Minister Liu notes:

“The vision of a human community with a shared future and the three global initiatives uphold and apply Marxist stances, viewpoints and methods, and constitute a well-developed system of thought with compelling logic. They reflect China’s keen grasp of the law of history and its civilisation, and its deep reflection on the questions that have emerged in modern times.

“The three global initiatives, which are interconnected, interdependent and mutually reinforcing, provide a strong underpinning for the vision of building a global community with a shared future and offer China’s solution to build a better world.”

In March this year, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, proposed the Global Civilization Initiative at the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting. The GCI was the third global initiative he proposed to promote global organic unity after the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative in order to build a human community with a shared future.

The unity, following the trend of human progress and in response to the unprecedented changes in the world, points to the direction in which the world, which now is at a crossroad, should go. It is a new development of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy and speaks volumes about the sense of history, mission and responsibility, and the global vision of Chinese communists with Xi Jinping as their chief representative. To break new ground in advancing major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, we must get a sound grasp of the scientific nature and the considerable significance of this unity and the inherent relationship between the vision and the three global initiatives.

From the historical perspective, the three global initiatives, reflecting three major themes of human progress, constitute three pillars that support the overarching vision of a human community with a shared future.

In the long river of history, different civilizations, flowing and converging from time to time, have surged forward like waves. Along with the continuous progress of human society and the deepening of globalization, countries have become increasingly connected and inter-dependent, forming a community with a shared future.

People of all countries have come to realize that material abundance, peace and stability and cultural prosperity are what all societies aspire for. To achieve them, we need growth, security and civilization, which complement and reinforce each other.

As an ancient Chinese saying goes, “Only when the granary is full will people learn etiquette; only when people are well fed and clothed will they know honor and shame.” Growth is the basis for security and civilization. Only when all countries prosper can peace last and civilizations thrive.

“Stability brings a country prosperity, while instability leads a country to poverty,” is another ancient Chinese saying. Security is a prerequisite of growth and civilization. Chinese people in ancient times believed that the civilized tend to enjoy safety while the uncivilized are more prone to face troubles and encounter danger. Civilization develops on the basis of economic growth and security. It is the accumulation of a people’s cultural pursuit and carries the imprint of a nation’s history. It has a gradual and imperceptible influence on people’s way of thinking and doing things, providing spiritual strength to the cause of development and security.

Prachanda: China’s socialism offers Nepal valuable insights for improving the lives of the disadvantaged

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, Prime Minister of Nepal, who is also the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), visited China from September 23-30, with his first engagement being to attend the opening of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou and to meet there with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Prachanda has visited China many times, but this was the first visit of his current third term as Prime Minister.

During his visit, Prachanda gave an exclusive interview to the Chinese newspaper, Global Times.

In its preamble, the newspaper described the Nepalese leader as having witnessed abject poverty in his youth and therefore, becoming “determined to change his country’s corruption and a ruling exploitative class, Prachanda embarked on a revolutionary path to transform Nepal’s destiny.” It added: “As a staunch socialist and a long-time member of the Communist Party, Prachanda has deep ties to China.”

The interview features a detailed overview of the economic situation in Nepal and the current stage and prospects of the country’s relations with China in the economic and social fields. Prachanda tells his interviewers that:

“Nepal urgently requires to create more jobs in order to address the unemployment problem, enhance productivity, expand the output of exportable goods and services, explore new markets for export, control inflation, and maintain trade balance. These objectives stand as my foremost priorities.”

He then adds: “China has ascended to become the world’s second-largest economy, showcasing remarkable achievements in the socio-economic transformation of its society. Notably, China serves as a significant pillar of economic support for Nepal. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Nepal and China in 1955, China has played an important role in assisting Nepal’s infrastructure and development endeavours. Many of these projects hold immense importance for our nation’s progress. As China continues to advance, its support and investment in Nepal are continuously growing. Nepal views China’s development trajectory as an opportunity, with the BRI [Belt and Road Initiative] serving as a suitable platform for enhancing trans-Himalayan multidimensional connectivity.”

One key element of the two countries’ cooperation, which holds the potential to be transformatory for the Nepalese economy, is a planned railway link. On this, Prachanda notes:

“The primary concern associated with this project is how quickly we can bring it to fruition. You must be aware that the construction of this project requires a substantial amount of resources that Nepal alone cannot afford. In such a situation, we have no choice but to rely on external funding. However, we also share concerns that the size of the loan for this project and terms and conditions should be manageable for the Nepali economy.”

Asked whether he believes that socialism is still relevant in Nepal, the veteran communist leader replies:

“Nepal’s constitution defines Nepal as a socialism-oriented state. In my view, socialism and Chairman Mao’s ideas and teachings remain relevant to transform Nepal into a socialist country.

“Under the socialism and the leadership of Mao, the Communist Party of China (CPC) established the People’s Republic of China. The CPC developed its unique path to socialism with Chinese characteristics.

“Similarly, Nepal will determine its own path as a socialism-oriented country that suits its historical political development and current geopolitical realities. It’s not about Nepal imitating China’s socialism and Chairman Mao Zedong. China’s socialism and Mao’s ideas offer us valuable insights to improve the socio-economic status of the oppressed and economically disadvantaged class of people.”

He is also asked whether he believes he has realised the dreams and goals he had when he first fought in the revolution, drawing this reply:

“I should say our dreams have been partially realised. Politically, the country has overthrown a centuries-old monarchy and has been transformed into a republic. This would not have been possible without our ‘People’s War.’ Now, in the eyes of the constitution and laws, all citizens are equal. The country has adopted inclusive policies protecting the basic rights of people from all walks of life. From the highest level such as parliament and other constitutional bodies to the lowest level of political representations such as ward committees, from government institutions to cooperatives, from recruitments in government jobs to student admissions in colleges, certain reservations have been ensured for people from marginalised groups like women, the economically poor, and the underprivileged classes. This remarkable achievement was institutionalised through the constitution promulgated in 2015.

“Despite achievements made in several areas, I must admit that much remains to be done in the economic sector. Economic, technical, and educational advancements take a longer time to show visible results. To achieve progress in these sectors, we need consistent, long-term efforts, and most importantly national consensus.”

We reprint below the full text of Comrade Prachanda’s interview.

We also reprint the full text of the joint statement between China and Nepal, which was released following Prachanda’s talks with his Chinese counterpart, Premier Li Qiang, in Beijing on September 26.

The statement notes that both countries agreed that, “since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1955, China and Nepal have withstood changes of the international situation, always upheld mutual respect, equality, solidarity, mutual assistance and win-win cooperation, setting a fine example of friendly interaction between countries with different social systems and of different sizes… China firmly supports Nepal in upholding its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and respects and supports Nepal’s independent choice of social system and development path that suits its national conditions.”

The statement reviews in detail all areas of bilateral cooperation and addresses ways to advance them in a smoother and more expeditious manner. It adds:

“The two sides commended their mutual support in fighting COVID-19 together. The two sides expressed satisfaction over the completion and handover of the China-aided project of upgrading and renovating the Civil Service Hospital in Nepal and are ready to further strengthen health and medical cooperation, including expediting the installation of a Bone Marrow Transplant Service at the B.P. Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital in Nepal.”

China and Nepal also stressed “the importance to uphold true multilateralism, promote greater democracy in international relations, and make global governance more just and equitable. The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation within the framework of the United Nations and other multilateral mechanisms to uphold the common interest of developing countries. The two sides support the multilateral trading system and oppose protectionism. They will work together to make economic globalisation more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all, promote global and regional peace, security, development and prosperity, and build a community with a shared future for humanity.”

The following articles were originally published by Global Times and the Xinhua News Agency.

Nepal to maintain non-aligned policy in friendly relations with neighbors, hopes China’s strengths will help bolster economy: Nepalese PM

At the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda commenced his five-day state visit to China from September 23 to 30, his first visit to China since the start of his third term as the Prime Minister of Nepal. The 69-year-old is a legendary figure in Nepal. Born in a poor Brahmin farming family in Pokhara in 1954, he witnessed abject poverty in his youth. Determined to change his country’s corruption and a ruling exploitative class, Prachanda embarked on a revolutionary path to transform Nepal’s destiny. In 2008, he became the first prime minister of Nepal after the abolition of the monarchy. In 2016, he assumed the office of prime minister for a second term, and in November 2022, this veteran of Nepalese politics made a comeback for a third term. As a staunch socialist and a long-time member of the Communist Party, Prachanda has deep ties to China. After assuming office as the first term as prime minister of Nepal, the first country he visited was China. In 2008, he also came to Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Chinese Embassy symposium: The CPC and the Building of a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind

On 22 August 2023, the Chinese Embassy in the UK held a symposium themed The Communist Party of China and the Building of a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind, to which a range of political parties, organisations and individuals were invited. Three people attended the symposium on behalf of Friends of Socialist China, at which Ambassador Zheng Zeguang, Minister Zhao Fei, Minister Wang Qi and other senior diplomats introduced Xi Jinping’s concepts in relation to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Ambassador Zheng and the ministers from the Chinese Embassy provided valuable reports on China’s major foreign policy initiatives directed at supporting global peace, prosperity and friendship: the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilisation Initiative. The presentations were followed by contributions from Robert Griffiths of the Communist Party of Britain; Ella Rule of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist Leninist); Andy Brooks of the New Communist Party; Keith Bennett of Friends of Socialist China; and British scholars Martin Albrow, Frances Wood and Martin Jacques. The event concluded with a wide-ranging discussion, to which Carlos Martinez and Francisco Dominguez both contributed on behalf of Friends of Socialist China.

We publish below the report of the syposium from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the UK, along with Keith Bennett’s speech and Carlos Martinez’s remarks.

The Chinese Embassy in the UK Holds a Symposium on “The Communist Party of China and the Building of a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind”

On 22 August 2023, the Chinese Embassy in the UK held a symposium themed “The Communist Party of China and the Building of a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind”, which was attended by representatives of various political parties and people from different sectors in the UK. At the symposium, H.E. Ambassador Zheng Zeguang, Minister Zhao Fei, Minister Wang Qi and other senior diplomats at the Embassy introduced the important thought of General Secretary Xi Jinping on Party building and the important contributions made by the CPC to building a community with a shared future for mankind. Participants from the British side made remarks respectively, sharing their understanding of the tenets and significance of the relevant philosophies of the CPC.

Ambassador Zheng pointed out that to understand China, one must understand the CPC. The key to China’s great achievements to date lies fundamentally in the strong leadership of the CPC and its Party building. Since the 18th Party Congress, the Chinese communists with General Secretary Xi Jinping as their chief representative, have attached great importance to the innovation of Party building on practical, theoretical, institutional and other aspects, and formed the important thought of General Secretary Xi Jinping on Party building.

This important thought is a scientific summary of the theoretical development and practical experience of Party building in the new era. It represents a major theoretical innovation that answers the call for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It has given sensible answers to what kind of Marxist party exercising long-term governance we should develop in the new era, and how we should go about achieving it. This innovation has enabled the CPC to always remain at the forefront of the times, brimming with vigour and vitality.

Ambassador Zheng said that the CPC has led the Chinese people in a concerted effort to finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, thus completing the First Centenary Goal, to embark on a new journey to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects and advance towards the Second Centenary Goal, and to promote the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernisation.

Capitalist and socialist modernisation

The Sixteenth Forum of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) took place from 25 to 27 September 2023 in Fuzhou, China, co-organised by Fujian Normal University. The theme of the forum was Chinese modernisaton and the prospects of world modernisation. Although unable to attend in person, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez was invited to submit a video presentation.

Carlos’s presentation, entitled Capitalist and socialist modernisation, takes up a number of questions: What is modernisation? Is modernisation desirable? How has modernisation been achieved in the West? What is China’s modernisation plan? What are the unique characteristics of Chinese modernisation? How does socialist modernisation differ from capitalist modernisation? What effect does China’s modernisation on the global journey towards development and socialism?

The video and the text of Carlos’s presentation are available below.

What is modernisation, and is it necessary?

Modernisation is a somewhat nebulous concept. It means different things to different societies at different times. By definition, its parameters are constantly changing.

In the broadest sense, it means adapting to the latest, most advanced ideas and techniques for meeting humanity’s material and cultural needs.

In sociology, there is more or less an equals sign between modernisation and industrialisation, and is generally held to begin with Britain’s Industrial Revolution. We can think of it essentially as the transition from ‘developing country’ status to ‘developed country’ status; from a predominantly rural society to a predominantly urban society; from a technologically backward society to a technologically advanced society.

Is this desirable? Beauty is of course in the eye of the beholder, but most people consider modernisation to be desirable, because it enables higher living standards for the masses of the people.

With modernised industry, production techniques, communication methods, transport systems, energy systems and healthcare strategies, there exists the possibility of providing a healthy, meaningful and dignified life to all, such that each individual has reliable access to a healthy diet, to decent housing, to clothing, to education, to healthcare, to a vibrant cultural, social and intellectual life, and to fulfilling work. In short, modernisation makes it possible to attend to people’s basic human rights.

The fruits of modernisation have thus far been divided extremely unequally: the process of industrialisation in North America, Europe and Japan has created previously unimaginable wealth for a few, but this has been accompanied by desperate poverty and alienation for significant numbers. However, modernisation creates a material basis for common prosperity, far beyond what a pre-modern economy can offer.

Specifically in the case of China, the government has set a goal of “basically realising socialist modernisation by 2035”, and has defined some parameters for this:

Reaching a per-capita GDP on a par with that of the mid-level developed countries such as Spain or the Czech Republic
Joining the ranks of the world’s most innovative countries in the realm of science and technology
Becoming a global leader in education, public health, culture and sport
Substantially growing the middle-income group as a proportion of the population
Guaranteeing equitable access to basic public services
Ensuring modern standards of living in rural areas
Steadily lowering greenhouse gas emissions and protecting biodiversity, so as to restore a healthy balance between humans and the natural environment

If achieved, these aims will constitute a significant – indeed world-historic – improvement in the living standards of the Chinese people, and will blaze a trail for other developing countries.

How did the West modernise?

But is China doing anything new? After all, it won’t be the first country to achieve modernisation.

In mainstream modernisation theory in the West, the dominant narrative is that the countries of Western Europe, North America and Japan achieved their advances via a combination of good governance, liberal democracy, free-market economics, scientific genius, geographical serendipity and a dash of entrepreneurial spirit.

Historical investigation reveals a considerably different story.

The most important precursors of the West’s modernisation are colonialism, slavery and genocide. The conquest of the Americas, the settlement of Australia, the transatlantic slave trade, the colonisation of India, the rape of Africa, the Opium Wars, the theft of Hong Kong, and more. The profits of colonialism and the slave trade were essential for propelling the West’s industrialisation, as was so eloquently uncovered in Eric Williams’ classic 1944 work, Capitalism and Slavery.

As Karl Marx famously wrote in Volume 1 of Capital: “The discovery of gold and silver in America, the enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalled the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production.”

Such is the ugly truth of European modernisation. And the story is not so different in the United States. Many of the so-called founding fathers of that country were slave-owners, and they established a slave-owners’ society. They went to war against the indigenous peoples and against Mexico in order to expand their territory.

In the 20th century, having established their domination over the Americas, they constructed a neocolonial global system that is still in place to a significant degree, imposing American hegemony on the world.

A network of 800 foreign military bases. NATO. An enormous nuclear arsenal. Genocidal wars waged on Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. Systems of economic coercion and unilateral sanctions.

Proxy wars, coups, regime change projects, destabilisation.

This is the global system of violence that has facilitated and accompanied North American modernisation.

Japan’s rapid rise was facilitated first by its brutal expansionist project in East Asia, particularly Korea and China, and then through adaptation to and integration with the US-led imperialist system, the much-vaunted ‘rules-based international order’.

South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan Province constitute the small handful of non-imperialist territories that have been able to achieve modernisation, but these are special cases. Their shared proximity to China and the DPRK is no coincidence; they have been inducted into the imperialist club by the US, to play a dual role as regional policemen and living advertisements for capitalism on the frontline of its confrontation with socialism. Both roles rely on at least a certain degree of prosperity for a section of the population.

There is no shortage of countries of the Global South which have attempted to apply the “liberal democracy plus free market capitalism” formula, but none have been successful in modernising. Indeed the West’s prescriptions for (and interference in) developing countries have largely led to chaos and disaster.

The contrast between the West’s success in modernising and the Global South’s failure has fed into a largely unspoken but widespread and pernicious racism: an assumption that white people are somehow inherently more advanced than everyone else.

This supremacism is allowed to fester, because in addition to dividing working class and oppressed communities, it provides convenient cover for the reality that capitalist modernisation is built on the foundations of colonialism, imperialism and hegemonism.

As Kwame Nkrumah commented, “in the era of neocolonialism, under-development is still attributed not to exploitation but to inferiority, and racial undertones remain closely interwoven with the class struggle.”

How is China modernising?

China’s journey towards modernisation starts in 1949 with the founding of the People’s Republic, the early construction of socialist industry, land reform and the extirpation of feudalism and the landowning class, and the provision of at least basic levels of education and healthcare services to the whole population.

In 1963, Premier Zhou Enlai, supported by Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun, first raised the question of the Four Modernisations: of agriculture, industry, national defence, and science and technology. Despite a complex political environment this goal was revived in the early 1970s, and, with the launch of reform and opening up in 1978, China accelerated its pursuit of those goals, and ushered in an era of rapid development of the productive forces and improvement in the people’s living standards.

China’s journey of modernisation has evolved again in recent years with the pursuit of the second centenary goal: of building a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful by 2049.

China is on a fast track to becoming an advanced, developed country, and this process stands in stark contrast to the West’s modernisation process:

First, China’s modernisation is built on the efforts of the Chinese people rather than on war, colonialism and slavery.

Second, its fruits are to be shared by everybody, not dominated by the wealthy. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said in his work report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China’s modernisation is “the modernisation of common prosperity for all.”

Even today, not everyone in the West is able to enjoy the fruits of modernisation. Consider for example the US, where tens of millions lack access to healthcare; where over half a million people are homeless; where life expectancy for African Americans is six years less than for their white counterparts; where – according to the US Department of Education – over half of adults read below a sixth-grade level.

Third, China’s modernisation is becoming a green modernisation, fuelled by clean energy, careful not to destroy the planet that sustains us. Again quoting Xi Jinping’s work report, “it is the modernisation of harmony between humanity and nature.”

Capitalist modernisation has had a disastrous impact on the environment. With 4 percent of the global population, the US alone is responsible for 25 percent of historic greenhouse gas emissions. The simple fact is that humanity literally cannot afford for China’s modernisation to follow this pattern.

Socialist modernisation will become the ‘new normal’

The West’s modernisation path is not open to the countries of the Global South, and it wouldn’t be desirable even if it were. Today, the road of capitalist modernisation is closed, so how is China able to modernise?

China does not have an empire, formal or informal, but it does have a particular advantage of being a socialist state, a “people’s democratic dictatorship based on the alliance of workers and peasants”, to use Mao Zedong’s expression. Such a state can use its power to direct economic activity towards the goals of the social classes it represents.

Thus the specificities of China’s modernisation – the commitment to common prosperity, to ending poverty and underdevelopment, to preventing climate collapse and to peaceful development – are a function of China’s political system, its revolutionary history, and the leadership of the CPC.

At a meeting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2016, Xi Jinping made this point very succinctly: “Our greatest strength lies in our socialist system, which enables us to pool resources in a major mission. This is the key to our success.”

Or as Deng Xiaoping famously commented in 1984: “the superiority of the socialist system is demonstrated, in the final analysis, by faster and greater development of the productive forces than under the capitalist system.”

In a world still largely dominated by capitalism – and an intellectual world still dominated by bourgeois ideology – it’s easy to forget this system’s fundamental and irreconcilable contradictions, which Marx identified with such clarity and profundity 150 years ago; contradictions which lead inexorably to inefficiency, stagnation and crisis. A political economy directed at the production of exchange values rather than use values can never result in common prosperity.

In China, the capitalist class is not the ruling class and is therefore not able to direct the country’s resources according to its own prerogatives. At the top level, resources are allocated by the state, in accordance with long-term planning carried out by, and in the interests of, the people.

This is what is enabling a new type of modernisation, which is blazing a trail for socialist and developing countries the world over.

The fruits of this process are being shared with the world, via mechanisms such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative, which are creating a path for the countries of the Global South to break out of underdevelopment, even where they lack China’s resources and political advantages.

As such, China’s evolving modernisation has great historic significance, and offers valuable lessons for the world. It is an embodiment of historical materialism in the current era: capitalism has long since exhausted its ability to fundamentally drive human progress, and therefore the future lies with socialism.

CGTN interview with Senegalese President Macky Sall

In this episode of the CGTN series Leaders Talk, filmed in the South African city of Johannesburg immediately following the BRICS Summit and the China/Africa Leaders Dialogue held in its margins in August, Wang Guan interviews President Macky Sall of Senegal.

President Sall sets out a strong case for the reform of international institutions formed in the wake of World War II. The world has changed greatly since then and reform is demanded by Africa and the Global South as we are moving towards a multipolar world.

Senegal was the first country in West Africa to sign up for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) advanced by President Xi Jinping. President Sall extols his personal and friendly relationship with his Chinese counterpart and is full of praise for China’s relations with Africa.

China, he notes, once suffered aggression from the colonial powers, so today it shows empathy and humility in its dealings with others. Citing a recent discussion he held with French President Emmanuel Macron, he said that his message to Africa’s other partners is that we want the same from them. There is now a generation, including himself, born after the end of colonial rule, and they have a new mentality.

Turning to questions of development financing and foreign debt, Sall makes the point that China’s financing is based on requests made by Africa and priorities set by Africa. Refuting ideas of a ‘Chinese debt trap’, he notes that Africa’s debt to China is only some 12% of its total. Moreover, the interest rate is low, at a maximum of 2.5%, with a minimum repayment period of 20 years, and a grace period before payments become due that is generally longer than that offered by others.

Furthermore, citing a China-built expressway in his country as an example, because China’s projects are built quickly, they can often be generating revenue for a few years before any loan repayments fall due.

The full interview with President Macky Sall is embedded below.