Rapid advance in China-Nicaragua cooperation

The rapidly developing friendly relations between China and Nicaragua received a further boost with the recent visit to Beijing by Laureano Ortega Murillo, Advisor to the Nicaraguan President and Coordinator for Cooperation with China.

In a February 11 meeting, Wang Yi, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, said that since the resumption of bilateral relations, cooperation between China and Nicaragua has enjoyed rapid advance, and has “gone ahead like overtaking on a bend, to the forefront of China’s relations with Latin American and Caribbean countries.” This, he said, had been “a right decision as our time has come.” It was not only benefitting the two peoples now, but would also benefit “more generations to come.”

Wang Yi also noted that China and Nicaragua, “have the same or similar positions on major issues of opposing imperialism, hegemonism, power politics and unilateral bullying.”

The previous day, Laureano met with Liu Jianchao, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), who noted that, “sharing similar ideology, the CPC and the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) have maintained sound inter-party relations since the 1960s.”

For his part, Laureano said that the FSLN, “cherishes the long-term friendly exchanges with the CPC, and believes the relationship between the two Parties guides the friendly relations between the two countries and peoples.”

The following articles were originally published on the websites of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the IDCPC.

Wang Yi Meets with Advisor to Nicaraguan President on Investment, Trade and International Cooperation and Coordinator for Cooperation with China Laureano Ortega Murillo

On February 11, 2023, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi met in Beijing with Advisor to Nicaraguan President and Coordinator for Cooperation with China Laureano Ortega Murillo.

Wang Yi said that for the past one plus year since the resumption of China-Nicaragua diplomatic relations, under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, cooperation between China and Nicaragua in various fields has enjoyed rapid advance, and our bilateral relations have gone ahead like overtaking on a bend, to the forefront of China’s relations with Latin American and Caribbean countries. Facts prove that the resumption of China-Nicaragua diplomatic relations is a right decision as our time has come. It serves the interests of the two peoples, now benefits our people and will benefit more generations to come, and it will open up broader prospects and provide stronger momentum for the all-round development of bilateral relations.

Wang Yi said that China and Nicaragua have the same or similar positions on major issues of opposing imperialism, hegemonism, power politics and unilateral bullying. Both sides firmly safeguard their respective sovereign independence and territorial integrity, and firmly defend their national dignity and legitimate rights and interests. China thanks Nicaragua for firmly supporting China in safeguarding its core interests, and will also speak up for Nicaragua on the international arena. China and Nicaragua should be committed to common development, and China is ready to work with Nicaragua to strengthen exchanges between the two parties and of state governance experience, to enhance personnel exchanges, to speed up negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement, so as to promote the respective development while deepening mutually beneficial cooperation. China and Nicaragua should strengthen strategic coordination in international and regional affairs, and China is ready to work with Nicaragua to uphold fairness, speak up for justice, and safeguard the basic norms governing international relations, in particular the norm of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs. China expects Nicaragua to play an active role in promoting solidarity and cooperation between China and Latin American countries.

Nicaraguan ambassador: only socialist and revolutionary countries are putting people over profit

Below we are pleased to publish the text of the powerful speech given by Guisell Morales Echaverry, Ambassador of the Republic of Nicaragua to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Iceland, to the event we recently co-organised at the Marx Memorial Library in London, Socialist solutions to the climate crisis.

Guisell notes it’s the socialist and progressive governments – including China, Cuba and Nicaragua – that are taking the most resolute action on protecting the environment. She goes on to describe Nicaragua’s extraordinary progress tackling ecological issues whilst simultaneously bringing about a historic reduction in poverty and improvement in people’s living conditions.

She concludes: “The capitalist system is killing the planet. With its insatiable pursuit of profit and market anarchy, it’s destroying the environment, wiping out ecosystems and biodiversity, and polluting the air we breathe and the water we drink. Capitalism is driving humanity to extinction. The need to create a new international socialist economic model is urgent.”

Climate change is no longer an impending threat or hypothetical problem for future generations. It is here and now. Hurricanes are becoming more powerful. Forests are burning. Plastic and chemical waste is polluting underground water and oceans. Heat waves, drought, floods, and famine are killing people and creating an exodus of refugees. Species are becoming extinct through the senseless destruction of ecosystems.

But also, the knowledge, the science, the means are here: to decarbonise electricity grids and transport, to slashed Pollution levels, to grow food sustainable, to recycle waste, and for the forests to be replanted.

But this requires two things: planning and resources.

Capitalist countries, the historical and current biggest polluters, are not willing to carry out the radical changes that are required, because these changes are not profitable.

Only socialist and revolutionary countries are putting the planet and people over profit, with bold transformative action to curtail climate change.

Only socialist and progressive governments can bring about the daring transformations to overcome this threat to humanity.

We will hear from the panelists – from Dan Kovalik, Lauren Collins, Paul Atkin – about the efforts made by socialist, revolutionary and progressive countries to overcome climate disaster; specifically how Nicaragua, Cuba and China are making huge environmental achievements to improve the living conditions of working people in harmony with the planet.

Event in London explores socialist solutions to the climate crisis

On Thursday 2 February 2023, Friends of Socialist China organised – along with the Marx Memorial Library, Morning Star, Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group and Cuba Solidarity Campaign – a hybrid in-person/online event at Marx Memorial Library on socialist solutions to the climate crisis, with a particular focus on the strategies being pursued in China, Nicaragua and Cuba in relation to preventing climate breakdown, the collapse of biodiversity, and other key ecological challenges.

Guisell Morales Echaverry, Ambassador of the Republic of Nicaragua to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Iceland, noted that the major capitalist countries – historically the biggest polluters – have utterly failed to meaningfully address the environmental crisis. Instead, it’s the socialist and progressive governments that are taking resolute action and that have been powerful voices for climate justice. Guisell described Nicaragua’s remarkable progress on ecological issues, including sourcing 70 percent of its energy from renewable sources; its successes in pursuing food sovereignty; and its commitment to agroecology and agroforestry. She concluded by stating that the capitalist system is killing the planet with its market anarchy and relentless pursuit of profit. It’s driving us to extinction. Socialism is the future and the key to human survival.

Ben Chacko, editor of the Morning Star, observed that Britain, the US and the other Western powers are failing to meet their ecological commitments. They claim to understand there’s a problem that needs solving, but they’ve left the green transition in the hands of companies that profit the most from fossil fuels. What we end up with is greenwashing, such as rebranding BP as ‘Beyond Petroleum’. Ben made a connection between the questions of climate breakdown and war, pointing to the extraordinary environmental damage caused by the military-industrial complex, most of all the US military. Meanwhile the sanctions regime against Russia is causing significant reverses, with Germany for example reopening coal mines. Ben contrasted this with the action being taken in the socialist world – “there’s a clear attitude in Beijing, Havana and Managua that we have to urgently face up to this crisis.”

Dan Kovalik, US-based activist and lawyer, and author of the new book Nicaragua: A History of Us Intervention & Resistance, said that climate change is a problem created by rich people and rich countries, but it’s a problem that’s having its most devastating effect on poor people and poor countries; he cited the startling fact that the Dallas Cowboys stadium uses more electricity on a game night than Liberia does in an entire day. Dan talked in detail about the relationship between war and the environment – for example the disastrous environmental degradation suffered by Iraq – and noted that China, Cuba and Nicaragua are all countries that prioritise humanity and the planet rather than engaging in military aggression. He pointed to the importance of Lula’s victory in the Brazilian elections, observing that, when asked if Brazil would send weapons to Ukraine, Lula said that our war is with poverty, not Russia. Dan described the important work being done in Nicaragua on alternative fuels, rainforest protection, protection of indigenous lands, and integration into a rising multipolar system of international relations.

Lauren Collins, an honorary research fellow at the University of Nottingham and member of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign executive committee, talked about Cuba’s approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation and highlighted Cuba’s vulnerability to the environmental crisis: while Cuba is responsible for just 0.06 percent of global emissions, it’s experiencing a significant increase in severe weather events, hurricanes, rising sea levels, degradation of arable land, drought and higher temperatures, all of which are having a serious impact on health and agriculture. Lauren described Tarea Vida, Cuba’s wide-ranging state program to confront climate change, which places a strong emphasis on community self-organisation and the participation of trade unions, Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, the Federation of Cuban Women and other mass organisations in adapting to the changing ecosystem. Lauren also spoke of the devastating impact of the US’s illegal blockade, one of the effects of which is to shut Cuba out of various funding sources for climate change adaptation.

Paul Atkin, a retired teacher, National Education Union activist and climate campaigner, focused on China’s impressive efforts towards preventing climate breakdown and protecting biodiversity. For example, while China is still quite dependent on coal, the proportion of coal in China’s energy mix has dropped from over 80 percent to more like 50 percent in the space of just over a decade. China accounts for half the world’s off-shore wind investment and approximately 99 percent of the world’s electric buses. China’s unprecedented investment in high-speed rail has resulted in a decrease in domestic air traffic – in contrast with the US, where there is almost no high-speed rail and domestic air traffic is increasing. While the US spends 14 times as much on its military than on green transition, China spends more than double on its green transition than on its military. Unfortunately, Paul observed, the anti-China propaganda in the West is so powerful that very few are paying attention to its progress on these issues, even within the left and the climate movement. Paul called on the audience to tell the truth about China and expose lies; to oppose the war drive; and to oppose the notion of decoupling, noting that the US’s sanctions on solar panels from China have led to a 23 percent reduction in solar installations in the US.

A lively and useful Q&A session followed the presentations. The stream of the event is embedded below.

Xi Jinping address to the CELAC Summit

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held its seventh summit meeting in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires on January 24th. CELAC groups 33 countries – that is, every country in the Americas with the exceptions of the USA and Canada. As such, it is one of the most important and representative bodies of Global South unity and solidarity.

All 33 member states were represented at the summit, 23 of them at head of state or government level. With the recent resurgence of the left in Latin America, the organisation has acquired a new lease of life, and nothing represented that more clearly than the presence of President Lula of Brazil. It was a case of ‘Lula returns; Lula returns Brazil’, as his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro had suspended Brazil’s participation in the organisation. The CELAC family is once again complete.

Addressing the summit, Lula noted that its first gathering had taken place back in 2008 in the Brazilian state of Bahia. It was, he noted, the first time that Latin American heads of state had met without foreign tutelage, “to discuss our problems and seek our own solutions to the challenges we share.” Stressing the importance of multilateralism and multipolarity, Lula reminded his fellow leaders that, “nothing must separate us, since everything unites us.”

Another key indicator of the regional advance of progressive forces was the presence of Gustavo Petro, who assumed office as the first left-wing President of Colombia in August 2022. In his speech, Petro pointed out that Latin American countries can overcome their development limitations if they come together to increase the region’s geopolitical weight in the current world order. To achieve this, he proposed to collectively address what he considered the main problem facing humanity today, namely the exponential imbalances that contemporary capitalism generates in ecosystems.

For his part, Bolivian President Luis Arce called for strengthening the multilateral system in order to save the earth. “Today we are facing a multiple and systemic capitalist crisis that increasingly puts the lives of humanity and our Mother Earth at risk, a food, water, energy, climate, health, economic, commercial, and social crisis,” he said. “CELAC must return to the principles of multilateralism, but not to preserve the unfair international order that overwhelms states and peoples, but rather to move towards a better world.”

Hosting the summit, Argentine President Alberto Fernández was one of many to speak out strongly against the USA’s unilateral sanctions and blockades against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. This was also reflected in a 111-point Buenos Aires Declaration, adopted by the 33 nations, which also called for consolidating the region as a zone of peace free of nuclear weapons, advancing food security and deepening cooperation in health care. The declaration also expressed solidarity with Argentina’s demand for the return of the Malvinas (Falkland) and neighbouring islands and territorial seas from British colonial rule as well as for Puerto Rico’s right to self-determination.

At the conclusion of the summit, Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, took over from President Fernández as the pro tempore president of CELAC for the coming year. It is the first time for a member of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to occupy this post.

One very important aspect of the summit, which highlighted the indispensable role of socialist China in cohering and standing in solidarity with the forces of the Global South, was the address to the summit, upon invitation and via video link, of President Xi Jinping.

Xi Jinping noted that Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries are important members of the developing world. CELAC, he noted, has grown to be an indispensable driving force behind global South-South cooperation. It has played an important role in safeguarding regional peace, promoting common development and advancing regional integration.

President Xi Jinping stressed that China always supports the regional integration process of Latin America and the Caribbean. “We highly value our relations with CELAC and take the organisation as our key partner in enhancing solidarity among developing countries and furthering South-South cooperation.” He added that more and more countries in the region have engaged in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with China, supported and participated in the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, and are working with China in building a China-LAC community with a shared future.

The following article was originally published on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

On January 24, the seventh Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is held in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. Upon the invitation of President Alberto Fernández of Argentina, the rotating president of CELAC, President Xi Jinping delivered a video address at the summit.

President Xi Jinping noted that Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries are important members of the developing world. They also take an active part in global governance and make important contributions to it. CELAC has grown to be an indispensable driving force behind global South-South cooperation. CELAC has played an important role in safeguarding regional peace, promoting common development and advancing regional integration.

President Xi Jinping stressed that China always supports the regional integration process of Latin America and the Caribbean. We highly value our relations with CELAC, and take CELAC as our key partner in enhancing solidarity among developing countries and furthering South-South cooperation. That is why China has been working with LAC countries to steadily strengthen the China-CELAC Forum and take the China-LAC relationship into a new era characterized by equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness and benefits for the people. More and more countries in the region have engaged in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with China, supported and participated in the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, and are working with China in building a China-LAC community with a shared future.

President Xi Jinping stressed that the world is in a new period of turbulence and transformation. We can only tackle the challenges and tide over this trying time through greater solidarity and closer cooperation. China is ready to continue working with LAC countries to help each other and make progress together, and advocate “peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom” — the common values of mankind. China is ready to join hands with LAC countries to promote world peace and development, build a community with a shared future for mankind, and open up an even brighter future for the world.

Ambassador Ma Hui: China and Cuba always support each other

In an interview with CGTN’s Liu Xin, China’s Ambassador to Cuba Ma Hui outlines the Caribbean country’s approach to tackling Covid-19 and highlights the cooperation between the two socialist countries. He further criticises the US embargo and contrasts his experience as Ambassador in Havana with that in his previous position as Minister in the Chinese Embassy in London, both in the ‘time of Covid’.

Unlike the discriminatory approach adopted by the US, UK and some other countries, Cuba has welcomed China’s adjustment of its Covid policies and the country stresses that it always welcomes Chinese visitors. Ambassador Ma praises Cuba for managing to contain Covid despite suffering from a decades-long US embargo. Cuba, he notes, has one of the highest rates of administering vaccine boosters, using domestically researched and produced vaccines. There are currently only a few positive Covid test cases per day, with no deaths reported in the last five months. Cuba developed its own vaccines against all the odds – the only Latin American country to do so. The country is quite developed in terms of biotechnology.

China and Cuba always support each other, Ambassador Ma explained, including in fighting the virus. At the onset of Covid-19, Cuba offered material help to China despite its own difficulties and later China reciprocated, supplying ventilators, oxygen generators, medicines and personal protective equipment (PPE) on several occasions.

Cuba’s achievements are all the more impressive in that they have been won whilst fighting under a US embargo that has imposed huge suffering. Indeed, the Cuban people describe the embargo as another lethal virus. Cuba has not only put up a brave fight at home but has also helped others. Both China and Cuba have a tradition of sending medical teams to developing, and even on occasion developed, countries, and through their heroic efforts, the Cuban people sent doctors to some 30 or 40 countries to help them fight the pandemic.

Comparing his Cuban experience to his time in London, Ma Hui said that for the mainstream media and some politicians, China is a victim of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”. When it came to Covid, the UK failed miserably but lectures others. However, solidarity and cooperation are the only way out as the virus is a common challenge to all humanity.

Liu Xin’s interview with Ma Hui is embedded below.

Nicolás Maduro: China treats Venezuela with friendship and solidarity

China’s CGTN television recently started airing a new interview programme under the name Leaders Talk, with the first ever episode featuring an interview with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, being broadcast to coincide with his hosting of the G20 Summit in Bali last November. As part of the series, CGTN traveled to the Venezuelan capital Caracas for an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with President Nicolás Maduro.

President Maduro details the illegal sanctions and blockade imposed on his country by the United States, which his interviewer rightly describes as an economic war, but notes that despite this, in the last year, Venezuela has managed to achieve economic growth of 17%. Moreover, the country’s non-petroleum economy is growing for the first time in 120 years.

Highlighting the rising multilateral trend in world politics, President Maduro describes his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as a thinker of the new era, lauding his concept of a community of shared future for humanity. He also condemns the visit last August by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to China’s Taiwan as a challenge to peace and stability and to the One China principle.

Detailing his long friendship with Venezuela’s revolutionary leader Hugo Chávez, Maduro reflects on his own background as a worker, a trade unionist and a militant in the Marxist-Leninist movement, noting that he was once a bus driver and is now the driver of the country, acting in the proletarian spirit and the spirit of Commander-in-Chief Chávez.

Recalling President Xi’s state visit to Venezuela in 2014, Maduro says that the Chinese leader treats Venezuela with friendship and solidarity. US imperialism tightened its blockade during the Covid pandemic, preventing pharmaceutical companies from exporting to Venezuela, but China had not only provided vaccines but also sent its best specialists and experts to his country.

The Venezuelan leader praised the Communist Party of China for putting not only the interests of the Chinese people first but also the interests of the people of the world. Although only screened at the end of December, the interview was evidently filmed just prior to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, held last October. President Maduro said that he was especially interested in socialism with Chinese characteristics as Venezuela is also building a socialist model with its own features. China’s success, he observes, has provided an important socialist model for the 21st century.

The full interview is embedded below.

Xi Jinping congratulates Lula on inauguration as Brazilian president

On January 1st, the progressive forces in Latin America, standing for independence against imperialism, national development and social progress, took a big step forward with the return as President of Brazil of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

A co-founder of the BRICS, which presently groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and veteran leader of Brazil’s Workers’ Party (PT), Lula addressed his country’s Congress as “a representative of the working class”, who “promotes economic growth in a sustainable way and to the benefit of all, especially those most in need.” The full text of Lula’s emotional and inspiring inauguration speech and his address to Congress can be read here.

In his message of greetings to his Brazilian counterpart, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that he attaches great importance to the development of the China-Brazil comprehensive strategic partnership, and is willing to work with Lula to continue to firmly support each other in taking a development path in line with their own national conditions, respect each other’s core interests, promote their practical cooperation, strengthen multilateral coordination, and lead and push the partnership to a higher level from a strategic and long-term perspective, so as to better benefit the two countries and their people.

China’s Vice President Wang Qishan attended the inauguration in the capital Brasilia as the Special Representative of President Xi. Wang joined a large number of other world leaders, including what amounted to a roll call of progressive Latin America, namely:

President Gustavo Petro of Colombia
President Xiomara Castro of Honduras
President Luis Arce of Bolivia and former President Evo Morales
President Alberto Fernandez of Argentina
President Gabriel Boric of Chile
President Irfaan Ali of Guyana
Former President Pepe Mujica of Uruguay (as part of a bipartisan national delegation that also included the current and another former President)
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Cuban Vice-President Salvador Valdés Mesa
Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada
Mexican First Lady Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller
President of the Venezuelan National Assembly Jorge Rodriguez (according to the Orinoco Tribune, President Nicolás Maduro had been due to attend but was prevented by a last-minute security issue.)

They were also joined by a range of political leaders from other countries, including Russia, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Palestine, Iran, Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Mali, Timor Leste, Spain, Portugal, Germany Ecuador and Peru.

In their meeting, Wang Qishan said that President Lula is an old friend of the Chinese people, who has long been caring for and supporting the development of China-Brazil relations. Noting that both countries had recently completed major domestic political agendas, with the Communist Party of China holding its 20th National Congress and Brazil electing a new government, Wang said he believes that on their respective new journey, both countries and their people, and both the CPC and the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT), will continue to strengthen solidarity and coordination, and jointly create an even better future for China-Brazil relations. He also said that the two countries can together play an important role in strengthening the overall cooperation between China and Latin America, for example with the holding of the Forum of China and the Community of Latin American States (CELAC) and in deepening relations with other regional organisations, such as the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).

For his part, Lula said that his PT is willing to strengthen inter-party exchanges with the CPC, adding that he looks forward to leading a delegation to China to further deepen bilateral practical cooperation in various fields, enhance friendship between the people of the two countries, and lift Brazil-China relations to a new level.

The following reports were originally carried by the Xinhua News Agency.

Xi congratulates Lula on inauguration as Brazilian president

Xinhua, 3 January 2023

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday sent a congratulatory message to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on his inauguration as president of the Federative Republic of Brazil.

In his message, Xi pointed out that China and Brazil are major developing countries with global influence and important emerging markets.

The two countries are comprehensive strategic partners sharing extensive common interests and shouldering common development responsibilities, Xi added.

Miguel Diaz-Canel’s strategic visit enhances China-Cuba ties

The following article, written for CGTN by Friends of Socialist China advisory group member Elias Jabbour, summarizes the results of the recent visit by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to Beijing. Elias notes that the two sides reaffirmed their strong commitment to and respect for one another’s socialist path, citing President Xi Jinping: “No matter how the international situation may change, China’s commitment to long-term friendship with Cuba will not change. China’s determination to support Cuba in pursuing socialism will not change.”

The author describes the current economic difficulties Cuba faces, a product primarily of the vicious economic blockade to which it is subjected by the US. The investment agreements signed during Díaz-Canel’s trip, the renegotiation and restructuring of Cuba’s debt to China, and the donation of China of 100 million US dollars will all contribute to helping the island overcome its current crisis.

The state visit by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel to China, is a strategic, constructive visit with important signs. Here is a summary of the results of the meeting between the presidents of Cuba and China on November 25. As the two nations adhere to the socialist path, China and Cuba have had robust ties since diplomatic relations were established in 1960.

This visit, at the invitation of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and President Xi Jinping, was part of an international tour by the Cuban head of state to other countries that included Algeria, Turkey and Russia.

Xi Jinping said, “No matter how the international situation may change, China will not change its policy of long-term friendship with Cuba,” and “its determination to support Cuba in pursuing the path of socialism, or its commitment to promoting practical cooperation with Cuba.” Diaz-Canel conveyed to Xi “the cordial greetings of General of the Army Raul Castro (first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba’s Central Committee)” and recalled that Fidel Castro highlighted “the capacity and firmness” of the current Chinese President, precisely on the day that marks the sixth anniversary of the death of former Cuban leader. Diaz-Canel also assured that he values “in a very positive way” the “theoretical and practical contributions to the construction of socialism” of Xi Jinping at the head of the Communist Party of China.

Everyone who follows the international dynamics is aware that the Cuban economy is going through an unprecedented crisis due to the economic blockade imposed by the United States on the island. Former President Donald Trump’s administration has crushed the Cuban economy with more economic, financial and trade sanctions. The policy has not changed under Joe Biden, although Obama has started a process of rapprochement between the two countries. The COVID-19 pandemic was another element that deepened the crisis on the island with the drop in tourist arrivals in the country. Tourism is a major source of foreign exchange for the country.

Cubans seek two-way solutions. Economic reforms aimed at activating the country’s private sector, as well as foreign direct investment. Additionally, Cuba is imposing itself in the international division of labor as a major exporter of biotechnological products and medicine. On the other hand, strengthening partnerships with countries such as China and Russia has been part of this policy. Neither China nor Russia are interested in a weakened Cuba in the face of the blockade and imperialist violence. Both countries know how strategic it is to have a friend like Cuba.

Cuba’s potential is not something minor. Its geographic location and mirror of a policy of intimidation and blockade called by U.S. scholar Noam Chomsky as “sadistic” by the United States is a fundamental part of showing the world the destabilizing power of imperialism both in Latin America and in the world, but also of the capacity to a people to fight and survive against all odds.

On account of the bilateral agreements and renegotiation of Cuba’s debt with China, China has donated around $100 million to Cuba. Cuban Economy Minister, Alejandro Gil, said that this donation will be destined to “priorities” of the island’s economy, which is facing its worst economic crisis in three decades, due to the reinforcement of the United States embargo, in effect since 1962, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cuba-China relations are part of an internationalist tradition of the international communist movement, which culminated in relations of affection and friendship. A good relationship developed between Fidel and Xi Jinping. Concrete results were extracted from this visit. Cuba can count on a political change of air in Latin America with the recent victories of progressive governments in Latin America and the return of Venezuela to the world stage.

Apart from the strategic relations between China and Cuba, the election of Lula da Silva in Brazil is strategic in this context, given the priority that the Brazilian government will give to the reconstruction of its ties with Latin America. The solution to Cuba’s economic problems has not only involved reforms in its economic structure, but mainly by new and superior regional integration schemes in Latin America.

Xi Jinping hosting Miguel Díaz-Canel in Beijing:

"No matter how the international situation may change, China's commitment to long-term friendship with Cuba will not change. China's determination to support Cuba in pursuing socialism will not change." pic.twitter.com/APO9O5g3DN
— Friends of Socialist China (@socialist_china) November 25, 2022

Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel to visit China

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez is due to arrive in Beijing on Thursday 24 November, the last stop of an international trip that has so far taken him to Russia, Algeria and Türkiye. Díaz-Canel is the first head of state from Latin America and the Caribbean to visit China following the recent National Congress of the CPC. It is notable that two leaders of socialist countries, Díaz-Canel and Nguyen Phu Trong, are among the first world leaders to carry out state visits to China following the Congress.

Commenting on the Cuban leader’s impending visit, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on 21 November: “China and Cuba are good friends, good comrades and good brothers. They join hands on the socialist path, support each other on core interests, coordinate closely on international and regional issues, setting a model of solidarity of socialist countries and cooperation between developing countries.”

Cuba has consistently stood up in international forums against the politicisation of human rights and the attempts to interfere in China’s internal affairs. Likewise, China has been outspoken in its opposition to the criminal blockade imposed by the US on Cuba. Undoubtedly, Miguel Díaz-Canel’s state visit to China will serve to further strengthen the economic, diplomatic and cultural links between these two fraternal socialist countries.

We publish below an article by Zhang Han in the Global Times outlining the key issues in China-Cuba relations.

At the invitation of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jinping, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez will pay a state visit to China from Thursday to Saturday.

Diaz-Canel will be the first foreign leader to visit China after Xi returned from a diplomatic whirlwind at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Indonesia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Thailand.

Xu Shicheng, a research fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times the visit not only carries traditional friendship of the two countries, but also reflected close bonds between the two parties.

China and Cuba are good friends, good comrades and good brothers. They join hands on the socialist path, support each other on core interests, coordinate closely on international and regional issues, setting a model of solidarity of socialist countries and cooperation between developing countries, Mao Ning, a spokesperson of China’s Foreign Ministry, said at a routine press briefing on Monday.

Xi congratulates Lula da Silva on his election as Brazilian president

The victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known universally as Lula, in the Brazilian presidential run-off, on Sunday October 30, has been warmly greeted in China. When he previously served as President, as well as when his fellow Workers’ Party (PT) comrade Dilma Rousseff was head of state, relations between the two countries were at their best ever. In contrast, while economic ties remained strong, outgoing far-right President Jair Bolsonaro strained political relations on a number of occasions and generally weakened Brazil’s independent diplomacy and contribution to the development of a multipolar world .

With Lula having been instrumental in the formation and development of BRICS, along with China, Russia, India and later South Africa, and being passionately committed to South-South cooperation in general, along with independent national development, poverty alleviation, and the elimination of hunger, relations with the Asian socialist giant can be expected to radically improve and develop with his return to office.

In an October 31 article, leading Chinese newspaper, Global Times reported:

‘For Lula, the development of the economy and people’s livelihood will largely determine the stability of his Partido dos Trabalhadores’s rule… Brazil is likely to look more actively to the Asia-Pacific region to tap the potential of the Chinese market and attract Chinese investment,’ Zhou Zhiwei, an expert on Latin American studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.

According to Zhou, Lula’s return is likely to bring back a smoother China-Brazil relationship, which will help both sides find more space and reap dividends of economic and trade cooperation, especially in agriculture and infrastructure construction.

‘Brazil may also seek to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) under Lula,’ Zhou said. Brazil’s left-wing ruled neighbor Argentina announced its decision to join the BRI in February.

Given that Lula was instrumental in the establishment and launch of the BRICS mechanism during his last stint in office, analysts believe that he will continue to be active and positive about BRICS.

‘Lula is likely to place a high priority on cooperation between emerging powers, including BRICS. This means that cooperation among BRICS countries and communication on international hotspot issues and global affairs will be smoother and more stable than under Bolsonaro,’ Zhou said.

Lula’s victory was greeted ecstatically by the progressive forces in Latin America, reflecting the renewed tide of anti-imperialism and socialist orientation on the continent. Venezuela’s Telsesur reported:

‘Congratulations brother Lula, president-elect of Brazil! Your victory strengthens democracy and Latin American integration. We are sure that you will lead the Brazilian people on the path of peace, progress, and social justice, Jallalla Brasil!’, said the President of Bolivia, Luis Arce, through the social network [Twitter].

Meanwhile, the Cuban head of state, Miguel Díaz Canel, also via Twitter congratulated the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT): ‘Dear brother Lula, I congratulate you on behalf of the Cuban government and people, who celebrate your great victory in favor of unity, peace and Latin American and Caribbean integration. You can always count on Cuba.’

The Cuban President added: ‘Cuba congratulates you, dear comrade. They delayed your victory with atrocious methods but could not prevent you from winning with the people’s vote. Lula returns, the PT returns, social justice will return. We embrace you brother President Lula.’

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said on Twitter: ‘We celebrate the victory of the Brazilian people, who this October 30 elected Lula as their new President. Long live the people determined to be free, sovereign, and independent! Today in Brazil, democracy triumphed; congratulations Lula, a big hug.’

This was rapidly followed up by warm telephone calls between Lula and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, while Argentinian President Alberto Fernández rushed to the Brazilian city of São Paulo for a personal meeting.

In his message, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that he stands ready to work with President-elect Lula, from a strategic height and long-term perspective, to jointly plan and lift China-Brazil comprehensive strategic partnership to a higher level so as to benefit the two countries and their people.

The following report on President Xi’s message was originally carried by the Xinhua News Agency.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday sent a congratulatory message to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on his election as president of the Federative Republic of Brazil.

In his message, Xi pointed out that China and Brazil, both major developing countries and important emerging nations, share broad common interests and responsibilities.

Since China and Brazil established diplomatic ties 48 years ago, with the joint efforts of the two countries’ successive governments and all sectors of their societies, bilateral relations have witnessed long-term development, with cooperation in various fields yielding fruitful results.

Noting that China and Brazil enjoy long-term friendship, Xi said to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation serves the fundamental interests of the two countries and their people, and is conducive to maintaining regional and world peace and stability and promoting common development and prosperity.

Xi said he attaches great importance to the development of China-Brazil relations and stands ready to work with President-elect Lula, from a strategic height and long-term perspective, to jointly plan and lift China-Brazil comprehensive strategic partnership to a higher level so as to benefit to the two countries and their people.

Why the US wants to destroy China and Russia: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega explains

We are very pleased to reproduce this key extract from an important speech by Daniel Ortega, President of revolutionary Nicaragua, with thanks to our friends at Multipolarista. As a multipolar world emerges, Comrade Ortega explains, the US is trying desperately to maintain its hegemony by attempting to destroy the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China and the economies of the European countries.

What harm, Ortega asks, has People’s China done to the United States or to the peoples of the world – to the peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa or Asia. What worries them rather is that China is providing benefits to these peoples, so the United States is losing its power to keep them enslaved.

Speaking on the day that US House Speaker Pelosi arrived in Taiwan, Ortega said that he was sure that the Chinese people, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, have the strength, intelligence and experience to formulate the correct response that will further strengthen the People’s Republic and weaken US hegemony.

Amidst all these tumultuous events, the veteran Nicaraguan revolutionary leader points out, a new world is being born, something to which Nicaragua and its people are contributing their little grain of sand every day.

China and Cuba: “faithful friends with unbreakable ties”

The special friendship between socialist China and socialist Cuba was underlined in an August 23 video call between Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng and Deputy Foreign Minister Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo.

Comrade Xie pointed out that China and Cuba are “faithful friends with unbreakable ties, and tested friends devoted to each other and as close as brothers.” He observed that they “have forged ahead hand in hand on the path of building socialism with their own characteristics, supported each other on issues concerning respective core interests, and collaborated closely on international and regional issues, setting a good example of sincerity and mutual support between developing countries and solidarity and cooperation between socialist countries.”

China, he continued, “always views and develops the special friendly relations between the two parties and the two countries from a strategic and overall perspective, and always places China-Cuba relations as special in its overall diplomacy.”

For his part, Comrade Rodriguez thanked the Chinese side for extending condolences and providing emergency humanitarian assistance to Cuba right after the explosions at an oil storage facility in Cuba recently. He stressed that Cuba and China are good friends, good comrades and good brothers, with the two parties and two countries enjoying special friendly relations.

The below report was originally carried on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

On August 23, 2022, Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng and Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Anayansi Rodríguez Camejo held political consultation between Chinese and Cuban Foreign Ministries via video link. The two sides exchanged in-depth views on China-Cuba relations and international and regional issues of common concern.

Xie Feng said that Cuba is the first country in the western hemisphere to establish diplomatic relations with New China and has been taking the lead in developing relations with China in the Latin American region. China and Cuba are faithful friends with unbreakable ties, and tested friends devoted to each other and as close as brothers. Over the past 60 plus years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, in the face of the evolving international landscape, China and Cuba have forged ahead hand in hand on the path of building socialism with their own characteristics, supported each other on issues concerning respective core interests, and collaborated closely on international and regional issues, setting a good example of sincerity and mutual support between developing countries and solidarity and cooperation between socialist countries.

Xie Feng said that President Xi Jinping had twice conversations with President Miguel Diaz-Canel last year, charting the course for the relations between the two parties and between the two countries. China always views and develops the special friendly relations between the two parties and the two countries from a strategic and overall perspective, and always places China-Cuba relations as special in its overall diplomacy. China is unswervingly committed to deepening the friendship that devotes to each other, to carrying out mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation, and to being a partner for reform and development. The Chinese side highly appreciates Cuba’s firm support for China on issues related to Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang and human rights, among others, and will, as always, support Cuba in its just struggle to safeguard sovereignty and against interference. For the next stage, the two sides should follow the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, deepen political mutual trust, advance practical cooperation, strengthen multilateral coordination, and constantly consolidate and develop the special friendly relations between China and Cuba.

Xie Feng briefed the Cuban side on the great significance of the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and elaborated on the Global Development Initiative (GDI) and the Global Security Initiative (GSI). He said that China is ready to work with Cuba to step up exchanges of experience in party governance and state administration, jointly promote global development, safeguard world peace and tranquility, advance the socialist cause together, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Rodríguez thanked the Chinese side for extending condolences and providing emergency humanitarian assistance to Cuba right after the explosions at an oil storage facility in Cuba recently. He stressed that Cuba and China are good friends, good comrades and good brothers, with the two parties and two countries enjoying special friendly relations. He sincerely wishes othe 20th National Congress of the CPC a successful convening. Rodríguez said that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, Cuba and China have continuously deepened political mutual trust and maintained close collaboration on international and multilateral occasions over the past years. Cuba always prioritizes Cuba-China relations in its foreign relations, and stands ready to work with China to follow the course charted by the top leaders of the two parties and two countries, further strengthen high-level exchanges, join hands to advance the Belt and Road cooperation, jointly promote the implementation of the GDI and the GSI, unswervingly deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and constantly push for new progress in Cuba-China relations.

Rodríguez reiterated that Cuba firmly supports the one-China principle, unconditionally supports China on the Taiwan question, strongly condemns any acts that attempt to undermine China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and firmly opposes interference by external forces.

Xie Feng stressed that non-interference in internal affairs is a “golden rule” that must be abided by in state-to-state exchanges and the essential safeguards for the very survival of developing countries. China’s firm countermeasures are a legitimate, necessary, and legal response to Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. They are aimed at stopping the United States’ attempt to use Taiwan to contain China, shattering the Taiwan authorities’ illusion to pursue Taiwan independence by soliciting the support of the United States, and safeguarding China’s core interests. By so doing, China is also upholding the principles of international law, the basic norms governing international relations and the international order, maintaining regional peace and stability, and safeguarding the common interests of developing countries.

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

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

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

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

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

Argentine ambassador reflects on the successes of socialism in China

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kawsachun News reports on Nicaragua’s renewed relationship with China

In this second episode of their Latin America Review, Camila Escalante and Ollie Vargas from Kawsachun News interview Michael Campbell, Vice Minister and Presidential Adviser for International Relations and the Greater Caribbean in the Nicaraguan government.

With a focus on Nicaragua’s renewed relationship with China since last December, Campbell makes the important point that, although the diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed by the neoliberal government that emerged when the Sandinista revolution experienced a severe setback in 1990, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and the Communist Party of China (CPC) maintained their close ties throughout the ensuing period. He identifies the reasons for this in the numerous commonalities between the Chinese and Nicaraguan revolutions, for example the elimination of poverty and hunger domestically and the promotion of multipolarity against hegemonism and imperialism on the international level.

Noting that exchanges between the two parties and governments are now taking place on a daily basis, Campbell stresses that they are completely different to Nicaragua and Latin America’s history of relations with the United States and Europe. The former embraces the widest range of people-to-people exchanges whilst the latter is with the oligarchy and at the expense of the people.

The interview also touches on a wide range of other issues, including Nicaragua’s process of joining fellow revolutionary states Cuba and Venezuela in exiting the Organisation of American States (OAS), which Campbell describes as a “ministry of colonies”, the contrast with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Sandinista revival of diversified international relations – for example with Africa, and his government’s pro-people, pro-poor approach to development, a notable achievement of which is that 90% of food consumed in Nicaragua is now produced domestically, with the aim to reach 100% by 2030.

There is also a cultural component, where, after Minister Campbell has explained the unique history of his country’s Caribbean coast, and the extensive autonomy that the revolution has brought to its indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, he and Ollie prepare a great Nicaraguan dinner party.

This video is reproduced from Tortilla con Sal.

China, CELAC to deepen cooperation on poverty reduction in fresh sign of growing ties

China and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have agreed to cooperate more closely in poverty reduction, especially through post-pandemic economic recovery, infrastructure construction and digital technology, following the second Forum on Poverty Reduction and Development between China and CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), held virtually last week.

CELAC officials and experts “praised China’s efforts to eradicate absolute poverty, especially through rural-urban integration and digital technology support, which are seen as valuable for Latin American countries to alleviate poverty.”

Stressing the urgency of the tasks in hand, an Argentinian delegate noted that: “The epidemic has exacerbated social inequality and brought a devastating impact on the most vulnerable. We need to find solutions through bilateral and multilateral cooperation.”

Two days before the meeting, Nicaragua’s Trade and Industry minister announced that his government was expediting the conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement with China.

The following report is reprinted from Global Times.

China and Latin American and Caribbean countries have agreed on deeper cooperation in poverty reduction, with joint efforts in areas such as post-pandemic economic recovery, infrastructure construction and digital technology, officials and experts said at the second Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)-China Forum on Poverty Reduction and Development, held virtually on Wednesday.

At the forum, officials and experts from CELAC also praised China’s efforts to eradicate absolute poverty, especially through rural-urban integration and digital technology support, which are seen as valuable for Latin American countries to alleviate poverty and promote the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

China stands with progressive Latin America

Two recent events served to underline the close and developing relations between China and progressive Latin America.

As part of a regional tour, Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Latin American Affairs, Qiu Xiaoqi, visited Nicaragua from June 25-27.

Meeting Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada on June 25, Qiu said that since the resumption of diplomatic ties more than six months ago, bilateral relations have been developing rapidly and flourishing with all-round progress. China, Qiu noted, “firmly supports Nicaragua in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence and national dignity and independently choosing its development path and governance model.”

For his part, Moncada said that Nicaragua “is willing to be a trustworthy brother and partner of China. The Nicaraguan side thanked China for its selfless help and is ready to seize the huge opportunities brought by China’s development and create more benefits for the Nicaraguan people. The Nicaraguan side thanked China for speaking up for Nicaragua in the international arena and will work with China to safeguard international fairness and justice as well as the rights and interests of developing countries.”

Meanwhile, on June 28, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone conversation with his Venezuelan counterpart Carlos Faria, coinciding with the 48^th anniversary of the two countries’ establishing diplomatic relations.

Wang Yi said that the Chinese side thanks Venezuela for standing firmly with China and speaking out for justice. China will, as always, firmly oppose external forces’ interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs under any pretext, firmly support Venezuela in safeguarding national sovereignty and social stability and support the Venezuelan people in choosing a development path suited to their national conditions. He added that the trend toward a multi-polar world, economic globalisation and greater democracy in international relations is irresistible. China is ready to work with Venezuela to stand on the right side of history, uphold international fairness and justice, safeguard the common interests of developing countries and jointly build a community with a shared future for humanity.

For his part, Faria extended warm congratulations on the forthcoming 101st anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, hailing the CPC as a great political party that holds high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and has always been committed to serving the Chinese people.

The following reports were originally carried on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada Meets with Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Latin American Affairs Qiu Xiaoqi

From June 25 to 27, 2022, Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Latin American Affairs Qiu Xiaoqi visited Nicaragua. On June 25, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada met with visiting Special Representative Qiu Xiaoqi in Managua. The two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations and international and regional issues of common concern. Chinese Ambassador to Nicaragua Chen Xi attended the meeting.

Qiu Xiaoqi said that since the resumption of China-Nicaragua diplomatic ties more than six months ago, bilateral relations have been developing rapidly and flourishing with all-round progress in political, economic and trade, and cultural cooperation. China firmly supports Nicaragua in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence and national dignity and independently choosing its development path and governance model. China is ready to strengthen synergy with Nicaragua and promote fruitful practical cooperation across the board. In the face of global challenges, the two countries should take the implementation of the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative as an opportunity to strengthen coordination and cooperation in international affairs and jointly build a more peaceful, secure and prosperous world.

Moncada said, the rapid development of bilateral relations since the resumption of diplomatic ties more than six months ago fully proves that the resumption of diplomatic ties between Nicaragua and China is a correct decision that accords with the historical trend and serves the fundamental interests of the two countries and two peoples. Nicaragua will unswervingly abide by the one-China principle and is willing to be a trustworthy brother and partner of China. The Nicaraguan side thanked China for its selfless help, and is ready to seize the huge opportunities brought by China’s development and create more benefits for the Nicaraguan people. The Nicaraguan side thanked China for speaking up for Nicaragua in the international arena, and will work with China to safeguard international fairness and justice as well as the rights and interests of developing countries.

Wang Yi Speaks with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faria on the Phone

On June 28, 2022, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone conversation with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faria at the latter’s request.

Wang Yi said that today coincides with the 48th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Venezuela, and our phone conversation is just at the right time. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, China-Venezuela relations have remained rock-solid regardless of changes in the international landscape. The leaders of the two countries have established solid mutual trust and friendship, providing important political guarantee and strategic guidance for the development of the China-Venezuela comprehensive strategic partnership. China is ready to continue to deepen political mutual trust, pass on the traditional friendship and enhance mutually beneficial cooperation with Venezuela.

Wang Yi said that the Chinese side thanks Venezuela for standing firmly with China and speaking out for justice on Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and human rights issues. China will, as always, firmly oppose external forces’ interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs under any pretext, firmly support Venezuela in safeguarding national sovereignty and social stability, and support the Venezuelan people in choosing a development path suited to their national conditions. The Chinese side will continue to provide assistance within its capacity to the Venezuelan side in fighting the pandemic.

Wang Yi pointed out that China and Venezuela should continue to strengthen solidarity and coordination in multilateral affairs, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the two countries, practice true multilateralism, and safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order underpinned by international law. China appreciates Venezuela’s active support for President Xi Jinping’s Global Development Initiative (GDI) and stands ready to strengthen cooperation with Venezuela to jointly forge a global development partnership and well implement the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The trend toward a multi-polar world, economic globalization and greater democracy in international relations is irresistible. China is ready to work with Venezuela to stand on the right side of history, uphold international fairness and justice, safeguard the common interests of developing countries and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind.

Faria said that under the guidance of the two heads of state, the Venezuela-China comprehensive strategic partnership has made great progress and is full of vitality. He thanked China for providing strong support to Venezuela in its fight against the pandemic. Venezuela firmly supports the one-China principle and the principle of “one country, two systems”, firmly supports China in safeguarding national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and stands ready to work with China to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in innovative ways. China is playing an increasingly important role in the international arena. The Venezuelan side speaks highly of President Xi Jinping’s GDI and other initiatives and is ready to deepen communication and coordination with China within the frameworks of the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative and the Group of Friends in the Defense of the Charter of the United Nations to jointly uphold multilateralism. In particular, Faria extended warm congratulations on the 101st anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in advance, hailing the CPC as a great political party that holds high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and has always been committed to serving the Chinese people.

Cuba-China cooperation leads to vaccine breakthrough

We’re pleased to re-publish this important article by Sara Flounders, posted in Workers World on 7 June 2022, about the progress made by a Cuban-Chinese cooperation project towards a universal coronavirus vaccine. Sara explains that these two socialist countries are far better positioned than their capitalist counterparts to work together on projects of long-term value to humanity, because their social systems are centered on meeting human need, as opposed to maximizing private profit. The article goes on to detail the outsized contribution made by China and Cuba to suppressing the pandemic in the developing world, as well as the ongoing and deepening cooperation between the two countries in a number of crucially important areas. Sara concludes: “The growing scientific cooperation of China and Cuba represents a hopeful future for humanity. Global problems can be solved. What is required is economic planning, cooperation and sharing of scientific knowledge and technology.”

Cuba and China formally announced June 2 that they have filed for joint patent for a Pan-Corona vaccine. The new vaccine, a collaboration between the biotechnological sectors of the two countries, is the first patent for a single vaccine effective against the many variants of COVID-19.

News of the jointly developed vaccine is particularly exciting because of the two countries’ cooperative approach in a field that is highly competitive, secretive and totally profit-oriented in Western capitalist countries.

Breakthrough in emerging virus protection

The Pan-Corona vaccine was announced to be effective against present variants of COVID-19 and thus of value in the current pandemic.

But its strength is that it could also be effective against the appearance of new pathogens belonging to this family of viruses, noted Eduardo Martínez Díaz, president of the state-owned BioCubaFarma Business Group. (telesurenglish.net, June 3)

The Pan-Corona project is based in a joint biotechnological research and development center, operating since 2019 in the city of Yongzhou in Hunan province, and led by experts from Cuba’s Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB). Dr. Gerardo Guillén Nieto, the center’s director of Biomedical Research, explained the project arose at the request of the Chinese and had the approval of Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment. The equipment and laboratories at the Yongzhou center were designed by Cuban scientific personnel. (Radio Havana Cuba, June 3)

The two countries focused on coronaviruses because of the global pandemic and because this is the family of viruses most likely to jump from animals to humans. This phenomenon, called zoonosis, was the cause of previous epidemics such as the 2002 SARS outbreak and the 2012 MERS infection — both serious respiratory illnesses.

‘Summit of the Gringos’ set to be a lonely affair

The following article, by Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez, is a slightly expanded version of a piece written for Global Times and published on 1 June 2022. Carlos discusses the forthcoming Summit of the Americas and the public relations crisis it is creating for the US, with a significant number of key politicians in Latin American and the Caribbean refusing to attend, in protest at the unilateral decision by the US to exclude Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The article concludes that the US should give up on its idea of Latin America as a “back yard”, and instead follow China’s example, developing an international relations strategy based on mutual respect, mutual benefit, equal treatment and non-interference.

The Ninth Summit of the Americas is due to take place from the 6th to the 10th of June in Los Angeles, the first time it has been hosted in the United States since President Bill Clinton convened the inaugural Summit in Miami in 1994. It comes as Joe Biden, 16 months into his presidency, is working on multiple fronts to rebuild a stable US-led imperialist alliance following four erratic years with Donald Trump in the White House.

When Biden announced in his first major foreign policy speech as president that “diplomacy is back” and that the US would “repair its alliances”, this was merely a promise to carry forward the century-old project of domination and hegemonism. So much is obvious from the proposed expansion of NATO, the fierce attempts to weaken Russia, the creation of AUKUS, the revival of the Quad, the flagrant encouraging of Taiwanese secessionism, and the recent launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity – a comically hopeless attempt to isolate China.

In this context, the Summit of the Americas 2022 provides an opportunity for the US to reassert its leadership in what it has considered its “back yard” for the last 200 years.

However, things are not going to plan. In response to a unilateral announcement by the US that the socialist governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua would not be invited to the Summit, multiple leaders in the region declared they refuse to attend. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated bluntly: “If everyone is not invited, I will not go.” In spite of a concerted lobbying effort from Washington, López Obrador stuck to his position, asking: “Is it going to be the Summit of the Americas or the Summit of the Friends of the US?”

Bolivian President Luis Arce echoed the sentiment of his Mexican counterpart, saying that he would not participate if Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were excluded. Likewise Xiomara Castro, the recently-elected leftist President of Honduras stated: “If all the nations aren’t there, it isn’t a Summit of the Americas.”

It may well be that the entire CARICOM – an intergovernmental organisation with 15 member states in the Caribbean – boycotts the Summit, with Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the US, asserting that “if the United States insists on not inviting Cuba to this meeting, it will immediately cause the CARICOM countries not to attend.” Biden is so concerned about the possible complete collapse of the Summit that he dispatched his envoy Christopher Dodd to Argentina to convince President Alberto Fernández to attend. Fernández did not confirm whether or not he would go to the Summit, but he did take the opportunity to reproach Dodd, saying “it’s shameful that the US maintains a blockade against Cuba and Venezuela.”

It is impressive to see so many Latin American and Caribbean leaders standing united in defence of their collective dignity and rejecting what senior Venezuelan politician Diosdado Cabello has characterised as a “summit of the gringos.” This is a reflection of a rising and irreversible trend towards sovereign development; an assertion of both independence and regional unity.

The Monroe Doctrine, first articulated by President James Monroe in 1823, denounced European colonialism and interference in the Western Hemisphere, not on the basis of any anti-colonial principle but as an assertion of the US’s exclusive rights to exploit the continent. Since that time, the US’s relationship with the countries of Central and South America has largely been characterised by neocolonialism, and the region’s land, natural resources, labour and markets have been subservient to the needs of US monopoly capital.

When the US has been unable to secure its interests through quiet pressure and economic coercion, it has not hesitated to use force. The 1954 coup d’état in Guatemala, overthrowing the elected government of Jacobo Árbenz, was engineered by the CIA (an interesting historical footnote is that this incident helped to radicalise Che Guevara, who was living in Guatemala City at the time). In 1961, the US orchestrated an invasion of Cuba, with a view to overturning the Cuban Revolution. The US backed brutal military coups in Brazil (1964), Chile (1973) and Argentina (1976). Following the Sandinista Revolution, the US financed and supported right-wing narco-terrorist militia in waging a decade-long civil war in the 1980s.

This tragically violent dynamic has not remained in the distant past. In 2002, the CIA backed a coup attempt against the Chávez government in Venezuela. The US supported the constitutional coup against Dilma Rousseff’s progressive government in Brazil (2016) and the coup that brought down the Evo Morales government in Bolivia (2019). Meanwhile, the US maintains harsh unilateral sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

But as hard is it might try, the US cannot stem the tide of multipolarity. The peoples of the region are simply not willing to accept the Monroe Doctrine any longer. Speaking in January this year, President Biden clearly thought he was presenting Latin America a valuable gift by upgrading its status from “back yard” to “front yard”. However, the peoples of the region are no longer willing to be any type of yard.

China’s rise has been an important boost to Latin America’s attempts to break its dependency on the US, with bilateral trade increasing from just 12 billion USD in 2000 to 315 billion USD today. Of the 33 countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region, 21 have signed up to the Belt and Road Initiative. As veteran US peace activist Medea Benjamin noted recently: “China has surpassed the US as the number one trading partner, giving Latin American countries more freedom to defy the United States.”

With the expansion of investment, trade, aid and diplomatic ties with China, Latin America has a historic opportunity to climb the ladder of sovereign development, to improve the living standards of its people, and to affirm its status as a key player in an increasingly multipolar world. For this reason the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, speaking with Hu Jintao in Beijing in 2006, spoke of China’s relationship with Latin American as a “Great Wall against American hegemonism.”

As Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated recently, Latin America is neither a front yard or a back yard of the US. “And the Summit of the Americas is not the Summit of the United States of America.” If the US wants to improve its relationship with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, it should follow China’s example and adopt an international relations strategy based on mutual respect, mutual benefit, equal treatment and non-interference. In short, it should give up on the Project for a New American Century and come to terms with humanity’s trajectory away from hegemonism.

Rapid progress in China-Nicaragua relations

Since China and Nicaragua resumed their diplomatic relations towards the end of last year they have made rapid and comprehensive progress and in the process have also boosted China/Latin America relations more generally and specifically the unity and cohesion of the progressive forces.

Two events in late May served to underscore these developments.

On May 20th Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a telephone conversation with his Nicaraguan counterpart Denis Moncada, in which he noted that since the resumption of diplomatic relations, “we have enabled bilateral cooperation to get off to a good start at a fast pace and of a high standard.” Wang Yi further noted that “both China and Nicaragua are committed to safeguarding fairness and justice, opposing unilateralism and power politics, and supporting greater democracy in international relations.”

For his part, Moncada noted that, “Nicaragua hopes to deepen practical cooperation with China in various fields, strengthen coordination and collaboration with China in international affairs, and jointly oppose hegemonism, advance multipolarity in the world, and safeguard world peace and security.”

This was followed on May 24th by the first joint webinar for cadres of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) of Nicaragua, with the opening ceremony addressed by Song Tao, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), and Gustavo Porras Cortés, a member of the national council of the FSLN and Speaker of the National Assembly of Nicaragua.

Song Tao noted that “Sharing a profound traditional friendship, the CPC and the FSLN are the pioneers in promoting the relations between our two countries and have made active efforts in bringing China-Nicaragua relations back to the right track.”

For his part, Porras noted that “The FSLN values the friendly relations with the CPC, and hopes to strengthen exchange with the CPC, learn experience and practice of economic development and poverty alleviation from the CPC, and take a development path suitable to Nicaragua’s national condition… The Nicaraguan side is ready to work with the Chinese side to uphold multilateralism, oppose hegemony and external interference, and push for world peace and development together.”

The following reports were first published on the websites of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the IDCPC.

Wang Yi Speaks with Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada on the Phone

On May 20, 2022, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone conversation with Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada.

Wang Yi said, since the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Nicaragua six months ago, we have enabled bilateral cooperation to get off to a good start at a fast pace and of a high standard. This fully demonstrates that the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Nicaragua follows the general trend of history and the times, and serves the fundamental interests of the two countries and two peoples. China regards Nicaragua as a reliable and important partner, firmly supports its sovereignty, independence and national dignity, and respects the development path it has independently chosen. Nicaragua adheres to the one-China principle, opposes any form of “Taiwan independence” and firmly supports China’s position on issues concerning China’s core interests. China appreciates that.