Media Archives - Friends of Socialist China

BBC: retract your false report on China and the Himalayan floods

The US peace organisation CODEPINK, as part of its China Is Not Our Enemy campaign, has launched a petition calling on the BBC to retract its false report claiming that China was censoring footage of the catastrophic floods that struck Nepal and the Tibetan Plateau in late August.

As we noted at the time, the sequence of events was a simple one: “the Chinese state published the clip; the BBC ran the clip; the BBC then published a story about how the Chinese state is suppressing the clip.” The video used in the BBC’s own report had been released by the Chinese port authorities at Gyirong, and footage of the disaster was circulating widely on Chinese platforms.

CODEPINK’s petition notes that the real story is the climate crisis in the fastest-warming mountain range on earth, and that serious journalism would be examining the role of the fossil fuel industry and of global militarism rather than manufacturing another anti-China scare.

We encourage our readers to add their names. The full text of the petition, which can be signed on the CODEPINK website, is reproduced below.

Sign our petition to the BBC demanding they correct the record and stop using Himalayan flood tragedy to spread misinformation about China. We need media accountability!

Dear BBC Editors,

We are writing to demand that the BBC correct and retract the false report claiming that China is “censoring” footage of the recent catastrophic floods affecting Nepal and the Tibetan Plateau.

This disaster has caused immense human suffering. Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed, thousands remain missing, and communities across the Himalayan region are facing devastating destruction. Instead of documenting the human consequences of the accelerating climate crisis, the BBC instead chose to turn this tragedy into another anti-China story.

The claim that footage of the disaster was being broadly “censored” deserves serious scrutiny. The floods have been widely reported across Chinese media, while footage and discussion of the disaster have circulated extensively on Chinese social media platforms. Chinese citizens have publicly shared images, information, grief, and solidarity as communities confront this terrible tragedy.

Reds under the bed and in the tractors

In the following article, Carlos Martinez surveys a burst of anti-China stories in the British right-wing press – the Telegraph’s warning that Chinese chips in GPS-guided tractors could be used to spy on farmers and fitted with kill switches; the Times’ claim that Chinese-made wind turbines could be used to shut down Britain’s electricity supply; and the Telegraph’s discovery of a hotel near RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus with a good view of the runway.

In each case, he notes, the evidence is absent and the motive is never explained. Meanwhile every documented instance of weaponised supply-chain hardware – Stuxnet, the NSA’s intercepted routers, Nord Stream, the booby-trapped pagers in Lebanon – belongs to Britain’s Western allies rather than to China.

He also points to an instructive contradiction: in the same week that Chinese industrial policy was being described as a threat to national survival, both the Guardian and the Financial Times carried pieces arguing that Britain should be learning from it. The purpose of the hysteria, Carlos argues, is not to inform economic policy but to build support for the US-led New Cold War.

The importance of China’s new ethnic unity law: a webinar

The following report from Workers World covers the webinar “China’s National Unity vs. U.S. Social Hierarchy”, held on August 30 and organised by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), which examined the significance of China’s new Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law.

Chaired by Sara Flounders of UNAC, the panel brought together Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez, China Daily columnist Chen Weihua, China-based broadcaster Jason Smith, Jacqueline Luqman of the Black Alliance for Peace, and the Canadian writer Arnold August.

The speakers set out what the law actually says – that it prohibits discrimination against any ethnic group, reaffirms the right of all peoples to use and develop their own languages, and obliges the state to direct infrastructure, industry and public services towards minority regions – and contrasted this with the record of forced assimilation in the West. Several drew on first-hand visits to Xizang (Tibet) and Xinjiang, where, as Chen Weihua observes, the Tibetan language is not simply being preserved but is proliferating.

Slander over solidarity: the BBC reports a Himalayan disaster

The following article by Carlos Martinez examines the BBC’s coverage of the catastrophic glacier collapse of 26 August, which sent a wall of ice, rock, mud and water down the river valleys straddling the border between Nepal and China’s Tibet (Xizang) Autonomous Region, killing well over a thousand people.

Rather than report on the disaster itself, or on its underlying cause in the accelerating warming of the world’s highest mountain range, the BBC’s China correspondent chose to run a story alleging that Beijing was suppressing footage of the event – footage which, as Carlos points out, had been released by the Chinese port authorities at Gyirong and was circulating widely on Chinese platforms. A massive rescue operation, with the direct involvement of China’s top leadership, becomes a “muted response”; Communist Party members being asked to assist their neighbours becomes evidence of authoritarian anxiety.

The article also takes apart the BBC’s assertion that Tibet was “annexed” by Beijing in the 1950s – a formulation at odds even with the declared position of the British government, which abandoned the colonial-era doctrine of “suzerainty” in 2008.

Hawks dressed as doves: the Guardian’s case for a harder line on China

In the following article, written for the Morning Star, our co-editor Carlos Martinez takes apart a recent Guardian column by Simon Tisdall whose complaint, running through every paragraph, is not that the West has been too aggressive towards China but that it has not been aggressive enough.

Carlos works through the column point by point: the claim of Western “debilitating fatalism” towards a country already facing a tariff war, semiconductor export bans, AUKUS, the Quad, RIMPAC and a chain of US bases from Japan to Australia; Tisdall’s unfortunate choice of Wales as an analogy for language rights; the assertion of “brutal re-education camps” offered without evidence, source or argument, resting on the discredited work of Adrian Zenz and the arms-industry-funded ASPI; and the verdict that Xi is an “unelected autocrat”, delivered without reference to the five levels of People’s Congresses, the consultative apparatus that precedes their votes, or the satisfaction ratings that no Western government has approached in living memory.

The article’s conclusion is that this is liberal hawkishness in its purest form – deploring Trump in one paragraph and demanding his policy in the next – and that it is more dangerous than the honest belligerence of the right, because it recruits people of genuine conscience to a war they would otherwise oppose.

‘But at what cost?’: the Yangtze edition

The Economist has reported a striking piece of good news: fish biomass in the Yangtze has risen by more than 200 percent since 2021, reversing seven decades of decline, with a rare sturgeon spawning in the wild for the first time in two decades and finless porpoise numbers climbing again. The turnaround – confirmed by a peer-reviewed study – followed the largest freshwater fishing moratorium ever attempted, the closure of thousands of chemical factories, mass reforestation, and the compensation and retraining of some 200,000 fishermen.

Yet, as the following article argues, the magazine could not resist straining to make an ecological triumph sound sinister – branding China’s approach “eco-authoritarian”. It is the “but at what cost” genre in its purest form: the reflex of a worldview that cannot survive the admission that a socialist country is surpassing the West on both ecological and economic performance.

The Economist has reported a remarkable and very welcome piece of news. Fish biomass in the Yangtze has risen by more than 200 percent since 2021, reversing seven decades of decline. A rare sturgeon has been observed spawning in the wild for the first time in twenty years. Finless porpoise numbers are up from a low of around 1,000 in 2017 to more than 1,400. And this is not Chinese state media talking: it comes from a study, published in the journal Science, by researchers in China, Canada, the United States and France.

How was it done? Through a ten-year commercial fishing ban across the river, its major tributaries and the lakes of its basin – the largest freshwater fishing moratorium ever attempted. Thousands of chemical factories were closed or relocated. Forests were planted on the upper reaches to hold the soil. Cities were “spongified” with artificial wetlands and permeable surfaces to absorb rainfall and filter stormwater. And some 200,000 fishermen were taken off the water, compensated and retrained for other work. A river that was being killed is coming back to life.

The Yangtze programme is one component of China’s ecological civilisation strategy – written into the country’s constitution in 2018 and pursued through the same instruments that have sustained China’s economy: long-term planning, massive public investment, and a state with the capacity to override short-term private interest in the name of a collective good. It is the same capacity that has made China the world’s undisputed leader in renewable energy, reforestation and electric transport.

Around the world, China is viewed more positively than the United States

A newly published survey by the Pew Research Center – covering more than 42,000 people across 36 countries – has found that China is now viewed more positively than the United States in most of the countries polled, with more people worldwide expressing confidence in Xi Jinping than in Donald Trump. It is a striking measure of how far Washington’s global standing has fallen.

In the following article, Carlos Martinez, co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, examines what lies behind this historic shift. He argues that the single most important factor is the war on Gaza – a genocide watched in real time by a global public that has also seen the governments of North America and Western Europe arm, finance and shield it, all while lecturing the world about a “rules-based order”. The same collapse of credibility, he notes, has quietly buried the “Uyghur genocide” narrative, and has been compounded by the US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran.

Narratives seeking to smear China by exploiting the US-Israel-Iran conflict should stop

As the criminal US-Israeli war on Iran enters its fourth week, a new front has opened in the information space. Alongside the bombs and missiles, a set of coordinated Western narratives has emerged targeting China: claiming that Beijing has suffered a strategic failure, that it bears some responsibility for the conflict, or that it hopes to benefit in some way from the carnage. The following editorial from Global Times systematically dismantles all three claims.

The reality is straightforward. China is not a party to this conflict. It did not authorise it, did not seek it, and has nothing to gain from it. What China has done is speak up clearly for international law, denounce illegal aggression, dispatch its special envoy to the region, call for respect for Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and provide emergency humanitarian assistance to the civilian victims of the war – including the 175 killed in the US bombing of a girls’ school in Minab. As the editorial puts it with blunt precision: “Aside from the Western military-industrial complex profiting from arms sales, there are no winners in this war.”

These narratives targeting China are designed to shift blame, suppress calls for peace, and provide cover for aggression.

The military conflict involving the US, Israel, and Iran has entered its third week, with the situation remaining complex and tense. Without authorization from the UN Security Council, the US and Israel launched attacks and killed Iran’s supreme leader, deliberately provoking a war against Iran. China is not a party to this conflict. However, some Western narratives have seized the opportunity to fabricate claims aimed at discrediting China. These narratives broadly fall into three categories: the so-called “China failure” narrative, the “China responsibility” narrative, and the “China winner” narrative. Such absurd claims are driven by ulterior motives and thinly veiled political self-interest.

The so-called “China failure” narrative hypes that China’s strategy of turning Iran into a key regional pillar is on the verge of collapse. The facts are clear: China has never been involved in this conflict, nor has it bet on any side. The conflict is the result of unilateral military actions by the US and Israel and has nothing to do with China’s diplomatic or economic strategies. China has actively expanded exchanges and cooperation with various countries including the Middle Eastern states based on respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. It does not engage in military alliances, bloc confrontation, or proxy wars. Its influence in the Middle East is built on deep and extensive cooperation, which gives it resilience even amid conflict. Where, then, is the so-called “strategic failure”?

Such claims merely reflect a power-politics mind-set obsessed with staking out spheres of influence, one that fails to understand the values of peaceful coexistence and mutual benefit in China’s foreign policy.

Why is the West waging a propaganda war against China?

In the following text, based on a speech given by at a Black Liberation Alliance day school in London, Carlos Martinez explains why China’s rapid rise and its policy of win-win cooperation with the Global South threaten Western hegemony and fuel today’s New Cold War.

Carlos begins by emphasising the extraordinary scale of China’s transformation: from one of the poorest countries in the world just 75 years ago to a global leader in renewable energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, AI, electric vehicles and other advanced technologies. This economic and technological leap has been accompanied by vast improvements in living standards – average life expectancy has risen from 35 in 1949 to 79 today – and China is steadily pursuing “modernisation of common prosperity,” ensuring the fruits of development are reaped by the whole population.

Carlos contrasts this progress with the West’s neoliberal trajectory of inequality and stagnation. Crucially, China’s rise has not been based on colonialism or war. Instead, China aligns itself with the Global South, strengthens multipolar institutions such as BRICS and the SCO, and forms partnerships grounded in sovereign equality and mutual benefit. China’s investments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean come without the coercive conditionalities typical of Western trade and investment relationships.

China therefore challenges imperialism both materially and ideologically. Materially, it helps countries escape underdevelopment while defending their sovereignty. Ideologically, it presents the pre-eminent modern example of a socialist-oriented model delivering prosperity, stability and green development. As living standards for Chinese workers approach – and start to surpass – those in Western countries, the legitimacy of Western capitalism weakens by the day.

In response, the US and its allies are escalating their long-term containment campaign in addition to waging a propaganda war which portrays China as authoritarian, repressive, expansionist and predatory. Carlos concludes that progressive and anti-war forces in the West have a vital responsibility to challenge this war propaganda and stand in solidarity with China and the Global South.

I’ve been asked to speak about why China’s rise and its programme of win-win cooperation with the Global South pose such a threat to western hegemony – and how that manifests itself in a New Cold War and as red scare propaganda.

The first thing then is to understand the dimensions of China’s rise, which is really nothing short of remarkable.

China has gone from being one of the poorest and most technologically backward countries in the world, to being the world’s second largest economy in terms of nominal GDP, the world’s largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity, the world’s only renewable energy superpower, a world leader in telecommunications, advanced infrastructure, high speed rail, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, quantum computing, space exploration, and a whole range of other cutting edge technologies.

And these advances have taken place in combination with an unprecedented improvement in living standards for ordinary people. China’s average life expectancy in 1949, at the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, was approximately 35 years, substantially below the global average. Today it’s 79 years, substantially above the global average, and surpassing that of the United States (actually in terms of its healthy lifespan, China is many years ahead of the US). The draft of the 15th Five Year Plan, which will kick off next year, sets out a roadmap for life expectancy to reach at least 80 years by 2030, which will put China in a very exclusive club.

Western media paints European failure as an “experience”, but Chinese failure as a “socialist defeat”

We are pleased to publish the following article, submitted by Bhabani Shankar Nayak, arguing that Western media coverage of the partial collapse of the Hongqi Bridge in Sichuan exemplifies a longstanding ideological bias: while infrastructure failures in Europe or the US are treated as isolated events, any such setback in China is framed as evidence of systemic “socialist failure.”

Bhabani notes that the Hongqi Bridge—built in a mountainous, landslide-prone region—collapsed without casualties thanks to rapid local action, yet Western outlets seized on the incident to discredit Chinese engineering.

The author counters that China’s record in infrastructure construction is unparalleled. Under CPC leadership, China has built more than a million modern bridges; 90 of the world’s 100 tallest 21st-century bridges are Chinese. Despite challenging terrain, China has created an integrated national transport system, with over half of its high-speed rail network running on bridges. Provinces such as Guizhou and Chongqing—home to tens of thousands of bridges each—illustrate the scale of this achievement.

This success, Bhabani argues, is largely invisible to Western media due to colonial legacies, anticommunism, and an imperialist refusal to acknowledge China’s surpassing of Europe and the US across numerous development indicators. While Western states face declining infrastructure, rising homelessness, eroding labour rights, and deteriorating public services, China has normalised people-centred development in areas such as food security, healthcare, housing, and education.

Bhabani considers that portraying Chinese setbacks as systemic defeat serves to shield Western capitalism from scrutiny and to prevent Western publics from engaging with China’s developmental model. He calls for European and US media to decolonise their perspectives and recognise that learning from mistakes—rather than obscuring them—is central to China’s ongoing progress.

Bhabani Shankar Nayak is a Professor of Business Management at London Metropolitan University. He is the author or editor of numerous books and articles on China and other issues related to development in the Global South.

Every major mainstream media outlet in Europe and the US has reported on the collapse of the recently completed 758-metre-long Hongqi Bridge in the city of Maerkang, located in China’s southwestern Sichuan province. The bridge, which was part of a national highway connecting the country’s heartland with Tibet, collapsed on November 11, 2025. Local authorities promptly closed the bridge to all traffic, and no casualties were reported thanks to timely precautionary measures. The bridge had been built in a challenging mountainous region where landslides had caused cracks in nearby slopes and roads, ultimately leading to its partial collapse. However, Western media outlets and their capitalist commentators quickly blamed “Chinese engineering and its faulures” and “failure of copied designs,” seeking to undermine China’s development and discredit Chinese expertise and achievements.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the People’s Republic of China has built more than one million modern bridges. Remarkably, 90 of the world’s 100 tallest bridges constructed in the 21st century are located in China. The country is home to both the world’s highest bridges and the longest sea-crossing bridges, most of which have been built within the past seven decades. Despite the fact that nearly 67 percent of China’s terrain is mountainous—with vast areas of mountains, hills, and plateaus—Chinese engineers have successfully developed an integrated and comprehensive transport and communication network. This infrastructure has been central to China’s unprecedented growth and development. Over half of China’s high-speed rail lines run on bridges, reflecting the country’s engineering ingenuity and determination to overcome natural challenges.

Yet, these remarkable achievements remain largely invisible to the capitalist media outlets of Europe and the US. The colonial legacies of Western media still prevent them from acknowledging that China has surpassed Europe and the United States in nearly every measure of human development and scientific advancement. China stands out in the world for its modern infrastructural development, achieved without any form of colonial or imperialist plunder that historically shaped infrastructure development in Europe and America.

Britain is sinking into ‘yellow peril’ hysteria on China

In the article below, written for the Morning Star, Carlos Martinez discusses Britain’s intensifying Sinophobia, describing it as a new McCarthyism aimed at preparing public opinion for confrontation with China. He argues that recent media stories – about Chinese students being pressured to spy on their classmates, Hong Kong separatists facing legal action, and opposition to China’s proposed new embassy in Tower Hamlets – are part of a broader hybrid war being led by the US and followed by Britain.

Underlying this torrent of anti-China stories is a geopolitical reality of the US applying pressure on Britain to downgrade its cooperation and trade with China. As Jenny Clegg has written, “the US elite has convinced itself that China is intent on taking over the world, just as Fu Manchu threatened to disintegrate Western civilisation back in 1912.” Carlos observes that, “in the current geopolitical conjuncture, where the US goes, Britain almost invariably follows.”

The article concludes that ordinary people in Britain have nothing to gain from hostility towards China.

This new McCarthyism and “yellow peril” fear-mongering serve to build public support for the project of waging a new cold war — and potentially a hot war — against the People’s Republic of China. By corollary, it also seeks to demonise and isolate those of us who oppose the new cold war and who are working towards a future of peace, friendship and co-operation.

The British working class has nothing to gain by falling for this nonsense. China’s proposal is for mutual respect and non-interference; an economic relationship based on mutual benefit; and for close co-operation on the central issues of our era: climate change, pandemics, peace and development.

A spectre is haunting Britain: the spectre of the Communist Party of China. The last couple of weeks have witnessed a flurry of news reports reminding the good people of this country about the imminent threat posed to their way of life by Xi Jinping and his henchmen.

Black Agenda Report at the Belt and Road Journalism Forum in China

In the following report for Black Agenda Report, Margaret Kimberley reflects on her participation in the 2025 Belt and Road Journalists Forum in Jiangxi, China, representing the only US-based outlet at the event. The forum brought together 100 media professionals from across the globe, fostering cross-cultural understanding and promoting dialogue through journalism.

Margaret highlights how the forum offered historical and cultural context, particularly through Jiangxi’s significance in Chinese revolutionary history, as the site of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army and the starting point of the Long March.

While Western media fixates on bizarre anti-China narratives like the “spy balloon” episode, China continues to grow economically and improve the living conditions of its people.

While the corporate media inundate the public with tall tales of spy balloons and claims that China is making nefarious purchases of U.S. farmland, that nation forges ahead in spite of futile U.S. efforts to diminish its economic prowess.

The forum’s theme—“Promoting Civilisations Dialogue and Global Modernization with Power of Journalists”—underscored the importance of accurate, context-rich reporting, especially in an era when corporate media serves state interests and contributes to public misinformation. Margaret critiques mainstream journalism for failing to investigate or challenge official narratives, instead functioning as “a public relations arm for the state and the ruling class.”

The article concludes that independent outlets like Black Agenda Report play a crucial role in countering imperialist narratives. Exposure to countries like China is essential for journalists who seek truth over propaganda. Participation in the forum affirms the value of BAR’s principled, anti-imperialist perspective.

The 2025 Belt and Road Journalists Forum in China was an opportunity for Black Agenda Report to join an international group of journalists working to promote meaningful dialogue on world issues.

The invitation extended to Black Agenda Report to participate in the 2025 Belt and Road Journalists Forum , held in the cities of Nanchang, Jingdezhen, and Ganzhou in Jiangxi province China, was a testament to our 19 year history of providing “news, commentary, and analysis from a Black left perspective.“ Our work is appreciated nationally and internationally, and this columnist attended the Forum along with 100 media representatives from around the world. The Forum is a venue for journalists from Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) nations, but Black Agenda Report was also included, the only outlet participating from the United States.

While the people of the U.S. are subjected to an endless stream of dangerous anti-China war propaganda, the Forum provided participants with the historical and cultural context needed to understand China’s history through the lens of the Jiangxi province region. The city Jiangdezhen has been an important center in the creation of ceramics, the porcelain that came to be known as china, for 1,000 years, and from which it was traded internationally on the original Silk Road. The People’s Liberation Army was founded in Jiangxi and in 1934, the Long March of the Communist Party of China (CPC) began in Jiangxi. The Long March was a strategic retreat from the Kuomintang forces and it allowed the CPC to live to fight on for many years, through the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, known in this country as World War II, and to eventually establish the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

While the corporate media inundate the public with tall tales of spy balloons and claims that China is making nefarious purchases of U.S. farmland, that nation forges ahead in spite of futile U.S. efforts to diminish its economic prowess. Donald Trump’s ever changing tariff policies resulted in China imposing tariffs of its own and buying soy beans from Brazil and beef from Australia when those commodities had long been a part of agricultural trade between the two countries. Joe Biden’s attempt to stop China’s access to computer chip production resulted in new innovations like DeepSeek, which created a model for Artificial Intelligence that surpassed ChatGPT at a fraction of the cost.

China’s rise as an economic power has thrown the United States into panic and counterproductive decision making. Artificial Intelligence is not the only example of futile efforts to keep China down. The first Trump administration imposed high tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, such as BYD, which stands for Build Your Dream. BYD cars are the biggest sellers in China and can be seen alongside U.S. cars on the streets of Beijing and Nanchang. But it was Joe Biden who imposed 100% tariffs on this popular brand and handed off this prohibition to Donald Trump’s second administration. In the meantime, U.S. consumers are deprived of a product they would want, and Detroit automakers have nothing to offer except state protected mediocrity. Trump’s wild indecision on tariffs is an indicator that the U.S. is lost as it tries to do what it cannot, make China a subservient power.

The Forum theme, “Promoting Civilizations Dialogue and Global Modernization with Power of Journalists,” is one that should be of interest to every person calling themselves a journalist. There cannot be information sharing without dialogue but in the U.S., true journalism, providing investigation and analysis, was always at the mercy of the powerful and has now completely devolved into little more than being a public relations arm for the state and for the ruling class. Corporate news gathering at present rarely yields very much that the people need to know, and coverage of China is emblematic of that downward trend.

In 2023, when a Chinese weather balloon was blown off course, the Biden administration declared it to be a spy balloon and predictably, all of the leading broadcast and print media dutifully followed along and used the same language which emanated from the white house press office. While Joe Biden bragged about shooting the balloon down, there was little follow up reporting on the finding that the balloon was just what China said it was, a weather balloon that went off course.

Unlike corporate media outlets, Black Agenda Report and other independent media outlets understand that China is, in fact, an ancient civilization, and like all other nations, a sovereign one with rights under international law that ought to be respected. Bullying with tariff threats and a plethora of accusations of wrongdoing should not be taken seriously and must be seen as part of a larger but failed effort to maintain U.S. hegemony.

The Forum presented a series of seminars and roundtable discussions on topics such as presenting cross cultural narratives, the challenges of authentic news gathering in the age of Artificial Intelligence, and regional focuses on Europe and on Latin America. Discussions were supplemented by tours to historic and cultural sites in Jiangxi. Participants came away with greater appreciation of China as a nation and of their own work, which can be used to benefit the people of the world or which can also be a tool of parties whose goal is to keep the people in a state of misinformation. Unfortunately, this dynamic applies to most U.S. reporting, which is useful only in keeping the public in a state of hostility towards China, viewing it as an “adversary” which must be bested at every turn.

The reality is far different, and even for those who see themselves as living up to journalistic ethics, can become taken in by false narratives when they are repeated often enough. In-person visits are a necessity in preventing the repetition of harmful tropes that are used to manipulate opinion when factual reporting is needed and should be the standard for the profession.

Black Agenda Report has always been dedicated to analyzing the world from an anti-imperialist perspective, an objective that demands not just good information gathering but also exposure to nations like China, whose history requires study and analysis, and whose present day trajectory requires rejection of what most so-called journalists present, the repetition of fake news.

This site strives to be one that is respected nationally and internationally. Participation in the Belt and Road Journalists Forum is an indication that our work is held in high regard. It does not matter if large corporate outlets do not produce the same news that Black Agenda Report presents. In fact, that difference is proof of our standing as journalists.

US Congressman claims young people’s rejection of Israeli war crimes is a Chinese plot

We are pleased to republish the following article by Alex Lo, which addresses one of the latest anti-China smears emanating from US political circles.

Democrat Congressman Jared Moskowitz says that China is following the ‘Nazi playbook’ by using TikTok to ‘brainwash’ American youth. Alex Lo writes:

“China has been accused of doing many nefarious things in the United States, but deliberately spreading anti-semitism?

“That’s the claim made by Democrat Congressman Jared Moskowitz in an official hearing. You have to admit facts-free China criticism in the US gets more inventive by the day.”

Moskowitz said: “This is not going well for Jews right now, and it isn’t getting better. We have not yet peaked… We are losing the youth of this country. We are losing them on TikTok, which is owned by a foreign country… The Chinese plan is to get us angry and divisive. And the Chinese plan is to start with the easiest plan possible, and that is us.”

Alex’s retort is clear and to the point: “There is a simple reason why many American youth are becoming critical of Israel – they read the news.”

Writing on July 6, he cites a number of reports published since the start of June including:

“Israeli air strike kills Gaza hospital director along with his family – Israeli attacks have killed 70 healthcare workers over the past 50 days.”

“Israeli forces kill 112 Palestinians in Gaza over 24 hours – At least 16 were reported killed while seeking aid.”

“Israel has demolished 1,000 Palestinian homes in West Bank camps since January”.

Others he cites were reported by Associated Press, the Financial Times and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. He concludes:

“Anti-semitism has been a scourge responsible for some of the worst horrors in history and remains a problem today. But by committing genocide, Israel is making itself a pariah state.”

Alex Lo is a regular columnist for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post since 2012. A journalist for 25 years, he has worked for various publications in Hong Kong and Toronto, Canada, as a news reporter and editor. He has also lectured in journalism at the University of Hong Kong.

The article was originally published in the South China Morning Post and is reproduced with the kind permission of the author.

China has been accused of doing many nefarious things in the United States, but deliberately spreading antisemitism?

That’s the claim made by Democrat Congressman Jared Moskowitz in an official hearing. You have to admit facts-free China criticism in the US gets more inventive by the day.

Beijing has been criticised for allowing antisemitic content without online censorship within China, and TikTok has been accused – the big reason it faces being banned – of platforming antisemitic criticism of Israel in the US. But equating the two explicitly is pretty new.

“This is not going well for Jews right now, and it isn’t getting better. We have not yet peaked,” Moskowitz said.

“We are losing the youth of this country. We are losing them on TikTok, which is owned by a foreign country that the president has now extended beyond what the law has allowed.”

He was referring to Donald Trump’s repeated extension of the deadline for a total ban or a forced sale of TikTok required by US law.

Moskowitz continues: “I don’t want TikTok to go away but I want it to get out of the hands of the Chinese. They are doing the Nazi playbook. They are dividing us. They are funding. They don’t need to do it with B2 bombers.

“That’s not what the Chinese plan is. The Chinese plan is to get us fighting among ourselves. The Chinese plan is to get us angry and divisive. And the Chinese plan is to start with the easiest plan possible, and that is us. Until we stop this ‘who did what to who’ stuff, we are not going to solve this.

“Jews are losing their usual allies. Those allies that we’ve had for decades and decades, groups that Jews have stood up for, we are losing them by the moment, especially among young people.

“This [congressional] hearing ain’t gonna fix s***. This is a virus that is spreading; until we are serious about what’s going on online and the brainwashing of our kids, this is going to get worse and more people are going to die in this country.”

There is a simple reason why many American youth are becoming critical of Israel – they read the news. Here are some reports since the start of June:

“Israeli air strike kills Gaza hospital director along with his family – Israeli attacks have killed 70 healthcare workers over the past 50 days.”

“Israeli forces kill 112 Palestinians in Gaza over 24 hours – At least 16 were reported killed while seeking aid.”

“Israel has demolished 1,000 Palestinian homes in West Bank camps since January”.

“UN report accuses global corporations of profiting from Gaza genocide.”

“Gazans survive among unexploded bombs – ‘Uninhabitable’ according to the US government, the Gaza Strip is strewn with undetonated explosives.”

“Hundreds of Palestinian families flee West Bank camp ahead of Israeli demolition orders.”

“West Bank town becomes ‘big prison’ as Israel fences it in”.

This one is from Haaretz, a leading liberal Israeli newspaper, so it’s not fake news: “‘It’s a killing field’: IDF aoldiers ordered to shoot deliberately at unarmed Gazans waiting for humanitarian aid.”

This one is from the Associated Press, so it’s not fake news either: “US contractors say their colleagues are firing live ammo as Palestinians seek food in Gaza”.

This news summary is from +972, an Israeli online news magazine: “Near-daily Israeli massacres at food distribution sites have killed over 400 Palestinians in the past month alone. Survivors describe stepping over corpses to get their hands on a bag of flour: ‘What choice do we have?’”

This is an investigative report by the Financial Times about a leading global firm, Boston Consulting Group: “BCG modelled plan to ‘relocate’ Palestinians from Gaza – Consulting firm had multimillion-dollar role in contentious new aid scheme for shattered enclave”.

Antisemitism has been a scourge responsible for some of the worst horrors in history and remains a problem today. But by committing genocide, Israel is making itself a pariah state.

Chinese scholar lauds Vietnam’s revolutionary press

A solemn ceremony was held in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi on June 21 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Press Day (June 21, 1925-2025).

Addressing the meeting, Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, and Chairman of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Communications, Education and Mass Mobilisation of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Trong Nghia said that the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Press Day is an opportunity to review and multiply the pride, respect, and infinite gratitude towards President Ho Chi Minh – the founder, leader, trainer and great teacher of the Vietnamese revolutionary press. It is an occasion to show the pride of and gratitude to outstanding and exemplary leaders, revolutionary soldiers, and senior journalists; remember generations of journalists who directly fought and heroically sacrificed during the resistance wars against the French colonialists and US imperialists; and to express gratitude for the contributions of generations of journalists and soldiers who have raised high the Party’s ideological flag.

Emphasising that the 100-year journey of the Vietnamese revolutionary press has marked the efforts, achievements, lessons, challenges, ups and downs, and aspirations to move forward, Nghia affirmed that over the past century, the Vietnamese revolutionary press has always been steadfast, loyal, and devoted to the noble revolutionary cause of the Party, the nation, and the people.

In an interview with the Vietnam News Agency to mark the occasion, Li Minghan, an intellectual from China’s Hong Kong who has devoted most of his life to studying President Ho Chi Minh’s revolutionary career, described “Thanh Nien” (Young People) newspaper, which laid the foundation for Vietnam’s revolutionary journalism a century ago, as a modest publication with great responsibility and mission.

Li said that President Ho Chi Minh, drawing from his experience in the French communist movement and his role in founding the Le Paria (The Pariah) newspaper in Paris in 1922 to expose colonial crimes and unite the global anti-colonial struggle, understood the power of revolutionary journalism as a tool to popularise, mobilise, organise, and lead revolutionary movements. During his stay in China’s Guangzhou city from 1924 to 1927 to prepare for the establishment of a Communist Party to lead Vietnam’s revolution, President Ho Chi Minh founded “Thanh Nien” newspaper and released its first issue on June 21, 1925. Li said that despite its small format and simple design and printing, the newspaper carried immense responsibility and mission, contributing to the establishment of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the decisive factor in the success of the country’s revolution in the past, today, and in the future.

Today, original copies of the early issues are on display at the relic site of the headquarters of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in Guangzhou city. An exhibition spotlighting the time President Ho Chi Minh spent in China is being held from May 10 to August 10 at the Guangzhou Uprising Memorial Hall, featuring a dedicated display of copies of Thanh Nien.

The following article was originally published by Nhân Dân.

Li Minghan, an intellectual from China’s Hong Kong who has devoted most of his life studying President Ho Chi Minh’s revolutionary career, described “Thanh nien” (Young people) newspaper, which laid foundation for Viet Nam’s revolutionary journalism a century ago, as a modest publication with great responsibility and mission.

In an interview with the Viet Nam News Agency on the occasion of Viet Nam’s Revolutionary Press Day (June 21), Li said that President Ho Chi Minh, drawing from his experience in the French communist movement and his role in founding the Le Paria (The Miserable) newspaper in Paris in 1922 to expose colonial crimes and unite the global anti-colonial struggle, understood the power of revolutionary journalism as a tool to popularise, mobilise, organise, and lead revolutionary movements.

During his stay in China’s Guangzhou city from 1924 to 1927 to prepare for the establishment of a Communist Party to lead Viet Nam’s revolution, President Ho Chi Minh founded “Thanh nien” newspaper and released its first issue on June 21, 1925. Li said that despite its small format and simple design and printing, the newspaper carried immense responsibility and mission, contributing to the establishment of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, the decisive factor in the success of the country’s revolution in the past, today, and in the future.

The newspaper was printed on a compact 18×24 cm paper size, with simple design and clear content.

Between June 21, 1925, and April 17, 1927, the newspaper published a total of 88 issues, with 100 copies of each edition distributed to Viet Nam by sailors, providing information and building solidarity within Viet Nam’s revolutionary movement and connecting it with communist movements in the region and the world.

Today, original copies of the early issues are on display at the relic site of the headquarters of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in Guangzhou city, Guangzhong province.

An exhibition spotlighting the time President Ho Chi Minh in China is taking place from May 10 to August 10 at the Guangzhou Uprising Memorial Hall, featuring a dedicated display of reproduced copies of Thanh Nien newspaper’s issues No. 63, 66, and 67. The event is held in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Viet Nam – China diplomatic relations and the Year of China-Viet Nam Humanistic Exchange 2025.

Tiananmen Square, 1989: The truth comes out, eventually

In the following article for the Morning Star, Dan Ross challenges the mainstream Western narrative of the 1989 Tiananmen Square events. Rather than being a “massacre of thousands of unarmed students”, as is typically presented, Dan argues that what occurred was a complex confrontation between the Chinese military and radicalised protesters, many of whom were armed.

Dan draws on contemporaneous coverage from The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal and other eyewitness sources to show that China’s authorities, after two months of Beijing being brought practically to a standstill, and with lengthy negotiations not bearing fruit, decided to peacefully disperse the protests. “Unarmed soldiers entered the square to begin the dispersal”, whereupon “they were set upon by groups of co-ordinated and armed protesters that remained, as was openly reported on at the time. Many dozens of soldiers are known to have been killed, as grisly images of lynched and burned soldiers from the events attest”.

The violence can accurately be described as clashes between armed protesters and soldiers, not a massacre of unarmed civilians on the Square.

The Western propaganda machine lost no time in spinning the story as a vicious attack by an authoritarian state on freedom-loving unarmed protestors. Dan writes:

It should come as no surprise that this co-ordinated propaganda campaign took place concurrently with the fall of socialism across central and eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The US, then as now, remains committed to undermining and destroying Chinese socialism, and has relied heavily upon thinly veiled, CIA-sponsored bodies like Radio Free Asia, National Endowment for Democracy, and the fanatical anti-communist and fantasist Adrian Zenz, with the sole objective of bringing about the fall and disintegration of China, much as happened to the former USSR and Yugoslavia.

Ultimately, the article calls on readers to question the mainstream narrative of the “Tiananmen Massacre”, pointing out that it is just another piece of crass anti-China and anti-communist propaganda.

“As columns of tanks and tens of thousands of soldiers approached Tiananmen, many troops were set on by angry mobs… dozens of soldiers were pulled from trucks, severely beaten and left for dead.

“At an intersection west of the square, the body of a young soldier, who had been beaten to death, was stripped naked and hung from the side of a bus. Another soldier’s corpse was strung at an intersection east of the square.”

“Radicalised protesters, some now armed with guns, and vehicles commandeered in clashes with the military.”

“Other scenes show soldiers’ corpses and demonstrators stripping automatic rifles off unresisting soldiers.”

These accounts are taken, not from the official version of the Chinese government, but from the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal in the immediate aftermath of the events of June 4 1989.

As the US, its allies, and cheerleaders in the media step up their campaign of anti-communist and Sinophobic rhetoric in the growing cold war against China, we can expect to hear an altogether different — if more familiar — narrative about the “massacre” of thousands of innocent students in a “brutal authoritarian crackdown” this week.

The “events” in fact began two months earlier in April, when students gathered — somewhat ironically — to mourn and commemorate the passing of a senior Communist Party leader, Hu Yaobang, later joined by workers — again ironically — concerned by the inflationary effects of market-liberalising economic reforms.

Beijing’s iconic central square, and much of the city, was all but paralysed for weeks. Following lengthy but failed attempts at a negotiated settlement between the government and student leaders (presenting disparate and undefined demands) and no end in sight to the paralysis of the capital, the authorities eventually ordered the peaceful dispersal of the crowds from the square, that was largely was achieved by June 3.

Individual accounts of army snipers and soldiers gunning down fleeing students have been discredited both by a far greater number of eyewitnesses contradicting it, including US journalists (such as the Washington Post’s Jay Matthews), and television footage of an orderly dispersal. Spanish television network TVE had a camera crew on the square covering events, and reported no evidence of a massacre.

No doubt the image of the infamous “tank man” has sprung to your mind; it is well worth watching the footage to the end: the outcome might surprise you!

When soldiers — unarmed — originally entered the square to begin the dispersal, they were set upon by groups of co-ordinated and armed protesters that remained, as was openly reported on at the time. Many dozens of soldiers are known to have been killed, as grisly images of lynched and burned soldiers from the events attest.

Much of the subsequent violence occurred following the dispersal, between June 4-5, and took place elsewhere across the city, rather than on the square itself. The violence can accurately be described as clashes between armed protesters and soldiers, not a massacre of unarmed civilians on the Square.

What’s wrong with Western claims of China’s “debt burden” on poor nations

The explainer article below, originally published on Xinhua News Agency, challenges Western allegations that China is imposing a “debt trap” on developing countries through loans tied to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The article specifically addresses the recent analysis from Australian foreign policy thinktank the Lowy Institute claiming that the poorest 75 countries in the world are due to pay record high debt repayments to China this year.

The authors write: “A closer look at the debt structure and facts will prove that those allegations cannot hold water.” They note that the lion’s share of developing world debt is in fact owed to Western lending institutions. World Bank data indicates that, for Sub-Saharan Africa, bilateral debt with China accounts for 11 percent of the total. Furthermore, debt to Chinese entities typically incurs far lower interest rates, and is associated with longer maturities and greater repayment flexibility. Unlike loans from Western multilateral lending institutions, China’s loans come without punishing conditions of “reform” – that is, privatisation and liberalisation measures.

“In the 46 countries that participated in the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative, Chinese creditors accounted for 30 percent of all claims and contributed 63 percent of debt service suspensions… China’s debt reduction has already doubled the average reduction scale of the G7 countries.”

The article also highlights that China’s loans are typically focused on infrastructure, telecommunications and green energy, and are thus helping the poorest countries to generate wealth, improve living standards, and break out of underdevelopment.

The article concludes that the “debt trap” narrative is simply a rhetorical strategy by Western powers to undermine China’s growing mutually-beneficial relationships with the countries of the Global South.

A recent report published by an Australian think tank claimed that many developing countries were on the hook for record high debt repayments to China in 2025, as bills come due from the lending under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Once again, China became an easy target to blame. In recent years, Western think tanks and media outlets have kept hyping up the so-called Chinese “debt trap.” However, a closer look at the debt structure and facts will prove that those allegations cannot hold water.

Who is the biggest lender?

The think tank report blamed China as the major source of debt pressure for developing countries, warning that “now, and for the rest of this decade, China will be more debt collector than banker to the developing world.”

In fact, for many developing countries, a majority of debts are owed to Western donors and multilateral institutions, while Chinese entities’ loans account for only a minority.

For example, in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, 66 percent of public and publicly guaranteed debt is held by private bondholders and multilateral creditors, while bilateral debt with China accounts for 11 percent, as the International Debt Report 2023 released by the World Bank (WB) Group has shown.

As for Sri Lanka, its debt to Chinese entities accounts for only 10.8 percent of its total external debt, while private creditors taking the lion’s share of 53.6 percent, multilateral creditors — 20.6 percent, according to data released by the country’s Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilization & National Policy as of March 2023.

Spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry Mumtaz Baloch has previously slammed a New York Times article’s accusations that “Chinese loans led to Pakistan’s economic crisis,” retorting that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has made positive and transparent contributions to Pakistan’s national development.

The total public debt involved in the CPEC project is only a small part of Pakistan’s total debt, Baloch said, noting that the public trade debt from China has low interest rates and long maturities.

Contrary to portrayals by Western think tanks and media of China as an unforgiving lender, China has actively contributed to global debt relief efforts over the years.

In the 46 countries that participated in the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative, Chinese creditors accounted for 30 percent of all claims and contributed 63 percent of debt service suspensions.

Since 2016, China, as a bilateral creditor, has been responsible for roughly 16 percent of global debt relief, surpassing the United States and the WB, said professor Ding Yibing, dean of School of Economics, Jilin University, adding that China’s debt reduction has already doubled the average reduction scale of the G7 countries.

Amid the growing concerns of a debt default, China has always adhered to the principle of equality in bilateral relations and proactively participates in just and fair negotiations with different nations, said Song Wei, a professor at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy, Beijing Foreign Studies University.

China’s contribution to debt relief exemplifies the international obligations expected for a responsible major country, Song said.

Trump-allied anti-communists dance onto British stages

Shen Yun, the dance company associated with the far right, anti-communist Falun Gong cult, staged a number of performances in British cities between January-March 2025. With lavish advertising and staging, the real agenda behind Shen Yun will not be immediately obvious to many who buy tickets or who simply receive the glossy advertising flyers through their letter box. The following article, which arose from discussions among some members of the Friends of Socialist China Britain Committee, aims to start addressing this knowledge deficit by highlighting the true character of Falun Gong.

Some other articles we recommend on this topic include:

Falun Gong leaders disprove immortality by inconveniently dying (Pearls and Irritations)
“Arctic ice is not melting”: Far right newspaper promotes climate disinformation on Meta (Global Witness)
Shen Yun dance company and its secretive parent, Falun Gong, investigated (People’s World)
Shen Yun: The Falun Gong cult’s anti-communist propaganda roadshow (People’s World)

A marketing blitz accompanied the January-March 2025 performances of the Shen Yun (approximately translated as “Divine Rhythm”) dance troupe in various British cities. Some may find Shen Yun’s tagline “China before communism” a little pointed. The line is, in fact, only the soft edge of a highly reactionary political project.

The dance shows purport to represent ancient and especially ‘spiritual’ Chinese culture. Relying on western audiences’ ignorance of such traditions, as well as the vibrant diversity of contemporary Chinese culture, the performances present an ‘orientalised’ spectacle through which to smuggle reactionary messages, and with the proceeds from the shows further funding its owners’ global far-right campaigns. Such campaigns have involved, among other talking points, anti-vaccination and anti-medical science messaging, full-throated support for US President Trump’s MAGA movement, apocalyptic and extra-terrestrial conspiracy theories, and less explicitly but no less perniciously, racist and homophobic views.

Shen Yun Performing Arts is owned and operated by the Falun Gong / Falun Dafa movement, which emerged in the 1990s in the People’s Republic of China. Originally presenting itself as a manifestation of the surge of interest in traditional qigong practices, it quickly revealed its real anti-socialist and obscurantist political agenda, all the while receiving funding from the US Congress-controlled Freedom House, along with similar institutions. Such funding continues to this day, with research finding that

Mark Palmer, one of the National Endowment for Democracy’s (NED’s) founders and Vice Chairman of Freedom House… founded a new government-supported group, Friends of Falun Gong (FoFG). By perusing FoFG’s annual tax filings, one discovers that FoFG has contributed funds to Sounds of Hope Radio, New Tang Dynasty TV, and the Epoch Times—all Falun Gong media outlets. FoFG has also contributed to Dragon Springs (a Falun Gong ‘compound’ that hosts a Falun Gong school and a residency complex) and to Shen Yun…^[1]

Falun Gong is one among many such ‘Trojan Horse’ style organisations that western imperialists have supported and continue to support with the goal of destabilising the government of the PRC.^[2] The main aim of Palmer’s work and of these bodies is large-scale anti-communist and anti-sovereign destabilisation. The US has a long and proven record of backing religious and ethnic outfits trying to draw regions into conflict and instability – one only has to look at their support for al-Qaeda in Syria and similar ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ power networks in the Caucuses, Xinjiang, northern Africa, the Americas and beyond. This should be and is taken as a real potential threat to stability by those countries that seek to maintain their independence.

Religion is presented as being integral to FLG. As part of its eclectic mish-mash, some Buddhist and Daoist ideas are merged with founder and master Li Hongzhi’s Manichaean apocalypticism, with exhortations of good versus evil featuring heavily within the cult members’ indoctrination. In the 2018 book Falun Gong: Spiritual Warfare and Martyrdom, James R. Lewis writes about how Li deliberately downplays public awareness of the group’s ideas, and obsessively promotes the message of its own persecution, as cover for its own far-right propagandising and organising. This mode of operating is clearly present in Shen Yun shows, where skits about alleged oppression of FLG members are interspersed throughout. For a spiritual group supposedly grounded in compassion and forbearance, there is a surprising amount of hatred to be dished out. Apart from communism, other targets include homosexuality, ethnic mixing, and feminism. No wonder Donald Trump has been described as angelic by its members.

Following increasingly disruptive and explicitly anti-communist organising, the Falun Gong movement was proscribed in the PRC in the late 90s. The movement then sought to build its global media empire from outside China, headquartering (surprise surprise) in the US, with a huge compound in upstate New York.^[3] Allegations of systematic labour abuses among Shen Yun dancers have been uncovered and reported on extensively by two New York Times reporters in 2024 who have a background investigating Donald Trump. An escalation of action against Shen Yun has occurred in recent months, with a lawsuit for trafficking and forced labour brought by a former dancer, and an ensuing inquiry by the New York State Department of Labor.

Such contempt for workers is precisely indicative of the kind of ‘China before communism’ FLG wishes to return to: a brutally exploitative, neocolonial system rejected decisively by the Chinese people in 1949. However, the image it seeks to present is of course the complete opposite. It’s as reactionary and incoherent as MAGA itself – with both espousing a return to a fictional historical ‘promised land’, a common trope of fascist ideologies.

In case there is any room for doubt, modern China has no shortage of religious institutions, many of which are supported with public finances. Buddhist monasteries and nunneries continue to practice their faith. China has around 35,000 mosques, which means that Chinese Muslims have a much higher number of mosques per capita than Muslims in the UK or US. Anyone who has ever tuned into Chinese TV channels will see dance routines featuring regularly among the huge amount of cultural output celebrating ancient and modern Chinese traditions, actively promoted by the Communist Party as well as wider society. Chinese president Xi Jinping has, in particular, sought to celebrate and reconnect with traditional culture, tying it directly to the programme of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” and “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”:

If there were no 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation, where would the ‘Chinese characteristics’ come from? And if it were not for these Chinese characteristics, how could we have today’s successful path of socialism with Chinese characteristics?^{^[4]}

Chinese people enjoy celebrating their past in different ways, too. Han Dynasty-inspired weddings have become a trend in recent decades, for instance, and tourists flock to ancient religious sites. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is alive and well in the PRC, with continuous efforts by researchers to discover the effective parts, rather than refusing modern medicine as Mr Li advocates.

Shen Yun’s claim to represent a ‘lost’ or ‘destroyed’ culture is, therefore, a bizarre lie. In the meantime, it should be regarded as a scandal that such an organisation, with such a reactionary overarching mission, advertises ‘innocently’ all over London’s underground network and in university towns, with its Epoch Times, and on billboards nationally. All progressive people should reject this toxic organisation and unmask it as the far-right cult it is.

^[1] James R. Lewis, Junhui Qin, ‘Is Li Hongzhi a CIA Agent? Tracing the Funding Trail Through the Friends of Falun Gong’, Journal of Religion and Violence, Volume 8, Issue 3, 2020, https://www.pdcnet.org/jrv/content/jrv_2020_0008_0003_0298_0307?file_type=pdf

^[2] For more on this method of counter-revolution, see William Blum, Rogue State.

^[3] The massive Dragon Springs headquarters of FLG has also drawn negative reactions from its neighbours, who allege substantial pollution from the constant building on the site.

^[4] Xi Jinping, ‘One year on, Xi Jinping Thought on Culture leads path to national rejuvenation’, Global Times, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202410/1321209.shtml

TikTok and the threat to cultural hegemony

The following article by Carlos Martinez responds to a recent article in The Times complaining about TikTok users not being sufficiently anti-China. The only explanation the Times journalist can muster is that TikTok’s algorithms must be weighted to promote pro-CPC content.

Carlos observes that TikTok users are predominantly young, and posits that young people are less vulnerable to anti-China hysteria than older generations – at least in part due to China’s leading role in the battle against climate breakdown; its concerted efforts to reduce poverty and improve living standards; and its orientation towards peace, which contrasts starkly with the West’s orientation towards war.

Carlos concludes that imperialist cultural hegemony is under threat:

Throughout the Western world, people are learning to question and reject the crass propaganda pumped out by the mainstream media’s State Department stenographers in relation to Palestine, China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran, the DPRK and more. This is an entirely welcome development.

A recent article in The Times, entitled Why TikTok ‘makes people more eager to visit China’, worries that “people who spend hours scrolling on TikTok are more likely to want to visit China — possibly because the platform censors material that portrays the country in a negative light”. The article’s author is particularly concerned that TikTok users might “see an airbrushed view of China and its human rights record”.

Researchers found that, horrifyingly, users searching on TikTok for terms such as “Tiananmen” or “Tibet” were exposed to a significant number of results that failed to denounce the Communist Party of China. Indeed, it seems that heavy TikTok users typically rate China’s human rights record as “medium”, whereas non-TikTok users rate it as “poor”.

Lee Jussim, a co-author of the research on which the Times article is based, said: “We did the studies because there was ample reason long before our studies to suspect CCP manipulation of TikTok. It’s one thing to suspect, it’s quite another to find it empirically.” He concludes: “Social media companies should be required to publicly disclose how their algorithms determine what content users can access.”

Imperialist propaganda losing its impact?

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s classic 1988 work Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media explores the connection between the economic interests of the ruling class and the ideas that are communicated via mass media: “The media serve, and propagandise on behalf of, the powerful societal interests that control and finance them. The representatives of these interests have important agendas and principles that they want to advance, and they are well positioned to shape and constrain media policy.”

Western media hostility to China has reached fever pitch in recent years. The accusation that China is committing a genocide (or “cultural genocide”) in Xinjiang has been repeated so often as to acquire the force of truth, in spite of the notable absence of any meaningful evidence in its support. Rioters in Hong Kong are presented as saintly defenders of democratic principles. Chinese weather balloons, kettles and smart TVs are all spying on us, and inscrutable Chinese scientists are sending our secrets directly to the People’s Liberation Army.

Fu Manchu is back, and this time he wants to take our freedoms away.

In Britain as in the US, the bourgeoisie is divided on many issues, but there is a clear consensus when it comes to waging a propaganda war on China. And yet it seems that anti-China propaganda is losing its impact, particularly among young people.

The statistical categories presented by the authors of the research are “those who don’t use TikTok” and “those who spent more than three hours a day on the platform”. Age is fairly obviously a confounding variable here: a significant majority of TikTok users are under 30, and only 27 percent are over the age of 45. Young adults (18-24 years) make up over half of TikTok content creators.

So inasmuch as we can derive anything useful from the research, it’s that younger generations are less invested than their grandparents in idiotic Cold War narratives. That may be partly a reflection of the fact that TikTok’s algorithms – in flagrant violation of the well-known and universal rules of social media – don’t actively boost anti-China content and suppress pro-China content. But it also speaks to the genuine concerns and interests of young people.

For example, surveys consistently show that young people are more worried about the prospect of climate breakdown and are more likely to consider the environmental crisis as an existential threat to humanity. As such, they might be expected to welcome the news that China will account for 60 percent of all renewable energy capacity installed worldwide between now and 2030 (according to the International Energy Agency); that China has likely already reached its 2030 goal of peaking carbon emissions; that China is fast phasing out fossil fuel vehicles; that China leads the world in afforestation and biodiversity protection; and that China’s investment in renewables has led to a 80 percent reduction in the cost of solar and wind energy globally.

Furthermore, young people are notorious for having a curious predilection for peace, and perhaps many of them are impressed by the fact that China hasn’t been to war in over four decades; that it has one overseas military base, compared to the US’s 800; that it has a consistent policy of no first use of nuclear weapons, while the US has a consistent policy of nuclear bullying; that it has worked diligently towards peace in Gaza and Ukraine, while the US has been financing, arming and promoting genocide and war.

While TikTok doesn’t actively suppress negative stories about China, what makes it unique among major social media apps is that it also doesn’t suppress positive stories about China. Users are exposed to a variety of voices, including those who highlight China’s extraordinary development, its contributions to climate change solutions, its successes tackling poverty, and its appeal as a travel destination.

From TikTok to the Little Red Book

The following article by Joe Scholten takes a look at the Chinese social media app RedNote (小红书/xiaohongshu – the direct translation of which is Little Red Book), to which millions of “TikTok refugees” migrated after the Biden regime banned TikTok.

Joe notes that the sudden appearance of millions of US users on RedNote has led to an unprecedented (and unpredicted) cultural exchange between particularly young people in China and the US – in spite of the best efforts of the US government to prevent such exchanges. “What stunned me most was that for the first time in a very long time I had seen Americans critically engaging with a fundamental truth regarding China that I thought would take Americans decades to understand: that at the end of the day we have collectively been lied to about China.”

The article describes how people in the US were able to see for the first time how people in China really live, and how many were shocked that ordinary Chinese people find it far easier to afford dignified housing, good quality healthcare and nutritious food than their US counterparts. What’s more, the “TikTok refugees” were surprised to find that the Chinese people they encountered online were able to express themselves freely on a wide range of topics. “For example, they seemed surprised that there was a plethora of LGBTQ content, or the account of a Uighur medical student talking about how much she liked the nightlife in her college city, or just how unifying cat taxes and tongue-in-cheek memes about China stealing data were.”

Joe concludes:

This moment with RedNote is a historic one. I sincerely hope that Americans will go to Little Red Book and see how their own lives could be better. I want Americans to see how we can build a better world, a socialist world, and how we can learn from the things China does well and apply those lessons to the betterment of the world.

The incoming Trump administration has given TikTok a 75-day reprieve, so it remains to be seen whether US users will be able to continue on the app going forward. Regardless, the cultural exchange that has opened up via RedNote is a positive example of grassroots people-to-people relations that can help to counter the New Cold War propaganda and build towards a future of peace and cooperation between the US and China.

Joe Scholten is a writer and activist from St Louis, Missouri.

As news has come forth that the United States Supreme Court has upheld a proposed TikTok ban following months of lawsuits against the ban, a somewhat strange phenomenon has emerged, with millions of American users fleeing to a Chinese Social Media app 小红书 (literally “Little Red Book”, but usually known in English as RedNote). As of the penning of this article roughly 3.4 million American users have downloaded the app as per Reuters; I suspect however that number is an underestimate given my own experiences on the app.

The app’s user base is largely made up of women, with about 300 million users. By US standards this is a large user base, but WeChat has roughly 1 billion more active users. Despite such a large user base Americans, and anglophone internet users in general, are likely unfamiliar with the Chinese internet. Sites like BIlibili, Youku, Weibo, etc aren’t household names in most anglophone countries outside of largely immigrant and ethnically Chinese communities within said countries. The large influx of users to RedNote has been one of the more unexpected events of the last few years, though I suppose this may be a week when decades happen.

Before penning an analysis of this application, I wanted to understand it by engaging with it, and although I have had plenty of thoroughly eye opening experiences, I will discuss these later. I would like to first begin this section by detailing how American audiences have reacted to these events. Millions of views have been garnered on platforms like TikTok describing how Americans have been lied to about China. Upon seeing how people in China can afford groceries, how housing is affordable, how the government prevents homelessness, and how the social credit system doesn’t exist, many Americans express the sentiment that they have been lied to by their government. By all accounts they have been lied to, seeing posts from Chinese audiences confused by the concept of “social credit” has exposed millions of Americans to a fundamental truth: much of the information they have received about China has been false. From a historical standpoint this has been an enormous paradigm shift.

During the Cold War, a strength of the American system was how ubiquitous and global US products were – things like Coca Cola, Hollywood, popular music and so on were globally recognizable brands. Even in the USSR you could find teenagers who wanted to emulate US culture (stilyagi). Arguably to this day the same can be said in relation to these brands. Tools like social media are often headquartered in the US and have ties to US intelligence agencies. Yet for presumably the first time in history, US users are flocking in the millions to an app headquartered in a socialist country. What’s more, Americans are beginning to understand that they themselves have been consuming US capitalist propaganda from the apps they consume. The hegemony of US social media is being broken.

China shines at the Olympics, but there are some who “don’t want that”

The article below analyses the Western media response to China’s successes in the Olympic Games, in particular the persistent attempts to discredit China’s achievements and to portray the country as a systematic violator of doping regulations.

The author points out that this negative portrayal of Chinese athletes reflects two underlying dynamics. Firstly, an inability to accept that countries of the Global South can, along with their economic emergence, establish the infrastructure necessary to compete at the highest level in sports. Secondly, it reflects a broader hostility towards China, itself a manifestation of an escalating US-led New Cold War.

When it comes to attacking China, racism and war preparation go hand in hand. A campaign is underway against the People’s Republic of China in which lies and distortions of the truth in many areas breed hostility and fear of the country, its leaders and even its people.

This article originally appeared in the Belgian website China Square, and has been translated into English by the author, Friends of Socialist China advisory group member Dirk Nimmegeers.

The people and the media in China are excited about Team China’s outstanding results at the Olympics, though without ignoring the victories of other athletes or looking down on them. Those pushing for war totally dislike this.

Last Sunday, 21-year-old Zheng Qinwen defeated her opponent in the singles tennis final. She made history in Chinese tennis, winning the first gold medal for a Chinese and even for an Asian athlete in that event. Earlier, on Thursday, in the final of the men’s 100-metre freestyle swimming, Pan Zhanle had won and broken his own world record with an astonishing time of 46.40 seconds. Pan is a member of the foursome that won the 4×100-metre medley relay on Sunday.

Exceptional sports performances provoke mixed reactions: admiration, amazement, but sometimes also suspicion. Cyclist Tadej Pogacar, who achieved a spectacular double and more this cycling season, had to deal with doubts from certain quarters. However, the positive usually prevails.

The Positive

Swimming champion Pan Zhanle experienced both positive and negative reactions. His closest sporting rivals, Kyle Chalmers, the Australian silver medal winner, and a previous world record holder, Romanian Popovici, warmly congratulated him. They predicted that swimmers would go even faster as long as they keep working hard and in the right way. Pan has indeed done that and so, after a somewhat hesitant start as a 16-year-old, he managed to make a steep ascent and reach the absolute top just days before he turned 20. Pau Gasol, member of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Athletes’ Commission, and until recently an Olympic athlete himself, stressed that in the “many World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) doping tests that all Chinese swimmers had to undergo, absolutely nothing was found”. At a press conference Gasol also made clear that “he thought those tests that cause a lot of stress and turn athletes’ lives upside down were excessive” and that “he was not sure whether the measure [of testing Chinese swimmers two or three times more than others] is right or not”. IOC spokesman Mark Adams also confirmed that the Chinese swimming team was “the most tested team” at the Paris Olympics. Since January, the team has undergone more than 600 tests.