Socialism Archives - Friends of Socialist China

CPC Central Committee sums up experience, sets new tasks and prepares for the 21st Congress

The 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held its fifth plenary session in Beijing from October 26 to 29, 2026.

A detailed communique setting out the work conducted by the plenum was released on its conclusion. Among its key points are:

The Central Committee heard and discussed a report on the work of the Political Bureau, presented by Xi Jinping on behalf of the Political Bureau. They also deliberated and adopted the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Certain Major Issues concerning Persevering with Full and Rigorous Party Self-Governance. Xi Jinping delivered explanatory remarks on the draft Resolution.
Looking back on the Party’s journey since its founding, the Central Committee pointed out at the session that the key to the success of the Communist Party of China in winning one victory after another lies in its pursuit of the high ideal of communism, its dedication to achieving lasting greatness for the Chinese nation, and its commitment to seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. During each historical period, the Party has attached great importance to its self-governance, had the courage to uphold truth and correct errors, and grown ever stronger by relying on its own efforts and the support of the people to resolve its own problems, ultimately emerging as the strong leadership core in the cause of the Party and the people… During this course, the Party has found two answers to the question of how to escape the historical cycle of rise and fall: the people’s oversight over government and the Party’s self-reform. These are the unique discoveries of the Communist Party of China and will forever stand out in the history of Marxist parties.
Participants at the session gave a highly positive assessment of the great achievements our Party has made in exercising full and rigorous self-governance in the new era. It was unanimously agreed that the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core demonstrated tremendous political courage and a strong sense of responsibility in confronting the grave situation marked by weak, hollow, and watered-down Party leadership, lax, superficial, and ineffective self-supervision and self-governance, as well as some startling problems within the Party. Staying firmly committed to full and rigorous Party self-governance, the Central Committee introduced the most stringent measures and dedicated continuous efforts to tackle all these prominent issues. As a result, the problem of lax and weak self-supervision and self-governance has been addressed at the root, unhealthy tendencies that had long gone unchecked have been curbed, deep-seated problems that had plagued the Party for years have been remedied, and serious dangers hidden within the Party, the state, and the military have been removed. The Party has thus grown stronger through revolutionary tempering. The endeavors to advance full and rigorous governance over the Party in the new era have broken new ground in the self-reform of our century-old Party and brought about historic achievements and transformations in the cause of the Party and the country. The Party and the people have thus seized the historic initiative in building a great party and a great country.
It was pointed out that as the Party endeavours to supervise, govern, develop, and strengthen itself in the new era, the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has put forward a series of new ideas, new thinking, and new strategies in response to the major questions of our times — what kind of long-term governing Marxist party we should build and how we should build it, thereby giving birth to Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building. This thought has enriched and developed Marxist theory on party building, and it represents a major achievement in advancing the Party’s theoretical innovation through the integration of the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and its fine traditional culture. It stands as a crystallisation of the practical experience and collective wisdom of the Party and the people.
It was stressed that many favourable conditions are now in place for advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance, while we are also facing many new circumstances and new issues in this endeavour. Profound changes in global, national, and Party conditions have made the Party’s tasks of uniting and leading the people in safeguarding China’s sovereignty, security, and development interests, of uniting and leading the people in promoting reform and development and maintaining social harmony and stability, and of maintaining its advanced nature and integrity even more arduous. All this poses formidable challenges to the Party’s governance and leadership capacity, the quality of its membership, and its resistance against corruption and moral decline under the new circumstances.
It was stated that in persevering with full and rigorous Party self-governance, we must uphold Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development, fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and thoroughly study and apply Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building… [We must] maintain the Party’s vanguard nature and uphold the overall leadership of the Party and the centralised, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. We must focus on enhancing the Party’s capacity for long-term governance, preserving its advanced nature and integrity, and maintaining its close bond with the people.
In doing so, we will see that the Party always remains a vibrant Marxist governing party that stays at the forefront of the times, enjoys the wholehearted support of the people, and is able to withstand all tests, and that it always remains the strong leadership core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
We must, therefore, encourage all Party members and officials to uphold the Party’s nature and purpose, raise Party consciousness, have a better understanding of their identity as Party members and the Party’s vanguard nature, and maintain a lifelong commitment to cultivating stronger Party spirit. We must also encourage them to devote efforts to strengthening ideals and convictions, forging strong loyalty to the Party, fostering deep affection for the people, always seeking truth from facts, building moral character, and preserving honesty and integrity. These efforts will help them to be loyal, upright, and responsible and always preserve the true political character of Communists.
It was noted that democratic centralism is the Party’s fundamental organisational principle and leadership system, and its implementation is therefore an inherent requirement for exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance. We must improve and implement the institutions of democratic centralism, giving full play to intraparty democracy while effectively practising correct centralism.
It was noted that taking integrated steps to ensure that officials do not have the audacity, opportunity, or desire to commit corruption is both an important strategy for full and rigorous Party self-governance and a fundamental guideline for our fight against corruption. The Party tolerates no corruption, as it has no special interests of its own besides the interests of the working class and the greatest possible majority of the people.
In an effort to ensure security while pursuing development, we will press ahead with initiatives to see that public services are inclusive, meet essential needs, and provide a cushion for the people most in need, and deliver better results in our work related to workplace safety, disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief, food and drug safety, as well as social stability.
The Central Committee decided at the session that the Party will convene its 21st National Congress in Beijing in the second half of 2027 and stated that this congress, which is to be held at a critical stage for basically realising socialist modernisation and on the new journey toward the Second Centenary Goal, will be a highly important meeting and an event of great political significance for both the Party and the country.

Xi Jinping: the road of the Long March continues to extend

On October 22, a gathering was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army’s Long March – the epic 1934–36 operation that saved and set the course of the Chinese Revolution.

Addressing the gathering, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that “the Party’s right leadership and the establishment of Mao Zedong’s core position were decisive for the victory”, along with firm conviction, the integration of Marxism with China’s specific realities, and reliance on the people. Describing the great spirit of the Long March as “a precious treasure and a powerful driving force”, he noted that “the road of the Long March continues to extend”, calling for new achievements on the new Long March towards building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects. For more on the history and contemporary significance of the Long March, see our co-editor Carlos Martinez’s article marking its 90th anniversary.

The US blockade that helped bring down the Soviet Union is failing against China

In the following article, Gary Wilson, writing for the US Marxist newspaper Struggle-La Lucha, examines Washington’s attempt to choke off China’s access to the most advanced computer chips and chipmaking equipment, and compares it with the technology blockade that imperialism waged against the Soviet Union for four decades.

Gary recalls how, from 1949, the CoCom system barred the sale of advanced machinery, electronics and computers to the socialist countries, backed by the threat of nuclear annihilation. Forced into a ruinous arms race, the Soviet Union came late to the computer revolution, and was then pulled into a second race – in computer technology – just as the Reagan military build-up intensified. Rather than using the plan to master the new technology, the Gorbachev leadership abandoned planning altogether, opening the road to capitalist restoration.

China, the article argues, faces the same test under very different conditions. Its Five-Year Plan treats artificial intelligence as a tool of production, putting it to work in factories, hospitals, railways and schools to raise productivity across the economy. And unlike the Soviet Union, China stands deep inside the world market – the source of around one-seventh of global goods exports – so it cannot be cut off without disrupting production worldwide. Each ban slows its access to the newest technology but pushes it harder to develop its own.

Gary also highlights the material foundations of AI – chips, data centres, power grids and nuclear reactors – where China’s planned build-out contrasts sharply with a US in which private monopolies restart old reactors to feed their own data centres. And crucially, China spends less than two percent of its GDP on its military, avoiding the burden that bled the Soviet economy.

The decisive question, he concludes, is who controls the productive forces and for what purpose: private profit or society’s needs. As Gary has argued previously, a class analysis of AI is badly needed on the left.

Workers World salutes socialist China at 77

In the following editorial, the US communist newspaper Workers World salutes socialist China on the 77th anniversary of its foundation (October 1, 1949 – October 1, 2026).

Surveying New China’s achievements, it notes: “Today, in 2026, China’s achievements have astounded the world. Before the Revolution less than 20% of the population could read and write. Now literacy stands at 95%. Before 1949 extreme poverty was widespread, and famines occurred regularly. But socialist China has eliminated extreme poverty for 800 million people.”

Citing leading Workers World Party member Sara Flounders, writing in the book China Changes Everything, the editorial continues: “A significant portion of China’s free higher education starts with an emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, graduating some 3.5 million STEM graduates each year. This is approximately 10 times as many as those from U.S. educational institutions… Women, who were brutally oppressed in the old, patriarchal China, now comprise a large number of these graduates.”

China, it adds, has extended solidarity to Iran and Cuba in the midst of US imperialism’s hostility towards both countries. It has also provided vital technology to Global South countries, especially in Africa.

The article references a 1949 speech by Mao Zedong in which the Chinese leader warned that the country’s former imperialist rulers “are sure to engage in sabotage and create disturbances by one means or another, and every day and every minute they will try to stage a come-back,” and adds: “This remains true 77 years later.”

Concluding, it states that what makes China’s achievements possible “is that China is a socialist country, where the betterment of the masses comes before the profits of a handful of billionaires.”

China, Brazil, and the building of socialism in the 21st century

During a recent visit to Brazil, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez was interviewed by Flora Villela of Brasil de Fato in Belo Horizonte, where he was taking part in the debate “China and Socialism in the Global Geopolitical Dispute”, organised by the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST).

In the interview, Carlos makes the case for the socialist character of contemporary China; discusses Western media stereotypes and what democracy actually means in Britain and in China; sets out the transition from a US-led imperialist system towards a multipolar world; and addresses what China can and cannot do in defence of countries under attack by the US, as well as the wars in Iran and Ukraine.

We are pleased to reproduce an English translation of the interview, which first appeared in Portuguese in Brasil de Fato.

China and the construction of socialism in the 21st century: expert discusses conflicts and prospects

Author, researcher and activist Carlos Martinez defends the socialist character of contemporary China

By Flora Villela

We are living through one of the most tense moments in global geopolitics: not since the Second World War has the planet seen a period with so many simultaneous armed conflicts and wars.

At the centre of these challenges are military arbitrariness and economic policies imposed on various countries by the world’s greatest power – the United States; new technologies represent civilisational challenges for every nation; authoritarianism is regaining ground and eroding democracies; and the conflicts threaten to produce economic crises that would generate widespread poverty.

Despite this scenario, China continues to emerge as the world’s new economic power, following, by all indications, a path centred on peace. And the defence of multilateralism as a solution to the crisis is gaining strength, particularly in the so-called Global South. Nonetheless, “there is a whole campaign of defamation, a propaganda war in an attempt to win public support for increasingly hostile policies towards China, which at the moment take the form of a Cold War with tariffs, semiconductor restrictions, sanctions and unilateral, coercive economic measures”, argues Carlos Martinez.

A co-editor of the Friends of Socialist China website, an author, researcher and activist, Martinez has written the books The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century and The End of the Beginning: Lessons from the Soviet Collapse. His work focuses on dispelling what he considers an “enormous misunderstanding in relation to China”.

“Even on the left, there is an assumption that China is just another capitalist country and that the conflict between the US and China is an example of imperialist rivalry or the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’. So in my work I try to explain the true nature of China and of Chinese socialism, and at the same time to counter anti-China propaganda”, he explains.

During a visit to Belo Horizonte to take part in the debate “China and Socialism in the Global Geopolitical Dispute”, the author spoke to Brasil de Fato MG. In the interview, we discussed the conflicts under way around the world, the role of Brazil and of this year’s elections, the dispute over global hegemony, and the path of multilateralism and peace.

“It will be a long and painful process towards our post-imperialist world, but I believe that in the end humanity will get there”, says Martinez.

Workers Party leader George Galloway: “We want an economy like China’s”

The Chinese weekly political magazine Beijing Review recently carried edited excerpts from an interview with George Galloway, former member of parliament and leader of the Workers Party of Britain (WPB), with its reporter Zhang Shasha, in which George shared his views on the country’s five-year plans, whole-process people’s democracy and economic transformation; challenged Western perceptions of China’s rise, and discussed how competition can coexist with cooperation in an increasingly uncertain world.

According to George: “Socialism with Chinese characteristics is one of the most important theoretical developments in human society since the Industrial Revolution… China has created something new, something that the world has never seen before.”

The Western political system, he says, is incompatible with long-term planning, “because elections are the only thing that ultimately matter… And if you are only thinking four years ahead, you are inevitably going to make mistakes, even if you have the good intentions, but most of them do not.”

Citing his interest in infrastructure, he refers to a recent visit he made to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, “which was a very poor place only a few decades ago. Today, it has new infrastructure, new development and public services that are comparable with much richer areas. In many Western countries, a region like Xinjiang would simply be left to decline.”

Asked about the concept of whole-process people’s democracy, he replies: “I hope China continues to get that system right, and everything I hear suggests that the developments China has made are moving in a positive direction.

“For generations, our people believed that we were the democracies, and that countries like China were dictatorships. But it turns out that China has more democratic elements than we do. And that is quite a cultural shock for many people in the West to come to terms with.”

On the economy, he takes air conditioning and cars as examples and concludes, “our political system and our economic system are no longer suited to the 21st century. China’s system is. That is why my party, the Workers Party of Britain, is unapologetic. We say openly: We want an economy like China’s. We want to be like China – but with British characteristics.”

He sounds a note of caution on the international situation: “We are facing a very dangerous period. The recklessness of some political leaders when it comes to matters of war and peace is something I have rarely seen in my lifetime. I thought I grew up in uncertain times, but looking back now, those years seem much more stable compared with what we are experiencing today.

“If countries continue to look at each other with suspicion and treat each other as permanent enemies, we will not be able to solve the challenges facing humanity.”

George Galloway is the Workers Party of Britain’s candidate in the October 8 by-election for the parliamentary seat of Holborn and St. Pancras in north London, caused by the resignation of former prime minister Keir Starmer.

A total of 15 candidates are contesting the seat. Seeking to hold it for the Labour Party is Sagal Abdi-Wali. Currently the leader of Camden Council, in which the constituency is located, she originally came to Britain as a child refugee from Somalia. However, she is firmly on the right of the party and known to be close to Starmer. The leader of the Green Party Zack Polanski is seeking to become his party’s first London MP. He previously contested a by-election for a council seat in the constituency in 2015 for the Liberal Democrats.

When socialist countries went to war: Keith Bennett in conversation with Radhika Desai

In the late 1970s, wars involving three self-declared socialist countries, China, Vietnam and Cambodia were gleefully reported in the Western press along with lurid allegations of ‘killing fields’ in Cambodia. Many considered that this had sounded the death knell of socialist internationalism.

In this episode of her Geopolitical Economy Hour, Radhika Desai is joined by our co-editor Keith Bennett, who is also co-editor of a new book on China’s foreign policy, to help disinter facts that lie buried under decades of misinterpretation and misunderstanding of these complex events. The purpose was twofold: to help understand these conflicts in a broadly historical materialist manner, one that makes socialist sense, and on that basis to dig deeper into the complex interrelationship between class and nation in the advance towards socialism. Some of the questions discussed are: Why did Vietnam attack Cambodia and China attack Vietnam? What drove these countries, which had stood shoulder to shoulder against US aggression, apart? Who were the ‘Khmer Rouge’ and what motivated them? Where did it all go wrong?

Jean-Pierre Page: Socialism works, and China is living proof of it

Jean-Pierre Page is a veteran of the French labour movement: a former Air France worker, a member of the Confederal Executive Committee of the CGT (General Confederation of Labour) and head of its international department. He co-authored Masters of the World on the war in Yugoslavia with Samir Amin, Noam Chomsky and Georges Labica, and China Without Blinders with Maxime Vivas, and has edited the journal La Pensée Libre since 2004.

In this wide-ranging interview conducted by Xinhua, Page discusses the Communist Party of China’s conception of “self-revolution”, and what it means for communist parties elsewhere. A communist party, he argues, is a living, militant body rather than an electoral machine, and criticism and self-criticism are fundamental practices for every communist regardless of rank – so self-revolution amounts to the requirement that every member hold themselves accountable and make their daily conduct exemplary.

He is blunt about the contrast with Europe. Bureaucratisation, careerism, the professionalisation of political and trade union life, and a drift from the concerns of working people have afflicted communist parties too, and in most European countries their decline – through strategic errors and the abandonment of communist principles – has deprived the people of the means to defend their interests. He notes “a very alarming level of mediocrity and political illiteracy” among politicians, a symptom of capitalism’s systemic crisis, and observes that in France barely half the population now votes, with many of the rest turning to the far right.

On corruption, Page draws a pointed historical lesson: the abuses of the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe estranged those parties from the people and were “not unrelated to the collapse of the Soviet Union” – while under capitalism the same tendencies have worsened, sustained by a culture of impunity, two-tier justice and more than a thousand lobby groups operating at European level alone.

He also addresses China’s National Action Plan on Human Rights 2026–2030 and the Forum on Global Human Rights Governance held in Beijing, arguing that human rights are inseparable from the right to development: there is little point discussing rights with people deprived of an income, a job or a roof over their heads. Against the Western claim to define human rights universally, he sets China’s record on poverty eradication, and concludes that while China may not be a model, it is an example. “Socialism works, and China is living proof of it.”

Webinar: Mao Zedong 50 years on – the revolution that continues to change the world (6 September)

📆 Sunday 6 September 2026, 3pm Britain, 10am US Eastern, 10pm China

Fifty years after his death, Mao Zedong’s portrait still looks out over Tiananmen Square, his face is on every Chinese banknote, and Mao Zedong Thought remains written into both the country’s constitution as well as that of the world’s largest communist party. Ordinary Chinese people travel in their millions every year to Shaoshan, the village in Hunan where he was born.

This webinar asks why Mao is still revered in China, and what were the achievements of China and the Communist Party of China (CPC) under his leadership.

In 1949 China was among the poorest countries on earth: life expectancy of around 35 years, adult literacy below 20 percent, a population stagnant at four to five hundred million for a century, and a hundred years of treaty ports, extraterritoriality and foreign concessions. By 1976 life expectancy had reached around 67 – a gain of more than three decades in less than three decades, the fastest improvement ever recorded by any country in human history. Illiteracy had fallen to a third. Land was redistributed, famine ended, women emancipated, the country unified, and a complete industrial base built from a near-zero baseline.

That is the China the reform era inherited – not the backwater of Western myth. As Samir Amin put it, the take-off after 1978 “would not have been possible without the economic, political and social foundations that had been built up in the preceding period”. It is also how the CPC understands its own history, in Xi Jinping’s formulation that the post-1978 reform era cannot be used to invalidate the Mao era, nor can the Mao era be used to invalidate the reform era.

Mao’s China changed the world beyond its borders too – inspiring millions and standing with Vietnam, with Korea, with the liberation movements of Africa and with Palestine.

Join us to discuss what Mao achieved, how China’s present successes rest on those foundations, why he is still revered in China, and how the socialist project has held its course after his death, through half a century of twists and turns.

This webinar is organised by Friends of Socialist China and the International Manifesto Group.

Confirmed speakers

Senator Mushahid Hussain (Chairman, Pakistan-China Institute)
Ken Hammond (Professor of History, New Mexico State University)
Keith Bennett (Co-editor, Friends of Socialist China)
Jenny Clegg (Author and peace campaigner)
Tings Chak (Asia coordinator, Tricontinental Institute)
Ding Xiaoqin (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Moderator: Radhika Desai (Convenor, International Manifesto Group)

Xi Jinping’s speech at the gathering commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Jiang Zemin

On the morning of August 17, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the State Council, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and the Central Military Commission held a grand gathering at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Marxist, proletarian revolutionary, politician, military strategist, diplomat, and outstanding leader of the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Comrade Jiang Zemin. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the country, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended the conference and delivered an important speech.

The following is the full text of the speech. It was published in Chinese by the Xinhua News Agency and has been machine translated and then sub-edited by us.

Comrades and friends,

Today, we gather solemnly to commemorate the centenary of Comrade Jiang Zemin’s birth, deeply commemorate his great achievements, deeply study his noble character, and inspire the entire Party and people of all ethnic groups across the country to continuously advance the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Comrade Jiang Zemin is an outstanding leader recognised by the entire Party, the military, and people of all ethnic groups nationwide, enjoying high prestige and outstanding leadership, a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, politician, military strategist, diplomat, a long-tested communist fighter, an outstanding leader in the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the core of the Party’s third generation central leadership collective, and the main founder of the important thinking of the ‘Three Represents’.

A hundred years ago today, Comrade Jiang Zemin was born into a patriotic intellectual family in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. From his youth, he was determined to pursue truth and actively participated in patriotic and progressive student movements. In April 1946, he joined the Communist Party of China, dedicating his life to the cause of the Party and the people.

After the founding of New China, Comrade Jiang Zemin worked successively in enterprises, research institutes, and national ministries, fulfilling his duties and working diligently in every position, dedicating his passionate years to the cause of socialist revolution and construction. In the early days of reform and opening up, Comrade Jiang Zemin served as Deputy Director and Secretary-General of the State Administration of Import and Export and the State Foreign Investment Administration Commission, and later as First Vice Minister and Minister of the Ministry of Electronics Industry, making extensive pioneering work in reform and opening up. At the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party, he was elected as a member of the Central Committee.

In 1985, Comrade Jiang Zemin was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Mayor. In 1987, at the First Plenary Session of the 13th Central Committee, he was elected as a member of the Central Political Bureau and served as Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. During this period, Comrade Jiang Zemin led the broad masses of cadres and people in Shanghai to boost morale and courageously explore, led the formulation of Shanghai’s economic development and urban construction plans, promoted Pudong’s development and opening up, and made outstanding contributions to advancing Shanghai’s reform, opening up, and socialist modernisation. At the turn of spring and summer in 1989, China experienced serious political turmoil. Comrade Jiang Zemin resolutely supported and implemented the correct decisions of the Party Central Committee, effectively maintaining stability in Shanghai.

In June 1989, at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th Central Committee, Jiang Zemin was elected as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and General Secretary of the Central Committee. In November of the same year, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 13th Central Committee decided to make him Chairman of the Central Military Commission, forming the third generation of the Party’s central leadership with Jiang Zemin at its core.

Holding the line: Jiang Zemin at 100

Monday 17 August marks the centenary of the birth of Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002 and President of the country from 1993 to 2003 – the leader of the People’s Republic whom much of the Western left finds it easiest to write off as a “capitalist roader”.

The following article argues that the charge rests on a false premise: that the realistic alternative available to China between 1989 and 2003 was some purer or more advanced form of socialism. It was not. Jiang took office six months before the people’s democracies of Eastern Europe fell, and two years before the Soviet Union ceased to exist, and the working assumption in most Western capitals was that China would be next.

The article weighs the real costs of the period – a Gini coefficient rising from around 0.32 to over 0.42, state enterprise employment falling from 77 million to 42 million, corruption and ideological decay – against what was achieved, and against what happened in Russia over the same decade, where economic output halved and male life expectancy collapsed to around 57. It also examines the admission of private entrepreneurs to the Party, the Theory of the Three Represents, and Jiang’s record of solidarity with Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam and Laos.

The following original article is by Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez. It has been translated into Dutch by our friends at China Square.

Monday 17 August marks the centenary of the birth of Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002 and President of the country from 1993 to 2003. Of all the leaders of the People’s Republic, he is perhaps the one that many on the Western left find it easiest, at least according to their own paradigm, to dismiss as a “capitalist roader” and revisionist.

Such labels are applied because Jiang presided over a period of extraordinarily rapid economic growth and integration into the global economy; the dismantling of the “iron rice bowl” of job security for life, steady income and public benefits; and because he allowed suitably qualified private entrepreneurs to join the Communist Party.

But the charge as usually made rests on the assumption that the realistic alternative available to China between 1989 and 2003 was some kind of pure or more advanced socialism. It was not. The alternatives on offer at that moment in history were rather more brutal, as we discuss below.

A revolutionary life

Jiang was born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, in 1926, into a country under warlord rule and, before he reached his teens, under Japanese occupation of much of China. His uncle and adoptive father, Jiang Shangqing, died fighting Japan in 1939. Jiang took part in the anti-Japanese student movement, and joined the CPC in 1946 while studying electrical engineering – three years before liberation, at a time when Party membership under Kuomintang rule was an extremely risky business; in many instances a death sentence.

He then spent three decades as an industrial cadre rather than a politician. He organised the production of canned food for the Chinese People’s Volunteers in Korea. He trained at the Stalin Automobile Works in Moscow in 1955, and also worked as an engineer in Romania for several years in the 1970s. He oversaw the design of China’s first domestically produced turbo-generator. He was Minister of the Electronics Industry, then mayor and Party secretary of Shanghai. He came to the leadership as an engineer who had spent his working life building things and making them work.

Why the Western left misreads China: capitalism, imperialism, and the socialist difference

In the following article, Karim Pourhamzavi – an Iranian lecturer specialising in global political economy and West Asian and North African politics at Beijing Foreign Studies University – takes aim at a strand of Western left thinking that treats Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and US capitalism as equivalent. Drawing on the history of capitalism, imperialism and uneven development, he argues that there is no equivalence in power between imperialism and its victims, even when the victim is a rising power like China.

Because the commanding heights of China’s economy remain in public ownership and its socialist state answers to the people rather than to the market, he contends, China is structurally incapable of the imperialism that has defined the West for five centuries – which is why, for the Global South, China’s rise represents the most constructive development since the birth of capitalism.

I recently attended a conference on the critique of global capitalism and possible global reordering in a renowned European city. My paper focused on critiquing imperialism and its expansion in West Asia. However, several presentations from European and North American scholars were unnecessarily and inaccurately Sinophobic in sentiment. Their thesis was astonishingly simplistic: capitalism is just capitalism, whether practiced by the United States or China. Therefore, they believed both are equally exploitative and destructive. This thesis suffers from both epistemological and empirical flaws. Such Sinophobic interpretations, coming from significant sections of the Western left, appear to abandon their emancipatory methodologies aimed at “changing” the world for the better, instead losing themselves in a positivist interpretation of the world. Yet there is no equivalence in power relations – or even sameness – between imperialism and its victims, even when the victim is a rising power like China.

Capitalism is not a universal condition

The aforementioned claims came from scholars in a city whose infrastructure is at least fifty years behind that of Beijing, where I live. These scholars have often never visited China, nor do they intend to, and they possess an ahistorical understanding of the Chinese political economy. Understanding socialism with Chinese characteristics requires revisiting the very term “capitalism.” Capitalism strictly refers to a political-economic system that emerged in Western Europe and expanded by imperial means to the Americas – precisely from 1492 onward. By the early 20th century, some 85 percent of the world’s land surface was under the colonial or semi-colonial domination of the Western powers and Japan. Therefore, China, like the rest of what we now understand as the Global South, was forcibly incorporated into global capitalism – compelled to cope with the enforced uneven development resulting from this historical process and to clean up the mess it left behind, a legacy that persists to this day.

Therefore, China’s modern history is not one experienced by the developed capitalist nations. Nor, at the philosophical and developmental planning levels, does revolutionary China share similarities with the core of capitalism or with those unevenly developed states that unsuccessfully tried to copy them as a way out of their underdevelopment. The first three hundred years of capitalist plundering in the world were based on a mercantilist political economy. This system sought to take everything from conquered nations and leave them nothing, while maintaining a balance of power among European rivals. It was centuries of plundering that enabled the Industrial Revolution – first in England, and then across the rest of Western Europe.

Is China still socialist?

On 23 July 2026, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez spoke to the Croydon Morning Star Readers and Supporters Group at Ruskin House on the question of whether China is still socialist. Below we reprint the Croydon Communists’ report of the meeting, followed by a video Carlos recorded on the basis of his notes for the talk.

This report was originally published by Croydon Communists on 24 July.

The Croydon Morning Star Readers and Supporters Group were privileged to hear Carlos Martinez last night (23 July) give a masterclass on Chinese Socialism.

For those of us who looked to the former USSR to help build socialism globally only for our hopes to be dashed on the collapse following Gorbachev’s rash and badly implemented Glasnost and Perestroika, the strategy adopted by the Communist Party of China (CPC) can seem over-cautious. As Carlos described, it is slowly and systematically building socialism with Chinese Characteristics, testing policies and rejecting those that do not work. As a result, there have been huge economic advances unmatched anywhere in the developing world. The state continues to serve the interests of the working class and its allies, defending it from the inevitable attacks from capital and slowly and systematically building a better life for its people. Through more than four decades of reform and opening up, the CPC retains its commitment to Marxism. There has been no capitulation to capitalism; and socialists and communists should unequivocally support and defend Chinese socialism. The achievements to date have been huge and there will be more to come. The state of “market socialism” currently arrived at is not the end of the trajectory. Communism, as envisaged by Karl Marx in Capital, is still on the agenda.

Carlos Martinez’s book The East is Still Red – Chinese Communism in the 21st Century (Praxis Press, 2023, £20 – order it from your local bookshop) sets out in much more detail these arguments and the evidence on which they are based. Highly recommended!

To receive advance notice of future public meetings at Ruskin House organised by the Croydon Morning Star Readers and Supporters Group, register your interest at croydonmorningstarrsg@gmail.com.

Celebrating a different form of modernisation

The following article by Sara Flounders marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, reflecting on China’s distinctive path to modernisation – one achieved “without colonialism, without enslavement, without wars of conquest” – and on what the CPC’s record means for the countries of the Global South.

Sara is a member of the Friends of Socialist China US committee and a longtime anti-imperialist organiser with the International Action Center.

This article first appeared in Workers World.

The 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 90th anniversary of the victory of China’s Long March on July 1 were barely noted in the U.S. media. However, there were big celebrations in hundreds of Chinese cities. The focus was on reinforcing the “socialist direction of China in building Socialist Modernization in all aspects.”

The anniversary was celebrated as a confident assertion of the way forward. Events were organized to focus on the strong vitality of Marxism and socialist planning and as a preparation for and warning of future global upheavals.

President Xi Jinping’s major address on July 1 underscored the importance of meeting the goal to fully realize socialist modernization by the middle of the 21st century. President Xi cautioned: “We must be prepared to withstand major tests involving high winds and rough waves, or even stormy seas.”

The CPC has grown from a small group of just over 50 founding members — meeting secretly in 1921 in Shanghai, China — into the world’s largest governing party, a workers’ party with 101 million members that has tremendous global influence.

In 1921, China was fragmented and impoverished. It was reeling from the collapse of the feudal Qing Dynasty, carved apart by foreign imperialist exploitation into zones of colonial control and weakened by the British and U.S.-imposed Opium Wars to enforce the sale of opium. China was confronted with the chaos of contending factions of oppressive warlordism.

China was overwhelmingly a peasant country in 1921, 85% to 90% rural, with millions of landless, impoverished and illiterate peasants living in undeveloped areas and relying on subsistence farming.

From its founding the CPC declared that its goal was to overthrow imperialist domination and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat — the organization of society by workers and peasants.

A reply to Greg Godels on China’s road to socialism

Greg Godels has published a thoughtful response in ML Today to Carlos Martinez’s recent reply to Jacobin on China and exploitation. Godels argues that the exploitation of the many by the few remains a central driving force of the Chinese economy, and questions whether China’s market reforms and its billionaire class can be squared with a socialist trajectory.

In the article below, Carlos argues that the decisive Marxist question is not simply whether wage labour and surplus value exist, but which class holds state power and in whose interest the economic surplus is directed. On that test – the class nature of the state – China’s billionaires answer to the state rather than command it; its reforms were a conscious strategy to develop the productive forces and build the material basis for a more advanced socialism; and China provably does not participate in imperialist super-exploitation.

Greg Godels has written a considered response in ML Today to my recent reply to Jacobin on China and exploitation. Unlike much of what passes for left commentary on China, Godels writes as a comrade, not a Cold Warrior. He admires the Chinese revolution, insists that China’s fate must be decided by the Chinese people, and closes by affirming that, whatever its difficulties, “it is China’s road”. On all of that we agree. Where we part company is over a question that Godels, for all his fidelity to the classics of Marxism, never quite poses: which class holds state power?

State and revolution

Godels’s central charge is that the debate over China too rarely invokes “the exploitation of the many by the few”, and that when I ask for exploitation to be “contextualised”, I am really relativising and rationalising it. He is right that exploitation belongs at the centre of any Marxist analysis. But there is a second important category that is missing from his account entirely: the class nature of the state.

For Marx and Lenin alike, the question of whether a society is advancing towards socialism was never settled simply by cataloguing the presence or absence of wage labour and surplus value at the point of production. It was settled principally by asking which class holds power, and in whose interest the state directs the economic surplus. This is the whole point of the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and of Lenin’s insistence, throughout the period of the New Economic Policy, that market mechanisms within a workers’ state are something categorically different from capitalism under a bourgeois state.

Under the NEP in the Soviet state, private capital, wage labour, rich peasants and market relations all flourished. Lenin did not conclude that the October Revolution had thereby been cancelled. He concluded that the proletarian state would make use of capitalist forms, on its own terms and under its own control, in order to build the material foundations of socialism.

Cuba’s communists say: the Communist Party of China is today an indispensable reference point in the process of building socialism

On June 29, an important political function was held at the Palace of the Revolution in the Cuban capital Havana to mark the July 1 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March.

It was attended by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, along with members of the party’s Political Bureau; leaders of the Party, the State, the Government, the Young Communist League, mass organisations, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), and others. Also present were Chinese Ambassador Hua Xin, members of his staff, Chinese students, and representatives of Chinese companies based on the island; as well as ambassadors and other members of the diplomatic corps.

In his speech, Ambassador Hua Xin affirmed that: “The Communist Party of China will always stand with the Communist Party of Cuba,” adding:

“Today, faced with the escalating blockade imposed by the United States, as well as its military threats, the Party, the Government, and the people of Cuba remain steadfast in their conviction, will not yield to pressure, and will resolutely defend national sovereignty and the socialist cause.

“We categorically oppose the illegal unilateral sanctions and any form of military intervention; we demand that the United States immediately end the blockade and all forms of coercion, and that it cease violating the Cuban people’s right to survival and development.

“We firmly support Cuba in exploring a path of socialist development, in accordance with its national conditions; and we highly value the decision of the Communist Party of Cuba to courageously promote measures of economic and social transformation. We are confident that, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba, the heroic Cuban people will overcome current difficulties and achieve new victories in socialist construction.”

The keynote address at the commemoration was delivered by Emilio Lozada García, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and head of its International Relations Department. Recalling the visionary pioneers who founded the CPC in 1921, he said:

“Those 50 courageous communist militants have multiplied and today number more than one hundred million, making them the largest Communist Party in the world today.”

He added that: “In the history of its struggle, the heroic leadership of the Long March by the Red Army, between October 1934 and October 1936, stands out. This campaign gave a new and decisive direction to the war and demonstrated what a people, guided by its Communist Party, is capable of achieving.”

Moving towards the present day, he noted: “The Reform and Opening Up policy, after almost five decades of implementation, has allowed China to become the world’s second-largest economy and has demonstrated the validity of socialism as a political system.

“It has also been key in the process of national reunification, especially in the incorporation of Hong Kong and Macao in 1997 and 1999.

“The theoretical and practical contributions of Chinese communists to Marxism-Leninism and the process of building socialism have been fundamental, both economically, politically, and ideologically. The top Chinese Party leaders, from Chairman Mao Zedong to the current General Secretary Xi Jinping, have played a vital role in advancing socialist thought in a once-poor country that, in less than a century, has achieved a high level of socioeconomic development and the eradication of extreme poverty.”

In the international arena, Emilio Lozada highlighted that: “The initiatives promoted in recent years by the General Secretary of the Party, Comrade Xi Jinping, regarding the Belt and Road Initiative, the Building of a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity, as well as the initiatives on global security, development, civilisation, and governance, have been particularly relevant… Both parties promote cooperation with political forces of the Global South through the BRICS Political Parties Forum and other international party spaces. They foster unity and coordination among all communist parties at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties.”

Bilaterally, he stressed: “We appreciate the firm and unwavering support of the Communist Party of China against the economic, commercial, and financial blockade and the energy embargo imposed by the United States government, as well as against the infamous accusation against Army General Raúl Castro Ruz.

“The Communist Party of Cuba is grateful for the constant support and accompaniment of the Communist Party of China, especially in the current circumstances of collective punishment and silent genocide against the Cuban people.”

He further emphasised: “The Communist Party of China is today an indispensable reference point in the process of building socialism and has demonstrated that the socialist system is a viable alternative to the savage capitalism that they are trying to impose on us from the North.

“Its commitment to achieving a more just, democratic, and equitable international order reaffirms that a better world is possible.”

Concluding, he noted: “In 2007, on the anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, stated: ‘Eighty-six years have passed since the establishment of the Communist Party of China. Now China has become an example and a bastion of hope for other countries.’

“Nineteen years later, these words remain fully relevant.”

Xi Jinping delivers major speech marking 105 years of the Communist Party of China

On the occasion of the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, a grand commemorative gathering was held in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on July 1st, at which Comrade Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, President of the People’s Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, made an important speech.

Among the key points made by Xi Jinping are:

One hundred and five years ago, amid the great awakening of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation and the close integration of Marxism-Leninism with China’s workers’ movement, the Communist Party of China was born. From that point on, the Chinese people and the Chinese nation had a most reliable backbone, and a China beset by internal turmoil and external aggression and mired in poverty and weakness embarked on an earth-shaking historical transformation.

Over these 105 years, our Party has held fast to its founding mission of seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. It has discerned the broad trends of world development, accurately grasped the changes in the principal social contradiction across different historical periods, and united and led the people of all ethnic groups in unremitting struggle. It has achieved the great successes of the new democratic revolution, of socialist revolution and construction, of reform and opening up and socialist modernisation, and of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, writing the most magnificent epic in the several-thousand-year history of the Chinese nation.

Leading the people through magnificent and great struggles, our Party overthrew the three big mountains of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism, established a New China in which the people are masters of the country, brought a definitive end to old China’s history as a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society, and achieved the historic leap in the people’s lives from inadequate food and clothing, to moderate prosperity in general, and then to moderate prosperity in all respects.

Through the great endeavours of revolution, construction, reform, and the new era, our Party has led the people through countless hardships to successfully open up and stay on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, completing in a few decades an industrialisation process that took developed countries several centuries, and producing the twin miracles of rapid economic growth and long-term social stability.

One hundred and five years of unremitting struggle have demonstrated the powerful vitality of Marxism. Our Party has integrated the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with fine traditional Chinese culture, continually advancing the adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times, and giving rise to Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thereby greatly enriching and developing Marxism. Today the vigour and vitality of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics have fully borne out the scientific and truthful nature of Marxism, fully displayed its people-centred and practical character, and fully demonstrated its openness and contemporary relevance.

One hundred and five years of unremitting struggle have profoundly shaped the course of world history. Our Party has always stood on the right side of history and on the side of human progress, and through tireless self-strengthening it has profoundly changed the trends and configuration of world development. Today, as the Party leads the people in advancing Chinese modernisation, it has created a new form of human civilisation and broadened the paths by which developing countries can achieve modernisation. We are working to build a community with a shared future for humanity, contributing Chinese wisdom, Chinese proposals, and Chinese strength to solving humanity’s major problems. Socialist China under the Party’s leadership is widely recognised as a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order.

Our Party has kept firmly in mind the nature, purpose, and goals of a Marxist party, vigorously carried forward the great founding spirit of the Party, and grown ever more resolute through adversity and ever stronger through repeated tempering. Today our Party has grown into the world’s largest governing party with major global influence, enjoying the wholehearted support of the people, serving as the strong core of leadership for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and proving itself fully worthy of being called a great, glorious, and correct party.

At this moment we deeply cherish the memory of the older generation of revolutionaries such as Comrades Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Deng Xiaoping, and Chen Yun, and of Comrade Jiang Zemin, and we deeply cherish the memory of the revolutionary martyrs and people of high ideals who advanced wave upon wave, sacrificing and giving of themselves for national independence, the liberation of the people, the prosperity of the country, and the happiness of the people.

Our Party takes Marxism as a powerful ideological weapon for transforming both the subjective and the objective world; it upholds emancipating the mind, seeking truth from facts, keeping pace with the times, and taking a realistic and pragmatic approach; it works to reveal and apply truth within the movement of social contradictions.

Our Party keeps in mind that this country is its people and its people are the country; it upholds building the Party for the public good and exercising power for the people; it consciously acts on the fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly; and it stands firmly together with the people, thinking and working as one with them, giving it a solid foundation that no storm can shake.

Our Party cherishes the lofty ideal of communism and is dedicated to the enduring great cause of the Chinese nation; it firmly bears on its shoulders the heavy responsibilities entrusted to it by history and the people; it keeps long-term goals and stage-specific goals unified, sets central tasks in line with changes in the principal social contradiction, and formulates and implements correct lines, principles, and policies, ensuring that it keeps a firm grip on leadership and initiative in the development of its cause.

With a strong sense of history and a broad global vision, our Party has a clear-eyed grasp of China’s national conditions and the themes of the era; it actively recognises, responds to, and seeks change, forging ahead with determination.

It is both willing and able to struggle and has always maintained the conviction of certain victory. Our Party upholds and carries forward the spirit of fearing no sacrifice and fighting valiantly; for the sake of the people, the country, and the nation, and for the sake of its ideals and convictions, it cuts through thorns and presses forward.

It attaches great importance to its own development, resolutely removing every factor that damages the Party’s advanced nature and purity and clearing out every virus that erodes the Party’s healthy body, growing stronger and more capable through revolutionary tempering.

China’s development is at a stage in which strategic opportunities coexist with risks and challenges and in which uncertain and unpredictable factors are increasing, requiring us to be ready at all times to withstand major tests of high winds and rough seas, and even perilous storms. On the new journey, the whole Party must strengthen its sense of adversity and adhere to bottom-line thinking, carry forward the fighting spirit and enhance its capacity to struggle, better coordinate the two overall situations of the domestic and international spheres, coordinate development and security, and improve its ability to scientifically anticipate change, detect risks in good time, and respond effectively to challenges, ensuring that the great ship of China’s rejuvenation cuts through the waves and sails steadily into the distance.

To be firm in confidence and carry the struggle forward, we must continue to promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity. As the once-in-a-century changes accelerate, the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation, and humanity once again stands at a crossroads over which way to go. On the new journey, we must follow the aspirations of the people and the trend of the times, hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit, champion the common values of humanity, promote the building of a new type of international relations, and push forward the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilisation Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative, injecting more positive energy into world peace and development.

Taking the Party’s political building as the overarching principle, we must strengthen Party building in all respects, resolutely wage the tough, protracted, and all-out battle against corruption, and continually enhance the Party’s capacity to provide political leadership, to guide through theory, to organise the people, and to inspire society, ensuring that the Party always remains the strong core of leadership in the historical process of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

The 105-year glorious history of the Communist Party of China is a source of pride, but we must never become arrogant or complacent or come to a halt. By the middle of this century, we are to build China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and achieve the Second Centenary Goal. Time waits for no one. History waits for no one. All comrades of the Party must never forget our original aspiration and keep our mission firmly in mind, we must be modest and prudent and work hard, we must dare to struggle and be adept at struggling, closely rely on and unite with and lead the people of all ethnic groups of the whole nation in forging ahead on the new journey and performing meritorious deeds in the new era, and strive to create new historic glories!

Carlos Martinez: What would Rajani Palme Dutt have made of contemporary China?

The following is the text of a lecture delivered by Carlos Martinez, author of The East is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century and a co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, marking the 130th anniversary of the birth of Rajani Palme Dutt – theoretician, organiser and, for half a century, one of the foremost Marxist minds in the British movement.

Taking as its starting point Palme Dutt’s 1967 pamphlet Whither China?, written at the height of the Sino-Soviet split and a year into the Cultural Revolution, the lecture asks what this towering figure of British Marxism – who died in 1974 – would have made of the People’s Republic today. Carlos tests Palme Dutt’s critique against the verdict of history: on the Cultural Revolution, on the Theory of the Three Worlds, and on the rival conceptions of peaceful coexistence – finding some of it vindicated, and some of it a product of a European Marxism that struggled to fully grasp a peasant-driven revolution.

Confronted with two stubborn facts – that the People’s Republic still exists while the Soviet Union does not – Palme Dutt, who even in 1967 refused to write China out of the socialist camp, would, Carlos argues, have recognised China as the largest and most developed socialist society in history. He would have recognised that in China it is the state that disciplines capital, not the other way round. The lecture closes with a call to carry forward Palme Dutt’s enduring principle: solidarity with a socialist country under imperialist siege, “irrespective of any differences”.

The CPC continues to lead China’s journey toward prosperity, strength and a better life for the people

As the Communist Party of China (CPC) marked its 105th founding anniversary on July 1st, the Xinhua News Agency reported that the party had nearly 101.29 million members as of the end of 2025. The number increased by more than 1.01 million, or one percent, from the end of 2024.

When it was founded in 1921, the CPC had just over 50 members. Now, according to the latest figures reported by Xinhua, it had over 5.43 million primary-level organisations by the end of last year, up by some 181,000, or 3.4 percent year on year. Those aged 35 or below accounted for 84 percent of newly admitted members. More than half of the new members, or 51.4 percent, came from the forefront of production and work. Workers and farmers remained the largest segment of the Party, representing 32.4 percent of the total members.

China has continued sending “first Party secretaries” to villages, drawing cadres from across the nation to help drive rural revitalisation. By the end of last year, approximately 188,000 first secretaries were serving in villages nationwide.

A commentary published by the Xinhua News Agency on June 30 noted: “As the Communist Party of China (CPC) marks its 105th anniversary, its journey represents a mission of resilience, innovation and strong leadership. Staying true to its founding aspiration, the CPC has led one of the most far-reaching modernisation transformations in human history.

“Against the backdrop of a weak country that suffered from foreign humiliation, poverty, and failed attempts to save the nation, the CPC was founded in 1921 with a mission to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. The CPC united and led the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in working tirelessly to achieve national independence and the people’s liberation. In the following decades, the CPC has continued to lead China’s journey toward prosperity, strength and a better life for its people.”

Analysing the secrets of the CPC’s success, it explains:

“Unlike parties that primarily represent particular groups or interests, the CPC has always put the people first, responded to their concerns and needs, and worked to improve their well-being. These deep-rooted, inseparable flesh-and-blood ties with the masses provide the CPC with an inexhaustible source of strength. As a service-oriented political party, the CPC makes decisions and sets policies based on the fundamental interests of the people…

“Unlike Western political systems that are often plagued by partisan gridlock and the pursuit of electoral gains, the CPC maintains a long-term perspective and carries a blueprint through to the end. The five-year plans, which have guided national development since 1953, stand as a testament to this strategic consistency — a key reason for China’s rapid development and a sharp contrast to the policy volatility often observed in Western democracies.”

Among the other key points stressed by the article are:

The CPC is a dynamic organisation that constantly adapts to changing times. It is not bound by rigid dogma but has developed as a learning and innovative party that integrates the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and fine traditional culture. Scientific political theories enable the CPC to grasp the overarching trends of human development and always stand at the forefront of the times.

The CPC is clear minded about the dangers and risks it faces, such as detachment from the people and corruption. With a zero-tolerance approach to corruption, the CPC has pursued full and rigorous self-governance.

The CPC is open minded and has a global vision, making China’s development increasingly integrated with the rest of the world. The Party has championed the building of a community with a shared future for humanity. Through its global initiatives on development, security, civilisation and governance, the CPC has contributed significantly to global peace, stability and prosperity.

It concludes: “The CPC’s 105th anniversary coincides with the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the CPC-led Red Army. The spirit demonstrated by that epic military maneuver, including a firm belief that a just cause will surely prevail, fearlessness in the face of any difficulties, a commitment to seeking truth from facts, and a steadfast reliance on the masses, will continue to empower the CPC to march forward and navigate any challenges.

“With a clear sense of mission, a strong executive capacity and a commitment to shared development, the CPC is certainly capable of leading China to achieve new victories on today’s Long March: advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernisation, and working with the rest of the world for a better future.”

Asian socialist countries greet CPC’s 105th anniversary

China’s socialist neighbours, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic have extended their warm comradely greetings on the July 1st 105th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

In his letter to Comrade Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and President of the People’s Republic of China, Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, writes:

“The Communist Party of China built new China, where the people became the masters, by guiding them, and wrote a brilliant chapter in the history of the Chinese nation by vigorously promoting the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, braving all trials and difficulties of history.

“There is no new China without the Communist Party. This is the truth the Chinese people have realised while advancing under its guidance for many years.” [Kim Jong Un here refers to one of the most famous songs of the Chinese revolution. You can listen to it, together with historic footage, here.]

The Korean leader added: “It is the steadfast stand of our Party and government to steadily develop the DPRK-China friendly relations with long and historical roots and with socialism as their core.

“The recent Pyongyang summit was a historic occasion of deepening the comradely friendship and trust between us and reconfirming the unshakable will to more dynamically promote socialist construction in the two countries and their traditional friendly relations…

“I am ready to add shine to socialism, the common cause of the two parties, and continue to develop the DPRK-China friendly and cooperative relations, the common wealth of the peoples of the two countries, as required by the times, together with you.”

Additionally, the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea sent a floral basket to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the occasion.

Marking the anniversary, Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Wang Yajun hosted a reception on June 30.

He said that after its founding the Communist Party of China united and led the people to build a new China where the people became masters and provide fundamental conditions for the great prosperity of the Chinese nation and rendered services to the development and progress of humanity.

He expressed the conviction that the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) would be strong and steady all the more and make new greater successes in accomplishing the socialist cause of Korea under the wise leadership of General Secretary Kim Jong Un who carried forward and developed the party-building idea of Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and thus presented the five-point party-building line of the new era and ushered in the heyday of strengthening the whole Party.

Responding, Kim Song Nam, Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK and Secretary of the Party Central Committee, and who heads its International Department, said that the DPRK-China friendship has been developed onto a new height on the basis of the deep friendly relations between the respected General Secretary Kim Jong Un and the respected General Secretary Xi Jinping and stressed that the leaders of the two parties expressed their steadfast will to develop the traditional friendly relations between the two countries into the most powerful and strategic model relations between socialist states during their historic meeting in Pyongyang this year.

Earlier, there was a roundtable talk at the Chinese embassy to exchange the experiences of the DPRK and China in party building on the occasion.

The congratulatory letter from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) to its Chinese counterpart noted that in recent years, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with General Secretary and President Xi Jinping as its core, the Chinese people have successfully achieved the first centenary goal, fulfilled the major targets and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development, and laid a solid foundation for achieving the second centenary goal.

The CPV expressed confidence that the CPC will continue to lead the Chinese people in successfully implementing the Resolution of the 20th National Congress of the CPC, preparing for a successful 21st Congress, and achieving the second centenary goal of building China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, civilised, harmonious and beautiful.

The Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) wrote in its congratulatory message:

“Over the past 105 years, under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people have achieved remarkable accomplishments in the pursuit of national independence, founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949, launched the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, and, under successive generations of the Party’s central leadership, have steadily advanced socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

It continued: “The Party, State and people of Laos warmly congratulate the Party, Government and people of China on the great achievements they have made over the past 105 years. We firmly believe that, under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the Chinese people will continue to make new and greater achievements in realising the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, attain the Second Centenary Goal, and build China into a great modern socialist country in all respects…

“The Party, State and people of Laos reaffirm their firm commitment to working together with the Party, Government and people of China to preserve, consolidate and further strengthen the longstanding friendship between the two countries, jointly advance the building of a Laos-China community with a shared future, contribute to building a community with a shared future for humanity, and promote peace, stability, fairness, justice and development cooperation in the region and beyond.

“On this auspicious occasion, we sincerely wish the Communist Party of China new and even greater achievements in advancing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era and in building China into a strong, prosperous, modern and culturally advanced socialist country.”