Socialism Archives - Friends of Socialist China

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.”

105 years of the Communist Party of China – true to its principles, firm in its course

The 1st of July 2026, marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. To mark the occasion, we are pleased to publish this reflection by Oliver Vargas, a British-Bolivian current affairs commentator working for CGTN in Beijing, written from Yan’an – the revolutionary base where the Long March ended and where the Party made its headquarters through the most decisive years of war and revolution.

Vargas argues that the revolutionary sites of Yan’an are best understood as global heritage sites of the international workers’ movement, whose lessons belong to the peoples of Latin America and the wider Global South. He locates the secret of the Party’s enduring vitality in its tradition of rigorous self-governance and self-reform – a habit written into its DNA since 1921 and raised by Xi Jinping into a systematic doctrine – bound together with its unbroken bond with the people.

Laureano Ortega visits China

Laureano Ortega Murillo, Presidential Advisor of Nicaragua for the Promotion of Investment, Trade and International Cooperation, and Coordinator for Cooperation with China, visited China recently.

On June 22, Laureano and his delegation met with Vice-minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee (IDCPC) Ma Hui.

The following article was originally published on the IDCPC website.

Ma Hui Meets with Laureano Ortega Murillo, Presidential Advisor of Nicaragua and Coordinator for Cooperation with China

Beijing, June 22 (IDCPC) – Ma Hui, Vice-minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, met here today with a delegation headed by Laureano Ortega Murillo, Presidential Advisor of Nicaragua for the Promotion of Investment, Trade and International Cooperation, and Coordinator for Cooperation with China.

Ma said that since the two countries resumed diplomatic relations five years ago, China-Nicaragua relations have achieved leapfrog development under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state. China appreciates Nicaragua’s firm adherence to the one-China principle and will continue to support Nicaragua in safeguarding national sovereignty and dignity, independently choosing a development path suited to its national conditions, and opposing foreign interference. The CPC cherishes its traditional friendship with the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) of Nicaragua, and stands ready to deepen the exchange of experience in state governance and administration and expand the breadth and depth of inter-party exchanges, so as to advance sustained and steady development of China-Nicaragua relations. Ma also briefed the guests on the rich essence of Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building and on the education campaign on establishing and practicing the correct view of governance performance.

Laureano highly commended the results of bilateral cooperation over the past five years. He reiterated Nicaragua’s firm adherence to the one-China principle, and said that inter-party exchanges are an important pillar of bilateral relations. The FSLN stands ready to further deepen inter-party exchanges and cooperation, strengthen the sharing of experience in party governance and state governance, and deliver greater benefits to the two peoples.

Erwin Ramirez, Minister of Development, Industry and Commerce of Nicaragua, Ramiro José Cruz Flores, Nicaragua’s Ambassador to China, and others attended the meeting.

Cuba and China reaffirm socialist solidarity

As previously noted by us, on June 11, a video call was held between Liu Haixing, Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee (IDCPC) and Emilio Lozada García, Head of the International Relations Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).

The following article was originally published on the website of the IDCPC.

Liu Haixing Holds a Video Call with Emilio Lozada García, Head of the International Relations Department of the PCC Central Committee

June 11 (IDCPC) – Liu Haixing, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), held a video call with Emilio Lozada García, Head of the International Relations Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).

Liu said that as comrades and brothers in the socialist camp, the Chinese people will always stand together with the Cuban people. No matter how the international landscape evolves, the commitment of the CPC and the Chinese government to the long-term friendship with Cuba will not change; the resolve to support Cuba in pursuing a socialist path suited to its national conditions will not change; and the direction of advancing China-Cuba practical cooperation and helping the Cuban people improve their lives will not change. He noted that in the face of extreme external pressure, the Cuban people, under the strong leadership of the PCC Central Committee, have firmly safeguarded national sovereignty and security and demonstrated unwavering determination to oppose foreign interference. A just cause enjoys abundant support, while an unjust one finds little. China firmly supports the just struggle of the PCC and the Cuban people.

Lozada stated that Cuba and the entire Latin America are currently going through a complex and grave situation. In disregard of the basic norms of international law and the universal opposition of the international community, the United States has escalated its blockade and sanctions against Cuba in all respects, which has seriously violated the Cuban people’s rights to subsistence and development and caused severe difficulties and challenges to Cuba’s economic and social development. The solidarity and firm support China has shown to Cuba are of vital importance to Cuba. The PCC congratulates the CPC on its upcoming 105th anniversary and stands ready to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the CPC to advance the building of a Cuba-China community with a shared future.

Cuba’s economic reforms and the prospects for socialist renewal

The following article by Carlos Martinez, co-editor of Friends of Socialist China and author of The East Is Still Red, examines the most far-reaching changes to Cuba’s economic model in more than 60 years – a programme of 23 strategic axes and 176 measures approved unanimously this month by the National Assembly.

Much of the Western press, and a good part of the Western left, has rushed to read the reforms as the moment the blockade finally broke the Revolution. Carlos argues the opposite: that they are best understood as a defence of socialism under siege, following the strategic logic China has pursued since 1978 – the controlled use of markets and foreign investment to develop the productive forces while the Communist Party retains political power and public ownership of the commanding heights. As the Cuba specialist Isaac Saney puts it, the measures, “far from representing a retreat”, constitute “a strategic effort to preserve and deepen the social gains of the Revolution”.

The article sets the reforms against the backdrop of an unprecedented US siege – 64 years of blockade, escalated under Trump and Rubio, with fuel choked off and blackouts of up to twenty hours a day – and traces Cuba’s two decades of gradual reform, from Raúl Castro’s “Guidelines” to the Mariel Special Economic Zone consciously modelled on China and Vietnam. The decisive question, Carlos insists, is the one that separated Beijing’s reforms from Gorbachev’s “perestroika”: who holds political power? Cuba, he argues, is travelling the road of China’s reform and opening up, not the Soviet road of perestroika – and China’s solidarity, in energy, food and party-to-party ties, may prove decisive.

In President Díaz-Canel’s words: “There is no sovereignty with an empty plate” – and “We are not going to come together only to resist. We are going to come together to create. To produce. To decide. To oversee. To prosper, and to transform.”

A version of this article, translated into Portuguese, can be found on Brasil de Fato.

China’s success vindicates the project of the global left

The video below is an interview of Carlos Martinez by Jason Smith, for CGTN’s The Bridge to China podcast. Recorded in the lead-up to the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the wide-ranging conversation covers the nature of China’s economic system, the achievements of Chinese socialism, the state of the left in the West, and the transition to a multipolar world.

Carlos argues that China is best understood on its own terms, as socialism with Chinese characteristics: a fundamentally socialist system with a significant market component, in which the state holds the commanding heights – banking, energy, telecommunications, rail and the top levels of industry – and directs investment through national planning. The presence of markets, billionaires or inequality does not make a country capitalist; what matters is which class holds power, and the ultimate measure is the living standards of ordinary working people.

On that measure, China stands apart: it is the country that has eliminated extreme poverty, effectively ended homelessness, and pursued common prosperity, a world-leading renewable energy build-out and the saving of lives during the Covid pandemic. If China is socialist and succeeding, Carlos contends, that vindicates the project of the global left – which is precisely why the West’s new cold war is aimed at preventing a socialist alternative from succeeding.

The interview surveys the scale of China’s transformation – some 800 million people lifted out of poverty, the “seven guarantees” that underpin poverty alleviation, life expectancy rising from around 35 at liberation to over 79 today, near-universal mortgage-free home ownership, and the most extensive public infrastructure in the world. Comparing China with India – liberated within two years of one another, from similar starting points – Carlos draws out what a revolution and Communist Party-led planning have made possible: sovereign development free of IMF discipline, coherent five-year plans, and the capacity for mass mobilisation, exemplified by the three million cadres deployed in the poverty alleviation campaign.

Turning to the West, Carlos describes the long retreat of the left under the neoliberal counter-revolution – de-industrialisation, the rise of the precariat, and a social peace bought with the super-profits of imperialism that are now drying up. He points to the crisis of confidence deepened by Gaza and to the Corbyn moment as signs that material reality is shifting, and to a growing openness to China – from “Chinamaxxing” and the RedNote migration to the surge in inbound tourism. The dogmatism that still leads much of the Western left to withhold recognition of China’s decidedly socialist achievements, he argues, plays into a US grand strategy whose core is the encirclement and containment of China.

The lesson for developed and developing countries alike, Carlos concludes, is that public ownership is not inefficient but the precondition for any serious industrial policy, that long-term planning beats short-term shareholder value, and that the West must come to terms with an inevitably multipolar world – starting, at a minimum, with adherence to the United Nations Charter.

Danny Haiphong: There is reason to hope

The following article by Danny Haiphong – journalist, broadcaster and a co-founder of Friends of Socialist China – argues that, against the nihilism and pessimism spreading through the West, geopolitics and political economy offer genuine grounds for optimism. He frames US unipolar imperialism (less than a century old) and Western colonialism (about four centuries old) as brief blips in human history, met throughout by constant resistance – from Maroon societies to twentieth-century liberation movements.

The US empire, Danny contends, is in material decline: its share of global GDP has fallen from 35–50 percent in 1945 to 20–25 percent now, while manufacturing has shrunk to under 10 percent of the economy, leaving it dominated by finance, insurance, real estate and military contracting. Endless war is therefore a symptom of weakness, not strength – the warmongers can only destroy, not build.

A multipolar reality is emerging. China is the article’s prime example: from being one of the poorest countries in the world at the time of the founding of the People’s Republic, it has managed to eliminate extreme poverty and become a leader in robotics, AI, high-speed rail, renewables and reforestation, with over 90 percent public trust in government grounded in results. Danny extends the case to a resurgent, sanctions-proof Russia; to Iran, whose retaliation against US–Israeli strikes and control over the Strait of Hormuz have significantly increased its global standing; and to smaller states defying sanctions – the DPRK’s construction boom, Zimbabwe’s recovery from the crippling sanctions imposed by the west to punish the country for land reform, and Cuba’s healthcare achievements despite blockade.

Danny concludes:

The sociopathic rulers of US empire (what some have deemed the Epstein class) are committed to taking everyone down with their collapsing system of empire and neoliberal capitalism. Endless war and theft masquerading as economics is the only path left in front of them. US-Israeli genocide in Palestine and Lebanon, not to mention the dozens of other deadly wars and the imposition of abject poverty for more than half the planet to enrich just eight ultra-rich individuals, understandably fuel despair and disgust amongst those in the collective West who detest this reality. But there is reason to hope. We can find it in the billions of people struggling to build a better world.

Pure socialism is pure idealism: a reply to Jacobin on China

In the following article, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez responds to a recent Jacobin book review which presents China’s economic rise as a simple story of “brutal exploitation” indistinguishable from the horrors of Britain’s industrial revolution.

While not doubting the hardships described in the book under review, Carlos argues that Jacobin’s framing is ahistorical and idealist. China’s growth has not merely enriched a class of capitalists but transformed the lives of the majority, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty and improving working class wages and conditions at an extraordinary pace.

The book review essentially compares China with an imagined socialist utopia, rather than comparing China with other destinations of outsourced production – where wages are lower, repression harsher, and no comparable rise in living standards is on offer.

Drawing on Friedrich Engels, Deng Xiaoping, Michael Parenti and John Smith, the article shows how China’s socialist land ownership system has protected living standards for hundreds of millions, and how the state is working to expand protections for workers in the “gig economy”. The article concludes:

At a moment when China is the largest and most developed socialist country on earth; when it is the leading proponent of a multipolar world order; and when it is the target of a systematic propaganda war designed to manufacture consent for a New Cold War (and ultimately hot war), for self-described socialists and anti-imperialists to offer this kind of context-free condemnation is, to say the least, deeply unhelpful.

Jacobin has published a review by Daniel Cheng of Adrift in the South, the memoir of the Chinese worker-poet Xiao Hai, detailing the harsh conditions he faced as a migrant worker in the megacities of southern China.

The book itself sounds interesting and worthwhile, and there is no reason to doubt the harshness of the conditions Xiao Hai describes. But the frame the review wraps around his story – that China’s economic miracle was “made possible by the brutal exploitation of millions of workers”, and that China’s development and the dark satanic mills of Britain’s industrialisation can be comfortably placed together in a category of “the universal suffering of capitalism” – is ahistorical, idealist, and, in the present geopolitical conjuncture, actively unhelpful.

Exploitation has to be contextualised

The first thing to say is that China’s growth has not simply enriched a class of capitalists. It has transformed the lives of the great majority. Over the past half-century, China has lifted an estimated 800 million people out of extreme poverty – by the World Bank’s own reckoning, more than three-quarters of the entire reduction in global poverty over the same period. Chinese workers and farmers today live longer, eat better, are far better educated and enjoy a level of material security their grandparents could barely have imagined.

Manufacturing wages roughly trebled between 2005 and 2016, and real wages have continued to climb at an impressive clip. The rate of exploitation of Chinese labour has been falling, not rising.

Webinar: Imperialism vs multipolarity – The US and China’s clashing visions of the international order (21 June)

📆 Sunday 21 June 2026, 2pm Britain, 9am US Eastern, 9pm China

A discussion of the Trump-Xi summit, the tariff war, US military aggression across the Global South, and the prospects for the world to come.

When Donald Trump arrived in Beijing in May for talks with President Xi Jinping – the first visit by a US president in nine years – the observant could detect a major shift in the international order. Successive US administrations’ increasingly desperate efforts to maintain dominance – through tariffs, sanctions, military aggression and technology warfare – have been failing as China’s economic might and diplomatic influence have grown. The trip Trump had hoped to make in triumph had to be made amid the disaster of his failing war on Iran, on top of the earlier failure of his tariff war against China.

Rather than projecting power, Trump was left with no alternative but to treat China as a peer. China now accounts for roughly 30 percent of global manufacturing output; the Belt and Road Initiative spans continents; and a growing majority of the world’s people are orientating away from US hegemonism and towards a pluripolar future. Xi’s quietly confident offer of “a new paradigm of major-country relations” and a “constructive relationship of strategic stability” went largely unchallenged.

Trump will undoubtedly flail against this new reality, and that flailing will bring further misery to the world. But there are signs that a critical corner is being turned in the journey towards a multipolar world order based on sovereignty, development and peace.

Join our panel of analysts, activists and scholars for a wide-ranging discussion of the Trump-Xi summit and its aftermath, the tariff war, US military aggression across the Global South, and the prospects for the world to come.

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

Confirmed speakers

Cheng Enfu (President of the World Association for Political Economy)
Ben Norton (Founder and editor-in-chief, Geopolitical Economy Report)
Carlos Martinez (Co-editor, Friends of Socialist China)
Jacquie Luqman (Black Alliance for Peace)
Jenny Clegg (Author and peace campaigner)
Ken Hammond (Professor of History, New Mexico State University; Pivot to Peace)
Mick Dunford (Emeritus Professor, University of Sussex)
Mike Klonsky (Educator, author and activist)
Moderator: Radhika Desai (Convenor, International Manifesto Group)

Complete success of Xi Jinping’s visit takes relations with DPRK to new height

Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and President of the People’s Republic of China, paid a state visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), from June 8-9 at the invitation of his DPRK counterpart Kim Jong Un.

Xi Jinping, together with his wife Peng Liyuan and his delegation, arrived at Pyongyang’s Sunan Airport at around noon where they were greeted by DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that:

“The historic Pyongyang meeting between the top leaders of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the People’s Republic of China was arranged again at a time when the traditional DPRK-China friendship, forged in the long journey for independence against imperialism, peace and the accomplishment of the socialist cause, weathering all hardships of the times, is being developed at a new strategic level.

“Comrade Xi Jinping’s visit to the DPRK in the significant year marking the 65th anniversary of the conclusion of the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance serves as the important and meaningful one in developing the DPRK-China friendly and cooperative relations, the strategic option and valuable common asset of the two parties and the peoples of the two countries.”

A welcoming ceremony for the Chinese leader was held in Kim Il Sung Square in the heart of the DPRK capital.

As Xi Jinping and his wife arrived by car, a cavalry escort lined up to welcome them while the military band played welcoming tunes. Kim Jong Un and his wife greeted Xi Jinping and his wife at the square. Xi Jinping and his wife, along with Kim Jong Un and his wife, shook hands with their respective accompanying personnel. The top leaders of the two parties and two countries jointly ascended the review stand as the military bands played the national anthems of China and the DPRK, with a 21-gun salute. Accompanied by Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping inspected the honour guard of the three services of the Korean People’s Army. Guardsmen shouted in Korean, “Wish Comrade Xi Jinping good health”. Afterward, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un watched the march-past together.

En route from the airport to Kim Il Sung Square and then from Kim Il Sung Square to the Kumsusan State Guesthouse, where Xi Jinping stayed during his visit, people of the DPRK lined both sides of the streets, waving to welcome Xi’s arrival.

The two leaders held talks during the afternoon.

Xi Jinping noted that after seven years, he is very pleased to once again visit the beautiful city of Pyongyang and feels especially warm and familiar. He expressed his readiness to work with Comrade General Secretary to take this visit as an opportunity to strengthen top-level planning and strategic guidance for China-DPRK relations in the new era, promote bilateral relations advancing with the times and achieving greater progress, so as to better benefit the two countries and peoples, and make positive contributions to peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and the world.

Xi stressed that China and the DPRK are both socialist countries led by communist parties. The traditional friendship between the two countries is rooted in their shared ideals and beliefs as well as their common goals, and is backed by a profound historical foundation, a solid political basis and strong emotional bonds. Friendship passed down from generation to generation, a shared future and mutual support have always been the defining features of China-DPRK relations. No matter how the international situation changes, the Chinese party and government’s firm stance on highly valuing China-DPRK traditional friendship will not change, the firm support for General Secretary Kim Jong Un in leading the DPRK’s socialist cause will not change, and the firm commitment to safeguarding the shared interests of the two countries and preserving a favorable strategic environment will not change.

Xi Jinping pointed out that, in the face of the profound changes unseen in a century that are accelerating across the world, the two sides should take a broad and long-term view, build on past achievements and open up a new future, draw wisdom from the development process of the relations between the two parties and the two countries, seize opportunities in the prevailing trend of human history, inject new contemporary connotations and strong impetus into the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK, and open up a brighter prospect for the socialist cause of the two countries as well as regional peace and development.

Xi Jinping: The shared socialist ideal is the defining character of China-DPRK relations

Immediately prior to his arrival in the DPRK capital Pyongyang, Rodong Sinmun (Workers’ Newspaper), the central organ of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), published a signed article by Xi Jinping, entitled, ‘Carrying Forward the Past and Opening the Future, Forging Ahead Together – Writing a New Chapter in the Traditional China-DPRK Friendship’.

In the article, Xi states: “China and the DPRK are friendly socialist neighbours that watch over and help each other and share a common destiny. The traditional China-DPRK friendship is the shared precious treasure of the two parties, the two countries, and the people of the two countries. No matter how the times change or how the international situation shifts, the traditional China-DPRK friendship has always been unbreakable and grows stronger over time… Historically, the older generation of leaders of China and the DPRK knew one another intimately and were as close as can be. In recent years, I have met with General Secretary Kim Jong Un six times, maintained close strategic communication, and jointly drawn up the blueprint for the development of China-DPRK relations.”

He adds: “The shared socialist ideal is the defining character of China-DPRK relations. The Communist Party of China and the Workers’ Party of Korea are both Marxist ruling parties, and China and the DPRK are fellow travellers on the socialist road… The traditional friendship of shared destiny is the deep foundation of China-DPRK relations. In the turbulent years of fighting for national independence and national liberation, the people of China and the DPRK shared weal and woe, depended on each other in life and death, and forged a great fighting friendship with their blood. In the development of each country’s socialist cause, the two peoples have stood shoulder to shoulder, sharing comforts and hardships, vividly embodying the comradely friendship of mutual trust, solidarity, and mutual aid.”

Noting that, “in recent years, in the face of accelerating once-in-a-century changes in the world and an international situation entangled by change and turbulence, China and the DPRK have insisted on concentrating their energies on managing their own affairs well, forging ahead and striving unremittingly on the socialist road,” Xi draws attention to the important political events in the two countries this year, noting the commencement of China’s 15th Five Year Plan and the Workers’ Party of Korea’s convening of its ninth congress.

Looking forward, he suggests that China and the DPRK should:

Deepen strategic communication and firmly grasp the correct direction for the development of China-DPRK relations. “We must maintain the fine tradition of high-level exchanges between the two parties and two countries, visiting often and meeting each other like relatives.”
Strengthen exchanges and mutual learning and jointly push forward the steady and sustained advance of the two countries’ socialist cause. “We must hold firm to the path and be unchanged in our resolve, support each other in walking the socialist road that suits our own national conditions… firmly safeguard the political security of both countries… and lead the socialist cause of the two countries to keep moving from one victory to the next.”
Strengthen the alignment of the two countries’ development strategies, tap cooperation potential in all fields, share opportunities, and jointly promote development, so as to better benefit the people of both countries. “Through flexible and varied forms, we must keep friendly exchanges active, deepen mutual understanding, tighten emotional bonds, and pass the baton of China-DPRK friendship from generation to generation.”
Oppose hegemonism and power politics and oppose all schemes and acts that seek to revive militarism and that endanger regional security and stability… and join hands to push forward the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.

In conclusion, Xi states that, “We stand ready to forge ahead and write a new chapter together with our DPRK comrades, so that the traditional China-DPRK friendship will shine with an even more brilliant contemporary lustre and make a greater contribution to promoting peace, stability, development, and prosperity in the region and indeed across the world.”

Also on June 8, Rodong Sinmun carried an editorial welcoming the “goodwill mission of the Chinese people” headed by Xi.

It says that the visit, “serves as support and encouragement to our Party and people in the struggle for the comprehensive development of socialism.”

It writes that the relations between the DPRK and China, “are the invincible friendly relations closely united with comradely friendship and bloody ties in the protracted struggle to oppose foreign aggressors and build socialism.

“True to the intention of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung, the Korean revolutionaries helped the Chinese revolution with blood in the arduous anti-Japanese struggle. The Chinese people, too, regarded the Korean revolutionaries fighting for the national liberation as their own flesh and blood and rendered material and moral assistance to the Korean people in their struggle.

“The brilliant victories won by the Chinese people in the arduous revolutionary civil war and by the Korean people in the fierce Fatherland Liberation War would have been unthinkable without the fraternal friendship and class ties which have been steadily carried forward and consolidated between the revolutionaries, service personnel and peoples of the two countries.”

It concludes by stating that: “The Korean people sincerely hope that the Chinese people will achieve greater successes in the struggle for comprehensively building a modern and powerful socialist country, rallied close around the Communist Party of China with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core, and firmly defend the national sovereignty, territorial integrity and interests for development.

“We will, in the future, too, join hands with the Chinese comrades on the road of advancing the socialist cause and defending peace and security in the region and the rest of the world.”

Lao leader: China is the leading banner for socialism and the Global South

General Secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee and President of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) Thongloun Sisoulith paid a state visit to China from June 2-6 at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Sisoulith began his visit in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province.

On the afternoon of June 5, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and President Xi Jinping held talks with Sisoulith at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry report, Xi Jinping once again congratulated Thongloun Sisoulith on his re-election as General Secretary of the LPRP Central Committee and President of Laos. Xi noted that China has always regarded Laos as a priority in its neighbourhood diplomacy, firmly supports Laos in pursuing a socialist path suited to its own national conditions, and stands ready to work with the Lao side to carry forward traditional friendship, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and enhance solidarity and coordination. China is willing to work with Laos to achieve a new leap in bilateral ties and build an all-weather China-Laos community with a shared future in the new era.

Xi Jinping put forward four points for advancing China-Laos relations and building a higher-standard, higher-quality and higher-level bilateral community with a shared future:

Keep to the socialist path. The two sides should jointly safeguard the socialist system and the leadership of communist parties, maintain close strategic communication, implement the new five-year cooperation plan between the two parties and deepen exchanges on governance experience.
Consolidate the foundation of mutually beneficial cooperation. China is willing to strengthen strategic alignment with Laos and foster new growth drivers for cooperation. The two countries should capitalise on the advantages of the China-Laos Railway as a golden transport corridor. They should deepen cooperation in traditional sectors such as agriculture and electricity while expanding collaboration in emerging areas including artificial intelligence and the digital economy, and China will continue to provide assistance within its capacity to Laos.
Strengthen traditional friendship between the two peoples. Taking the Year of China-Laos Friendship as an opportunity, the two sides should expand cooperation in culture, education, health care and local exchanges, make good use of their shared revolutionary heritage, and enhance mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.
Improve coordination on foreign policies. China appreciates Laos for adhering to the one-China principle, supporting the four major global initiatives, taking an active part in the Belt and Road cooperation, as well as firmly supporting China’s core interests and major concerns. China looks forward to Laos playing a greater role in regional and international affairs. The two sides should strengthen multilateral coordination and safeguard the common interests of the Global South.

Thongloun Sisoulith stated this visit carries great significance, as it is his first official overseas visit since his re-election as General Secretary of the LPRP Central Committee and President of Laos, which also falls on the 65th anniversary of bilateral ties and the Year of Laos-China Friendship. The Lao side expresses sincere gratitude for China’s long-standing support and assistance to Laos.

China now stands as the leading banner for the socialist system and developing countries, and a mainstay in safeguarding world peace and promoting the building of a multipolar world. China’s development has provided valuable experience for the vast number of developing countries, including Laos.

After the talks, the two sides jointly witnessed the signing of cooperation documents covering areas such as inter-party exchanges, people’s wellbeing, finance, customs, trade, youth exchanges and media.

The KPL Lao News Agency also carried a report of the meeting.

The Lao leader also met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the same day.

Li said that China is willing to enhance strategic communication and close collaboration with Laos and promote the building of the China-Laos community with a shared future.

Noting that this year marks the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations, Li said China and Laos have always relied on each other and offered mutual assistance over the years. Especially in recent years, under the strategic guidance of the top leaders of the two parties and countries, China-Laos relations have ushered in the best period in history.

He added that China is willing to enhance the alignment of development strategies with Laos and fully unleash the positive effects of China’s zero-tariff policy. China will continue to scale up bilateral trade, further advance cooperation on the China-Laos railway, accelerate the construction of the China-Laos Economic Corridor, and expand cooperation in energy and mineral resources, artificial intelligence, the digital economy and other fields to deliver more practical results.

Thongloun expressed gratitude to China for the valuable support and assistance it has provided over a long period of time, adding that Laos will firmly adhere to the one-China principle and firmly support China’s core interests on issues such as Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

The Lao News Agency added that both sides welcomed the growing cooperation in trade, investment, infrastructure, energy and connectivity, including the recent inauguration of the 500-kilovolt Laos-China power transmission line.

Thongloun Sisoulith also met with Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

During his visit to Zhejiang prior to his arrival in Beijing, Sisoulith visited Yucun Village in Anji County. This is where President Xi Jinping first advanced the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” in August 2005. (An article reproduced below provides detailed background on this.)

Prior to his high-level meetings in Beijing, on June 4, Sisoulith visited the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China as well as the Beijing Aerospace City, where he was briefed on China’s latest achievements in aerospace science and technology.

He also met with former Chinese ambassadors and Chinese volunteer veterans who supported Laos during its national liberation struggle and participated in road construction projects in northern Laos during the 1960s and 1970s. The meeting provided an opportunity for the Lao leader to express appreciation for their contributions to the longstanding friendship and cooperation between Laos and China.

In a special article written for the 65th anniversary of China-Laos diplomatic relations, Thongloun Sisoulith wrote that: “Regardless of how the international landscape has evolved, the Laos-China friendship has remained steadfast, resilient, and ever stronger, demonstrating the ideological values, and the remarkably stable and vibrant strategic cooperation that characterise the Laos-China relations.

“Guided by the spirit of the ‘Four Goods’, namely good neighbours, good friends, good comrades, and good partners, our two countries elevated relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in 2009. This important milestone laid a solid political foundation conducive to expanding cooperation across all fields. In 2017, our two Parties and States further enhanced cooperation and established the Laos-China Community of Shared Future, opening a new chapter of deeper solidarity, greater mutual trust and closer strategic coordination.

“Today, the Laos-China relationship stands at its highest point in history, serving as a model of equality, mutual respect and mutually beneficial cooperation…

“The Lao PDR reaffirms its unwavering commitment to closely cooperate with the People’s Republic of China, in supporting efforts to coordinate comprehensive joint development strategies, advance mutual development, deepen reform, and broaden international cooperation, and jointly pursuing the path of socialist development in accordance with the respective national conditions.”

On June 4, China’s People’s Daily released a video highlighting the deep friendly ties between China and Laos, told largely through the eyes of successive generations of the Lao Pholsena family, who have long maintained a personal friendship with Xi Jinping, since the children of the family studied at Beijing Bayi School in the 1960s, where they came to know and befriend their schoolmate Xi, inaugurating a friendship that has lasted for over half a century.

Xi’s visit set to deepen China-DPRK ties

On June 5, the Xinhua News Agency and the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) both announced that at the invitation of Comrade 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 (DPRK), Comrade Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and President of the People’s Republic of China, will pay a state visit to the DPRK on June 8 and 9.

In a feature article previewing the visit, Xinhua noted that, “Xi’s upcoming visit, his first to the neighbouring country in seven years, is expected to draw a new blueprint for the development of relations between the two parties and the two countries, inject strong impetus into the joint cause of socialist construction, and make new contributions to regional peace, stability and prosperity.”

It went on to note that in March 2018, the two leaders held their first meeting, during which they reached principled consensus on four aspects of developing China-DPRK relations in the new era. Xi and Kim met three times in less than 100 days that year, making history in high-level exchanges between China and the DPRK.

The two leaders also exchanged visits in the first half of 2019 and in September 2025, Kim made another visit to China. Since 2018, the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries have held six meetings and maintained close communication in various forms, leading the China-DPRK relations to forge ahead in the new era.

Xinhua added: “This year marks the 65th anniversary of the signing of the China-DPRK Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, making Xi’s upcoming visit to the DPRK even more important.”

The article noted that during his previous visit, Xi paid homage to the martyrs of the Chinese People’s Volunteers at the Friendship Tower in Pyongyang. Xi wrote in the inscription book, “To remember the martyrs” and “The China-DPRK friendship lasts from generation to generation.”

The traditional friendship between China and the DPRK was forged by the elder generation of leaders of the two parties and two countries, cemented in the revolutionary struggle, and continuously deepened in the course of socialist construction, Xi said in his exchange of New Year greeting messages with Kim in 2024.

During Xi’s visit to the DPRK in 2019, hundreds of thousands of residents in Pyongyang lined the streets to welcome the Chinese president, leading Xi to recall the occasion during his talks with Kim in Beijing last year, saying he could feel the family-like friendship between the two peoples all along the way.

This, Xinhua noted, finds its expression in the fact that “from economic and trade exchanges to education and sports cooperation, China-DPRK exchanges and cooperation in various fields continued to deepen and has grown ever more solid, bringing benefits to the peoples of both countries.”

The article concludes: “China-DPRK relations are vividly described in a Chinese song: ‘We share a great friendship; we share common ideals; which have united us with incomparable strength.’”

China and the Global Green Revolution – a webinar review

Friends of Socialist China’s US committee recently organised a hybrid event in Portland on the theme ‘China’s Global Green Revolution’, co-facilitated by Sara Flounders and Carlos Martinez, alongside seven contributors to the book China Changes Everything. The discussion explored how China’s lead in renewable energy, reforestation, ecological agriculture and green technology is reshaping the global response to the climate crisis – and why defending that contribution against the new cold war matters for the whole of humanity.

The following review, by Lyn Neeley, summarises the speakers’ contributions, from record-efficiency coal plants and the race for lunar helium-3 to glow-in-the-dark street plants and saltwater rice. A recording of the event is available via the International Action Center.

How China prepared for the new global food crisis, caused by the US war on Iran

The US-Israeli war on Iran has triggered a global food and energy crisis that, by some estimates, could push as many as 45 million people into hunger – on top of the hundreds of millions already going hungry around the world. Prices of staple foods are rising sharply, supply chains through the Persian Gulf are disrupted, and the burden, as ever, will fall hardest on the Global South.

In this important essay for Geopolitical Economy Report, Joe Scholten examines how China has prepared for precisely this kind of crisis – and how rational socialist planning has insulated its 1.4 billion people from the kind of shock the world is facing.

The lesson is not new. During the 2022 food crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, world prices of corn, wheat and soybeans nearly doubled; US grocery prices rose by 11.4 percent that year. China was largely unscathed, thanks to a strategic food reserves system. Today, that system stands at over 700 million metric tons of grain – enough to feed the entire population for a year. Add to this a vast fertilizer reserve, world-leading agricultural drone deployment (over 300,000 units, more than half the global total), AI-enabled pest identification, and $757 billion in water conservation investment under the 14th Five-Year Plan.

As the author puts it: “State planning and the socialist mode of production, in the form of state-owned enterprises and cooperatives under the guidance of a communist party, are capable of addressing fundamental needs.” Where Western pundits once mocked China’s stockpiling as either bureaucratic waste or preparation for aggressive war, the reality is now plain to see: China has anticipated the crisis that US imperialism has manufactured, and stands ready to help cushion its neighbours from the worst of it.

I wrote an article on the topic of food security in China in 2022. The main rationale for that prior essay was that there had been warnings of a global food crisis as the result of the war in Ukraine.

Indeed, prices of staple commodities like corn, wheat, and soybeans nearly doubled in price in the first year of the conflict, and millions were pushed into hunger worldwide.

China marks May Day with tangible gains for working people

On the eve of May Day, Chinese President Xi Jinping extended festive greetings and best wishes to the country’s working people. He called on workers across the country to work hard, deliver solid results, and play a leading role in driving high-quality economic and social development. Party committees and governments at all levels, he added, should safeguard workers’ lawful rights and interests, address their most pressing concerns, and encourage them to strive unremittingly for the country’s grand goals.

A feature article published by the Xinhua News Agency explored these themes in greater depth.

Noting that Xi Jinping has said that “model workers and exemplary individuals are the moral exemplars of the people and the pillars of the nation,” it added that in the week leading up to May Day, 3,024 individuals and organisations were honoured for their contributions to major national strategies, projects and priority industries. Recipients ranged from engineers, technicians, teachers and doctors, to delivery workers.

The article added: “Xi has built a reputation for hard work since his early years as a village official in a poor rural area of northwest China more than half a century ago. As the country’s top leader, he has called on the society as a whole to respect model workers and promote the spirit they embody and has backed the commitment with a range of policy and institutional measures.

“He has called for building a large, highly skilled industrial workforce with strong ideals, technical expertise, a capacity for innovation, and a sense of responsibility and dedication, while also emphasising workers’ welfare and protections.

“In recent years, China has continued to expand legal protections and social security coverage for workers, with growing attention to those in new forms of employment such as food delivery couriers and ride-hailing drivers, as well as older workers beyond the standard retirement age…

“Beyond policy measures, Xi has also conducted on-site inspections to ensure their needs are being met. In 2023, he went to a migrant worker housing complex in Shanghai, entering homes, inspecting shared facilities such as communal kitchens and laundries, and speaking with residents about their daily lives.