Category: Speeches

We are very grateful that Venezuela’s ambassador to the UK, Rocío del Valle Maneiro González, spoke at the book launch for Carlos Martinez’s book The East is Still Red on Tuesday 6 June 2023. Rocío was Venezuela’s ambassador to China from 2004 until 2013, and accompanied Hugo Chávez during several of his presidential trips to China.

Rocío described living through a period in which the international balance of power shifted from West to East, principally due to the multipolar strategy promoted by China. Speaking as a representative of Venezuela – a country which continues to suffer due to the sanctions, destabilisation and coercion applied by the Western powers – Rocío stated that China’s international policy is based on equality, on win-win relations, on peaceful cooperation and a collective vision of a prosperous future for humanity. She concluded that, after reading The East is Still Red, “it is almost impossible to describe socialism as a failed political system.”

During the discussion, which can be viewed in the stream of the event (embedded below the article), Rocío intervened in response to a question about women’s equality in China. She observed that, while women are not well represented among the top political leadership of the country, women in China are nonetheless very well represented in the workplace at every level – including as business leaders, engineers, lawyers and academics, as well as having strong social and equal rights. She stated forcefully: “Chinese women are the equal of men; they are the free women of Asia.”

Good evening, first of all, allow me to express my gratitude to Carlos Martínez for inviting me to say a few words on the occasion of the launch of his book “The East is Still Red”. This is an honour for me, even more so as it is held here, at the Carl Marx library, giving it a special historical transcendence.

This is a relevant book and I will explain why. When China decided to open up to the western world, a step it took, in my opinion, in this century, because what China did in the XX century, was to peek through “the window” and start planning a route. Well, when China decided to open up to the world, a number of sinologists, China specialists, showed up in the West, trying to explain China’s complexity with western theories and principles. I read at least 5 of those books published by scholars; I remember one of them having more than 400 pages. Those were the days when I was preparing for the task given to me by President Chavez: I was to become the ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the People ́s Republic of China.

When I arrived in China in 2004, nothing of what I had read was of any use to me. Only the books relating to Chinese culture, those great particularities of a civilization that goes back 3 to 5 thousand years, and is still alive. Apart from that, the rest was totally useless, mainly because it had little to do with the facts, with what I was seeing and experiencing.

Carlos’ book has the relevance, the value, to present a different hypothesis to explain what China means to the world today. It is a book that equates with what I lived during those 9 years I

spent as Ambassador in Beijing, from 2004 to 2013. I had the privilege, as did all my colleague ambassadors, to witness how the international balance of power shifted from West to East, due to force applied by China.

From those years of hard work and learning, if one thing became clear to me, it was that China’s greatness is rooted in two main factors: discipline, which comes from the teachings of Confucius and a collective purpose, which is at the heart of Communism. The union of these two factors is, in my opinion, the most objective, rigorous and real starting point to approach to the truth of China. A nation which was reborn and liberated in 1949, a nation which defeated hunger with an enormous effort considered today as a true political and socio-economic miracle of universal history. A nation which today plays a protagonist role as an international player in every field. A nation, and to me this is the most important, which designed an international policy based on equality, a win-win formula, to teach imperialism how to move forward in creating a new world in peace, not with armed intervention but with diplomacy and negotiation guided by a collective purpose.

I congratulate Carlos, because he dares to approach such a complex subject, opposing the position of western experts, and does so based on concrete facts. After reading his book it is almost impossible to affirm that Socialism as a political system is a failure.

Thank you.

We are pleased to publish our English translation of the speech by Nicolás Maduro, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, at the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting held on 15 March, at which Xi Jinping announced the Global Civilisation Initiative.

President Maduro explained that Venezuela is emerging from a period of intense and difficult struggle against the machinations of US-led imperialism, which has never let up in its attempt to impose domination on Venezuela, by means of sanctions, economic coercion and destabilisation. Venezuela is now in a period of recovery and growth, and Maduro reiterated the commitment of his government, his party and the Venezuelan people to the project of multipolarity, of building a global alternative to neoliberalism and imperialism.

Further, President Maduro expressed his full support for the Global Civilisation Initiative as a framework “that allows the beautiful diversity of culture and the strength of the peoples of the planet to shine.”

This inspiring speech constitutes a strong statement of militant unity of the socialist, progressive and anti-imperialist forces of the world.

I would like to reiterate our greetings to President Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, President of the People’s Republic of China. I greet the leadership of the CPC, all the people of China, our fraternal Chinese people, and at the same time greet all the presidents taking part in this world political dialogue, and all the parties and organisations and political forces of the world.

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) is a young party which emerged in the heat of the Bolivarian Revolution, founded by our comandante Hugo Chávez Frías; a party that was born under the banners of the construction of socialism from our liberatory roots, from our deep Latin American and Caribbean roots; a party that was born with a social and political force in the heat of the struggle against North American imperialism and its obsession with hegemonising and dominating our America; that was born in the heat of the struggle to build, dear brother President Xi Jinping, to build in our homeland our own economic, social and political model of socialism in the 21st century, of Bolivarian socialism in the 21st century.

On behalf of the rank and file, the grassroots leaders of the PSUV, I offer you our commitment to the work, to the daily struggle to build, as we are building, an alternative to savage capitalism, to neoliberal capitalism, to imperialist hegemonism; an independent, sovereign alternative.

As you know, Venezuela has been the victim in recent years of bullying, of a permanent aggression; more than 900 unilateral coercive measures and criminal sanctions have been imposed on our country, and our people have resisted these aggressions with a great conscience, and we have passed from an intense stage of resistance, sometimes a painful resistance, to a stage of recovery, to a stage of growth that must lead us towards higher stages of development and social and economic prosperity for our people.

We observe the world, how they try to put to the test the marvellous energy of those peoples who seek independence, peace, equality, development; how they try to impose a hegemonic unipolar model, ignoring the diversity of human civilisation, ignoring the diversity of the cultural, spiritual and political power of the peoples. But this is impossible in the 21st century. The age of empires is over, the age of the peoples has arrived for now and forever, let no one doubt that, comrades of the world, presidents, political leaders of the world, let no one doubt that the time has come for the articulation of a new world, which we call a multipolar world, a polycentric world, a world of independence and the articulation and integration of the peoples.

Such a world merits a great deal of awareness, of unity, of political capacity and leadership, and it also merits a great deal of dialogue, of coordination; it merits a lot of effort, a lot of perseverance on the correct path of building a civilisation – as comrade Xi Jinping has said – a civilisation that allows the beautiful diversity of culture and the strength of the peoples of the planet to shine. A community of shared destiny; we fully share this concept, the community of shared destiny, and we believe that the historic moment has arrived, the moment of the peoples. Now the hour of the peoples has arrived, to build alternative models to savage capitalism, to neoliberal capitalism; an alternative model to hegemonism, to economic blackmail, to the attempt to impose domination on our peoples through coercion, blackmail and aggression.

Venezuela has resisted. I can say to you, comrades of the world, Venezuela is here, our country is moving, victorious and advancing on the paths of independence, of peace. Our time has come, President Xi Jinping, you can count on the full support of Venezuela, of our people and of the PSUV in the project of building a civilisation where we all belong, where we take the path of development, of equality, of ‘living by living’, as our indigenous people say; a new civilisation of peace, of harmony, of union, of shared development. We give our full support to this global initiative and I am sure that the years to come, with the efforts of all the peoples of the world, will be splendid years of achievements and progress. Of this we in Venezuela are sure.

Many thanks President Xi Jinping, many thanks presidents and companions of the world.