China

NOVANEWS The China Threat Gravy Train by PETER LEE I would recommend that readers who have not yet done so create a Twitter account and subscribe to my feed (@chinahand).  To my embarrassment and surprise, I’ve churned out over 800 tweets since I started up my feed last November. Some of it is meaningless ephemera, of course.  But sometimes the twitter stream carries in it telling or insightful tweets that illustrate the dynamics of debate over US foreign policy as it evolves over a month, a week, or maybe even a day and are worth retweeting. And, of course, I put in my own two cents worth, hopefully in a telling and insightful fashion, on subjects that are perhaps too fleeting or developing too quickly for a post, but are significant nonetheless. For instance, I’ve become more attuned...

NOVANEWS Download PDF.  On the face of it, the Free Tibet movement seems to be one of those ‘feel good’ causes nobody can argue against, like helping disabled children, or saving the rainforest. All kinds of disparate groupings, from socialists to socialites, and fascists to fashionistas can be found outside the Chinese Embassy, shouting themselves hoarse in their passion to liberate Tibet from the evil clutches of ‘neo-imperial’ China. Why do representatives of imperialism, like George W Bush, support Free Tibet? Many Free Tibet campaigners have also campaigned against war on Iraq and the occupation of Palestine. They see themselves as standing for justice and against tyranny, and it is a wonder that more of them are not concerned that the Free Tibet movement (and China-bashing in gener...

LALKAR This article is a reprint of the one which first appeared in the issue of LALKAR for August/September 1992 Tienanmen Square: Chinese Counter-Revolution Crushed In the August/September 1989 issue of Lalkar we wrote an article entitled 'Chinese Counter-Revolution Crushed'. In this article, we exposed the lies of the imperialist media, and its flunkeys in the working-class movement - the Trotskyites, Revisionists and Social-Democrats - concerning the alleged "massacre" and "bloodbath" in Tienanmen Square, Beijing, on June 3-4 of 1989, by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the allegedly innocent students demanding no more than "democracy" and an end to corruption. We proved, by reference to unimpeachably solid imperialist sources, which cannot be suspected of entertaining any but the...

LALKAR China’s economic statistics for 2006 have been published. Its growth hit 10.7% in 2006, the fourth successive year of double digit growth. Its GDP reached $2.690 trillion last year and it is expected it will overtake Germany’s $3 trillion output some time this year. Its exports were up 27% in 2006. According to Tom Stevenson writing in the Daily Telegraph of 26 January 2007 (‘China and India lay foundations for domination’), “The country is awash with cash ... Its trade surplus of $177.5 billion has flooded the banking system with money, making it difficult for the government to control lending and investment. ... Surplus cash is finding its way into the country’s over-heated stock exchanges. Shares in Shanghai rose by more than 100% last year. ...” Its foreign reserves stand at $1....

Proletarian issue 57 (December 2013)   Report on the Fourth World Socialism Forum in Beijing. On behalf of the CPGB-ML, Comrades Harpal Brar and Ella Rule recently attended the Fourth World Socialism Forum, organised by the World Socialism Research Centre of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and the Centre for Contemporary World Studies of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCCPC). The theme of this year’s forum was ‘The current situation and the development trend of world socialism and leftist thoughts’. Held on 30-31 October at the conference hall of CASS, it hosted 91 participants, including 22 from abroad. The general consensus at the symposium was that socialism, being a far superior system to capitalis...

LALKAR by Utsa Patnaik Thirty years ago, a highly successful vilification campaign was launched against Mao Zedong, saying that a massive famine in which 27 to 30 million people died in China took place during the Great Leap period, 1958 to 1961, which marked the formation of the people’s communes under his leadership. The main basis of this assertion was, first, the population deficit in China during 1958 to 1961 and, second, the work of two North American demographers, A J Coale (Rapid Population Change in China 1952-1982, 1982) and Judith Banister (China’s Changing Population, 1987). No one bothered to look at the highly dubious method through which these demographers had arrived at their apocalyptic figures. The ‘estimate’ was later widely publicised by Amartya K Sen who built an entir...