The following speech was delivered by Mick Kelly, Political Secretary, Freedom Road Socialist Organization on September 29, at the New York City event marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Comrades and friends,

We are gathered here for an event of genuine importance, and I would like to extend our gratitude to the Friends of Socialist China and the Workers World Party for taking the lead in making this happen.

For the past 75 years the People’s Republic of China, under the able leadership of the Communist Party, has accomplished so much for so many. From Chairman Mao Zedong’s 1949 proclamation, “The Chinese people have stood up,” right up until the present moment, China has set an example for the world. From carrying out a serious effort to eliminate poverty to being a leader in the application of green technology, socialist China has been showing the way.

And greater things lay ahead. At the most recent Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping stated, “All of us in the Party must stay true to our fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly, maintain a people-centered mindset, and carry out the mass line.” Later in his speech he noted, “The Party has made spectacular achievements through its great endeavors over the past century, and our new endeavors will surely lead to more spectacular achievements.”

I am certain I speak for all of us in wishing the People’s Republic of China many more victories on its 75th birthday. And that includes hoping for the successful and speedy conclusion of the great unfinished piece of business of the Chinese revolution – the historic mission of achieving reunification with Taiwan.

But all is not right in the world. We all know that. So, let’s examine the international situation, and some of its most important features, especially U.S. hostility towards People’s China, including economic and military measures undertaken by the White House and Pentagon, and the context in which these measures are taking place: the accelerating decline of U.S. imperialism.

The U.S. anti-China policy and imperialism in decline

The U.S. has an empire that spans the globe, but it is an empire in decline, as shown by some basic economic measures. The U.S. share of the world GDP has been halved since the end of World War II. The fall of the U.S steel industry illustrates this process. The plurality of steel was once produced in the U.S. and in 1955 it dominated about 40% of the world market. By 2019 the U.S. was one of the largest steel importers, only producing about 5% of the world’s steel. The same pattern can be shown in industry after industry.

Contrast this with socialist China. Using the measure of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), which allows one to compare which commodities and services can be purchased with a given currency, the World Bank concluded that the Chinese economy was 23% larger than that of the U.S. in 2022. China produces twice the electricity of the U.S. and almost three times as many autos. According to the Alliance for American Manufacturing, China’s shipbuilding capacity is 232 times greater than that of the United States. The economy of People’s China has grown by leaps and bounds since 1949 and, due to the superiority of socialism, it has never experienced a crisis of overproduction. The PRC is emerging as a central player in the world economy.

The U.S. response to its change in place has been significant. For all practical purposes, it has abandoned the drive for large scale multilateral trade agreements. The U.S. worked hard to establish the World Trade Organization, and now it blocks WTO functioning by refusing to appoint judges to the dispute resolution body. Once the champion of “free trade,” the U.S. is now the practitioner of protectionism.

In the context of declining empire, the U.S. is moving to “delink” its economy from China, and the Biden administration is following in the footsteps of Trump. A few weeks ago, on September 13, the White House announced tariffs of 100% on electric vehicles imported from China. Tariffs have been placed or will be imposed on many more China-made products, such as steel, lithium batteries, personal protection equipment such as masks and much, much more. Also, the Biden administration has elected to move away from the neoliberal model in so far as capital investment goes. There are two aspects to this: restricting investment in Chinese industries and adopting an industrial policy that steers investment to manufacturing. As a result, the greatest building boom in many decades –-possibly 50 years – of U.S. factories is underway.

The acceleration of the U.S. decline is shaping a host of other contradictions and the process of economic “delinking” from China is serious business, especially as it has been accompanied by a host of provocations, threats and war preparations.

War preparations and our tasks

For those of you who are readers of bourgeois foreign policy journals such as Foreign Affairs, you know that they regularly carry articles around the question of whether a U.S. war with China will be long or short. They really do. The Pentagon has made it clear that its number one priority is China, and that is reflected in military spending. It should be noted that it is trying to ensnare the counties of the Pacific into anti-China alliances and groupings – formal and informal. On top of this, the U.S. is getting ready to deliver its largest ever military aid package to Taiwan, a move that will embolden the separatist forces on the island.

People’s China wants peace, and U.S. is on a path towards war. The implications of this are huge and the revolutionary and progressive forces in this country have our work cut out for us. It is imperative that we actively oppose each and every U.S. war, its preparations for war, and stand in solidarity with the oppressed, from Palestine to the Philippines – and stand with the socialist countries like China. The People’s Republic of China is making the world a better place while the U.S is facilitating genocide in the Middle East – the choice is clear. We have a common enemy in the monopoly capitalists.

By standing together and uniting as one, the peoples of the world have a bright future. In 1956, Mao Zedong made the point, “Now U.S. imperialism is quite powerful, but in reality it isn’t. It is very weak politically because it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disliked by everybody and by the American people too. In appearance it is very powerful but in reality, it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe the United States is nothing but a paper tiger.”

So, in conclusion, away with the paper tiger! Long live the unity of the people of the U.S. with the Chinese people! Long live socialist China!

Thank you, and happy 75th to the People’s Republic of China.

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