According to a report from New China News Agency (Xinhua), “President Xi Jinping led the national mourning, which paid tribute to martyrs who sacrificed their lives fighting the outbreak and fellow Chinese who died.” Xi also serves as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.

In addition to public mourning ceremonies, the report stated “Subway trains in big cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, briefly suspended operations. Passengers stood up in subway cars. Station staff observed a moment of silence on the train platforms.”

Xinghua noted, “As domestic transmission has basically been curbed, China is putting more efforts to guard against imported cases, get people back to work and provide humanitarian aid to other countries and international organizations battling the pandemic.”

Socialist China is sending 1000 ventilators to New York City to help people struck by COVID 19.

#UnitedStates #US #Asia #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #China #InternationalSolidarity #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #Socialism #DonaldTrump #COVID19

The following speech was delivered by Fight Back! editor Mick Kelly at a Minneapolis October, 2019 celebration of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese revolution. Kelly is a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of Freedom Road Socialist Organization and is responsible for its international relations.

It is a real honor to be with you this evening to mark the 70th anniversary of the Chinese revolution. In October of 1949, the outstanding Marxist-Leninist, the main architect of China's revolutionary process, Mao Zedong, would proclaim in Beijing, “The Chinese people have stood up.”

The three great mountains that weighed on backs of the Chinese people – imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism – were thrown off, and the dawn of a new China had arrived. The China that was a playground for the so-called great powers had come to an end.

In the port city of Shanghai, foreign powers had taken physical control of parts of the city and in that part of the city that they ran, they had a park. And that park had a sign that read, “No Chinese or dogs allowed.” The 1949 victory of China’s war of national liberation and social emancipation marked the beginning of a new period Chinese history.

There are two points are important here.

The first is, just how big a change we are talking about, or, what were the conditions before the revolution?

The vast majority, more than 90%, of the people lived in countryside, and China was the land of famines. Repeated famines – let’s just pick one, the north China famine that started in 1928. That took the lives of 3 million or 5 million or 10 million people. The numbers are in dispute, but it is an absolute truth that repeated instances of mass starvation were a periodic feature of pre-1949 Chinese history.

These famines were not accidents caused by bad weather, or lack of rain, or flooding, although all those things were factors in some of them. The root cause was this: China’s feudal, then semi-feudal, system of agricultural production was incapable of meeting China’s food needs and in fact did not exist for the purpose of feeding people. It was a system that did what it was meant to do: enriching the landlord class and the merchants, while condemning the vast majority of rural folks to an ever-deepening poverty. Life in the countryside was turned into a nightmare, where parents sold children, there was no health care to speak of, and in 1949 the average person in China could expect to live 35 years.

Chinese workers also faced horrific conditions, but the working class was not particularly big, given that the imperialist powers blocked the path of industrial, national development and made China a dumping ground for their manufactured goods, pushing locally-produced commodities out of the marketplace.

What I am describing are conditions that are largely products of China’s class structure, but there is another dimension to this – and that is relatively simple to understand. The real rulers of China were not Chinese – they were to be found in Washington DC, on New York City’s Wall Street, in Berlin, London, Tokyo, and Paris – and they came to dominate China by force.

For example, in the mid-1800s the British waged a war on China for the ‘right’ to sell opium and make huge profits from the drug trade. That is how the British colonialists eventually came into possession of Hong Kong. Or, here is another – in 1899, the masses of Chinese people, weary of foreign overloads, decided to rebel in a big way. They formed the organization, a movement really, the Fists of Righteous Harmony, and challenged the foreigners who strutted about China’s cities. In the West this is sometimes called the “Boxer Rebellion.” The upshot is that American, British, German, Japanese and other imperialist powers would occupy Beijing, where they would burn historic buildings, carry out rapes and mutilations of the dead, and loot at will.

To digress for a second, this history is largely unknown or downplayed in the West, and this says something about bourgeois histography. If, in 1900, Chinese troops occupied Washington DC, burned the White House and looted the Smithsonian, we all know that every right-wing reactionary from Trump on down would be talking about it as if happened yesterday.

But back to where we were – China suffered under a succession of puppet governments, including that of Yuan Shikai, the multiple warlord regimes, and finally Chiang Kai Shek. These ‘leaders’ were unable to resist Western or Japanese imperialism and had no real desire to. They demonstrated this in the face of the Japanese invasion and occupation of much of China between 1932 and 1945.

These puppets were in fact backed by outside powers and stood at the apex of corrupt, parasitic system that empowered the landlords and a clique of crony capitalists for whom corruption was a way of life.

So that is point one, objective conditions — and I dealt with them at some length because it is impossible to say how far someone has come if you do not understand where they were starting from.

Point two is “How did New China come into being?” and here we are talking about a titanic struggle, which involved mass heroism on a scale rarely seen in human history.

Unfortunately, the limits on our time together this evening does now allow me to recount it. So, in the interests of time and summation, let me say this. While Mao, the revolutionaries of China, and the Chinese people did not have a magic carpet that allowed them to fly away from oppression – they did manage to create what Mao called the three magic weapons. And given that these weapons are important to revolutionaries everywhere, including right here in the U.S., they are worth recounting.

First, and most importantly, there was the issue of building revolutionary organization, and to that end the Communist Party of China was founded on July 23, 1921, and it immediately became as it remains today – the guiding force of China's revolutionary process. Building a new communist party is something that FRSO is working to do right here in the U.S.

The second magic weapon is the united front. In China’s case, uniting all who can be united to cast off imperialism and its lackeys, which included challenging the power of the landlords in the countryside. Here in this country we need to build a united front against the monopoly capitalists.

And finally, Mao took the lead in creating a people’s army, to wage an armed struggle, a protracted people’s war where the struggle in the countryside engulfs the cites. The exploiters and oppressors never surrender power of their own volition. Never have and never will. Sure, there are differences between the U.S. and China and revolution in this country will take place in cities. But the idea that the rulers of this country will step aside because people want to end capitalism is not rooted in a solid understanding of this country’s reality or history. The capitalists who run this country go into hysteria about losing something small 10,000 miles away. With their very existence as a class at stake, there is no chance they will surrender peacefully.

By making use of these three magic weapons, the Chinese people, led by the Communist Party of China, embarked on one of the most wonderous processes of social transformation ever known, creating a socialism with Chinese characteristics. In doing so they have changed the world as they have transformed China.

China and the world

The success of the Chinese revolution changed the course of world history. Perhaps some of you have seen old globes or maps from 1940s or 50s where large sections of Africa, Asia, some of Latin America and other places were denoted as colonial holdings. Belgium enslaves the Congo – a country that is larger than all Western Europe. France holds Algeria, The U.S. holds the Philippines, Puerto Rico, etc. You get the picture.

The victory in China radically accelerated the destruction and disintegration of the colonial system, as it served as an incredible inspiration to oppressed peoples everywhere. It also greatly strengthened the socialist camp and shifted the balance of forces on a world scale, signaling a decline of imperialism in general. And while over the past 70 years the decline of the imperial powers has been relatively constant, with a few exceptions – particularly the collapse and betrayal of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the shifting balance of forces stands out today in sharp relief.

The peaceful rise of China is underway. China now has the second biggest economy in the world and there is little doubt that it will soon have the largest. About half of the world’s steel is now produced in China. China produces more than twice and many cars than the U.S. each year. If there ever was an ‘American century,’ it is over now.

The rulers of the U.S. are panicking. Under the Obama administration, the U.S. undertook a ‘pivot towards Asia,’ which involved encircling China with a web of military bases, anti-China treaties and economic agreements. The Pentagon now speaks of preparing for war on China, and preparing for said war is now a higher priority among U.S. war planners than, say, counter-insurgency. There is a document called the National Defense Strategy that states, “the central challenge to U.S. prosperity and security is the reemergence of long-term strategic competition...” This means get ready for war with China.

The Trump administration has sharpened the conflict with China, the other imperialist powers, and the rest of the world for that matter, although there is a complexity to this which has more to do with the changing place of the U.S. in the world. China is just one part of that. There are two things worth noting here. One is the U.S. is abandoning or destroying the economic architecture that previous administrations worked so hard to create, including the World Trade Organization and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. These institutions and other factors (such as the role that the U.S. dollar plays as an international currency), had put U.S. at the very center of a world financial empire – but it is an empire that requires absolute and relative strength to maintain.

Secondly, the U.S. has opted for a far narrower strategy of increased rivalry with the other imperialist powers and a growing conflict with socialist China – for example, putting tariffs on an ever-widening spectrum of Chinese exports.

Finally, no discussion of U.S. policy towards China would be complete without looking at the U.S. policy of encouraging turmoil in China, such as the turmoil that is taking place in Hong Kong; the encouraging of a ‘peaceful evolution’ away from socialism; or reactionary separatism, such as that in Xingang or Tibet or Taiwan, to destroy China’s territorial integrity.

And just because they are the subject of considerable discussion, let’s talk a little bit about Tibet and Hong Kong. As for Tibet: the Dali Lama is much loved by Westerners afflicted with a spiritual vacuum – they have empty hearts and empty heads too. Old Tibet, under the rule of the Lamas, was hell on earth. It was a semi-slave, semi-feudal society that depended on serfs. They maintained their power by employing every sort of brutality. For example, gouging out the eyes of serfs who disobeyed or rebelled. Or burying peasants alive.

In 1959, this Lama slavocracy, which was alarmed by land reform, staged an uprising – yes, with firearms, not prayer wheels – against the central government, and was defeated. And this defeat is still celebrated in Tibet as Serf Emancipation Day. And a great day is was.

Or take Hong Kong. The recent Hong Kong protests come in response to a proposed extradition treaty between Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan and Macau. In 2018, a Hong Kong college student murdered his 20-year-old pregnant girlfriend while vacationing in Taiwan. Hong Kong law does not allow for his extradition, so Beijing wanted to address this. The results are a protest movement, which has a colonialist and pro-imperialist cast – with demonstrators waving British flags, carrying signs hailing Trump, and spending money from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy. This out there for everyone to see. It is shameful. Some people who call themselves leftist and progressives support it. It is unbelievable, but true. You can’t make this stuff up.

Great accomplishment of socialism

Now let’s turn to the accomplishments of Chinese socialism. One was mentioned at the onset of this talk as the issue of life expectancy. The average life expectancy of Chinese people rose 42 years, from 35 years in 1949 to 77 years in 2018. Let’s compare this to the U.S. where life expectancy has declined for three years in a row.

Or let’s take the issue of poverty. The World Bank, hardly a bastion of pro-socialist thought, reports that about 850 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty between the years 1981 and 2015. China’s goal is to bring extreme poverty to an end next year. And they are on track to doing it. Here in the capitalist U.S. ending poverty is not even a goal. Instead the U.S. wages a war on the poor.

Trade unions are encouraged by the Chinese government, which often compels foreign investors to recognize them. The All-China Federation of Trade Unions currently has about 300 million members.

Because China is not a capitalist country, there are no periodic crises of capitalism. Capitalism is governed by economic laws and so is socialism.

Let me quote for the from the General Program found in the Constitution of the Communist Party of China:

“The Communist Party of China is the vanguard of the Chinese working class, the Chinese people, and the Chinese nation. It is the leadership core for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and represents the developmental demands of China’s advanced productive forces, the orientation for China’s advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the greatest possible majority of the Chinese people. The Party’s highest deal and ultimate goal is the realization of communism.”

By communism, what we mean is a society without classes and class rule, and it the goal of communists everywhere. It’s our goal too.

Complexities and class struggle in China

Over the past 70 years, there can be no dispute about the fact that socialism in China has made remarkable strides forward. It is also beyond dispute that there is a large section of China’s economy that is, in essence, capitalist in nature and that gives play to the market. This sector has been harnessed to assist China’s development and faces restriction – for example state banking institutions favor state-owned enterprises, (production facilities and distribution networks) that are owned and controlled by the people’s government.

The result is that class struggle continues to be a factor in society and inside the Communist Party and it could not be otherwise. For example, in 1989 this class struggle took place on a big scale. Reactionary elements started a protest movement that made use of real social problems to advance an anti-socialist agenda. They gathered at Tiananmen Square and other places. It turned out that a section of the Communist Party, including its main leader at the time, Zhao Ziyang, went over to the turmoil.

Likewise, it can be said, even now, that some of the statements from the press of the Communist Party of China are not entirely Marxist, and the same can be said of some of its actions, so the class struggle, which includes the struggle between the capitalist and socialist roads, is bound to continue.

This method of stressing the strong points but noting the problems is approach that should be used by revolutionary and progressive persons. We wish the Chinese revolution well. If there are problems, there are problems and they can be acknowledged or talked about – there is nothing wrong with that.

But the method we reject is that of subjective idealism, where an image of socialism is created in one’s mind and that image is pitted against reality and then that reality ‘doesn’t measure up.’ Be it China, Cuba, or Democratic Korea – we all know people who pick up one or more imagined and/or real defect and then say, “Well it’s not socialism. It not socialism because it is not in accordance with what I want it to be.” This approach is wrong and ultimately foolish, and no one wants to be a fool.

Actually, existing, socialism in any country is the result of a concrete historic process that determines its problems, prospects and path of development.

For 70 years the Chinese revolution has contributed to making our world a better place. It is certain to do so for many more.

Long Live the People's Republic of China!

Long Live Socialism!

#MinneapolisMN #International #OppressedNationalities #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #China #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganizationFRSO #Socialism #ChineseRevolution

The reactionaries made their way through the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus “in solidarity with Hong Kong people against oppression on democracy and human rights.” Many of the ‘liberators’ wore black, and the leaders of the demonstration donned yellow armbands and face masks. Their demonstration coincided with the House of Representatives approval of the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019” seen by many as an incursion on Chinese sovereignty.

The two groups converged on the Coffman Student Union and were quickly separated by several campus police officers, who stood between them. Both sides carried flags and signs to reflect their respective messages. Visible on the side of the ‘pro-democracy’ demonstration were the flags of British colonial Hong Kong, Britain, Hong Kong, and the former flag of Tibet, while the opposing rally expressed their own sentiments with dozens of Chinese flags and a large symbolic pair of the five starred red flag and the flag of Hong Kong.

By 4 p.m. a crowd had gathered on the steps overlooking the rival demonstrations, with shows of support for both sides present. The Liberty for Hong Kong March had procured a megaphone. The pro-China counter-demonstration took action and drowned the speaker out with chants of “Shame on you!” “Hong Kong is part of China!” and “Take off your mask!”

Some Chinese students present sang The March of the Volunteers and other patriotic songs, which drew fervent applause from their compatriots. Meanwhile, the Liberty for Hong Kong demonstrators tried to ignore the rival demonstration, with the exception of several members who engaged in bouts of verbal sparring from across the lawn.

By 5 p.m., the Liberty for Hong Kong rally began to disperse and along with it the counter-demonstration. It was a quiet end to a loud and occasionally tense affair and there was very little interaction between the two sides as attendees on both sides trickled out. When asked about the counter-demonstration, one Chinese international student said that the rally was organized on the Chinese social media app WeChat by individual students after learning of the Liberty for Hong Kong March’s announcement on Facebook. He said that they wanted to provide a counter-narrative to prevent the spread of lies and violence. When asked if any particular group had organized the rally, he reiterated that it was organized only by individual students.

With the riots in Hong Kong becoming increasingly violent as popular support wanes, the presence of such demonstrations inside the U.S., as well as the potential passing of U.S. legislation on the riots, show that there will be further U.S. interference in China’s internal affairs.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #US #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #China #UniversityOfMinnesota #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #Socialism #DonaldTrump #HongKong

To mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Oct. 1, 1949 statement by Mao Zedong. Proclamation of the Central People's Government of the PRC

The people throughout China have been plunged into bitter suffering and tribulations since the Chiang Kai-shek Kuomintang reactionary government betrayed the fatherland, colluded with imperialists, and lunched the counter-revolutionary war. Fortunately our People's Liberation Army, backed by the whole nation, has been fighting heroically and selflessly to defend the territorial sovereignty of our homeland, to protect the people's lives and property, to relieve the people of their sufferings, and to struggle for their rights, and it eventually wiped out the reactionary troops and overthrew the reactionary rule of the Nationalist government. Now, the People's War of Liberation has been basically won, and the majority of the people in the country have been liberated. On this foundation, the first session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, composed of delegates of all the democratic parties and people's organization of China, the People's Liberation Army, the various regions and nationalities of the country, and the overseas Chinese and other patriotic elements, has been convened. Representing the will of the whole nation, [this session of the conference] has enacted the organic law of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, elected Mao Zedong as chairman of the Central People's Government; and Zhu De, Lui Shaoqi, Song Qingling, Li Jishen, Zhang Lan, and Gao Gang as vice chairmen [of the Central People's Government]; and Chen Yi, He Long, Li Lisan, Lin Boqu, Ye Jianying, He Xiangning, Lin Biao, Peng Dehuai, Liu Bocheng, Wu Yuzhang, Xu Xiangqian, Peng Zhen, Bo Yibo, Nie Rongzhen, Zhou Enlai, Dong Biwu, Seypidin, Rao Shushi, Tan Kah-kee [Chen Jiageng], Luo Ronghuan, Deng Zihui, Ulanhu, Xu Deli, Cai Chang, Liu Geping, Ma Yinchu, Chen Yun, Kang Sheng, Lin Feng, Ma Xulun, Guo Moruo, Zhang Yunyi, Deng Xiaoping, Gao Chongmin, Shen Junru, Shen Yanbing, Chen Shutong, Szeto Mei-tong [Situ Meitang], Li Xijiu, Huang Yanpei, Cai Tingkai, Xi Zhongxun, Peng Zemin, Zhang Zhizhong, Fu Zuoyi, Li Zhuchen, Li Zhangda, Zhang Nanxian, Liu Yazi, Zhang Dongsun, and Long Yun as council members to form the Central People's Government Council, proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China and decided on Beijing as the capital of the People's Republic of China. The Central People's Government Council of the People's Republic of China took office today in the capital and unanimously made the following decisions: to proclaim the establishment of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China; to adopt the Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference as the policy of the government; to elect Lin Boqu from among the council members as secretary general of the Central People's Government Council; to appoint Zhou Enlai as premier of the Government Adminstration Council of the Central People's Government and concurrently minister of Foreign Affairs as chairman of the People's Revolutionary Military Commission of the Central People's Government, Zhu De as commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army, Shen Junru as president of the Supreme People's Court of the Central People's Government, and Luo Ronghuan as procurator general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of the Central People's Government, and to charge them with the task of the speedy formation of the various organs of the government to carry out the work of the government. At the same time, the Central People's Government Council decided to declare to the governments of all other countries that this government is the sole legal government representing all the people of the People's Republic of China. This government is willing to establish diplomatic relations with any foreign government that is willing to observe the principles of equality, mutual benefit, and mutual respect of territorial integrity and sovereignty.

#China #PeoplesStruggles #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #MaoZedong #Asia

In the months leading up June 4, 1989, right-wing student leaders, aided by government officials who wanted a Western-style capitalism system, exploited some legitimate grievances and staged large demonstrations in cities across China.

In Beijing, the demonstrators attacked government buildings and the portrait of Mao Zedong that hangs in Tiananmen Square was vandalized. Troops attempting to restore order were met with extraordinary violence.

In the late 1980s and early 90s some leftists and progressives held that the 1989 protests were an attempt to improve socialism. They were proved wrong when many leaders of the protest movement turned up abroad, where they stated the aim of the movement was to establish capitalism and a Western-style political system.

Click here to read more about the events in Tiananmen Square.

#WashingtonDC #China #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #TiananmenSquare #Asia

At a Beijing symposium commemorating the 120th anniversary of the birth of Mao Zedong, Xi hailed Mao and other members of the older generation of revolutionaries as “great figures” in fighting national and class oppression, as well as “standing at the wavefront of the positive tide in the Chinese nation and world.”

Xi also said Mao, the principal founder of the CPC, the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the People's Republic of China, was “a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist and theorist.”

“Revolutionary leaders are not gods, but human beings,” Xi said. “(We) cannot worship them like gods or refuse to allow people to point out and correct their errors just because they are great; neither can we totally repudiate them and erase their historical feats just because they made mistakes.”

“Socialism with Chinese characteristics does not just fall from the sky,” Xi said, adding that it was achieved through the toil and sacrifice of the Party and the people.

The Xinhua report stated the Dec. 26 symposium held “at the Great Hall of People was presided over by Liu Yunshan and attended by other leaders including Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli. Before the symposium, the seven top leaders visited Mao's mausoleum in Tian'anmen Square, making three bows toward Mao's seated statue and paying their respects to the remains of Mao.”

#China #Socialism #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #MaoZedong #XiJinping #Asia

“History is the best textbook,” he said, calling it a “compulsory course” for senior officials to review the experience over the past 92 years of the CPC – and since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 – in a bid to further the country's development along the socialist path.

“In a bid to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Party must follow its own path, conform to the trends of the whole world, represent the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of Chinese people, strengthen Party construction and consolidate confidence in socialism with Chinese characteristics,” he said.

#China #Socialism #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #CommunistPartyOfChina #XiJinping #Asia

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today condemned the planned entry of up to 4,000 armed US troops in the Philippines over the next few days “which is a display of extreme contempt against Philippine sovereignty and a show of force in the face of heightened US war preparations in the Korean peninsula.”

Up to 30 US jet fighters and an American naval carrier, the USS Tortuga, are also set to be deployed in Manila, Central Luzon and other areas, from 5 to 17 April, in line with the 2013 Balikatan military exercises between the US military and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

“By pushing through with the Balikatan 2013 exercises amidst increasing military tensions in the Korean peninsula, the Aquino regime is allowing the Philippines to be dragged by the US government to its military conflicts against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK),” said the CPP.

“The Filipino peoples denounce the Balikatan 2013 military exercises and demand the immediate pull-out of all American troops currently stationed in the Philippines, including the 700-strong Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) of the US Pacific Command permanently based in Zamboanga,” added the CPP.

“The CPP denounces the US military and government for deceiving the Filipino people about the real intention of the so-called joint military exercises which are being portrayed by the US as serving humanitarian assistance and disaster preparedness,” said the CPP. “For the past several years, the US has been using humanitarian and disaster operations in order to surreptitiously carry out combat and intelligence operations and setup their spy and communications network and infrastructure.”

“The so-called joint military exercises are nothing but preparations and muscle-flexing of the US in order to put the Philippine military under its command and make use of the Philippines as its outpost in the possibility of launching a war of aggression anywhere in the Asia-Pacific region,” said the CPP.

“The Filipino people clamor for an independent foreign policy demand that the Philippines not be dragged in any of the war being launched by the US against another sovereign country,” added the CPP.

“The Asia-Pacific military strategy of the US is to keep tens of thousands of its combat troops forward stationed in the Asia-Pacific in its naval carriers, military bases and outposts from South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia to Australia,” said the CPP.

“The aim is to impose its imperialist hegemony, put pressure on China and other countries to toe US economic policy and make threats of war and aggression against any country who refuse to uphold US imperialist trade and investment policy directives.”

The US Pacific Command currently maintains a force of more than 80,000 armed troops in the Asia-Pacific including 30,000 troops stationed in US bases in South Korea and 50,000 American troops in Japan.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippines #DemocraticPeoplesRepublicOfKorea #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #USImperialism #Asia

San José, CA – In the past few days, the Japanese government has accused China provoking Japanese navy ships near the Chinese Diaoyu Islands, which lie about 120 miles northeast of Taiwan. The new nationalist Japanese government is continuing to increase military tensions with China by sending naval forces and military aircraft to the islands, which are occupied by Japan, which calls them the Senkaku Islands. In addition, the U.S. still recognizes the Japanese occupation and says that it will back Japan militarily under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.

The Diaoyu Islands were taken from China by Japan following Japan’s victory over the Ching (Manchu) dynasty government of China in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. After the war the Chinese government was also forced to allow Japan to occupy Taiwan, and recognize the independence of Korea, which was later also occupied by Japan. After the defeat of Japan in World War II, the U.S. transferred control of the Diaoyu Islands to Japan instead of returning them to China. The Diaoyu Islands are among the last of the territories seized by Japan during its imperial expansion which began in 1879 with the annexation of Okinawa and ended with Japan’s defeat at the end of World War II in 1945.

The new Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzoo Abe, is a longtime nationalist politician who has tried to downplay Japan’s imperial past and atrocities committed by the Japanese occupation forces in China and other countries. In the 1990s Abe supported attempts to rewrite Japanese history textbooks to claim that the rape and massacre of Nanjing by Japanese troops in 1937, which killed more than 250,000 Chinese, was “open to debate.” Japanese nationalists also tried to revive the false view that the Japanese occupation of East and Southeast Asia was aimed at kicking out European colonists and helped later independence movements.

Abe has also denied the Japanese government’s role in enslaving Korean and Chinese women to be prostitutes for the Japanese military (the so-called ‘comfort women’.) He has visited the Yasukuni shrine, where many of Japan’s Class A War Criminals (those responsible for leading Japan’s brutal occupation during World War II) are interred and has suggested that they were not really war criminals. By trying to cover up and deny Japan’s past of war and occupation, Abe is laying the basis for Japan to try to restore its former imperial glory at the expense of its neighbors, in particular China and Korea. Abe supports changing Japan’s constitution to remove its article on peace, and has been a long-time supporter of expanding Japan’s military. One of his first acts as Prime Minister was to increase funding for the military.

Anti-war activists, Japanese American progressives, and supporters of civil liberties need to recognize that the Diaoyu Islands are Chinese territory taken by Japan in 1895 and see Japan’s military build-up as a threat to peace in the Asia. We also need to oppose the U.S. government’s military backing of Japan, which could further move the U.S. down the road to military conflict with China.

#SanJoséCA #China #Japan #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #Asia

“As many other countries, China maintained normal cooperation with Iran in energy, economy and trade fields,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said when asked to comment on the sanction for the news agency.

The report also stated: “The United States attempted to internationalize its unilateral sanction measures against Iran, and to implement sanction against the Chinese company according to its domestic law, ‘which is groundless,’ Liu said.”

#BeijingChina #Beijing #China #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #Xinhua #ZhuhaiZhenrongCorporation #Asia

“Tens of thousands of Chinese flocked to Shaoshan and Tian'anmen Square, two major shrines for Mao Zedong, as well as other public venues on Monday, burning incense, eating noodles and singing “red songs” to mark the late leader's 118th birthday.

“Normally, the mausoleum of Mao on the Tian'anmen Square in Beijing is closed on Mondays for maintenance, but today tens of thousands swarmed to the mausoleum to pay their respects.

“In front of the mausoleum's south gate, about 20 people, who wore red-star caps and pinned Mao badges, faced the shrine and sang “The East Is Red,” which extols the deeds of Chairman Mao and was a well known anthem for every city and village's public address system during Mao's reign.

“After bowing three times, the group punched their fists in the air while hailing ‘Long Live Chairman Mao.’”

“’Chairman Mao is our great savior. Chairman Mao genuinely loved the underprivileged and hard-working people,’ said a tearful Nie Yeping, a 57-year-old woman from the southwestern city of Chongqing.”

#China #ChineseCommunistParty #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #MaoZedong #Asia

Berkeley, CA – In October of 1952, more than 400 delegates and observers from 37 countries gathered in Beijing, China for the Peace Conference of the Asian and Pacific Regions. Two of the delegates from the United States were Mary Bonzo and Lewis Suzuki. In the 50 years since the conference, both Mary and Lewis have remained active fighters for peace and supporters of national liberation movements. In August, both spoke at a program to commemorate the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The program was sponsored by Nosei, a group of younger Japanese American activists in San Francisco and the East Bay. I spoke with Mary and Lewis after the program.

Naomi: The Peace Conference was held just three years after the founding of the People's Republic of China. What were your impressions of socialist China?

Mary: I found a co-American delegate who could read and write Chinese. Because of his skills, we wandered around in Peking. He was able to ask people what was going on as they gathered around a policeman. The people were arguing with the policeman about some of his behavior. They kept calling him 'comrade.' This amazed me, since I had been picked up several times and threatened by police in the U.S. No argument allowed.

Madam Sun Yet Sun [Soong Ching Ling, who chaired the Peace Conference] took the lead in organizing the women. Women were meeting everywhere. They were learning to read along with their children. They were earning the same as the men in the family. They accused their tormentors of the crimes they had committed against them. They had joined the Red Army and fought as well as males. “We have stood up,” they said proudly to us.

Naomi: How did the Peace Conference address the struggle for peace in Korea in the midst of the Korean War?

Mary: Korean delegates were angered by the U.S. use of bacterial and chemical-laden bombs against the people of Korea and northeast China. In North Korea, the U.S. dropped bombs that spread cholera, typhoid, bubonic plague and other infectious diseases from Jan. 28 to March 11 in 1952. The bombs covered an area of six provinces and twenty cities.

The Association of Democratic Lawyers, the International Scientific Commission and leading friends of peace documented accurate evidence as to the use of germ warfare by the U.S. forces. Because the news was spread abroad, germ bombing stopped. The next U.S. tactic was saturation bombing of North Korean cities. An exhibit of the bombs that carried the germs was organized in Peking.

We (the United States) have weapons of mass destruction and have used them. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are well known. Bacteriological weapons used in Korea are less well known. There is also the forgotten use of the Bikini Atoll as U.S. nuclear test sites, and the list can go on.

Naomi: After World War II, many countries of the Third World rebelled against their colonial masters. What did you learn about the relationship between national liberation struggles and the movement for peace?

Mary: There is no peace without national liberation and national sovereignty. All nations must have the right to develop their own resources. We learned that one can love one's country and defend it as needed; and also criticize and protest its policy when it infringes on another nation. A country's national interests cannot be allowed to infringe on another nation.

True peace means a full livelihood, health care, and education for all citizens. This is unavailable to most people in Africa, Asia, and much of Latin America. The people do not own their own resources.

Naomi: Would you like to say anything about the struggle for peace today?

Lewis: First of all, we (the United States) cannot invade other countries like Iraq just because we don't like their government. We need to respect the sovereignty of other nations. Secondly, we shouldn't be labeling national liberation movements such as the New People's Army of the Philippines as “terrorists” and then send thousands of U.S. troops there under the guise of “fighting terrorism.” I am very hopeful for the peace movement in this country. Many of the new immigrant communities and in the environmental movement see the need for peace.

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