Frank Creyelman is a far-right politician in the Kingdom of Belgium. He is active in reactionary nationalist politics since 1977, when Creyelman joined the Flemish National Party. This party changed its name to Flemish Block and was dissolved by the Belgian court for spreading racism and hatred of minorities. Creyelman then joined Flemish Interests, a new far-right party. He entered the Belgian parliament for the first time in 1995. After serving the far-right as a veteran, it was revealed that Frank Creyelman was a spy for the Ministry of State Security of the People’s Republic of China since 2020.
Creyelman was never a supporter of tolerance, he loved right-wing dictatorships. It is not surprising that he choose to work for the Ministry of State Security of the Chinese capitalist dictatorship. Because Frank Creyelmann is known in Belgium as a die-hard supporter of Vladimir Putin. He visited Moscow often and was praised by the propaganda of the Putin Empire as a friend of the Kremlin. He supported the reactionary separatists in eastern Ukraine and when Russia invaded, he sided with the Kremlin. Flemish Interests tried to keep up a democratic facade, but the actions of Creyelman have exposed them again as a party of dictatorship lovers!
Because, despite what the capitalist media may claim, China is not socialist. The People’s Republic of China is a (state)capitalist dictatorship, with the Chinese ”Communist” Party actively promoting Chinese nationalism. In a way, the Flemish nationalists and the CCP share right-wing authoritarianism. We say that the CCP is by no means a workers party, despite their use of communist symbols. For years the party moved so far to the right, we call them not even Stalinist anymore. The CCP has become what the old Chinese Nationalist Party of Chiang Kai Shek used to be. A party of nationalists, state bureaucrats, millionaires and billionaires.
Frank Creyelman did not spy for the People’s Republic of China because of love for the ”Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”. No! He spied for China because Beijing paid hem. This is the oldest way of getting intelligence, you pay corrupt members of the opposite side. Both the KGB and CIA used this method during the First Cold War. Now in the Second Cold War, this old tactic is used again and Frank Creyelman is not the only one. During Qatargate it was revelled that social-democratic members of the European parliament were paid money to glorify the State of Qatar.
Flemish Interests expelled Frank Creyelman from their ranks. They had no choice as their veteran had worked for the Chinese for over three years. In the Second Cold War, we can assume that more corrupt members of the capitalist establishment are paid by eastern imperialism, to spy for them. At the same time western imperialism will use the same methods. We must not think that our intelligence agencies are not doing the same thing as the Ministry of State Security of the People’s Republic of China or the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.
In this Second Cold War, we call on workers not to take side. Western imperialism and eastern imperialism are not the allies of workers as they both serve their ruling classes. China and Russia are not the banners of anti-imperialism and America and Europe do not represent human rights and democratic freedoms. Socialism is the only alternative out of poverty, racial injustice and global issues such as climate change and war. International Socialist Alternative (ISA) calls on the trade union movement to fight for:
Inoculation against inflation and competition between workers in Europe: (restoration of) a sliding scale of wage across Europe!
Refinance public services: make the billionaires and big business pay. Use the profits for a socially just ecological transition and massive reinvestment of public services.
Stop the repayment of public debt. For progressive profit and wealth taxes up to and including nationalisation of the financial sector to stop capital flight.
There are no monetary and fiscal solutions to the crisis of capitalism: nationalisation of key sectors of the economy under the control of the labour movement.
This is the only way out of the crisis that capitalism has created. Only by unity of workers can we end the imperialist competition and conflicts.
Made in China is now on almost all plastic and electronic products as of 2023. Starting in the 1990’s, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) quickly replaced America, Europe and Japan as the main producer of plastic products and electronica. Western capitalists all moved their production sites to China by the year 2010. Millions of production jobs were lost in the west, which led to hatred and fear of Chinese products. For a long time many products that were products from Chinese developers, were called ”inferior” to western designed products. However the Chinese capitalist class is learning and is improving, much to the fear of western capitalists who now claim that electronic products made in China, may spy for the Chinese ”Communist” Party.
Huawei is a major producer of smartphones and electronics. It was set up in 1987 by a former colonel of the People’s Liberation Army, who is now a billionaire and part of the Chinese capitalist class. Officially the company is owned by its workers, this is called employee stock ownership. The Huawei Investment & Holding is led by the Representatives’ Commission which selects Huawei Holding’s board of directors and Board of Supervisors. However it is for outsiders impossible to see who is actually in charge. We revolutionary socialists do not think that workers of Huawei have any actual control. We must not forget that the All-China Federation of Trade Unions is stationed in any Chinese company. This pseudo-trade union is not under the control of workers, it is an organisation that controls Chinese workers for the CCP dictatorship.
In the western world, governments fear that Chinese products could collect data that could help the CCP dictatorship. Revolutionary socialists do not disagree with that. Chinese companies are forced to obey the Chinese government as western companies like Apple are forced to obey the U.S government. Let us not forget that Edward Snowden told us how the National Security Agency in the USA is able to spy on Americans, with data coming from smartphones produced by Apple. This shows us that your data is not save, because both the Chinese government and American government have the power to collect them at will. Companies like Apple and Huawei might say they would never do that, but reality shows us that governments are willing and able to collect your personal data.
Huawei was banned from using Google products by the Trump and Biden administration. Proof of spying for the Chinese government has never been shown. Worse, Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada and extradited to the USA on false charges of bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracies to commit bank and wire fraud. She was forced to live in a U.S prison for three years until all charges against her were dropped and she could leave the ”land of the free”. This shows us how far the USA is willing to go in their crusade against Chinese products. For many years the American and European ruling class looked down on Chinese products as inferior. But in the last 10 years, the Chinese capitalists have learned and they are producing products at lower prices. This alarms the western capitalists who now see billions of dollars and euros going to Chinese products, who are getting closer and closer to the quality of western products.
The European Union claims to be a bastion of free trade. But this is a lie as free trade is only acceptable for capitalists inside the EU and the USA. After the European market was flooded with Chinese products the EU decided to enforce an import fee for Chinese products. This show us that the European mentality about ”free trade” is only a propaganda slogan. Free trade only for European and American capitalists. We revolutionary socialists expose this hypocrisy as we oppose free trade from the reality that it harms workers. Capitalists in China produce much cheaper as they care little about human and environmental costs. This is why the USA, China and India are the biggest polluters on the planet. They see nature as something to be exploited.
Should we fear Chinese products like smartphones and electronics? Yes and no! We know that the PRC is a dictatorship, a dictatorship that uses massive surveillance to control its working class. But in the western world, governments have the same means to force companies to hand over their data. Facebook, Google and others are not save from the U.S government as Huawei is from the Chinese government. We are in a new Cold War between western imperialism on one side and eastern imperialism on the other side. The USA and China are in a major world battle for control and dominance. Working class people are suffering as this imperialist Cold War only benefits the class who owns the means of production. China is not a socialist country and not a beacon of opposition to western imperialism. Despite some Marxist rhetoric’s, the Xi regime is build on brutal state-capitalism with Chinese characteristics.
Many right-wing commentators claim that China is socialist. Even those leftists of the Stalinist tradition still claim that the CCP regime is socialist. We revolutionary socialists have never called the government in Beijing that. What Mao Zedong build in 1949 is not what we call a state under the control of the working class. Mao build on the Soviet Stalinist system, meaning a single party state and a top-down economy run by state managers, not working class people. After 1980, the CCP moved away from Maoism (Chinese Stalinism) and adopted state-capitalism. After years of technocratic rule by Hu Jintao, the CCP fully embraced Chinese nationalism as its ideology. This means that genuine socialists are seen as a threat to the state-capitalist dictatorship!
A witch hunt against leftist opponents of the regime is not new in China. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong used millions of young teenagers (Red Guards) to intimidate, bully and arrest the opponents of Maoism. Between 1966 and 1980, the country was in a deep state of shock and there was a halt in development as Mao forced ideological dogmatism on all. North Korea is the last country that also enforced political dogmatism on its working class. Revolutionary socialists have always opposed what the Maoists and Stalinists did. We rejected the cult of personality around Stalin and opposed the way Mao carried out his reign.
The return of capitalism to China is not because the right-wing of the Chinese Communist Party won a factional struggle. Pro-capitalist leaders like Deng Xioaping simply no longer cared about ideological dogmatism. For them the Maoist ideas had failed. Deng believed that China needed capitalism to grow and maybe build socialism in the far future. This he did while never being the official general secretary or leader of the Chinese Communist Party. Deng was a leader in the background, even after 1990 and his retirement, Deng Xiaoping remained the de facto leader until he died in 1997.
Hu Jintao was the general secretary of the CCP from 2002 until 2013. His reign was marked by technocratic and collective rule. Chinese nationalism was reintroduced under Hu as a means to keep China together under CCP rule. Although the party did not tolerate criticism from liberals, it did not yet fully attacked leftists. This changed in the last two years of Hu Jintao. The CCP became more aggressive against criticism from Marxist socialists like Zhang Shujie from Chongqing, a regular contributor to the underground magazine; Socialist. Zhang Shujie was arrested by the secret police in 2011.
Zhang was forced to travel to Hong-Kong to spy for the secret police. They forced him to spy on the League of Social-Democrats, a social democratic party in Hong-Kong. The secret police were living under the assumption that the LSD was part of the former Committee for a Workers International (now International Socialist Alternative). With the help of Joe Higgins (socialist MEP for Ireland in 2011), Zhang Shujie fled China and got political asylum in Sweden.
After 2011, the CCP started to attack more leftists, even supporters of Mao Zedong are not spared. With the rise of Xi Jinping, the state turned hard-core nationalist. Today anybody who criticises or opposes CCP rule is arrested and jailed, no matter if you are a conservative, liberal, social-democrat, socialist, Marxist or Maoist. The Chinese ”Communist” Party does not tolerant criticism and the case of Chai Xiaoming is another example. Chai Xiaoming was arrested four years ago and has not been sentenced. He is waiting four years for a show trial.
Chai Xiaoming wrote for a Maoist leaning website. He played a large role in the struggle of workers in the Jasic factory in the southern city of Shenzhen. The Jasic struggle became a widely followed cause among leftist youth and students in China, some of whom travelled down to Shenzhen to take an active part in the struggle. The CCP was alarmed by the growing radicalization of young Chinese and their opposition to the capitalist system. By arresting Maoists and socialists, the CCP hopes to silence a growing movement of young anti-capitalists.
The regime claims that Chai and others were under ”control of foreigners”. This is how the CCP tries to use ethnic nationalism to hide the fact that their have betrayed everything Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and even Mao Zedong stood for. In reality foreign capitalist regimes have never supported workers in the struggle. Imperialist governments from the western world, have all sided with China and never cared about the abuses and low wages of workers. The current Cold War between China and the West is because of Xi Jinping’s imperialist ambitions to compete with the West.
Revolutionary socialists therefore oppose the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese ”Communist” Party. However we do not stand with the hypocritical liberals, conservatives and social-democrats, who now call for action against China. These hypocrites never raised their voices when China was not yet competing with them for imperialist control. When technocrats like Hu Jintao ruled, western nations all loved China for its cheap workers. Today workers in the PRC are not as docile as ten years ago. Chinese workers have the power to overthrow the CCP. If the masses rise up, nothing can stop them!
The People’s Republic of China is showing its military against the Republic of China. Few would understand why there are two China’s in the world. One is a very big country that has the most millionaires and the other is a tiny island not recognized because of bigger China. The island of Taiwan is not the name of the political entity that rules it. Taiwan is the last bastion of the pre-war Republic of China, which was defeated in the Chinese civil war between Maoists and Nationalists.
Between 1927 and 1949, the Communist Party of China and the Nationalist Party of China fought a bitter war. It all started when the Nationalists betrayed the communist party and purged its members from the nationalist party. Communists and nationalists had been working together since 1921 and on order from the Communist International, the communists had joined the Nationalist Party of China (Kuomintang). Nationalist leader Chiang Kai Shek however hated Marxists and led a purge of the party in 1927, killing 50.000 suspected communists.
Mao Zedong was not yet the full leader of the communist party. However he played a major role in the early 1930’s when he led the Chinese Soviet Republic. It was not until 1935 when Mao was made military leader that he also was more or less party leader. Mao and Chiang hated each other, but they were Chinese nationalist and willing to work together against the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. Mao disbanded the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army and forced their members into the National Revolutionary Army of the anti-communist Nationalists.
By 1945, the Communist Party of China was under full control of Mao Zedong. By then he had abandoned classic Marxism and opted for a peasant revolution instead of a proletarian one. His ideals became known as Maoism. The Nationalists of Chiang Kai Shek had lost the popular support of the peasantry and working class. Only the small bourgeoisie and large landowners supported them. Internationally the USA aided the Nationalists, while the Soviet-Union armed the Maoists. On 10 August 1945, the Chinese civil war between the Maoists and Nationalist resumed. The new People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at first was weaker and smaller.
However the Nationalists experienced massive defections of soldiers to the Maoists. By 1949, the National Revolutionary Army was forced to flee the Chinese mainland to the island of Taiwan. Here Chiang Kai Shek was able to keep his capitalist Republic of China alive, while Mao Zedong created the People’s Republic of China. The USA supported Chiang until 1971, when it became clear that the Maoist Chinese were a better ally against Moscow then the anti-communists on Taiwan. Washington DC betrayed and abandoned the Nationalists who were kicked out of the United Nations.
The Republic of China on Taiwan changed over time. From a dogmatic totalitarian anti-communist state, it evolved into a bourgeois democratic state after the 1980’s. This was possible because the Nationalist Party of China accepted a multi party system. They lost the presidency to a Taiwanese nationalist for the first time in 2000, but it was not until 2016 when the parliament of Taiwan got a majority for Taiwanese nationalists not Chinese nationalists.
Politics on the island are dominated between two nationalist camps. One is Taiwanese nationalist and the other is Chinese nationalist. The older Nationalist Party of China still holds on to the Republic of China, while the Democratic Progressive Party (Taiwanese nationalist) wishes for a independent Taiwan in the future. Meanwhile the ”Communist” Party of China on the mainland has abandoned Maoism in favour of right-wing nationalism and grown very close to the politics of the Chinese nationalists on Taiwan.
The Taiwanese nationalists have kept their majority in the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China. But they do not have a two-third majority to change the constitution. This is why there is still a Republic of China, although the name Taiwan is now more often used now that the Chinese nationalists are not in power. The state-capitalist regime of the former-Maoists on the mainland demands that Taiwan returns to the People’s Republic of China as a submissive province.
85% of all people on the island do not want this. They do not want to be part of a dictatorial nationalist country like the PRC of Xi Jinping. But Beijing does not care about what the Taiwanese working class wants. They are driven by right-wing nationalism and have ordered more combat trainings very close to Taiwan. However unlike Ukraine, Taiwan has a protection treaty with the USA and Japan. Meaning that American imperialism will intervene would China attack.
How with the war in Ukraine, the Chinese mainland is showing off its imperialist ambitions to conquer Taiwan. Internationally the island is recognized by the UN as part of China. The only thing that has prevented Beijing from invading it has been the USA and Japan. But if it becomes clear that Washington does not intervene, it is very possible that the island will be attacked. The Chinese nationalist regime of Xi Jingping wants to control all of China including the islands of the former anti-communists.
In the last 20 years the Nationalist Party and pseudo-Communist Party has moved closer. The KMT (Nationalist) and CCP (ex-Maoist) have a common enemy; the Taiwanese nationalists. Anticommunism used to be a major rift, but now that the CCP has abandoned the ideas of Mao in all but name, the KMT is willing to speak to their former enemy. An independent Taiwan stands against the the idea of Greater China and so the Nationalists and ex-Maoists have something to agree on!
Dictator Xi is training his troops for a future invasion of Taiwan. In August the PLA was training very close to the island. The Taiwanese nationalist led government of Tsai Ing-wen has made it clear that they are willing to fight and defend their (limited) democracy. However unlike Ukraine, there is no intelligence that say that Beijing is preparing for a actual invasion. The Russian imperialists invaded Ukraine because that country was not protected by a superpower.
Revolutionary socialists oppose both the Taiwanese nationalists of the Democratic Progressive Party and the Chinese nationalists of the Nationalist Party of China & ”Communist” Party of China. A independent capitalist Taiwan is no alternative to the current capitalist Republic of China. What Taiwan and China needs is socialism, democratic control from below and a economy run by workers for workers. The nationalists on both sides are ready for war. Workers need to oppose that and fight for independent working class politics.
Since the start of 2022, western imperialism claims that Russia will invade Ukraine. Proof of such is not given by the imperialists in Washington DC and Brussels. Russia claims that they are not invading Ukraine, but the USA is saying that an invasion of the former Soviet republic is imminent. The Americans have not been able to provide anything that could indicate that the Kremlin wishes to conquer Ukraine. Should Vladimir Putin decide to invade, he risks serious damage to Russia both military, financially and socially. Although the Russian Army could conquer all of Ukraine, the costs would be very high.
Despite 8 years of a pro-western government, working class Ukrainians are still suffering from low wages, deep inequality and capitalist barbarism. Since the 1990’s, only a few rich (like former president Poroshenko) benefited from the return of capitalism. At the end of the 20th century over 55% of all Ukrainians were living in poverty, thanks to the capitalist politics of ex-Stalinist leaders like Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma. They privatized the Soviet Ukrainian economy and created a wild west for capitalists to exploit millions
Kuchma ruled Ukraine from 1994 until 2005. Like Kravchuk before him, Kuchma sold off billions to greedy capitalists and created poverty for millions. Both men were members of the elitist Stalinist caste of parasites, who ruled Soviet Ukraine. They changed colours after the failed 1991 Soviet coup in Moscow. Kravchuk and Kuchma embraced the bourgeois symbols of the first capitalist Ukrainian state and installed them as state symbols on 24 August 1991.
Today in early 2022, the number of Ukrainians living with low incomes is around 45% of the total population. Covid-19 has hit the country hard, but even before the virus came millions had to struggle each month due to low incomes. The capitalist system and the corrupt government are to blame. Oligarch president Petro Poroshenko used anticommunism and Ukrainian nationalism to hide the fact that his politics only benefited the superrich. He lost the election in 2019 to a comedian.
Now the western imperialists are trying to provoke the Russian bully. This is not a good idea since Moscow is all about keeping NATO from closing in on them. The Kremlin is paranoid and might resort to violence in order to keep NATO out, they already took Crimea and parts of Donbass. Among ethnic Russians in Ukraine, there is support for Putin because the Kremlin has build a massive propaganda machine around them.
Crimea under Ukraine was neglected and under control of pro-Russian politicians long before the Euro-Maidan. The peninsula was not given much attention by the capitalist rulers in Kiev. Ethnic Russians felt abandoned and betrayed. They voted for pro-Russian candidates in elections like Viktor Yanukovych, despite that these figures always worked with oligarchs against ordinary workers. Since Ukraine lacks a genuine left-wing opposition, the Communist Party of Ukraine was often said to be left-wing.
This is however not correct! The Communist Party of Ukraine fully supported the capitalist government of Yanukovych (2010-2014) and sided with the Kremlin in almost all foreign manners. Like the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Communist Party of Ukraine is a social-conservative party that stands against women’s rights, gay-rights and migrant workers. For them the state-capitalist model of the Communist Party of China is the way forward. Proofing to us revolutionary socialists the anti-Marxist nature of the CPU.
Now the western world is sounding the drums of war against Russia. This is clear indication of modern day imperialism fight against each other for control. Western imperialism faces off eastern imperialism. With eastern imperialism we mean the state-capitalist dictatorships of Russia and China, who are the dominating force in Asia. We revolutionary socialists say that peace cannot be build by forces loyal to imperialism. Not the USA, Russia, China, EU, NATO or even the United Nations.
Peace can only be created by ending the very system that is driving the drums of war each time and that is capitalism. The enemy is not the Russians nor the Americans, the enemy is not the average Russian soldier or Ukrainian soldier. The enemy of working class people are those who control the means of production, who own television networks and mislead working class people. We talk here about people like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg. Together these capitalists own over 1.000 billion U.S dollars in wealth, while 689 million people live in extreme poverty on less than 1.90 U.S dollars a day!
As International Socialist Alternative explains:
“The main enemy is at home,” German revolutionary Karl Liebknecht said in 1915. He meant that the working class of one country should not fight against the working class of another country, because they have the same interests, while they have nothing in common with their own ruling class. It is for this reason that members of the ISA, whether campaigning against western imperialism in the US, or facing arrest in Russia for opposing the Kremlin’s role in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine are all united in opposing the calls for war over the Ukraine, refusing to support either Russian or Western imperialism, or Chinese, German, or any other imperialism, and calling for united working class struggle against the warmongers and the capitalist system they represent.
Ukrainian workers are pushed into this new Cold War. The USA is sending troops to eastern Europe, while the Kremlin has surrounded Ukraine with 130.000 troops. Russian soldiers are also stationed in Belarus were dictator Lukashenko welcomed them. He said that Belarus would stand with Russia in any conflict. He has little choice since the dictator has isolated himself and can only turn to Russia to aid. Meanwhile western viewers are told each day that Russia is about to attack Ukraine.
In Russia, the state controls most media outlets and does not tell the story that way. They portray Russia as under siege by foreign forces. Ukraine is portrayed as ”failed” and under ”foreign” control. Russians are so mislead into thinking that an attack on Ukraine is justified to defend Mother Russia. The reality is that Ukraine is not a puppet of the west. Its government is pro-western but it is not part of NATO. We socialists say true peace cannot be build by capitalist politicians in service of a minority of owners.
We demand the full nationalization of the war industry and the the overthrow of the ruling political elites and their replacement by democratic structures of the workers and oppressed. Ukrainian workers must link up with Belarusian and Russian workers to fight against their common enemy. The very capitalist system that is pushing for war and death. As the German revolutionary: Karl Liebknecht once said, capitalism is war, socialism is peace.
Western workers must reject the war drums of the USA and the EU. Opposing the national European governments and their ”support Ukraine” line. Supporting the corrupt Ukrainian government is not helping its working class. Sending western arms to Kiev is not ending the war, it is only fuelling the Russian state propaganda about ”Ukraine under foreign control”. Therefore we revolutionary socialists take no side. We reject western imperialism and eastern imperialism, no support to Biden or Putin.
A capitalist war always means profit for the owners of the war industry. Billions were made during the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military industrial complex grew very rich between 2001 and 2022, because the USA used billions in tax money to buy expensive weapons. Many young American soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to defend the freedoms at home. They died because American imperialism wanted to steal the wealth of nations like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Russia has been rearming itself since 2008. Billions are wasted each year by the Kremlin to build up the Russian Armed Forces. Although the poverty level is lower in Russia compared to Ukraine, the inequality is very high. The Russian 1% control 71% of all monetary wealth. This oligarchy is able to own so much because Vladimir Putin (who is part of this rotten state-capitalist model) allows it. Putin does not care about ordinary workers, he lives in luxury like all capitalist exploiters of the world!
The Kremlin is not afraid to go to war. But going fully on the offensive to capture a whole nations is new to them. They only attacked Georgia in 2008, because the Georgians attacked pro-Russian separatists who are under the protection of Russian ”peacekeepers”. Invading the separatist held parts of Donbass is a possibility. The so called ”people’s republics” in Donetsk and Lugansk are a façade and client states of Russia in all but name, much like Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria.
Workers of the world must reject the war propaganda and stand against the capitalist system that will profit from a war. The peace movement must be build up by working class people with no illusions that the current rulers will care. They cannot trust bourgeois pacifists who do not see that capitalism is the main reason for wars. Workers of the world have always been sacrificed by warmongers and the military industrial complex. This is why the working class has nothing to lose but their chains.
The Uyghurs are a ethnic minority in China. They are a Turkic people who also are Muslim. In the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region this people make up 46.42% of the population. Since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, the Uyghurs have been prosecuted and oppressed by the Han-Chinese regime. The Chinese ”Communist” Party at first used Maoist dogmatism to crush the Uyghurs by attacking their religion, mirroring the Stalinist methods. After the death of Mao Zedong, the CCP regime started to boost Han-Chinese nationalism as Maoism was replaced by state-capitalism. Today in 2021, the Uyghurs face severe repression by the Chinese government. The parliament of the Netherlands is the first in the world who has called it a genocide. This angered the nationalist CCP regime in Beijing, who claim that the Uyghurs are not oppressed. Like all dictatorships in the world, lying is part of the CCP identity.
The Han-Chinese are the main ethnic group inside China. When often spoken about China, its people are generic called Chinese. However the PRC is not a ethnocentric country, it is multi-ethnic with 56 distinct ethnic groups. Although socialist on paper, the Chinese ”Communist” Party (CCP) is in reality a Han-Chinese nationalist party. The CCP forces the Han-Chinese language, culture and writings down on the others. In this the CCP mirrors the Chinese Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang. This nationalist party also promote Han-Chinese nationalism and ruled the Republic of China, until its was forced to flee to Taiwan in 1949. Today the CCP is the Kuomintang in all but name. The Han-Chinese nationalists of the CCP have embraced (state)capitalism and ethnic nationalism, just like the KMT did under Chiang Kai Shek.
In Xinjiang the Uyghurs make up 46.42% of the total population, around 13,5 million people. Islam has since played an important role in Uyghur culture and identity. This is why they clashed with the Maoist regime who promoted state-atheism. Today however state-atheism is only an excuse to shut down mosques and arrest religious Uyghurs. The CCP regime is attacking the Uyghurs because Xi Jinping is a hard-core Han-Chinese nationalist. It is no surprise that the prosecution and oppression of the Islamic Uyghurs increased after 2015. Xi Jinping claims he is fighting Islamic terrorism and separatism, but this excuse is used by all dictatorships who fight against minorities.
It is true that some Uyghurs have decided to fight back. Uyghur nationalism grew already during the Maoist period (1949-1980). Mao Zedong attacked the Uyghurs and the Soviet-Union decided to take advantage of it. The Sino-Soviet split of 1960 gave rise to a Soviet sponsored independence group called the East Turkestan People’s Revolutionary Party. Until 1989, the USSR supported these ”revolutionary” Uyghurs. They claimed to have 60.000 members and over 130 bases across Xinjiang. The CCP used brutal force in dealing with the East Turkestan People’s Revolutionary Party. After the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet-Union ceased their support for the Uyghur independence movement.
With the collapse of the USSR, the Uyghur nationalists turned towards religion as their inspiration to fight. Islamism became their new ideology, replacing Marxism-Leninism (Stalinism). Al-Qaeda of Osama Bin Laden gave support to the Uyghurs, because they fought against an (state)atheist government. In 1988, the Turkistan Islamic Party was formed. This party is now one of the main Uyghur nationalist forces. They have resorted to terrorist attacks against the Han-Chinese resulting in at least 162 deaths and over 440 injuries. Their terrorist methods have only resulted in more repression by the state. This is why revolutionary socialists reject terrorism as a means to combat dictatorial governments.
By claiming to fight Islamic terrorism, the Chinese government has now arrested over 1.000.000 Uyghurs since 2014. They are held in concentration camps and face brutal treatment at the hands of guards trained to hate them. Most are not arrested because of terrorism. The nationalist regime of the CCP is arresting Uyghurs based on meaningless facts like reading the Koran or posting a story 10 years ago on a internet forum. Some were arrested because they wanted to learn about their culture and history. Beijing wants to cultural assimilate all ethnic groups and force them to think and speak as Han-Chinese. This is why the Uyghur youth is not allowed to learn their own history. Those who do try are arrested and jailed as many exiles have experienced.
One million Uyghurs live in Chinese prison camps, and are forced to work for free. They provide the state-capitalist economy of China with cheap workers. Joseph Stalin used the same methods in the 1930’s. His regime relied massively on forced labour from millions of prison workers. Beijing knows that a key pillar of the Uyghurs is their religion, Sunni-Islam. This is why the Xi regime is closing mosques in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. There were 24.000 of them in 2017, now four years later this number is reduced to 15.000. These 9.000 mosques were forcefully closed by the Chinese government in order to deny the Uyghurs their basic freedom of religion.
In the last ten years the CCP is also working to carry out mass sterilisations and forced adoption of contraception and abortions. All this to lower Uyghur birth-rates. The nationalist CCP will deny all this, but Uyghurs who fled China all tell the same stories. Brutal enforcement of the Han-Chinese (Mandarin Chinese) language, culture and traditions, while the Uyghur culture and religion is supressed. The Uyghurs are not the only ethnic group who are under siege by the Han-Chinese nationalism of the Chinese ”Communist” Party. Tibetans are facing the same treatment in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Chiang Kai Shek of the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) would be very proud of Xi Jinping. The current CCP leader is a fully right-wing nationalist leader!
Revolutionary socialists stand in full solidarity with the Uyghurs. We reject the brutal nationalist methods of the CCP and call upon all Chinese to fight it. Han-Chinese nationalism is a poison that has nothing in common with socialism or communism. At the same time we reject the Islamic fundamentalism of opposition groups like the Turkistan Islamic Party. Ethnic separatism and terrorism will never end the brutal oppression. Class struggle is needed by both Han-Chinese and Uyghur workers. Only in unity can they defeat the dictatorial regime of Xi Jinping. Ironically it was Mao Zedong who rallied millions against Chiang Kai Shek in 1945. If millions are rallied today in 2021 against Xi Jinping then his nationalist regime is doomed. Unlike Chiang, Xi will not have a Taiwan to fled to.
With the introduction of the National Security Law (NSL) comes an end to the relative freedoms in Hong-Kong. This means the Chinese regime imposing its direct rule over Hong Kong politics, over elections and what level of opposition is tolerated. They will use charges like ”subversion” and ”separatism” to ban and imprison opposition activists and groups and make it a crime to say things like: ”down with the dictatorship”!
As Socialist Action (International Socialist Alternative in HK) explains:
Mainland Chinese agents and secret police will be able to operate legally in Hong Kong for the first time. New “security organs” can be set up by Beijing to spy upon and arrest political opposition.
The law will ban “subversion, separatism and acts of foreign interference”. Similar laws already exist in Hong Kong but the new law will enable the dictatorship in Beijing itself to enforce the “red line”.
An immediate focus of the law will be to ban “activities of foreign and external forces” – to strike against all forms of solidarity but also to make an example of those sections of the protest movement that have aligned themselves with foreign governments (such as pro-US and pro-British groups). Others will also be accused of “foreign links”.
Opposition political parties and organisations will increasingly be disqualified from taking part in elections. Some may be banned outright, especially if they are accused of advocating Hong Kong independence.
The right to protest, already under attack since last year, will be heavily curtailed.
Freedom of speech will be heavily curtailed. It may no longer be possible to call for an end to one-party dictatorship. Events like the annual June 4 (Tiananmen massacre anniversary) vigil risk being banned unless this slogan is deleted from their program.
More harsh prison sentences and persecution of political opposition – the CCP is frustrated that the current level of repression and arrests in Hong Kong is not enough.
Increasing censorship. Press freedom has already declined to a global ranking of 80 (out of 180 countries and jurisdictions) from 58 in 2013, according to Reporters Without Borders. Articles like the one you are reading could become illegal.
A more heavily policed internet. There is a stampede to get VPNs (virtual proxy networks) which are used to skirt government internet controls. One company said it sold a week’s worth of VPN subscriptions in one hour.
The media of the People’s Republic of China will not report on it and the media of the capitalist world will downgrade the importance of 4 June 1989. This is because the capitalist world needs the PRC as their production base. Millions of products are Made in China by western companies who enjoy the brutality of the CCP state-capitalist regime. This regime crushed the 4 June movement for democracy and genuine socialism. Because neither the workers nor students on Tiananmen Square demanded capitalism. Now 31 years later, the regime remains silent. Revolutionary Socialist Media will not!!
Below is a link to an article of International Socialist Alternative in China. Despite the propaganda of the Chinese ”Communist” Party (CCP) and their capitalist allies, the PRC is not a socialist society and sure not a state less one (communist). The current structure of the People’s Republic of China resembles more that of the Republic of China under Chiang Kai Shek (1950-1975 on Taiwan). That China was deeply nationalist and had a state-capitalist economy with the government of Chiang controlling key sectors. This we also see in modern day China under Xi Jinping, the same Chinese nationalism and state-capitalism.
Chinaworker.info wrote this article on the 31 anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre.
Revolutionary socialists from International Socialist Alternative – China, have created a short documentary. In this they tell the story of Covid-19. How it began in China and how the capitalist world failed to stop the pandemic. To blame are is not a single government. The whole rotten capitalist system lies at the core of the many sick and deaths. As any criticism of the Xi Jinping regime is banned, the documentary will not be welcomed by the CCP and their billionaires. The Chinese Capitalist (not Communist) Party has been working around the clock to silence its failures. Therefore this short film by International Socialist Alternative – China is a powerful message to the workers of the world!
Revolutionary Socialist Media 