Chinese president’s Africa tour gives fresh impetus to traditional friendship

Via Xinhua

BEIJING, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) — After a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia beginning Feb. 10, Chinese President Hu Jintao started an Africa tour aimed at enhancing China’s friendship with developing countries in the region.

The trip, which took Hu to Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius from Feb. 12 to 17, has given new impetus to the traditional friendship between China and Africa.

The time-honored friendship between China and Africa can be traced back to as early as the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when Chinese navigator Zheng He traveled to the African continent during his seven epic voyages.

In the 1960s, when most African countries launched a wave of independence struggles, late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai had also visited Africa to express his country’s staunch support for its African brothers.

The fates of the Chinese and African peoples are closely interrelated as they share a similar history and similar developmental tasks, and the two sides have carried out various forms of cooperation based on the principles of equality and mutual benefit.

“Every time I come, it’s like coming back home,” Hu said while delivering a key speech in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam on Monday.

So far, China has provided aid to the best of its ability to 53 African countries under the framework of “South-South cooperation,” aiming to help the countries achieve independent development and socio-economic progress.

China-Africa relations entered a new stage of comprehensive development at the Beijing Summit of China-Africa Cooperation Forum in 2006, when they established a new type of strategic partnership featuring political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchanges.

Hu’s latest visit to Africa, his sixth in all and second since the Beijing Summit, opens a new chapter in the China-Africa friendship.

The tour also brings new opportunities to review the results of the China-Africa friendly cooperation.

The Chinese president announced an eight-measure policy designed to strengthen pragmatic cooperation with Africa at the Beijing Summit in November 2006. Several months later, he paid a visit to Africa, during which a series of cooperation agreements were signed with an aim to implement the policy.

Now in 2009, the concluding year for implementation of the package, the Chinese president visited Africa again to exchange views with the leaders of African countries on the fulfillment of the commitments made at the Beijing Summit.

During the visit, Hu also discussed with them the preparatory work for the fourth ministerial conference of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum later this year in an effort to enhance the China-Africa strategic partnership.

The swift and efficient implementation of the eight measures has brought tangible benefits, and the measures have thus been well received by the governments and people of Africa and the international community.

Chairman of the African Union (AU) Commission, Jean Ping, said in late January that China is Africa’s key cooperative partner.

The AU chief also spoken highly of China’s role in Africa’s infrastructure development, saying “China has played a fundamental part in the improvement of infrastructure facilities across African countries.”

The World Bank has said China has made major contributions to promoting the development of Africa, and expressed the hope that African countries would combine China’s developmental experiences with their own national conditions.

Moreover, President Hu’s trip this time brings new commitments for the future development of friendly and cooperative ties between China and Africa.

Countries around the world currently face grave challenges amid the ongoing global financial downturn, with the impact of the crisis spreading to emerging-market countries as well as developing nations.

Under such circumstances, Hu made a solemn pledge during his Africa tour that China will continue to implement its commitments made at the Beijing Summit in a timely and reliable manner, despite all the challenges his country faces in its own economic development.

China will by no means cut assistance to Africa, said Hu. Instead, it will do its best to continue to increase aid to the continent, offer debt relief to African countries, and expand trade and investment with them.

Hu’s commitments were warmly applauded by the leaders of the African countries, who pledged to join hands with China in facing the impact of the financial crisis.

A Gabonese newspaper commented that China, which had pledged to honor its earlier commitments and not to reduce aid to Africa despite the economic pressure from the ongoing crisis, had indeed exercised the responsibilities of a big country.

Premier lifeline for kid suffering from leukemia

Via China Daily

It was a chance meeting. But it made the difference between life and possible death of a 2-year-old boy suffering from leukemia. Just when lack of money had driven Li Guishu and Wang Zhihua to stop their son’s treatment and return home to Hebei province on Monday, they heard a round of loud applause for someone at Tianjin railway station.

It was Premier Wen Jiabao whom passengers were applauding. The premier was returning to Beijing after an inspection trip in Tianjin, the Beijing Times said on February 19.

Yang Zhengkui, Li’s brother-in-law, says he will never forget the scene. “The premier was shaking hands with the passengers. When he came to us, he asked what we were doing in Tianjin and I told him that the boy had an aggressive form of leukemia and we could not afford his treatment.”

The child was sleeping in his mother’s arms. Wen looked at him and enquired about the symptoms of the disease. He then held Yang’s hand and said: “Come to Beijing, and I will make arrangements for his treatment.”

Wang couldn’t believe her ears, nor could she hold back her emotions. She knelt in front of the premier and kept saying “thank you” before Wen and other officials lifted her up.

All this while Li was away, buying yogurt for his son. He returned to see his wife visibly excited and saying repeatedly: “We met the premier, we met the premier”.

“It was like in a dream All we knew was that our child had the hope of life,” Li says.

On Wen’s instruction, their son Li Rui was sent to Beijing Pediatric Hospital, where he underwent a thorough checkup on Monday. The boy had undergone an ECG test and CT scans by yesterday.
On Tuesday morning, several State Council staff members visited Li Rui, and handed over 15,000 yuan ($2190), including 10,000 donated by Wen, to his parents.

Doctors have promised to do all they can to save the child. Li, a farm worker from Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, is still at a loss of words. The only thing he says is: “I want to write a thank-you letter to the premier.”

When Li and Wang first took their son to the emergency department of a hospital in June, the doctors suspected he was just suffering from fever. But on their second visit, doctors told them about the diagnosis.

Li and Wang rushed their son to a hospital in Zhangjiakou, but the 60,000-yuan bill was crippling for the family that earns only about 3,000 yuan a year. Hence, they were forced to return after only three months of treatment for Rui, the newspaper said.

But Li was determined to raise more money for his son’s treatment. So he sold more than 400 kg of plants and saved 2,000 yuan. He took Rui to Tianjin Blood Research Center this time.

But the cost of treatment in the Tianjin hospital was very high, Li says. That left the parents with no choice but to forego their son’s treatment.

And then the meeting with Wen took place.

Chinese president vows to increase aid to Africa

Via Xinhua.

BAMAKO, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Hu Jintao Thursday vowed to increase aid to African countries, cancel part of their debts, and expand trade with and investment in these countries.

Hu made the statement while meeting with his Malian counterpart Amadou Toumany Toure.

Hu, making his first visit to this western African nation, was accorded a 21-gun salute in a welcome ceremony before the two presidents started talks.

This is Hu’s second African tour since the landmark China-Africa summit in 2006 when Hu announced eight measures to promote ties with Africa, including massive tariff cuts and debt exemptions for scores of African countries, and doubling aid to Africa over a three-year period.

Hu said that as the world financial crisis has posed severe challenges, it is of greater significance to step up China-Africa solidarity and cooperation.

“China is paying much attention to African countries’ difficulties and concerns as the global financial crisis has begun to take a toll on Africa,” Hu said.

“We would like to increase communication and exchanges with Mali and other African countries so that together we will tide over the crisis,” Hu said.

Following their talks, the two leaders signed cooperative deals and gave a briefing to the media.

Hu arrived here Thursday after concluding a state visit to Saudi Arabia.

“Both countries have achieved fruitful cooperation in various fields over the past 49 years. China cherishes its ties with Mali and would like to enhance our friendship and cooperation,” Hu said in a written statement upon his arrival.

The visit is aimed at consolidating friendship, deepening cooperation, dealing with challenges and seeking common development, Hu said.

From Mali, Hu will travel to the three African countries of Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius.

AGM: Report of work to date

Report of work to date delivered to the Hands off China AGM (held on 7 February, 2009) by the acting secretary, Carlos Rule.

As you know, Hands off China was set up in June last year on the initiative of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), at a time when the imperialist (and much of the so-called ‘left’) media was awash with anti-Chinese propaganda. Many enemies of China felt that the preparations for the Beijing Olympics offered a unique opportunity to spread lies about China, in particular its human rights record and its alleged colonisation of Tibet. Luminaries of the social-democratic left were lining up to slander China. Indeed, Jeremy Corbyn wrote in the Morning Star: “What a fantastic wake-up call it would be for the whole world if the Olympic Games had to be suspended to allow the air to clear to make it safe for athletes to compete.”

No political organisation in this country was standing up for China in a meaningful way at that time. The British working class was getting a consistently anti-China message from the ruling class and its representatives in the left, and the British working class movement found itself in the curious position of not understanding and not trusting China - the strongest anti-imperialist force in the world today.

In setting up Hands off China, we established a set of clear aims, which continue to be relevant: defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the PRC against imperialism and its stooges; supporting the ‘One China’ principle and the PRC’s just stands on such issues of its vital national interest as Taiwan and Tibet; refuting hostile propaganda and misinformation of the capitalist media and others against the PRC; upholding the great revolutionary traditions of the Chinese communists, working class and people; supporting the achievements of the Chinese people in eliminating poverty and building a strong, powerful and modernised socialist country; supporting the PRC’s contributions to realising a multi-polar and peaceful world and to the independent, anti-imperialist development of the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America; and supporting Chinese workers, students and other members of the Chinese community in Britain in their struggles against racism and for their rights.

Over the last eight months, we have made significant progress in relation to those aims.

Meetings

Our launch meeting was held on 19 July, at the Kings Cross Neighbourhood Centre. Although organised at short notice, it was a well-attended and spirited event, with an all-star cast of speakers and an enthusiastic audience. The speakers included our honorary president, Jack Shapiro; two of our patrons, Kojo Amoo Gottfried and Avtar Jouhl; as well as comrades Keith Bennett and Harpal Brar. In addition to talking about the need to support China generally, the speakers all made reference to the Sichuan earthquake disaster that occurred in May 2008 and the Chinese state’s extraordinarily swift and decisive response to it.

The speeches highlighted the need to support China as a matter of proletarian internationalist duty. This is summed up very well by Keith, who said:

“The goal we have set ourselves of defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the People’s Republic of China is not simply something we seek to do as friends of China, although we are, of course, very good friends of China. This work is the cutting edge of the international class struggle, and it has a bearing on all the other contradictions at play on the international scene, on the peoples’ struggles in every part of the world. This work is our internationalist duty.”

It was a very vibrant meeting, and its effect was multiplied many times over when a report was featured in Xinhua and syndicated to news organisations across China and beyond. The report, entitled ‘Britain’s Communist Party launches Hand-0ff-China campaign’, was published along with a lovely picture of Comrade Harpal in front of the Hands off China banner (which had been produced just a few days earlier!).

The following resolution was proposed and unanimously adopted at the meeting:

“This launch meeting of the Hands off China campaign extends its condolences to the Chinese people in respect of the Sichuan earthquake disaster. We also express our highest appreciation to the leaders of China, the Communist Party of China, the People’s Liberation Army and the Chinese people for the extraordinary, heroic, widespread and thoroughgoing recovery that is taking place. This response demonstrates the unity of will of the Chinese people and leadership, and also the inherent superiority of socialism over capitalism.

“We also take this opportunity to offer our full support and best wishes for the coming Beijing Olympic Games, which we are certain will be a tremendous success, in spite of the desperate imperialist attempts to subvert them.”

The next public meeting of the campaign was held in Southall, west London, on Saturday 4 October, in celebration of the 59th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. A diverse audience of over 80 people packed into Southall’s Saklatvala Hall to attend this highly spirited meeting, which was jointly organised by Hands off China and the CPGB-ML. Speakers included Jack Shapiro, Kojo Amoo Gottfried, Taimur Rahman (Communist Workers’ and Peasants’ Party, Pakistan), Hardev Dhillon (Indian Workers Association), Keith Bennett, Mohammed Arif and Harpal Brar, and messages of support were read out from our patron Isabel Crook (a veteran communist revolutionary who lives in China) and Vidya Sagar Anand (writer and veteran political activist in the Asian community).

The text of the resolution passed at the meeting is as follows:

This meeting, organised by Hands off China and the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), in celebration of the 59th founding anniversary of the People’s Republic of China conveys its warm fraternal greetings to the Communist Party of China, the government of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese people.

We take this opportunity to renew our heartfelt congratulations on the huge success of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics as well as the Shenzhou-7 mission, in particular the space walk. Through these epic events, the people of the whole world have been able to see the enormous progress and tremendous achievements of socialist China, which stand in stark and growing contrast to the crisis, chaos and despondency now gripping the capitalist world.

We reaffirm our invariable solidarity with the Chinese party, government and people in their struggle to build a powerful, modernised and prosperous socialist nation, to reunify the country and to contribute to the building of an independent and peaceful world against imperialist aggression and war.

Long live Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism!
Long live the People’s Republic of China!
Forward to the 60th anniversary!

This meeting was also reported in Xinhua and all other major Chinese print and online news publications.

The first meeting of Hands off China to take place outside London was held in Bristol on 12 October at the Malcolm X Community Centre, St Pauls. This meeting was addressed by Keith Bennett and chaired by Giles Shorter. Comrade Keith noted the significance of the meeting being held in the Malcolm X Centre - Malcolm X made a significant contribution to the struggle against imperialism, and was highly supportive and appreciative of the role played by post-revolutionary China in that struggle.

Following Keith’s presentation, there was a lively and useful discussion. Extensive discussion took place on the question of Tibet, as a small number of people in the audience were calling for Tibetan independence and criticising the PRC’s supposed aggression against the Tibetan people. The speakers, as well as members of the audience, pointed out that Tibet had been part of China for centuries and had made no claim for independence until a decade after the Chinese revolution (when the successful development of infrastructure under the PRC was undermining the feudal control of the Dalai Lama and his cohorts). Indeed, the very concept of ‘Tibetan independence’ was a creation of British imperialism.

Comrades noted that, as part of the PRC, Tibet has benefited from investment in infrastructure, provision of schools, books, healthcare and the abolition of the barbaric feudal system under which the Tibetan people had suffered for centuries. Furthermore, Tibetan culture and language have been consistently supported and have thrived. If Tibet were to break from China, it would certainly not become any more independent.

Another Hands off China public meeting was held in Woolwich, south-east London, on 25 January, at the Shaheed Udham Singh Asian Community Centre. This meeting was jointly organised by Hands off China and the Greenwich & Bexley Branch of the Indian Workers Association (Great Britain). The organisers did an excellent job mobilising people from the local community, and there were around 60 people, ranging from teens to people in their 80s.

The speeches, from comrades Harpal Brar, Keith Bennett, Carlos Rule and Hardev Dhillon, were very well received. The entire meeting was conducted in English and Punjabi, and the dinner after the meeting was provided free by a local restaurant sympathetic to our cause.

Propaganda

The Hands off China blog was launched on 18 June, very soon after the formation of the campaign. In that time, there have been nearly 70 blog posts – advertising meetings, displaying leaflets, or linking to important articles in the Chinese press and elsewhere. The blog gets a reasonably high volume of traffic, and there have been around 50 comments.

We also have a Facebook group, with around 300 members, and the YouTube videos of the speeches at the National Day meeting have been viewed hundreds of times.

We have also produced, and distributed widely, a leaflet entitled ‘Reasons to support China’. This leaflet contains bullet points about the incredible strides forward made by the Chinese people since 1949, the living standards in China, the effects of the poverty alleviation programme, China’s record of support for developing countries, and China’s focus on ecologically sustainable development. Thousands of copies of this leaflet have been printed and distributed.

Some Hands off China material has even been printed in Italian, in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, where some comrades have set up a Giù le mani dalla Cina (Hands off China) group.

Summary

In just eight months, we have achieved a great deal. This year, with the contradictions of imperialism becoming ever sharper, there will doubtless be a great deal of antipathy to socialist China from the bourgeoisie and its social-democratic hangers-on. Therefore, there is a lot of important work for us to do. We must get our literature out far and wide and hold meetings in different parts of the country. We must take our message further afield and deeper into the working class, which must come to appreciate that China is a crucial ally in the struggle for progress.

Report of our AGM

The first AGM of the Hands off China campaign took place in Southall on Saturday 7 February, and was very successful.

Standing in for Harpal Brar, comrade Keith Bennett chaired the meeting and made the opening remarks, in which he spoke of the significance of Hands off China and its living link with the rich history of China solidarity work that has taken place in Britain since the 1930s. He talked about the extraordinary track record of our patrons (Isabel Crook, Kojo Amoo Gottfried and Avtar Jouhl) and honorary president (Jack Shapiro) in supporting the Chinese revolution. Keith also mentioned how the campaign’s work over the last eight months has been greatly appreciated in China, with the Communist Party of China, the Chinese Embassy, Xinhua and all major Chinese media giving publicity to Hands off China.

Carlos Rule gave a report of the campaign’s work to date, in particular the various public meetings held and propaganda materials distributed. He noted the importance of continuing our China solidarity efforts, as the ever-sharpening imperialist contradictions are likely to lead to a renewed campaign of slander and lies against China from the western press.

Keith read out solidarity messages received from our honorary president, Jack Shapiro, and two of our patrons, Kojo Amoo Gottfried and Isabel Crook, all of whom wished the AGM and the campaign success. A message of support from Xu Bin, First Secretary of the Chinese Embassy, was also read out.

Comrades Zane Carpenter delivered greetings on behalf of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), on whose initiative the campaign was set up, and Mandeep Dhillon delivered greetings on behalf of the Indian Workers’ Association (Great Britain).

The constitution and aims were approved unanimously, as were the nominees for Chair (Harpal Brar), Secretary (Carlos Rule) and committee members (Deborah Lavin, Mandeep Dhillon, Keith Bennett and Ranjeet Brar).

There was a wide-ranging and useful discussion around activities for the year. Suggestions included a rally to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, public meetings in universities and elsewhere, film shows and various publications.

Resolution passed at the first AGM of Hands off China

This first Annual General Meeting of Hands off China extends its warm fraternal greetings to the Communist Party, Government and people of the People’s Republic of China.

In the last year, the Chinese people faced numerous challenges in the fields of politics, economy and natural disasters. Hostile imperialist forces did not stop their intrigues against socialist China for one moment. However, the Chinese people earned the admiration of working and progressive people throughout the world through the magnificent way they responded to the terrible Sichuan earthquake and by going on to stage the world’s best ever Olympic and Paralympic Games.

This year on 1 October, the People’s Republic will celebrate its 60th anniversary. We send our warmest congratulations and heartfelt greetings on this most auspicious occasion. In the six decades since the Chinese people stood up, under the leadership of the Communist Party and Comrade Mao Zedong, they have scored earth-shattering achievements in socialist construction, in banishing poverty, illiteracy and backwardness, and have made a huge contribution to the anti-imperialist struggle in every part of the world.

Today, as the capitalist world sinks into economic depression, and all the possible consequences that entails, it is once again of the utmost importance that China remain an independent, strong and socialist country, not only for the sake of the Chinese people, but for all the countries and peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America, and for working and oppressed people throughout the world.

In the coming year, Hands off China will celebrate the 60th anniversary of their victorious revolution together with the Chinese people, most especially by continuing to tell the truth about China to working people and by exposing and opposing every anti-China fabrication, trick and provocation of the imperialists, particularly by our ‘own’ ruling class and its social democratic and other agents in the working class movement.

WARMLY GREET THE 60th FOUNDING ANNIVERSARY OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA!

LONG LIVE THE CHINESE REVOLUTION AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA!

Jenny Clegg - China’s Global Strategy: Towards a Multipolar World

Pluto Press has just released an important new book on China by Jenny Clegg, a supporter of Hands off China. Here is the back cover text:

China’s rise is profoundly influencing the evolution of world politics. This book examines how China’s development as a major and independent world power is opening up the world multipolarisation trend, arguing that its commitment to cooperative security and win-win globalisation together with its international consensus-building diplomacy offer a concrete strategy to constrain the US pursuit of unipolar primacy.

The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 sets out to explore China’s rise in the broad context of the global unipolar-multipolar dynamic with the Sino-US relationship at its core. Part 2 moves on to discuss China’s essentially socialist path, and to consider how, through its Open Door policy and participation in the global economy, it continues to steer a self-determined course of development. The discussion here highlights the government’s recent shift from an increasingly destructive development strategy in a search for a human-centred form of governance.

Part 3 returns to the international stage where a Œsmokeless war¹ is taking place between the US and China across a range of fronts over the rules of the global order. This part spells out the parameters of China’s vision for a new international political and economic order, looking more specifically at how its government is beginning to take a more proactive role in the global multilateral order to shape its rules, and contribute to a progressive global agenda for stability, development and dialogue.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jenny Clegg is a China specialist teaching International Studies at the University of Central Lancashire. She first visited China in the 1970s and has followed developments closely ever since. She is author of Fu Manchu and the Myth of the ‘Yellow Peril’ and has published research-based work on China’s rural development. A lifelong activist against war, she has most recently been involved in Stop the War activities in her local area and with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament nationally.

Purchase at Amazon UK
Purchase at Amazon US

Successful HoC meeting in Woolwich

Last week’s Hands off China meeting in Woolwich, south east London,  was very successful. The organisers from the local branch of the Indian Workers’ Association (Great Britain) did an excellent job mobilising people from the local community, and there were around 60 people, ranging from teens to people in their 80s.

The speeches, from comrades Harpal Brar, Keith Bennett, Carlos Rule and Hardev Dhillon, were very well received. The entire meeting was conducted in English and Punjabi. Dinner after the meeting was provided free by a local restaurant sympathetic to our cause.