China’s next steps in 2025

Ambassador Zheng opens the seminar

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other communists, academics and businessmen at a symposium at the Chinese embassy last week that looked to the future following the conclusion of the annual meeting of China’s highest civic bodies. There, in Beijing, the annual legislative sessions of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People's Congress (NPC) was the focus of discussions on the way forward for the people’s government and the 1.4 billion people it represents.  
The ‘two sessions’ are always significant events in the Chinese people's political life, bringing together thousands of deputies and delegates from every corner of the country and all walks of life. Their proposals are aimed at solving everyday issues to build a better life for the people. 
Ambassador Zheng Zeguang said that given the evolving international and domestic landscape this year's Two Sessions attracted even greater attention and carried profound significance.
The Two Sessions demonstrated the Chinese people's confidence, resolve, and their spirit of unity and readiness to take action. They also projected China's main economic and social development targets and outlined a series of important policy measures. 
The Chinese leadership made it clear that challenges arising from reform and opening up can only be solved by pressing ahead with reform and opening up, demonstrating a firm determination to address the risks and obstacles on the path ahead. The Two Sessions also highlighted the unique advantages of China's political system. They serve as a vivid practice of  ‘whole-process people's democracy’ under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.   
The British representatives at the symposium acknowledged that with increasing global uncertainties and instabilities, the current international landscape is undergoing its most profound changes since the end of the Second World War. 
As Andy Brooks noted “the new Trump administration has changed tack in a bid to end Biden’s proxy war against Russia and establish a new detente with the Kremlin. This decision reflects the needs and demands of the wing of the American ruling class that wants to cut its losses in Ukraine to enable them to strengthen their grip over the Middle East in their efforts to control the entire global energy market. 
“Spurning the United Nations some of the Trump team talk a “new Yalta” that would redefine the world into spheres of influence while retaining the lion’s share for American imperialism. At the same time the Trump administration seeks to “Make America Great Again”, largely at the expense of its own allies, and boost American manufacturing through tariffs and protectionism while using secret diplomacy and economic blackmail to achieve its goals.
“Both the Russian and American sides are clearly working towards a win-win agreement over Ukraine. If that ends the war with a peace settlement that recognises the rights of the Crimeans, southern Ukrainians and the people of the Donbas to live in the Russian Federation well and good. But secret diplomacy is rarely the best pathway to peace. 
“In these turbulent times China is a stabilising force ready to defend world peace. People’s China has taken the lead in helping to build the economies of the Global South while working for peace and harmony throughout the world”.

A Pilgrimage for Palestine

by New Worker correspondent

Acclaimed playwright Peter Oswald embarked on a 150 mile pilgrimage for Palestine on 18th March. Leaving Bristol at the start, Peter was presented with a key by Feda Shahien of The Red Line and The Women in Black from Bournemouth. It is the key to the house in Palestine of Feda's grandmother, from which she was evicted by the Israelis. Peter will carry the key to Parliament Square in London. There he will hand it over to a Palestinian girl dressed in traditional Palestinian clothing. 
Pilgrim Peter is carrying a 'tear' made of Bristol blue glass, to be woven into a dress – a symbolic 'weave from tears the dress of impossible' – in London. At exhibitions all over the country people have woven 'tears' of various materials into the dress.  Over halfway there and Peter’s already raised over £10,000 for the Hands Up Project, a charity   that’s been working with Palestinian schools in Gaza and the Israeli occupied West Bank.
This has been achieved at sell-out events in towns all along the route to London.
In Bath local organiser Dionne McCulloch read out a poem specially written for the event by celebrated writer Max Porter. Also speaking poetry at this event and in Bradford on Avon was former Oxford Professor of Poetry Alice Oswald.
In Bradford-on-Avon Peter spoke to local children at an exhibition of illustrated poems by children from Gaza. Carrying the flag of Palestine, the Pilgrim for Palestine attracted some vitriol but overwhelmingly the response has been supportive. The “pilgrimage” has been covered by the global Al Jazeera Arab TV channel, and the Independent and London Evening Standard have featured articles about the pilgrimage.

Brian Haw remembered

by New Worker correspondent

A bronze statuette of Brian Haw the peace campaigner was unveiled at the Imperial War Museum in London last weekend. Brian Haw camped out in Parliament Square for over ten years in protest against Anglo-American aggression in Iraq and imperialist wars throughout the rest of the world. Despite the best efforts of the police to hound him out Brian maintained his vigil until ill-health forced him to leave shortly before his death in 2011.
Brian Haw was a little-known evangelical Christian, motivated by the pacifist teachings of Jesus of Nazareth that are often ignored by many of those who profess to believe in him, who travelled to northern Ireland and Cambodia to preach “love, peace and justice for all” in the 70s and 80s. But he hit the headlines with his one-man protest against the imperialist aggression against Iraq.
He set up his tent opposite the so-called “Mother of Parliaments” in June 2001 to protest against the cruel imperialist blockade against Iraq that preceded the invasion and occupation by Anglo-American imperialism in 2003.
Brian was never short of company. Peace campaigners made a point of visiting his tent in the heart of London to help or spend some time in solidarity with the protest, which grew as Haw decorated the square with his home-made posters and peace banners condemning the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This rapidly became an alternative London tourist attraction. But it was also an embarrassment to the Establishment and it soon attracted the unwelcome attention of the police.
For over ten years Haw maintained his round-the-clock vigil, braving all weathers and violent attacks from thugs and the police. He defied all threats to evict him, including an abortive new law to restrict demonstrations within half-a-mile of Parliament. In 2006 the police succeeded in obtaining authority to remove and confiscate Brian’s entire display. Fortunately the 40 metre long display was entirely recreated by the artist Mark Wallinger who won the 2007 Turner Prize for his exact replica of the encampment, entitled State Britain, that was exhibited in the Tate Modern art gallery. And supporters and friends maintained the protest tent when ill-health forced Haw to seek treatment for cancer in Germany paid out of a fund raised by British peace campaigners. 
In February 2023 a group of supporters and friends launched a campaign to create a permanent public reminder of Brian Haw's crusade for peace that raised the £25,000 needed to create the monument 
The ceremony was unveiled by three of his children while the famed actor, Sir Mark Rylance, paid tribute to Brian’s  "bright sense of conscience".  The actor, who is a patron of the Stop the War movement, said "His great call was to stop killing the children...no matter what conflict we have as adults, they didn't create that conflict and we should find a peaceful way of resolving the conflict". And, appropriately enough, the words “Stop killing the kids” are inscribed underneath his likeness.  

One Struggle! One Fight!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity joined the National Palestine March in London on Saturday to make the links between the wars waged by NATO imperialism and its proxy Zionist Israel in Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon and Ukraine. As at many previous Palestine protests they received an overwhelmingly positive response from those on the march. The IUAFS protest also made the point that the Global South, representing the majority of humanity, was overwhelmingly opposed to Israel's genocidal methods in Gaza, while most developing countries did not support the West's sanctions against Russia or support the Zelensky regime in Ukraine by sending weapons, and had resisted Western bullying and pressure to change their positions.

Red Salute to Karl Marx in Highgate

Ismara Vargas Walter and Dr Dhawali at the tomb

By Theo Russell

London communists joined other comrades and friends, including the ambassadors of People’s China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and Sri Lanka, to mark the death of Karl Marx at his graveside last Sunday. Marx died in London on 14th March 1883 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery three days later. 
And by his tomb speeches in Marx’s honour were delivered by the Cuban ambassador Ismara Vargas Walter and Dr Ashok Dhawali, an Indian peasant leader and a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (M). 
Ismara Vargas Walter said the event was “not only to honour Karl Marx’s memory but to reaffirm our commitment to the ideas that ignited the Cuban Revolution and continue to guide our struggle for justice, sovereignty and socialism”.
In Cuba “our youth learn Marxism not as dogma but as a tool for critical thinking” and that the answers to the problems of globalised technology, climate change and a US-dominated world order “lie in Marx’s emphasis on collective action and socialist planning.
“The digital age has brought new forms of exploitation, platform capitalism, algorithmic oppression, and the commodification of human attention, but it has also created new avenues for resistance, for mobilising, for spreading revolutionary consciousness. Our task is to harness these tools for the people, not for profit“. Cuba stands with Palestine, Venezuela and Nicaragua against genocide and US “criminal unilateral coercive measures”, and “all nations resisting imperialism”.
Dr Ashok Dhawali, the president of the All-India Farmers Union, said that Marx’s thinking is still relevant today in a world which  “since 2020, the richest one per cent have grabbed
nearly 67 per cent of all new wealth... billionaire fortunes rise by $2.7 billion a
day...and 46 per cent of the world’s population live under the global poverty line.”
The Indian communist said the entire imperialist camp backed the “Zionist genocide by Israel against the courageous people of Gaza”  while “the socialist countries like Cuba, China, Vietnam, Laos, DPRK, and the left-led countries of Latin America and Sri Lanka… are boldly opposing imperialism and Zionism”.
Dr Dhawali also recalled the historic year-long struggle by millions of farmers which led to the repeal of three anti-farmer laws in 2020-21, and said that a massive general strike was planned in April against four proposed new pro-corporate labour codes in India.
The gathering ended with the laying of flowers by the ambassadors and representatives of political parties, including a delegation from the New Communist Party, and the singing of The Internationale.

The Eternal Thoughts of Karl Marx

By New Worker correspondent

Last weekend communists and friends gathered at a reception at the NCP Party Centre in London to remember the life and times of a great revolutionary thinker. Karl Marx died in London on 14th March 1883 but his memory lives on in his works, and those of his life-long comrade Frederick Engels, that are the foundation stones of scientific socialism.

MC’d by Richard Bos in the New Worker print shop guests paused for the formal part of the social to hear a number of speakers pay tribute to the immense contribution that Marx and Engels made in the struggle for the emancipation of the working class. They included Pablo Ginarte from the Cuban embassy, Theo Russell from the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign, Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association and an Italian comrade. Marx’s immense contribution to socialist thinking that we now call Marxism-Leninism can never be forgotten said Andy Brooks, the NCP leader, whose sentiments were echoed by Ian Donovan from the Consistent Democrats group and Marie Lynam from the British Posadists.

Traditionally no NCP event can ever end without a collection for the New Worker fighting fund and comrades rose to the occasion by raising £566 for our communist weekly.

Raising the Palestinian flag over Westminster

by New Worker correspondent

 A protester has been charged after he climbed up Big Ben in Parliament Square to raise the Palestinian flag last weekend. He stayed there for 16 hours before coming down to end the action designed to spread awareness regarding the situation in Gaza and Britain's response to it. Large crowds gathered in support beyond a police cordon. Parliamentary tours cancelled and Westminster Bridge closed, while police also blocked pedestrian access at Parliament Square after protesters began to gather near the edge of the cordon.

A tribute to an untold tragedy

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined academics, solidarity campaigners and members of the film industry for an event to mark the 80th anniversary of the defeat of the Axis in 1945 last week. Chinese and British publishers hosted a series of events to pay tribute to the victory at the London Book Fair and one of them was the special screening of The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru at the Soho Hotel Screening Room in heart of London’s cinema world.

The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru is a 2024 documentary feature film about a little-known Japanese war-crime during World War II, produced and directed by Fang Li, that features family members of the British prisoners of war who were on board the Lisbon Maru. It not only rediscovers a long-silent history but also tells the story of how the peoples of China and Britain supported one another in the darkest of times. 

The Lisbon Maru was a Japanese transport ship carrying Japanese troops as well as over 1,800 mainly British and Empire prisoners of war. On 2nd October 1942, the ship was tragically sunk by a US submarine in the waters off Zhoushan, China. The Americans were unaware of the POWs on board.

Rather than assist the POWs, the Japanese shot many who were trying to escape. Many more drowned. In all, 828 lives were lost during the incident. However, this amount would have been higher but for the heroic efforts of the local Chinese fishermen who risked their own lives to save 384 British soldiers from the water. The heart of the film is based around those heroic fishermen and the risks they took to assist.

Through rare archival footage, survivor testimonies and expert interviews, this poignant documentary uncovers the harrowing journey of the prisoners as the ship began to sink leaving them trapped below deck. The film also highlights the role of the Chinese fishermen who risked their lives to rescue as many prisoners as they could.

Since its release in China The Sinking of Lisbon Maru has received widespread critical acclaim, achieving a remarkable rating of 9.3 on Douban, a popular Chinese social networking and review platform. It became the highest-grossing and most-watched Chinese documentary of 2024, won the Best Documentary award at the Silk Road Awards, and was selected as China’s submission for Best International Feature at the 97th  Oscars. Following talks with an independent distributor the film may soon go on a limited general release in the UK.

Stop the proxy war against Russia!

By New Worker correspondent

London comrades joined other activists from the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity movement who were out and about in Brixton last weekend. And they received an extremely positive and friendly response from local people in the south London borough – a working class area with high levels of unemployment and poverty, at their picket on Saturday. Many people showed their support and had discussions with the protesters. These are some of the comments we had from the local people: "Why are we giving all that money to that guy in Ukraine (Zelensky)? He's got houses all over the world...We need that money for ordinary people here!...Fuck NATO! They are killing the whole world!" and "Spend money on people here, not on Ukraine, Look around you, you can see the devastation here!"

A friendship forged in war

Ambassador Zheng welcomes the guests at the reception

by New Worker correspondent

The Chinese Embassy hosted a special reception in London last weekend for the families of the Lisbon Maru survivors, commemorating a heroic rescue during World War II and celebrating the Spring Festival.
In October 1942 the Lisbon Maru, a freighter requisitioned by the Japanese army to transport more than 1,800 British prisoners of war  from Hong Kong to Japan, was torpedoed by an American submarine near the Zhoushan islands off Shanghai. As the ship sank, local fishermen risked their lives to rescue over 300 POWs.
At the event the Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang recounted the rescue that stands as a testament to the time when China and Britain fought side by side against Japanese fascist aggression. The rescue has left tales of the profound friendship between the people of the two countries – a friendship that "will never fade" and "has become a valuable asset" for bilateral relations, he added.
Lindsey Archer, the niece of a British soldier who perished when the ship went down, said that events like this help strengthen bonds and foster new friendships. She expressed that the families of both the British survivors and the Chinese rescuers have become a new community for her. Keeping the memory of their ancestors alive, she said, is crucial, as "what they suffered, lost, and sacrificed has shaped where we are today".
Last year, Lindsey, along with a dozen other descendants of the British POWs visited China to pay tribute to the fallen at the wreck site in Zhoushan. Kenneth Salmon, whose father was a Royal Artillery sergeant rescued from the sinking Lisbon Maru, described the emotional connection he felt during the visit. Reflecting on the friendships forged during the trip, he said there is "an emotional attachment" in Zhoushan.
He also expressed his appreciation for the presence of young children at the reception, stressing the importance of preserving the story of the rescue for future generations to learn about their ancestry and their family history.

BBC trashed!

photo: Martin Pope

by New Worker correspondent

Palestine Action activists smashed windows and splattered the BBC headquarters in Portland Place, London, with red paint last week in protest against the Beeb’s ongoing complicity in the genocide of Palestinians through its entrenched pro-Israel bias. The BBC was covered in blood-red paint to symbolise the Corporation’s responsibility for the blood spilled in Gaza and the state broadcaster’s role in whitewashing Israeli atrocities through its partial and biased coverage. For years, the BBC has consistently minimised Israel’s violence against Palestinians while amplifying the narratives of the Zionist oppressors.
“The BBC’s biased reporting isn’t a simple case of poor journalism – it’s a matter of life and death. By downplaying Israeli war crimes, the BBC is complicit in the genocide unfolding in Gaza,” said a spokesperson for Palestine Action. “This isn’t just about the news – it’s about the role of the media in shaping global complicity. The BBC has blood on its hands, and today’s action is part of a wider campaign to hold them accountable. We will not stand by as the BBC sanitises genocide“.

Cease-fire in Gaza, Yemen and Ukraine now!

by New Worker correspondent

Some 200,000 people from all over Britain joined the national Palestine Solidarity Campaign march from Westminster to the US Embassy on the other side of the River Thames on Saturday. This reflected the massive support across the country for self-determination for the Palestinian Arabs, a sovereign state of their own, and a secure life free from hunger and ceaseless Israeli military and Zionist settler violence. 
They were joined by anti-fascist activists calling for NATO to end its war in Ukraine and an end to Israel's genocidal wars who received an overwhelming, 100 per cent positive response from supporters of Palestinian liberation last weekend. Their protest was organised by International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), which has campaigned in solidarity with anti-fascists and democrats in Ukraine and in exile since 2017.
Over 100 people, including many media photographers and journalists, filmed or took photos of the IUAFS action, and over 40 joined the campaigners briefly to have their photos taken with the protesters. The enthusiasm for the IUAFS was incredible and many people thanked us for linking NATO’s role in the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. 
The protesters were most appreciative of the placards declaring that the Global South, the majority of humanity, oppose Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon, NATO’s support for the Banderite gangsters in Kiev, and the ten years long bombing of the people of Yemen.
Members of IUAFS believe that their solidarity actions will still be needed long after an agreement to end the conflict is Ukraine is reached. They point out that Britain and its imperialist allies are already planning networks to conduct terrorism in the future with the eventual goal of destroying and dividing the Russian Federation.