China

Street protests across China followed the death of ten people in a fire in a block of flats in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang (East Turkestan, the Uyghur region) on 24 November. Protests in Urumqi itself, and in many other cities across China in the following few days, said that the ten had died because Covid curbs stopped them fleeing the fire. As of 29 November, the protests had ebbed for the time being, but they represent a new peak of an agitation building up for months. On 13 October, just before the ceremonial Congress of China’s ruling party which would reaffirm the cult and the authority...

China’s reported seven-day-rolling-average Covid case count (which may be much less than the real count) is now at an all-time peak, surpassed only by a spike on 16 April. A surge in Guangzhou has brought ultra-lockdowns only in areas of the city, not a city-wide ultra-lockdown as in Shanghai earlier. But the government has still not moved to the vaccination drive for elderly people, with more effective vaccines, and the expansion of healthcare, necessary to move away from its hopeless drive for “zero Covid”. Even in the rest of the world, where Covid rates are not (or not yet) showing the...

Prominent Indian socialist feminist Kavita Krishnan has taken a strong stand in support of Ukraine. Here she explains why slogans about "peace" and "negotiations" miss the real issues in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Kavita Krishnan is speaking at All the Rage on Saturday 26 November. More details here. Why we should oppose the call for negotiations to end the war “No war, negotiated end to the war” is also the position of the Modi Government as well as all Left parties in India. Sounds reasonable, right? Two sides are at war, both should negotiate instead of continuing the war, right? Wrong...

What is the significance of Xi Jinping securing his third term as leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the 20th Party Congress (16-22 October)? Xi in his past two terms as leader had sought to steer away from policies and practices from the era of Deng Xiaoping; his third term is a clear sign that he has largely succeeded. CCP congresses have been held every five years. Typically, 2000 +delegates gather for a week. Through processes as opaque as the way the Vatican selects a new Pope, the congress confirms a new Central Committee (around 200), a 25-strong Politburo, a Politburo...

A revolt against electronics manufacturer Foxconn, with parts of it captured on video , has seen up to 10,000 of the more than 200,000 workers at the vast complex of factories in Zhengzhou walking out of the plant in protest at repressive conditions. These factories are due to produce maybe over 85% of the world’s supply of the new iPhone 14. Already Covid curbs and workers’ protests are hitting Apple’s sales across the world in a usually highly profitable pre-Xmas period. In order to walk out, thousands of workers had to climb over fences and confront security forces blocking the exits and...

For many years, the Morning Star , like its political masters at the Communist Party of Britain, has acted as a mouthpiece for the Chinese ruling class when it comes to anything concerning China. Apologists for the Communist Party of China (CPC) like Carlos Martinez and Jenny Clegg are regularly given space in the paper to praise the wonders of Chinese “socialism” (i.e. state capitalism), accuse the west of mounting a “new cold war” and to deny or justify human rights abuses like the persecution of the Uyghurs . However, some at the Morning Star surely realise that an authoritarian system with...

Some of the news about China’s “Zero-Covid” policy is usefully collected on the webpage of Xi Chen , a professor of public health at Yale University. Instead of pushing hard for full vaccination and then reopening, with a Covid surge but a limited one, as countries like New Zealand previously talking of “zero-Covid” have done, China is doing little to fill its vaccination gap (or to use more effective vaccines). It uses repeated ultra-lockdowns, forced quarantining, and mass PCR testing (which produces results only with delay). The latest bout of ultra-lockdowns, including a new one in Wuhan...

Xi Jinping secured his third term as leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the 20th Party Congress (16-22 October). That was no surprise, as he had already changed Party rules disallowing a third term of office way back in 2018. Still, no one else has held ultimate power that long, other than Mao and Deng Xiaoping, so this is significant. Xi first became the CCP leader 10 years ago, at the 18th Congress. The congresses are held every five years, with 2000-plus delegates gathering to formally endorse party policy, party leaders, and changes to the constitution. Through some opaque...

The Morning Star , concerned about the rise of authoritarianism in Britain, has identified a major source of it: “Starmer’s Labour is playing a key role in that process and its successes accelerate the drive towards a more authoritarian and repressive British state (editorial, 12 October). The editorial cites, as examples, the expulsion of members “for rule breaches invented retrospectively”, the suspension of a conference delegate “for arguing against one of the motions on the agenda” and the deselection of Sam Tarry. The editorial goes on to warn: “Some MPs fear the Labour leader is prepared...

The two-and-a-half-week Covid lockdown in the 21-million-strong Chinese city of Chengdu is being gradually lifted from 18 September. Lockdowns in China are different from in other countries: workers are banned from leaving their workplaces, or residents from their blocks of flats, for weeks, and non-Covid patients are sometimes banned from hospitals. The human (and health) cost is unknown. The Chinese government insists that it will continue these lockdowns for as long as it takes to reach “Zero Covid”. Even the World Health Organisation, which has to be diplomatic, thinks that is not possible...