Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the Conference Marking the 70th Anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence on Friday in Beijing.Here is the full text of his speech.Carrying Forward the Five Principles of
I think it is very frustrating but I do appreciate China's complete commitment to its own development to the point where it will be able to dictate terms to the imperialists.
So many other socialist countries crumbled after the fall of the USSR. While on one hand this demonstrates how supportive the USSR was of their projects, it also demonstrates a key weakness, as it means they were unable to provide an alternative model for trade and development. A single partner goes down and suddenly North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Eastern Europe all go to shit. If they were robust and developed and had consistent trading partners they would be in a much better position today. Yugoslavia might still exist if it hadn't tried to play both sides and depend on both the USSR and the IMF.
China offers a path forward that I think is more robust, even though it has contradictions. When the imperialists try to fuck you, China will be there to trade. This is, by far, imperialists' most powerful weapon and China is destroying it more and more every day. It is the only reason we can see pink movements in Latin America, the establishment of AES in the Sahel, of Russia (not socialist, but an opponent to Western imperialists) not immediately collapsing in response to getting cut off from the USD banking system.
There's a point missing from this, though. Why couldn't China just do that and support revolution elsewhere? In my opinion... it could. It really could do more. I think a lot of this is a holdover from China considering itself to be in a very weak position (and it does still have many weaknesses) where it cannot take the anti-imperialist lead in a new cold war. It doesn't want to take lead in a new cold war, it wants to develop itself as much as possible first, to weaken the imperialist empire and build its alternative (China-led multipolarity).
I think it is reasonably perceived that stronger moves against imperialists will further the creation of two blocs that crystallize current geopolitical alignments. I think it is also reasonably perceived that the trend of those alignments is favorable towards China, so the more time before crystallization, the better. Maybe it will just be, literally, NATO vs. everyone else some day.
I think that it is likely that we will see foreign policy change from China over the next few decades. Not necessarily into a firebrand supporter of revolution on ML principals, but I do think they'll start to more openly flex muscle around arms shipments, sanctions, national sovereignty, etc. I think the policy of "we will trade with everyone" will begin to have exceptions. A lot of it will be prompted by an imperialist West looking to crystallize those blocs in their favor.
Anyways I do also find their strategy frustrating even though I do see the value in it. I see a large nation led by a communist party that allows and even participates in the genocide of Gaza by trading with Israel and not rallying any kind of coercive international resistance. I see a large nation led by a communist party that fails to consistently ally with communist movements in neighboring countries and even generates opposition to China within them, as China makes deals with their oppressors. These are missed opportunities to forward our cause and they are missed due to highly sophisticated but still disappointing strategies developed in an era where China was a minor power.
Why couldn't China just do that and support revolution elsewhere?
I definitely agree with this, but given the modern history of China and its local history (1980+) theres a lot of risk in losing these fights supporting revolution, and it crystalizes the international bourgeoisie against you. Especially like the Soviet war in Afghanistan, you stick your neck out for not a whole lot of gain (underdeveloped trading nations with shaky institutions) that the safer option is to just focus inwards, to not allow your population hear the siren song of liberalism, and then to work with and develop these countries, working with their institutions to maybe create a proletariat capable of wielding power that is hopefully ideologically allied to you a la the Belt and Road Initiative.
I wont claim that China could see Western Powers devolving in the wake of the Soviet collapse but the West really didnt waste much time stretching their legs and continuing their wars of aggression, Gulf War, bombing Yugoslavia, and ultimately taking one too many risks that like in the USA left them to focused on foreign adventurism than keeping the lights on at home. America after the collapse also kept a list of enemies especially going into the 21st century that didnt have china on it. It had Saddam, Kim Jong-il and Khomeini. And that list got smaller and smaller and China only now is on that list.
We also cant really say that the Chinese method has worked yet. We're still a while out of the total collapse of Western Hegemony, and while China is ascendant, theres still doubt in my mind that BRICS could hold up the world economy in place of America. The world seems likely to change very fast in a very chaotic way, and China's stalwart development seems like the only thing that could change without being destroyed by it.
Yes this aligns with my general understanding as well. China's relative passivity is part of a long game and is entirely intentional, considering very real failures of other states run by communist parties. I do think it can do more, as an important lesson is that capitalist countries, particularly the primary seats of capitalist empire, do not differentiate between real and imagined justifications for isolation. They will simply do it when they want to. I think there is more they could "get away" with, but I do understand and appreciate their more conservative commie perspective.
Why couldn't China just do that and support revolution elsewhere?
The amount of terrorism that the USA can do against China is immense, either directly along its very huge land borders or indirectly through any other country that China is working with. As Biggay said, remember the USSR and Afghanistan? What if there were like 10 proxy wars against China going on simultaneously?
Other things are kinda sucky though, like taking a backseat on openly supporting Palestine. Then again, Chinese weaponry is winding up in the hands of the resistance, so...
The US has already been doing that, of course. They'll do whatever they can regardless of China's posturing. Though material engagements do absolutely have costs, so actually participating in a resistance movement is far from nothing. At the same time it does align more or less perfectly with their massive industrial capacity. The key is to choose the right battles, e.g. Palestine, where participation is does not translate into, "China is going to fund revolutionaries in my country so I'll prop up these right wing paramilitaries and get even more US bases", as would definitely happen in India or The Philippines. Leading the charge on Palestine would probably improve China's international position. Even just in their neighborhood this would be very popular in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Of course, this is just expressing a frustration from a Western person in the imperial core. We should remind ourselves that when thinking about the possibility for even better outcomes by states controlled by communist parties, we are literally in the states fighting to ensure the imperialist system and the genocide of Palestine. We should spend most of our time thinking about how to position ourselves to best fight that system and that genocide, not nag about states for not doing enough.
I'm more thinking of from the perspective of the Chinese people. Engaging in an open military operation in support of a state that seems like it would be open to the possibility allying with China or embracing communism with overt and direct material support from China and it turning into a 20 year war of attrition between imperial proxy forces and Chinese forces in 5 or 10 or 20 places... how long would the Chinese people be okay with that? Us USA-ians got tired of Iraq and Afghanistan after a handful of years and we're supposed to be the blood thirsty ones, I'd think that the people of China might want to find a different strategy than "attrition and a prayer."
... frustration from a Western person in the imperial core...
Well I don't want China to bog itself down in 10-20 locations, of course. I think it should strategically pick one (1) fight for national liberation and support it more fully and openly, e.g. Palestine. The US will of course try to make this as painful as possible for anyone daring to push back on them.
I don't even mean sending troops. Right now, the status quo with China internationally is that the capitalist empire is committing a genocide to keep its keystone to the domination of a subcontinent politically viable and the response of states with whom we are meant to have affinity are politely registering complaints. This is leaving all of the direct work to liberals and neighboring national liberation movements (or those who recently won national liberation). China's contribution, which is massive, is to create the baseline of multipolarity that makes all of that possible. However, China could, for example, begin leading a push to isolate Israel. Outcomes that would substantially undermine empire in Palestine include fully funding UNRWA and doing a full push to sanction or even blockade Israel. China should be getting practice in doing PR on this because they suck at it. Hire Al Jazeera reporters and learn how to craft angles from them. Etc etc.
I think they avoid this because the main good factions are well aware of how weak China was very recently and they understand that their project is overall still fairly fragile. They also see storm clouds in destabilizing the US. I think they have adopted an approach that is so conservative it is actually counterproductive, though.
I think it is very frustrating but I do appreciate China's complete commitment to its own development to the point where it will be able to dictate terms to the imperialists.
So many other socialist countries crumbled after the fall of the USSR. While on one hand this demonstrates how supportive the USSR was of their projects, it also demonstrates a key weakness, as it means they were unable to provide an alternative model for trade and development. A single partner goes down and suddenly North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Eastern Europe all go to shit. If they were robust and developed and had consistent trading partners they would be in a much better position today. Yugoslavia might still exist if it hadn't tried to play both sides and depend on both the USSR and the IMF.
China offers a path forward that I think is more robust, even though it has contradictions. When the imperialists try to fuck you, China will be there to trade. This is, by far, imperialists' most powerful weapon and China is destroying it more and more every day. It is the only reason we can see pink movements in Latin America, the establishment of AES in the Sahel, of Russia (not socialist, but an opponent to Western imperialists) not immediately collapsing in response to getting cut off from the USD banking system.
There's a point missing from this, though. Why couldn't China just do that and support revolution elsewhere? In my opinion... it could. It really could do more. I think a lot of this is a holdover from China considering itself to be in a very weak position (and it does still have many weaknesses) where it cannot take the anti-imperialist lead in a new cold war. It doesn't want to take lead in a new cold war, it wants to develop itself as much as possible first, to weaken the imperialist empire and build its alternative (China-led multipolarity).
I think it is reasonably perceived that stronger moves against imperialists will further the creation of two blocs that crystallize current geopolitical alignments. I think it is also reasonably perceived that the trend of those alignments is favorable towards China, so the more time before crystallization, the better. Maybe it will just be, literally, NATO vs. everyone else some day.
I think that it is likely that we will see foreign policy change from China over the next few decades. Not necessarily into a firebrand supporter of revolution on ML principals, but I do think they'll start to more openly flex muscle around arms shipments, sanctions, national sovereignty, etc. I think the policy of "we will trade with everyone" will begin to have exceptions. A lot of it will be prompted by an imperialist West looking to crystallize those blocs in their favor.
Anyways I do also find their strategy frustrating even though I do see the value in it. I see a large nation led by a communist party that allows and even participates in the genocide of Gaza by trading with Israel and not rallying any kind of coercive international resistance. I see a large nation led by a communist party that fails to consistently ally with communist movements in neighboring countries and even generates opposition to China within them, as China makes deals with their oppressors. These are missed opportunities to forward our cause and they are missed due to highly sophisticated but still disappointing strategies developed in an era where China was a minor power.
I definitely agree with this, but given the modern history of China and its local history (1980+) theres a lot of risk in losing these fights supporting revolution, and it crystalizes the international bourgeoisie against you. Especially like the Soviet war in Afghanistan, you stick your neck out for not a whole lot of gain (underdeveloped trading nations with shaky institutions) that the safer option is to just focus inwards, to not allow your population hear the siren song of liberalism, and then to work with and develop these countries, working with their institutions to maybe create a proletariat capable of wielding power that is hopefully ideologically allied to you a la the Belt and Road Initiative.
I wont claim that China could see Western Powers devolving in the wake of the Soviet collapse but the West really didnt waste much time stretching their legs and continuing their wars of aggression, Gulf War, bombing Yugoslavia, and ultimately taking one too many risks that like in the USA left them to focused on foreign adventurism than keeping the lights on at home. America after the collapse also kept a list of enemies especially going into the 21st century that didnt have china on it. It had Saddam, Kim Jong-il and Khomeini. And that list got smaller and smaller and China only now is on that list.
We also cant really say that the Chinese method has worked yet. We're still a while out of the total collapse of Western Hegemony, and while China is ascendant, theres still doubt in my mind that BRICS could hold up the world economy in place of America. The world seems likely to change very fast in a very chaotic way, and China's stalwart development seems like the only thing that could change without being destroyed by it.
Yes this aligns with my general understanding as well. China's relative passivity is part of a long game and is entirely intentional, considering very real failures of other states run by communist parties. I do think it can do more, as an important lesson is that capitalist countries, particularly the primary seats of capitalist empire, do not differentiate between real and imagined justifications for isolation. They will simply do it when they want to. I think there is more they could "get away" with, but I do understand and appreciate their more conservative commie perspective.
The amount of terrorism that the USA can do against China is immense, either directly along its very huge land borders or indirectly through any other country that China is working with. As Biggay said, remember the USSR and Afghanistan? What if there were like 10 proxy wars against China going on simultaneously?
Other things are kinda sucky though, like taking a backseat on openly supporting Palestine. Then again, Chinese weaponry is winding up in the hands of the resistance, so...
The US has already been doing that, of course. They'll do whatever they can regardless of China's posturing. Though material engagements do absolutely have costs, so actually participating in a resistance movement is far from nothing. At the same time it does align more or less perfectly with their massive industrial capacity. The key is to choose the right battles, e.g. Palestine, where participation is does not translate into, "China is going to fund revolutionaries in my country so I'll prop up these right wing paramilitaries and get even more US bases", as would definitely happen in India or The Philippines. Leading the charge on Palestine would probably improve China's international position. Even just in their neighborhood this would be very popular in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Of course, this is just expressing a frustration from a Western person in the imperial core. We should remind ourselves that when thinking about the possibility for even better outcomes by states controlled by communist parties, we are literally in the states fighting to ensure the imperialist system and the genocide of Palestine. We should spend most of our time thinking about how to position ourselves to best fight that system and that genocide, not nag about states for not doing enough.
I'm more thinking of from the perspective of the Chinese people. Engaging in an open military operation in support of a state that seems like it would be open to the possibility allying with China or embracing communism with overt and direct material support from China and it turning into a 20 year war of attrition between imperial proxy forces and Chinese forces in 5 or 10 or 20 places... how long would the Chinese people be okay with that? Us USA-ians got tired of Iraq and Afghanistan after a handful of years and we're supposed to be the blood thirsty ones, I'd think that the people of China might want to find a different strategy than "attrition and a prayer."
Definitely.
Well I don't want China to bog itself down in 10-20 locations, of course. I think it should strategically pick one (1) fight for national liberation and support it more fully and openly, e.g. Palestine. The US will of course try to make this as painful as possible for anyone daring to push back on them.
I don't even mean sending troops. Right now, the status quo with China internationally is that the capitalist empire is committing a genocide to keep its keystone to the domination of a subcontinent politically viable and the response of states with whom we are meant to have affinity are politely registering complaints. This is leaving all of the direct work to liberals and neighboring national liberation movements (or those who recently won national liberation). China's contribution, which is massive, is to create the baseline of multipolarity that makes all of that possible. However, China could, for example, begin leading a push to isolate Israel. Outcomes that would substantially undermine empire in Palestine include fully funding UNRWA and doing a full push to sanction or even blockade Israel. China should be getting practice in doing PR on this because they suck at it. Hire Al Jazeera reporters and learn how to craft angles from them. Etc etc.
I think they avoid this because the main good factions are well aware of how weak China was very recently and they understand that their project is overall still fairly fragile. They also see storm clouds in destabilizing the US. I think they have adopted an approach that is so conservative it is actually counterproductive, though.
No disagreements from me.