By Peter Main In this short pamphlet, Simon Hannah seeks to, ‘outline the recent history of China as well as the ways in which the politics and economy of the country have shifted – making it one of the most powerful capitalist and emerging imperialist countries in the world’. More than that, as the title […]

Growing divisions in the party have forced a change of tack.

Who is Xi scared of?

CHINA’S CONSTRUCTION industry, a key lever in Beijing’s entire economic policy, is facing a debt crisis of enormous proportions. Attention has focused on Evergrande, a development company, whose total debts are estimated at $310 billion and which failed to pay some $96 million interest on foreign bonds in September. Just three days before being declared […]

By Alex Rutherford The Aukus security pact between Australia, the UK and the US represents one of the most dramatic moves yet taken by the United States to counter the threat to its interests posed by its largest imperialist rival, China. It also represents a brutal snub to France and by extension to the European […]

International Secretariat of the League for the Fifth International On July 1, Beijing’s National Security Law (NSL) was imposed on Hong Kong. It extends the laws against “sedition, conspiracy and collusion with foreign powers” that already operate within “mainland” China to Hong Kong. The law also means that the internal “security” agencies will now operate […]

On September 4, Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, finally agreed to withdraw the hated Extradition Bill altogether, and not just leave it on the shelf. If the Bill had become law it would have allowed extradition of anybody on Hong Kong territory for trial on the mainland. Although presented as simply a measure to prevent criminals taking refuge in Hong Kong, it could also have been used against journalists and political dissidents and , indeed, almost anyone doing business on the mainland, where corruption is rife.

Progress for the movement now depends not on the force of argument, but on the argument of force. Only a real general strike, a strike that stops all production, all transport, all publications, all broadcasting, can do that. Such a strike cannot be mobilised out of thin air, it has to be built for within the workplaces and housing estates themselves. That is the task that the Left and the thousands of student activists should set themselves.

Our perspectives on the current global situation, League for the Fifth International Congress in Berlin, June 2019

The trashing of the Legislative Council, Legco, building in Hong Kong on July 1 certainly drew the world's attention to the ongoing opposition to the proposed Extradition Law that would allow people detained in Hong Kong to be tried in mainland Chinese courts.