November 8, 2017

When the U.S. delegation headed by President Donald Trump visits People’s China from Nov. 8 to 10, there will be public statements from both sides and closed meetings on trade, security and relations with other countries.

Big corporate interests that control the U.S. delegation will be closely following the trade and financial issues discussed and the agreements that are made. Their interest, as always, is to maximize the profits of U.S. billionaires, but any economic deals will be explained to U.S. workers as creating jobs here and aiding consumers.

The policy of the Chinese government is more complicated. People’s China exists because of a monumental, decades-long revolution involving millions of workers and peasants. Its core leaders were communists who fought to emancipate China from the landlords and capitalists, especially those who were tools of foreign imperialism. The 90-million-member Communist Party makes policy. For almost 40 years now, it has implemented a strategy of allowing capitalist entities to exist alongside the state-owned planned economy.

This followed a tumultuous period in China in which the party was divided over how this vast country could overcome its severe underdevelopment in a world dominated by imperialism. Those who advocated using the capitalist market for this purpose won out. But the workers’ state created by the revolution was not torn down, as happened after 1991 in the ex-Soviet Union. The party retained its control over the economy and the state itself, and a period of tremendous growth followed. Hundreds of millions of people overcame poverty, but the reforms also created several hundred Chinese billionaires.

In his long and detailed speech given at this year’s Party Congress, CPC leader Xi Jinping indicated that China has now reached a new stage in its development in which it will further strengthen the state-owned industries.

This is welcome news to all who are fighting for a socialist future for the world.

Behind the friendly tone of U.S. politicians, military strategists and business people who accompany Trump to China is their undying hatred of socialism. They are not content with being able to make money in China. They more and more see China as the greatest challenge to their domination and exploitation of the world.

They have already announced that driving a wedge between China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is one of their main objectives of this trip.

The U.S. rulers and their generals know that a frontal attack on the DPRK, like the war they waged from 1950 to 1953, would unleash a monumental disaster. If they couldn’t bring the Korean people to their knees then, how can they believe that is possible now, when the DPRK has strengthened its defenses by building nuclear weapons?

While there may be a need for diplomacy and soft words in the face of imperialist threats, it is in the interests of China and all who want peaceful development for the benefit of the masses of people that no concessions be made to U.S. imperialism’s attempts to isolate and disarm the DPRK.