As Washington shoots Chinese balloon down, tensions grow

Vol. 87/No. 8 - February 27, 2023
Artist’s rendering of Chinese Navy fighter cutting across nose of U.S. Air Force spy plane over South China Sea Dec. 21, forcing it to take evasive action. Conflicts between Washington and Beijing are increasing as U.S. rulers seek to maintain their domination of Asia-Pacific region.

Amid rising tensions between the capitalist rulers in the U.S. and China, Washington tracked and then shot down a Chinese balloon Feb. 4, saying it was spying on U.S. territory after it flew over North America. For years the U.S.…


Workers across China protest wave of layoffs, unpaid wages

Vol. 87/No. 6 - February 13, 2023
Hundreds of workers at Alltest Biotech factory in Hangzhou, China, protest Jan. 9, part of actions across the country against layoffs, outstanding back pay. Police arrested dozens here.

Local governments across China are increasingly trying to crack down on protests by workers fighting spreading layoffs and growing unpaid wages. They have “threatened to punish workers who take ‘extremist measures,’ such as protests blocking traffic or outside government offices…



Chinese American scientists beat back FBI ‘spy’ frame-up attempts

Vol. 86/No. 46 - December 12, 2022
Left, Xiaoxing Xi, Temple University physics department chair. He fought FBI frame-up, won public support, and charges were dropped. Right, Sherry Chen in 2018 after court ruling that her firing from the National Weather Service on espionage charges was a “gross injustice.”

SAN FRANCISCO — At a Nov. 12 program during the conference of the International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas here (see accompanying article), three Chinese scientists, all naturalized U.S. citizens, gave powerful accounts of how they stood up…


Workers in China protest COVID-19 lockdowns

Vol. 86/No. 46 - December 12, 2022
Workers in China protest COVID-19 lockdowns

In unprecedented defiance of the Chinese government’s iron-fisted zero-COVID lockdowns, which have confined millions and left many hungry, demonstrations erupted across the country Nov. 26-27. This followed protests in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang province, the day before. After months of…


Beijing-Washington conflict heats up over Taiwan

Vol. 86/No. 31 - August 22, 2022

Chinese warships and warplanes launched live-fire “exercises” surrounding Taiwan the day after an Aug. 2-3 visit to the island by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit there in 25 years. Beijing says the island is part…


Protesters in China: ‘Give us back our life savings!’

Vol. 86/No. 27 - July 25, 2022

On July 10 Beijing authorities violently attacked a peaceful protest of more than 1,000 people outside the local branch of the People’s Bank of China in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province. They were demanding the government protect their rights…


Beijing suppresses Tiananmen vigil in Hong Kong

Vol. 86/No. 24 - July 4, 2022

“Compared to last year, government control this year was even stronger,” Daniel Chan wrote the Militant from Hong Kong June 15. He was referring to the large police operation blocking protesters there trying to hold a vigil to mark the…


Chinese workers seethe over Shanghai COVID lockdown

Vol. 86/No. 19 - May 16, 2022
Working people protested eviction from their homes in Shanghai, mid-April, as apartment block was turned into COVID isolation facility. They were removed by cops in protective suits.

Weeks of rising anger toward government officials in response to severe COVID restrictions and accompanying food shortages spurred protests in Shanghai at the end of April.  Dozens of residents in Jinze, a Shanghai suburb, marched through the streets demanding food.…


Moscow, Beijing, Washington frame opponents as ‘foreign agents’

Vol. 86/No. 2 - January 17, 2022
Protest at Moscow closing of Memorial that chronicles Stalinist Gulag. Sign: “You can’t kill the memory of the people! We are surviving in poverty, lack of rights, and almost without hope.”

As they deepen their assaults on working people and political rights, the regimes in Moscow and Beijing are trying to silence political opponents by smearing them as “foreign agents.” Washington condemns these two rivals for repression, but has used the…