The move to restrict exports of the important rare earth metals that China has a 90% monopoly on has provoked Trump to declare a 100% tariff on Chinese exports and other retaliatory measures, reports DYLAN MURPHY
People’s China at 75
KEITH BENNETT surveys the People’s Republic’s first 75 years arguing that the vast changes rest on an essential continuity
People celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China today in its special administrative region of Hong Kong, which was not freed from British rule until 1997
Ben Chacko pays tribute to the author of our much-missed Frosty’s Ramblings column, a champion of the countryside and working-class culture
Giving a personal insight into the Labour Party conference, Sinn Fein MP CHRIS HAZZARD slams the lack of mention of the North of Ireland and the need to take the next steps in the journey from peace to Irish unity
The ferocity with which Labour in power has cracked down on protest within its own ranks and also on the streets is unprecedented — and championing those protests is the only way we can turn this ship around, argues ALAN SIMPSON
ANSELM ELDERGILL is a member of Your Party and he suggests how the new party should reform Britain’s constitution
Trump’s Gaza deal is a transient, self-aggrandising spectacle that barely distracts from the West’s outright complicity in the massacre in Gaza and our slide into warmongering, writes MATT KERR
ALTHOUGH China was the world’s biggest economy for most of the last two millennia, since Britain launched the first Opium War in 1839, the country was reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society. Not for nothing is the ensuing period known by the Chinese as the “century of humiliation,” marked by unequal treaties, foreign aggression, civil wars and ultimately a victorious revolution.
When the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, China was one of the poorest societies on Earth. Illiteracy was as high as life expectancy was low.
The subsequent political trajectory of the People’s Republic essentially falls into two distinct phases, the second commencing with the launch of the policy known as “reform and opening up” from the end of 1978.
More from this author
KEITH BENNETT explains why, despite its present meagre economic outcomes, an honest and fruitful partnership with China is worth pursuing
Despite the usual Western media refrain that 'China is in decline,' its position is getting stronger, alongside the rest of the global South — a good time to broker deals with the US then, writes KEITH BENNETT
Far from being a formality, sneeringly referred to as a 'coronation' in the West, the five-yearly congress of China's ruling party will have serious consequences for the future of the planet, explains KEITH BENNETT
