On Sunday December 14, 2025, Friends of Socialist China (FoSC) organised its third consecutive end of year reception and dinner. More than 60 supporters and friends from various progressive organisations, communities and walks of life packed the Palestinian Hiba Express restaurant in Holborn, central London, to renew friendships and to sum up the work in 2025 and the prospects for the new year. We were joined by honoured guests and friends from the embassies of China, DPR Korea, Laos, Cuba, and Timor-Leste, as well as from China Daily. 

FoSC co-editor Keith Bennett spoke on behalf of the organisation, welcoming everyone and reviewing our work in the outgoing year. He also stressed the particular importance of solidarity with the peoples of Palestine and Venezuela at this time.

Responding, Minister Counsellor Jiang Zhouteng from the Chinese Embassy extended his sincere greetings to all comrades and friends present and noted:

“Since its establishment, Friends of Socialist China has remained committed to telling the world true and vivid stories about China.

“Just in 2025, your website has published about 500 posts, closely following major events related to China, released a new book, titled China Changes Everything, which brings together insights from many contributors, and organised multiple seminars around various topics.”

Comrade Jiang also referred to our May-June delegation to China and to our conference marking China’s 76^th National Day, along with other activities, and added:

“I would like to extend our sincere gratitude for all your efforts in promoting a better understanding on China by the rest of the world including the UK. It is no doubt that through your efforts more and more people in the world have been encouraged to listen to and appreciate real and vivid stories about China, and have realised, much more than before, the power of socialism that is rooted in unity, peace, and justice for the world.”

Turning to the situation in China, he said that:

“The year 2025 is the final year of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, which is the first five-year period since our march towards the second Centenary Goal, building a great modern socialist country in all respects, began in 2020.

“Facing a turbulent international landscape, we achieved pioneering progress, breakthrough transformation, and historic accomplishments in our economic and social development, laying a solid foundation for a good start on the new march towards the second Centenary Goal.

“The upcoming year 2026 will mark the first year of the 15th Five‑Year Plan, a period of strategic importance that will lay a solid foundation and give full momentum to the process of basically achieving socialist modernisation.

“In the next year, China will continue to advance Chinese modernisation, with economic development as our central task, high-quality development as our main focus, reform and innovation as the fundamental driving force, meeting the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life as our fundamental goal, and full and rigorous Party self-governance as the fundamental underpinning for all our efforts.

“China will continue to uphold the banner of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit, and to advance efforts to build a community with a shared future for humanity, in order to promote world peace and development, and safeguard international fairness and justice.”

Finally: “Looking ahead to the new year 2026, we sincerely wish Friends of Socialist China continued progress and look forward to continuing our close collaboration with you.”

Text of Keith Bennett’s speech:

China and the global struggle against imperialism today