Global Times is published by the People’s Daily News Agency, which also publishes People’s Daily.

Text of the article.

Global Times is published by the People’s Daily News Agency, which also publishes People’s Daily.

Text of the interview.

From the Friends of Socialist China website:

The London Region of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) held its 2025 Annual Conference online on Sunday 12 January.

Friends of Socialist China co-editor Keith Bennett was among the speakers in a session entitled, NATO, war, nukes: Outlook for 2025, where he was joined by CND General Secretary Sophie Bolt; Jess Barnard, a member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC); Carol Turner, Chair of London CND and a Vice Chair of national CND; and Vijay Prashad, Director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. The session was chaired by Christine Shawcroft, a Vice Chair of London CND and editor of Labour Briefing.

A keynote opening speech on Prospects for Peace and Justice was given by Jeremy Corbyn, former Leader of the Labour Party and now the Independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North, introduced by Murad Qureshi, a Vice President of London CND and a former Chair of the Stop the War Coalition.

Further discussions focused on Ukraine and the Middle East as testing grounds for new tech weapons, with expert input from Peter Burt, a researcher for Drone Wars UK; and Dave Webb, Convenor of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space; chaired by former MP Emma Dent-Coad; and a final session on Peace Movement Priorities, with Baroness Jenny Jones from the Green Party; Tony Staunton, a Vice Chair of CND; and Angie Zelter, a founder of Lakenheath Action for Peace; chaired by Hannah Kemp-Welch, a Vice Chair of London CND.

Text of the speech

Text of the speech

Text of the speech with introductory note on website of Friends of Socialist China

From the website of Friends of Socialist China:

Friends of Socialist China held its second annual Christmas dinner at the Hiba Express Palestinian restaurant in central London’s Holborn district on Sunday, December 15. Just over 60 people attended, including senior representatives of the embassies of China, Laos and Cuba, members of the Chinese media corps in London, the London representative of Sinn Féin, comrades from Malaysia, Holland and Luxembourg, and activists from a broad range of progressive organisations with whom we have been working over the past year.

Speaking before dinner, our co-editor Keith Bennett reviewed our work over the last 12 months and reiterated our solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Responding, Minister Zhao Fei from the Chinese Embassy said:

Over the past three years, the Friends of Socialist China have done incredible work in helping more people learn about and understand China.

As 2024 draws to a close, China has calmly navigated the changing domestic and international environment with comprehensive strategies. Our economy continues to grow steadily, and we have made significant progress across many areas. The upcoming year, 2025, marks the final year of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan. It is also a pivotal year as China begins its march towards the second Centenary Goal of building a modern socialist country by building on the success of building a moderately well-off society. A host of major strategies, reforms, and projects will be implemented, injecting fresh vitality and momentum into Chinese society. The future of socialist China will surely be even brighter and will bring more opportunities for global development.

We also took the opportunity to honour Comrade Kamal Majid, a lifelong communist of Iraqi origin, retired professor and member of our Advisory Group, on his upcoming 95^th birthday. His birthday cake was suitably decorated with red flag and hammer and sickle icing.

Text of the speech by Keith Bennett

Full account of the celebration on the website of Friends of China.