Pakistani Mayors’ progress
Call to follow in footsteps of pioneers of friendly relations with socialist China
Call to follow in footsteps of pioneers of friendly relations with socialist China
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Text of Keith Bennett’s article: Breaking the ice: Starmer’s pragmatic turn to China
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| See also the website of Friends of Socialist China: Breaking the ice: Starmer’s pragmatic turn to China – Friends of Socialist China |
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| A version of the article was also published by China Today on 2 February 2026, under the title: Long vistas, fruitful outcomes. |
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Keith Bennett commemorates Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Keith Bennett commemorates Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Text of Keith Bennett’s talk
In this talk, Keith Bennett detailed Bhutto’s visits and relations with the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and his meetings and friendship with their historic leaders, Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung, placing his commitment to socialism in the context of Kim Il Sung’s 1977 statement:
“The countries of the third world and most of the newly independent nations are now declaring their intention to advance along the road to socialism. True, the socialism advocated by each of them may be different – whether scientific socialism or unscientific socialism. Some people are even claiming now that their socialism is a religious socialism. But whatever kind of socialism they may claim to be adopting they all recognise that socialism is good.”
“This was,” Keith Bennett commented, “a key political context in which Pakistan’s relations with both China and the DPRK blossomed and flourished in the period of Bhutto’s leadership.”
The following is an account of the meeting, on the website of the Friends of Socialist China. |
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Friends of Socialist China: Remembering Zulfikar Ali Bhutto – Architect of China-Pakistan Friendship
Third World Solidarity organised a meeting on Monday January 5, 2026, marking the 98th birth anniversary of the late Pakistani leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who made an outstanding contribution to the friendship between his country and China.
The meeting, held in the Baseline Studios, home to a number of community organisations and projects in west London, was attended by many prominent members of the Pakistani community, and others who have been friends with members of the Bhutto family.
Chairing the meeting, Mushtaq Lasharie, Chair of Third World Solidarity, the British Pakistani Mayors Association and Lancaster West Residents Association, drew attention to the price that has often been paid by leaders of the Global South who stand for independence and popular democracy, from the martyrdom of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir Bhutto, to today’s illegal kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife. This was also one of the themes that was returned to in the discussion period following the main speeches, in which Keith Bennett explained how the hand of US imperialism was present in all these cases, whether overtly or covertly.
The first speaker was London-based Pakistani journalist Javed Soomro, whose family has long had a close relationship with the Bhuttos. He explained that before Z.A. Bhutto founded and led the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), politics in the country had been confined to the feudal class and the boardrooms of the industrialists. The people were irrelevant. Bhutto was “the first to bring the voices of the masses and ordinary people” to the political arena. The basic slogan of the PPP was for clothes, food and shelter. [Note: In its simplicity and profundity this has echoes of the Bolshevik call for bread, peace and land.]
In 1974, he organised a major conference aimed at uniting the Muslim countries. This effort was key to the animosity that the United States came to harbour for Bhutto. [This has clear parallels with the way that the efforts of the late Hugo Chávez and President Maduro to unite the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean has intensified the hatred of the United States for the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela.]
Javed was followed by Keith Bennett, co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, who spoke on the great contributions of Z.A. Bhutto, as well as his daughter Benazir Bhutto and grandson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, to Pakistan’s friendship with both the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
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Another year of progress for Friends of Socialist China
Another year of progress for Friends of Socialist China
The following is an account of the meeting, with the text of Keith Bennett’s Speech, from the website of the Friends of Socialist China. |
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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 76th 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:
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