ISA’s section in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan is a single unitary organization, active in struggle in all three states. ISA opposes the CCP dictatorship, which spearheaded the restoration of brutal, sweatshop capitalism in China since the late 1970s, after the Stalinist regime of Mao fell into acute crisis. 

Trade unions are completely banned in China today, as are all elementary democratic rights. This ultra-repressive police state has been extended to Hong Kong since 2020, as Beijing unleashed its ‘white terror’, forcing trade unions to dissolve along with dozens of opposition groups and political parties. Rather than a ‘progressive’ or ‘left’ force, with the re-establishment of capitalism, the CCP has become a reactionary right-wing and ultra-conservative force, with an ideology based on Han nationalism and Confucianism. It blames China’s shrinking population on homosexuality, feminism and the younger generation’s rejection of traditional patriarchal structures and ‘norms’. Homosexuality, while not formally banned in China, is suppressed and LGBTQ advocates are persecuted, as are women’s rights campaigners and feminists. Workers’ strikes are illegal and countless strike organizers have been arrested and jailed. No political organizations are allowed and real Marxists including ISA can only exist in the political underground.

ISA in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan organizes around Socialist magazine, which is banned in China and Hong Kong, but published legally in Taiwan. Our website is chinaworker.info which has articles and reports in three languages including English.

We say the CCP dictatorship cannot be reformed or democratized, and must be defeated by mass working class struggle. This struggle must also aim to overthrow capitalism in China as these are two heads of the same monster. Hong Kong’s cruel history of broken promises to introduce ‘democratic elections’, dating back to British rule, shows clearly that the capitalist class in China and Hong Kong prefer dictatorship and a shackled working class as the best system for their super-profits. The super-rich fear that even small democratic reforms risk opening a breach in the dam, leading to the collapse of the dictatorship, which in turn would imperil Chinese and Hong Kong capitalism. 

Marxists are active in every democratic struggle, even for partial or limited steps forward, while explaining that real change – ending the CCP’s tyranny – hinges on overthrowing capitalism. We support the right of self-determination for the people of Taiwan, and for the Uighurs, Tibetans and other persecuted nationalities in China, while opposing the militarist schemes of all the imperialist regimes (US, China, Japan, etc). The imperialists and their gigantic war machines can only be defeated by a socialist workers’ movement that unites all nationalities and groups.