Revisionists say China cannot be imperialist

Written by: Nick G. on 2 October 2026

 

Around the world, revisionists claim that China remains a socialist country, that it cannot be imperialist, and proclaim it as the leader of an anti-hegemonic bloc opposing US imperialism.

This has an undoubted influence on some on the Left who naturally and emphatically oppose US imperialism and cannot wait to see it defeated once and for all.

One of those who sought to prove that China cannot be imperialist is Jason Hickel. We analysed his views in the Autumn 2026 issue of our theoretical journal Australian Communist. It can be accessed here with the relevant article on pages 3-6.

Central to Hickel’s thesis is the World Systems Theory division of nations into core, semi-periphery and periphery based on the unequal transfer of value. According to Hickel, the transfer of value from China to the West has allowed it to rise from the periphery to the semi-periphery, but prevents it from becoming a part of the imperialist core.

Now another revisionist-aligned academic, Carlos Martinez, has come out with a co-authored book titled “China’s Foreign Policy and the Making of a Multipolar World”.  Accompany the book is an 18-minute video presentation (China isn’t imperialist – here’s the proof). 

This person’s line is very similar to that of Jason Hickel.  He quotes Lenin’s five characteristics of imperialism but then reverts to the core and periphery focus of Immanuel Wallerstein and his World Systems Theory, and says, like Hickel, that China can never become imperialist because it is subject to the core’s transfer of value from China, keeping it in a peripheral or semi-peripheral state.  

Martinez bases his video and his book on the belief that “a multipolar world provides a way out of imperialism for everyone.” China is presented as a champion of multipolarity and as an anti-hegemonic force, and hence the appeal to those want to see the defeat of US imperialism. 

However, China has its own hegemonic aspirations, and as a former socialist country still professing to implement Marxist principles, it cannot be expected to follow the same path to imperialism as the established Western imperialist powers. It is using its economic power to oust other imperialists from investment opportunities across the globe. Its strategy of “winning the war without fighting”, borrowed from the ancient Sun Zi, was also outlined by Chinese General Qiao Long who we quoted on pages 18-19 of “Explaining China…” 

Martinez says that “the export of capital requires a state strong enough to intervene in every corner of the globe”. And that is what China has built. The mandate of the PLA (which includes the Air Force and the Navy) is to “safeguard China's security and interests in new domains” and to “safeguard the security of China's overseas interests”.  

For those seeking to understand how China managed to raise itself from being a socialist member of the Third World, the Global South, to become a member of the imperialist core, the booklet “Explaining China…” refers to “Conditions under which capitalist restoration leads to social-imperialism” (p 13-20) and provides the basis for understanding the developments that allowed China to enter the core imperialist group.

Efforts must be made to counter views sympathetic to Chinese social-imperialism. We do not want the US to launch a war with China, but neither do we accept the view that China’s expansion is a n altruistic strategy designed to oppose US hegemonism. There should be no support for China as a leader of anti-hegemonic struggle when it is striving for hegemony itself.

 

Biggest local and foreign companies still paying no Australian tax

Written by: Nick G. on 2 October 2026

 

(Photo supplied from original by fernando Goncalves)

Eleven years ago, public outrage at large local and foreign corporations engaging in tax evasion or avoidance, legal or otherwise, compelled the Australian Taxation Office to release an annual list of the largest corporations and their taxes.

The lists are compiled from companies that have an annual income of $100 million or more, so it really represents only the tip of an iceberg if all companies were represented.

Nevertheless, the eleven years’ worth of data shows that roughly one-third of the largest corporations in Australia contribute nothing in taxes to the government’s ability to pay for the programs and services it has to fund.

Minimal attempts to compel corporations to pay taxes on their Australian earnings have had little effect. In the 2013-14 financial year companies comprising 38% of the 1539 largest local and foreign companies operating in Australia paid no tax.

 

For the 2020-21 financial year, that per centage had only fallen to 32%. 

 

The figures for the latest financial year, 2024-5, show that per centage has still only fallen to 28%, an improvement on the 2013-14 figure, but indicating that big companies can use various means to continue to avoid paying tax.

 

Fossil fuel giant Santos Ltd, which paid no tax in 2024-25 on $5.1 billion in earnings, is a serial offender, having paid zero corporate tax on nearly $52 billion in sales over the 11 consecutive years of ATO public disclosures. 

 

Japanese-owned Ichthys LNG Pty Ltd has paid no tax (including the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax) for the last seven years on total earnings of $53 billion. Its Japanese owner, the oil company Inpex Corporation, owns and operates a gas field off the north-west coast of Western Australia, said to be one of the most significant energy projects in the world.

 

Optus owner Singtel, with an $8.3bn income in 2024–25, has paid no tax for five years.

 

Notorious Brazilian meat company JBS Global Meat Holdings, which has over 250 production facilities around the world and whose products reach consumers in 180 countries, paid no tax on its 2024-25 income of $4.8 billion, and has a recurring pattern of paying no tax.

 

Even those companies that do pay tax sometimes pay very little. Three random examples are:  

 

• Arrow Commodities Pty Ltd, which exports wheat, feedstocks and many other agricultural commodities, paid only $512,130 on 2024-25 earnings of $678,394,324

• Atlas Fuel Australia Ltd paid only $135,931 on earnings of $264,100,261

• China-based UBI Logistics (Australia) Ltd paid only $36,316 on earnings of $106,581,823.

 

Years ago, our Party advanced the tactical slogan “Make the Rich Pay”.  It was based on the premise that the rich weren’t paying enough for the social programs of the people.  It now transpires that the rich constantly strive, and often successfully, to pay nothing at all, year after year.

 

As an immediate demand, “Make the Rich Pay….something, anything” still resonates.

 

However, the days when we continue to tolerate the rich at all are drawing to a close.

 

Ultimately, this struggle between the rich and the rest will have to be resolved by bringing private ownership of industry, finance and commerce under the control of a working class state in a socialist and independent Australia.

British join the DARC side in push to militarise Space

Written by: Nick G. on 30 September 2026

 

British imperialism announced two days ago that it was establishing its third space squadron capable of taking offensive and defensive space missions, according to Harv Symth, UK Chief of the Air Staff.

The announcement comes almost immediately after the US imperialists announced that they had already placed weapons in Space.

Britain currently has the No. 1 Space Ops Squadron that teams with the National Space Operations Centre to track hazardous objects, and the No. 2 Space Warning Squadron, established to provide missile warning and space tracking capabilities. Neither is equipped with weapons.

However, the 3rd squadron will be equipped with weapons in space.

“To help our nation fulfil the control of space requirement, UK defence is now developing capabilities for orbital warfare,” Smyth said.

This is the second imperialist power to openly commit to “orbital warfare”. 

The Russian and Chinese imperialists have sought prohibitions on the placement of weapons in space, but must be assumed to be developing their own in competition with the US and UK.

Australian complicity in UK-US plans

Australia, meanwhile, is busy praising the Lord and passing the ammunition, providing facilities that serve US and UK space war operations.

One of those facilities is the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) at Exmouth in WA. It was completed in December 2024. 

U.S. Space Force Guardians from Mission Delta 2 and the 20th Space Surveillance Squadron, headquartered at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, currently operate the Australian sensor under an early-use agreement.

Deep-Space Advanced Radar Capability, Site 1, Exmouth | Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability

In December 2023, top defence officials from the United States, United Kingdom and Australia announced a raft of new initiatives associated with the AUKUS security pact’s second pillar. Included in the new items is an announcement that the US, Australia and the UK are creating a joint radar network for enhancing space domain awareness, with each home to one of three planned sites for the US Deep-Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC). 

“In the coming years, our nations will be creating a global radar network, bringing together three ground base stations, one in each of our countries,” U.K. Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said. “Radars more sensitive, more accurate, more powerful and agile than anything that has gone before giving us the ability to see beyond the clouds to detect, identify and track in space, up to 22,000 miles away.” 

DARC is being developed under US Space Force leadership by Northrop Grumman under a February 2022 contract to provide global monitoring of geosynchronous orbit 24/7 in all kinds of weather and during daylight. The trilateral network is apart from but will support Pillar II of the AUKUS agreement, and help the allies keep tabs on Chinese and Russian satellites and spacecraft.

According to the UK Ministry of Defence, the DARC program sits at “the cornerstone” of Britain’s space capability.

The UK selected the Cawdor Barracks site in Pembrokeshire, Wales, for its DARC base. It has planning approval but is the subject of strong community opposition.  

The US Space Force announced on September 9 that it had selected Lake Kickapoo (seriously!) in Texas as the site for its DARC base. It is intended to begin construction next year and become operational in 2030.

The demand to keep weapons out of space, to prevent orbital warfare, and to withdraw from the US “Alliance” must be heard in our unions, community organisations and political movements.

For anti-imperialist independence and socialism, no weapons in space!

Book Review-WHY WE FEAR AI

 Written by: Duncan B. on 29 September 2026

 

Among the many new books about AI that are coming out every week, I consider this book, written by two AI insiders, to be important because it stresses the need to look at AI from a class perspective. The authors urge us to look past the “doomsday” scenarios promoted by some people in the AI industry. 

The “doomsday” predictions about AI wiping out the human race divert attention from the real threats posed to workers by AI in the hands of the capitalist class. As the authors say, “It isn’t an AI superintelligence that is destroying us-it is the capitalist way of organising the world.”

Capitalism must keep growing or it will die. New technology allows the capitalist to lower the price of his products and increase the exploitation of the workers to boost profits. The introduction of steam engines made it possible for capitalists to bring large numbers of workers together in one place to produce goods on a large scale. 

The steam engine took away the control of the work process which workers had enjoyed with hand-operated machines such as spinning wheels and hand looms. Now the capitalists controlled the speed of work by controlling the speed of the steam engine.

AI is a new form of technology which also allows the capitalists to control the speed of work. The authors point to Amazon’s warehouses where workers are closely monitored by cameras connected to AI technology which monitors their speed and accuracy and any errors they make. Workers deemed by the system to be “too slow” can be fired.

The introduction of machinery allowed the capitalists to de-skill workers. An unskilled worker, often a child or woman, could now do work formerly done by a skilled worker, but for much lower wages. In the same way, AI allows many skilled jobs to be down-skilled, so they can be transferred to the gig economy or even eliminated.

 White collar jobs in areas such as banking and insurance are especially susceptible to being affected by AI. Generative AI which produces text, images or audio output is already wreaking havoc on the jobs and livelihoods of journalists, artists, writers, musicians, actors and other creative people.

The authors give examples of how AI is harming people in many ways. AI-based facial recognition systems used in policing are often wrongly accusing black people of crimes. AI systems are making decisions as to whether people can access benefits, often denying benefits to eligible people. AI is increasingly being used by employers to sort through job applications, often rejecting suitable applicants within seconds. We could list many more examples of the misuse of AI by capitalism.

The authors conclude by calling on workers to unite to oppose capitalism to build a world where technology serves the workers, instead of the workers serving technology and its owners.

 

British imperialism: sinking below the waves

Written by: Nick G. on 30 September 2026

 

(Above Extinction Rebellion members oppose AUKUS at ALP National Convention in Adelaide July 2026.  Photo supplied)

British imperialism’s decline as the power that once “ruled the waves” has been demonstrated by what the UK Daily Mail newspaper called “an extraordinarily protracted construction process” for its latest nuclear-powered attack submarine.

Its completion comes 13 years after construction began.

Commissioned in 2013, the UK Ministry of Defence expected the Astute class sub to be an active part of its nuclear fleet by 2022.

Four years late, the £1.65billion (A$3.12 bn) sub will be the only one of the UK’s six Astute class submarines in the water: the other five are currently laid up awaiting maintenance and other repair work.

The submarine was built by BAE Systems at their submarine site at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, the same company that has been awarded the Australian government’s contract to build the five SSN-AUKUS submarines under the AUKUS arrangements.

Lord West, former First Sea Lord and Labour security minister, said 'The fact that there has not been money invested in dry docks, in the maintenance facilities, in the men required to maintain and repair the submarines, in the spare parts for those submarines is why we have got to this position.”

Australia has already begun payment of A$4.6 billion (£2.4 billion) to allow the expansion of Rolls Royce's Derby site where the SSN-AUKUS nuclear reactors will be built.

It is planned that the five SSN-AUKUS boats will be built at SA’s Osborne shipyard. Construction is due to begin by the end of the 2030s with the first sub delivered in the early 2040s. However, if BAE runs true to form, and the construction process takes 13 years, delivery could be made in the early 2050s. 

Again, if BAE runs true to form, most of the SSN-AUKUS subs will be laid up for maintenance for much of their operational life.

Of the more than 1000 submissions to the AUKUS Public Inquiry, all but those that could be counted on your fingers and toes are opposed to AUKUS. 

The challenge for us is to turn that into a sustained campaign with a heightened level of struggle, to stop AUKUS and break the hold that the US has on Australia.

 

Australians mobilise to Cancel AUKUS and End the US Alliance

 Written by: Alice M. on 23 September 2026

(Photo supplied)

 

On the International Day of Peace and National Day of Action people from many walks of life and organisations across the country called for scrapping AUKUS and ending the US alliance, declaring that for the ordinary people there’s No Peace without Justice.

In every state, major city, and some regional communities, rallies and events were held simultaneously over the week of 12-21 September - in  Northern Territory (Darwin and Alice Springs), WA (Rockingham), SA (Adelaide), NSW (Wollongong, Sydney and Blue Mountains),  ACT (Canberra), Tasmania (Hobart), Victoria (Melbourne, Geelong), and Qld (Brisbane).
In Naam Melbourne, more than 250 people held a lively rally outside the United States Consulate, sending a strong message to the US and its subservient Australian government to cancel AUKUS, pack their bags and leave. The rally showcased their determination to continue building and mobilising a united movement against war, end the US control of this country, and solidarity with the people’s struggles across the globe opposing US imperialism.

Rally participants and speakers came from wide range of organisations, reflecting many struggles and issues that unite people against the effects of US imperialist domination over this country and its subservient government. Public housing tenants facing evictions and demolition of their homes demanding public funds for people’s housing, not AUKUS; health workers demanding funding for underfunded public hospitals, not AUKUS and war;  Palestinian groups demand ending US-Australian support for Israel;  Environment groups calling for Earth Care not Warfare ; unionists carrying their union flags opposed to AUKUS and war, pledging their support for Peace is Union Business. The common thread running through many struggles of the people is US imperialism.

One of the speakers pointed out that the day before the rally the US flag was removed from the heavily guarded multistorey building housing the US consulate, fearing the wrath of the people.  Another speaker pointed out that the floor below the US consulate for many years was occupied by the ABCC – the draconian anti-worker Australian Building and Construction Commission.

Yaraan Couzens Bundle, a proud Gunditjmara Djabwurrun Youin Bidjera woman opened the rally with a powerful Acknowledgement.  Pointing to US consulate behind her she demanded scrapping AUKUS and to end the US occupation of Australia which is poisoning the country and her people.  She told the rally that as the Custodians of this land and continent for tens of thousands of years, the First People have the responsibility and duty to look after and protect the Country and people.

Speaker and after speaker denounced the war mongering AUKUS, the US Alliance and the servile Australian government which surrendered Australian sovereignty.  Speakers stressed that there can be no peace without real justice for the oppressed and exploited.

Speakers from various groups included PEN Writers for Peace, Free Marwan campaign (an empty chair for Marwan Baghouti), Medical Association for the Prevention of War, a retired diplomat, Free Palestine Melbourne, MUA, BAYAN, No AUKUS Coalition Vic, Anti-Militarism Action Network (AMAN), Latin America Solidarity Network, and Labor Against War.

Combined Choir for Purpose and the Riff Raff Radical Band performed lively renditions of Bella Ciao and anti-war songs.  Many joined singing new lyrics to Beatles ‘“We all live in a Yellow Submarine” - AUKUS submarines.

(Photo supplied)

Towards the end, the rally was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a nuclear submarine captained by a US Navy Admiral sent from the US to defend his country’s consulate from the pesky protesting Australians. The Admiral had lost his way because he couldn’t find the US consulate which had removed the US flag from its building. To make matters worse for the Admiral his map showed this continent empty of any life, except for wealth in natural resources ripe for exploitation and plunder by US corporations, and a strategically essential geo-political location for US military occupation in its preparation for war with China.

One speaker noted, “ AUKUS and nuclear submarines are a trojan horse for deeper US military and economic takeover of this country.  A second invasion and occupation, first started in 1788 with the British colonial genocide of the First People, 270 years ago – this time the second invasion and occupation by the US. In 1788 the First People started resistance to the occupation of this country.  They are now joined by many non-Indigenous people demanding sovereignty and justice for people of this country from US domination.”

The atmosphere at the rally was very positive. Several speakers pointed to the growing opposition to AUKUS and war in the general community, with more wanting Australia to get out of the US alliance. People want a genuinely independent Australia and a government that serves the people rather than apologists and puppets for the US global agenda.

 

Firming up on fictitious capital – Firmus and its capital raising

 Written by: Nick G. on 24 September 2026

 

(Data Centre - Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0)

The proposed public float of Australian data centre company Firmus in late October is symptomatic of the speculative capital being drawn to the expansion of data centres.

The company hopes to raise $A7.7bn in the largest capital raising by an entrant to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), based on a market capitalisation of $A70bn. This will make it bigger than Telstra, whose market cap of $A43bn ranks as the ASX’s biggest listing. (Market capitalisation is the current value of a publicly traded company, based on the total dollar amount that all of its outstanding shares are worth.)

Firmus’s three founders are Oliver Curtis, his father Nick, and Tim Rosenfield who own 13 per cent, 5.6 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively. US private equity Blackstone owns 6.7 per cent. US technology giant Nividia owns 7.2 per cent.

Firmus' three founders will be able to sell hundreds of millions of dollars of shares 12 months after the data centre developer lists in the largest ASX float on record, and can offload another 30 per cent of their stake a year later.

The Firmus prospectus reveals Mr Curtis and Mr Rosenfield are paid $US1.6m annually in fixed salary, are entitled to receive a short-term incentive of up to 180 per cent of their base salary for next year and long-term incentive worth up to 270 per cent of base salary up to June 2029.

Investors who will be putting their money into Firmus shares will be making a claim on future profits from the surplus value accruing to the company. How that surplus value is created in an industry with few employees whose labour power is the sole source of surplus value will be investigated in a later article.

The investor speculation gambles on Firmus’s ability to grow quickly as a publicly listed company.

Its only two operational data centres at present are a 5 megawatt facility in Singapore and a 42MW centre operating in a building owned by CDC Data Centres in Melbourne. It has received development approvals from the Tasmanian government for two more. Two other centres in SA are proposed for Stirling North (near Pt Augusta), and Tailem Bend on the Murray River.

Investors will need to be convinced that the community supports, or at least tolerates, the existence of data centres in their backyards. The Australian reported that “There’s talk that all of its support so far has come from the US, with Asian investors as equally wary of the deal as Australians. Sources say American investors are willing to take a bet on the transaction because gaining data centre development consent is becoming increasingly more difficult across the United States as the population pushes back on construction of data centres near residential areas and as excess power supply to operate them becomes more limited.”

Firmus claims it can achieve pre-tax profit margins of 90 per cent across its artificial-intelligence data factories, far eclipsing those of powerhouse mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto.

Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock is not yet convinced, saying on Tuesday that central banks around the world were “all a little bit worried” that the AI investment boom could be a bubble. That is, there is the strong likelihood that what Marx termed “fictitious capital” – capital placed into shares and bonds separated from actual production – will be massively devalued if later surplus value creation fails to materialise.

Capitalism is an inherently anarchic economic system and is incapable of systematic planning to meet the real needs of the people.

Socialism will put an end to the speculative waste of capital that should be employed for socially useful purposes.

Further reading: Financialisation: fictitious capital and its real impact. (booklet)