Promise Li is a socialist activist from Hong Kong and Los Angeles and a member of Tempest and Solidarity (US). He is active in international solidarity with movements from Hong Kong and China, tenant and anti-gentrification organizing in Chinatown, and rank-and-file graduate worker labor organizing.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Canton–Hong Kong strike, one of the longest general strikes in history. The strike was a remarkable experiment in working-class democracy and its outcome shaped the course of 20th-century China.
Protests in Bangladesh began over a quota system that limits access to civil service jobs, but they developed into a wider political challenge after a brutal government crackdown. Now the protesters want justice for the victims of repression.
Overshadowed by its relationship with the US, Israel has also long enjoyed fruitful ties with China, now its second-largest trading partner — including a military-tech exchange that has helped the Chinese state repress its own population.
Despite laws meant to root out forced labor from US solar companies’ supply chains in places like China, many companies continue to use it. Anti-China laws do little to stop such abuses — but they do add fuel to a new Cold War with China.
The US government is launching investigations of US academics with ties to Chinese research institutes. It’s a dangerous escalation of anti-China surveillance, which threatens civil liberties while doing little to help those it is supposed to protect.
In Japan, part-time and temporary workers account for nearly 40% of the workforce but have historically been ignored by the country’s trade unions. This spring, 16 unions came together to demand a collective wage increase for nonregular workers.