China Follow

MORE THAN 1,000 jobs are set to go at Doctor Marten's boot factories in Northampton, Leicestershire and Somerset. Bosses want to move production to exploit cheaper labour in China. This move adds to the 150,000 manufacturing jobs that have gone in Britain in the last 12 months.

The anti-Vietnam War movement of the 1960s was a turning point, but today's movement is even bigger. We now face the fourth war in ten years. And when the war against Iraq is over, the madmen in the White House are planning to set their sights on new targets - Iran, North Korea, perhaps even China.

THE US is using bullying and dirty deals to try and ensure that the United Nations does not oppose war. That underlines why opponents of the war must be clear and say no war, with or without United Nations backing. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council are the US, Britain, Russia, France and China. Any of these can veto a resolution backing war. Bush can rely on Britain. That leaves the three others.

BLAIR: Bush's poodle, chief warmonger in Europe PUTIN: butcher of Chechnya, linked to gangster capitalists JIANG ZEMIN: Chinese leader thanks to the bloodshed of Tiananmen Square CHIRAC: wants to make money from blood spilt for oil

There are a number of short stories and novels that shouldn't just be regarded as exceptional fantasy and science fiction, but should be considered amongst the best modern literature we have.

Fear and anger has swept the globe after the revelations of George Bush's latest warmongering plans. Leaks from the US military's Nuclear Posture Review show plans to use nuclear weapons against China, Russia, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Syria and Libya. It seriously talks about more Hiroshimas, more Nagasakis, more wars which could destroy all life on the planet. And for Bush's gang it is now not a matter of if but when and how the war with Iraq will begin.

GEORGE BUSH has had to change his tune on which country is a "rogue state" to keep his coalition together. Take China. Bush, and many of the hard-right Republicans, came to power last year declaring that China was a "strategic competitor". There was his sabre rattling with the Chinese during the spy plane crisis six months ago.

"I SPENT most of my time being a high class muscleman for big business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. I was a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China, I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested." US GENERAL SMEDLEY BUTLER

THE IMAGE of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 for me sums up the China of today. A highly repressive and nasty state, every bit as class ridden as the rest of the capitalist world.

Lorry driver Perry Wacker and a Chinese interpreter are on trial for the manslaughter of 58 young Chinese immigrants. Others should be in the dock alongside them-starting with Tony Blair, Jack Straw, William Hague and the major newspaper owners. The 58 people suffocated in the lorry they had been smuggled aboard on a ferry arriving in Dover.

When the auditorium at an off the ring road multiplex is almost full on a cold midweek night, you know you are watching a box office hit. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a Chinese language epic that has captured and enthralled its audiences. But despite its stunning combat scenes this is no martial arts movie.

THE NEW Labour government ordered the police to crack down on protests against Chinese president Jiang Zemin's tour of Britain, according to a source in Blair's cabinet. People who had suffered years of imprisonment in China's jails or were demanding human rights were blocked and manhandled by the Metropolitan Police.