Nzimande and Mapaila made it clear that they stood on the side of China in its trade war with the US.
Johannsburg – Two senior SACP leaders, general secretary Blade Nzimande and first deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila have dumped US-made cellphones in favour of Chinese-made Huawei – a decision that they vowed to stick with it.
The two leaders declared their political choice during their party’s special national congress when they displayed their cellphones to more than 750 delegates who are attending the congress at Kempton Park, in Gauteng which ends on Thursday.
In their explanations – Nzimande and Mapaila made it clear that they stood on the side of China in its trade war with the US. They also labelled Trump as an aggressor in the war.
In support of his views, Nzimande quoted a book by one of the SACP central committee members and former minister of trade and industry Rob Davies titled:The Politics of Trade in the Era of Hyperglobalisation: A Southern African Perspective.
Nzimande said Davies was correct in his analysis that the so-called “trade wars” allegedly started by US were increasingly defining relations between China and the US.
In his political report to the special national congress, Nzimande said South Africa has not been left untouched.
“We have been affected by the earlier rounds of the US ‘trade wars’ offensives. While accepting exemptions from a select group of countries, including Brazil, the US imposed punitive tariffs on South African steel and aluminium exports.
“The ‘trade wars’ waged by the US have a wider collateral damage in scope. This has far reaching implications that goes beyond China, contrary to what is reported in most media coverage.
“The heightened imperialist offensive as well as its ‘trade wars’ is indeed broadly defining the sphere of international relations in general,” Nzimande said.
He also said that what was clearer in the case of China was that its leadership role in the rollout of 5G technology does not sit well with the US.
“More particularly Huawei, a Chinese company, is considered to be ahead in the rollout of 5G, a key enabler in the deepening and widening digital technological industrial advances.
“The response of the US has been to use ‘national security’ measures to curtail access by Chinese disruptor companies both to the US market and that of other countries.
“In this way, the US is also acting extraterritorially,” Nzimande said.
SACP also blamed Trump for instability in Latin American countries, especially Venezuela.
Political Bureau
