50 years ago, the United States and China signed the Shanghai Communicate, recognizing that Taiwan is part of China.

Today, the United States prepares for war with China and uses Taiwan as a pretext.

We need a new system. We need a new society.

We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but iscker. Today we'll be talking to Dr. Ken

Hammond. He is a professor of East Asian and global history at New Mexico State University.

He's a founding director of the Confucius Institute at the university. He's also an organizer and

activist with Pivot to Peace. Professor Ken Hammond,

welcome back to the socialist program. Glad to be back, Brian. A few weeks ago, Ken, we spoke about

China's role in Africa. It prompted a lot of interest in your thoughts, your discussions about it.

Earlier, I did a seven-part series with you for the Socialist Program podcast about

China's foreign policy during the history between 1949 and today.

So we've covered a lot of topics, but there's a couple reasons we really wanted to have

you back today. One is that in a month, a little bit more than a month, there is going to be the

anniversary, the 50th anniversary of the U.S.-China-Shanghai Communicade that started the normalization

of relations between the two countries.

In that Shanghai communique, the U.S. acknowledges that Taiwan is part of China.

And today, as we're speaking, the U.S. is preparing for major power conflict with China.

And I'm talking about military conflict in the South China Sea,

and Taiwan is the pretext.

So a stunning turn of events 50 years later.

But this war drive by the United States is also accompanied by a growing chorus

of media demonization of China, including in the New York Times on its front page

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