By Marvyn N. Benaning | Correspondent

THE Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has warned President Duterte that China is not the socialist state it purports to be, with the bureaucracy under the late Deng Xiaoping wresting power after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976.

In a critique of China, the CPP said in an article in the October 21 issue of Ang Bayan, its official organ, that “the Party and revolutionary movement have a critical view of the Duterte administration’s policy of amity and friendship with China. On the one hand, the revolutionary movement is aware that China has its imperialist self-interest in forging friendship with the Philippines. On the other hand, they also see the opportunities for positive changes in the economy and people’s livelihood, which were long closed because of United States domination and reliance.”

Mr. Duterte, was accompanied by 400 businessmen and government officials during his visit that led to a thawing of relations with Beijing and the declaration of President Duterte that he was “separating from the US.”

A total of $13.5 billion worth of deals were cut while Beijing promised to lend $9 billion to various projects in the country.

CPP, which had been criticizing China since 1976, said China “is one of the biggest capitalist countries and a burgeoning imperialist power. It was once a modern socialist country [1949-1976] before the new bourgeoisie, which emerged from the bureaucracy wrested state power and destroyed the Communist Party of China [CPC] and the socialist system.”

It is now swamped by the capitalist crisis in finance and overproduction, and a huge inventory of surplus goods, like steel, cell phones and other electronic products and parts, as well as uninvestible surplus capital, forces it to find countries willing to be the dumping ground of its surplus goods.

The CPP warned Mr. Duterte that the Philippines is in China’s crosshairs not only because of its having won a favorable ruling from the International Arbitration Tribunal over the issue of the Scarborough Shoal, which lies within the country’s extended economic zone (EEZ) as it is only 160 miles from Zambales, but also because the Philippines could be an interminable pool of cheap labor and raw materials to run its so-called Factory Asia—the network of tightly linked factories in different countries that engage in semiprocessing.

“China has imperialist ambitions. Along with the expansion of China’s economic empire, there is also its strategic deployment of military forces in various parts of the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. China’s geopolitical interests are increasing and its challenge to US hegemony is growing,” CPP noted.

“President Duterte’s friendship with China can help the Filipino people in their struggle to break free from US control and domination and end reliance on US imperialism. But this will happen only if the Filipino people’s national democratic struggle will continue to advance and if the Duterte administration will forge with them a patriotic alliance,” the party added.

The CPP said China’s promised loans and investments will only be meant to build factories and establish plantations that are geared to supply the factories and market of China.