Let's Talk About Communism

The European Parliament recently adopted a resolution about Hong Kong which among other things called for sanctions against Chinese officials. The resolution was adopted with quite a clear margin, with 578 in favor, 29 against and 73 abstentions. The interesting part is that the abstentions and against votes largely came from two political groups on the opposite sides of the political spectrum: ID and GUE/NGL Far rights and the far left agreeing on something? Seems like the horseshoe theory is on to something. 

This same divide can be seen in Finnish politics as well. I previously posted about the case of two right wing MP's getting exposed with questionable China ties. However, questionable China ties can be seen on the Finnish left as well, especially in minor parties, namely the Communist Party of Finland (SKP) and the Communist Workers Party (KTP).  

The SKP is generally described as more moderate than the KTP but I don't think this is the case. An example of this is how the parties responded to the recent anti-government protests in Cuba. Both released statements putting the blame on the US embargo which is admittedly a major reason why the situation has deteriorated. At the same time they completely absolved the Cuban government from any blame and the idea of the Cuban people actually opposing their government is portrayed as absurd. The only major difference between the statements seems to be that the KTP's statements is more strongly worded. Is this supposed to be proof that the SKP is more moderate?

The same applies to their views on China. Both parties have articles on their website condemning the way Western countries are treating China as unfair. The 2019-20 protests in Hong Kong are portrayed as a US ploy to control China. Again, as if people living under Communist regimes couldn't possibly oppose their government. Once again, the main difference seems to be KTP having more strongly worded statements. Apart from that, the more "moderate" SKP seems to actually have considerably stronger ties to CHina.

Good example of these ties is a 2019 article talking about a bilateral meeting between SKP and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Their website also includes multiple articles about SKP members taking part in events organized by the CCP.

SKP leader Juha-Pekka Väisänen has also made number of appearances on Chinese state media. A quick Google search showed three instances of this happening. First one was a 2018 interview given to Xinhua, the state news agency, regarding SKP's 100-year anniversary (even though the current party was founded in 1996). The two other appearances are from this year, in both of which Väisänen is praising the CCP's achievements in honour of their 100-year anniversary: In April he once again appeared on Xinhua and in early July he appeared on China Daily. 

Some of you might wonder why I went through the trouble of writing this. The simple fact is taht this topic hits pretty close to home. I've been following political developments in China for years and really became an activist during the 2019 Hong Kong protests. At the same time, the "moderate" SKP has received praise from my fellow Green party members. Fro example, their statements regarding climate policy and the LGBT community have received praise.

The way this topic is treated seems weird to me: while the SKP has received some support from more mainstream parties, the KTP is pretty universally condemned. Meanwhile in reality there doesn't seem to be any major differences between the two. The main difference seems to be the apparent diversity of the SKP which is why their more questionable statements have not received as much attention. If it's up to me that won't last.