ON November 15, 2022, during the G20 summit in Bali (Indonesia), Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese told journalists that his country seeks a ‘stable relationship with China’. The main reason for this, Albanese said, is because China is ‘Australia’s largest trading partner. They are worth more than Japan, the US, and the Republic of Korea together combined’. China is Australia’s largest destination for exports, and it is the largest exporter into Australia. This has been the situation since 2009.

THE first group study session of the CPC Polit Bureau held on October 25 (two days after the conclusion of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China) deliberated on the regulations for strengthening and safeguarding the Party Central Committee's ‘centralised, unified leadership’, and the detailed rules for the implementation of the eight-point decision on work conduct.The very next day (October 26), Xi Jinping led members of the Standing Committee of the Polit Bureau to visit Yan'an, an old revolutionary base in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

IMMEDIATELY after the conclusion of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), on October 25, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC led the first group study session of the Polit Bureau. This was to ‘study, understand and implement’ the guiding principles of the 20th Congress. The meeting emphasised that the tasks set forth by the 20th Congress ought to be implemented in all aspects of economic and social development, by being prepared to face all kinds of complex issues.The report presented to the 20th Congress gave great importance to theoretical development of Marxism.

ON October 30, 2022, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (known as Lula) won the second-round of the presidential election in Brazil. The vote, in the end, was tight, with Lula prevailing with 50.9 per cent (60 million votes) over the incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro’s 49 per cent (58 million votes). Lula won decisively in the north and north-east of Brazil, areas that have large populations of Afro-Brazilian and indigenous voters, while Bolsonaro prevailed in the south.

THE 22nd International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP) held from October 27-29 at the Havana Convention Palace was attended by delegates from 65 countries from all the continents. ‘United we are stronger’ is the slogan of the event in which representatives of 82 political forces and 31 delegations headed by their presidents or general secretaries participated. The theme of the IMCWP is ‘Solidarity with Cuba and all the struggling peoples.