When interviewed Swansea Socialist council leader Rob Stewart was asked to comment about Swansea being twinned to Wuhan in China, the city where Covid originated (and which has very close ties with Swansea University). He stated he supported friendship agreements put in place after the second world war, they were intended to help communities living under totalitarian regimes, to bring democracy and help communities.

I think it’s safe to say the friendship agreements haven’t worked for the Chinese communities, China hasn’t become a democracy, it didn’t stop Communist China invading Tibet, violating human rights, torturing and murdering thousands of its own people, the Kazakhs and Uyghurs and breaking treaties with Hong Kong. China is now threatening an invasion of Taiwan.

Despite all the facts, Cllr Stewart appears happy that we continue to work closely with China and share research, medical and engineering expertise from our Universities so that China grows stronger.

When asked about support for sanctions against the Communist regime in Russia, the principles he just quoted only seconds before flew out of the window. He fully supported all sanctions against the Russian Government, ignoring the suffering the sanctions would cause to working class Russians, thousands of whom protested against their country invading Ukraine.

It’s nice to see a socialist admit that the communist rulers in China and Russia are totalitarian regimes. But it appears that some communists are more equal than others.

Socialism, Marxism, Communism are all symptoms of the same disease.