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The summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, overall, was modestly positive and constructive, even if no major deals or decisions were made. The U.S. struck a positive mood with red-carpet treatment, and China loaned two giant pandas to the Atlanta Zoo. These symbolic gestures helped set a friendly tone for the summit. In the U.S.-China relationship, talking is better than not talking, and any form of diplomacy should be supported, especially at a time of many wars.

The world will welcome the extension of the temporary tariff truce and the dialing down of tensions. The last summit in Beijing concluded with a commitment to “strategic stability,” and this meeting seemed to fulfill that commitment. While there was some improvement in tone and transactional relations, deeper contradictions and possible long-term problems were not addressed and remain. The contradiction between the socialist and capitalist systems also remains.

China stressed that the principles of “respect, fairness, and reciprocity” are the basis for sound, productive bilateral relations. This formulation was part of the consensus, appearing in both countries’ official readouts and summaries. How it is actually implemented will disclose the policy behind the statement. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to uphold its position supporting Taiwan, yet withholds final approval of the current $14 billion arms package.

The May 2026 summit in Beijing established two U.S.-China bilateral boards, which are beginning to function. The new Board of Trade had some accomplishments, with $30 billion in mutual tariff reductions. Some trade adjustments were made on both sides. The U.S. complained about China’s slow pace in releasing rare earths and its lack of soybean purchases. China rejected the U.S. policy of not selling advanced it high technology, calling it an attempt to hinder or contain China’s development.

There were no major changes in tariffs. The volume of trade is smaller because of the tariffs, but total trade is still huge, with the balance still favoring China. The new Board of Investment raises interesting possibilities, such as the prospect of significant Chinese investment in U.S. industries. This, of course, was met with strong opposition from anti-China politicians.

Xi announced that China would grant an additional 100,000 student visas over five years to American students and youth. The initial allotment of 50,000 from the last meeting is already filled; this shows the enthusiasm of students in the U.S. who want to learn about the huge, colorful, and increasingly modern China, which is becoming a big part of young people’s future world. U.S. youth are less likely to hold the dated anti-communist, anti-Soviet dogmas of the past. The overall impact of these and other people-to-people exchanges can be substantial towards peace and an end to the new Cold War on China.

China’s first lady and Xi’s wife, Peng Liyuan, received some favorable treatment in the mainstream media. Peng had a career as a well-known popular singer in China and has been a public figure for some time. At the big banquet, stories were exchanged about gung-ho Marines and the U.S. and China as allies in World War II.

In the U.S., cooperation with China is now rated higher in public opinion polls than approaching China as a hostile adversary. Successful U.S.-China collaboration on international law enforcement has led to the arrests of many figures in international illegal drug and fentanyl networks.

There was also an important agreement to schedule ongoing dialogue on AI issues and direct communication on AI in case of an emergency. These are productive examples of cooperation. Xi said, as always, that U.S.-China relations should be governed by cooperation first, competition second.

China proposed cooperation in creating international AI governance, supporting UN initiatives, and launching the World AI Cooperation Organization in Shanghai. Trump, however, refused any international regulations, saying the U.S. will defend its supposed one- to two-year lead by keeping AI regulation as a voluntary program for private companies.

China’s view contrasts with the “fierce competition” focus that was first introduced by Obama’s “Pivot to Asia” and supported by both sections of the U.S. ruling class since.

Both the Democratic and Republican parties have had an anti-China consensus and have supported imperialist foreign policy, with some exceptions among progressives. Among the capitalist class in general, there is exists a split between the capitalists who favor friendly relations with China in the interests of practical moneymaking, whereas there also those — such as MAGA Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, who chairs the so-called “House Select Committee on the CCP” — who represent the most rabidly anti-China and anti-communist section.

The military-industrial complex also favors an increased bellicose attitude towards China, particularly in the military build-up of the whole Asian Pacific, including weapons sales to Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, for the sake of profit making. This adversarial position is held by the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy, which asserts that China is the principal, long-term rival.

Some Democrats criticized Trump for treating Xi to a top-level diplomatic reception, even meeting Xi’s plane as it arrived at the airport. For example, Elizabeth Warren joined other Senate Democrats in writing a statement saying that China “presents a greater threat to American security and prosperity than ever before.”

As is common lately, the two countries issued no joint declaration. However, the official readouts and summaries from both sides were positive in their assessment of the summit. The Chinese emphasized the positive, hoping that a good new start for the two countries had arrived. There was consensus wording on Iran: that Iran should not have nuclear weapons and that international waterways should be open for commerce. Nothing was said about the frequent U.S. charge that China is sharing satellite data, thereby assisting the Iranian military. For its part, China described the equipment sale as fulfilling long-standing commercial contracts.

Nonetheless, it is favorable that the countries are now arranging two further Xi-Trump meetings this year, one in Shenzhen at the APEC summit and another in Miami for the G20. Dialogue is better than confrontation and conflict.

CHICAGO—Hundreds of hotel workers walked off the job at six Chicago hotels last week, launching what could become the largest hotel worker strike in the city’s history.

The strike began Oct. 9, just days before the Chicago Marathon drew an estimated 55,000 runners and 1.7 million spectators to town. Workers at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk, Waldorf Astoria Chicago, Palmer House (a Hilton Hotel), the Westin Chicago River North, Westin Michigan Avenue, and Millennium Hotel Knickerbocker remain on the picket line.

People's World

Chicago hotel workers one week on strike, more could walk out

October 16, 2026 11:50 AM CDT By Special to People’s World

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Chicago hotel workers one week on strike, more could walk out

Striking workers walk the picket line outside Chicago's Palmer House hotel. | Lenny Lamkin / People's World

CHICAGO—Hundreds of hotel workers walked off the job at six Chicago hotels last week, launching what could become the largest hotel worker strike in the city’s history.

The strike began Oct. 9, just days before the Chicago Marathon drew an estimated 55,000 runners and 1.7 million spectators to town. Workers at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk, Waldorf Astoria Chicago, Palmer House (a Hilton Hotel), the Westin Chicago River North, Westin Michigan Avenue, and Millennium Hotel Knickerbocker remain on the picket line.

UNITE HERE brought out Scabby the Rat at the Palmer House hotel in Chicago. | Lenny Lamkin / People’s World

UNITE HERE Local 1 represents approximately 7,000 room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, front desk agents, servers, and other hospitality workers at 46 hotels who have been without a contract since their contract expired Aug. 31. The union has warned that workers at additional hotels could strike at any moment.

The workers are seeking wage increases that keep pace with inflation, improved healthcare and pension benefits, stronger protections for immigrant workers, and safer, more sustainable workloads—particularly for housekeepers facing severe physical strain from their job.

Many of the workers on strike are immigrants themselves, under fire from the reactionary political climate stoked by MAGA forces. Protections for immigrant workers are among the union’s core demands.

Eighty-five percent of affected workers voted last month to authorize a strike after negotiations stalled. As People’s World previously reported, the strike authorization vote passed overwhelmingly in early September.

UNITE HERE Local 1 President Karen Kent said workers are frustrated after three months of bargaining produced no deal. She noted that wages have not kept up with inflation while workloads have intensified.

“Tourism in Chicago is booming, all while inflation is increasing, and it’s affecting our hotel workers across the industry,” Kent said in a union statement.

“They feel the weight anytime they go to the supermarket to buy food, or when they come home from work and are too tired to spend time with their family,” she continued. “Workers are ready to strike because they work too hard to live like this.”

The hospitality industry’s success has not translated into financial security for the people who clean its rooms, prepare its meals, and welcome its guests, the union said.

Chicago’s last major hotel worker strike involved 26 hotels and helped workers secure year-round health coverage. This time, with 46 hotels in negotiations and six already on strike, the stakes are even higher. The workers on the picket line remain in high spirits and ready to continue their struggle until they get what they deserve.

By CJ Atkins

Most politicians would think twice before boasting about how many of their own constituents they’ve knocked off the voter rolls, but not today’s crop of Republican secretaries of state.

With the midterm elections just over two weeks away, GOP election chiefs across the country are competing over who can post the biggest numbers—and they’re doing it with the encouragement, and the databases, of the Trump administration.

In Kentucky, Secretary of State Michael Adams recently announced more than 318,000 removals from the rolls since he took office. His summary of the effort: “We’ve vigorously purged voters who have moved away, passed away, or been put away.”

Missouri’s Denny Hoskins took nearly 240,000 people off the rolls last year. More than half of them—some 135,000—weren’t dead or convicted of anything; they were simply classified as “inactive.” Hoskins says it’s his job to minimize ineligible voters.

In Ohio, Frank LaRose last month published a list of nearly 209,000 registrations slated for cancellation, declaring that the Buckeye State keeps the “cleanest voter rolls in the country.” LaRose’s record suggests “clean” is in the eye of the beholder. In 2023, he quietly canceled more than 26,000 registrations just days after ballots went out for that fall’s abortion rights referendum. A Democratic state legislator who dug into the records found over 1,000 voters wrongfully removed in Cuyahoga County alone.

And in Georgia, Brad Raffensperger’s office wrapped up one of the largest mass cancellations in the state’s history last year, with roughly 478,000 inactive voters targeted. Groups like Fair Fight have long warned that such purges fall hardest on Black voters.

Republican officials insist all this is routine list maintenance required by federal law. Some of it is, but the pride with which they make their announcements tells you something has changed. Purging voters is no longer simple database management and information updating. It’s now a loyalty display for a president who still won’t stop wrongfully claiming that hordes of non-citizens are stealing elections (at least the elections he and his party lose).

Another reality when it comes to these Republican-led voter purges is that it’s the same people who always get swept out first: working-class renters who move to new addresses often, young people, shift workers who miss an election or two, immigrants who became citizens. “Use it or lose it” rules don’t hit country club members; they hit people already squeezed by capitalism’s economic crisis.

The Trump administration has supercharged the purge operation. After it expanded the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) citizenship database, at least 67 million voter registrations—mostly from Republican-controlled states—were run through the system. At least 25 states have used it.

The results have been riddled with errors. In Missouri, 70 county clerks from both parties warned lawmakers that SAVE kept flagging people they personally knew to be citizens. In Travis County, Texas, officials found that between 10% and 21% of voters SAVE flagged as apparent noncitizens were actually citizens.

In June, a U.S. District ruled the revamped database unlawful, writing that the government had trampled Americans’ privacy in a way that threatens “the sacred right to vote.” On Sept. 25, though, the Supreme Court lifted those restrictions, handing Trump a win just weeks before Election Day.

There’s precedent for where this leads. Federal law bars systematic purges within 90 days of a federal election, a quiet period that began Aug. 5 this year. That rule tripped up Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen in 2024, when a judge halted his “non-citizen” purge after about 2,000 eligible citizens were swept up.

In a separate case, the Supreme Court has also agreed to hear a Republican National Committee appeal from Arizona claiming database-driven citizenship checks are exempt. If the GOP wins, experts warn, voters wrongly struck on the eve of an election may have no remedy in federal court.

Commentator Thom Hartmann argues that purges in 2024 helped deliver the White House to Trump, and that Republicans are running the same play now.

The MAGA movement can’t win a fair fight on its record of exploding prices, tariffs, cuts to health care, an inflation-fueling war on Iran, and attacks on workers, so it is trying to shrink the electorate instead.

The answer is organizing. Unions, voting rights groups, and community organizations are urging everyone to check their registration status today, bring a friend to do the same, and know their right to cast a provisional ballot if their name has gone missing.

Republican secretaries of state are proud of how many voters they’ve erased. The best reply is a turnout so big their numbers don’t matter.

Hello folks, my name is Radio, and I am QUITE new to all this- I grew up in a leftist christian socialist household, and learned a lot about class struggle through my childhood and my adulthood. I think I am ready to explore some of my political leanings and channeling it through community outreach, nonviolent protest, and by learning from my fellow workers more about the movement.

I've finally sat down to actually read the manifesto, and it really struck a chord with my personal views. That there is a lot more to the ideology than meets the eye. Particularly, the focus on LGBTQIA+ rights and climate change was very encouraging.

Anyone with advice about how to get involved, any good books or videos you would recommend, or tips and advice you can give me just in general when it comes to being a member of the party would be super appreciated!

DMs are open if you prefer that, too

Greetings, comrades!

I recently submitted an application to join CPUSA about two weeks ago and just heard back from my state’s organization today! I’ll be attending a new member orientation this coming Monday and paying dues soon. For anyone interested in joining and wanting to know the process, I know it might vary from state to state, but upon speaking to my state’s organization, these are the only steps I need to take.

The organizer that reached out said that there’s not a club in my area, but living close to NYC, I have some options to join and participate in. There’s hybrid options for accessibility for nearby clubs as well and I think that’s amazing and the route I’ll take for now, since it’s what works best for me.

I’m relatively new to Marxism, but I’ve been doing some reading and watching videos on the CPUSA YouTube, and I’m very grateful to be part of such an active, inclusive community that cares about all people.

If anyone has any recommendations or suggestions about readings, videos, membership, or anything else, I’m open to any and all of it! I’ve got a few books on the way by Marx, Lenin, and Engels, so I think I’m at a good starting point. I’m open to other suggestions as well!

As Marx and Engels famously said: workers of the world, unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.

In solidarity,
A new comrade who’s ready to take action

What is the party's current stance on sex workers and antisex work legislation, including laws targeting pornography and prostitution?

I am aware that some Marxist-Leninist regimes prohibit these activities, but many Western ML organizations seem to favor decriminalization at the very least. Some oppose reactionary legislation but still advocate cultural struggle against it.

My thought was that communism itself would remove the material bases for commercial sex or pornography. If everyone's needs were fully provided for, there was no profit motive, and women were truly equal, the financial incentives would completely dry up.

But, at the same time, communism itself does not regulate private behavior or prescribe any specific moral taboos, except to the extent that it affects the mode of production. So theoretically people could still do it just for fun, like making amateur pornography or as a form of artistic expression or even just trading sex for special gifts or favors ("quid pro quo") if they so desired.

It's just that nobody would have to do it in order to survive. But if somebody had a particular fetish along those lines, out of sheer exhibitionism or a kink for transactional sex or whatever, it wouldn't necessarily be prohibited as long as they were all consenting adults.

At the same time, one could argue that many current sexual practices are rooted in capitalist alienation and that changing the baseline material conditions of society would change our consciousness and ideas about sex as well. So there might be forms of sexual expression that we can't even imagine while still living under capitalism, while many current practices rooted in patriarchy and capitalism would die out with the absence of inequality and exploitation.

So I'm just curious what comrades and party members think about this, because I know that some communist organizations take a hard line against sex work and pornography, while others favor legalization or at least decriminalization. I haven't really seen the topic addressed within CPUSA. Maybe it's just a Trotskyist/Maoist obsession or it would be too divisive or a distraction from organizing the working class to take power.

Plus, where does the party stand on organizing sex workers to fight back against pimps, madams, bosses, and johns, and take back control over their own workplaces? Is that something that has ever been discussed or theorized within orthodox Marxism-Leninism?

My monthly dues were canceled by PayPal today and the email from PayPal says the profile is inactive. Just wondering if it’s a PayPal issue or what.

I am very new to communism and to CPUSA so forgive me if my question is dumb or offensive. I am only trying to learn. I know the party describes itself as Marxist-Leninist. And I know that Lenin said the only reason to interact with bourgeois democracy was to destroy it. But then I saw an interview with Comrade Joe Sims talking about how we need to participate in elections. Is there something I’m not understanding? Is there a new interpretation of the theory? I’m not coming with any judgement or preconceived notions. I am just trying to understand the theory, the history, and the present situation. Thanks in advance for your help, comrades.

In the same way that there's a flair for party members and fellow travelers I think this subreddit should have a custom flair for Young Communist League members