Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding – SACU News

Picking tomatoes

Picking tomatoes

More on China …..

Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding – SACU News

The Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding is a friendship association of people in Britain toward China. It was founded on May 15, 1965, and in its early years it was sympathetic to the Chinese Revolution and socialism. Its early leaders included Dr. Joseph Needham and Professor Joan Robinson (who were both also involved, at the same time, with the China Policy Study Group).

The abrupt ending of the SACU News monthly magazine coincides with the start of the publication of China Now – copies of which we have not be able to access.

As SACU followed a very much ‘pro-China’ line during the course of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution the wishy-washy liberals, who had joined in the early years, drifted away only to return to take control of the organisation when the Chinese ‘capitalist-roaders’ took the country away from the construction of Socialism and towards the full scale restoration of capitalism.

The organisation still exists but seems to function more as a mouthpiece of the Chinese government in Britain and providing its members with official visits to capitalist China.

In the 1970s SACU was criticised for publicising the revolutionary, Socialist, developments of the People’s Republic of China when the country was attempting to improve the conditions for the vast majority of the population. Now it praises the erstwhile Socialist country for its capitalist (and imperialist) development.

SACU News – Monthly Publication

1965

Vol. 1, No. 1 – October 1965, 4 pages

Vol. 1, No. 2 – November 1965, 4 pages

Vol. 1, No. 3 – December 1965, 4 pages

1966

Vol. 1, No. 4 – January 1966, 4 pages

Vol. 1, No. 5 – February 1966, 4 pages

Vol. 1, No. 6 – March 1966

Vol. 1, No. 7 – April 1966, 4 pages

Vol. 1, No. 8 – May 1966, 4 pages

Vol. 1, No. 9 – June-July 1966, 8 pages

Vol. 1, No. 10 – August 1966, 4 pages

Vol. 1, No. 11 – September 1966, 4 pages

Vol. 1, No. 12 – October 1966, 4 pages

Vol. 1, No. 13 – November 1966, 4 pages

Vol. 1, No. 14 – December 1966, 4 pages

1967

Vol. 2, No. 1 – January 1967, 4 pages

Vol. 2, No. 2 – February 1967, 4 pages

Vol. 2, No. 3 – March 1967, 4 pages

Vol. 2, No. 4 – April 1967, 4 pages

Vol. 2, No. 5 – May 1967, 4 pages

Vol. 2, No. 6 – June 1967, 8 pages

Vol. 2, No. 7/8 – July-August 1967, 8 pages

Vol. 2, No. 9-10 – September-October 1967, 8 pages

Vol. 2, No. 11 – November 1967, 8 pages

Vol. 2, No. 12 – December 1967, 8 pages

1968

Vol. 3, No. 1 – January 1968, 8 pages

Vol. 3, No. 2 – February 1968, 8 pages

Vol. 3, No. 3 – March 1968, 8 pages

Vol. 3, No. 4 – April 1968, 8 pages

Vol. 3, No. 5 – May 1968, 8 pages

Vol. 3, No. 6/7 – June-July 1968, 8 pages

Vol. 3, No. 8 – August 1968, 8 pages

Vol. 3, No. 9/10 – September-October 1968, 8 pages

Vol. 3, No. 11 – November 1968, 8 pages

Vol. 3, No. 12 – December 1968, 8 pages

1969

Vol. 4, No. 1 – January 1969, 8 pages

Vol. 4, No. 2 – February 1969, 8 pages

Vol. 4, No. 3 – March 1969

Vol. 4, No. 4/5 – April-May 1969, 8 pages

Vol. 4, No. 6 – June 1969, 8 pages

Vol. 4, No. 7 – July 1969, 8 pages

Vol. 4, No. 8 – August 1969, 8 pages

Vol. 4, No. 9/10 – September-October 1969, 8 pages

Vol. 4, No. 11 – November 1969, 8 pages

Vol. 4, No. 12 – December 1969, 8 pages

1970

Vol. 4, No. 13 – January 1970, 8 pages

Vol. 4, No. 14 – February 1970, 8 pages

Vol. 4, No. 15 – March 1970 [Last issue], 8 pages

More on China …..

Please follow and like us:

2 thoughts on “Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding – SACU News

  1. “The organisation still exists but seems to function more as a mouthpiece of the Chinese government in Britain and providing its members with official visits to capitalist China.”
    “…Now it praises the erstwhile Socialist country for its capitalist (and imperialist) development.”
    Excuse me, what?

    • Hello Aleksander

      Not really sure what you getting at. Is China a capitalist and imperialist country or do you think it is still a ‘socialist’ society?

      Those who produced the SACU News in the 1960s and early 1970s were promoting Socialist China at a time when it wasn’t easy to get information about developments in the country. By continuing to support ‘socialist’ China after the coup against the revolutionaries within the Party very soon after the death of Chairman Mao. If such support in the early years of capitalist restoration could be excused as ignorance of the reality any support, or thought that the country still follows a socialist agenda so many years later, is just plain stupidity.

      Any support organisations, for example, set up to promote the interests of the United Kingdom or the United States would be to support the dominant economic and social system in place in those countries. Such slavish support always comes with advantages.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.