The World Socialist Web Site is publishing today in Chinese the resolution adopted by the ISSE/SEP Emergency Conference Against War held on March 31-April 1 in the United States.

Chinese is the world’s most used language. It is the official language of China, which has a population of 1.3 billion and accounts for one-fifth of humanity. Chinese is also spoken by an estimated 60 million people in Taiwan, Singapore and the broad Chinese diaspora, including in South East Asia, North America, Australia and Europe.

Although Chinese is divided into many dialects, the largest being Mandarin, it is based on just two styles of writing—the set of simplified characters used in the Peoples Republic of China and the classical one still employed in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The translated document is written in simplified Chinese, which is broadly understood by Chinese readers. The use of Chinese on the Internet is rapidly expanding. According to official statistics, the number of Internet users in China increased 23.4 percent to 137 million in 2006—the second highest figure after the US.

Originally posted in English on April 4, the ISSE resolution calls on students, youth and workers around the world to oppose the US war in Iraq and threat of military attack on Iran. While opposing US threats and aggression against economically less developed countries, such as Iran, China and India, the resolution explains this “in no way implies support for their governments or the capitalist interests that these governments represent”. It advances an internationalist and socialist perspective to unify the working class against militarism and all forms of nationalism.

In posting the ISSE resolution in Chinese, the World Socialist Web Site is seeking to broaden political discussion among workers, intellectuals and young people about the necessity of building an independent movement of the working class based on genuine socialist principles. We invite feedback from Chinese readers and hope in the future to publish further Chinese translations of WSWS articles.