Spanish Communist Party praises Chinese solidarity while condemning cruel American sanctions

On Thursday, March 19, Jose Luis Centella, President of the Communist Party of Spain issued a statement in which he praised the efforts of China in fighting the coronavirus pandemic as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping's call for a global Community of Common Destiny.

He starts:

Rarely in the history of humanity has the rightness of a political proposal been so clearly
demonstrated as it is at the moment, when the world is suffering one of the most serious
health, economic, and social emergencies since the end of the last World War.
I am referring to the proposal that the President of the People's Republic of China has
been putting forward so that all States can contribute to the creation of a ‘Community of
Common Destiny´ that joins forces and wills to achieve cooperation. A cooperation
intended to achieve common goals that would allow all inhabitants of the planet to have
the right to a dignified life.
The crisis caused by the spread of the Coronavirus-COVID19 throughout the Planet has
revealed the weaknesses of a society built from economic interest, through a Neoliberal
Globalization, in which all the resources of the economy were put at the service of
maintaining high rates of profit for a minority that controls the economic power. In this
situation is when the value of Xi Jinping's proposal to advance all the peoples of the
planet together to join efforts to combat emergency situations, like the one humanity is
experiencing at the moment, appears very clearly.

He goes on to note:

An emergency crisis such as the one caused by the expansion of the coronavirus-COVID
19, which does not respect borders or continents, makes it necessary to strengthen
international cooperation by promoting the role of the UN so that it recovers the
application of the values and principles contained in its Founding Charter, acting as a
Platform for mutual cooperation.
At the same time, the consequences that the crisis of the Pandemic caused by the
COVID19, make it necessary to change the basis of the current international economic
institutions to make them more useful to the countries that are going to suffer the most
from the emergency situation. In this sense, international economic cooperation must
undergo great changes to establish rules that allow a better use of the economy to
improve the quality of life of those who are affected by the consequences of the crisis.

On Saturday March 21, the party's General Secretary Enrique Santiago and Secretary of International Relations Manu Pineda, released a "Letter of thanks to the Party and the Government of China for their solidarity in defeating Covid-19". 

In it they write:

Spain has also received a shipment of medical aid from China, and President Xi Jinping, in conversation with the President of the Spanish government, has shown the willingness of the Chinese people to help Spain and share Covid-19 prevention measures. In contrast to the shameful attitude of governments such as that of the United States...the Chinese government has always had as a priority the objective of safeguarding the health and well-being of the Chinese people and the rest of the world, sharing information and efforts to defeat the pandemic. Especially promising is the announcement that China has already tested a vaccine for Covid-19 for clinical trials.
As China has indicated, there is nothing more precious to the world than security, justice and peace.

The party also issued a statement demanding "an end to the economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the EU". It begins:

The repeated recourse of the United States to the imposition of economic sanctions against different countries, which it has been applying as an instrument to suffocate and overthrow governments that do not accept their demands, has created serious problems for the population of states such as Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and others. Also Iraq, Yugoslavia, Burma, Belarus, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Ivory Coast, Ukraine, Yemen, Lebanon, South Sudan, have suffered at different times the pressure and suffocation of the illegal North American sanctions, which are applied thanks to Washington's control of international banking mechanisms, its veto power in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its blackmail of other countries, particularly the European Union.

These are examples "of its aggressive and bellicose foreign policy, of its recourse to the most cruel imperialism that shows total disregard for the lives of millions of people around the world."

They note that the IMF refused the plea of Venezuela for an emergency loan of  $5 billion to fight Covid-19, a decision that "reveals the criminal foreign policy of the United States".

The statement ends:

According to international law, only the UN Security Council has the authority to impose sanctions, always in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and with the right of peoples to peace, development and freedom that no one can take from them. International law rejects the application of economic sanctions as a measure of war and harassment against countries in difficulty, as well as the use of blackmail, plunder and the use of economic war to achieve political objectives. Evidence of its patent illegality must lead the world to demand an end to US sanctions. Washington's policy is also a flagrant violation of human rights, aggravated today by the Covid-19 pandemic that the world is suffering, and it is in contrast with the attitude of China and Cuba.
The Communist Party of Spain, demands the lifting of North American sanctions on Syria, Venezuela, Iran, Cuba and other countries, which are nothing more than a form of extortion and war, it condemns the decision of the International Monetary Fund and holds it responsible for its possible consequences; while calling on the European Union to lift the sanctions it has imposed on different countries and to end its regrettable submission to the decisions of the United States. Also, the Communist Party of Spain demands that the European Union strictly comply with international law and human rights, and develop a policy of solidarity and aid with all countries facing difficult circumstances.