It is widely accepted that the accelerating rivalry between the great powers—the United States, China, the European Union, Russia, and Japan—is a key feature of world politics and will remain so for the foreseeable future. This makes it urgent for progressive forces to have a clear view on the character of the powers involved, which in turn requires a concrete analysis of the political, economic, and military features of these powers that goes beyond a denunciation of the reactionary domestic and foreign policy of their respective governments. [1] Unfortunately, large sectors of the left do not take a principled position of opposition to all imperialist powers. Rather, they display some kind of sympathy or even support for China and Russia and recognize only the old Western powers as imperialist. [2] In the case of China, a number of “communist” intellectuals and well-known journals like Monthly Review not only deny the Stalinist-capitalist character of its regime but shamefully glorify it as a kind of “socialism.” [3]