I am a Marxist in China
Orthodox Marxists in the Chinese internet community often view Russia and Iran as weak links in imperialism, rather than as anti-imperialist forces .However, in the view of Chinese Marxists, opposing the global hegemony of the United States takes precedence over opposing secondary imperialisms (Iran, Russia).
The person in the picture is Yang Heping, a US citizen with a Chinese green card, and he is the most popular orthodox Marxist-Leninist-Maoist self-media figure on the Chinese internet (with 3 million followers on Tiktok and 800,000 on Bilibili). Yang Heping advocates that whether it's Ukraine, Russia, or Iran, "the truth is on the side of the proletariat, not on the side of any government or capitalist."
In China, those who unconditionally support Iran and Russia are usually nationalists or national leftists.
I wonder if the differences between the left-wing in Europe and America and the left-wing in China are really that significant?
there can be no such thing as socialism with islamic characteristics, quite literally mutually exclusive with materialism.
Marxism is materialist but Marxism is not socialism. Marxism is a tool for analysis. Socialism is a way of organizing society. Marxism explains why socialism will and must come into being but it does not say that socialism must be organized a certain way. Marxism has been used as a rhetorical rally point for revolutionaries but there is nothing stopping non Marxist socialism from happening, on the contrary Marxism shows that even if historical and dialectical materialism analysis are ignored the socialist revolution against capitalism will happen.