Hands Off China!

We attended Stop the War Coalition’s online meeting on Saturday: “US, UK and China: Into a Dangerous New Cold War”, with speakers Jenny Clegg (CND), Stephen Bell (Stop the War) and veteran journalist and filmmaker John Pilger.

As US-China relations spiral downwards, the world faces the grave prospect of a war while still in the grip of a global pandemic. In fact Trump has used the pandemic, or ‘Wuhan Flu” as he inappropriately terms the COVID-19 virus, as an excuse to escalate hostilities that have been almost a decade in the making. Indeed, it was Obama who in 2011 announced the US’s ‘pivot to China’, in which Hilary Clinton played a leading role.

Poverty & Progress

China’s progress in attempting to alleviate poverty over the last 50 years or so is nothing short of remarkable. Nevertheless it is still a developing country, for example average income in China is $10,000 dollars compared with $65,000 in the US.

We have seen a wave of Western media reports on forced labour camps in China detaining millions of Uyghurs yet closer inspection of the sources of these stories reveals just two studies. One report comes from the US government-backed Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders who extrapolated their findings from interviews with just 8 people, and the other has been produced by Christian fundamentalist Adrian Zenz who has said he is “led by God” on a “mission” against China.

Trade & Technology

Jenny Clegg points out that trade and tech wars have now been elevated by the US into an ideological war with China cast as the new threat to global security and an existential threat to the West and its values.

When China joined the WTO in 2001, the West assumed the country would simply be absorbed into the capitalist system under the domination of Western corporations. Instead, China has cleverly found ways to move up the value chain and compete with those corporations, This is clearly not what America had in mind.

Indignant at this challenge to their imperial superiority - “How dare they?” - America has childishly and dangerously withdrawn from a number of treaties and organisations in order to impose sanctions on China, and as vassal states of the US, Britain and Australia are now threatening their own technological development in rejecting Huawei at the behest of Trump. John Pilger remarked that a third of UN member countries are now under some kind of US sanctions.

Diplomatic Relations

Many see China as expansionist because of its Belt and Road initiative - one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever conceived. A vast network of railways, energy pipelines, highways and streamlined border crossings, it travels westward through former Soviet republics and southward, to Pakistan, India and the rest of Southeast Asia.

China has resolved many of its border disputes on favourable terms with other parties and seeks a “win-win” outcome. This is not expansionist behaviour. When Jenny was speaking to African representatives at a congress last year they told her “We can say ‘no’, to China and they simply come back with a better offer.”

Military Activity

This year alone, the US has conducted 2000 military operations in China’s vicinity, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling for diplomatic ties to be cut.

John talked about 21st century countries, those who had moved on from the use of war to resolve disputes. These are the countries who prefer negotiation to threats.

He goes on to describe the US as “the last of the 19th Century countries” and also criticised Australia, a landmass which, largely because of it’s geographical position, is secure and not under threat of invasion or aggression. Yet the Australian government has invested $270bn in a new arsenal which includes warheads that will be pointing at China, its primary trading partner.

Stephen Bell commented that however you understand China’s economic policy it is not engaged in a war drive against the United States or any other nation.

Conclusion

It is apparent that the US is determined to whip up global anti-China sentiment in order to manufacture consent for its hostilities. China has an independent foreign policy making it harder for the US to bully other nations and, to rub salt into the wound, they are competing with western corporations.

John summed up perfectly: “Until we have political movements that identify who the bully is… speak its name and oppose these neanderthal policies that the Trump administration exemplifies… we’re just not going to move forward.”

Watch the meeting on Facebook.

Further study:
No to the Cold War (Meeting 24th July) 
The Coming War on China (Full documentary - John Pilger) 
Qiao Collective interview with Vijay Prashad