China: US Workers Have Nothing to Gain in a War Over Taiwan

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

HEO/GED

6-3-24

 

I have just watched this presentation by the Chinese Minister of National Defence, Admiral Dong Jun, at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that began last week. Working class people should take the time to watch and listen to it as he is describing China’s approach to global security. The US’s Lloyd Austin is also a speaker there representing white supremacy and US imperialist interests in the region. I realize Austin is black but it’s not his fault, the white man made him do it. But enough satire Richard please.

 

Admiral Jun’s comments are very interesting. He talks of China wanting to create an “Equal and orderly multi-polar world”, a frequent refrain coming out of Beijing, and talks of a “shared future for mankind”. He goes in to some length about Taiwan, referring to the US role in encouraging separatists in Taiwan and creating instability in the region in general.

 

Jun stresses that Taiwan is at the center of China’s “core interests” and that separatists, in Taiwan, namely through the nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), are threatening this core interest and are showing, “…. their betrayal of the Chinese nation and their ancestors….”. and furthermore, “….erasing the Chinese identity of Taiwan and severing social historical and cultural links across the Taiwan Strait”

 

Addressing the U.S. role, Jun calls out, “external interfering forces…..with ‘malicious intent’….that keep hollowing out the One China Principal and continue to sell arms to Taiwan and having illegal contact with it.”  This, Jun says, is “…dragging Taiwan in to a dangerous situation.”, and that , “….anyone who dares to separate Taiwan from China will only end up in self-destruction.”

 

It’s important for working people paying attention to world affairs, not to lose sight of the fact that China considers Taiwan a breakaway province and the world, even the US, accepts what is agreed to as the “one” China Policy.

 

So Taiwan is an issue that China will go to war for. It is a “red line” that should not be crossed and Beijing’s statements should not be taken lightly. Workers should also recall that Putin repeatedly warned the US and Biden that further expansion of NATO eastward by bringing Ukraine in to the military alliance was an existential threat to Russia’s security and also a “red line” that should not be crossed. One doesn’t have to be a Putin or Xi fan to recognize this reality and the consequences if we don’t. The Ukrainian people have learned that lesson.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who is quite a proficient liar in more than one language, made it clear that the US goal in supporting Ukraine was weakening a competitor, namely Russia in order to “pivot” toward China. Ukraine is not important to US national interests. Biden and Blinken have been willing, with great cost to the US taxpayer, to fight to the last Ukrainian standing.

 

Jun also addresses the disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea referring to a country “emboldened by outside powers.” to stir up friction and instability in the shipping lanes.  Here in the U.S. we are told the U.S. military presence is simply to protect international trade and freedom of navigation; worthy democratic ideals in a global community guided by international law. 

 

In this dispute over Islands and territory in the South China Sea, China may well be at fault but for the average U.S. worker like myself, I have little knowledge of the history behind it and I am not going to get it from CNN or the BBC and other western news media.

 

Admiral Jun then gets to the core of US capitalism’s claims of Chinese aggression and the threat to U.S. national security and that is China’s numerous forums and ventures in Latin America, Africa, the Arab countries; in other words, its growing global influence.  China is a huge country. By 2020, the economy growing at 9% a year had lifted some almost 800 million people out of poverty. In fact, as the Marxist economist Michael Roberts has repeatedly pointed out, global poverty has decreased primarily due to China’s successes. China is now the second largest economy in the world with a GDP of $18 trillion after the US with $25 trillion according to Statista.

 

Like it or not, China will play a role in the global community of nations that befits a nation and economy of its size.

 

This growth and influence on the world stage is presented to us and the world by US and western media as an assault on our way of life, our freedom to own a home (after 30 years if we’re lucky) move about freely, speak freely, have a job etc. It is a threat to democracy we are told and Xi Jinping a dictator, soon to be a Hitler no doubt, as US security forces beat and imprison students for protesting the Zionist genocide in Gaza and Biden denies US workers that very basic right in a liberal democracy, the right to strike.

 

The same propaganda was used to support the invasion of Iraq and murdering one million Iraqi’s and for invading Afghanistan, Grenada and Panama, we are under assault from all sides as “evil” people seek to destroy our way of life, you know, no health care, poor infrastructure, homelessness, no public transportation to speak of, a failing public education system. We’re the envy of the advanced capitalist states in these areas.

 

But China is building ports, railroads, bridges etc. And most of all is calling for a multi-polar world and abiding by International Law and respecting a nation’s sovereignty, relying on the UN as central to maintaining global stability. Jun points out that the Israeli/US genocide in Palestine and the flaunting of UN and International institutions set up to maintain International law and stability is a global threat.

 

This is an affront to US hegemony. US imperialism, still the world’s largest economy, is losing its singular dominance that lasted for a short period after the collapse of Stalinism in the old Soviet Union. But it is armed to the teeth with the ability to blow us all up ten times over and no hegemon, just like any ruling class, commits suicide. It is a dangerous animal at this point.

 

I also jumped ahead and read some of the questions put to Jun. CNN political correspondent Josh Rogin brought up the recent Chinese show of force around the Island as a response to some of the separatist statements from its newly elected leadership. The present leadership in Taiwan is supported by the US.

 

Rogin asked why, after the recent inauguration of Taiwan’s new leader William Li,  China's response was, “…..to run punishment drills surrounding Taiwan with warships and airplanes conducting mock attacks and punishing

Taiwan's economy as well.  Are these actions intended to convince the Taiwanese people that China is truly interested in peaceful reunification and wouldn't the cause of peace and stability benefit if China engaged with Taiwan's chosen leaders rather than rejecting their offers of dialogue?”

 

Jun gave the same response he mentioned earlier, the US is, “…. selling a lot of weapons to Taiwan…. this kind of behavior sent very wrong signals to the to Independence forces and makes them become very aggressive…”  It was the message the US meant to send.

Most importantly, neither the folks in Beijing, nor the Admiral here, are stupid. Jun knows what is behind Rogin’s question and it has nothing to do with diplomacy or a “peaceful reunification”. The US does not want a unification peaceful or otherwise. Washington wants Taiwan to separate from China in order to limit China’s competitive edge.

 

For Rogin, not a journalist in the mould of Robert Fisk or John Pilger, Julian Assange or Edward Norton who, like Chelsea Manning did us all a favour, wants to muddy the waters and spout US state department line. But his audience here is not the US uninformed public and his question is seen for what it is.

 

A thinking person does not need a Phd to see that sending US nuclear subs or warships through the Taiwan Strait is a provocation. I could only imagine what the response the US would have with the Chinese selling weapons to the secessionist movement in Hawaii.

 

As it has done with the Zionist genocide in Gaza, the Internet, despite its many faults, has allowed hundreds of millions of people access to information the capitalist mass media would never show us. The imagery coming out of Gaza and Palestine in general has exposed the Zionist regime for what it really is and also the US and western mass media for the propaganda it spouts about all aspects of life; CNN, BBC all of them are complicit in this genocide and support of an Apartheid regime, as is the US Congress and other western governments. I think the assault on TikTok is driven by the same forces, those that want to keep information from the masses.

 

The Chinese approach has transformed life in China. It has reduced poverty at home and by that measure globally. I am no expert in Chinese affairs and my comments here do not mean I think the Chinese government is clean. There are, and have been massive protests in China over the lack of democratic rights, and land grabs. There are no independent trade unions in China. And information is closely monitored. It is not a communist society by any means. The Stalinist CP with some one million members is firmly in control but even without independent unions workers have struck and made significant gains in the past

 

I also do not believe an ‘equal and orderly multi-polar world’ is possible within the framework of capitalism and I do not believe Jun believes it. The capitalist mode of production by its very nature is disorderly and unstable; disorder, uncertainty and wars are built in to it. If left intact, it threatens our very existence on this planet. Climate catastrophe and/or nuclear conflict are real dangers.

 

The potential clash between a declining US global power and the rising Chinese global influence can only lead to disaster but it’s the nature of the system. In China, there will be massive battles as the hundreds of million strong Chinese working class confronts the bureaucracy, Chinese billionaires and the private sector. And as far as Taiwan goes, that issue is to be decided by the Chinese and Taiwanese working class. U.S. workers and workers in all the advanced capitalist states should support these class struggles in the global south and the former colonial countries and we will find that this support will be reciprocated.

 

In the US we have no political party through which working class consciousness and our world view can be expressed. The leaders of our trade unions at the highest level are free market supporters of capitalism with basically the same world view as the folks on wall Street. US workers will have to settle accounts with the ruling class in the US; this too is inevitable.

 

It’s important to think of ourselves as internationalists even if we don’t have the resources, time or organization through which to express this. In some ways we are in a battle not only for our own consciousness but also the consciousness of the working class as a whole.