CHINA, August 28 — A report released by the U.S. Defense Department warned that China’s current military build-up is “potentially destabilizing” in the Pacific (NYT, 8/24). The report points to China’s growing naval capabilities as a potential challenge to U.S. dominance in the region. For the last decade U.S. plans to contain Chinese growth and influence have relied on unchallenged access to the vital waterways that serve as China’s link to Middle Eastern oil reserves. In 1999 the Hart-Rudman Report stated that should a conflict arise between the U.S. and China that “the parade of supertankers streaming to Chinese ports would be vulnerable to interdiction” (Phase I, p 73).
China has apparently heeded Washington’s threats and is now making moves to secure these vital waterways. In 2010 China announced its Far Sea Defense strategy causing the New York Times to write in a panic, “The Chinese military is seeking to project naval power well beyond the Chinese coast, from the oil ports of the Middle East to the shipping lanes of the Pacific, where the U.S. has long reigned as the dominant force” (NYT, 4/23/10).
China’s naval build-up is moving forward with astonishing speed. In 2009 China revealed to international observers its new nuclear submarines (NYT, 4/21/09). In January 2011 China held the first test flight of its brand new stealth jet fighter during a visit to Beijing by then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates (Reuters, 8/18). The building of a stealth fighter is particularly interesting because it is not only useless against anybody other than other imperialists like the U.S., but it was also apparently designed with the help of Russian engineers.
In July, China held the first open-seas trial of a refitted Soviet-era aircraft carrier purchased from the Ukraine. It is the first of three Chinese aircraft carriers currently under development (Reuters, 7/28). Now the Pentagon is claiming that China is developing an anti-ship ballistic missile that is capable of striking American aircraft carriers (NYT, 8/24).
The growing inter-imperialist rivalry between the U.S. and China almost led to a proxy war on the Venezuela-Colombia border in 2008, leading the U.S. to deploy more troops to Colombia (NYT, 7/23/09). Chinese plans to build the Gwadar Deep Sea Port in Pakistan have led to sharpening tensions in the area and coincide with increased U.S. air strikes into Pakistan. The recent uprising in Libya has implications for this growing inter-imperialist rivalry as well. Recently, the spokesman for the rebel Libyan oil company Agoco announced that while they had no problem with European and American companies they do “have some political issues with Russia, China, and Brazil” (NYT, 8/22). Under Qaddafi China imported 3% of its oil from Libya — it would seem that this may change.
Some liberals have commented that the Pentagon’s concern over China is just a cover to secure more funding. They argue that the U.S. still spends six times more money on its military than China does (CommonDreams, 8/26). This is an important point, but it misses the essence of the situation. The competition between imperialists inexorably moves toward broader, eventually global war. Furthermore, while the U.S. military budget is enormous, the force and the U.S. economy is overextended and vulnerable, being engaged in three simultaneous wars while maintaining 702 bases in 130 different countries. The Pentagon and the Rockeffeller-led main wing of the U.S. ruling class are deeply concerned about the increasing weakness of their imperialist machine.
Workers, whether from China, the U.S., or anywhere, have no stake in this battle. As with all capitalist rivalries, no matter who wins the imperialist shoot-out, we lose. We will be the ones killing and dying. We will be the ones suffering under a war budget. We will be the ones suffering the devastating effects of what will likely be a war fought with nuclear weapons. Capitalists of all stripes will gladly sacrifice millions of workers, even their “own,” to secure their profits, so why should we be willing to die for them?
The only path that steers us away from this imperialist nightmare is to turn their wars for profit into communist revolution. The Russians did it during World War I, the Chinese did it during World War II. PLP is building a party that can turn the next imperialist bloodbath into a communist revolution that will free the workers of the world.