EDITORIAL: Taiwan: a killer trap for the working class

China’s bold response to the recent visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and third in line to the presidency, exposed the decline of the U.S. as a superpower, the rise of capitalist China, and a sharpening competition that will eventually lead to World War Three. Pelosi’s provocative trip had nothing to do with the defense of “democracy” or the promotion of “freedom.” In reality, despite disagreements over her tactics within the U.S. ruling class, it was a move to defend U.S. imperialist profits with a risky show of power. The workers of the world must have the clarity to turn inter-imperialist war for the division of the world into a revolutionary war for communism where the working class runs society.

The U.S. capitalist bosses know that China is the main threat to their imperialist dominance and the global military advantage they’ve held since World War II. But their actions in the face of China's growing influence, particularly in the Pacific, do not match their rhetoric. On the economic front, China has built the Belt and Road Initiative and the Comprehensive Regional Economic Association. On the technological front, it is in the forefront of artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Militarily, China has developed the world’s largest navy. Its expanded nuclear forces almost rival those of the U.S.; in hypersonic weapons and other new technologies, China is out front.

Where the current U.S. defense budget is flat, after inflation, China continues to raise its military spending by up to 10 percent each year (foreignaffairs.com, 8/10).  President Xi Jiping has declared that China will become a “world-class power” capable of “fighting and winning wars” by 2049 (bbc.com, 7/28). As their recent military maneuvers demonstrated, they may be ready to move against Taiwan long before that point. Even before Pelosi’s trip escalated tensions, a U.S. admiral predicted that China might invade the island nation off its coast by 2027 (nbcnews.com, 3/10/21).

As the U.S. tries to counter China’s buildup with its Quad alliance with Japan, Australia, and India, imperialist war drums are beating loudly in the Pacific. It’s up to the workers of the world to reject all of these criminal bosses and respond with international working-class unity and communist revolution.

Taiwan: inter-imperialist flashpoint
Taiwan has been an anti-communist haven since 1949, when Chiang Kai-Shek and his nationalist band of murderers and thieves fled there after being smashed by Mao Zedong’s communist forces. The future of Taiwan is critical for both China and the U.S., the island’s two biggest trading partners. The Taiwan Strait, as the main shipping route for "goods from Asian factory hubs to markets in Europe, the US and all points in between" (bloomberg.com, 8/2), is a linchpin for global supply chains. Taiwan manufactures two thirds of the world’s computer chips and more than 90 percent of the world’s advanced semiconductors, essential components for both industry and modern militaries (bbc.com, 8/8; sputniknews.lat). In addition, if China takes control of Taiwan, it “could be freer to project power in the western Pacific region and could possibly even threaten U.S. military bases as far away as Guam and Hawaii” (bbc.com, 8/8).

Today the U.S. promotes Taiwan as a beacon of "democracy" in a period when liberal democracy is failing left and right. In fact, Taiwan is a beacon of super-exploitation and rotten, anti-worker ideas. Its capitalist bosses have fostered a Taiwanese national identity to divide workers from their class sisters and brothers in China and throughout the world. The country’s prosperity has been built on apartheid--the racist treatment of 700,000 migrant workers from Southeast Asia, who labor in unsafe factories and are exploited and controlled by third-party labor brokers (thediplomat.com, 10/10/19).

Taiwan’s nationalist poison is a core part of the ideological arsenal to win workers to fight in the impending inter-imperialist war. The communist antidote is proletarian internationalism. Only a united, international working class can sweep away the imperialist, fascist forces.

U.S. imperialists in decline, China on the rise
The Chinese imperialists used Pelosi's trip to escalate their nationalist rhetoric about "One China" (elfinanciero.com.mx). Under the pretext of guarding its territorial security, the Chinese bosses moved their ships into Taiwanese waters and other areas of the South China Sea. Similar to the Russian bosses’ invasion of Ukraine, these imperialist attacks only promote nationalism. They do nothing good for the working class.

Inter-imperialist rivalry inevitably leads to war. This provocation of the U.S. imperialists is one more sign of their desperation to contain the rise of China and their inability to weaken China’s deepening alignment with Russia (jordana.com.mx, 8/17). Pelosi’s trip also signaled the corruption within the U.S. ruling class. Pelosi and her son, Paul Pelosi Jr., met secretly with one of Taiwan's largest computer chip manufacturers. It's probably no coincidence that Paul Jr. "has the second largest stake in a related Chinese company" (thegatewaypundit.com, 8/15).

The U.S. bosses realize that time favors the Chinese in the inevitable military confrontation. However, Biden’s off-script remark that the U.S. would defend Taiwan militarily against a Ukraine-style invasion revealed the lack of discipline within the dominant liberal wing of the U.S. ruling class. In this case, the U.S. bit off more than they could chew. China responded to Pelosi’s visit with unprecedented and aggressive military maneuvers around Taiwan, including a simulated invasion that might accelerate their war plans.

As the decayed U.S. ruling class selfishly grasps at every chance to protect its capital and prop up its sputtering stock market, the Chinese bosses are grappling with a banking crisis that has left hundreds of workers in Henan without savings. A Chinese mortgage crisis threatens the economic stability and future of the middle class. But even as the stability so doggedly pursued by Xi Jinping is in danger, he protects his power with promises to the workers that the Chinese Communist Party—a nest of corrupt capitalist bureaucrats and profiteers—will solve the crisis. But the Chinese bosses long ago reversed the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and plunged the world into a dark night from which we are still struggling to emerge. They have nothing to offer the working class but exploitation, misery, and death. When workers turn the guns around, these bosses must be among the first to go.

The working class will end the dark night

Amid this escalation of inter-imperialist rivalry, workers in South Korea held massive protests against military exercises between South Korea and the U.S., demanding an end to the military alliance and the departure of U.S. troops. Liberal bosses will always turn to nationalism to mobilize workers to support their imperialist plans. Our Party must be present in these struggles to organize workers around communist and anti-racist ideas, and to inject internationalist class consciousness.

Amid rising racism, sexism, nationalism, and fascism, Progressive Labor Party stands as the future of the working class. We must sharpen the struggle to turn movements against imperialist war into movements for communist revolution. In the midst of the growing danger posed by rival capitalist gangs, we must maintain our unwavering trust in and dedication to our class. Our goal is to end this criminal system and build a communist world of social equality. Join us!