https://antiimperialistnews.substack.com/p/the-us-is-pushing-for-war-with-china
The problem is their plan won't work
Jun 03, 2024

French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon has called out the US for wanting war with China in a speech at the Union Populaire meeting in Toulouse. He also called out the European Union for failing to protect workers and the environment - all of this, of course, is the behaviour of a collapsing empire.

Recent manoeuvrings against China, which include arming Taiwan and building a “kill chain” in the Indo-Pacific region, show the US has decided to push for World War III without telling the public. With Ukraine and Gaza, the US has its excuses for warmongering, but at present it doesn’t have any credible-sounding excuse for war with China so all we get is nonsensical scaremongering.

If you’re unclear why the US seems to want war so badly, Melenchon breaks it down beautifully.

"The centre of the world, at this hour when the most terrible of wars is being prepared, is not on European soil. It is over there between the coasts of the Americas and the coasts of Asia. This was reiterated yesterday at an international conference held in Singapore, where the Americans repeated that, whatever happens in Europe or the Middle East, their priority is in the Asia-Pacific zone, which they call the Indo-Pacific so that the enemy is better identified. For them, it is China.

“They want war because 50% of the world's wealth is produced there. More than 50% of the world's population is there. The United States of America is in competition with China, but not ideologically. Who initiated the first agreements with China to outsource factories if not the United States of America themselves? They cannot tell us that it is a fight for freedom…”

It is an interesting point that the US is not ideologically opposed to China, despite the cold war rhetoric about fighting the communists (the fact China is not even a communist country is a conversation for another day).

The US allies itself with any ideology that further its aims because its only aims are wealth and power. However, the empire is certainly concerned that China is dispelling the myth that large levels of state investment are obstacles to progress. The Chinese model threatens the neoliberal gravy train, but there is more to it than that. Semi-conductors, for example. Not only are the best semi-conductors in the world produced in Taiwan (TSMC), but there is a worldwide shortage and they are essential for, among other things, the latest advances in drone technology.

We are seeing the emergence of AI-powered drones with astonishing speed and manoeuvrability, some of which are transmedium (airborne and aquatic) and appear so sci-fi, they’re regularly mistaken for UFOs. I was even reading about Lockheed Martin growing the “skin” of shapeshifting aircraft that contains sensors and is capable of computation, despite having no wires or mechanical parts. Material science is decades ahead of where you think it is, and it’s only being accelerated by AI.

There is a secret arms race going on, similar to the Manhattan Project, and whoever masters the emerging technologies first probably cannot be stopped. It’s difficult to confirm exactly what news is real and fake because so much leaked information is classified. When information on the latest breakthroughs gets out, the leak is often either criminal, or intentional like with our first unofficial glimpses of the stealth bomber. Some of the claims I’ve read of super-lightweight drones and propulsion methods using quantum effects are mind blowing and could render fighter jets obsolete.

Another thing to mention is the space race is back on and China has just landed its Chang'e-6 probe in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon. We’re seeing a major weaponisation of space with a focus on satellite disruption and a desire to control the solar system’s resources: space mining will be a thing within the next ten years. The Expanse series is about to become reality.

The infuriating thing about fighting over space is it has more than enough resources to support everyone on earth until the sun turns into a red giant, but empires are not about improving things for everyone, they’re about hierarchy. Post-scarcity would be a capitalist’s worst nightmare because it would mean a world without empire, but if you can control the rate at which resources are brought from space, you can control the prices. Manufactured scarcity is a key component of capitalism.

Now you can imagine a time in which the world’s second-most populous country and biggest economy has a military that no one can rival and is not interested in playing the neoliberalism game. That would be a time when the US is just another country in a post-scarcity world. We would never hear another insufferable American tell us they are the greatest nation on earth again!

As Melenchelon points out:

“All of this is nonsense. It's just because China is becoming the world's leading power, and from there, gradually, dollars will no longer be used as much as before to trade goods. Thus, the empire is hit at its core. Its core is its currency, which it can print as much as it wants because it is not bound by any of the rules that apply to all other nations. They can print as much as they want, as long as you need it for your exchanges, to buy raw materials, to buy oil, to buy minerals, etc. And the day it stops, that is the day nations agree among themselves to pay in their currency, it's over, and the empire collapses. Therefore, they engage in competition that is not free and completely distorted, supported by weapons. That is their policy. And meanwhile, the foolish Europeans are there saying, ‘Ah, of course, we agree with freedom. Ah, of course, that is an excellent program.’

At present, the military-industrial complex has essentially unlimited money due to the above reasons, but because the whole thing is a racket, most of that money is wasted. The US will spend ten times more than its rivals developing similar pieces of technology. And we’ve all read stories of the incredible waste in the US military where it will spend like $80 on a packet of pens or $200 on a waste paper basket or $3,000 on a new toilet.

Greed might be the driving force of US aggression, but it’s also its biggest weakness. That excess wealth drove the US to become complacent and gave other countries the space to catch up. This reality has gradually dawned on them and they are now panicking. And a panicking empire not only lashes out at perceived threats, it starts to devour itself, as Melenchelon explains:

“This program by the North Americans, in truth, also involves robbing Europe, as has already begun. That is where the greatest threat of war lies because it would be a total war, as weapons there do not have the same range, the same significance as elsewhere. As in Europe, notably atomic weapons. Remember what I am telling you because you will pay a little more attention to it as you hear more about it. And we, the French, are concerned because we are present in this zone through Polynesia, through the territory of New Caledonia Kanaki, through our presence in Reunion in the Indian Ocean. Therefore, the French have something to say, and in particular this: we do not want a war with China. And we will oppose by all diplomatic means to prevent it from happening."

I don’t know about you, but hearing of ruptures appearing within the empire actually makes me sigh in relief. Maybe that’s not the right way of putting it though, relief is far too premature, but at least there are people in Europe willing to stand up against this lunacy. There is the growing realisation the US would sacrifice the European public like it sacrificed Ukrainian men and boys, like it sacrificed Gazan women and babies, like it sacrificed so many across the Middle East and beyond to keep its repugnant empire going.

That’s not to say China is remotely perfect, it might have a better economic model than the US, but it also has its own brand of authoritarianism. China even has those horrifying robot dogs that are armed with guns and flamethrowers. No matter how terrifying and dystopian the US gets, it struggles to find an edge over its biggest rival because China can do all the things it can do.

The US has historically had the world’s best aircraft carriers and fighter jets, but these technologies are fast becoming irrelevant. The US openly admits it cannot unilaterally challenge China in the Indo-Pacific region which is why it’s been building that kill chain - an alliance of countries whose leaders it has bought.

The US has to keep scaremongering, which is why it keeps talking about freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, even though it cannot point to a single incident where civilian ships have been compromised in the last 50 years. Half of the world’s shipping passes through the region without issue, but the US is increasing its military presence there. For example, it has just placed Typhoon missile launchers in the Philippines that fire Tomahawk missiles capable of hitting the Chinese mainland. They have done this with the explicit purpose of preparing for war with China. The question the US public needs to ask is why are we preparing for war with a country that has never attacked us?

Just imagine Russians or Chinese developing a military presence in the Gulf of Mexico and stating we’re doing so to prepare for war with the US. You would have no problem seeing who the aggressor is.

We live in world where the US exports war and China exports development, but we’re supposed to give our lives for neoliberalism. China has just helped Nigeria build an urban rail system in Abuja in the latest example of its belt and road initiative. When was the last time you heard about the US doing something like this? China is building the UK’s nuclear power stations for god’s sake.

We hear so much about the climate crisis in the west, but when China develops the world’s best electric vehicles that can drive 2,000 km without refuelling, what does the US do? Imposes heavy tariffs on Chinese EVs and calls them a “veiled threat”. We are asked why should we fight the climate crisis when China is the biggest polluter? But China produces over 80% of the world’s solar panels and in 2023, invested almost $900 billion in renewables, comparable to the GDP of Turkey and Switzerland.

China has just cured diabetes so big pharma is lobbying the US government to ban that cure like it has done with medicines developed in Cuba. They don’t want to hurt insulin profits, you see? This whole wretched empire that we’re risking every lifeform on earth to preserve is one that refuses to meet human need. No wonder 71% of Americans believe the US is going in the wrong direction.

Now I’m no Trump fan, and I certainly don’t see him as any solution, but he recently made a statement that got the warmongers mad: “China and Russia, they're not the problem. We have a problem from within that's really bad.”

Trump is spot on, but if he regained the presidency, the war machine would continue as normal because he is just another conman. However, the liberal reaction to his words is telling because it reveals them as reactionaries who represent the woke half of the war machine - and they’re every bit as dangerous as the neocons. If we’re to make progress, we cannot side with either face of the ruling class, we need to unite against it.