New Cold War Archives - Page 14 of 16 - Friends of Socialist China

Washington escalates: Secret special forces operating for past year in Taiwan

We are republishing this useful article by Gary Wilson in Struggle for Socialism analysing the significance of recent revelations that US special operations and support troops have been secretly operating in Taiwan for the last year, in violation of international law.

Unless the U.S. government promptly removes its military forces from China’s Taiwan province, China may send in its own military force to defend its territory, declared an Oct. 8 editorial in Global Times, the Communist Party of China’s daily newspaper.

Global Times explains: “We must resolutely define the deployment of U.S. troops in Taiwan as an ‘invasion.’ The mainland has the right to carry out military strikes against them at any time. We will not make any promises over their safety. Once a war breaks out in the Taiwan Straits, those U.S. military personnel will be the first to be eliminated. Through such a declaration, we must make Washington understand that it is playing a dangerous game that is destined to draw fire onto itself and it is risking the lives of young U.S. soldiers.”

Event report: Oppose the propaganda war against China

On Saturday 9 October, Friends of Socialist China held a webinar focused on opposing the propaganda warfare being waged by the US and its allies against the People’s Republic of China. The event was co-sponsored by the Morning Star, the Grayzone, Pivot to Peace, the Geopolitical Economy Research Group, the International Manifesto Group, and Qiao Collective. The full webinar (along with individual speech videos) can be watched on our YouTube channel. Below we provide a summary of the proceedings, written by Carlos Martinez.

Introducing the event, Radhika Desai (Professor of Political Studies, University of Manitoba, Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group) pointed out that, on the left, the most fundamental lie about China is that it is not building socialism but rather that it is just another capitalist country, indeed a particularly brutal capitalist country. Once this untruth is accepted, China can be treated as an enemy of progressive humanity – successes can be ignored, weaknesses exaggerated and accusations hurled.

For decades, the West constructively engaged with China at an economic and diplomatic level. But the capitalist powers were suffering under two illusions: first, that the Communist Party of China would transform itself into a social democratic or even a neoliberal party that would lead China towards the type of financialised, neoliberal, unproductive capitalism that prevails in the West; second, that China would remain on the bottom rung of the global economic ladder, providing low-cost manufacturing for goods consumed in the West.

Zimbabwe stands against anti-China propaganda

We are pleased to republish this editorial from The Herald, Zimbabwe’s most widely-distributed newspaper, addressing recent revelations that the US State Department has been sponsoring journalists to spread disinformation about Chinese investments in Zimbabwe. The article notes that China was a friend to the Zimbabwean people throughout their liberation struggle, and was the first country to formally recognise independent Zimbabwe in 1980. China has remained an all-weather friend and supporter of Zimbabwe, in a period when the US and its allies have pursued economic and political destabilisation.

Never be used against China by the United States

Revelations that the United States and some Western countries are engaged in sponsoring the media, labour unions, civil society and lawyers to fight Chinese investments in Zimbabwe, although hardly surprising, are most unfortunate.

It is understandable that the US is especially feeling the heat of a rising China, which is now the world’s second largest economy, and breathing down hard on the former sole superpower.

Charles McKelvey summary of the ‘Propaganda War against China’ webinar

Many thanks to Charles McKelvey for attending and taking detailed notes on our recent webinar, The Propaganda War Against China. We reproduce his blog post below.

On October 9, the Friends of Socialist China sponsored a zoom event on the Propaganda War against China. The event was co-sponsored by Morning Star, the Grayzone, Pivot to Peace, the Geopolitical Economy Research Group, the International Manifesto Group, and the Qiao Collective.

The event was moderated by Radhika Desai, Professor of Political Studies, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada; and Director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group. In her introduction to the panel, she noted that propaganda is dehumanizing, in that it portrays peoples and nations in ways that deny their humanity. Propaganda is always based on lies, and the biggest lie about China is the denial of the fundamental fact that China has been developing with continuity its socialist project for seven decades. The anti-China propaganda disseminates the false claim that, with the Reform and Opening that was initiated in 1978, China abandoned socialism for capitalism.

On the flawed testimony of Chinese police defector ‘Jiang’

This very useful editorial in the Morning Star challenges the recent reports about a purported police defector ‘Jiang’, who claims to have witnessed human rights abuses perpetrated against Uyghur people in Xinjiang. The story is “spectacularly telegenic”, but its authenticity is highly questionable.

The new cold war on China has an essential ideological front in order to shape Western public opinion.

It has captured the headlines on an international scale over the past seven days, not least on Sky News today.

Someone claiming to be a former police officer in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region, claimed in a silhouetted interview that he had witnessed, heard of or participated in deadly beatings, sexual torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners in police stations and internment camps.

Danny Haiphong: Zurich talks could serve to improve China-US relations

This article by Danny Haiphong for CGTN analyzes the latest round of high level talks between the US and China, noting that China has been consistent in its pursuit of a friendly and collaborative relationship, and that it is for the US to reciprocate this approach – in the interests of the peoples of both countries and indeed the world.

On October 6, senior diplomat and member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Yang Jiechi met National Security Advisor of the United States Jake Sullivan in Zurich, Switzerland. The two sides discussed many issues of common concern in the realms of security, economic relations and diplomacy. Unlike the first meeting between Sullivan and Yang in March in Alaska, both sides on Wednesday engaged in constructive dialogue that could be described as a positive step toward mutual understanding.

During the meeting in Zurich, Yang remained firm on China’s view that bilateral relations can be restored through mutual understanding and a win-win approach to cooperation, but China’s position must be understood and respected for relations to move in the right direction. It remains to be seen whether the U.S. will commit to mending relations in practice.

Robert Griffiths: The origins of the Chinese ‘lab leak’ theory

This article by Robert Griffiths, general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain, comprehensively exposes the mendacity and cynical motivations of the conspiracy theory that the Covid-19 pandemic was caused by a ‘lab leak’ from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It is republished from the Morning Star.

On January 24 last year, the Washington Times reported: “The deadly animal virus epidemic spreading globally may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory linked to China’s covert biological weapons program, according to an Israeli biological warfare expert.”

Reporter Bill Gertz based his story on a five-year-old broadcast on Radio Free Asia about the Wuhan virology institute and his interview with Dany Shoham, “a former Israeli military intelligence officer who has studied Chinese bio warfare.”

Radhika Desai: Release of Meng Wanzhou ends a contemptible mess of illegality

This article by Radhika Desai, reposted from CGTN, shines a light on the geopolitical motivations and the illegality of Meng Wanzhou’s detention, and situates it within the US’s ongoing attempts to preserve a “rules-based international order” based on unilateralism and hegemonism.

The release of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, from her detention in Vancouver and her immediate return to China end a complex saga that would fill multiple volumes.

They would concern the U.S.’s underhand moves to meet the technological and competitive challenge of Huawei, particularly on 5G technologies. They would detail the U.S.’s mixed and ambiguous motivations concerning China. It would further involve Canada’s own entanglement in tense relations between its two biggest economic partners. All this before we even got to the details of the case against Meng. Here we can only make a few limited but critically important points.

Danny Haiphong: Biden’s Global COVID-19 Summit is an exercise in American selfishness

In this article for CGTN, Danny Haiphong exposes the motivation behind the Virtual Global COVID-⁠19 Summit hosted by Joe Biden on 22 September 2021. Having utterly failed to protect its population from the pandemic, having refused to properly learn from and cooperate with China, and having led the construction of a system of vaccine apartheid, the US now seeks to portray itself as a global leader in the struggle against Covid-19.

On September 22, U.S. President Joe Biden held a virtual summit on COVID-19 and pledged to increase U.S. assistance in the global fight to end the pandemic. Biden’s promises, when taken out of context, appear reasonable. The U.S. will pledge an additional $370 million to administer COVID-19 vaccines globally and work with the European Union to meet the World Health Organization (WHO)’s goal of ensuring 70 percent of the world’s population is fully vaccinated by the end of 2022. The U.S. will also increase its donations of ventilators, therapeutics and personal protective equipment (PPE) to lower-income countries.

Jeremy Corbyn: A new nuclear arms race and Cold War will not bring security

In an important contribution to Labour Outlook, former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks out loud and clear against the New Cold War, and calls for the major powers to focus on cooperation to find global solutions to global problems.

Since its announcement last week, AUKUS has faced growing international opposition, including from Governments often closely allied with the US, UK and Australia on the global stage, with France ending its contract to supply submarines to Australia.

It has also been met with incredulity from peace and disarmament groups across the world.

This international opposition reflects an obvious truth that real security won’t come from starting a new nuclear arms race or new Cold War.

Stop U.S. submarine warfare!

We are republishing this editorial from Workers World, which exposes the aggressive and imperialist nature of the AUKUS pact and Biden’s push to incorporate Australia fully into the escalating New Cold War. The New Cold War strategy runs counter to the interests of the masses of the world, and benefits only a tiny handful of parasitic billionaires.

The Biden administration’s latest foreign policy step has sharpened U.S. imperialism’s global conflict with the People’s Republic of China. It must be opposed by all those who want to reverse a new version of the 20th century’s Cold War and avert a global war.

Biden made this move official with his Sept. 15 announcement of a deal for the U.S.-British military-industrial complex to provide Australia with the means to build eight nuclear-powered submarines. These warships can operate underwater for months at a time and threaten Chinese interests throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

AUKUS – A dangerous military escalation of the New Cold War

In this topical and detailed analysis, British based activist and scholar Dr Jenny Clegg explains how the recently announced AUKUS military alliance represents a serious escalation of the New Cold War and constitutes a threat not only to China but to the entire region. Friends of Socialist China co-editor Keith Bennett also contributed to this article.

The new military AUKUS pact between Australia, the United States and Britain, announced last week, is a serious escalation of the new Cold War against China and of the militarisation of the Asia-Pacific region. The sale of nuclear submarines and technologies by the US and UK to Australia is an act of nuclear proliferation which puts what remains of the international arms control system in deep jeopardy. The sudden announcement of an entirely new military coalition represents a profound disruption of the existing world order with the prospect of an even more dangerous reconfiguration of international relations.

Just as the US withdrawal from Afghanistan raised questions amongst its allies and partners as to the reliability and credibility of its commitment to their defence, President Biden comes back with a new assertion of power in the Pacific.

AUKUS: Why We Say No – emergency online rally (23 September)

On Thursday 23 September 2021, at 6:30pm British time (1:30pm US Eastern, 10:30am US Pacific), Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Stop the War Coalition are holding an emergency online rally to discuss the dangers of the AUKUS military pact and how best to organise against it.

Register: Zoom

Speakers

Jeremy Corbyn MP
Phyllis Bennis (Institute for Policy Studies)
Marian Hobbs (former New Zealand Minister of Disarmament)
Denis Doherty (Australian anti-bases campaign)
Paul Rogers (Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies, Bradford University)
Lindsey German (Stop the War)
Jenny Clegg (China specialist, CND)
Chair: Kate Hudson (CND General Secretary)

Danny Haiphong: The revenge of white colonialism motivates the AUKUS alliance against China

This original article by Friends of Socialist China co-editor Danny Haiphong exposes the true nature of the recently-announced AUKUS trilateral military pact – as being rooted in “a deepening desire among the historic white colonizers of the planet to exact revenge on China for refusing to relinquish its sovereignty and its world historic model of socialist development”.

The United States, United Kingdom, and Australia have formed an alliance called “AUKUS” to create, in the words of Australia PM Scott Morrison, “a partnership where our technology, our scientists, our industry, our defense forces are all working together to deliver a safer and more secure region that ultimately benefits all.” AUKUS is primarily a military relationship but is said to include broad economic measures that undoubtedly seek to counter China’s rise in all spheres of development. The deal has been met with some opposition in the West. New Zealand has rejected the legitimacy of the alliance while the French ambassadors to the US and Australia were recalled after AUKUS essentially tore up a submarine agreement between France and Australia.

Another point of controversy is whether AUKUS violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The first major initiative of AUKUS is to develop Australia’s first nuclear submarine fleet in the Pacific. Each party in the alliance has denied the intention of developing a “civil” (read military) nuclear weapons capacity in Australia. However, the fact remains that the United States and the UK are sharing nuclear-powered technology for military purposes. Nuclear submarines require the mining of uranium and the development of nuclear plants on Australian soil, both of which are environmentally toxic and prone to accidents.

Jeffrey Sachs: stop demonizing China and build cooperation to solve global problems

The video clip embedded below is from a recent interview Professor Jeffrey Sachs did with Massachusetts Peace Action. Sachs highlights the absurdity of US politicians saying they want to cooperate with China over climate change whilst simultaneously waging a relentless propaganda war and ramping up military tensions. He calls for the establishment of a political and intellectual environment conducive to urgently-needed cooperation over climate change, pandemics, economic stability, and peace.

Joe Glenton: The new anti-China ‘defence’ pact shows no lessons were learned from Afghanistan

The following article by Joe Glenton (British military veteran and peace activist) discusses the new AUKUS military pact and the fact that the Western imperialist powers, having been forced to retreat from Afghanistan, are not giving up on their militarism and hegemonism, but rather shifting their attentions further East. Reproduced with thanks from The Canary.

Australia, the UK, and the US have signed a new military pact they say will protect their countries. The allies claim an AUKUS (pronounced ‘awk-us’) alliance will support a “peaceful and rules-based international order”. But critics have called the move a new Cold War against China. And some question the Western countries’ decision so soon after defeat and withdrawal from Afghanistan. It seems to ignore key lessons: that US power is in decline and that expeditionary warfare is a recipe for disaster.

Carlos Martinez: AUKUS is a racist, imperialist project designed to deepen the New Cold War on China

Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez was interviewed by Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman on the Sputnik Radio show By Any Means Necessary on 17 September 2021. They discuss the recently-announced alliance between the US, Britain and Australia, and its clear purpose of advancing the war drive against China. The audio is embedded below.

Escucha”US Continues War Drive Against China With AUKUS Alliance” en Spreaker.

Kate Hudson: why we say No to AUKUS

This important post by Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), highlights the dangerous folly of the newly-announced military pact between the US, Britain and Australia.

If anyone thought that talking of a ‘new cold war’ with China was overstating the case, the recently announced AUKUS military pact must make them think again. Surely timed to deflect notions of US weakness after its defeat in Afghanistan, this major new multifaceted defence agreement between the US, UK and Australia sees the latter firmly jump into the US camp and the former strengthen and renew its Pivot to Asia through unashamedly militaristic means. The UK is coat-tailing the US as usual, hoping to garner some jobs in nuclear reactor production, and trying yet another gambit to boost the ‘global Britain’ profile.

Mike Klonsky: Biden’s strategic shift towards China brings us ever closer to war

This useful post from educator and activist Mike Klonsky discusses the announcement of the ‘trilateral security partnership’ between the US, UK and Australia (or as Klonsky describes it, a ‘white united front’) and its connection to the escalating New Cold War.

The new Cold War with China, begun under Trump and now escalating under Biden, once again pushes us closer to the nuclear abyss. How close are we? So close that according to a new book “Peril,” by the Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was so consumed with fear that former President Donald Trump might launch “rogue” conventional or nuclear strikes against China, he acted twice to prevent it.

Trump’s defeat brought hope to many around the world that Biden and the Democrats would break from Trump’s anti-China saber-rattling, trade-war policies and shift towards repairing the breach and lowering the temperature. These hopes have grown more desperate during the global pandemic as the growing cold war now includes vaccine wars.

Danny Haiphong: Racism denies common prosperity in the United States

In this article for CGTN, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Danny Haiphong argues that the United States, instead of constantly maligning China and interfering in its internal affairs, would do well to tackle its entrenched racism and learn from China’s commitment to common prosperity.

Mainstream U.S. media frequently depicts China as a “closed off” country that treats ethnic minorities with contempt and oppression. The New York Times took this baseless accusation further in an op-ed published on September 9 that claimed China was closing itself off from the world and rejecting the English language. No verifiable proof was offered beyond reforms to the education system that seek to address economic and social stressors faced by Chinese families.

The op-ed argued that China’s decision to place tighter regulations on its private tutoring and examination process is a sign that the country is closing itself off from the world. Yet China’s reforms actually achieve the opposite by adhering to the goal set out by the central government to ensure “common prosperity” for all. After eliminating extreme poverty last year, China has tightened regulations on tech companies and educational institutions in a bid to create an environment where citizens of lower income levels can enjoy the prosperity of the fast-growing socialist economy.