In 2001, the question of “what to do with China” filled cable news shows, college dorm rooms, navy wardrooms, ROTC leadership forums, and political science lecture halls with much excitement. Would-be officers, amateur philosophers, armchair classicists, and professional pundits debated “Thucydides’s trap”: Is China’s rise a threat to the US? “Yes” was almost invariably implied.
With 9/11 and the “global war on terror,” the China talk took a back seat. But now, it is front and center again. Russia is a mere sideshow. The war industry, war media, and war academe are salivating.
1. It is right to criticize Chinese state power when it oppresses. In skepticism towards US imperialism, we should not reflexively defend other states or other imperialisms. With Tiananmen, Tibet, the Uighurs, Hong Kong, and the recent COVID crackdowns, there is plenty to criticize.
A. Intercepted: Inside China’s Growing Surveillance State (theintercept.com)
B. Why China is building islands in the South China Sea - Vox
C. Socialists Should Support the Popular Resistance in China - The Call (socialistcall.com)
D. Some really good, consistent anti-imperialist theory: The Specificity of Imperialism - Viewpoint Magazine
E. However, as the historical record shows, the US government, often at the behest of US capital, has criticized, or ignored, or even abetted Chinese human rights abuses, as it has seen fit, to its material convenience.
F. “Whataboutism” in bad faith can deflect from real crimes, but at its best, it simply calls for a consistent ethic to be applied. In fact, it is often the charge of whataboutism, rather than the asking “What about ___?” that tries to avoid the serious, longer conversations: Is “Whataboutism” Always a Bad Thing? ❧ Current Affairs
i. Seriously, what about Palestine, Yemen, Iraq, or the hundreds of other places where we commit or enable war crimes and human rights abuses?
2. Most Americans are unfamiliar with how the US, with the European powers, have long encircled, antagonized, and carved up China.
A. Encirclement has long been the policy of western powers. The US military intervened over thirty times between 1820 and 1949 at the behest of US capital interests,
i. No doubt these actions contributed to Maoist/communist resentment and blowback, and the eventual “loss of China” in 1949
B. Much of our understanding of “Taiwan vs. China” rests on misremembering of the US’s role in the Chinese civil war and the US’s role in Korea, both prior to the standard (conveniently given) June 1950 start date of the Korean war and after. The ten-part season 3 “Blowback” fills in some crucial gaps: Blowback
3. We currently encircle China. We currently provoke China. If We Want Humanity to Survive, We Must Cooperate With China (chomsky.info)
A. Some practice of cognitive empathy (which is different than emotional empathy) might help us see how China views Taiwan and views us: China and the Challenge of Cognitive Empathy (substack.com)
B. My own trivial experience with a Chinese sub: An Elegy for Ted McGrath: Russian Bears and Chinese Subs
C. Wtf was Nancy Pelosi doing in Taiwan? Amidst Uproar Over Nancy Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan, Media Ignores Aggressive U.S. Maritime Action in South China Sea | CovertAction Magazine
D. Several months ago, the US just completed its annual RIMPAC exercise, which among other things antagonizes China and devastates the environment. For some years, it actually included China, which while still problematic and militaristic (and environmentally destructive) was at least less provocative: Abby Martin at RIMPAC War Games: The Inside Story [PREVIEW] - YouTube
4. We can and should stand in solidarity with Ukrainians resisting Russian aggression, We must not practice the "anti-imperialism of idiots": A letter to the Western Left from Kyiv | openDemocracy. But, some of our current posturing towards China builds on selective remembering of our role in the thirty years prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine: How cognitive empathy could have prevented the Ukraine crisis (substack.com)
A. While we should practice solidarity with Ukraine, that doesn’t necessarily mean we automatically (without serious debate) should flood that war with billions of dollars of weapons, especially at the risk of escalating it to nuclear war: The Democrats are Now the War Party (substack.com)
B. That also doesn’t necessarily mean the US supports Ukraine out of some love for “democracy”: An Elegy for Ted McGrath: “This, this is living History. Everything we are doing and saying is thrilling—it will be read by a thousand generations, think of that! Why I would not be out of this glorious delicious war for anything the world could give me.”
C. Also what about? Or rather, imagine if the same sympathy for and solidarity with the Ukraine we see in the US was extended towards Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans, Vietnamese, or Laotians (and the list goes on)?
5. Our current posturing towards China —holding ourselves up as the beacon of freedom and democracy against Chinese unfreedom—rests on some major U.S.-in-WW2 mythology. Are we more free and democratic than China? Yes, I believe so. Do we really care about freedom and democracy elsewhere? On our own terms, only when it suits our interests.
A. Some longer thoughts on (liberal) foreign policy hypocrisy: An Elegy for Ted McGrath: Lexus trumps olive tree: The limitations of a "good liberal" (Part 5: "You can't go from Saddam to Switzerland without getting stuck in Hobbes")
B. Yes, we helped defeat Nazi Germany. But, the US was very forgiving and then very eager to employ Nazis and other fascists against communism in the Cold War: US did not defeat fascism in WWII (newagebd.net)
C. Just like we were very forgiving of Japanese nationalist extremists, also after WW2, when we employed them in our own anti-communist designs on Korea and China.
D. Other US in WW2 destructive myths. “Romanticized stories about the Second World War are at the heart of American exceptionalism.”: Destructive Myths - Dissent Magazine
E. Tangent: Catholic anti-communism makes bedfellows with fascism: Catholic Anticommunism with Giuliana Chamedes · The Dig (thedigradio.com)
6. Our corporate media, the big think tanks, and much of the academy give us the impression that we have free inquiry. But our spectrum of debate is extremely limited, and for the most part, those dominant entities “manufacture consent,” often towards war. US propaganda is much more subtle and sophisticated than Chinese propaganda
A. Truth Killers: The Corporate Media and the Military Industrial Complex.
B. Think tanks push for war. We are talking Ivy League PhD suits not just the jingoist Trump Fox brutes. The Think-Tank Military Industrial Complex: Shilling for the Merchants of Death
C. How To Avoid Swallowing War Propaganda ❧ Current Affairs
D. Excellent film recs on this role of the corporate media and war:
i. Weapons of Mass Deception
ii. Outfoxed
iii. Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land
iv. Control Room
v. And of course, Manufacturing Consent (but more so the book by Chomsky and Herman)
7. Ways out, ways forward
A. Practice internationalism
i. (How) Should Class War Go Global? Building an Anti-Corporate Left Internationalism ❧ Current Affairs
ii. Left Internationalism in the Heart of Empire - Dissent Magazine
B. Practice solidarity. For example:
i. International trade unions federations try to unite people across borders, to fight U.S. capitalism and that peculiar blend of Chinese Communist Party capitalism: Freedom Report 2022: Unions Building Peace - International Trade Union Confederation (ituc-csi.org)
ii. Veterans for Peace China Working Group: China Working Group | Veterans For Peace
iii. Amnesty International (western human rights groups sometimes overlook US and US client states crimes, or are late to the game in decrying them, but nevertheless, they often do great work).
a. Re China: Everything you need to know about human rights in China - Amnesty International Amnesty International.
iv. Study more, study deeply on China. Turn off the tv.
a. China and the US with Tobita Chow and Jake Werner · The Dig (thedigradio.com)
b. How China Escaped Shock Therapy w/ Isabella Weber · The Dig (thedigradio.com)
c. China Boom w/ Ho-fung Hung · The Dig (thedigradio.com)
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