OMNI US COLD WAR AGAINST CHINA ANTHOLOGY, #6, OCTOBER 4, 2024

OMNI

US COLD WAR AGAINST CHINA ANTHOLOGY, #6,   OCTOBER 4, 2024

COMPILED BY DICK BENNETT FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE, JUSTICE, AND ECOLOGY

(#4, May 4, 2021; #5)

http://omnicenter.org/donate/

What’s at Stake:   Our only hope for survival is to transfer the US away from its pathological hyper-active pursuit of endless enemies for endless war, to a hyper-concern for the climate crisis (and overpopulation, and pandemics).   

CONTENTS

WAR

·       Ben Norton.  “Cold War II…25 Anti-China Laws in One Week.”

·       Hannan Hussain.  US Hegemony in Africa Declining. 

·       Bernard DiMello.   “… India in Washington’s Anti-China ‘Pivot’.”

·       Chris Fry.  “US anti-China propaganda, a prelude to war:  Eyewitness views from China.”

·       Eve Ottenberg.   US Sanctions, China’s Rare Minerals Control.

·       Webinar.  “US Anti-China Propaganda, a Prelude to War.”

·       Michael Klare.  “Is a Cold War Still Possible in an Overheating World?”

·       Finian Cunningham.  “US Nuclear Scare Tactics.”

·       Black Alliance for Peace.  US Accuses China of Human Rights Crimes, but not Israel.

·       US Navy Preparing for Nuclear War. 

·       China’s Great Balloon Threat.

·       Persecutions of Anti-war Left.

·       Biden’s Anti-China Campaign.

·       Glimmers of PEACE

·       Committee for a Sane US-China Policy.

·       US Hegemony in Africa Waning.

·       “75 Years of Chinese Revolution.”

·       China’s Rise from Poverty.

·       FDR Prevented from Meeting Mao Zedong.

·       Protesting US Aegis Warship Fleet Under Construction.

·       China, US, Supply Chain Cooperation Possible.

·       China Anthology #5

SOURCES
(In addition to transparency, this list reveals the necessity of surveying international media in search of the full truth.  –D)

Al Mayadeen
Black Alliance for Peace

Counterpunch

Committee for a Sane US-China Policy
Dissident Voice

Fighting Words

Geopolitical Economy
Institute for New Economic Thinking

Caitlin Johnstone

Monthly Review

mronline.org

NBC

Newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation

Newswire

Popular Resistance

Shadowproof

TomDispatch

TEXTS

[Note on font and color: When I began these Anthologies (originally called newsletters), I encountered computer difficulties over graphics with RAM space.  I then eliminated all graphics.  I have much greater capacity now, but I am continuing the uniformity and relative even-handed coolness of text only.  –Dick]

WAR AGAINST CHINA

Ben Norton.  “Cold War II: US Congress Passes 25 Anti-China Laws In One Week.”  Geopolitical Economy. Popular Resistance.org (9-23-24).   The US House of Representatives approved 25 anti-China laws in just one week in September: a clear sign that Washington’s new cold war is quickly heating up. The hawkish House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party proudly described these days as “China Week”, boasting that much of the legislation had “overwhelming bipartisan” support. NBC News noted that “many of the measures passed with bipartisan support at a time when viewing [China] primarily as a geopolitical rival is one of the few issues both Republicans and Democrats can agree on”. -more-

“Sub-Imperialist India in Washington’s Anti-China ‘Pivot’.”

Bernard D’Mello .  mronline.org (9-11-24).   (September 7, 2024)

Bernard D’Mello describes India’s role as a collaborator in the U.S. anti-China Indo-Pacific project. This role, he elaborates, grows directly from the imperial/sub-imperial relationship between the United States and India, which manifests itself in border disputes, military exercises, diplomacy, economic ties, and more, has heightened hostilities in the Indo-Pacific region while benefiting the power elite of both countries. | more…     Source

US Propaganda System: Denigrate China’s Economy, Exalt US’s. 

Chris Fry.  “U.S. economists ‘expose’ China’s economy.”

Editor.  mronline.org (8-4-24).

Originally published: Fighting Words  on July 30, 2024 by Chris Fry (more by FIghting Words)  (Posted Aug 03, 2024).  Empire, Imperialism, Political Economy, StrategyAmericas, Asia, China, United StatesNewswirePeople’s Republic of China (PRC)

Bourgeois economists, ever ready to proclaim the impending demise of the socialist economic model in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), find every opportunity to throw shade on China’s economic system.  At the same time, they devote their energy to proclaim the supposed superiority of the capitalist economies in the imperialist world, in Europe and the U.S.  And sometimes they have to stretch all logic and common sense to make their billionaire masters and the workers and oppressed here believe in the eternal superiority of U.S. imperialist hegemony over the social and economic system of China, even as the Pentagon scrambles to prepare their war on the PRC. . . . MORE

Sanctions on China

Eve Ottenberg.  “Sanctions on China, Export Controls on Rare Earths for the U.S.: Two, It Turns Out, Can Tango.”  Counterpunch (July 28, 2023). 

If Washington intended to bully Beijing economically and indefinitely, July 3 was a rude awakening. That’s when China announced export controls on two, vital rare earth metals, germanium and gallium. In and of itself this move clobbers one sector of U.S. industry, such as it is. But even worse is what it portends. China has 60 percent of the world’s supply of rare earth minerals. The other 40 percent are in locations of dubious accessibility. But that’s not all. Ninety percent of the processing of those rare earth minerals occurs in the country U.S. sanctions have royally pissed off, namely China.

Why are rare earth minerals so critical? The technology for wind and solar energy and for electric vehicles depends on them. Also, microchip production requires gallium and germanium. High-tech defense weapons use rare earth minerals as well. Personally, I think not being able to flood the planet with those weapons any longer would be a boon for mankind. But I doubt armament moguls agree. Bigwigs at Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are probably far from pleased by this latest development, about which Wei Jianguo, former Chinese vice minister of commerce, said to China Daily that these new export controls were basically just the beginning. If the Biden bunch keeps adding technology sanctions, more rare earths will be restricted. In other words, certain kinds of U.S. manufacturing will grind to a halt. . . .  MORE

“US anti-China propaganda, a prelude to war:

 Eyewitness views from China”   CounterPunch (7-29-23). 

[The webinar is past but not its important subject.  –D]

Even as the war in Ukraine rages, the US has increased its aggression towards China including increasing its military presence around China, provocations over Taiwan, heightened propaganda ON XINJIANG and claims of a Chinese spy base in Cuba.  Recently two US antiwar activists returned from a trip to China.  Hear from these antiwar activists and from others presently in China about the real situation in the country.  Does Blinken’s trip to China mean any change in US war threats?

US AGGRESSION AGAINST CHINA, THE ARMS RACE, CLIMATE CATASTROPHE, AND NEED FOR COOPERATION

Tomgram: Michael Klare, “Is a Cold War Still Possible in an Overheating World?”    TomDispatch tom@tomdispatch.com via uark.onmicrosoft.com 8-24-21.

 https://tomdispatch.com/china-2049/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=ce12e396aa-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_07_13_02_04_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1e41682ade-ce12e396aa-308836209

Think of it as an irony of the first order that Joe Biden's foreign-policy team came into office promoting new cold-war policies against the rising power on this planet, China. After all, even if it is that, it's rising in a world that only recently experienced its warmest month on record. The very term "cold war," in fact, seems like an artifact of ancient history at a time when, among other places, the U.S., Europe, and Canada have all been setting new heat records and experiencing fires of a sort seldom seen before. In this sense, the Biden foreign-policy team and the Pentagon, as they maneuver to confront the Chinese Navy not off the California coast but from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea to the Taiwan Strait, couldn't seem more out of touch with the deeper realities of our world.

I guarantee you one thing: at the moment, they're doing their planning for forming alliances against a rising China in air-conditioned rooms, because it's been hot as hell in Washington -- or by Zoom because it's still a pandemic country. Yes, against all reason and sense, the U.S. continues to build ultra-expensive new nuclear weapons (having in recent years dumped several nuclear treaties), while fretting eternally about China's upgraded but still relatively modest nuclear arsenal. As it happens, though, the future "battles" the U.S. and China might find themselves in, as TomDispatch regular Michael Klare, author of All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon's Perspective on Climate Change, writes today, could be of a very different, even if still world-endangering nature. To be won, they would have to be fought not against each other, but together.  Welcome to a new-style hot-war world. Tom

China, 2049

“A Climate Disaster Zone, Not a Military Superpower”

By Michael Klare.

In recent months, Washington has had a lot to say about China’s ever-expanding air, naval, and missile power. But when Pentagon officials address the topic, they generally speak less about that country's current capabilities, which remain vastly inferior to those of the U.S., than the world they foresee in the 2030s and 2040s, when Beijing is expected to have acquired far more sophisticated weaponry.

“China has invested heavily in new technologies, with a stated intent to complete the modernization of its forces by 2035 and to field a ‘world-class military’ by 2049,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin testified in June. The United States, he assured the Senate Armed Services Committee, continues to possess “the best joint fighting force on Earth.” But only by spending countless additional billions of dollars annually, he added, can this country hope to “outpace” China's projected advances in the decades to come. . . .  MORE

Excellent Exposure of US Nuclear Scare Tactics

“Security U.S. fears of China nuclear expansion… déjà vu of Soviet missile gap hype.”

Originally published: Dissident Voice  on August 5, 2021 by Finian Cunningham (more by Dissident Voice).(Posted Aug 07, 2021).

Empire, Strategy, WarChinaNewswireNuclear Weapons

China is providing the equivalent scaremongering of the Soviet “missile gap” in order to sustain America’s militarist-dependent capitalist economy.

. . .The Wall Street Journal reported: “China Appears to Be Building New Silos for Nuclear Missiles, Researchers Say”.

While CNN headlined: “China appears to be expanding its nuclear capabilities, U.S. researchers say in new report”.  Despite the lack of definite information that didn’t stop Pentagon and government officials from saying they were “deeply concerned”, thus adding a veneer of factuality to reports that were speculative.

Here’s another consideration. So what if China is expanding its nuclear arsenal with new silos? The People’s Republic of China has a stockpile of warheads numbering 350. The United States has a stockpile of some 5,550 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.  The U.S. has a nuclear offensive power 15 times greater than China. So even if China is planning to double its arsenal of nuclear weapons, according to the Pentagon, that increase is still a fraction of American destructive capability.  Beijing maintains that the onus is on Washington to de-escalate its nuclear arsenal. The United States and Russia have resumed talks this week in Geneva on renewing arms-control efforts–efforts that have been put on hold by Washington since the Trump administration. Washington and Moscow–both possessing over 90 percent of the world’s total nuclear warheads–need to get on with their obligations for disarmament before China is reasonably brought into the discussion, along with other minor nuclear powers, such as Britain and France.

Another consideration for context is the ramping up of hostility by the United States towards China. The Biden administration is continuing the aggressive agenda of its Trump and Obama predecessors.   Arming the renegade Chinese island territory of Taiwan, sailing warships into the South China Sea, media vilification of China over allegations of human rights abuses, genocide, malign conduct in trade, cyber attacks, and the COVID-19 pandemic. All of this speaks of stoking confrontation with China and inflaming U.S. public opinion to accept war with China.

Pentagon officials tell Congressional hearings that they consider war with China a distinct possibility in the near term.

Given this context, it would be reasonable to expect China to expand its nuclear defenses in order to shift the American calculation away from contemplating a war. The problem is not the alleged Chinese military buildup. It is Washington’s criminal policy of hostility towards Beijing that is fueling the risk of war.

But here is another key factor: the United States is undergoing a trillion-dollar upgrade of its nuclear arsenal. That began under Obama and was continued under Trump and now Biden. That puts alleged Chinese expansion into perspective. The United States has already nuclear power that dwarfs China’s and yet the U.S. is expanding what is a provocative threat to China. . . .  MORE

Originally published: Black Alliance for Peace  on July 12, 2021 (more by Black Alliance for Peace)  (Posted Jul 16, 2021).    Empire, Fascism, Human Rights, InequalityHaitiNewswireAntoinette (Netty) Duclaire, Diego Charles, Human rights violence, U.S./UN/OAS backing

. . .This is why the white West’s deployment of “humanitarian intervention” because of the “Responsibility to Protect” is so cynical. The West is responsible for the barbaric treatment and conditions colonized peoples have faced for centuries. The U.S. ruling class has shown nothing but contempt for the lives of workers inside its borders and for the millions worldwide who live in abject poverty as a result of the global U.S.-dominated capitalist-imperialist system.

Why the concern about Muslims in China while Biden and Democrats greenlight Israel’s war crimes against predominately Muslim Palestinians?

Whenever the United States raises humanitarian issues—be it in the Horn of Africa or in China—we know it can only mean one thing: The United States has strategic interests that have nothing to do with the humanity of the people they pretend to care about.

That is why BAP will continue to tell the truth, no matter the consequences. . . .

MORE

“Pentagon whistleblower under investigation after warning about risks of war with China over Taiwan.” Editor.  Mronline.org (6-27-21).

Pentagon whistleblower Franz Gayl has been part of the United States Marine Corps for over four decades. He spent the last months trying to warn U.S. government officials and the public of the threat of becoming entangled in a war with China over Taiwan.    June 26, 2021. Newswire.

Originally published: Shadowproof  on June 24, 2021 by Kevin Gosztola (more by Shadowproof) (Posted Jun 26, 2021).   Human Rights, Media, Strategy, WarChina, Taiwan, United StatesNewswireFranz Gayl, Pentagon whistleblower, U.S. Government, Whistleblower

The following was published as part of The Dissenter Newsletter, which is a project of Shadowproof.

Pentagon whistleblower Franz Gayl has been part of the United States Marine Corps for over four decades. He spent the last months trying to warn U.S. government officials and the public of the threat of becoming entangled in a war with China over Taiwan.

Yet instead of seriously considering his perspective, Gayl faces a counterintelligence investigation into articles he wrote and early retirement.

He published an open letter to President Joe Biden on LinkedIn on June 22 in a last-ditch effort to reach the White House and communicate his concerns over the increased potential for an “ill-advised foreign war.”

Gayl warned. . . .  MORE

CIRCUS FEATURE OF THE GREAT CHINESE THREAT:   Greatest Security State in World Can’t Differentiate Between a Balloon and a Weapon.

“NBC cites balloon ‘threat’ in fawning coverage of NORAD.”  Bryce Greene.  Mronline.org (8-15-23).  

The “Chinese Spy Balloon” has been an important story for fueling New Cold War animus against China, but it is based on a dubious premise.

SINOPHOBIA TODAY RECALLS THE OLD MCCARTHYIST BIGOTRY v. SOVIET UNION AND CHINA

“New York Times helps Marco Rubio push persecution of antiwar leftists.”  Caitlin A. Johnstone.  Mronline.org (8-15-23). 

Citing a recent McCarthyite smear piece by The New York Times, Senator Marco Rubio published a letter on Wednesday that he’d sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for the investigation of American leftist antiwar groups, claiming they are “tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and operating with impunity in the United States.”

US NEW COLD WAR v. CHINA

BIDEN/US HOSTILITY TOWARD CHINA

“What does Biden’s summit spree tell us about the future of U.S. empire?”   Eds.   mronline.org (6-20-21).

Originally published: Newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation  on June 17, 2021 by Walter Smolarek (more by Newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation).  (Posted Jun 19, 2021)

MovementsGlobalNewswireNew Cold War, President Joe Biden

Joe Biden took part in several key international meetings over the last week covering a wide range of issues but with one key goal in mind: intensify the new Cold War with China and construct a global front towards this end.   June 19, 2021.  Newswire.

On June 8^th, the Senate by a vote of 68-32 passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, a bill championed by Senator Chuck Schumer of N.Y. which incorporated many of the anti-China measures included in the Strategic Competition Act of 2021, originally introduced by Senator Menendez of N.J. and opposed by many peace, justice, and faith-based groups. The Senate bill now moves to the House, where a version crafted by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D.-N.Y.), the "Ensuring American Global Leadership and Engagement Act," or EAGLE Act, is expected to be debated in the weeks ahead. Please tell your Representative to exclude the hostile military aspects of the Schumer bill in the House version. The Committee will be sending future alerts on specific elements of the EAGLE Act deserving of particular approbation.

Forthcoming Events:

Daniel Ellsberg: Preparations for Nuclear War with China over Taiwan – Then and Now

An Interview Moderated by Joseph Gerson

June 23, 7 p.m. EDT, 4 p.m. Pacific

Register at: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcrcuGvrDotGNV4Jr-RL6UPQI-yM-2YlDX9

Analysis of Recent Developments:

Biden Defense Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 Aggressively Focused on China

Analysis by Michael Klare, June 11, 2021

The $715 billion Department of Defense (DoD) Budget Request for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 released by the Biden Administration on May 28 calls for a Pentagon-wide effort to prepare for full-scale war with People’s Republic of China. Unlike in past years, when the Armed Forces were expected to prepare for a multitude of threats – ranging from terrorist strikes to regional conflicts in the Middle East and Asia – this year’s budget request subordinates all other such concerns to the overriding task of confronting the PRC. Even Russia – once partnered with China as a “great-power adversary” – has been downgraded as a secondary threat when compared to that purportedly posed by China.

As explained by the Pentagon, China’s military poses the greatest threat to U.S. security and so constitutes the “pacing challenge” – the most fearsome peril that U.S. forces must be capable of overpowering in any future war. If capable of defeating China, the logic goes, America’s Armed

Services (the “Joint Force”) will be more than adequate to overcome any lesser threat, including Russia and North Korea.

“China poses the greatest long-term challenge to the United States, and strengthening deterrence against China will require DoD to work in concert with other instruments of national power,” the DoD’s Defense Budget Overview for FY 2022 asserts. “A combat-credible Joint Force will underpin a whole-of-nation approach to competition and ensure the Nation leads from a position of strength. Accordingly, DoD will prioritize China and its military modernization as our pacing challenge”. . . .    MORE

Whatever final amount Congress ultimately agrees on, there is no doubt that military and political leaders in China will view this request as evidence of a single-minded drive to prevent China’s rise and erode its defensive capabilities in the Western Pacific — an assessment that will no doubt prompt them to enhance their own military capabilities, prompting calls for even more China-oriented military spending by U.S. lawmakers and an ever-accelerating arms race with no end in sight.

Washington’s Influence in Africa Waning.

“For China and Africa, U.S. hegemony a common target.”

Editor.  mronline.org (9-22-24).
Originally published: Al Mayadeen  on September 19, 2024 by Hannan Hussain (more by Al Mayadeen)  |  (Posted Sep 21, 2024).   Movements, StrategyAfrica, Americas, Asia, China, United StatesNewswireBRICS (Brazil and Russia and India and China and South Africa), Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)

The aftermath of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is clear: Washington’s economic and diplomatic influence on the continent is set to wane even further. Beijing has backed a consensus to help African states increase “their influence and role in global governance,” and 30 clean energy projects stand to deepen development cooperation in the coming years.

In stark contrast, Washington doesn’t have the diplomatic foresight, economic muscle, or investment potential to rival such a consensus. Instead, it insists that China is spreading misinformation across the Sahel to “undermine” so-called U.S. influence. That influence was lost a long time ago through unwarranted sanctions, diplomatic meddling and military interference. Washington’s present anxiety is set to grow as Beijing and African states ramp up their cooperation across a range of fields, regardless of what the U.S. thinks. . . .  MORE

HISTORIC ANTECEDENTS TO PRESENT US PLANNING FOR WAR AGAINST CHINA

“Seventy-Five Years of the Chinese Revolution”

Tings Chak and Vijay Prashad.  Tricontinental Institute.    Mronline.org (10-2-24).   MovementsGlobalNewswireNew Cold War, President Joe Biden.

Tings Chak and Vijay Prashad take stock of seventy-five years of the Chinese Revolution.

Ralf Ruckus.  The Communist Road to Capitalism: How Social Unrest and Containment Have Pushed China's (R)evolution since 1949.  PM Press, 2021.
Publisher’s description

“China pulls itself out of poverty 100 years into its revolution.”   Vijay Prashad.  Mronline.org (7-9-21). On February 25, 2021, China’s President Xi Jinping announced that his country of 1.4 billion people had pulled its people out of poverty as it is defined internationally.

July 8, 2021 | Newswire

“How FDR Was Manipulated and Betrayed by His Own Naval Intelligence Chief in the Fateful Last Months of WWII.”

CovertAction Magazine via gmail.mcsv.net By James Bradley on Jun 23, 2021.  
Unknown for decades, declassified documents show that FDR’s mail was deliberately diverted and falsified to prevent a historic meeting with Mao Zedong that might have shortened the war, changed history, and reshaped the modern world.

AGAINST PREPARING FOR WAR, CHOOSE PEACE

PROTESTING US NAVY PREPARING FOR NUCLEAR WWIII: 6 MORE DESTROYERS WITH CRUISE AND INTERCEPTOR MISSILES.  The lethality of these destroyers are more dangerous than WWII cruisers or battleships.  As during the First Cold War, again in the Second Cold War the US is building both First Strike Weapons (hit them before they hit us)  and Anti-Retaliatory Weapons (prevent them from hitting us).   If both work as intended (the eradication of Russia and China), US opponents will be defenseless.  If you were the leader of China and Russia, what would you do?   --Dick 
Bruce Gagnon via sendinblue.com.  “Where do these BIW made Aegis destroyers go?”   
ARRT! is led by long-revered artist/activist Natasha Mayers who has been a regular at the protests at Bath Iron Works (BIW) where naval Aegis destroyers are built.   The banner was conceived with these questions in mind: Where do these destroyers go when they leave Bath? How do they impact the rest of the world politically and environmentally?   BIW Aegis destroyers do not actually carry nuclear weapons. They carry cruise missiles that could be outfitted with nuclear warheads. They are primarily first-strike attack weapons.    

Aegis also carry SM-3 interceptor missiles whose job is to take out any retaliatory strikes after the US launches a first-strike attack on China or Russia. (So-called 'missile defense'.) SM-3 missiles are not nuclear - they are called 'kinetic' which means they crash into the other missiles and they both explode.

In Maine most people just think about BIW as a jobs engine but the impact of these warships is far more than just jobs. If we were really concerned about creating jobs we'd be building commuter rail systems at BIW as well as tidal power systems to help us deal with climate crisis.

The war economy must end. . . .

 Please....help speak out against the madness.

 Our only hope for survival is to turn America away from complicity with corruption, endless war, and climate crisis. . . .   

'Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.'   ~ Henry David Thoreau

 Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
P.O. Box 652, Brunswick, ME 04011    globalnet@mindspring.com

(207) 389-4606

James K. Galbraith.  “China and the supply chain: a comment on the June 2021 White House review.”  Editor.  Mronline.org (7-16-21).

Contrary to rhetoric from Democrats and Republicans, the U.S. has an economic
interest in trade and peace with China.   July 15, 2021.  Newswire.  

Originally published: Institute for New Economic Thinking  on June 23, 2021 (more by Institute for New Economic Thinking). (Posted Jul 15, 2021).

Financialization, Imperialism, Labor, Political EconomyChina, United StatesNewswire

. . .If there is an Ariadne’s thread to these four areas, it is the trading and competitive relationship with China. The reports do not focus solely on China and give what is largely a fair-minded and wide-ranging assessment of vulnerabilities in each sector. For the reader not previously immersed in the structures of semiconductor production or the technology of electrical storage, this document, at 250 pages, is a mine of information. But China lurks in each section, sometimes looming large, in other places only in the background.

CONTENTS CHINA ANTHOLOGY #5, June 21, 2023

https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2023/06/omni-us-cold-war-against-china.html

Threatened War

Political Conflict

Economic

Technological

Psychological

Media

Peaceful Alternatives

END US COLD WAR AGAINST CHINA ANTHOLOGY#6