SPY BALLOON RATCHETS UP TENSIONS IN U.S.-CHINA COLD WAR

part of Project Genetrix.

The whole incident brings to mind the 1960 U-2 incident, in which the Soviet Union shot down a U.S. spy plane. As with the balloon controversy, American authorities initially portrayed the plane as civilian weather research aircraft operated by NASA. However, a few days later, the Soviet government produced the captured pilot and parts of the U-2’s surveillance equipment, including photographs of Soviet military bases, revealing its illegal purpose.

With this in mind, the response of the U.S. government has been completely hypocritical. Chinese spying operations are simply following in the footsteps of their fellow imperialists.

More worrying than the spying itself is the very public warmongering and escalations on both sides of the new Cold War, exemplified by China’s recent threats to arm Russia in its war against Ukraine.

The War Machine Springs To Life

Especially given the war in Ukraine, the U.S. and China are both publicly committed to avoiding a direct military conflict with each other. At the same time, both countries are objectively preparing for war.

China has been massively expanding its navy, with its fleet expected to reach 420 ships in the next two years. They’ve been staking claims in the South China Sea that encroach on the sovereignty of other countries in the region.

The Chinese navy has conducted drills around Taiwan that repeatedly crossed the “median line” in the Taiwan Strait. This is a notional, unofficial boundary, but it was largely respected by both sides for decades. By making these incursions, Chinese imperialism seeks to establish new “facts on the ground” in order to support the CCP’s claim of sovereignty over the whole waterway.

In response, U.S. imperialism and its allies are also ramping up militarily in the Pacific. Japan pumped $320 billion into its biggest military build-up since World War Two. In response to Chinese imperialism’s incursions in the South China Sea, president of the Phillipines Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the former U.S. puppet dictator, has invited the U.S. to increase its military presence in the country.

The immediate threat of war between China and Taiwan receded as a result of the war in Ukraine. However, the underlying forces behind the U.S.-China conflict have been exacerbated by the same conflict. If China invaded Taiwan and the U.S. retaliated, the war could easily spread to involve Japan,

India, Australia, and NATO.

In a memo to his officers, Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command wrote, “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me [we] will fight in 2025.”

Growing Sinophobia

Meanwhile, at home, the balloon controversy has been used to whip up anti-China sentiment, especially by the right. This has had very real consequences. Already since Trump and his railings against the “China virus,” the U.S. has had a sharp uptick in anti-Asian violence. This has continued beyond Trump.

The rise in anti-Asian violence has been

The goal of these measures is to keep China years behind in high-end tech and to hobble China’s economic development (particularly its plans to achieve breakthroughs in key fields such as A.I., supercomputers, advanced robotics, and crucially next-generation weapons systems).

A subsidiary concern is that U.S. imperialism wants less reliance on Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, especially should it fall under China’s control in a war.

Working-Class Solidarity

There have been attempts since the balloon incident to scale back tensions. But the damage is done. The U.S.-China conflict emerged in the context of the long-term decline of U.S. imperialism, while Chinese imperialism was on the rise and increasingly accompanied by legal attacks. Back in 2020, the Trump administration tried unsuccessfully to ban TikTok. Now, renewed attempts at banning the platform have gained bipartisan support.

Even more worrying is legislation in Texas and other states that would bar not only Chinese businesses, but Chinese nationals, from owning farmland in the state. When antiChina sentiment first came to prominence, many were quick to lay the blame solely on Trump. But it’s clearly much more deeply tied to the growing inter-imperialist rivalry.

The Chip War

Even before things come to blows over Taiwan, the U.S. has declared economic war on China. In August, the CHIPS Act passed into law providing $50 billion for the construction of microprocessor plants in the U.S. This was followed by new export controls announced by the Biden administration in October. These block the sale to China of advanced computer chips and the tools to make such chips. The measures from the U.S. Commerce Department apply not only to U.S. companies but also to foreign companies if their products contain U.S.-made components or software.

assertive. Now China’s economy is in deep crisis while the CCP regime is floundering, abandoning Zero COVID and facing increased dissatisfaction from workers and young people. Arguably the rise of Chinese imperialism has peaked. This does not make the situation less dangerous. Increasing U.S. confidence, resulting from its reassertion during the Ukraine conflict, and deepening crisis in China can lead to a military adventure by the CCP to forestall the threat of revolution.

At the end of last year, mainland China saw the biggest protests since 1989. The movement receded in the wake of repression and concessions, but these have resolved none of the underlying issues behind the crisis of Chinese capitalism and it’s an inevitability that similar protests will reemerge.

The growing inter-imperialist rivalry poses danger of war on a much larger scale than Ukraine. The force that can challenge that is the international solidarity of the working class. Ultimately, it is only through workers taking power out of the hands of the warmongers and billionaires, and doing away with capitalism and imperialism, that a future of war, conflict and environmental destruction can be averted. J

KEELY MULLEN, CHICAGO

Thousands of people in East Palestine were told it was safe to return home after a Norfolk Southern train derailment left their town covered in a heavy toxic smoke and flames, and coated in highly flammable chemicals. But far from returning to the town they’d left only days before, residents came home to an apocalyptic sight: tens of thousands of dead fish floating in the river and collapsed animals in their once-lively backyards.

From start to finish this disaster has exposed the complete barbarism of the capitalist system. A mass of safety violations and cover-ups going back decades have brought us to this exact moment, where thousands of families now live in what will likely become a cancerous wasteland.

The Chain Of Events: CostCutting To Blame For Derailment

In the early 90s, the freight magnates, seeing an opportunity to massively expand their profits, introduced a concept called “Precision Scheduled Railroading” (PSR). They made the trains longer, reduced the staff, scrapped safety inspections, and lobbied the government to whittle down regulations.

As Railroad Workers United – a reform caucus of union railroad workers – correctly points out, nearly everything that makes PSR dangerous contributed to the Ohio derailment.

At every level, PSR has meant cutting costs – especially labor costs. The cause of the derailment was an overheated wheel bearing which caught fire 20 miles outside East Palestine. Due to widespread layoffs of car inspectors, this defective car was allowed hazardous nitric acid crashed on a major highway in Tucson, filling the air with clouds of redbrown gas.

A marsh in Charleston was drowned in three thousand gallons of diesel due to a pump control failure at a wastewater plant. Photos showed streams of bright red diesel-water weaving through the wetlands.

An explosion at an Ohio metals plant showered molten metal and debris on neighboring buildings and sent up smoke that could be seen 15 miles away.

THE U.S. AVERAGES ONE CHEMICAL ACCIDENT EVERY TWO DAYS...

Ordinary Events With Extraordinary Consequences

The chemical scares making national news have people across the country demanding to know what is going on.

The truth is, horrifying as they are, these events are businessas-usual. The East Palestine train derailment has simply brought more attention to the entirely ordinary phenomenon where ruthless corporations’ blunders create lasting disasters for the environment and local communities.

People have had to deal with evacuations and ongoing health scares. There have been gruesome and avoidable workplace deaths. The trucking and rail barons cut corners on safety and emit thick suffocating fumes, corrosive acids, and toxic spills – and we pay for the cleanup.

And this is just the accidents, to say nothing of the pollution they do on purpose, without which they wouldn’t be able to make their sky-high profits. Only a movement for democratic public ownership of transportation can put an end to the organized crime of the big polluters and implement a new regime of sustainability, rationality, and workplace safety. J