As the rivalry between U.S. and Chinese capitalists intensifies, Canada is the latest country forced to choose which imperialist master’s orders to follow.

Since the December arrest in Vancouver of a top Chinese business executive, Meng Wangzhou, at the order of the U.S., tensions between China and Canada have been rising. After threatening “severe consequences,” China retaliated by arresting two Canadians for “harming national security” (code for spying) and sentencing a third to death for drug smuggling. The latest word is that the U.S. will escalate the fight by pressing Canada to extradite Meng for a criminal trial in the U.S.

Meng is chief financial officer and daughter of the founder of Huawei, the world’s largest telecom manufacturer and a big part of China’s plan to overtake the U.S. as the world leader in 21st-century technology. She was arrested on suspicion of violating U.S. sanctions by selling products to Iran. But her more serious offense may be her part in challenging U.S. control over its own backyard. Although U.S. trade still dominates the Canadian economy, China is now Canada’s second-largest trading partner, “one of Canada’s biggest buyers of agricultural products from oilseeds to softwood lumber and … a growing market for the nation’s banks, insurers and luxury-good makers” (business.financialpost.com, 12/13/18).
As Chinese imperialism extends its influence at the expense of the U.S. bosses, and world war looms on the horizon, the international working class must play its role in organizing for class war across borders. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) aims to organize millions to fulfill that historical duty.

U.S.-China Cold War

The latest dogfight is a lot bigger than Canada. Through their Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, see box), China’s bosses are forging new alliances and expanding their power throughout the world, a trend that accelerated after the U.S. economic collapse of 2008. The BRI is the largest capitalist infrastructure and investment plan since the U.S. Marshall Plan after World War II. (Through economic coercion and military dependence, the Marshall Plan became the foundation for U.S. imperialism around the world.)

In an effort to curb Chinese ambitions in new technologies, the U.S. has successfully convinced some allies (Australia, New Zealand, Britain) to ban the use of Huawei products in their next-generation telecom infrastructure. Claiming that Huawei is an arm of the Chinese government, the U.S. bosses have launched an investigation into the company for violating sanctions against Iran, Cuba, and North Korea. China’s Global Times slapped back, pointing out that the U.S. never abides by international rules and arbitrarily launches unilateral sanctions and wars against other countries (Global Times, 1/18).
The new cold war between the U.S. and China is a fight between the old U.S.dominated liberal world order and China’s rising imperialist order, controlled by an openly fascist state. Despite their differences, however, both superpowers are capitalist dictatorships.  Either form of capitalist rule is deadly for the working class.
Most important, the current period is a time when the weaknesses of capitalism will be on full display—an opportunity for communists. The goal of PLP is to change the main contradiction from the bosses fighting each other to the international working class fighting the bosses to establish a communist world.

Golden Age of Chinese imperialism?

In Africa, China has pledged over $60 billion in loans in exchange for minerals, roads, airports, oil, and natural gas. In response, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said “the United States would lavish money and greater attention on the African continent, casting it as a crucial battleground in the global economic contest between the United States and China.” The “greatest threat” Bolton said, “came not from poverty or Islamist extremism but from an expansionist China, as well as Russia” (New York Times, 12/13/18).

China and Finland have agreed to jointly build the Polar Silk Road shipping routes (Global Times, 1/15). China’s increasing activity in the Arctic region also gives them access to huge amounts of liquefied natural gas (Reuters, 1/26/18).

In Latin America, China has pledged to increase trade by $500 billion and foreign investment to $250 billion by 2025. The China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China now provide more development financing to Latin America than the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) combined.

In Europe, Chinese state-backed and private companies have been involved in deals worth at least $255 billion. Approximately 360 companies have been taken over, from airports and seaports to wind farms and stock markets and even football teams. “The available figures underestimate the true size and scope of China’s ambitions in Europe” (Bloomberg, 4/23/18).

China v. U.S. gunboat diplomacy

As China works to control access in the South China Sea with a continuing military buildup, the U.S. has responded with so-called Freedom of Navigation operations, which are really shows of military readiness. Japan, Australia, France, and Britain have participated as well.
The Council on Foreign Relations, the leading think tank for the U.S. main-wing finance capitalists, has called for the U.S. to enlist a multilateral coalition “to help deter further Chinese aggression or new claims in the South China Sea” (1/16). A hot war between China and the U.S. is growing more and more likely.

Two gangs of loan sharks

Lately the U.S. bosses’ media have cried foul over China’s “predatory loans” to developing nations. The U.S.-backed international loan sharks, the IMF and World Bank, focus more on controlling a country’s resources and spending habits. They offer lengthy grace periods for repayment. China’s loans, on the other hand, give debtor nations more autonomy in how they spend the money. They also charge above-market interest rates, with punishing clauses that force debtor nations to absorb any losses from failed projects (Foreign Affairs, September/October 2018)

Since China’s bosses grabbed a port in Sri Lanka for loan delinquency, the backlash—manipulated by the U.S.—has led a number of countries to rethink their relationship with China’s BRI:

• Malaysia canceled a $20 billion railroad and a $2.3 billion natural gas pipeline project with China.
• In the Maldives, voters elected a new president, Ibrahim Solih, who ran on an anti-China campaign.
• Kenya began cracking down on officials taking Chinese bribes.
• Bangladesh canceled a plan for a Chinese state-run firm to build a $2 billion highway.

Only resolution: communist revolution

Both U.S market capitalism and Chinese state capitalism are deadly ideologies for the working class. World war is the only way capitalists can resolve their conflicts. War is the ultimate decider in choosing which imperialist order will rule the world.

As we saw in Russia in World War I, and in China after World War II, the communist-led working class has seized state power in periods of instability and global conflict. Workers must be prepared once again to take power and build a world free of exploitation. They must smash the capitalist parasites who put profits above the needs of our class. Join Progressive Labor Party!  We have a communist world to win!