U.S. Government Makes Preparations for War with China

Dec 2, 2024

Recently the U.S. Secretary of the Air Force gave a speech saying that a U.S. war with China “can happen at any time” and that there needs to be a “sense of urgency” to prepare for war. In November, members of Congress were given a briefing about how the U.S. military is making preparations to go to war against China. In October, the U.S. army conducted war-game exercises in Hawaii, that were specifically aimed at conducting a war against China. Meanwhile, the U.S. navy conducts its own war exercises in the Pacific and the South China Sea.

If the U.S. military is today making plans for a war against China, it is because they are following directions of the political leaders of the U.S. government and the capitalist class that these politicians work for. They are all preparing the population here for such a war. We heard that during the recent election campaign, in which both the Republicans and Democrats were portraying China as a threat to the U.S. In Michigan, the two parties’ candidates for the Senate, Elissa Slotkin and Mike Rogers, tried to outdo each other claiming to be the toughest on China. Some of Donald Trump’s choices for cabinet positions claim that their main qualification is how hostile to China they are.

The corporate-owned media is also preparing the population here for a possible war against China. Almost daily there is one story or another about how China is a threat to the U.S.

But where is any military threat from China? China does not have bases and troops along the U.S border in Mexico and Canada. China does not have naval forces off the coast of California and New York. There is no threat from China.

No, the real threat of war is coming from the U.S. government. They have put troops, air bases, and warships all around China. They have U.S. forces stationed in Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, threatening China.

So why is the U.S. government preparing to go to war against China, when China is the U.S. bosses’ primary source of labor and product production?

The U.S. bourgeois bosses and bankers look to squeeze out ever more profits. While U.S. capitalism dominates the world economy, China is a competitor, taking their margin of profits.

China is an immense country with a large population and a massive state apparatus that constrains the ability of the U.S. capitalists to exploit the world’s markets, natural resources and labor at an even higher level.

The politicians who serve the capitalists, and the media owned by the capitalists, are grinding out war propaganda, preparing the population for war. How could a war like this be in our interests? We would pay the price for it. We would be its victims and see our own standard of living drop off a cliff.

Our interests as workers are the same as the workers in China, and the rest of the world. Our interests are to have food, shelter, non-killing jobs, decent wages, education and security. Our interests are to have a future for ourselves and our children, better than our past. And war is not that future.