US President, Barak Obama, returned last week from a tour of Asian countries designed to put military flesh on US imperialism’s ‘Asian Pivot’.
This military pivot towards the Pacific region was first outlined by Obama back in 2012 and consists of the US pouring more troops and military hardware into the region in order to confront China.
In his week-long jaunt, Obama took in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. In Japan, Obama pledged the full force of the US military would be used in defence of Japan against China over the disputed islands of Diaoyu.
These islands are historically a part of China that were seized by the Japanese during World War II and, unlike every other territory seized by Japan, were never restored to China in defiance of international law.
The same message of ‘place yourself under the protectorate of the US’ was delivered by Obama across the region.
In the capital of Manila last week, the US and Philippine government, which is also in dispute with China over the sovereignty of islands in the South China Sea, signed a ten-year deal giving US planes, warships and troops virtually unlimited access to the country.
This deal, the Agreement on Enhanced Defence Cooperation, allows the deployment of US troops in the Philippines for the first time in over twenty years. Despite all Obama’s protestations to the contrary, this ‘Pivot to Asia’ is nothing less than a plan to encircle China both militarily and economically through a trade deal called the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP).
The TPP – a series of negotiations between US imperialism and Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam – in effect would turn the entire economies of these countries into little more than vassal states under the domination of US capitalism.
One of the strings of this ‘trade deal’ is a proviso that would allow foreign corporations (i.e US corporations) to ignore domestic laws and any court rulings that inhibit their right to exploit people and take their case directly to an international ‘tribunal’.
At the same time, the US is trying to impose as part of TPP, clauses that would diminish the ability of central banks in these countries from placing regulatory limits on banks and financial speculators. Pharmaceutical companies would, under its terms, be able to insist that cheap, generic drugs are banned and that their patents be protected at all costs.
In its crisis, US imperialism is attempting to completely encircle China militarily and economically by offering these countries a deal that in return for US military protection and turning themselves into military bases for the US they can enjoy the privilege of unrivalled exploitation by US capitalism unfettered by any ‘public interest’ laws.
This attempt by US imperialism to cement its domination through so-called trade deals coupled with military muscle, is not confined to Asia. On the table is a similar deal with Europe – the US/EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – which calls for ‘harmonisation’ of US and EU regulations, in other words doing away with any trade laws that the US capitalist class feels restricts their right to screw as much profit as possible regardless of any damage caused.
Again this ‘partnership’ gives international corporations the right to sue any government for loss of profits caused by government policy – any health and safety laws that impinge on profitability or employment legislation that prevents companies from arbitrarily sacking workers it doesn’t like.
The attempt to militarily encircle China is mirrored in the ‘ring of steel’ NATO is trying to place around Russia as we are seeing in the Ukraine. In its acute economic crisis, US imperialism is attempting to exert its domination over its capitalist rivals while trying to organise the re-conquest of those lands denied to capitalism through the Russian and Chinese revolutions.
For the working class in Europe and America, the issue is to put an end to imperialism’s war preparations through the socialist revolution.