ON FRIDAY the foreign ministry of the Kuomintang- ruled territory of Chinese Taipei vowed to further deepen its close military alliance with the US following recent phone discussions between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart.
Friday’s announcement came a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping sternly warned Biden not to ‘play with fire’ over Taiwan, reiterating Beijing’s concerns about a provocative planned visit to Taipei by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, while urging him to respect the ‘One China’ policy that is recognised by the US ruling class.
President Xi added ‘Public opinion cannot be violated. Those who play with fire will be burnt. I hope the US can clearly see this.’
Ahead of the call, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that it was about ‘keeping the lines of communication open with the president of China’, describing it as ‘one of the most consequential bilateral relationships’ the US has had in the region and the world. The USA in fact recognises that Taiwan is part of China.
The Chinese president has warned his American counterpart not to play with fire over Taiwan, urging him to stick to the ‘One China’ policy, and that any US prompted declaration of independence by Taiwan would mean war.
If Pelosi goes ahead with her planned August trip to the island, she will be the highest-ranking US politician to travel to Taipei since 1997, when hawkish Republican House speaker at the time, Newt Gingrich, paid a visit.
Biden administration officials expressed concerns last week that China may try to impose a no-fly zone over Chinese Taipei ahead of the potential visit by the top US legislator, in efforts to upend the trip, amid fears of further escalating tensions in the region.
According to the unnamed officials cited in US press reports, Biden also reflected concerns from the nation’s military about Pelosi’s possible visit, saying: ‘I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now, but I don’t know what the status is.’
Reacting to Biden’s alarming remarks, Pelosi then stated last week that while it’s important to show support for Taiwan, she would not discuss her travel plans due to ‘a security issue.’
‘I think what the President was saying is that maybe the military was afraid of my plane getting shot down or something like that. I don’t know exactly,’ said Pelosi.
To further escalate the already heightened tension between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan, US aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group, including a guided missile destroyer and a guided missile cruiser, has entered the South China Sea, which is almost entirely claimed by China.
The group is expected to sail through the Taiwan Strait, a strategically-sensitive waterway that separates Chinese Taipei from mainland China.
Under the ‘One China’ policy, nearly all countries across the globe including the USA, recognise Beijing’s sovereignty over Chinese Taipei, but they continue to support the American anti-China stance and to supply the Kuomintang with massive amounts of armaments.
Even the UK has warned the US that the West risks the start of nuclear war with China or Russia due to a ‘breakdown of communication’, as highlighted by the United Kingdom’s national security adviser.
‘The Cold War’s two monolithic blocks of the USSR and NATO – though not without alarming bumps – were able to reach a shared understanding of doctrine that is today absent,’ said UK security adviser Lovegrove, noting that deterioration of communication with China and Russia has sparked a risk of ‘rapid escalation to strategic conflict’.
The fact is that the victory of the Chinese revolution in 1949 has changed not only Asia, but the rest of the world forever. Getting rid of capitalism and imperialist domination has propelled China into being the world’s number one industrial power, capable of sending a craft to Mars and shortly to share a space station with Russia.
The imperialist powers fear that if they do not check the rise of China, then in the current period of acute capitalist economic and political crisis, the workers of the world will be encouraged to complete the world revolution by smashing the US, UK, and EU ruling classes.
As the US wages a war in the Ukraine, fighting Russia down to the last Ukrainian – ‘Better to be dead than red’ – appears to be the motto of the imperialists, as they face defeat internationally.
Now is the time to build the Fourth International worldwide to replace bankrupt and disintegrating capitalism with worldwide socialism consigning capitalism to the museums!
