United States, stay out of Taiwan! Imperialism, stay out of Asia!

United States, stay out of Taiwan!

Imperialism, stay out of Asia!

Masses 670, Editorial, August 7^th, 2022

No sooner had  the NATO Madrid Summit been concluded than Biden went to the Middle East to form an alliance with the Saudi Arabian monarchy against Russia, China, Iran and Syria, the Speaker of the United States Chamber of Deputies, Nancy Pelosi, set foot on Taiwanese soil, in a clear gesture of provocation to the Chinese government. Provocation that had the express content of denying China’s ascendancy over Taiwanese territory.

The Madrid Summit was held motivated by the war in Ukraine. It served for a review of the Strategic Plan of this armed wing of the United States in Europe, created after the Second World War, in April 1949. Two points stood out: to expand the military capacity, and to extend its action to Asia. Which means potentiating military escalation and international tensions to levels similar to a pre-World War situation.

Evidently, the resurgence of warlike tendencies, incarnated by imperialism, under US hegemony, was already occurring before the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Precisely the advance of the NATO siege of Russia was the trigger for the confrontation, which exploded on February 24^th of this year. China was forced to side with Russia, albeit in a loose alliance. The United States pressured the Chinese government not to send weapons to the Russian government, which was met. Imperialism could provide the Ukraine government with state-of-the-art weapons, while China had to contain itself in the commercial and diplomatic sphere, in the face of the ally that needed and needs weapons.

This imposition showed the arrogance of the United States, and the fear of China in having to face the American fury. However, the Biden administration allowed Democrat Nancy Pelosi to create an international constraint on Xi Jinping’s government, violating China’s sovereignty over Taiwan.

The meeting of the US representative with President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan (PPD) resulted in a declaration of support for separation and independence from China. It can be deduced that Biden and the American bourgeoisie decided to ignore the “Act of Relations with Taiwan”, of 1979, adopted by the United States Congress, in which China’s ascendancy over the island of the Formosa Strait is recognized. It also tramples on the UN’s 1971 decision to stop recognizing Taiwan as an independent and sovereign state.

It is observed that the agreements between imperialism and China, contracted under the conditions in which the Chinese government was driving the process of capitalist restoration, which began in the 1970s, no longer serve to regulate the relations that gave China the formal right over Taiwan. It so happens that Taiwan has, in fact, never ceased to be under the influence of the United States, since Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist Kuomintang party took refuge on the island of Formosa, which became known as Taiwan, as a result of its defeat for the social revolution, led by the Chinese Communist Party, under the leadership of Mao Zedong. Taiwan has not, therefore, joined the revolutionary, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist transformations.

The Kuomintang established capitalist relations of production, dependent on the imperialist powers. In March 1996, direct presidential elections were held. Which led China to contest and mobilize fleets in the  Formosa Strait. The United States reacted with its naval power. At that moment, imperialism made it clear that it would not allow China to exercise its sovereignty, in the face of a strategic Taiwan for US interests in Asia, and, fundamentally, in the face of China itself.

Good relations between the two countries had been established on the basis of the Chinese government’s willingness to open its national borders to the penetration of multinational capital, and to promote capitalist restoration. The “Plan of Reform and Opening”, of 1978, was assimilated by the United States and allies, under the calculation of subordinating China to the orbit of imperialism. Its international economic projection, the dominance of high technology in sensitive areas to the United States and the entry into the club of countries that possess nuclear weapons, however, placed China as an obstacle to the maintenance of North American hegemony.

The First World War divided the world as a result of the contradictions of capitalism in the imperialist era. It didn’t solve them. A new, even wider division took place with the Second World War. The contradictions remained, and the world crisis today is leading imperialism to a much more dangerous path, due to the need for a new partition, which implies overthrowing China, Russia and all the countries allied to them. This is still a trend, but advancing at a faster pace than in past decades.

The statement of the Liaison Committee for Reconstruction of the Fourth International* states: “CERQUI has been carrying out an internationalist campaign for the end of the war in Ukraine, under the guideline that the task is to unite the working class around revolutionary flags and tasks. Events have demonstrated the correctness of defense by dismantling NATO and all US military bases in Europe; revocation of all economic and financial sanctions on Russia; for self-determination, territorial integrity and withdrawal of Russian military forces from Ukraine. Now it adds: Pelosi, stay out of Taiwan! Repudiation of imperialist provocation!

Working class, peasants and other workers, the only way to put an end to the imperialist offensive against China and Russia and stop the course of the war is the revolution, which puts the proletariat in power and strengthens communist internationalism”.

*English translation for “Comitê de Enlace pela Reconstrução da IV Internacional” – CERQUI