Amerika beats China war drum, stirs up anti-Asian chauvinism 
By MC206 and MC44

The collision between an Amerikan spy plane and a Chinese 
interceptor, the sale of u.$. arms to Taiwan, and President 
Bush's admission that the united $tates would use any 
necessary force to defend capitalist Taiwan against state-
capitalist China recently underscored the threat of war 
between the united $tates and China. At the same time, 
especially during the spy-plane incident, anti-Asian 
sentiment flared up in the form of blatantly racist 
stereotypes in the Amerikan media, harassment of Asians on 
the street, and threats to send Chinese to internment 
camps.(1,2)

President Bush has since backtracked a bit on 
his promise to use any necessary means to defend Taiwan, 
returning the longstanding policy of "strategic ambiguity." 
Bourgeois media hacks have scrutinized Bush's statements on 
Taiwan and the spy-plane incident -- generating a lot of 
smoke and white noise but not getting to the essence of the 
matter. The recent incidents spring from some basic 
contradictions: Amerikan imperialism is trying to make big 
money off of state-capitalist China's labor and markets, 
while not letting China develop into a major power in Asia, 
threatening Amerikan hegemony. Also, the United Snakes wants 
carte blanche to fly anywhere, spy on anyone and then demand 
its spy equipment back intact. 

The united $tates has no 
legitimate business spying on anybody. Indeed the u.$. State 
Department admits that it would never allow a foreign power 
to fly as close to u.$. territory as u.$ spy planes 
regularly fly near China. Still, the unites $tates 
arrogantly resumed spy missions over the South China Sea, 
even while the two countries were negotiating what to do 
with the damaged U.$. plane still in China. 

The united $tates also has no more right to be meddling in 
China/Taiwan relations than it did meddling in Korean or Vietnamese 
affairs. The united $tates supported the corrupt Nationalist 
regime in Taiwan -- defeated on the mainland in 1949 by the 
Communists -- by supplying it militarily and subsidizing its 
economy. The relative success of capitalist development in 
Taiwan -- praised by apologists for imperialism -- depends 
on access to the u.$. market. This path to development can 
only be open to a tiny handful of nations. 

President Bush's 
tougher rhetoric towards China has even disturbed capitalist 
governments in Asia and Europe, who do not want to get sucked 
in to a war not of their own choosing. The European 
countries which manufacture some of the arms sold to Taiwan 
refused to deliver them, and Philippine president Gloria 
Macapagal-Arroyo, normally very pro-Amerika and anti-China, 
urged caution. But despite all their bluster, the Bush 
administration and the u.$. military looked level-headed and 
"dove-ish" relative to the Amerikan media. From the first 
day of the spy-plane incident practically demanded more 
Chinese blood be spilled, and consistently ratcheted up the 
rhetoric around the plane's detained crew. And that was 
"serious news" media -- pop culture outlets like SNL and 
talk radio were filled with "jokes" about eating dogs, 
broken English, and genitalia.(2) While the owners of the 
Dallas Mavericks basketball team beefed up security in order 
to make sure the premiere of seven-foot Wang Zhi Zhi, the 
first Chinese player in the NBA, went well, some fans still 
booed, and at least one radio station sent some lackeys to 
the game with anti-Chinese posters. This shows that 
lingering anti-Asian sentiment in the united $tates can 
easily be used to support wars of aggression in Asia.
 
Activists have also correctly pointed out that the current 
climate breeds anti-Asian violence, like the 1982 murder of 
Vincent Chin. Two unemployed white autoworkers beat Chin to 
death with a baseball bat because they thought he was 
Japanese and hence responsible for the u.$. auto industry's 
woes.(2) A recent survey, conducted before the spy-plane 
incident, found that 60% of Amerikans consider the increase 
in the u.$. Asian population "bad for the country." More 
than 60% resent the perceived success of recent Asian 
immigrants. Around a third think would be upset if a 
substantial number of Asians would move into their 
neighborhood.(1) Pro-labor-aristocracy organizers have done 
nothing to combat this anti-Asian climate -- in fact, in the 
most vile, opportunist fashion, they have used and fostered 
it. 

Readers of MIM Notes will recall the "WTO: People first, 
not China first" poster and other prominent anti-Chinese 
slogans from the 1999 Seattle protest. The AFL-CIO also led 
an anti-China rally in the following April around the time 
of the World Bank protests. Lenin pointed out that the labor 
aristocracy in the imperialist countries is a parasitic 
class, appropriating the labor of workers from oppressed 
nations. This forms the material basis for reactionary 
chauvinism. Those who appeal to this chauvinism in order to 
organize for the labor aristocracy's parasitic economic 
demands are accomplices imperialist exploitation and 
militarism.

Notes: 1. AsianWeek, 26 April 2001. 2. Village Voice, 
www.villagevoice.com. 3. 
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/faq/worldbanklandreform.ht
ml