The Biden administration, and the U.S. ruling class as a whole, have identified China as the U.S.’s foremost adversary, and the only one capable of mounting “a sustained challenge” to U.S. global supremacy. It has initiated an intense series of military, diplomatic, and economic measures to “out-compete” China in all these arenas, leading all the way up to potential nuclear war. The following is a list of some of these measures over the past several months.
“We can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to dominate the world and to determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible.”
—Bob Avakian, The Bob Avakian Interviews
August 28, 2022—The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) announced that its “money and resources would be increasingly shifted to focus on China.” Jason Crow, a Democratic congressman, explained his support for the shift when he said that groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda “will not destroy the American way of life … the way China can.”
October 22, 2022—The Biden administration released its National Defense Strategy. A senior “Defense” Department official said the document describes China as “the only competitor with both the intent and increasingly the capability to systematically challenge the United States across the board, militarily, economically, technologically, diplomatically.” Another document released at about the same time, the Nuclear Posture Review, claimed China “likely intends to possess at least 1,000 deliverable warheads by the end of the decade,” a development a U.S. general called “breathtaking.”
December 2, 2022—“Defense” Secretary Lloyd Austin unveiled the B-21 Raider, the U.S.’s new nuclear stealth bomber designed to prevail over “quickly growing cyber, space and nuclear capabilities of Beijing (China’s capital) … we’re aligning our budget as never before to the China challenge. In our imperfect world, deterrence does come through strength.” The B-21 is part of an overhaul of the U.S.’s land, sea, and air-based nuclear arsenal that will cost an estimated $1.2 trillion.
January 5—As soon as the Republi-fascists took over leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives, they established a new “Select Committee on China.” Mike Gallagher, a former Marine Corps officer and rabid fascist, was named to head it. Gallagher said his committee will be “looking big picture. What are the immediate things we need to do in order to prevent World War III from breaking out over Taiwan? And then what are the long-term investments we need to make to win this new Cold War with Communist China?”
January 11—The U.S. and Japan announced plans for a new Marine “quick-reaction” force on the island of Okinawa, as part of plans to “deepen military cooperation on Japan’s remote southwest islands near Taiwan.” The new Marine regiment will have “advanced intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, anti-ship, and transportation capabilities.”
China, Taiwan and South China Sea
January 13—A U.S. Navy “carrier strike group” entered the South China Sea for the first time. This “group” is an armada consisting of an aircraft carrier, a guided missile cruiser, and three guided missile destroyers, and armed with weaponry fit for conditions from “space to undersea, across every axis, and every domain.” China considers much of the South China Sea as part of its sovereign territory, and Chinese warships immediately began patrolling near the U.S. group.
January 23—Republi-fascist congressional leader Kevin McCarthy announced he plans a trip to Taiwan, similar to the deliberately provocative trip his predecessor Nancy Pelosi made last summer. As Revolution wrote of Pelosi’s trip, it was “a major—and dangerous—provocation by U.S. imperialism against its nuclear armed rival China.” If McCarthy follows through with his trip in an even more enflamed atmosphere, it will further heighten the possibility and danger of direct encounters between Chinese and U.S. military forces.
January 26—The U.S. officially opened “Camp Blaz”—the first new Marine base in 70 years, on the Pacific island of Guam. A press release from the Marines said that “Camp Blaz will serve as a strategic hub as the Department of Defense realizes the vision of the 2022 National Defense Strategy,” whose top priorities are “defending the homeland, paced to the growing multi-domain threat posed by the PRC (People’s Republic of China)” and “deterring strategic attacks against the United States, allies, and partners.”
January 31—Japan announced that it is doubling its military budget and asked the U.S. for $50 billion worth of cruise missiles with range to hit targets in China and North Korea.
January 31—The U.S. acknowledged that its allies Japan and the Netherlands are restricting their exports of tools to make silicon chips for advanced military use to China, after leaders from those countries met in Washington with Biden and Jake Sullivan, his National Security Advisor. Both of these countries manufacture a huge amount of these essential chips worldwide. This move is meant to “hobble (China’s) ability to supercharge its chip industry and enhance its military capabilities.” Last year the U.S. placed its own bans and restrictions on China’s ability to buy these chips, a move that amounts to a form of economic warfare “unprecedented in modern times.”
February 2—NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg met with Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister, where he stressed the importance of developing a military and political “partnership” against China and North Korea. Stoltenberg said China is “bullying its neighbors and threatening Taiwan.” In November, NATO military officials observed Operation “Keen Sword,” an exercise by Japanese and U.S. naval forces, and reports from Japan said Kishida is “hurrying to deepen cooperation with NATO due to its growing sense of crisis over a possible Taiwan (conflict).”
The B-21 Raider is part of an overhaul of the U.S.’s land, sea, and air-based nuclear arsenal. Photo: Wikipedia
February 2—In what he called “a big deal,” Lloyd Austin announced an arrangement with the Philippines that will allow U.S. access to four more military camps in that country. BBC News said the arrangement gives the U.S. access to “a key bit of real estate which would offer a front seat to monitor the Chinese in the South China Sea and around Taiwan. … With the deal, Washington has stitched the gap in the arc of US alliances stretching from South Korea and Japan in the north to Australia in the south.”
February 2—A memo written by U.S. Air Force General Michael Minihan, commander of the Air Force Mobility Command, became public. The memo reads, “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight (China) in 2025. … Go faster. Drive readiness, integration, and agility for ourselves and the Joint Force to deter, and if required, defeat China. This is the first of 8 monthly directives from me. You need to know I alone own the pen on these orders. My expectations are high, and these orders are not up for negotiation. Follow them. I will be tough, fair, and loving in my approach to secure victory.”
February 3—CIA director William Burns said that China’s president Xi Jinping has told his country’s military "to be ready by 2027 to conduct a successful invasion" of Taiwan.
