Introductory Note: This document represents the position of a minority within the IFLT, consisting of HWRS and the Communist Workers Group of New Zealand (CWG). The July 2009 FLTI Congress agreed to continue the debate on China publically, before the global workers’ movement, pending further discussion at a future congress. We are publishing this document as a contribution to that discussion. It was generated as an internal document, and has not been edited for grammar and style.
Update (February 2010): Click here for an overall introduction to the China debate, and links to other related documents.
Click here to return to IFLT Index
For Revolutionary Defeatism of Both the US and
China in the Event of Inter-Imperialist War
Since the July Congress, the minority has done further study of the rise of Chinese imperialism and we submitted our document to the pre-Congress discussion. Our own document manifested without a doubt that China is not just a rising small imperialist country but rather together with Russia the Chinese/Russian bloc is becoming the main competitor to US imperialism around the world. Our own document showed that everywhere in the world China is contesting the US over control for oil, key minerals and in general for plundering the world to satisfy the growing needs of Chinese imperialism. Thus our document manifested that the China/Russian bloc is already emerging as the main threat against the dominance of American imperialism in the inter-imperialist struggle for the re-division of the world.
The balance of forces is changing rapidly in favor of the China/Russian bloc as American imperialism cannot stop its economic decline. These changes in regard to the rise of China are manifested clearly at the eve of Obama’s visit to China. Obama already thanked the Chinese for being the engine that is saving world capitalism from a deeper depression! The New York Times just revealed that when Obama was pushing his Health Care “Reform” he or other top members of his administration had to talk with Chinese bankers get their approval for the funding of the so-called health reform. The Chinese bankers said to the Americans that if the Americans want Chinese money (for the health reform) the Americans must guarantee Chinese bankers that their surplus capital invested in the US will be fully preserved and that the capital will be returned to the Chinese banks without loses (regardless of the state of the dollars) when they need it.[i] Obama is going to China with his head down asking for concessions as a declining imperialist power and not as the boss of the world. The Chinese with rising confidence are saying to Obama that any concessions and good “behavior” from their side depends on American concessions on disputed territories between the imperialist powers. China is saying bluntly that if the Americans want more of the Chinese surplus capital, the US must allow them to get Taiwan and stop annoying China about its rights to keep Tibet. Such is the real relationship between the rising and the declining imperialist powers.[ii]
If there is a military confrontation between the US and the China/Russia bloc it is clear that the US will have Britain on its side as well as a reluctant Japan.[iii] The two other main imperialist powers France and Germany while officially on the US side, in reality they are on the fence; both powers are making deals with the US, but both are also making deals with the China/Russia blocs (see the minority document). Thus in reality France and Germany are on the sideline waiting to see which imperialist bloc will give them more advantage.[iv]
The first period of military conflicts will be conducted via proxy armies. We can even see the civil wars in the Congo and Sudan in the last 10 years preparing the ground for proxy wars between the US and China.[v] The war in Georgia and the build-up in Afghanistan are proxy wars where the US targets Russia and China. We can also see the conditions for proxy wars developing in Iran and Afghanistan. But what is becoming clear without a slightest doubt is if the Chinese Russian bloc comes in direct conflict with the American imperialist bloc, and as a result (the Chinese and Russian army) will fight the American army and its allies, it will not be a war in which the US will “try” to conquer China in order to re-divide it as an American semi-colony. But it will be a repeat of Second-World-War for re-division of the world among the imperialist thugs; with a difference that this time the US will be fighting to stay the dominant power while China will fight to assert itself as the new dominant new imperialist power. Such a war is likely to degenerate into a nuclear war with unthinkable consequences for the survival of the human race.[vi]
In such a war for re-division of the world among the imperialist powers, the only principled position is revolutionary defeatism on both sides. This position is critical for the victory of the proletariat and the survival of the human race. It will be a crime to call for the Chinese proletariat to form a united front with its own bourgeoisie against American imperialism. The Chinese workers’ main enemy in such a war is its own imperialist power. So it must turn the guns against its own imperialist bourgeoisie smash it and overthrow it before the world will decent into barbarism and a nuclear holocaust in which Second-World-War will look like a child play.
It is goes without saying that a similar revolutionary defeatism applies to US imperialist and its allies as well as for Russia. Thus the “defense” of China will imprison the Chinese proletariat in the “defense” of the motherland, and subordinate it to its own imperialist power. Such a “defense” will weaken the workers movement in China and make it incapable to stop this mad war. Thus a call to defend China as a “semi-colony” will be a betrayal of the Chinese proletariat and it will prevent us from turning the inter-imperialist war into a class war in China and around the world.
While an all-out war between the US bloc and the China/Russia bloc is not on the agenda in the near future, an increasing numbers of proxy wars is on the agenda. In these wars like the wars between Russia and Georgia (in which the Georgian side fought on behalf of the US), the majority is likely to defend the side that fights for the Russia/China bloc, while the minority will be for revolutionary defeatism on both sides.
[v] In both countries China has stepped into the role of the main imperialist power. In Sudan China has taken over concessions formerly belonging to Exxon and Totalfina. In the Congo China has become a strategic partner in oil and mining at the expense of Belgium and the US.
[vi] Both blocs are preparing for this war. The US is aggressively encircling Russia and China. NATO is expanding the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is moving to block Russia in the Arctic. China’s re-arming is noted with alarm by the US led bloc.