China: Friend or Foe? Sally Campbell
In her opening speech before a Senate hearing on ongoing threats to US security, Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s “Director of National Intelligence”, listed the dangers that threaten the US. (25 March, 2025) As David Swanson, co-founder, World BEYOND War, recounts: “No climate collapse. No ecological destruction. No nuclear weapons. No disease pandemics. No poverty. No fascistic tendencies. No AI…. No gun industry. Instead, she listed foreign drug cartels, immigration, Islamic terrorism, computer hackers, and – above all – China, which [in her words] ‘threatens to make itself a leading power on the global stage’.” (David Swanson, WBW, 27 March, 2025)
So, apparently China is now the big threat, not Russia, against whom the US continues year three of a proxy war in Ukraine. No, Russia is a “competitor”. Or Iran, against whom the US has been warmongering, and Israel has been war-lobbying, for decades now – provoking with selected assassinations, such as the 2020 US-ordered murder of Iranian Major-General Qasem Soleimani in Iraq, the Israeli murder of 16 people at the Iranian embassy in Syria (1 April,2024), and so on. (It helps to remember that a US & British-led coup removed Iran’s democratically- elected President Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953, installing the Shah as their puppet. Iran has not had democracy since.) According to Gabbard, Iran is “seeking to spread its influence”, but she admits that Iran has no nuclear program, a rare admission coming from the US. (Hmmm, was this assertion made because it was Trump who killed the carefully-negotiated nuclear weapons Treaty with Iran? I wonder.)
It seems as if Gabbard, speaking on behalf of US “Intelligence”, makes no distinction between economic or cultural competition and a war enemy – China is the big threat. We have seen this since the Obama days, when his administration came up with the “Pivot to China” policy, and the US intensified its “patrolling” in the China Sea. Canada, Australia and now The Philippines have joined this mission to “contain” China, with the US building 4 new military bases in Philippines in the last year alone. The American justification appears to be Taiwan. Do Americans really care if the Taiwanese are inside China’s sphere of influence? For decades now, international diplomacy has followed the “One China Policy” and minded their own business re Taiwan and its relationship to China. And now once again we hear a moral outcry from the US and a rallying of the troops. Once again, the US considers itself justified in inserting itself into another country’s internal affairs – this time China & Taiwan.
And once again, 1st Lieutenant Canada has jumped into the fray on the US side, engaging in naval exercises in the China Sea and air surveillance right at China’s edges. Canadian warships (3 per year) travel alongside US warships in “Operation Horizon”. The branches of Canadian military involved are: Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Air Force & Canadian Special Operations Forces. (Canada.ca website) Their aggressive surveillance, training exercises, and patrolling are framed by embedded CTV journalists as: “a multi-nation effort to promote peace and rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific”. This is code for American dominance by American rules, and is correctly labelled by China’s Defense Ministry spokesperson as
“reconnaissance and trouble-stirrings”. (Global Times, 8 January, 2025) Must we in Canada be part of “trouble-stirrings”?
We have seen this same kind of propaganda buildup with alleged “threats” – from Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria – in this century alone. Now that Trump has repeatedly targeted us for annexation and is calling us “nasty negotiators”, (Global News, 21 March, 2025) perhaps it is time to truly ask ourselves: how on earth is our deeply-entwined military alliance with the US keeping us safe? Here’s Prime Minister Mark Carney: “The old relationship we had with the US based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military co-operation is over”. (26 March, 2025, interview on Parliament Hill) Bravo, let’s hope so, and let’s lobby our government to make our military a truly defensive one, not the appendage of the US it is now.
I don’t want to idealize China or suggest that we not keep our eyes wide open when interacting with China as a trading partner, but on the other hand, must we demonize and blacklist them because the US insists that America alone has global hegemony?
Netflix has a new series called “The Silk Road from Above” which offers a fascinating glimpse into the vast expanse and striking beauty of China, its serious investment in modern infrastructure (which puts the US to shame), and its ancient, established civilization as seen through the economic, cultural, religious exchanges enabled by the Silk Road. International trade has been part of Chinese history for thousands of years. Must we Canadians treat trade and cultural exchange as a threat?
World BEYOND War, which now has 46 volunteer-led chapters in 35 countries, and partnerships with 111 affiliates globally, functions on a decentralized, distributed grassroots organizational model. It is circulating a petition to the international community, well worth reading and signing. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/dont-get-yanked-into-war-with-china/.
