Stand by China!

Nancy Pelosi’s controversial trip to Taiwan may have helped divert attention away from the claims coming from the Republican camp that much of her immense wealth comes from insider trading. But she was clearly speaking for the most reactionary elements of the American ruling class on both sides of the House when she embraced the puppet leaders of Taiwan to tell them that the United States will not "abandon our commitment" to the island that began following the defeat of Chiang Kai-Shek’s reactionary forces in the Chinese civil war and the establishment of the people’s government in 1949.
    US imperialism and its lackeys imposed a diplomatic and economic boycott of People’s China while Taiwan thrived under American protection. General Chiang made the island a stronghold to pose as the legitimate government of China at the United Nations until it was kicked out in 1971.
    US imperialism has long sought to make the Pacific an American lake. This seemed almost attainable following the defeat of Japan in the second world war but the American dream was shattered by the revolutionary upsurge that led to the communist victories in China and Korea.
    The American attempt to over-run the Korean peninsula was halted in 1953 and their puppets were driven out of Indo-China in the early 1970s. The Cold War against China was faltering and realistic circles were coming to the fore in Washington.
    In 1972 the American leader, Richard Nixon, made a ground-breaking visit to Beijing for talks with Chairman Mao that paved the way to normalisation. Formal diplomatic relations were established in 1979 with the United States recognising the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China.
    Kicked out of the United Nations Taiwan’s status reverted to what it always had been in reality – a breakaway Chinese province that was, in reality, a US dependency. People’s China has long sought peaceful re-unification under the principle of “one country – two systems” that applies in Hong Kong and Macau while working with General Chiang’s successors over tourism and commercial flights.
    But in recent years separatist cliques encouraged by US imperialism have come to power on the island raising the banner of an “independent” Taiwan and reviving the old American “two China’s” policy that many had hoped had been buried during the Nixon era.
    Now Nancy Pelosi and the sinister ‘deep state’ forces behind her want to turn the clock back to the dark days of confrontation. It didn’t work in the 1950s when China was still recovering from civil war. It certainly won’t work with modern China – a nuclear power that is also the second largest economy in the world.
    Sadly Liz Truss now talks about China’s “growing malign influence” and Rishi Sunak tells us that Chinese educational centres in Britain – the Confucius Institutes that promote Chinese culture and language – are the “biggest-long term threat to Britain”.
    But China isn’t a threat. It’s an open door for mutually beneficial trade. China is one of our biggest trading partners. Trade has expanded rapidly in recent years. China now accounts for over 10 per cent of UK imports compared with 2 per cent in 1999. Last year the UK imported £63.6 billion of goods from China. This accounted for 13.3 per cent of all goods imports, making China our largest importing partner. There were £18.8 billion of goods exports to China (5.8 per cent of all goods exports), making China our sixth-largest exporting partner.
    Crawling to the Americans comes as second nature to Tory politicians who believe that the interests of the ruling class are best served through the might of US imperialism. But these are not our interests. Britain needs China more than ever. The revival of the British economy can only succeed with a closer economic partnership with China. Confrontation can only lead to disaster.