Advocacy groups unite for peace
LARGE NUMBERS OF AMERICANS are joining the call for the United States administration to stop its increasingly hostile attacks on China.
More than forty advocacy groups wrote a joint letter to President Joe Biden and members of the US Congress on Thursday last week, demanding a halt to the war-focused aggression against the developing East Asian nation.
SCIENTISTS, FEMINISTS AND CHURCHES
The groups include scientists, feminists, global justice campaigners, churches, environmentalists, lawyers, and others, from major activist organizations such as Friends of the Earth to research groups such as the Institute for Policy Studies.
The signatories say they “are deeply troubled by the growing Cold War mentality driving the United States' approach to China—an antagonistic posture that risks undermining much-needed climate cooperation.”
The letter is second in a series in which advocacy groups denounce the campaign against China, led by the United States and supported particularly by the right-wing leaderships of the UK and Australia, backed by Western and Australian media.
The writers of this letter and an earlier one represent literally millions of voices -- and say their message is crucial. The major challenges facing the world today, from the pandemic to the climate crisis, call for increased global co-operation, not polarization and the cultivation of hate, they argue.
FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE, NOT PEOPLE
Two issues in particular have US advocacy groups worried. One consists of the steps being taken to prepare Western allies to start a war against China, and the other is the corresponding lack of attention towards fixing potentially devastating challenges such as the climate crisis.
This letter follows an earlier one, sent by a coalition of more than 65 groups (below), condemning Republicans and Democrats equally for their attempts to paint China as the enemy.
“Worryingly, both political parties [in the US] are increasingly latching onto a dangerously short-sighted worldview that presents China as the pivotal existential threat to U.S. prosperity and security,” said the letter, sent to the US administration in May from Win Without War and other advocacy groups.
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DESTABILIZATION ON CHINA'S EDGES
A number of commentators have said that America’s extremely well-organized and financed destabilization operations around the edges of China, particularly in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang, and now Afghanistan, is preparation for war on China.
"Hong Kong is a political football" being used "cynically" by the United States, said Oscar-winning movie director Malcolm Clarke at a forum organized by this magazine in May. The process is facilitated by excessively negative reporting on the Chinese and Hong Kong governments from the Western media with the aim of “manufacturing consent” for war against the developing country.
Some say that the real purpose of the drive towards war is the need to steer more money into the military.
Staff at the Institute for Policy Studies said their research showed that the U.S. already currently spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined, with the gap is set to widen with recent increases.
WAR PLAN MAY BE SERIOUS
Is it just a ruse to win more cash for the military? It's true that Biden has called for an astonishing US$753 billion military budget for fiscal year 2022.
But the plan for war may be entirely serious, others point out. The U.S. Air Force indicated that it plans to buy fewer small-diameter bombs in favor of spending heavily on "state-of-the-art, long-range weapons that are better-suited for operations in the Pacific,” according to Military.com.
These are clearly for use against China, military specialists say.
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The May letter to the US administration said that “the level of demonization and outdated Cold War thinking” threatens to fuel an arms race “and risks escalation towards a predictably devastating conflict.” The writers added that “it also undermines the human rights agenda.”
Noteworthy is the depth and breadth of the campaign to call for a halt to the US-led hostility to China. Signatories of one or both letters include: The Union of Concerned Scientists, Democracy For America, Physicians for Social Responsibility, The Committee for a SANE U.S.-China Policy, U.S. Campaign for Burma, Veterans For Peace, the Western States Legal Foundation and scores of other groups.
CLIMATE SHOULD BE GLOBAL FOCUS
The other main across-the-board issue for the campaigners is the climate. War against China is being used to deliberately distract the world's attention from much more urgent issues, the group says.
Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth U.S. called for an attitude change: “Rather than the current nationalistic, xenophobic castigation of China by the United States, the climate crisis calls for mutual recognition of humanity, cooperation, and solidarity across the globe."
The Western media’s labelling of China as the world’s biggest polluter is deceptive, several participating groups pointed out.
“The United States, which is significantly wealthier than China, is the biggest carbon polluter in history—responsible for a staggering one quarter of all emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution,” the recent plea to President Biden says. “China's historical emissions are half those of the United States—and emissions per capita in China are less than half the levels of the United States.”
The writers call for action against climate change to be conducted jointly – and fairly.
“The steps each country takes to address this global crisis should be commensurate with historical responsibility and wealth. In other words, the U.S. can and must do much more than China if the world is to equitably stay on course to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
Voices for fairness: Left to right: Karen Orenstein, Basav Sen, Tobita Chow, pictures from their respective organizations
Basav Sen, director of the Climate Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, said: “An aggressive U.S. posture towards China deflects attention from the large degree to which the U.S. is responsible for global crises today, key among them the climate crisis.”
U.S. politicians have long scapegoated China as an excuse to avoid global climate commitments, the letter continues. From the U.S. refusal to join the Kyoto Protocol to the country's efforts to water down the Paris agreement, American demonization of China has always been a major barrier to progress in global climate talks.
FEEDING DEFENSE BUDGETS
Tobita Chow, director of Justice is Global, noted that "escalating U.S.-China tensions will feed defense budgets and dangerous nationalist politics, at the expense of urgently needed climate investments."
Brandon Wu, director of policy and campaigns at ActionAid USA, agreed. "Escalating U.S. aggression against China, in both rhetoric and policy, will do nothing to lead us towards climate justice for all people in all countries."
Chow referenced President Biden’s recent comments that America must “win the 21st century”.
"Leaders in both parties in the U.S. have prioritized competition with China over who will 'win the 21st century,'" Chow said. "But if we fail to work together to address the climate crisis, future generations will have nothing left to 'win.'"
