The US escalation of tensions with China is well-documented, but the looming passage of most anti-China bill since the Chinese Exclusion Act has received little attention in the US. We reaffirm our commitment from the DSA Political Platform to end nationalistic posturing toward China, turn away from a new Cold War, and seek to promote peaceful resolutions to disputes. Join us to work to oppose the US Innovation and Competition Act and other US escalations against China that would ramp up a new Cold War and hinder global cooperation needed to address critical issues like climate change.
US Military in the Pacific: “China and the American Lake” (History)
Panelist: Mark Tseng-Putterman
May 18, 2022
Mark Tseng-Putterman presents a historical overview of US imperialism, colonialism, and militarism in the Asia-Pacific and outlines its historical objectives in seeking to dominate China.
For more information/ full webinar:
dsaic.org/us-military-pacific
Open Letter to US Congressional Representatives marking our opposition to the US Innovation and Competition Act (USICA)/ COMPETES Act
January 25, 2022
DSA-Open-Letter-to-Congress-USICA-1DSA-Open-Letter-to-Congress-USICA-2
We are joined by 7 allied organizations, 25 DSA chapters, and over 400 individual signatories including many prominent public figures, academics, journalists, activists, organizers, and DSA leadership to strongly condemn US Congress’s use of the proposed US Innovation and Competition Act (USICA)/ COMPETES Act to counter China as part of a new Cold War fueled by US imperialist interests.
Full DSA Letter and Signatories List
No Cold War: Opposing the USICA and US Escalations Against China
DSA IC condemns recent Congressional legislation that fuels a new Cold War with China
August 30, 2021
The International Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA IC) strongly condemns Congress’s use of industrial policy and other elements of the proposed US Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) to counter China as part of a new Cold War fueled by US imperialist interests, a stance that further destabilizes geopolitical relations and jeopardizes efforts toward greater global cooperation on issues affecting everyone worldwide.
The DSA IC believes that US industrial policy should not be, nor does it have to be, built upon continued imperialist ambitions that serve only to drag the world into a new Cold War. We believe that the working class in the US and elsewhere deserves policies that invest in public works programs, climate resilience, infrastructure, healthcare, and more. However, the US Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) is not created for those purposes, its overwhelming focus being instead on antagonizing China. If enacted, it would deeply expand interference in national autonomy in much of the rest of the world, establish an anti-Chinese federal bureaucracy, intensify the militarization of US global policies, and continue the legacy of US industrial policy being utilized as a means to combat socialist movements globally. This legislation will promote confrontation and conflict with China, escalate potential conflict between nuclear powers, and hinder global cooperation to deal with issues like climate change. For these reasons, we strongly condemn the USICA proposal and call for an end to US aggression that severely threatens not only hundreds of millions of people in the Indo-Pacific region, but could lead to worldwide conflict.
DSA IC condemns the Sinophobia and the push for a Cold War with China encouraged by the United States
March 16, 2021
Democratic Socialists of America’s International Committee (DSA IC) condemns in strongest terms the Sinophobia and the push for a Cold War with the People’s Republic of China that have been encouraged by United States political elites.
To talk of preparing for a US-China Cold War is unconscionable when the US is engaging in a trade war against China that is causing economic distress for millions. It is also criminal when the US is selling arms, running joint military exercises, and setting up overseas US military bases in countries surrounding China. These actions put the lives of hundreds of millions of people at risk within the region. Most importantly, the jingoistic rhetoric that informs the coverage of COVID-19 and US-China relations covers up the responsibility that US elites bear for profit-seeking imperialism, an increase in Sinophobic discrimination worldwide—particularly from US and its allies—and hate crimes against Asian Americans, and the lack of social welfare policies that has immiserated millions in the US during the ongoing pandemic and economic depression.
Other Resources
- Potential Legislation on China Amounts to a New Cold War
- Groups Warn US Lawmakers Against Fueling ‘New Cold War’ With China
- Surprise: China COMPETES bill is boon for military spending
- Global Green New Deal or a New Cold War?
- Chuck Schumer wants to pump up Cold War with China — at the planet’s expense
- US civil society stands up against anti-China bill as Senate moves closer to passing it
- Top Ten Problems with The Strategic Competition Act of 2021
- China and the Left: A Report from the People’s Forum
- How The Threat Of China Was Made In The USA
- Monthly Review: New Cold War on China (July-August 2021, Vol. 73, No. 3)
- China and the American Lake
- Policing the borders of anti-Asian violence