China’s economic slowdown: The political issues confronting the working class
15 December 2018
Figures released yesterday, showing a marked slowdown in the Chinese economy, highlight the enormous dangers confronting the working class in the US, China and internationally arising from the reckless and dangerous economic war being waged by the Trump administration against Beijing.
According to data from the Chinese government, retail sales grew in November at their slowest pace in 15 years while industrial production rose by the lowest level in almost three years. The Chinese auto market, a key component of retail spending, is on track for its first annual sales decline since the 1990s.
Significantly, the effects of the trade war measures of the Trump administration are only now starting to show up in economic data, meaning that growth rates are set to fall further in the coming months, after this year hitting their lowest level since the global financial crisis of 2008–2009.
The China slowdown is part of a global process. Growth in Europe, after rising in 2017, has fallen to its lowest point in four years and Japan has experienced a contraction in the third quarter. These figures expose the fraudulent claim that the global economy had finally “turned the corner” after the deep recession produced by the financial crisis a decade ago.
The response of Trump to the news of the Chinese slowdown underscored that once again the world economy is fracturing in a manner that recalls the disastrous decade of the 1930s that deepened the Great Depression and created the conditions for World War II.
“China has just announced that their economy is growing much slower than anticipated because of our Trade War with them,” he wrote on Twitter. “US is doing very well. China wants to make a big and very comprehensive deal. It could happen, and rather soon!”
From the standpoint of the “America First” perspective of the Trump Administration, the world economy is a kind of zero sum game in which losses incurred by its rivals represent an American gain. But this reactionary viewpoint is contradicted by economic facts. The world economy is not the sum of a series of separate national parts, in which one part gains at the expense of the other, but an ever-more closely integrated whole in which the labour and the economic fate of billions of working people are inextricably bound together.
The reactionary nostrums of economic nationalism produced a disaster in the 1930s. Now they are creating the conditions for an even bigger crisis because the level of economic integration has increased exponentially from what existed more than eight decades ago.
The notion advanced by Trump during his election campaign, and subsequently that the American economy could somehow be decoupled from the world economy and that American workers could benefit by “making America great again” at the expense of its rivals, is being shattered by events. The announcement of mass layoffs in the auto industry and the threat of more to come is but one indication of this economic fact. Another is the turmoil in financial markets produced by the global slowdown and the trade war—the Dow was down by 500 points yesterday on the economic news from China—which threatens to set off an even bigger crisis than that of 2008.
Workers in the United States and in Europe, which has been shaken by the upsurge of class struggle reflected in the “yellow vests” movement, and in all the major capitalist countries are being brought face to face with the fact that they confront a common global enemy—the capitalist system.
Likewise, the deepening economic crisis raises fundamental questions of political perspective for the Chinese working class.
More than 40 years ago, the Chinese Maoist-Stalinist leadership, confronted with the economic dead-end produced by its nationalist dogma of “socialism in one country,” undertook a turn to the capitalist market as the basis for the economic organisation of society.
The prospect was held out that the restoration of capitalism—carried through with a bloody repression of the working class as took place in 1989—would allow China to enjoy a “peaceful rise” and escape the grip of imperialist domination.
But the undoubted economic growth over the past 30 years and the transformation of China into the world’s leading manufacturing centre, has not overcome the great historical problems that have confronted the Chinese masses. On the contrary they have raised these problems to new and even more explosive forms.
The dependence of the fate of the Chinese workers on the world economy and their connection to workers internationally was underscored by the global financial crisis of a decade ago when the Chinese economy plunged and more than 23 million workers lost their jobs virtually overnight.
The regime responded with a vast government investment program and one of the largest expansions of credit in world economic history in order to sustain economic growth and maintain its rule.
But this program, which led to massive housing construction and infrastructure development, has seen debt rise as a proportion of gross domestic product from 143 percent to more than 260 percent today.
Faced with the fact that a continuation of this program would lead inexorably to a financial disaster and the eruption of massive social struggles, the Chinese regime, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, has sought to provide a new foundation for the economy through the advance of the country’s industrial and technological development—the basis of its “Made in China 2025” program.
This program, however, has run headlong into a conflict with US imperialism which is determined to prevent the economic rise of China and its development of key areas of advanced technology, regarding it as an existential threat to its economic and military predominance.
Washington is determined to counter that prospect by all means necessary, including crashing the Chinese economy, as indicated by Trump’s latest celebratory tweet, and if necessary by military means, reflected in the ongoing and deepening preparations by the US military and intelligence establishment for war. The only policy it will accept is one which turns China into an economic semi-colony of the US.
But the opposition to this imperialist program cannot be based on another nationalist turn or support for the economic, political and military manoeuvres of the regime of billionaire capitalist oligarchs headed by Xi Jinping. A new, independent, political perspective must be advanced grounded on the logic of the class struggle.
There are growing signs of an upsurge of the Chinese working class and these struggles are certain to take more overt forms in the coming period as Chinese workers, like their counterparts in the US and internationally, confront mass layoffs and deepening attacks on social conditions.
Just as the program of economic nationalism is a reactionary dead-end for workers in the US and the other major capitalist countries, it is no less so for the multi-millioned Chinese working class.
Recognition of this economic and political fact of life, which receives daily verification in the events now unfolding, must become the starting point for the advancement of a new political perspective, based on the recognition that there is no way forward within the capitalist profit and nation-state system.
The only viable program for the working class in the US, China, and internationally is socialist internationalism—the common struggle by the world working class to end the outmoded capitalist profit and nation-state system, the source of war and economic devastation, and the building of the International Committee of the Fourth International, the world party of socialist revolution, to lead it.
Nick Beams
A NATION DIES OF OPIOID
ADDICTION
AMERICAN BIG PHARMA,
RED CHINA and NARCOMEX PARTNER FOR THE BIG BUCKS
“The drug epidemic is the product of capitalism and the
policies of the capitalist parties, both Democrats and
Republicans. There is, first of all, the role of the pharmaceutical
companies, which have amassed huge profits from the
deceptive marketing of opioid pain killers, which they claimed were
not addictive. Prescriptions for opioids such as Percocet, Oxycontin
and Vicodin skyrocketed from 76 million in 1991 to nearly 259 million in
2012. What are the numbers and profits now?
STARING IN THE FACE of
AMERICA’S UNRAVELING and the ROAD TO REVOLUTION
“It will more likely come on the heels of
economic dislocation and dwindling wealth to redistribute.”
“Our
entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become
a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes. This
is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” -- Karen McQuillan THEAMERICAN
THINKER.com
"The
kind of people needed for violent change these days are living in
off-the-grid rural compounds, or the “gangster paradise” where
the businesses of drugs, guns, and prostitution are much more
lucrative than “transforming” America along Cuban lines." BRUCE
THORNTON
*
There can be no resolution to any social problem confronting the
population in the United States and internationally outside of a frontal
assault on the wealth of the financial elite.
*
The political system is controlled by this
social layer, which uses a portion of its economic plunder to bribe politicians
and government officials, whether Democratic or Republican.
*
OPIOID AMERICA:
CHINA AND MEXICO PARTNER TO ADDICT AMERICA
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-opioid-war-on-america-chin
PRINCETON REPORT:
American middle-class is addicted,
poor, jobless and suicidal…. Thank the corrupt government for surrendering our
borders to 40 million looting Mexicans and then handing the bills to middle
America?
OPIOID MURDERS BY BIG
PHARMA
“While drug distributors have paid a total of $400 million in fines over the past 10 years, their combined revenue during this same period was over $5 trillion.”
“Opioids
have ravaged families and devastated communities across the country.
Encouraging their open use undermines the rule of law and will do nothing to
quell their continued abuse, let alone the problems underlying mass addiction.”
HILLARY
& BILLARY AND RED CHINA!
“Facilitating strategic
technology transfer in return for money is an old Clinton game. The
Chinese bought their way to access of considerable space technology when Bill
Clinton was president. Remember Charlie Trie, Loral, and the rest of the
crew?”
THE
SHADY POLITICS OF HILLARY CLINTON and her PAY-TO-PLAY MAFIA
The left cared nothing about that bit of
collusion.
Hillary and her campaign aides have long been involved
with Russia for reasons of personal gain. Clinton herself got $145
million in donations to the Clinton Foundation for
allowing Russia to take over twenty percent of all uranium
production in the U.S. Her campaign chairman, John Podesta,
is reaping the financial benefits of being on the board of a Russian company,
Joule, which he did
not disclose. PATRICIA McCARTHY
Had Hillary been elected, the Clinton
Foundation would be raking in even more millions than it did before. She
would be happily selling access, favors and our remaining freedoms out from
under us. PATRICIA McCARTHY
Chinese Media: Canadians Detained in Retaliation for Meng Wanzhou’s Arrest
6:32
The Chinese government has said little about its reasons for arresting Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor this week, but on Thursday, the state-run Global Times published an editorial explicitly framing the arrests as revenge for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
The Times promised more “harsh measures” will be forthcoming if Meng Wanzhou is not released.
The Global Times piece began by reciting the Chinese government’s vague assertions that Kovrig and Spavor were arrested for participating in some sort of espionage activity, presumably related to North Korea, which Kovrig was researching at the time of his disappearance and Spavor has long cultivated as a business environment. The fact that Kovrig’s organization, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, is “not registered in the Chinese mainland” was stressed.
After quoting Chinese Foreign Ministry assurances that “China acted according to laws and regulations” by seizing the two men without filing formal charges and holding them incommunicado in undisclosed locations, the Global Times told the Canadian government to drop all charges against Meng Wanzhou:
The detentions are signs that relations between China and Canada may dramatically deteriorate if Ottawa continues to serve as a US pawn by detaining a Chinese citizen, Chinese analysts said on Thursday.China has clearly stated several times its position on Meng’s case, and warned that Canada will face “grave consequences” if the country does not immediately release Meng.To make that happen, China may adopt restrictions on imports of Canadian products and take others measures, Chinese analysts said.
The Global Times was able to round up plenty of analysts who declared China’s actions fair play because Canada is obviously working as a toady of the United States to persecute Meng for purely political reasons:
“The detention of Meng, who was in transit, under US rules and waiting for the US’ request to decide whether to release Meng, made Canada the 51st state of the US, and the whole incident is a burning shame for a sovereign state like Canada,” Yang Xiyu, a senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Thursday.“Canada has shot itself in its own foot by doing such a stupid and disgraceful thing,” Yang remarked.Chinese analysts warned that Canada may become just a pawn in a much broader political game by continuing to obey the US. Instead, it should pursue independent diplomacy with China.Song Fuxin, a lawyer at Guangdong Guangxin Junda Law Firm who has participated in several extradition cases, told the Global Times on Thursday that the US’ accusations that Meng committed fraud in connection with US sanctions against Iran had a political purpose, which according to international convention cannot be a reason for extradition.
Meng was arrested in Vancouver on well-documented charges that she perpetrated bank fraud while violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Unlike the way China is treating its Canadian hostages, every step of Meng’s arrest and possible extradition to the United States has been conducted in the open. While the two Canadians languish in obscure prisons and the world knows nothing of their condition, Meng was granted bail a few days after release and is currently staying at one of her houses.
And yet, for the Global Times, the story is all about China’s grievances with the unexpectedly hostile Canadian government that dared to arrest a member of Communist royalty. In addition to arresting Canadian citizens, the Chinese paper said consumer boycotts, import and export restrictions, bans on tourism, taxes against Canadian companies, and ominous but unspecified “national security” laws are part of “full deck of cards” Beijing can play against Ottawa.
One area in which the Global Times is unquestionably correct is that some Canadians would rather not be involved in the Meng mess. Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia wrote at the Globe and Mail on Friday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who knew about the U.S. extradition request, should have quietly warned Meng to stay out of North America in a display of “creative incompetence.”
Byers compared Meng’s politically charged arrest with the Spanish effort to extradite Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet from London two decades ago, waving aside Meng’s offenses as relatively trivial and anticipating she will humiliate Canada by skipping bail:
Moreover, Pinochet was accused of torture; Ms. Meng is accused of bank fraud. The Spanish judge seeking Pinochet’s extradition was upholding the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The U.S. judge seeking Ms. Meng’s extradition is enforcing U.S. sanctions against Iran, sanctions the United Nations has recommended be withdrawn.The request for Ms. Meng’s extradition was never the issue over which the future of China-Canada relations should have been decided. Mr. Trudeau seeks to justify his inaction as respecting the rule of law, but he had an opening – and missed it.Now that the courts are involved, the moment for political decision-making has past. Years of appeals and worsening China-Canada relations could lie ahead.Yet with Ms. Meng free on bail, she may well skip the country. The idea that some security guards and a GPS anklet could prevent this from happening is naive at worst and hopeful at best. The Chinese government has hundreds of officials and agents in Vancouver, and dozens of airplanes and cargo ships depart for China each day.Losing Ms. Meng might be the least-worst outcome. Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor.
As a point of order, the sanctions Meng is accused of violating are not the sanctions unilaterally imposed by the Trump administration after it withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. The U.S. government began probing Huawei in early 2016 for sanctions-violating activities and bank fraud allegedly perpetrated under the Obama administration.
Meng is nominally a private businesswoman, the chief financial officer of the Huawei electronics conglomerate, not the Chinese head of state or even a top official of the Chinese government. China’s response to her arrest is teaching an important lesson to the world about the fiction of “independent Chinese entrepreneurs” and the danger that every business under China’s model of “capitalism” is actually an arm of the Chinese state.
If China’s pressure campaign against Canada works and Meng walks away scot-free, the world may rest assured that violating sanctions against noxious regimes like Iran is not the only offense Chinese Communist royalty will feel free to perpetrate. China’s plans for the coming century assume a great many leaders around the world will repeatedly conclude “discretion is the better part of valor” when it comes to opposing Beijing.
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