Washington's violation of Chinese sovereignty and threats against the Chinese people should be condemned by working people everywhere. The U.S. Navy EP-3E Aries II reconnaissance plane that collided with a Chinese jet off the coast of the Chinese island of Hainan and then landed without authorization was a spy plane, carrying out surveillance that the U.S. government does not tolerate off its shores.

U.S. president George Bush showed imperial arrogance when he said, "We have allowed the Chinese government time to do the right thing. But now it is time for our service men and women to return home. It is time for the Chinese government to return our plane." There have been no voices of opposition in the halls of Congress to this belligerent stance by the administration.

Washington's response is the latest in a long series of U.S. aggressions against the Chinese workers state. These include the efforts of the U.S. rulers to send in troops to crush the rising Chinese Revolution in 1945; the assault on Korea in the early 1950s that had the Chinese workers state as one of its central targets; and the U.S. government's current move to sell billion-dollar Aegis destroyers with antimissile capacity to Taiwan.

The U.S. rulers and their government have no respect for the sovereignty of any semicolonial country. In their drive for profit they see only the potential for cheap labor, cheap resources, and markets for their manufactured products and their high-interest loans. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Chinese people is seen as an unfortunate obstacle to getting access to what they need.

The rulers' arrogance and aggression against working people in China and other countries is an extension of their attitude toward workers and farmers in the United States. These include Washington's bipartisan attacks on airline workers' right to strike, coal miners' black lung benefits, aid to working farmers facing ruin, health and safety on the job, protection of the environment, and women's right to control their bodies.

The purpose of Washington's heavy military presence in Asia, like its growing presence in Latin America, is to back up the U.S. rulers' ability to maintain social relations favorable to extracting huge profits from the exploitation of workers and farmers throughout the region.

The toilers in China, after throwing off Japanese colonial rule, broke out of the capitalist sphere of control in the late 1940s.

The lawful workings of the crisis-wracked capitalist system drives the U.S. rulers on an irreconcilable course to try to dominate Asia and the Pacific, overturn the workers states, and restore private ownership and the superexploitation of workers and farmers.

What stands in their way is working people, both in China and the United States. The fierce determination of working people in China, who defend their sovereignty and the conquests of the Chinese Revolution, are a mighty block to Washington's aims. And U.S. imperialism cannot hope to carry out its war drive without first dealing mighty blows to workers and farmers at home.

The defense of the sovereignty of the Chinese workers state strengthens the capacity of workers in the United States to defend ourselves against the antilabor offensive by the employers and their government. And it advances the working class along a course toward building a powerful revolutionary movement of millions that can take power away from the exploiting classes and prevent them from marching toward another world war.

Stop U.S. violation of Chinese sovereignty!

Stop the U.S. threats against China!

_____________

For a 12-issue subscription to the print edition of The Militant, send US$10 to 14 Charles Lane, New York, NY 10014. Visit the website for information on international rates.

_____________

    home     |     subscribe     |     talk     |     help-about     |     back issues     |     resources