China and the Nuclear Bomb: The American Empire's Last War

My notes presented to the Operation Dawn anti-war brunch hosted by Scott Ritter and the Eisenhower Media Network centered on the threat of nuclear war

China celebrates its first nuclear weapons test on October 16th, 1964

I want to thank everyone for reading this and putting the question of nuclear war at the top of your list of concerns. In this moment of dying US hegemony, it is an undeniable fact that the numbers of people putting humanity before profit and war are growing with each passing U.S. election cycle.

First, I’d like to note that Scott Ritter’s steadfast opposition to Russophobia aligns with my deep commitment to combatting Sinophobia. This alignment forms a strong basis for cooperation. Russophobia and Sinophobia share Cold War roots. At the core, they reflect the same fundamental problem: a government and social system ruled and led by neocon megalomaniacs who flirt with nuclear annihilation in exchange for an all-access pass through the revolving door between government and war profiteering. The consequences of Russophobia and Sinophobia are also similar despite overall situation being slightly different: the threat of nuclear conflict may be higher right now between Russia and the U.S., but the warmongers in Washington somehow managed to escalate the threat of nuclear conflict with China manyfold over the SAME period they've taken us to the brink with Russia.

How did they do this? Well let's start with recent history. Under the Obama-Clinton regime, Washington found renewed interest in militarizing the Asia Pacific against China via the so-called Pivot to Asia declared in 2011. The idea was for the U.S. to form a noose of naval and military assets around China in preparation for a regime change war that would initially be ignited by economic sanctions and soft power “containment” measures. The Indo-Pacific Command is now by far and away the biggest of the Defense Department’s command structures with hundreds of military bases, 60 percent of the U.S. Navy, 55 percent of the Army, and two-thirds of Marine Corps stationed in the Pacific with the principle aim to contain China. 

The USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan conduct dual carrier operations in the Indo-Pacific on July 6, 2020.

Still, neocons lamented that Obama’s Pivot to Asia was simply not enough to topple Beijing. So they pushed successfully for more arms to Taiwan to fuel separatism within a province recognized by both the United States AND the United Nations as part of China under the One China principle. They pushed successfully for increased economic sanctions on China's tech industry and a trade war on its goods. They also won export bans and a host of other draconian measures meant to decouple the U.S. economy and even its soft power institutions such as higher eduction from China. And they've used their outsized influence over western corporate media to push a narrative that China is the foremost threat and enemy to the United States.

Yet similar to Russia, none of these measures have succeeded in weakening China. China's economy is growing at around 5 percent, nearly double that of the United States. Its innovative industries are booming, with China now leading the world in producing the most cutting edge smartphones, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and other advanced technologies the world currently has to offer. China is now the leading car producer, electric car producer, and high-speed rail producer in the world. Chinese people live a full two years longer than Americans and extreme poverty is a thing of the past as of 2020.

US militarism toward China has thus backfired in a big way. China's economy is more resilient than ever before and in my many trips to China over the last five years, self-sufficiency is a duty that people take VERY seriously. China's military is also more prepared for war than it's ever been. The U.S. would have you believe that China threatens its neighbors and the USA militarily, but the truth is that it is the U.S.’s long history of belligerence toward China now reaching a high point that has led China to increase military expenditures. Remember, China hasn't fought a war in more than 45 years and arguably hasn't fought a war of aggression in the entirety of the People's Republic of China's 75+ year history.

As we've learned with Russia's successful stand against NATO in Ukraine, a desperate empire is a dangerous empire. The warmongers who dictate Washington have increasingly resorted to an approach that can be summarized as follows: if you can't defeat them, nuke them. In August 2024, the Biden administration revised the U.S.'s nuclear strategic plan to include China along with Russia and North Korea as foremost "nuclear challenges" which require a coordinated and simultaneous response. The plan claims China possesses deep nuclear ambitions of doubling its arsenal of nuclear warheads by 2030. This was reiterated by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in October 2024.

What the U.S. foreign policy blob fails to mention is that China's nuclear arsenal, which is less than a sixth of the United States, is entirely for deterrence and defensive purposes. In fact, when China completed its first nuclear test in 1964, the government declared on the same day a no-first use policy. The US, which has used nuclear weapons, has yet to declare such a policy. In fact, in what was one of the late Daniel Ellsberg's last of many contributions to peace, the famed whistleblower exposed US plans to use nuclear weapons on China during the Taiwan Straits crisis of 1958. In a top secret document studying the crisis, General Nathan Twining, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, made clear that the U.S. was planning to target Chinese air bases should China have declared an offensive operation in Taiwan.

Daniel Ellsberg just before his death in 2023

Sound familiar? U.S warmongers from Biden on down the neocon food chain talk about Taiwan in the same way today. Rather than allow China to settle its own internal affairs, Taiwan has become a chip in a New Cold War where "defending Taiwan from invasion" has become a common expression and excuse for the US's hostile approach toward China. Biden said it numerous times in just one term, echoing the same mentality which led US foreign policy makers to threaten a nuclear final solution for China in 1958.

Now I've been to China many times and have a sympathetic view of and admiration for the great sacrifice Chinese people have made for their independence and the achievements that have come with it. At this juncture, I don't believe that the central task is for Americans to think exactly like I do. The central task is to prevent a war with China, and to allow Chinese people to govern their own country on their own terms. If we fail in this task, then what seems like a far off scenario, nuclear war with China, may come a lot sooner than we think. Just look at how fast things have developed in the Middle East and Ukraine in just two years time. 

However, understanding China, its history, and its current system and society is key to this process. Just as Scott Ritter and others have made it a point to develop people to people ties with Russia, the same is needed with China. We must unlearn war propaganda and mend severed ties that bring with them the threat of war. China has made people to people exchanges a national priority following COVID-19. To truly exist in peace within this fast changing world, one where multipolarity and a strong China will undoubtedly be at the head of it, we need to not only combat the misinformation and stand against the warmongers, but also build lasting ties across the bodies of water and land masses that separate us from China and any other country and people under threat from Washington's empire.