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<h2 class="f2-p _balance-text f3 f2-ns f1-l lh-title ma0"
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<div class="f7 normal black-60 mt1"><time
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<p>Members of the 30-nation NATO alliance concluded their summit
Monday with a communique targeting China, declaring that it
poses “systemic challenges” to the military alliance.</p>
<p>The wording of the document marked a significant new stage in
the efforts of the United States to, in the words of US
President Biden, “organize the world to take on China,” as
part of a massive escalation of tensions by Washington against
Beijing.</p>
<figure class="relative ma0 overflow-hidden dn-p">
<div class="relative overflow-hidden "><img class="db relative
center"
src="https://www.wsws.org/asset/521e5928-d4c9-4664-8a24-54c07b0f71ac?rendition=image1280"></div>
<figcaption class="db avenir f7 f6-m lh-title black-60 tc pt3
ph3">US tanks are unloaded in Antwerp, Belgium to take part
in the Atlantic Resolve military exercises. (AP
Photo/Francisco Seco)</figcaption></figure>
<p>The 79-paragraph NATO communiqué mentions China a dozen
times, in a marked contrast from previous statements. The
current NATO strategy document, first published in 2010, does
not reference China, and the 2019 communique mentions the
country only once.</p>
<p>“The strength of the statement shows how far relations
between the West and Beijing have deteriorated in the 18
months since NATO countries last met,” noted the <em>Financial
Times</em>. “Now, just a year and a half later, China has
risen to become a systemic rival,” commented Germany’s <em>Der
Speigel</em>.</p>
<p>“China’s growing influence and international policies can
present challenges that we need to address together as an
alliance,” the NATO document states. “We will engage China
with a view to defending the security interests of the
alliance.”</p>
<p>The communiqué says that China presents “systemic challenges
to the rules-based international order,” claiming that China
is expanding its military forces and seeking to cooperate with
Russia.</p>
<p>Biden’s efforts to recruit Washington’s allies against China
is the diplomatic aspect of US efforts to strangle China’s
economic development, demonize it in the eyes of the world’s
population and prepare for military conflict.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a
directive declaring China to be the “number one” focus of the
US military. <em>Foreign Policy</em> commented that the
review sought “to infuse the Pentagon, and indeed the entire
U.S. government, with the overarching goal of bracing for
long-term strategic competition with China.”</p>
<p>As <em>Foreign Policy</em> noted: “That’s been a constant
refrain for Biden even before he took office, framing China’s
rise as the United States’ central challenge of the century.
Unless the United States regains its competitive and
technological edge, Biden warned, China is ‘going to eat our
lunch.’”</p>
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article"
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style="width:100vW;left:50%;right:50%;margin-left:-50vW;margin-right:-50vW"><a
class="no-underline pointer"
href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/05/book-o05.html">
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data-track-content="true" data-content-name="Link to
/en/articles/2020/10/05/book-o05.html"
data-content-piece="/en/articles/2021/06/15/nato-j15.html">
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<div>
<figure class="relative ma0 overflow-hidden ">
<div class="relative overflow-hidden "><img
class="db relative center"
src="https://www.wsws.org/asset/8b70e602-14f7-4ba9-aab4-48f70a0a7c6d?rendition=image1280"></div>
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<div class="b avenir dib f4 f3-m lh-title"><span
type="text-line">Foreword to the German edition of
David North’s <em>Quarter Century of War</em></span></div>
<div class="lh-copy f7 f6-m mt2"><span
type="text-line">Johannes Stern, 5 October 2020</span></div>
<div class="lh-copy f7 f6-m mt2">
<div type="text-block">
<p>After three decades of US-led wars, the
outbreak of a third world war, which would be
fought with nuclear weapons, is an imminent and
concrete danger.</p>
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</section>
</a></aside>
<p>Last week, the US Senate passed the so-called “China
competitiveness bill,” a massive $250 billion package of
corporate subsidies and sanctions that the <em>New York Times</em>
termed “the most significant government intervention in
industrial policy in decades.”</p>
<p>The NATO summit followed the weekend’s G7 meeting, which, in
the words of the <em>FT</em>, “criticised China over human
rights, trade and a lack of transparency over the origins of
the coronavirus pandemic.”</p>
<p>After the NATO summit, Biden was set to fly to Geneva to meet
Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ahead of the
summit, Biden declared, “What I’ll convey to President Putin
is that I’m not looking for conflict with Russia.” Biden
described the Russian president as “bright,” “tough” and a
“worthy adversary.”</p>
<p>Ahead of the summit, Biden refused to back Ukraine’s
admission to NATO, declaring, in a non-sequitur, “School’s out
on that question, it remains to be seen. … They have more to
do.”</p>
<p>Despite the US’s insistence on threats against China, the
NATO communiqué remained aggressively tilted against Russia,
mentioning it 60 times.</p>
<p>While the US’s NATO allies agreed to its demands for more
belligerent language against China in its communiqué, there
remain significant differences over Washington’s diplomatic
offensive against China.</p>
<p>“I don’t think anybody around the table today wants to
descend into a new Cold War with China,” UK President Boris
Johnson said.</p>
<p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel added, “one must not
overrate” the threat posed by China, declaring, “we need to
find the right balance.”</p>
<p>And NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg insisted Beijing
was “not an adversary” but said the alliance needed to “engage
with China to defend our security interests.”</p>
<p>As Germany’s <em>Der Spiegel</em> commented: “For some NATO
members, whose economy is closely intertwined with that of
China, however, this is extremely dangerous—especially for
Germany and its export economy. They therefore wanted to
prevent overly martial rhetoric against Beijing.”</p>
<aside data-track-content="true" data-content-name="66% of
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<p>As Reuters pointed out:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Allies are mindful of their economic links with China.
Total German trade with China in 2020 was more than 212
billion euros ($257 billion), according to German government
data. Total Chinese holdings of U.S. Treasuries as of March
2021 stood at $1.1 trillion, according to U.S. data, and
total U.S. trade with China in 2020 was $559 billion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But, for all that, <em>Der Spiegel</em> declared: “In
China—this much has been clear since Biden’s summit debut—the
USA and NATO see the long-term more dangerous opponent.”</p>
<p>Despite their differences and contradictions, the United
States and its NATO allies are barreling headlong into a major
escalation against China with potentially catastrophic
consequences.</p>
<p>Despite a raging pandemic, all of the NATO members are
massively expanding their militaries. Earlier this year, the
UK announced a 40 percent expansion of its nuclear arsenal,
while the Biden administration has requested the largest
Pentagon budget in human history.</p>
<p>The massive military buildup currently underway, combined
with US threats against China, present an immense danger to
all mankind.</p>
<p>With a frankness entirely missing from the US press, Russia’s
Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov spoke with China’s <em>Global
Times</em> about the consequences of a US war with China. </p>
<p>Denisov was asked by the <em>Global Times</em>: “Competition
and confrontation between China and the US are escalating. If
one day an armed conflict between China and the US happens,
what position would Russia take?”</p>
<p>Denisov replied that there “will be no answer to this,”
because “such a conflict would exterminate all mankind, and
then there would be no point in taking sides.”</p>
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