For years, and it did not start with Trump's presidency, Asia has been identified by the US as the major theater for its foreign and military policy.
China, whose economic, technological, military and diplomatic rise in power undoubtedly makes it the second world power, is therefore designated by the United States as its major adversary and the entire US strategy consists in containing, as much as possible, this development.
Asia is the most populous continent with two giants, India and China. It is also an area where capitalism is developing steadily and where the world's largest monopolies clash. In other words, in a rapidly evolving imperialist system, the Asian powers, and China in particular, play a leading role.
It is from this perspective that we must examine the strategy that will be expressed in the 14th Chinese five-year plan recently discussed during a session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party; we will discuss this in detail as soon as we have precise knowledge of it as well as of US initiatives both in Central Asia and more recently in India.
Central Asia once linked to the fate of the USSR is now the object of much attention from Russia, China and the United States. The first two are certainly a step ahead owing to history and the attention they pay to the region from an economic and strategic point of view; but the role of the USA should not be underestimated. This is a large area whose control would thwart the Chinese prospects of the Silk Roads and therefore of its influence in the region and beyond to the West.
Thus, on February 2, Mike Pompeo, head of US diplomacy, paid a noticeable visit to the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. More recently, the visit of General Kenneth Mackenzie (head of the American military command for Central Asia and the Middle East), to Tashkent and Dushanbe, is part of the American plan to further involve central Asian countries in the Afghan issue and hence in the political bloc "Delhi-Kabul-Tashkent". The political aim of the American military presence in Afghanistan is to ensure the formation of a political bloc capable of influencing the region of Central Asia and the region of the Caspian Sea, as well as Xinjiang in China. This imperialist bloc aims to prevent the implementation of Chinese "Silk Road" projects.
In October, the visit of Mike Pompeo (Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) and Mark Esper (Secretary of State for Defense) to India did not go unnoticed and is part of the same strategy.
The agenda was crystal clear: union against China's "aggression" in the region and Mark Esper concluded with: "We are united in supporting a free and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, especially in light of China's growing aggression and destabilizing activities."
So, while waging a bitter trade war against China, the US is working to assemble an imperialist military alliance in Asia, including Australia and Japan, to face the one shaping around China.
These clashes within imperialism can only increase in crescendo as the interests of multinationals are enormous and require domination for the control of resources and labor power, under conditions allowing the highest rates of profit. In their view, war is a means like any other in given circumstances, to achieve their objectives.
Capitalism therefore always carries war as a by-product of its law of development which is profit and the accumulation of capital by all means. To face these threats, there are no two possible ways, one which would consist in letting things go and the other in adapting capital to make it more human. It is not; by nature. There is only one way: that of class struggle on a national and international scale to sweep away this predatory system and replace it with a society free from the exploitation of Man by Man. This is our party’s struggle.