Stephen Cho | Coordinator of the Korean International Forum
The Trump administration’s decoupling policy is a policy to keep China in check only economically and has no intention of separating Taiwan. The Biden administration’s de-risking policy, on the other hand, appears to be a lower level of economic restraint than the decoupling policy. However, in reality, it is premised on the idea of pushing for the separation of Taiwan and even a war between the USA and China, even if it is a proxy war. In other words, in the media, the Biden administration appears to be more peace-oriented in its foreign policy toward China than the Trump administration, but this is just cunning propaganda. The Biden administration’s current National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, suddenly announced the New Washington Consensus in April 2023, whose core concept is the de-risking policy. De-risking seems to be a policy that inherits the neoliberal policy of the Washington Consensus and innovates it to suit the current conditions. It seems that it means not to drag the confrontation between the USA and China to war. However, in essence, it is using a peaceful gesture to make a propaganda campaign to make China an aggressor, saying that if the Cross Strait war breaks out, it is not the intention of the USA but China’s belligerence.
If Trump comes to power, he will hand off Ukraine without delay and also withdraw US troops from the “Republic of Korea” (ROK) as promised. Recently, Trump has mentioned the removal of US troops from the “ROK” as a campaign pledge, and his nominee for National Security Advisor has given press interviews elaborating on it. The withdrawal of US troops from the “ROK” is believed to have been an internal promise made by Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un during the Singapore Summit in 2018, the Hanoi Summit in 2019, and their meeting at Panmunjom. Of course, this is not because Trump has a progressive ideology but because he has made a realistic calculation that it is unfavorable for the USA to drag the confrontation with Russia, the DPRK, and China into a war. On the other hand, there is a group representing neocons in the Republican Party who have a different line from Trump. One of its representative figures, Walker, a Republican member of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, made a belligerent statement at the end of May that tactical nuclear weapons should be deployed in the “ROK” and named China and the DPRK as a “new axis of aggressors” in addition to the countries currently fighting wars with Russia and Iran. This inherited Republican President Bush’s designation of the DPRK and Iran as an “axis of evil” along with Iraq just before the Iraq War in 2003.
The current world situation can be summarized in one sentence: “The flames of World War 3, perpetrated by imperialism, are spreading from Eastern Europe to West Asia (Middle East) and then to East Asia.” The war in Ukraine triggered the war in West Asia. The wars in Ukraine and West Asia are triggering the war in East Asia, and then the war in East Asia again fuels the expansion of the war in Eastern Europe and West Asia.
However, with the recent warmongering statements and aggressive anti-Russian policies of NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg, French President Macron, and US President Biden, Ukraine has been provided with new offensive weapons, which could be used to attack the Russian mainland, raising the possibility that an escalation in Eastern Europe could occur before, rather than after, the war in East Asia. If so, this escalation in Eastern Europe will be an objective trigger that could further trigger an already imminent war in East Asia.
In fact, military tensions in East Asia have been rising in proportion to the rising military tensions in Eastern Europe. China staged a military exercise called “Joint Sword-2024A” that surrounded Taiwan to coincide with the separatist Lai Qingde’s inauguration as Taiwan’s president, and declared its intention to resume the exercise in a different version. On the Korean Peninsula, the US recently staged another nuclear war drill against the DPRK, mobilizing its “Death Swan” nuclear strategic bombers, while the September 2018 Pyongyang Joint Declaration signed by the DPRK and the “ROK” was negated by the “ROK’s” provocations against the DPRK.
In particular, the impeachment crisis created by Yoon’s defeat in the April general election and plunging approval ratings also forces the Yoon Suk-yeol fascist group to resort to extreme and belligerent war provocations to deflect the political crisis. The political crisis is also affecting the Kishida government in Japan. In Taiwan, the Lai Qingde government is already in a minority in parliament and has lost the recent local elections as well, and is in a similar state. The US imperialism is using Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines in the “first island chain” as “impenetrable aircraft carriers” to enforce its policy of blockading China and to escalate the “Cross-Strait war crisis” between China and Taiwan and the war crisis in the South China Sea.
In World War 3 between the anti-imperialist and imperialist camps, in other words, a confrontation in the “New Cold War”, the anti-imperialist camp has a clear advantage in terms of capabilities and pretext, which is different from the Cold War in the past. While the “Cold War” began with the end of World War 2, the “New Cold War” began with the outbreak of World War 3.
In the “Cold War,” socialist and national liberation forces were the leading and auxiliary forces, respectively, in the anti-imperialist camp, but in the “New Cold War,” the DPRK, China, and Russia form the leading force, and other world’s anti-imperialist forces, including Muslim forces, are the auxiliary forces, The anti-imperialist forces in the “New Cold War” are waging a just war as a force of justice that aims for anti-fascism, liberation, and reunification.
We are confident of the final victory of the anti-imperialist forces, which are much stronger and have a clearer pretext than during the “Cold War.” It is impossible for the imperialist camp, which is losing even in one battlefield, Ukraine, in Eastern Europe, to win in three battlefields simultaneously, including West Asia and East Asia. Moreover, Russia and the “Axis of Resistance,”, China, and the DPRK are all desperately fighting wars at close range on the mainland with the great cause of anti-fascism, liberation, and reunification, while the imperialist powers have to wage expeditionary and proxy wars and have no vital needs.
As the military power of Russia, China’s economic and diplomatic power also have significant meaning in overcoming the imperialist sanction. The thorough socialist principle of DPRK is also important in proposing the way to move forward after the anti-imperialist camp won World War 3 and the “New Cold War”. First and foremost, the war in the “ROK” will be a decisive chance for the revolution in the “ROK”. As the revolution succeeds in the “ROK”, it will achieve federal reunification with the DPRK. And it will advance the process to a society where the workers and people become the real masters of national sovereignty and means of production.
The World Anti-imperialist Platform, struggling with the banners of ‘Workers of the World, Unite!’ and ‘The People, united, will never be defeated!’, will always be in the front line in struggle to advance the final victory of anti-imperialist camp. We are convinced that the justice and truth of our era, the great cause of anti-imperialism, anti-fascism, sovereignty and peace, liberation and reunification, will be achieved by the power of united people on uprising as the history proves.
