https://themilitant.com/2019/06/01/us-capitalist-rulers-ban-huawei-in-trade-squeeze-on-beijing/
US capitalist rulers ban Huawei in trade squeeze on Beijing
??By Roy Landersen
Vol. 83/No. 23
June 10, 2019
Container ship loaded with goods from China berths at Port of Los
Angeles in 2011. U.S. rulers are using Huawei ban and tariffs on greater
volume of imports from China as leverage against Beijing in trade talks.
Competing rulers seek deal that best defends their capitalist interests.
Zuma Press, Inc/Alamy Photo Stock
Container ship loaded with goods from China berths at Port of Los
Angeles in 2011. U.S. rulers are using Huawei ban and tariffs on greater
volume of imports from China as leverage against Beijing in trade talks.
Competing rulers seek deal that best defends their capitalist interests.
On May 15 Washington escalated its attack on Chinese telecom giant
Huawei, taking steps to cut the company off from suppliers and ban it
from doing business in the U.S.
President Donald Trump that day signed an executive order enabling the
government to bar telecommunications gear and service from ???foreign
adversaries.??? It argued that the company ??? the biggest supplier of such
equipment worldwide ??? is really a creature of the Chinese government and
could be used for surveillance and other mayhem.
The rapidly growing company is the second largest worldwide in
smartphone sales, ahead of Apple and just behind a slipping Samsung.
This was the latest move by Washington to press the Chinese rulers to
agree to a new trade deal more responsive to the U.S. capitalist rulers???
interests. Trump called Huawei ???very dangerous,??? but then turned around
and said, ???It???s possible that Huawei would be included in a trade deal.???
Washington???s move against the company had immediate effects. Carriers in
Japan, Taiwan, Germany and the U.K. stopped taking orders for Huawei
smartphones May 22 and shelved plans to offer the Chinese company???s
hotly anticipated ???5G??? phones.
Server producers Quanta and Wistron, based in Taiwan, are moving
production out of China, to avoid loss of business with U.S.-based
Google and Facebook. Google announced this week it would stop selling
its Android operating system to Huawei.
The U.S. rulers are trying to protect their declining world dominance
against the rising economic and military power of Beijing. For now
Washington is the most powerful, and it???s fighting for a deal that
registers this current relationship of forces.
Earlier in May trade talks between the world???s largest and second
largest capitalist economies broke down after months of seeming
progress. On May 5, the Trump administration raised punitive tariff
rates from 10% to 25% on $200 billion worth of imports from China,
threatening to do the same on a further $300 billion. Beijing retaliated
a few days later with similar duties on $60 billion of imports from the
U.S.
Washington complains that as well as Huawei???s threat to national
security, the company and its Chinese government enabler have cheated,
stolen trade secrets and ???back engineered??? their U.S. competitors???
products to get ahead.
These charges were in a May 25 Wall Street Journal?? article, ???Huawei???s
Yearslong Rise is Littered with Accusations of Theft and Dubious Ethics.???
No doubt at least some of the charges are real, but this is just the
normal workings of dog-eat-dog capitalist morality. U.S. bosses have
used these same methods against their rivals ??? and much worse, including
bloody wars ??? to become the top imperialist exploiter.
As China???s capitalist economy has expanded, workers have fought and won
higher wages. This has led to a shift of export manufacturing from China
to countries where workers??? pay is lower, especially in Southeast Asia,
a trend accelerated by the trade tensions and new tariffs between
Washington and Beijing. Manufacturing for the U.S. market from Vietnam
in particular has increased.
Recently Beijing, the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury debt,
tested selling some of its $1.2 trillion of U.S. government bonds
accumulated from years of trade surpluses. However, a larger selloff to
pressure Washington would be financially destabilizing, not only for the
U.S. economy but also for China.
The White House insists they still hope to reach an acceptable ??? meaning
pro-U.S. bosses ??? agreement with Beijing. The Chinese rulers say they
will only sign an agreement that safeguards their ???national dignity.???
China???s rulers take the long view. An opinion piece in China Daily?? May
24 noted that ???China already knows what it???s like to suffer under the
yoke of a colonial master. No matter what the U.S. or anyone else tries,
it won???t do so again.???
Like all advancing capitalist powers, Beijing???s rise today is based on
large-scale exploitation of labor. No one knows this better than Han
Dongfang, a railroad worker and leader of the workers??? encampment in the
Tiananmen uprising 30 years ago, later imprisoned for his role there.
Today he edits the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin. ???It is ironic
that people are waving the communist flag,??? he told the Financial Times,
???but in fact the party is the biggest believer in capitalism, in the
market and in jungle rule in the world.???
A meeting is planned between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at
the G-20 summit in Japan June 28-29.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles ???Thousands rally, demand women???s right to abortion!
???US hands off Venezuela! US hands off of Cuba!
???Rulers political crisis grows as UK workers say, ???Get out of EU!???
???Over the top! ???Militant??? goes over goals in paper, book, fund drives
???2019 version of Roosevelt New Deal no road forward for working people
???Join fight against new censorship of ???Militant??? in Florida prisons!
Feature Articles ???Socialist Workers Party 2019 election campaign program
???SWP: Oppose US threats on Iran, protest anti-Semitism
Also In This Issue ???Every ???Militant??? issue from 1928 to today is online!
??????Nationalize PG&E, put it under workers control???
???Australia election ???shocker??? reflects working-class anger
???US capitalist rulers ban Huawei in trade squeeze on Beijing
???Washington???s moves against Iran hit workers hardest
???Campaign to expand reach of ???Militant,??? books, fund April 6-May 28
(final chart)
On the Picket Line ???Union City, South Hayward teachers strike for higher pay
Books of the Month ??????Cuba???s revolution taught us we could do the same
thing here???
25, 50 and 75 years ago
?? Copyright 2019 The Militant?? -?? 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor -?? New
York, NY 10018?? -?? themilitant@xxxxxx
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Carl Sagan
??? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. ???
??? Carl Sagan
