Over the past 20 years, the U.S. attitude toward China has evolved from economic cooperation to comprehensive confrontation. Washington wants people to believe that China poses a threat to them.

China's rise indeed threatens American interests, but not in the way that American political elites try to describe.

Since China opened up to Western investment and trade in the 1980s, it has been a major source of labor for Western companies—a low-cost, high-skilled, and highly productive labor force.

But over the past 20 years, China's wage levels have increased significantly. In fact, China's current wage levels are higher than those of any other developing country in Asia. This is a significant historical development.

These changes are positive for China. But these changes have created a serious problem for Western capital. The increase in wages limits the profits of Western companies operating in China, or those dependent on Chinese-made intermediate parts and other key inputs.

Another issue for core countries is that the rise in Chinese wages and prices is reducing their exposure to unequal exchange.

In summary, capitalists in core countries now urgently want to take measures to restore access to cheap labor and resources. One option increasingly promoted by Western business media is to move industrial production to other Asian regions with lower wages. However, the cost is high, considering the loss of output, the need to find new employees, and other supply chain disruptions. Therefore, the U.S. attempts to weaken China and destabilize its economy, including economic warfare and constant threats of military escalation.

The second factor driving U.S. hostility toward China is technology. Over the past decade, Beijing has prioritized technological development in strategic areas through industrial policies and has made significant progress. China now has the world's largest high-speed rail network, independent manufacturers of commercial aircraft, and leads the world in renewable energy technologies and electric vehicles. It also enjoys advanced medical technology, smartphone technology, microchip production, and artificial intelligence. Technology news from China is dazzling. This is unprecedented. We used to think only high-income countries could achieve such accomplishments.

This presents a problem for core countries, as one of the main pillars of their setup is maintaining a monopoly over essential technologies such as medicines, computers, and airplanes. This forces the Global South into dependence, compelling them to export large amounts of cheap resources to obtain these necessary technologies. It is this that sustains the net profit that core countries gain through unequal exchange.

China's technological development is breaking the Western monopoly and may provide alternative suppliers of essential goods to other developing countries at more affordable prices. This poses a fundamental challenge to the core countries' setup and unequal exchange.

To respond to this situation, the U.S. has implemented sanctions aimed at weakening China's technological development. So far, this approach has not worked: if anything, it has enhanced China's motivation to develop autonomous technological capabilities.

The Western claim that China constitutes some sort of military threat is purely a propaganda tactic. China has not imposed its will on other countries around the world. The claim that China poses some sort of military threat is greatly exaggerated.

Actually, the opposite is true. The U.S. has hundreds of military bases and facilities around the world. In recent decades, the U.S. has taken actions such as invasions, bombings, or regime changes in a dozen countries in the Global South. If there is a known threat to world peace and security, it is the United States.

The real reason why the West is eager to incite a war against China is because China is achieving sovereign development, which undermines the imperial setup that Western capital accumulation relies on. The West will not let global economic power slip away so easily. (Translated by Feng Xue)

This article was published on the Al Jazeera website on August 3, titled "The Real Reason Why the West Is Eager to Incite a War Against China." The authors are Jason Hickel, a professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain, and Dylan Sullivan, a visiting professor at the School of Social Sciences at Macquarie University in Australia.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7536472039008371236/

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