FIGHT FOR A GENUINE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY & NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AGAINST IMPERIALIST AGGRESSION AND INTER-IMPERIALIST CONFLICTS IN TAIWAN, THE PHILIPPINES, & ELSEWHERE--LFS

League of Filipino Students Press Statement April 17, 2023 The League of Filipino Students stands in solidarity with the Taiwanese people in resisting US intervention and Chinese militarism, and in fighting for a peaceful resolution to their conflict with China. An inter-imperialist war, which will only serve the interests of both the US and China and cause immense suffering to the people of Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific, must be avoided at all costs. Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian’s statement about “Taiwan Independence,” Filipino OFWs, and US military presence in the Philippines is flawed. While it is true that the rising tensions in the Asia-Pacifc are in large part due to US military provocations, the Filipino people are not laboring under a dilemma between the US and China. The choice is clear from the start: we stand for national sovereignty and a genuine independent foreign policy. China’s military expansion in the Asia-Pacific region, which violates the national sovereignty of much smaller nations such as the Philippines, must be denounced and resisted. At the same time, China’s aggressive push to protect and expand its sphere of influence must be situated in the context of incessant provocation by the global imperialist superpower, the United States. A stronger pushback against this chief provocateur is necessary, while recognizing that both the US and China are self-interested imperialists with aims contrary to the people’s welfare. The United States has a long history of provocation and military intervention in the Asia-Pacific, and particularly in Taiwan. Known for masterminding proxy wars for its interests, the US used Taiwan to launch anti-communism against the former socialist China. The US bolstered the Taiwan-based Kuomintang and its former leader Chiang Kai Shiek after their defeat to Chinese revolutionaries in the 1945-1949 civil war in order to win their political and military support. Since then, the United States has molded Taiwan to be its counter-propaganda figure to stem the growth of socialism in the region before China fell to modern revisionism. The US used the US-Taiwan Defense Command and other US-Taiwan military agreements to fund and control the Taiwanese military and direct the country’s politics for its McCarthyist “red-scare” tactics. Military tension rose to higher levels when China, guided by modern revisionists, began to expand its military presence in the region to contest American hegemony. Now more than ever, the heightening conflict in the region loudly urges the people caught in between the inter-imperialist conflict to call for the demilitarization of the Asia-Pacific region. We must oppose the US push to use Taiwan as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in its encirclement of China. Similarly, we must condemn the use of Taiwan, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, and other countries as a military foothold for its provocation and warmongering. Ultimately, the only way to ensure the safety of 150,000 OFWs in Taiwan is by preventing the island from becoming a theater of inter-imperialist war. The arms race and muscle-flexing in the Asia-Pacific only serves the interests of the US and China, not the peoples of Asia. US imperialism must be exposed as the chief provocateur that is bringing the Asia-Pacific closer to the brink of war, while we simultaneously resist Chinese aggression and militarization. DEMILITARIZE THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION! NO TO IMPERIALIST WARS OF AGGRESSION! STRUGGLE FOR A PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF THE TAIWAN-CHINA CONFLICT! STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH TAIWANESE PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE FOR SELF-DETERMINATION! ATIN ANG PINAS, US-CHINA LAYAS!

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