"Our commerce on the ocean and in other countries must be paid for by frequent war."
— Thomas Jefferson, 1785

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a freetrade treaty being negotiated by the uS, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and (more recently) Japan, Canada, and Mexico. It is the "capstone of the u.S.' rebalance to the Asia-Pacific."
uS imperialists hope that TPP will "add billions to the u.S. economy and solidify Washington's political, financial, and military commitment to the Pacific for decades to come." (Bernard Gordon, Foreign Affairs, July-August 2012.)
China was excluded from TPP talks. Its leaders correctly see TPP as a uS effort to limit China's rise. But China has had its own southeast Asian trade alliance since 2002, including Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. So TPP negotiations reflect and intensify the rivalry among leading imperialists to exploit the world's workers, control its resources, and corner markets.
The world is deep in a classic capitalist crisis of overproduction (more goods produced than can be profitably sold). Such crises can only be resolved by massive destruction of productive resources, including workers' lives. That means war – world war. Nobody can say when world war will happen, but it will happen.
Recent talk of a US-dominated "Trans-Pacific Naval Partnership" exposes the close relationship between trade negotiations and preparations for world war.

US imperialists are likely to be disappointed
The countries negotiating with them around the Trans- Pacific Partnership already have close trade relationships with China. In the words of a high-ranking Singaporean official, China "is like a new sun in the solar system, and all the planets [countries] are readjusting their orbits."
China is the largest trading partner of Australia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Singapore's main trading partners are China and Malaysia. China has free-trade agreements with Singapore, New Zealand, Peru, and Chile.
The Singaporean official explained that Singapore and other Pacific countries fear becoming "fixed in the Chinese orbit." They hope that TPP may let them use the US as a "counterweight" so they're not completely dominated by Chinese imperialism. According to analyst Brendan O'Reilly, "escalating rivalry between China and the united States offers both risks and rewards to the leaders in Hanoi." (Asia Times Online, 10/22/2013) Vietnam and other countries might try to turn to the US if China's territorial demands in the South China Sea outweigh the benefits of their trade partnerships.
But US imperialists understand that even TPP might not guarantee its partners' loyalty as its own conflict with China sharpens into eventual world war. Trade agreements can't keep hostile powers from occupying strategically critical sites in wartime.
And TPP is not a done deal. There are sharp disagreements among US imperialists that we'll discuss in another article. Other countries object to intellectual-property provisions designed to give massive advantages to US corporations. "There is a growing possibility that the TPP could collapse," Gordon wrote. "The resulting failure would … undermine [the] goal of ensuring a long-term presence for the united States in the Asia-Pacific region."

When diplomacy fails, military might is key
Secretary of State John Kerry recently asserted a need to keep Asia-Pacific "sea lanes secure for freedom of commerce and navigation." He described uS efforts to get Japan and a dozen other nations to "develop a clear code of conduct… at a time of rising tensions in the South China Sea and other vital waterways." (LA Times, 10/18/2013)
Analyst Zachary Keck described this strategy in an article called "The Case for a Trans-Pacific Naval Partnership." Expanded trade under TPP, he said, would justify building a coalition around "freedom of navigation," leading to regular joint military patrols of regional waterways. This would promote "cooperation in missile defense," "sharing intelligence," joint naval bases, and potentially "greater arms sales or joint production contracts." (The Diplomat, 10/18/2013)
A "freedom of navigation" mission could allow the uS to strengthen its position against China without open confrontation. If the mission included preserving the territorial status-quo, it would allow "even more expansive military activity."
Trade negotiations may not seem like war preparations, but trade doesn't rule out war. The US famously sold Manhattan's dismantled Sixth Avenue El (train) to Japan as scrap metal just three years before Pearl Harbor.
Whether or not TPP succeeds, the urgent task facing the international working class is the same. We must mobilize the masses for communist revolution that will erase all borders and end the material basis of imperialist war and exploitation.

Recent conflicts between the US and Saudi Arabia could mark the beginning of the end of seventy-eight years of cooperation and the end of an era of US domination in the Persian Gulf region.
The official Saudi rejection of its recently-won UN Security Council seat indicates the disarray in US-Saudi relations. The Saudis were protesting against uS policies toward Syria, Egypt, Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The US decided not to go into Syria, while the Saudis wanted al-Assad removed from power there. The US-led renegotiation with Iran over its nuclear plans, and the US withdrawal of military aid to Egypt, are seen by the Saudis as treason by their once-closest ally.
Will the US be able to keep Saudi Arabia as an economic and military strategic partner in the Middle East? Or will China take this as an opportunity to strengthen relationships with Saudi Arabia to gain more control of Saudi oil, which it needs to become a super power?
By controlling this oil-rich area, China would have more leverage over other economies, displacing the US as a major player around the world.
The Saudi chief of intelligence recently described Saudi intentions to move away from US foreign policy and look elsewhere. This has the White House wondering whether this threat could be serious.

US, Saudi Rulers Traded Petrodollars for Security
Since World War II, Saudi Arabia has provided oil sold in dollars, and the uS has provided the Saudi kingdom security from foreign and domestic threats. For many years, the uS has enjoyed huge benefits from this strategic partnership.
In 1973 the US and Saudis agreed that oil could only be sold for uS dollars. Therefore, any country wanting to buy oil would have to buy dollars first. In 1975 all of the OPEC oil-producer nations followed suit, creating the petrodollar era.
In return the US would supply them weapons and provide "military protection." All of this was good business for the uS bosses because a lot of the oil profits got reinvested in the US, strengthening the dollar as the world's reserve currency. But now times are changing sharply. The decline of the US as a super-power is more evident, and Saudi Arabia is starting to question whether it can really count on the uS for protection if needed.
Given the differences between the US and Saudis and the fact that the US is becoming more energy "independent" due to new shale-oil technologies, the Saudis are looking towards China and the rest of Asia as a new market. China's super-power status will require tremendous amounts of oil. Where better to get it than the Middle East? Saudi Arabia sees this as an opportunity to shift direction and possibly break away from the US.

Saudi-Chinese Deals Increase Their Energy Trade
In 2009 Saudi exports to China exceeded those to the US for the first time. The Saudis export three times more oil to five Asian countries than to Europe and North America combined.
The need for oil in China and the rest of Asia will expand greatly. So Saudi Arabia sees China- Asia as their future growth market. That's why China invested $8.5 billion to build a huge oil refinery in the Saudi port city of Yanbu, scheduled to open in 2014. This project is being developed by Sinopec, China's major oil company, and Saudi Arabia's Aramco.
If present trends continue and the US is unable to contain China, the energy relationship between China and Saudi Arabia will bring the privileged role of the petrodollar to an end. The consequences for the uS rulers will be devastating.
To prevent or reverse this, the US imperialists will go to war. China will defend its rising position. All the imperialist butchers are willing to sacrifice millions of working-class soldiers, sailors and marines to defend their blood-soaked profit system.

Imperialist Wars Inevitable – Only the Working Class Can End Them
Whether the US or Chinese bosses control the world, the working class will always lose. Yes, we workers need to go to war, but we need to go to war against the capitalist class.
We don't need a system where a class exploits another class for profit. We need a classless society where everything is based on need, not profit or money. We need a revolution for a communist society.