In mid-May, US President Obama had just returned from his military-diplomatic trip to Asia. A summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was starting.  The Chinese state-owned oil company CNOOC chose this moment to park a huge oil rig in Vietnamese coastal waters (also claimed by China) surrounded by a large armed flotilla.

Vietnamese and Chinese ships rammed each other and fired water cannons while the US did nothing and ASEAN expressed vague concern. 

ASEAN was founded in 1967 (with US encouragement) by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.  It includes Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.  But today, most ASEAN countries have strong economic ties with China.  Caught between US and Chinese imperialism, many are choosing China. 

The Vietnamese government mobilized huge nationalist anti-Chinese protests.  Suddenly the ruling "communist" party – supposedly allied with  the  Chinese  "communist" party – started publicizing the 1979 China-Vietnam border war which had largely been covered up.  Instead of squashing rallies as usual, it sent cameras to cover them.

But the mass movement spun out of the Vietnamese rulers' control.   Workers and youth swept through foreign-owned factories, some attacking Chinese workers and some burning down entire plants.  A thousand were arrested.

Vietnamese "communist" officials were horrified, but not by the anti-Chinese racism.    "We must take concrete action, otherwise investors will hesitate to come here," one said. Now police and military are deployed to prevent further demonstrations.

This is the bitter fruit of the nationalist politics that misled the heroic struggle of the Vietnamese masses against French and then US imperialism in the 1950s-1960s.  

Racism and Nationalism – Or Class-Consciousness?

Workers and youth who are won to Vietnamese nationalism and its flip side, anti-Chinese racism, are digging their own graves.

Western media claim that Vietnamese workers burned down South Korean, Hong Kongese and Taiwanese factories "by mistake" because they couldn't tell the difference between these countries and China.  This is an insulting lie.

A Taiwanese researcher explained the real issue:  "The influx of foreign companies in Vietnam has widened the wealth gap there… [T]he core anger and fear is against foreign exploitation."   

Since 2005, workers have mobilized in wave after wave of massive illegal strikes against sweatshop conditions in factories run by Nike, Foxconn, and other capitalist enterprises encouraged by Vietnam's socialist government.  The unions suppress these strikes, which continue to grow. "The labor union was set up only for the sake of abiding by the law," said a Vietnamese worker in a Taiwanese-owned factory. 

As in El Salvador and South Africa, Vietnamese and all workers must draw the correct conclusion from the political errors and betrayals of parties once respected by the masses as revolutionaries:   Our hopes and our fights for a better life must lead us to mobilize for COMMUNISM and nothing less. 

Inter-Imperialist Conflict Makes Communist Mobilization Increasingly Urgent

China's oil-rig adventure directly challenges Obama's "pivot to Asia."  China may have been emboldened by US imperialism's passivity in Ukraine and Syria.   The  cover of The Economist (mouthpiece   of British imperialism) wondered, "What Would America Fight For?"

US allies also wonder.  Pro-US analyst Carl Thayer predicted that the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia will "shore up their own maritime capabilities and seek reassurance of support from the United States and other maritime powers such as Japan, Australia, and India."

The increasing militarization of the region includes Japanese Prime Minister Abe's campaign to reconsider "Article 9" of Japan's constitution, which prohibits Japanese military involvement outside its own borders.  Also, Vietnam is building up its submarine fleet, helped by Russia and India.  It's seeking closer military ties with Russia.

 "Between the certainty that any president will defend America's own territory and the strong belief that America would not fight Russia over Ukraine lies an infinite combination of possibilities," wrote The Economist.  This "risks making the world a more dangerous, nastier place."

Some US imperialists want a stronger response.  The US should "offer support to Vietnam through an increased naval presence," say Elizabeth Economy and Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations.

We've heard it said that a US-China war is unlikely because of their economic interdependence.  History should squash this dangerous illusion. 

In the 1930s, 60% of US foreign investment was in Nazi Germany. Even in 1941-42, companies like ITT, Ford, General Motors, Standard Oil of New Jersey and Chase did business with Germany, including sales of military materiel. 

Neither the US rulers nor the Chinese rulers seem to want war now.  But both want control of South China Sea oil and gas.  An Exxon-Mobil rig is operating near the Chinese rig.  And both need to defend or extend their empires in Asia-Pacific and elsewhere. 

Global capitalism's internal logic propels it toward world war.  The urgency of mobilizing for communism has never been greater.