Grasping at Straws to Attack China
The U.S. government and certain global auto producing cartels accuse Chinese auto manufacturers of overproducing new electric vehicles (NEVs) and dumping them in the U.S. market at low prices. An article carried by China's Xinhua news agency refutes the accusation describing it "fallacious, dangerous logic of 'Chinese overcapacity' rhetoric." Xinhua writes: "The rhetoric of 'Chinese overcapacity' contradicts factual evidence and fundamental economic principles."
According to Xinhua, NEV production in China was 9.59 million units in 2023. Of these, 8,339,200 NEVs were sold internally in the Chinese market and 1,150,800 units were exported and sold abroad leaving around 100,000 units unsold. Only a few thousand Chinese produced NEVs were sold in the United States during the year.
The U.S. argument seems to be that all Chinese produced NEVs sold abroad plus the unsold units constitute overproduction for the Chinese market. But that argument does not hold water as almost no commodity in any quantity is produced in a large country solely for an internal domestic market but rather for the global marketplace. In fact, most of the auto producers in China have ownership, financial and other connections with the global producers. Tesla, a global NEV producer headquartered in the U.S. but with significant production capacity in China, held 30 per cent of NEV sales in China in 2023 and uses that base to expand its sales worldwide.
To be clear, the U.S. government and most official economists use the term "overproduction" narrowly with regard to a marketplace and the relation between production and sales or supply and demand of certain commodities. The aim for maximum profit of those in control of the imperialist economy often motivates them to produce beyond expected sales or to flood the market to wipe out competitors. Overproduction in this sense can lead to particular bankruptcies or even generalized economic crises when demand collapses for whatever reason. Use of the term to attack other producers stems from an antagonistic view of competing forces and a preoccupation with their own private interests, not from a desire for a new aim and direction for the economy to serve the people, solve problems and humanize the social and natural environment.
When narrow private interests produce for the worldwide marketplace in competition with other global producers, those in control of the imperialist economy have the success of their own private interests in mind not the overall well-being of the economy, people or Mother Earth. Principally they want to maximize their profits and in doing so outcompete their rivals and eventually take them over or destroy them.
Overproduction of certain commodities can be a way to wipe out the competition and destroy their productive capacity. To accomplish this, the global producers enlist the public treasuries of governments they control or influence to subsidize their prices of production allowing them to "outcompete" their competitors. Forcing public treasuries to subsidize certain global cartels in pay-the-rich schemes, creating legal blocks to sales such as Biden's tariffs against Chinese imports, and waging propaganda campaigns against producers centred in particular countries form aspects of the intense competition among the cartels to dominate the global marketplace for their own private interest and wipe out their competitors. This competition can escalate to war as is now occurring with the U.S./NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, the U.S./Zionist genocide in Palestine to retain U.S. imperialist domination of west and central Asia and north Africa, and the U.S. arming its military vassals in south Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan in preparation for war with China and the DPRK.
The global cartels regularly plunder the public treasuries of governments at all levels in Canada to serve their private interests in competition with other private interests and in contradiction with the needs of the people, economy and society. The U.S. imperialist-controlled media in Canada are loud propagandists in this economic warfare against global companies such as Huawei, NEV producers and others in China, which the U.S. imperialists have designated as enemy competitors that need to be destroyed, covering up, beside other things, the extent to which they are intertwined.
Canada's
cartel party governments and opposition are fully involved in
the
global collusion and contention between the cartels and
coalitions
comprised of oligopolies which constantly threaten war. Canada
is an
active member of the U.S. imperialist military alliances NATO
and NORAD
and regularly
engages in U.S.-led military exercises and campaigns throughout
the
world.
The imperialist global marketplace is a festering sewer of collusion and contention for maximum profit for a few and the U.S. striving for control. This antagonistic competition and striving gives rise to regular economic crises and war. The Canadian working class must step forward and play a leading role to bring into being a new direction and aim for the economy to serve the people and not the private profit of a few, and to establish an anti-war government that takes immediate measures to sever all ties with the U.S. military and the U.S. war economy.
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 35 - May 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54356.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca