中文
By Keith Lamb
The bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act has been put into law and U.S. President Joe Biden on August 25 signed an Executive Order to implement the semiconductor funding in this legislation.Reportedly $280 billion of public money will go into this plan to increase semiconductor production in the U.S., which the White House expects will "win the race for the 21st century."
While this investment will lead to some job creation, this is not a bill in the name of U.S. workers but a bill for the transnational globalist elites who control the levers of U.S. politics. Beyond their pragmatic usefulness, the American worker is the least of their considerations in any race to dominate the 21st century.
Looking at China's example, though derided by neoliberal ideology, which advocates for laissez-faire capitalism, planning mixed with markets can work spectacularly well.
In fact, the laissez-faire economic ideology has always been a front for the "junk food-munching bovine herds" to justify a win-lose ideology where poverty can coexist with immense wealth. Planning has always existed; it's just that the plan is in the interests of Wall Street and globalist transnational capital.
Believe you me, it takes an "evil" mastermind of a plan to ship all manufacturing out of the U.S. without mass protests. Then, while big banks are bailed out and tent cities sprout, populated by expendable veterans, many indoctrinated Americans still feel they are part of a democracy that is worth spreading, through the use of violence, to the rest of the world.
The reason the U.S. share of the semiconducting industry has declined is that, along with the rest of U.S. manufacturing, it was shipped to Asia. U.S. workers and their socialist demands simply got in the way of profit margins. This move demonstrated that Americans have a "paper democracy." That is to say, they can vote but policy is not made in their name.
The U.S. has not had a revolution and there has been no pulling on the heartstrings of the ultra-rich as they pass tented cities. As such, talk of the bill "investing in workers" is an afterthought, or at best good optics for a class who sees common humanity as a hindrance to their profits and power.
At the driving seat of the CHIPS and Science Act is the desire to maintain total control of the world for the 21st century. When a nation seeks dominance over others, it doesn't see the rise of other states as a win-win good that can lead to greater outcomes for all. Rather, mirroring the fate of U.S. workers, the other states are a tool to be used when needed but pushed down when they get too big.
Notably, China, the very country that the globalists transferred their manufacturing to, is the stated "threat" that arises numerous times in the CHIPS and Science Act. Consequently, the class interests of American super elites and their fear of sharing the power in the world is the prime driver for this act and not any genuine patriotic desire to rebuild the U.S. At any rate, their actions have proven time and time again to be utterly unpatriotic.
But what on earth is the threat that China poses? Clearly, there is no direct military threat. There are no Chinese military bases encircling the U.S. For China, with its huge population, focused on development, it doesn't desire conflict. Indeed, surrounded by numerous powerful states, peaceful coexistence will always be in China's best interests. Moreover, China's foreign policy of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs and its traditional wisdom of avoiding conflict also bode well.
The threat is simply that China's successful developmental model threatens U.S. total dominance. Semiconductors are at the forefront of technology used in everything from a light to advanced weaponry. Thus, they are important for bolstering profits through consumer goods and maintaining U.S. military hegemony.
China's mastery of semiconductors will produce high-tech products that challenge U.S. tech corporations. In a "free laissez-faire market," one would think this is desirable – not so for the monopolies. U.S. advanced weaponry needed to carry out "human rights invasions" relies on semiconductors. Consequently, not being on the cutting edge of this tech will blunt a "useful" globalist tool for opening markets to their monopolies.
For China, its socialist future has always been tied to technology and so semiconductors too. Take, for example, its high-speed public rail system which would be impossible without semiconductors. The same is true for China's poverty elimination efforts, which has used technology to connect the poor to China's markets.
For the globalists, China's peaceful rise and its burgeoning prosperity is their nightmare. Already, China's example is winning over the hearts and minds of the Global South. If tent cities continue to grow and the American worker remains overburdened in debt peonage, then, witnessing these domestic and international developments, the American workers might start to wake up, push for real democracy, cooperate with China, and rightfully demand that the U.S. 21st century is their century.
Keith Lamb is a University of Oxford graduate with a Master of Science in Contemporary Chinese Studies. His primary research interests are China's international relations and "socialism with Chinese characteristics."
