Filipino socialist activist and Party of the Labouring Masses (PLM) chairperson Sonny Melencio speaks with Federico Fuentes about global imperialism and the Filipino leftβs response to the threat of a US-China war.
South China Sea
A recent war exercise involving United States Marines seizing an island off the coast of Japan is being touted as part of the US military strategy to challenge China for control of the South China Sea. But little attention is being given to the potential role of the Marines being stationed in Darwin, writes Bevan Ramsden.
US exports to China totalled US$116 billion last year, while its imports reached $463 billion. The $347 billion deficit accounts for almost 70% of the USβs total trade deficit.
US President Donald Trumpβs most influential senior advisers, Peter Navarro, who heads the National Trade Council, and US secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross, call China βthe biggest trade cheater in the worldβ.
It is rare that a critical article on Australia's military spending appears in one of the corporate newspapers but on October 25, the Melbourne Age published such an article by senior correspondent Daniel Flitton entitled βDoes Australia's military need such tentacles of defence?β.
Flitton argued that while Australian governments have βtalked the good talk of regional co-operation and engagement for decadesβ their βstaggering shopping list of new military hardware was signalling a very different message to the region.