China is existential threat to the rule of US imperialism: Scholar

China is an existential threat to the rule of American imperialism not the well-being of the United States or its people, says Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

Etler, a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday while commenting on a statement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Speaking in a radio interview on Wednesday, Pompeo said China is the biggest national security challenge facing the United States and the administration of US President Donald Trump is pushing back against China “on all fronts.”

He added that Washington was engaged in a “multi-pronged effort ... to convince Beijing to behave like a “normal nation.”

PressTV-Pompeo: China biggest national security challenge for US

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says China is the biggest national security challenge facing Washington.

“It’s hard to imagine that US Secretary of State Pompeo had a straight face when making his inane comments about China on the Laura Ingraham Show. No one with an iota of intelligence can take what he said seriously,” Professor Etler said.

“To call out China for industrial espionage and violation of international law is laughable coming from the mouth of any US government official, especially the likes of Pompeo who previously served as head of the CIA, the top US spy agency that has been involved in stealing other nations secrets and violating international law for generations on end. Is there any need to repeat the litany of US foreign surveillance operations or interventions? The list is interminable,” he added.

“There is only one reason for Pompeo’s animus toward China. He and his boss, along with rest of the US political establishment subliminally realize that the days of US global hegemony are numbered and China is the one nation poised to rise as the US falls,” he noted.

“But what exactly is that challenge? Does China want to usurp the leading role of the US and become the world’s hegemon?  No, China has no such ambition. But neither does China accept the notion that it should be subservient to any global power, such as the US. China insists on standing on its own two feet and assuming its rightful place in the world. It is that which terrifies the US and its imperialist masters,” he stated.  

“What they fear most is that the US will not be able to compete with China because China is a vigorous and dynamic nation that seeks to raise its people and the people of the world up from poverty. China is a socialist nation and it has lofty goals of creating an ecological civilization based on sustainable growth within an international framework of a shared, common human destiny. That is a tall order, one which will require a level of commitment and innovation that China has already demonstrated by lifting 800 million of its own citizens out of extreme poverty and creating a prospering middle class of 300 million people nearly as large as the entire population of the US,” he said.

“The problem for the US is not that China seeks to aggressively replace it as global leader. The problem is that China will do so by force of example, not force of arms. Its inextricable advance as a great socialist nation serves the interests of its own and the world’s people for a secure, peaceful and sustainable future, goals that are inimical to those of US imperialism which promotes a world of instability, war and unsustainable climate change. China is an existential threat to the rule of US imperialism not the well-being of the US or its people. As such the US will do everything in its power to try to sabotage and prevent China’s rise and rejuvenation as a great civilizational state,” the analyst concluded.

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