How China Can Win the Cold War with the U.S., Here are Four Suggestions | Yanis Varoufakis
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Summary
Yanis Varoufakis discusses the ongoing Cold War between the U.S. and China, pinpointing it as a critical global issue initiated by the U.S. with the intent to contain China's rise as a global power. Varoufakis critiques American geopolitics, emphasizing the importance of counter-surveillance and the strategic use of economic deficits. The focus shifts to China's potential strategies to challenge U.S. dominance, particularly through enhancing soft power, reducing dependency on the U.S. trade deficit, and fostering relationships in the global south. Varoufakis stresses the need for international cooperation to address major global challenges.
Highlights
The U.S. launched a new Cold War against China to contain its rise. 🇨🇳
China is encouraged to focus on counter-surveillance to compete with U.S. intelligence. 🔍
America's global dominance relies heavily on its economic strategies, including deficits. 📊
China's advanced digital payment system challenges the U.S. monetary system. 💳
Enhancing China's domestic economy can decrease its reliance on U.S. trade. 📈
Engagement with the global south is crucial for China's international strategy. 🌍
Fostering positive perceptions in Western nations can aid China's global standing. 🕊️
Collective efforts are needed to tackle shared global issues like climate change. 🌎
Key Takeaways
The U.S. initiated a new Cold War with China, viewing it as the biggest global issue. 🌍
China should develop counter-surveillance technologies to maintain autonomy. 🛰️
The U.S. uses its trade deficit to maintain global power, leveraging other countries' exports. 💵
China's digital payment advancements pose a threat to the U.S. dollar dominance. 📉
Improving domestic demand in China could reduce dependency on American trade. 🇨🇳
China should strengthen ties in the global south and engage local communities. 🌐
Building positive relations in Europe and the U.S. can counter anti-China sentiment. 🤝
Cooperation is vital to avoid global conflicts and address climate change. 🌿
Overview
Yanis Varoufakis, a prominent economist, laid bare the complexities of the new Cold War between the U.S. and China. He contends that the U.S. strategically instigated this geopolitical tension to curb China's growing influence, considering it a unilateral decision by Washington. Varoufakis draws attention to the aggressive economic and military tactics employed to maintain global supremacy, highlighting the absurdity of the surveillance allegations against China and advocating for technological countermeasures.
Central to Varoufakis's argument is the unique geopolitical strategy employed by the United States to sustain its hegemony through economic deficits and control over the global monetary system. He asserts that the Chinese technological advancements, especially in digital payments, pose a formidable challenge to the U.S. dollar monopoly. Varoufakis recommends that China bolster its internal economy to lessen reliance on U.S. trade deficits and focus on international soft power to counterbalance U.S. influence.
In concluding his insights, Varoufakis underscores the indispensable nature of global cooperation in addressing paramount issues such as potential nuclear confrontations and climate change. He proposes strategic enhancements for China, like engaging with local communities in developing nations and establishing constructive relations in Europe and the U.S. He stresses that collaborating with progressive groups globally can foster mutual understanding and deescalate tensions, thereby steering the world towards a more harmonious future.
How China Can Win the Cold War with the U.S., Here are Four Suggestions | Yanis Varoufakis Transcription
00:00 - 00:30 the containment of China the choking of China is common ground for all of them they simply disagree on how to do it best whether to do it through the war in Ukraine or As Trump suggests and the war in Ukraine and con of China well thank you so much and thank you for this opportunity to have um an intimate closed door discussion so that um
00:30 - 01:00 we can speak freely so I'm going to cut to the chase because my topic I think is the most uh pressing issue for Humanity at the moment the new cold war that the United States Unleashed against China this is not a shared responsibility it is a decision by Washington DC to unleash a cold war against China it started with Donald Trump it was already
01:00 - 01:30 in the making from the Obama Administration but it has been reinforced exponentially under Joe Biden and the reason why I'm saying that this is the most pressing issue for Humanity is because we are being quick marched towards the precipice of a nuclear confrontation that the United States
01:30 - 02:00 authorities knowingly are making a real possibility and the question is why the first question and once we go through the analysis then of course the second question and of equal importance is so what do we do about it I enjoy very much placing American and British in particular journalists who are part
02:00 - 02:30 of this propaganda machine you know Financial Times Guardian Washington Post placing them in the difficult position with a very simple question why why is the United States declaring essentially a new Cold War against CH China and the first the first the first word that comes out of their mouth is Taiwan and I said to them what about Taiwan said well the Chinese want to take it over well I said they always
02:30 - 03:00 wanted to take it over what's new I mean it was always the position of Beijing that Taiwan is a province of China and at some point they will have to fall under the fault like Hong Kong did didn't Richard Nixon know that in 1971 when he was visiting Beijing making friends with China didn't Clinton know that when he was inducting China into the World Trade Organization why wasn't Taiwan a problem
03:00 - 03:30 then what has changed now they they look at me oh yeah well China is spying on us the NSA spying on you the CI I have and that is the truth and the line knows this we have a three-point NSA tap on me my phone that is three points means that if I talk to you you spied on if you talk to your wife your wife is spy don't if your wife talks to your child your spy your your child so I I know that they've told me that so
03:30 - 04:00 I don't believe the Chinese are as good as the NSA at spying I mean the NSA was listening in to Chancellor Angela Merkel this was revealed and then you know when Angela Merkel was told that immediately she said okay do you want me to speak louder so you can hear hear me better so it wasn't a problem right now suddenly that China is developing surveillance and I hope China is developing surveillance methods because you know if if you're being spied on you need to spy back on it's the only way my one of my
04:00 - 04:30 great friends and I'm very proud of that that may shock some of you is Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange a very brave man said to me once uh that what do you do with B Big Brother how do you stop Big Brother well what you do is you develop the technology so that you spy on him while he's spying on you so counter surveillance is the only way of dealing with surveillance so that they know that you know that they know this
04:30 - 05:00 is essential for maintaining any degree of autonomy so I hope China is developing its capacity to counter the surveillance of the NSA um and it's a joke I mean the people in the NSA are laughing the heads off when they hear journalists from The Wall Street Journal saying that the reason for the new C war is that China is fing on the on the Americans and then I hear other idiotic answers like you know the the Chinese are building Naval vessels
05:00 - 05:30 uh they are projecting Naval power well I will believe this I mean of course you're building Naval vessels you're expanding your economy you're expanding your capacity to um project your own power that is essential that's what every every country must do if it respects its own interests but I'm going to be worried about Chinese imperialism when I see
05:30 - 06:00 Chinese vessels outside San Diego and Los Angeles and Chinese army bases next to El Paso on the US Mexican border until we see that it is ludicrous you just look at the map of the Pacific and you see American bases everywhere creating choke points for China and this is their official policy for 40 years and they have the audacity to say that China is a threat because China is
06:00 - 06:30 anyway enough time wasted on these non- explanations of the new Cold War now you may have heard of um well I won't mention him yet the more sophisticated analysts in the United States would invoke the so-called FUSD trap or thusi curse that to put it in very um V terms
06:30 - 07:00 if you live in an anarchic world if you are a child a boy and you go to school with a very rough school and there are lots of bullies you should be the biggest and nastiest bully that is the cynical realist school of thought of American geopolitics that America in this anarchic world because they don't really believe in God they don't believe that it's a God that will help them they
07:00 - 07:30 think that they must be the nastiest biggest bully in the world in order to defend themselves their survival as a nation and their prosperity will depend on their capacity to bully everybody else and from preventing anyone who is getting too big for their boots to become an equally sized bully and they will say to you that they wear bullies around the world like for instance Imperial Japan Imperial Germany the Soviet Union and what the United states have succeeded in doing is effectively
07:30 - 08:00 eliminating them annihilating them getting them out of the way and that now China is rising China is next and therefore for that experience a new Cold War now there's no doubt that the Deep state in the United States I make no mistake the United States is not a democracy it's an oligarchy with elections that are providing the legitimacy for this one party state to continue to exist and when I say one
08:00 - 08:30 party State I mean one party State uh take for instance Victoria newand you may be familiar with this Diplomat of the Washington establishment Victoria nand worked for Bill Clinton she worked for George W bush she worked under Clinton she worked under Trump and no doubt she was going to work again for whoever wins in
08:30 - 09:00 November Victoria nand is an example of the single state deep state of the United States now that deep State single party establishment United States is split along the line of two different conflicting views neither which of which is good news for China there is the
09:00 - 09:30 the more intelligent nuanced line of thinking that which in Academia is uh represented by that very intelligent man from the University of Chicago John M mimer the view is this they they are very critical of the inability of Washington to focus Fus on what is
09:30 - 10:00 necessary and their overreach they think that the United States is overreaching so they are very critical of the war of the United States role in firstly through Victoria nand creating the circumstances through the kud against Victor yanukovich the then president of Ukraine in 2014 they created a kudeta in order ethnically to cleanse Russian speakers from the Eastern side of
10:00 - 10:30 Ukraine in order to provoke Putin into the first stage of war in 2014 against Ukraine so as to push for NATO expansion in uh Scandinavia and of course Georgia and Ukraine and so this pragmatic Viewpoint simply says that we shouldn't be doing this because that way we we are pushing Russia into the arms of
10:30 - 11:00 China the whole point of the Nixon Administration was to split the Soviet Union from China and therefore win the Cold War so they're critical of the support of Ukraine and of Israel because they think that this simply disorient the United States policy it creates alliances amongst Americans enemies like alliances between
11:00 - 11:30 Russia and China Iran and Russia and so on and that this is silly politics because the enemy is China and China needs to be contained and if you ask them why does China need to be contained China doesn't have a history of imperialism China has absolutely no interest in uh building military bases on the US Mexican border in taking you know Naval power and Pro in it to San
11:30 - 12:00 Diego or Los Angeles or San Francisco China doesn't want that China wants to trade you know what they say yes we agree but if we let China become a regional superpower in the Pacific area in its own area in its backyard if we allow China for instance to become dominant in the South China Sea and in the Indian Ocean
12:00 - 12:30 then China in the future will start trying to do what we have done and they will become an imperialistic force in the western hemisphere which for them is the Americans this is what they say they understand that China is not imperialistic but they fear that if they do not contain China through choke points just north of Indonesia you know the first array of islands the second array of islands between China and the Philippines and so then China
12:30 - 13:00 will emulate the United States and therefore you better prevent that by choking China today so that's one line line of argument the second line of argument is the opposite argument that the United States must be a bully everywhere all over the world including in Europe including the Ukraine and that for instance I I have been told that by somebody who
13:00 - 13:30 was very high up in the Bush Administration and who was very high up in the chain of command of NATO in Brussels an American Republican he said to me that we need to expand NATO against the interest of of the Europeans he was clear against the interest of the Europeans and I said to him Bob why he said because of three reasons first because we must be in Europe the United States we to keep ourselves in number one reason he gave
13:30 - 14:00 me number two to keep the Germans down look at the price of electricity in Germany today as a result of the war in Ukraine the German industrial machine is finished kaput as a result not just of that but that is one of the reasons and thirdly to keep the Russ out so this is you know if you were in the corridors of power in Washington DC this is the discussion you would hear the containment of China the choking of
14:00 - 14:30 China is common ground for all of them they simply disagree on how to do it best whether to do it through the war in Ukraine or As Trump suggests and the war in Ukraine and con of China well this so far what I have presented to you is more or less common knowledge amongst anyone who's ever been in Washington been in Brussels spoken to these people to the cold Warriors to the new cold Warriors
14:30 - 15:00 this is common knowledge but I think that that story that I've given you so far is incomplete why did the Clinton Administration and the Bush Administration after that were so gangho about trading with China why did they not start the new Cold War against China in the 1990s in the year 2000 in 2004 2005 200 8 why was it only around
15:00 - 15:30 2014 that this establishment decided to unleash the war against China it's not that they one explanation is that the Clinton Administration people could not see that China would develop to the extent that China developed that it would become so big I don't believe that I never believe explanations which presume the stupidity of the people involved I don't believe that these people were stupid and I don't believe that they didn't see that by shifting
15:30 - 16:00 half of American manufacturing to the West Coast of China sorry to the east coast of China that you know that China would not grow and develop they knew it they were celebrating it I remember you know for years hearing that you know capitalism is fantastic because look at China the moment it introduced the market economy so and they become a superpower so they knew it that they wanted it why don't they want it now why
16:00 - 16:30 is it suddenly choking points and containment and you know putting a boot on their neck what what really changed for me the essence of the pursuit of a new Cold War against China by the United States by the way Europe is irrelevant Europe is simply doing as it's told Europe doesn't want to unleash a cold war against China
16:30 - 17:00 but you know they get the email from Washington DC do it and they do it against their interest and against their wishes so don't care about the the Europeans it's Washington if you we somebody like you know a strategic thinker like Henry Kissinger who is now dead but you know this is the example of the deep thinking American official what would you really be
17:00 - 17:30 worried about since I mentioned Kissinger let me stick to him for a moment the year was 1970 Kissinger at the time who was working for President Nixon you'll recall was not the foreign minister was not in the is the state department yet he was the head of the National Security Council and he was the National Security advisor to the American president and he
17:30 - 18:00 was the epitome all his life of American strategic thinking the thinking of that one party State the Deep state of the United States being a smart man when he saw the macroeconomic statistics and he saw that from 1968 from 1968 onwards America for the first time since the 1930s had become a deficit country for the first time in its history since it
18:00 - 18:30 became a superpower or an important power in the bid War period and certainly since the 1950s when it was the only superpower in terms of economic superpower the United States slipped from being a surplus country from having a surplus in its trade balance uh to having a deficit and kid was worried because he knew that historically speaking every Empire that went from being a
18:30 - 19:00 surplus to a deficit economic entity started fading so he got together his people at the National Security Council and he asked them a simple question how should we what should we do in order to retain our hegemony now that we are a deficit country and he said to the people go away and think about it and I want from each one of you half a page of a
19:00 - 19:30 note very interesting right not 20 Pages half a page not a page half a page this is how Kissinger worked and these were very smart people right most of them came back and gave a very Germanic answer if we have a deficit we must cut down expenditure we must increase uh interest rates and so on and so forth in order to reduce Imports and bring about a balance between exports and imports to
19:30 - 20:00 eliminate our trade deficit one man in his half a page which I actually acquired in the process of writing a book 15 years ago typ written a typewritten half a page he said what we must do we must treble our deficit treble our deficit we have a deficit which is bad we must make it three times as big and make the capitalists of the rest of the world pay for
20:00 - 20:30 it which is exactly what happened the United States should increase its deficit and use it to create aggregate demand for the net exports of Germany and Japan and later on China because it is the trade deficit of the United States that sucks into the United States your aluminum your electric vehicles deficit dollars like I
20:30 - 21:00 us and you know when people ask Paul vulkanen but will that not affect the value of the dollar he said no not as long as it is the only World Reserve currency the only currency that has demand people demand it even if they don't want to buy anything from the country which is producing it which is printing it so if you are today somebody of a mind comparable to
21:00 - 21:30 gingers then you know that the reason why the United States is so hegemonic why it can afford to be the big bully around the world is because of the Monopoly of the payment system and let me give you an example which I gave uh when we with way way were having this conversation at China today China now China now now today
21:30 - 22:00 um when Trump was elected because he hated Obama so deeply he wanted to take down something that Obama was very proud of Obama was very proud of two things Obamacare and the agreement between the west and Iran over the nuclear program of Iran and the ending of the sanctions which was signed by Iran by the United States and by the whole of the European Union enthusiastically and Trump wanted to destroy that
22:00 - 22:30 agreement just because he hated Obama so he takes the agreement with Iran and tees it up tears it up the chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel was very annoyed because she had worked very hard together with Obama to bring about that agreement with Iran and she German businesses were already in negotiations in Iran to enter Iran Iran is a land of opportunity after so many years of sanctions for large
22:30 - 23:00 conglomerates like the German ones especially when it came to energy to Consumer products to car manufacturing they were all ready to get in and Trump says no Merkel comes out and gives a press conference against the president of the United States this is unprecedented that doesn't happen often and she says I do not know what the United States will do we respect
23:00 - 23:30 their opinion and their position position but Germany is going to maintain the agreement the peace agreement with Iran and German businesses will continue to do business in Iran on the basis of this International agreement which we are going to fulfill and which we are going to honor within 12 hours every single CEO of every German conglomerate came out and said not us we're not in we're out we will follow the Americans why it's really very simple because they
23:30 - 24:00 depended on their net exports to the United States and the Trump Administration threatened them that they would not benefit from the tax cuts the corporate the the reductions in the corporate tax that Trump was bringing in he said to them you want to benefit from them no business in Iran you want to maintain your access to the dollar payment system no business with Iran so the German Cong con glomerate leaders
24:00 - 24:30 turned against the German Chancellor the day after she gave a press conference effectively saying sorry Chancellor we are going with President Trump on this against their own Financial interests in Iran and in Europe which is exactly what they're doing now you know the United States together with Ukraine bomb the pipeline northstream one that costs billions every week for German industry have you heard a German industry say anything nothing because they are dependent on the American trade deficit
24:30 - 25:00 but this whole thing for the trade deficit of the United States to function as a vacuum cleaner that sucks into the United States the net exports of Germany of France of Japan and of China you need the dollar to remain the Monopoly the monopolistic transaction system because it is only the monop of transactions that allows
25:00 - 25:30 the Americans to continue with unfinanced unfunded deficits then you look at the rise of what I call Cloud capital in the United States and China by Cloud Capital I'm talking about what lives in here the algorithmic capital on which big Tech is built which is a new form of capital because unlike like other forms of capital which are always a means of
25:30 - 26:00 production a produced means of production a robot a tractor is something you produce to produce something else this is not a produced means of production it's a produced means an artificial means of Behavioral modification that's what Alibaba is that's what Tik Tok is that is what 10cent is that is what of course Amazon Google Facebook and so on they
26:00 - 26:30 are capital goods that create nonm markets platforms that look like markets but are not markets which allow the owner of that cloud Capital to bring us in as buyers as Sellers as influencers as opinion makers as simply consumers of entertainment and charge all of us a form of rent that's enormous power that the ownership of this Cloud Capital
26:30 - 27:00 confers to the owners of cloud Capital now there are two countries in the world that have a lot of concentrated Cloud Capital One is the United States and the other is China and the reason why you have it here is because you banned Silicon Valley Europe didn't ban Silicon Valley so we all depend on Google Facebook meta all that and we didn't develop our own cloud Capital so there's American Cloud Capital there Chinese Capital Cloud Capital Chinese Cloud
27:00 - 27:30 Capital has an advantage over American Cloud Capital this is something you've got to understand not so much because I mean your technology is not better than the Americans in some things you have gone beyond American capabilities but in other things the Americans are bigger and better and faster than you are at this stage no it's not a technological advantage that you have it is a political advantage and an organizational advantage here in China The People's Bank the Central Bank
27:30 - 28:00 of China controls the bankers in the United States the bankers control the central bank they own the central bank they created the Central Bank the Central Bank of the United States the Federal Reserve was created by JB Morgan it was not the other way around okay it's important to understand the institutional differences between our countries and the United States the United States is a very very strange place so Cloud Capital Silicon Valley in the
28:00 - 28:30 United States and finance don't work together Apple pay exists Google pay exists so like wej you can pay through Apple pay but a large segment of that money goes to Wall Street as a rent so there is a class like something like class war between or a fudal l war between the fom of Wall Street on the West CO east coast and the fom of cloud
28:30 - 29:00 capital on the west coast they're clashing that Clash doesn't happen in China because both your Finance sector and your big Tech or Cloud Capital sector are under the Communist party I'm being very honest and Frank with you and that's a good thing that is an advantage but if you sitting in Washington especially after the war in Ukraine especially after your Central Bank created the digital one the digital one is a fantastic invention
29:00 - 29:30 you should treasure it and you should use it and you should develop it and we have discussions about how to do this your country has built a digital Super Highway for money which is much much more advanced than the rickety road that is the American dollar road cuz today that super wi highway is not used it's like you know imagine you have you've had this experience here you build a highway five Lanes each side but not many cars
29:30 - 30:00 are going on it that's what's happening now with your digital payment system and the American road which is very old full of poth holes two lanes not five it's full of traffic because all the capitalist profits and trade is being financed through transactions on that old highway but already there's a migration from the American Highway to the Chinese Super Highway it started
30:00 - 30:30 with Russians that's what the Ukraine wared and then if you're a Saudi Arabian okay you're a Saudi Arabian an oligarch you do most of your business with the United States you you know you love your dollars but you're thinking these people the Americans confiscated 400 billion of the Russians money because they didn't like the Russians for whatever it is maybe the Russians deserve it doesn't matter I'm not making
30:30 - 31:00 an ethical Point here okay you think you're Saudi Arabian I'm not a very good person myself maybe they will not like me tomorrow maybe I will do something to annoy them tomorrow maybe they will take part of my d right so why don't I diversify some of that money I will transact through the Super Highway that the Chinese have built why do you think Saudi Arabia is interested in joining the bricks that's the reason there's no other reason that is the reason now go back to what you're looking at that and you think this super highway that these
31:00 - 31:30 Chinese have built is a clear and present danger to my Germany that's why they have the chips act because they want to reduce Your Capacity to invest in this super highway and make it attractive for everybody else this is why they are creating circumstances of choking anyone outside the United States wants to trade with China because they don't want this Super Highway way so it's not that China is getting bigger it is not that China is
31:30 - 32:00 spying it is not Taiwan it is that China has built a digital Cloud Capital based super highway for payments which is a clear and prais danger to the Monopoly of the dollar payment system which is the only reason why the United States is hegemonic so the question is what do we do about that allow me just to say four things very quickly and then I stop this and then we can take this up further the first thing you need to do is you must
32:00 - 32:30 reduce your dependency on the American trade deficit but allow me as a microeconomist to say that you can only do this is if you increase the weage share in this country the amount of money which is essentially ending up in the pockets of the working class the working class and the petty Bui and the middle class in this country because micro economically speaking it is impossible under the Cent 5year plan to
32:30 - 33:00 have the degree of investment in manufacturing that is necessary in order to meet the growth rates of the 5year plan without depending on the American trade deficit the only way of maintaining this investment and maintaining the growth rate without dependency of the American trade deficit is by boosting aggregate demand domestically and there are simple ways of doing that and your digital payment
33:00 - 33:30 system is a way of doing it I can discuss this later if you want that's number one thing you need to do reduce your dependency of the American trade deficit secondly you need to appeal through soft power through engagement with the local communities in the global south building a factory or some infrastructure or some some energy Hub in Ethiopia or in Namibia or
33:30 - 34:00 wherever it contributes to the development of the local country but you've got to engage with the local community you have to take yeah you have to remember your marks that there is class conflict happening in Namibia in the Congo in Ethiopia and the local ruling class is destroying the prospects of the local working class and the Chinese I know you don't want to interfere in a party political level but you have to gr you the people of Namibia
34:00 - 34:30 must understand that China and Chinese business and the Chinese presence are their allies not the allies of their oligarchy that's how you win hearts and Minds in Africa you need to do the same in Europe because in Europe there is a conservative effort to turn the people of Europe against the Chinese along the lines of pure racism xenophobia orientalism and so on the same people who are turning the the the Italians the Greeks the French the
34:30 - 35:00 Germans against the Chinese are the people who are essentially working towards the diminution of the life prospects of the Germans the French the Italians and the Greeks so when for instance Costco entered the port of fos I know it that they run the port better than the Greeks did I know that there is less corrup corruption and I know that the work the conditions of the workers in the port are better now but cost made a mistake by not engaging in community
35:00 - 35:30 relations that's um the third thing okay um and the fourth thing soft power within the United States we must think to together and I say we I'm not Chinese but I have an interest in ending the Cold War uh because it is in the interest of humanity to avoid firstly nuclear confrontation and secondly to find a way of communicating and collaborating to
35:30 - 36:00 end the very fast March of humanity towards a climate catastrophe without cooperation it can't happen we cannot succeed in saving our planet so this is why I'm saying we it is important to approach American progressors like I give you an example the Democratic socialists of America who are becoming have become rather influential in the United States many of
36:00 - 36:30 them are my friends people like Bernie Sanders they have been sucked into the anti-chinese mindset by The Establishment it is important to bring them back because they don't understand that trade Wars are class Wars if you put it to them that way if we put it to them that way there's a chance that they will understand it that the moment you have a trade War being imposed on China the
36:30 - 37:00 American working class is going to suffer some jobs may be saved through tariffs if they recreate some manufacturing job but that won't work that is not going to work it is not a situation where you know you stop a few byd cars from coming to the United States and suddenly there will be more manufacturing jobs in Ohio that is idiocy but we need to convince the progressives in the United States that they interests are in deescalate the new
37:00 - 37:30 cold war between United States and China thank you