China Is Not Our Enemy: A History

Megan Russell

Six years ago, CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans launched a new campaign called “China Is Not Our Enemy.” As a seasoned peace activist, she had already begun to recognize the seeds of war being planted. Almost two decades ago, the United States declared Iraq an enemy and launched an intensive media campaign to convince the American public that an invasion was necessary. Trillions of dollars and millions of deaths later, the invasion left nothing but devastation and instability behind. And it was all based on a lie.

That was the beginning of CODEPINK. Fortunately, peace activists have better historical pattern recognition than most politicians. And Evans saw the same tools being wielded against China: the manufacturing of an enemy through war propaganda, media campaigns, and lies. How had China suddenly become the number one security threat to the U.S. when it hadn’t been involved in an overseas conflict for decades? When it had never stated a desire for war, only peace? When it was so internally focused on improving the lives of its own citizens?

The answer was clear: China had risen fast, going from a poor, underdeveloped victim of colonization and foreign intervention, to a pioneer of global development and one of the largest economies in the world. Not only was it successful, but it succeeded through socialist processes — something the Western capitalist order has been consistently launching invasions and military coups across the world to prevent. China wasn’t just a threat because it infringed on the U.S.’s role as global hegemon — which had, for many years, allowed the U.S. to bomb and murder innocent people around the world without consequence — but it was also proof there was an alternative to the capitalist imperialist greed that suffocates a majority of the Global South so that a few in the West can prosper.

It was clear then why the buildup to war with China had begun so early, when the Obama administration rolled out the so-called “Pivot to Asia,” and the vast majority of the U.S. military spending shifted to the Asia-Pacific as the U.S. began militarizing the first island chain around China’s coast. We’re preparing for war to prevent it, politicians parroted, claiming China had desires to “take over the world” and “destroy the American way of life.” And since there was no evidence, they began to manufacture it. But no matter how much propaganda they shove down the throats of the American public, facts will always cut through all the bullshit. The U.S. is not the protector of global human rights and democracy; it is a late-stage capitalist mess sliding into fascism, funding genocide, and throwing all of its tax dollars into war spending rather than programs that would actually help its people. Compare that to China’s history of eradicating extreme poverty (which it succeeded in doing), how it has improved the lives of its citizens through infrastructure, education, and community resources, and its foreign policy based on non-interventionism and mutual respect. Clearly, we have no right to judge.

There are a lot of good things to say about China, even though the mainstream media will only publish negative things. Indeed, studies have shown that the media’s portrayal of China is disproportionately bad. But that’s not the point of China Is Not Our Enemy. You don’t have to know anything about China to be against war with it. You don’t even need to like it.

For the past six years, the campaign has worked tirelessly to disentangle war propaganda and ground us in reality and humanity. Because that’s what war propaganda does: it dehumanizes another through fear and othering to convince you that another life means less than your own, and that a world without that life is a better one. Hatred and violence toward China are not new; they are centuries old. They are a byproduct of racism, white supremacy, and the imperialistic mindset that has settled deep in the bones of the Western psyche. These negative portrayals bleed into the lived realities of Chinese and Chinese Americans through violence and acts of hate. And if we don’t prevent war on China, it will lead to millions more deaths, and possibly complete planetary destruction — all to protect a U.S. hegemony that won’t exist if war goes nuclear, which it is predicted to do.

Over the past decade, the number of Americans who believe China is our enemy has skyrocketed. Although the numbers have gone down in the past couple years on account of our work — as well as the waning facade of U.S. righteousness due to its funding and profiting off a genocide — the numbers are still dangerously high. Though the war is largely bipartisan, the current administration has pressed closer than ever before. 2027 is the date they’ve set. The trillion-dollar war budget is no coincidence — the increase has been largely justified by the “threat of China.” And it’s not just the newly-deemed “War Department” that’s preparing. Military tech startups and private companies have been receiving giant war contracts to build weapons that will be ready by 2027 at the latest. Not a coincidence.

The biggest red flag to an incoming war has already appeared. It’s not the constant demonization or the increasing militarization or the antagonization with war games: it’s when the government makes it dangerous to speak out. And right now, speaking out against war with China is one of the most dangerous things an anti-war organization can do. CODEPINK would know. We’ve faced countless accusations of illicit funding and have been repeatedly called “CCP agents” by powerful politicians as we advocate for an end to genocide. All in the name of delegitimizing the work we do. Well, we aren’t afraid, and we will never stop speaking out against war, no matter what senseless accusations come our way. It is always the darkest and most dangerous places that need the brightest light of truth and humanity shone down on them.

The truth is that China is not our enemy. The only enemy is U.S. imperialism, war itself, and the spinning gears of propaganda that drag us into it, time and time again. The time to organize against war with China is now, while it’s still possible to prevent. We don’t want to be out on the streets in two years, calling for another end to a war that is stealing the lives of millions to line the pockets of the already-wealthy. So join us as we mobilize support for peace and draw the unwielding lines of history away from another senseless forever war that would cause unquantifiable loss and devastation.

This article is part of our China Campaign Action Weeks! Take Action With Us NOW!

---

Megan Russell is CODEPINK’s China is Not Our Enemy Campaign Coordinator. She graduated from the London School of Economics with a Master’s Degree in Conflict Studies. Prior to that, she attended NYU where she studied Conflict, Culture, and International Law. Megan spent one year studying in Shanghai, and over eight years studying Chinese Mandarin. Her research focuses on the intersection between US-China affairs, peace-building, and international development.