Reviews | We must demand media coverage that does not fan the flames of war with China

This month the world watched as US President Donald Trump assembled his team of billionaire capitalists and sent them to China across the globe. We watched in disbelief as the China-hating Trump administration paraded around Beijing, gaping at the magnificent ceilings and giant rose bushes. “China is beautiful,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, America’s top oligarchs have been meeting with Chinese officials, hoping to find opportunities to slip into China’s big, booming markets and siphon off even more wealth they absolutely don’t need. Fortunately, China just wasn’t very interested.

Even though these meetings didn’t achieve much, every China hawk in Washington was on the edge of their seats, worried that better relations with China would endanger their favorite justification for increasing the military budget to an unprecedented $1.5 trillion. But we need to prepare for war with China by 2025… no, 2027… wait, maybe 2030? Forever?

The mainstream media had a lot to say about the meeting. The Guardian was particularly misleading, with an article headlined:

It’s the kind of headline we’ve come to expect from outlets like the New York Post, whose credibility is comparable to spam. In fact, they had a similar article:

It is no surprise that Western media are trying to give the impression that the war was China’s idea, when it is the United States that has been actively preparing for it for a decade. This is part of their strategy of using misleading headlines to stoke fear about China, so that no one pays attention to America’s antagonistic behavior.

When President Xi Jinping speaks of the “Thucydides Trap,” he is warning the United States against viewing war with China as inevitable and instead urging it to pursue diplomacy and cooperation. Many U.S. policymakers, however, continue to frame China’s rise primarily as a military threat, expanding their military posture across the Asia-Pacific region in an effort to preserve U.S. dominance, even at the risk of escalation.

Reportedly, Trump and Xi also spoke at length about the US war against Iran. This conflict – as well as US military actions in Venezuela – is also linked to the US’s broader confrontation with China. Both countries have significant reserves of oil, gas and essential minerals and have become important economic partners of China. By targeting two of China’s major energy suppliers, the United States is attempting to limit China’s access to resources, while hoarding them for itself (and Israel).

America’s war against Iran has been a disaster, and that’s one reason Trump is in China, hoping for concessions. It’s not just energy dominance that worries the United States. As oil and gas prices soar around the world, Iran has made an exception for Chinese oil tankers, which trade with Iran using the Chinese yuan. For decades, U.S. global power has depended on the petrodollar system, which keeps global energy trade tied to the U.S. dollar and gives the United States enormous economic warfare capabilities. But China’s continued purchase of Iranian oil using the yuan, as well as growing efforts by countries in the South to trade outside the dollar system, threaten to weaken that dominance.

The world order is clearly evolving towards a more multipolar world. The question is whether the United States will respond with diplomacy or attempt to preserve its unipolar dominance through military confrontation with China. To avoid escalation, we must reject the idea that war between great powers is inevitable. And we must also demand media coverage that accurately and credibly covers the role the United States is playing in escalating tensions. This includes outlets like The Guardian, which clearly prioritize portraying China as the villain over credible, in-depth reporting.