VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
(Trump and Xi in Beijing May 2026 Wikimedia Commons public domain)
The upcoming visit of Xi Jinping to the United States, where he will meet and have talks with US President Trump, will see both imperialist powers trying to gain advantages over the other.
The US is the world’s strongest imperialist power measured in military projection and diplomatic reach. China is equally strong economically and is building a strong military which already rivals the US in key areas such as submarine and aircraft carrier numbers and in the application of AI and robotics to war plans.
But their respective strengths are fluid, with the US in an overall position of decline while the Chinese are the rising power.
Xi Jinping hopes to manoeuvre Trump into having to accept a certain degree of cooperation, even collusion, while Trump sees the relationship mainly as one of confrontation. Xi pushes for “multipolarity” or a strategic balance of power, whereas Trump’s view is largely unipolar with the US hoping to maintain its position of global hegemony.
Trump has been forced to accept the failure to bring the Iranians to their knees, despite his barbaric boasting that he would destroy their civilisation though intense bombing and missile attacks. Instead, the Iranians have inflicted considerable damage on 15 US military facilities throughout the Persian Gulf and destroyed several radar facilities designed to protect against missile attacks and worth billions of dollars. Far from winding down, the regional conflict is only heightening as the Houthis seize extra territory from the Yemeni regime. They now have 80% of the population and two thirds of Yemeni territory, and threaten Saudi Arabian oil exports through both the Bab el-Mandeb strait and the Saudi east-west pipeline, causing world oil prices to rise.
Trump has also failed to exercise any significant influence over the course of Russia’s war against Ukraine, despite boasting prior to being elected that he would end the Ukraine war in "one day" because he "got along very well" with the Russians. His various plans to end the war have come to nothing with recent escalations of the conflict on both sides, including successful Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries and pipelines. In the first eight months of 2026, a Russian refinery was hit on average once every three days. Russian oil production is at its lowest level in more than 20 years and roughly 30% below a year earlier. Reported gasoline output is down by 20% compared with 2025 levels, while diesel production is estimated to have fallen by nearly 30%, prompting the government to restrict fuel exports to protect domestic supplies.
The Chinese see the US mired in difficulties and try to get them to accept “a constructive relationship of strategic stability.” When Xi met Trump in Beijing in May, Xi offered four dimensions of such a relationship: “a positive stability with cooperation as the mainstay, a sound stability with moderate competition, a constant stability with manageable differences, and an enduring stability with promises of peace.” He will no doubt pursue this with Trump when they meet on September 24.
Whilst there are these two aspects to inter-imperialist rivalry, namely, cooperation and collusion on one hand and contention and confrontation on the other, it is the latter that is all-embracing, permanent and absolute, while their cooperation and collusion is partial, temporary and relative. That is the nature of the contradiction between them that arises from each other’s attempt to achieve global hegemony.
The strategic decline of the US inclines it towards unilateral expressions of domination and power such as its recent declaration that it already has weapons in the new warfare domain of space, and in its coerced agreement with Denmark and Greenland to permanently exclude Russian and Chinese military and economic presence in Greenland.
The strategic rise of China inclines it towards placing its rival on the defensive, letting it expend its energy in conflicts it cannot win, and outsmarting it diplomatically by being the voice of reason and avoidance of confrontation. It is strong enough economically to withstand the bullying of US sanctions and tariffs.
The contradictions between US imperialism and Chinese social-imperialism are irreconcilable and now extend beyond the globe to outer space. “Multipolarity” and “strategic stability” can only be empty words so long as imperialism exists.
The old adage that so long as imperialism exists, so too does the danger of world war, remains true.
The just struggles of the peoples of the world for the independence of their nations and for overthrowing capitalism and advancing along the socialist path will continue until the end of the imperialist system.