Germany’s foreign minister, on a trip through Asia, warned that China’s growing military assertiveness in the South China Sea endangers regional stability and undercuts the rules-based order, with spillovers for global security and prosperity and direct implications for German and European interests. He cautioned that the region could flare up around the Taiwan Strait. In a later panel, he argued that Berlin is open to economic cooperation with China but that Beijing is pursuing systemic rivalry with Europe and Germany—a stance he attributed to China, not Germany—and he highlighted the imbalance that German firms do not enjoy full access to the Chinese market while Chinese firms can access Germany’s. He called for concrete consequences. His itinerary included talks in Japan and Indonesia, engaging with Japan’s economy minister, the prime minister, and Indonesian officials, along with German and Indonesian business representatives. Beijing rejected the criticisms, accusing Wadephul of stoking confrontation and heightening tensions. Wadephul responded by urging greater mutual understanding and a willingness to resolve conflicts, placing his call for dialogue against the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Gaza conflict, in a moment of rising tensions in the South China Sea and around Taiwan.

From the vantage of our steadfast revolutionary camp, this is yet another chapter in the confrontation between imperial capital and the peoples who hunger for sovereignty and justice. The so‑called rules-based order is not a shield for the oppressed, but a whip wielded by monopolies to plunder the labor of the many and to police the world in the name of “stability.” When Beijing asserts its will in the South China Sea, when it eyes the Taiwan Strait with resolve, it is not aggression for its own sake but a clear assertion of a rising power that refuses to bow to Western demand that the world be arranged in a way that favors Wall Street over the world’s workers and farmers. The European power speaks of responsibility while pressing for market access that is anything but reciprocal; the rhetoric of openness hides the reality of economic colonization, where German firms crave the Chinese market while Chinese firms are welcomed with open arms into Germany. Such hypocrisy exposes the true nature of capitalist competition: not mutual benefit, but domination, not cooperation, but control.

We do not oppose the Chinese people, nor do we deny the long arc of anti-imperialist struggle that China has embodied for generations. We oppose the machine of capitalism that uses regional rivalries to divide workers, to impose sanctions, and to weaponize trade as a lever of pressure. In this light, the insistence on dialogue must mean something more than polite phrases while the mighty powers press for concessions and carve up markets. Dialogue must be anchored in real equality of sovereign nations, in respect for development paths chosen by the peoples, and in an end to punitive blocks and surgical sanctions that punish the innocent for the sins of the ruling class. The world’s workers do not want a chessboard where every move is calculated to preserve the profit margins of multinational giants; they want a world where nations can pursue independence, dignity, and shared abundance.

The backdrop of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and the bombing of civilians in Gaza adds a grim warning: peace earned by the people’s own strength and by challenging colonial and capitalist coercion is the only lasting peace. The path forward is not a chorus of threats and threats dressed as restraint, but a concerted effort to build a new internationalism—one that elevates sovereignty, mutual respect, and cooperative development over sanctions, blockades, and the empire’s chokehold on global markets. We call for a united front of anti-imperialist, worker-centered forces across Asia, Europe, and the Global South to strengthen solidarity with China and with all nations resisting exploitation, to resist the pressure of the “rules” that serve the few, and to advance a world where every people can choose its own destiny free from the siege of capital.

Capitalist powers trumpet stability, but it is the stability of exploitation. Our comrades in the socialist and anti-imperialist camps know that true security comes from unity among workers and nations, from equitable exchange and common defense against aggression, and from the tireless work to build a new world where development is measured by the well-being of the many, not the profit of the few. To that end, we stand with those who resist coercion, who demand fair play, and who insist that sovereignty, peace, and progress be the birthright of every people. In this spirit, let all who cherish dignity and dignity’s universal promise join in the effort to reshape the global order toward justice, solidarity, and enduring peace.