Coordinators: Mike Wong and Michael Kramer
Contact: vfpchinaworkinggroup@veteransforpeace.org
Please check out our YouTube channel, "Veterans For Peace with China": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeGeu_-CIkVXn6s5YMrm83A
Mission:
As members of Veterans For Peace, a humanitarian and educational organization dedicated to the abolishment of war, we seek to apply the commitments in our VFP Statement of Purpose to China, namely:
- To increase public awareness of the causes and costs of war;
- To restrain our governments from intervening, overtly or covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations;
- To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons;
- To seek justice for veterans and victims of war;
- To abolish war as an instrument of national policy.
More concretely, our China Working Group will address the following areas:
- Serve a watchdog function for the bi-partisan Congressional Executive Commission on China and other government agencies that spread disinformation about China.
- Consult with our VFP UN representative on issues related to our Resolution on the Pivot to Peace with China and the World.
- Serve an educational function by providing position papers, flyers, speakers, articles, editorials, press releases, webinars, public forums and other materials on China for distribution to our members and the general public.
- Work with peace, justice, and other groups in the Chinese American and other communities on issues pertaining to China
Our group is open to all VFP members who share the concerns expressed in our Mission Statement. You do not need not have any special qualifications or experience, merely a special interest in China and a desire to participate. Many of our members have expertise and experiences to share.
Xinjiang: A personal perspective by Fernando Munoz Bernal.
高舉和平的退午軍人 是一個遍布全美 及歐，亞，拉丁美洲的組織。它有
數千名的退午軍人及其盟友，有活動份子，人道主義者和教育工作者。現時 監於美國對中國發動起冷戰。我們成立了特別工作小組。這就是中國工作小組
中國工作小組的重要任務如下 :
1) 監察美國兩黨國會与行政應對中國的各項政策 ，包括美國與中國經貿，國防審查委員會及各個美政府發放有關中國的假消息
2) 高舉和平的退伍軍人在聯合國的代表
將會與中國工作小組 為与中國共同和平發展而努力。
3) 有教育大眾 的功能 ， 將會發表聲明，新聞稿 ，傳單，社論，組織網路研討會 , 及組織 演講者 ，公衆研討會等等。會採取多種渠道。廣泛的向公眾發放推動與中國和平合作的運動 。
4) 與有和平和正义目標的在美華人及其他團體共同工作， 推動公正客觀的報導 中國。
Webinars
The Veterans for Peace (VFP) China Working Group is reposting this statement from the VFP Climate Crisis & Militarism Project, which we support. In 2020, China pledged to become carbon neutral by 2060, and already has more solar panels, wind parks, and electric vehicles than any other nation. China also has a history of accomplishing its stated economic goals, such as its unprecedented peaceful economic rise. Please see this brief Wall Street Journal analysis: https://youtu.be/tGQQ8fyWJi4
As members of Veterans For Peace, we appreciate the work of Climate Envoy John Kerry, who negotiated the U.S.-China Joint Statement Addressing the Climate Crisis to strengthen enforcement of the Paris Climate Accord and collaborate on strategies to dramatically lower fossil fuel emissions.
This agreement was made just prior to President Biden’s 40-nation conference, The Leaders’ Summit on Climate, on April 22-23, 2021, and reflected the importance of global cooperation to address the existential climate crisis.
To our disappointment, the Senate recently undermined Kerry’s efforts when it passed the “U.S.Innovation and Competition Act” to tether governmental investment in technology to militarized rivalry with China. Preparations for war are not a rational response to the climate crisis, but an expensive and dangerous diversion. Hence, this bill contradicts the Biden administration’s “whole of government” approach to the climate crisis. Similarly, the Eagle Act, legislation proposed by Rep. Meeks, must be amended to remove the call for increased militarism in the Asia Pacific.
In response, Veterans For Peace calls for an end to the framing of China as the United States’ greatest national security threat. Such false framing will be used by legislators and profit-driven military contractors to justify weapons production, troop deployment, war exercises, and mock nuclear strikes in the Asian Pacific region--all in preparation for a military showdown over the future of Taiwan. U.S. militarism in the region will increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, divert resources needed to address the climate crisis, and threaten global security during an era when Pentagon planners have considered integrating nuclear weapons into conventional warfare.
Our greatest national security threat is the worsening climate crisis. Rather than squandering tax dollars and fossil fuels on war preparedness, our government needs to address the climate crisis.
Veterans For Peace requests:
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We ask that the U.S. build upon the U.S.-China Joint Statement Addressing the Climate Crisis by agreeing to track and publicly report U.S. military greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – from air, water and land within the U.S. and from the 800 overseas U.S. military bases – and by reporting the GHG emissions that come from the manufacture and transporting of military equipment and weapons.
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We ask Congress to reduce President Biden’s record high $753 billion budget for military spending, including billions of dollars for new nuclear weapons, and invest more in renewable energy, healthcare, housing, public transportation, immigration reform and racial justice.
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We ask House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to ensure that bills which demonize China, such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s US Innovation and Competition Act, never reach the floor of the House. We ask that the Eagle Act, introduced by Rep. Gregory Meeks, be amended to remove sections that call for increased militarism in the South China and stepped up military training for governments around the world.
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We ask that Joe Biden and John Kerry appear in a televised broadcast to emphasize that the heart of U.S. foreign policy is global climate collaboration.
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We ask our allied organizations to help us amplify the U.S.-China cooperation agreement to “maximize international investment and finance in support of the transition from carbon-intensive fossil fuel based energy to green, low-carbon and renewable energy in developing countries; implement the phasedown of hydrofluorocarbon production and consumption reflected in the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol; adopt green and climate resilient agricultural practices; increase deployment of renewable energy and cooperate on addressing emissions from international civil aviation and maritime activities.”
It is essential that diplomacy and collaborative responses to the climate crisis, such as the U.S.-China Climate Agreement, prevail over militarism and war preparations. That is the type of leadership the U.S. needs to provide. During these perilous times, the U.S. and China must work together for the sake of present and future generations.
Veterans For Peace National Resolutions on China:
Resolution 2020-2: Pivot to Peace with China and the World(Passed - Yes: 439, No: 7)
WHEREAS, Veterans For Peace is a global organization of Military Veterans and allies dedicated to building a culture of peace by using our experiences to inform the public of the true causes and enormous costs of wars, seeking to heal the wounds of wars, and working to end all wars and hostilities between nations, and
WHEREAS, the so-called Pivot to Asia of 2011 was in fact a pivot toward war and confrontation that that identified China as a competitor and adversary, carrying with it the threat of nuclear war, and
WHEREAS, this dangerous policy has created palpable feelings of fear, animosity and even hatred not only toward the People’s Republic of China but toward Chinese people in general and Chinese-American citizens and other Asian peoples in the United States, and
WHEREAS, humanity now faces multiple crises which threaten the well-being and very survival of our species, crises which demand the cooperation of the two largest and most powerful countries, China and the United States,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT VETERANS FOR PEACE urges the government of the United States to reject escalation towards global conflict and instead pursue peace, non-intervention, and cooperation with China and the rest of the world.
Submitted by: Eugene Ruyle, VFP Member Co-Sponsored by: VFP Chapter 20 and VFP Chapter 69
Resolution 2022-01: U.S. Hands Off Taiwan and the South China Sea
Election Results: Passed
Approve: 696 (89.69%)
Disapprove: 80 (10.31%)
Abstain: 130
WHEREAS, Taiwan and the South China Sea represent a key area where U.S. policy is likely to lead to nuclear war, whether by design or mistake, and
WHEREAS, the de facto government of Taiwan calls itself the Republic of China but is not officially recognized by the United Nations, the United States, Canada, Australia, NATO, nor over 90% of UN members. It exists solely because of the early military support by the U.S. before and after 1949, continuing to the present in various forms. U.S. arms sales to Taiwan in 2020 alone amounted to $5 billion, and
WHEREAS, in the Shanghai Communiqué of 1972, President Nixon and Chairman Mao agreed that there is only one China and Taiwan is a part of China, and
WHEREAS, the time when the U.S. Navy patrolled the Yangtze River is over. The Eurocentric idea that Asian nations require the United States to defend them has no place in the Twenty First Century, and
WHEREAS, the People's Republic of China does not now, nor has it ever, threatened the territorial security or people's well-being of the U.S., NATO, or any other country allied to the United States,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT VETERANS FOR PEACE urges the government of the United States to withdraw all military and naval forces from the Straits of Taiwan and the South China Sea,
re-examine U.S. arms sales to the ROC in Taiwan, and remember that the resolution of the status of Taiwan is the internal affair of the Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Straits into which the United States has no right to intervene.
NOTE: This resolution does not endorse any political party within the PRC nor any internal policy of the PRC, nor does it favor China over any other Asian nation. Our resolution simply grows out of a central part of our mission: to restrain our government from intervening overtly or covertly in the internal affairs of other nations.
Submitted by Eugene E. Ruyle, VFP Chapter 162 – East Bay
Co-Sponsored by:
VFP Chapter 21 – North New Jersey
VFP Chapter 35 – Spokane
VFP Chapter 69 – San Francisco
VFP China Working Group