growing divide between leftists who embrace vs reject cold war dynamics. one camp supposes inter-imperial conflict as given (even desirable) and are already siding with a geopolitical bloc. other sees this as a grave threat to internationalism that must be opposed at all costs.

from my experience you’ll find many hong kong, taiwanese, south korean, filipino, vietnamese leftists in the latter category—we are too familiar with the false choice between empires and have the least to gain from a new cold war. we occupy middle positions and refuse to be used

frustration: western leftists ashamed / horrified by western imperialism & colonialism adopt a posture of resignation to west’s violence and decide to back the opposing geopolitical bloc instead. yet imperial core leftists are the ones who could actually dismantle west’s violence

western leftists who leap to backing the opposing bloc rather than work with transnational left activists trying to critique and reject cold war logic end up misidentifying those activists as the enemy. no, we are trying to stop this conflict whereas you’ve already chosen a side

unlike the western leftists bleating about supporting the ccp, idea that hong kong leftists would have anything to gain under open us-china conflict is absurd. it is our home, our friends, our families who would be caught in the middle, first in the line of fire, first to suffer

fact is leftists living in the imperial core, whether they back “the other side” or not, will survive a new cold war. what they need to do—and are not doing—is center voices of people caught in between, who can’t afford to frame the world in facile binaries. we need a way out.