27-12-2024: Less than six months after Julian Assange was finally released from prison in the United Kingdom after years of detention without trial, the federal government has agreed to a US (United States of America) government request for the extradition of another Australian citizen. On December the 23rd, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) Attorney General Mark Dreyfus stated that he had approved the extradition of Daniel Duggan to America. Dreyfus stated that Duggan was given the opportunity to provide representations as to why he should not be surrendered to the US,[1] but in reality, the Australian government has not altered its subservience to its US masters one iota. Incredulously, the former US Marines pilot is accused of breaching arms trafficking laws by training Chinese pilots in South African more than a decade ago – allegations he flatly denies.[2] “Top Gun” Duggan was born in the US but became an Australian citizen 13 years ago.

Two years already served

Duggan has already served two years in the Lithgow maximum security prison, 150 kilometres west of Sydney. He is a father of six children and faces a prison sentence of 65 years if found guilty. At his current age of 56, this would be a life sentence. Duggan served 12 years in the US Marine Corp before he moved to Australia and founded Top Gun Tasmania, a business that offered clients an opportunity to fly in military trainer jets. The charges against Duggan are paper thin. He stands charged with a count of conspiracy to defraud the USA, two counts of exporting defence materials and services in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. He also faces a count of conspiracy to commit money laundering as he handled the proceeds of his alleged efforts to help train Chinese military pilots.[3] The charges sound ludicrous on the face of it, and smack of being whipped up in an attempt to prove a non-existent case. Duggan states that he only trained civilian pilots with information which was publicly available in online textbooks while in South Africa.

Duggan’s partner Saffrine, his wife and mother to his six children, released an impassioned statement on the news from the Australian government just two days before Christmas. In a video message, she stated: “We are shocked and absolutely heartbroken by this callous and inhumane decision which has been announced just before Christmas with no explanation or justification from the government….we feel abandoned by the Australian government and deeply disappointed that they have completely failed in their duty to protect an Australian family.”[4] It is certainly callous and inhumane, but the Australian ruling class is entirely beholden to Washington and will submit to the Pentagon as long as it requires political scapegoats for its never-ending preparations for war against the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Between 2009 and 2012, when the alleged training of Chinese pilots by Duggan took place, the political conditions were not as they are ten years hence. At that time, former US President Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia” was only just beginning, and it was not certain that the US and its Australian satrap was going to engage in military confrontations and conflict with the PRC.

Suicidal war in the Asia Pacific

Today, unless Washington and Canberra can be stopped, there will be a Western-led attack on the PRC in the Asia Pacific. Word has it that Australian Navy personnel have been told to prepare for war with China by 2027. To enable a war to proceed, the political conditions have to be put in place. Scapegoats need to be found and made an example of, as a warning to anyone even thinking of assisting the Asian superpower or taking its side. The notion that this was the motivation of Daniel Duggan is extremely far-fetched. Even if he did use his expertise to train Chinese pilots, it is illogical to suggest he was doing so to enable the Chinese military to attack the US or Australia. What is much more likely is that the US and Australian elites need to find some evidence – even if totally manufactured – to present the PRC as some kind of “threat”. Given that the PRC’s actions have not even come remotely close to resembling a threat, anti-China propaganda campaigns need to be contrived out of threadbare material. This is the basic reason for the extradition of Daniel Duggan.

A US led war on the world’s largest industrial superpower is a suicide mission. Yet “free enterprise” in the West is in such a dire state that a catastrophic war on China is the only option which has the slightest possibility of pulling capitalism in the US, Europe and Australia out of years of economic recession. So war on China will happen – unless we stop it. Large parts of northern Australia are being used for ever more extensive US military bases, on top of the Pine Gap spy base which Australian citizens are already forbidden to enter. Australian politicians themselves are not even permitted to know which US military warships are docking in Australian ports, what military equipment is being unloaded, and how much aviation fuel is being stored in RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) for filling US warplanes for sorties over the Asia Pacific. All of this and more is aimed squarely at the PRC.

Just a couple of indicators of the PRC’s manufacturing superiority suffice to demonstrate why the West cannot stop Red China – short of war. Today, the PRC’s new shipbuilding capacity stands at 232 times that of the US – 33 200 000 tons vs 100 000 tons.[5] By the end of 2024, the PRC already has the capacity to supply more than half of the global market for cars, which typically around 90 million vehicles per year.[6] This goes for vehicles using both the ageing internal combustion engine (ICE) and new generation electric vehicles (EV). One reason for this is that the PRC’s state-owned banks can supply virtually unlimited credit for Chinese manufactured vehicles, but these massive subsidies are only available for EVs with a battery made within the Chinese mainland. State supplied credit and state provided subsidies, even on their own, means that capitalist production in the West cannot compete.

At a certain point, the clear advantages of socialistic rule in the PRC will expose the rapid degeneration of imperialism in the West. The ruling class in Washington knows this and is preparing for war. It is up to working people to prevent this via the urgent construction of Marxist vanguard parties which can lead the struggle against war and towards a real socialism. This will end the epic injustice of political scapegoats and much else besides. FREE DANIEL DUGGAN! NO WAR ON CHINA!

Workers League

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@redfireonline.com

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[1] www.apnews.com/article/australia-extradition-marine-pilot-duggan-chinese-military- (26-12-2024)

[2] www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-23/daniel-duggan-to-be-extradited-to-us/104758336 (26-12-2024)

[3] www.theepochtimes.com/us/australia-approves-extradition-of-us-marine-pilot-vet-accused-of-training-chinese-military-5780907 (26-12-2024)

[4] www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14220417/Heartbroken-family-shocked-Aussie-Gun-pilot-Daniel-Duggan-extradited-face-trial-allegedly-training-Chinese-military.html (26-12-2024)

[5] www.globalresearch.ca/china-shipbuilding-capacity-232-times-us/5875612 (26-12-2024)

[6] www.cfr.org/blog/will-china-take-over-global-auto-industry (26-12-2024)

Image: Daniel Duggan in his days as a pilot trainer. http://www.facts.net