Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

(Global Times) Recently, a perspective has emerged in the US suggesting that a "full-scale war" with China would quickly deplete munitions stockpiles, highlighting the necessity to strengthen America's industrial base and increase munitions production capacity to address this "challenge."

Such views not only reflect a Cold War mind-set but also expose some US politicians' disregard for global peace and their obsession with the logic of war.

After World War II, the US built the largest military-industrial complex in the world. This system produces weapons and manufactures the reasons for war, which are closely linked to its economy. 

From the Korean Peninsula to Vietnam, and from Iraq to Afghanistan, every US military intervention has served as fuel for this machine. Now, the US war machine needs a new target. 

As the world's second-largest economy, China has become its designated "enemy."

Some politicians call for industrial mobilization to prepare for a "future war," even framing China's efficient defense industry as a threat. This logic reveals the US military-industrial complex's dependence on war and Washington's obsession with maintaining its global hegemony, using war profits to support economic development.

The US and China's defense industrial development paths are fundamentally different. China's defense industry is a natural extension of its economic and manufacturing development, with its defense industry developed primarily to safeguard national security. It is inherently defensive - like a tree whose trunk represents civilian industries, while its defense industry is merely a branch that grows naturally from the trunk. Moreover, the continuous upgrading of China's military industry is mainly in response to the new challenges facing national security.

China has not plundered or invaded other countries in the past, nor will it do so in the future. It is also unlikely to deploy military bases around the world, as the US has done.

The US, however, has chosen a different path. Some US politicians explicitly call for ramping up the production of munitions and establishing hot production lines to prepare for a "full-scale war" with China. This approach resembles a factory built for war, with its singular purpose being the production of destruction and death. The US industrial base is increasingly being hijacked by the logic of war, turning it into a driver of global tensions.

Some US politicians are playing a dangerous game. They seem to believe that military preparations and industrial mobilization will give them an advantage in their confrontation with China. But this thinking is a fatal miscalculation: Full-scale war between great powers means mutual destruction. 

Some US politicians are calling for preparation for war. This suggestion is not a strategic plan at all, but a form of strategic self-destruction. This is akin to playing with matches in a powder keg: You may think you can control the flames, but once a chain reaction begins, the result will be disastrous.

They are akin to gamblers who know they may lose everything but continue to raise the stakes. The difference this time is that the wager is not just on America's future but also on the future of human civilization and the world's peaceful development.

The China-US relationship is one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world. Its trajectory will not only determine the future of both nations but also the peace and stability of the entire globe. If some US politicians continue to design the US' China policy around the logic of war, they will drag the whole world into an unwinnable endgame.

The world needs peace and cooperation, not the self-destructive preparation for war.