America's Future Update on China

Update on National Security

The U.S. has indicted seven Chinese nationals on charges they smuggled illegal Chinese through the Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports and attempted to bribe U.S. immigration agents with $200,000. The smugglers charged the illegals up to $50,000 per person. Sun-Sentinel, 4-17-02

Li Ka-shing is being considered as a possible vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body to Communist China's parliament. Li's Hong Kong company, Hutchison Whampoa, owns 25-year leases for strategic tracts of land at both ends of the Panama Canal. He has a vast array of business interests at major ports all over the world. Straits Times (Panama), 3-15-02

China is building up its strategic missile force by converting silo missiles to road-mobile ICBMs, and North Korea, Iran and Iraq are continuing to work on long-range strike weapons, according to the U.S. National Intelligence Council. Washington Times, 1-10-02


China's man won an uncontested second term as Hong Kong's chief executive. No one dared to challenge Tung Chee-hwa, a shipping magnate with close ties to Beijing, after China's president Jiang Zemin endorsed him. China Reform Monitor 432, 3-4-02

Update on Free Trade

According to China scholar Dr. Arthur Waldron, "the Communist Party allocates scarce resources to state enterprises manufacturing things people don't want and won't buy. These enterprises are kept afloat by ‘loans' (never repaid) from the massive savings the Chinese people entrusted to the state-controlled banks. If you are state-controlled and losing money, you qualify for big loans. If you are private and growing, you do not. That is a recipe not for growth but for economic collapse." Washington Post, 3-21-02

Li Ka-shing has made an effort to head a consortium to buy Global Crossing, a major U.S. telecommunications firm now in financial difficulties. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher wrote Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to oppose this proposed sale. Global Crossing, which provides integrated telecommunications services over the world's most extensive global fiber-optic network, controls an estimated 20% of the fiber-optic network connecting the U.S. with the world. Washington Times, 4-10-02

The proliferation of sales of missile goods, mostly from China, Russia and North Korea, has boosted efforts of developing nations to build missiles. China's sales of M-11 short-range missiles have helped Pakistan to build longer-range missiles. Washington Times, 1-10-02

Update on Human Rights

When President George W. Bush visited China and addressed that nation on live national TV, his remarks calling for religious tolerance were promptly edited out from the official transcript. Even before Bush boarded Air Force One for his return trip, China's state-controlled media put out their own version of the speech he gave to university students, deleting large passages about American liberty. China Reform Monitor 431, 2-25-02

China's atheist rulers are handpicking favored state-sponsored religions, arresting dissidents who follow independent religious teachings, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports. The government insists only Chinese versions of religious texts can be used. Those who disagree end up in jail. In state-supervised Christianity, the government vets the church, the priests and ministers, even the prayer books. China Reform Monitor 438, 4-4-02

China sentenced a Hong Kong citizen to two years in prison for bringing thousands of Bibles into China for use by a banned evangelical Christian group. He was charged with "using a cult to subvert the law," a crime that can carry a death sentence. The charge was reduced after the U.S. ambassador lobbied for leniency. New York Times, 1-29-02