Military and Economic Threats from China

A senior Chinese military official, Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu, said at a an official briefing on July 14: "If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons." He was referring to U.S. military intervention in any conflict over Taiwan, which the Communist Chinese consider part of China's territory. President Bush has made clear that the United States will defend Taiwan. General Zhu said that his comments reflected his personal views, and it might seem ridiculous to think that China might attack the U.S. with nuclear weapons. Speaking in perfect English, Gen. Zhu explained the rationale for using the nuclear option: "War logic dictates that a weaker power needs to use maximum efforts to defeat a stronger rival. We have no capability to fight a conventional [non-nuclear] war against the United States. We can't win this kind of war."

Also in July, China National Offshore Oil Co. (CNOOC) made an $18.5 billion all-cash bid to acquire Unocal, one of America's oldest oil companies. That is about $2 billion more than a Chevron Corp bid. CNOOC is 70% owned by the Chinese government and its top executive was appointed by the Communist Party. CNOOC then rolled out an advertising campaign with ads to appear in Congressional Quarterly, National Journal and Roll Call. CNOOC hired one of the biggest legal-lobbying firms in Washington, Akin Gump, to lobby Congress for approval of the takeover.

CNOOC's attempt to take over California-based Unocal threatens U.S. security and would give China political leverage in areas where the oil company has resources. Rep. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said, "The simple fact is that energy is a strategic commodity" and Unocal's holdings "represent strategic assets that affect U.S. national security." Former CIA Director James Woolsey said that to accept the CNOOC deal would be "extraordinarily naive."

Some American businessmen and politicians naively believe that China's rapid economic growth is a good thing because it will bring about political reform, democracy, and peace between nations. But that isn't what is happening in China. The Chinese bosses are moving Communism to fascism rather than democracy by using capitalist technology, investment, and the nearly trillion dollars in wealth they have pocketed from the profits of selling their exports to us. The same Communist bosses are still in power, and they look upon the United States as their "main enemy." Last year, China ran a trade surplus with us of $162 billion, and since 1995 the cumulative U.S. trade deficit with China is nearly $900 billion. This enormous amount of U.S. cash enables China to build up its military and to buy U.S. strategic properties.

President Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot by cutting off the Soviet Union from outside sources of capital, technology and trade until the Soviet Union collapsed. Our trade policy should not be allowed to increase the capabilities of our enemies to threaten us.

America's Future Update on China

Update on National Security

China has begun to step up its intelligence activities against the U.S. in efforts to acquire sensitive information that would make it possible for China to rapidly develop high-tech weaponry. David Szady, the head of the FBI's foreign counterintelligence unit, says, "What we're finding is that [Chinese efforts are] much more focused in certain areas than we ever thought, such as command and control and things of that sort. In the military area, the rapid development of their `blue-water' navy, like the Aegis weapons systems, in no small part is probably due to some of the research and development they were able to get from the United States." In order to gather U.S. sensitive technical data, the Chinese use traditional espionage activities directed against American defense industries and hundreds of thousands of unofficial spies (tourist visitors and students). According to U.S. government estimates, China has established some 3,200 front companies to illicitly acquire information on and components of sophisticated U.S. technology. China Reform Monitor No. 593, 7-6-05

Update on Books

One of the most important books published this year is China: The Gathering Threat. The author, the late Constantine Menges, had a distinguished career as a military strategist, and during the Reagan Administration, he drew up the plan for Reagan's successful overthrow of the Communist regime in Grenada. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Constantine Menges turned his attention to the growing threat from China. He believed that current U.S. trade policy is giving China the resources to challenge American security interests all over the world.

The U.S. has built up Communist China by giving China incredible sums of hard currency, foreign investment, cheap credit and priceless technology transfers. It is the duty of our government to care about this shift in the balance of power against the United States. Menges' book advocates an immediate end to trade deficits with China, and argues that our political leaders must be willing to act against the corporate interests that are profiting from building China into an anti-American super power.

Update on Environmentalism

When President Bush met with the G-8 Summit in Scotland in July, he was under heavy pressure and criticism from the Europeans to accept the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty. Bush steadfastly rejected this because it would have a devastating effect on U.S. jobs. But nobody wanted to talk about the fact that Communist China accounts for 14% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The World Bank found that China has 7 of the world's 10 most polluted cities. Most Chinese factories and power plants are not only dirty but grossly inefficient. Energy consumption per unit of GDP is 7 times higher than in Japan, 6 times higher than in the U.S., and even 3 times higher than India. China is the world's biggest consumer of coal, and consumption is projected to double by 2020. Sulphur dioxide emissions blanket one-third of the country and acid rain covers two-thirds of its cities. China's pollution will grow exponentially in the future as the purchasing power and consumption of its citizens increase. Toronto Star, 6-30-05