America's Future Update on China

Update on China's Activity in Afghanistan

Communist China is very busy working in Afghanistan but not to help us fight the Taliban. China is carrying on its own "surge" in Afghanistan behind an electrified fence, with blast-resistant sandbags, and 53 police outposts. China is preparing to extract copper from one of the richest untapped deposits on earth it's a tremendous financial investment. The China Metallurgical Group Corporation (of course, a government-owned company) bid $3.4 billion for the rights to mine deposits near the village of Aynak, outbidding Canada, Europe, Russia, and the U.S. Over the next 25 years, China expects to extract 11 million tons of copper. An American expert commented, "We do the heavy lifting, and they pick the fruit."

The China-Aynak investment underscores how China, flush with U.S. money and in control of China's government and all its major industries (remember, it's a Communist country), combine statecraft and economic strategy. Meanwhile, China has rebuffed U.S. requests to join the Afghan war effort, saying that their national policy forbids military action abroad (even though U.S. troops have made Afghanistan safe for Chinese investment). New York Times, 12-30-09

Update on the Police State in China

Communist China is going after the internet again, rolling out new measures to restrict its citizens' ability to set up personal websites and view hundreds of websites offering films, video games, and other entertainment. The measures appear devised to enhance the government's already strict control of any political opposition. Top government officials have stressed the need to police the internet on ideological and security grounds. Under the new controls, 700 websites have been shut down, including many that offered free movies, TV dramas and music downloads.

Experts say these latest measures are a continuation of the government's increasingly sophisticated effort to control the internet's influence on 300 million Chinese users. In 2009, China blocked Facebook, Twitter, You-Tube, and thousands of other websites. The trend in China is toward tighter and tighter control. New York Times, 12-18-09

The harsh sentence given to Liu Xiaobo, one of China's most prominent campaigners for democracy and human rights, prompted rebukes in the U.S. and Europe, but also showed that the West has little leverage over China. New York Times, 12-26-09

Update on China's Mischief in Cyberspace

In the summer of 2008, FBI and Secret Service agents flew to Chicago to inform Obama's campaign team that its computer system had been hacked. "Somebody's trying to get inside your systems," an FBI agent said. John McCain's campaign was hit with a similar attack. The trail in both cases led to computers in China. American presidential campaigns are not the only targets.

Communist China is significantly boosting its capabilities in cyberspace as a way to gather intelligence and, in the event of war, hit the U.S. government in a weak spot. China apparently hopes that by concentrating on holes in U.S. security architecture, China's communications and spy satellites and vast computer networks can collect intelligence to help China come out on top. This is the way the Chinese plan to counter U.S. supremacy in any potential conflict we get into with them. Washington Post, 11-11-09

Dean Cheng, the Heritage Foundation's China specialist, warned that China's leaders have declared that military operations in space are an "historic inevitability."