A Chinese Naval Base -- at Long Beach by Patrick J. Buchanan
March 13, 1997
And last year, Johnny Chung, who gave $366,000 to the Democratic National Committee, showed up for a Clinton radio broadcast at the White House, with six Chinese in tow, including an adviser of Cosco. The president begged off being photographed with his guests, which raises a question: If Bill Clinton is leery of being seen with these characters, why is he giving them a Long Beach naval base?...
Does anyone care about national security anymore?
Until this week, the heart of the historic U.S. Naval Base at Long Beach was about to be leased to a shipping company, Cosco, that is a virtual subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Army.
In 1995, a Cosco ship, the Empress Phoenix, was boarded by Customs agents, who seized a cargo of 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles -- destined for Los Angeles street gangs.
And who was chief lobbyist for handing over the historic naval base to China? None other than the president of the United States. Clinton held two meetings, one in the White House with Chief of Staff Leon Panetta and a deputy secretary of defense, to press Long Beach to make the deal.
Clinton's National Security Council was not even asked for comment on whether giving China a base on the U.S. West Coast might compromise national security. Now that the deal has exploded, both Democratic senators from California have asked that the NSC review the lease.
And who will be chief reviewer? Clinton's new national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger -- a former lobbyist for the Communist Chinese at Hogan & Hartson law firm in Washington, D.C.
What a sweetheart of a deal this is for Beijing. First, the U.S. Navy gave the historic base, free, to the city of Long Beach. To persuade China to take it off their hands, the city port is building a $200 million dock for container ships to bring Chinese goods into the United States. The Chinese will pay $14.5 million a year to lease the base, and the deal will create between 300 and 600 jobs! And what will the Chinese be shipping in, besides toys?
Consider: Not only was Cosco implicated in smuggling assault rifles into the United States, federal officials say Cosco ships are subjects of frequent surveillance and have brought in "all kinds of contraband."
According to the March issue of The American Spectator, those 2,000 assault weapons on the Empress Phoenix were the first of many shipments a Chinese gun-running firm, Polytechnology, had in mind for us: "Court documents reveal that Poly had hoped to expand their business even further; they were planning to move beyond assault rifles to Chinese-made hand grenades, mortars, RPG-7 anti-tank rockets and hand-held anti-aircraft missiles (Chinese copies of the Stinger) capable of knocking commercial airliners out of the sky."
Sell RPGs and surface-to-air missiles to the Crips and Bloods, and the next L.A. gang war could be very exciting, especially at LAX. What's happened to America? Can one imagine the reaction if Ronald Reagan learned that Fidel Castro was smuggling assault rifles to U.S. street criminals?
The proper U.S. response to China's support for terrorism on the streets of L.A. should have been to call in China's ambassador and tell him that if public punishment of the offending officials was not forthcoming, he could pick up his passport. And if future arms shipments to U.S. street criminals were tied to Beijing, China would find herself discussing the matter with the 7th Fleet.
If our leaders are indifferent to national security, what about national self-respect? Within weeks of that incident with the Cosco ship, the Chinese president of Poly was having coffee with Clinton.
And last year, Johnny Chung, who gave $366,000 to the Democratic National Committee, showed up for a Clinton radio broadcast at the White House, with six Chinese in tow, including an adviser of Cosco. The president begged off being photographed with his guests, which raises a question: If Bill Clinton is leery of being seen with these characters, why is he giving them a Long Beach naval base?
Henry Kissinger now warns us, "We should not provoke what we fear most...Declaring China an enemy today before they have actually done any expansion...would have major consequences in which, in my view, we would have no allies."
But America has not been provoking China. China has been provoking us. And what is being asked is not a declaration of war but an end to appeasement and a new policy that accords with national interests and national honor: Inform China that her behavior no longer justifies the trade privileges America grants her best friends.
Congress should reject any new request for extension of Most Favored Nation status for China. If this means none of our Asian "allies" stand with us, we can do without such allies. After all, who is defending whom here?
The establishments of both parties have been deeply corrupted by corporate contributions and the China trade. It is time the grass roots told the party elites that we are going to end MFN, and they have three choices: Lead, follow or get out of the way.
