[EGPWS]

The Washington Times broke the story of Beijing's delivery of thousands of ring magnets to Pakistan in 1996, the same type Beijing sold to Saddam Hussein just before the Gulf War.

Swell!
We can't underestimate China's influence in the world. They have been very aggressive and since their aquiring of HongKong they have a keen sense of free enterprise. When I visited in '98 for the first time, I was in ahh with the infrastructure construction going on in Beijing.

[GOP_1900AD]

Even more troubling is the infrastructure going in in the south. The first step connects HK - GuangZhou - Zhong Shan with the interior, in particular Kunming. Superhighways, improved rail, etc. The second phase builds out the superhighways and new rail links and connects with a similar effort going in in ASEAN. The ASEAN businessmen are licking their chops about all the money they will make from increased truck and train freighted goods with the PRC. What they are apparently not thinking about are all the tanks (and the many transporter trailers for them) as well as TELs with DF-15s, DF-21s and other smaller missiles, all of which could be swarming over the entirety of ASEAN within a couple of days, once the roads are all hooked up. And I can assure you that none of the ASEAN countries have the types of force structures that could seriously oppose this sort of blitz by the PLA. And, I hasten to say, unlike the case in Germany during the Cold War, when we faced the Soviets there, there are no forward deployed US forces in any substantial numbers anywhere in ASEAN. ASEAN is wide open for the taking by the PLA. The objective? Control of the strategic Strait of Malacca and the Isthmus of Kra.