CHINA WATCHES, WAITS: MASSIVE MILITARY BUILD-UP, MAJOR ESPIONAGE EFFORT

Despite assurances from just-resigned Secretary of State Collin Powell regarding U.S.-China relations, the second term of the administration of George W. Bush could encounter a major war in the Pacific, and is witnessing a major espionage offensive.

Communist China is demonstrating an increasingly high level of aggression and military intrusion against its neighbors, engaging in actions which could pull the United States into a naval war in the Pacific.

Taiwan faces invasion - possibly at any moment -- from China, at least one Chinese submarine has intruded into Japanese waters, and, most amazingly, Chinese intelligence services have been able to acquire a file of personal data on nearly every inhabitant on the island of Taiwan. Communist China's spy services have targeted and succeeded in obtaining files on military service records, vehicle and household registration, and national health data, according to the Taiwan news daily, the Taipei Times.

China claims Taiwan as a rebel province. The government on Taiwan, known formally as the Republic of China on Taiwan (ROC), fled to the island following its defeat at the hands of Communist forces on the mainland. Although the U.S. no longer has formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the U.S. remains committed to the island under the terms of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.

China's ability to compromise nearly every citizen of Taiwan, including the highest ranking military and governmental personnel, raises alarming questions concerning Beijing's espionage capabilities directed against other opponents, including the United States. Already in the mid and late 1990s, newspaper headlines reported the loss of important U.S. military and technology secrets to China. It is an open question as to how far Beijing has gone in the penetration and documentation of American society.

The mainland Communist government remains adamant in its determination to invade at the first declaration of Taiwan independence, and recent statements from Beijing declare that Taiwan is "playing with fire" as it presses for recognition as a separate nation.

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has vowed to seek a membership for Taiwan in the United Nations as an independent state, further enraging Beijing.

China is conducting an impressive modernization of its armed forces, which leads Pentagon observers to warn that Beijing could eventually rival U.S. forces in the Pacific. China is building an increasingly sophisticated military to successfully obstruct any U.S. attempt to aid Taiwan in case of Communist invasion.

China's military capabilities potentially not only threaten Taiwan, as China's disputes with its neighbors grow and as the nations in the Asia-Pacific region keep a wary eye on the increasingly powerful Red Dragon.

Japanese naval forces recently hunted a foreign submarine intruding into Japan's territorial waters. Indications from the sub's identifiable sounds and its course of sail pointed to Communist China as its nation of origin.

The incident occurred 75 miles south of a group of disputed islands, known as the Senkaku to the Japanese and Diaoyu to the Chinese, highlighting the contest between Japan and China for oil and gas resources believed to exist in the region.

Following two days of international crisis, China finally admitted that the "mystery" sub was theirs, and claimed a "technical error" for the intrusion.

The United States Navy is the only major force in the Pacific belonging to a democratic nation, and America remains committed to the defense of Taiwan, Japan and other allies in the region.

In 1958, the U.S. fought alongside Taiwanese forces in a deadly artillery conflict with China's Peoples Liberation Army, and in the following years sent naval forces on several occasions to deter a mainland attack on Taiwan.

As China's power grows, so too will the challenge to the U.S. presence in the region, and America's commitment to its allies.

Another very important (Newsmax) article I hope my fellow FReepers will take the time to read (Indeed, I recommend reading ALL of Nemets articles):

The Eurasian Axis Dr. Alexandr Nemets Monday, Oct. 20, 2003

On Oct. 8-9, a German-Russian summit took place in Yekaterinburg city, also known as the capital of Ural; this was the sixth German-Russian summit during President Vladimir Putin’s regime, i.e., in three and a half years.

Ministers of Foreign Affairs Ivanov and Fisher, Ministers of Internal Affairs Gryzlov and Shilli, Ministers of Trade and Economy Gref and Klement, etc., participated in the summit. In addition, German Chancellor Gerhard sSchroeder brought a group of 50 leading German businessmen, including the presidents of Ruhrgas, Deutsche Bank and Lufthansa Airline. In 1995, Russian President Boris Yeltsin proposed to French President Jacques Chiraq and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to have a summit in Yekaterinburg for the purpose of establishing a new German-French-Russian political axis. This summit didn't take place.

In March 2003, during the Iraqi War (when the Paris-Berlin-Moscow-Beijing axis, for the first time ever, went from the darkness to the light), Putin sent Schroeder a new invitation to visit Yekaterinburg. It is unknown whether French President Chiraq received the same invitation. However, Schroeder almost certainly represented, at the last summit, the interests of France in addition to Germany.

In 2002, German-Russian trade reached $24 billion and could slightly increase in 2003. By the end of 2003, the accumulated volume of German investment in Russia reached $7 billion. Germany is the largest creditor of Russia: it owns 40 percent of Russian debts to the London Club, or $17 billion. Germany is one of the few countries investing money in the Russian manufacturing industry. The number of Russian enterprises with German participation reached 2,500.

It should be stressed that Germany receives from Russia 23 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, mostly from Gazprom Corp.; this satisfies at least one-third of the German demand for natural gas.

Presently, Russia sells natural gas to Germany and other European customers for about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters, while Russian customers pay (if based on the official exchange rate) only $20 per 1,000 cubic meters. Putin and Schroeder discussed ways to raise Russia’s internal prices for energy, including gas, up to the world level.

In this case, Russia’s internal consumption of natural gas would definitely drop – just as it already happened with crude oil and oil products – and Russia would receive huge resources for gas export to Germany and other EU countries.

The two sides signed agreements about facilitating the issuing of visas and expanding cooperation between Germany and Russia’s most-western Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. They also signed an agreement for transportation, through Russia, of German military personnel and goods to Afghanistan.

Remarkably, the two sides discussed the problems of Iraq, North Korea and Iran, and found how close their positions are; the differences are small if any. And the joint position of these two countries in these areas differs greatly from America’s.

Many years ago, French leaders produced the idea of a "United Europe" from the Atlantic to Ural. However, this United Europe has nothing to do with American interests.

Simultaneously with the summit in Yekaterinburg, on Oct. 10, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mehdi Karubi met, in Tehran, a delegation from the German Bundestag. Karubi emphasized during the meeting that the Iranian nuclear program is "transparent, peaceful and contains no threat to the world."

He also stressed that "criminal actions of Zionists contribute to instability in the Middle East." It looks as if these statements elicited no serious objections from the German guests. Speaker Mekhdi also said that development and expansion of political and economic ties with the EU, particularly with Germany, is a priority for Tehran.

Volker Ruhe, the head of the Bundestag delegation, supported the expansion of ties between Germany and Iran and "highly estimated the recent processes of democracy expanding in Iran." He also appealed to Iran’s role in local conflict solving.

These were just two messages, from many, characterizing relations among Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang. The Paris-Berlin-Moscow-Beijing axis is growing and strengthening; and the nice regimes in Tehran and Pyongyang are becoming its clients.

This is bad by itself, but the deliberate ignoring of this reality by official Washington, D.C., is even worse. We know that the Bush administration concentrates all its efforts on solving the problems of postwar Iraq. However, very probably, just the activity of some participants and clients of the Eurasian Axis – especially those very interested in high oil prices on the world market and very uninterested in restoring the Iraqi oil industry – effectively blocks these efforts.

In March 2003, when American-Russian relations were at their low ebb, Gleb Pavlovsky, one of Putin’s "dark strategists," published in the major Moscow papers, including the official Russian army paper Krasnaya Zvezda, several articles, which can be condensed to the following: Russia should ‘help’ America to exhaust itself in the struggle for world hegemony. Eventually America will crash – as the USSR crashed – and will crawl back to the North American continent.

Despite all the sweet words between Washington and Moscow, the Kremlin continues working only in this direction. And not without success: Look at the figures of the federal deficit. Indeed, for how long will America be capable of maintaining its presence, particularly a military presence, in Iraq and other key regions of the world?

And would it be possible for America to take even a step ahead in the Middle East, i.e., to increase its political and military presence in Trans-Caucasus region (in Georgia and Azerbaijan) and in Central Asia? Kremlin and the entire Eurasian Axis spare no effort to prevent the strengthening of the American position in this vital zone. And without such a strengthening, any hopes for a changed situation in Iran and termination of the Iranian nuclear-missile program would fail.

On Sept. 25-28, the leading Beijing papers published a series of comments on the Bush-Putin summit. They can be condensed to the following:

a) Putin escapes direct confrontation with America. Moreover, he intends to get as much money from America and the entire West – in the form of hydrocarbons export and Western investment in Russia – as possible.

b) Putin pretends to be "a friend of America" and repeats phrases about "joint Russian-American struggle against terrorism"; this allows Putin to run wild in Chechnya and the surrounding Muslim regions of North Caucasus, without problems with the West.

c) However, in some principal areas, such as helping modernize the Iranian military or preventing any American action against North Korea, Putin is adamant: President Bush will get nothing here.

It is necessary to admit that the conclusions of the Beijing media are correct. Putin merely "plays a friend of America" and, at the same time, works for solidifying and expanding the Eurasian Axis, the new world pole, generally hostile to the USA and its close allies.

Remarkably, these articles in the Beijing papers even didn't touch the possible influence of the Bush-Putin summit over the huge – and still growing – supplies of Russian warfare and dual-use technology to China. This is a real sacred cow for the Kremlin.

***Finally, the author has begun distributing the book "Chinese-Russian Alliance," written jointly with his friend Dr. Thomas Torda, with the support of NewsMax.com. The table of contents is given below. Purchasing information is at the Web site http://excelenterprises1.tripod.com

Link:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/10/19/214534.shtml

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