China builds up strategic sea lanes

The Washington Times ^ | January 17, 2005 | Bill Gertz

[BroncosFan]

China is building up military forces and setting up bases along sea lanes from the Middle East to project its power overseas and protect its oil shipments, according to a previously undisclosed internal report prepared for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

[BroncosFan]

Most of these tidbits are out there in the public domain if one knows where to look, but it is impressive -- and scary -- to see them gathered in one place. One observation struck home: if our sources in Iraq were that bad, how little must we know of what's going on in a place the size of China run by guys a wee bit more savy than Udai and Qusay. Burma, especially, is a blck hole. And the Kra Canal plan sounds rather impractical, but the rest is basic Mahan. And, remember, as currently constituted (that is, without Taiwan), the PLAN is rather bottled up. A few well placed attack boats and they are in a lockbox. One look at a map, though, shows how the capture/capitulation/Anschluss of Taiwan enables them to break out of said box. Let's hope the Indians get that old Russki carrier up to snuff soon.

[BroncosFan]

. . . some of the juicier pieces. Beijing already has set up electronic eavesdropping posts at Gwadar in the country's southwest corner, the part nearest the Persian Gulf. The post is monitoring ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea, the report said.

Other "pearls" in the sea-lane strategy include:

• Bangladesh: China is strengthening its ties to the government and building a container port facility at Chittagong. The Chinese are "seeking much more extensive naval and commercial access" in Bangladesh.

• Burma: China has developed close ties to the military regime in Rangoon and turned a nation wary of China into a "satellite" of Beijing close to the Strait of Malacca, through which 80 percent of China's imported oil passes.

China is building naval bases in Burma and has electronic intelligence gathering facilities on islands in the Bay of Bengal and near the Strait of Malacca. Beijing also supplied Burma with "billions of dollars in military assistance to support a de facto military alliance," the report said.

[wk4bush2004]

I read an article last week about how the communists are planning a national uprising in Burma against the military regime. I wonder if Beijing has anything to do with this.

[Arkinsaw]

The Japanese tried that one time. Didn't work.

[SaltyJoe]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1321823/posts?page=17#17

It's for the drugs.

[SaltyJoe]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1321823/posts?page=17#17

It's for the drugs.

[BroncosFan]

There are a lot mo' Chinamen this time. Armed and funded with some of the West's best.

[wk4bush2004]

But why would they want drugs? Doesn't Burma present strategic importance to them--such as an outlet to the Indian Ocean?

[Fishing-guy]

Yes, did you really need to use a racial slur?

[BroncosFan]

Give me a break. "Chinamen" is no more a racial slur than Englishmen or Irishmen. There's a whole lot of Chinamen yearn to be FREEmen or remain so (in the ROC).

[spyone]

A little off topic, but I want to know why the HELL we are looking for 12 Chinese nationals with science backgrounds in Boston. I hope the Chinese ambassador has been called in and WARNED in no uncertain terms...

[Gunslingr3]

There are a lot mo' Chinamen this time. Armed and funded with some of the West's best.

A good reason to keep building subs.

[Fishing-guy]

Give me a break too. If you don't know what's a racial slur in 2005 and have to rationalize it, then what can I say.

[SaltyJoe]

Ah! But you're not thinking like a criminal! You have to go were the money is. China, if she wanted to work for it, could have oil coming out her ears just off shore from her own coast line. But that requires investing in technology and actually working for a living. Also, she could exploit her interior for the black gold. But like offshore exploration, that would take effort. China's already a nuclear power. Why shouldn't she invest in nuclear energy as well as the HUGE hydro-electrical projects that are already underway?

Think post-Soviet criminal psychology: it's because the profits aren't coming in fast enough for the criminals. Capitalism's profit-making is no longer a dirty word. Communists (crimals) are always "success-oriented". Opium is a bigger cash crop. Gambling is another. Both are huge exploitable addictions for all mankind and not just SE Asia. That's why North Korean run almost all of the pachinko parlors in Japan.

Opium is already growing in the deep jungled/forested interior of Burma and Laos. Chinese Communist thugs will devour the drug market in Burma and Laos and in turn sell it for huge profits to tourists in Thailand. Thailand will be the focus of extreme left-wing politics the same way we are (because they are still a very free society).

This upcoming Chinese invasion of South and South East Asia will have little to do with oil and more to do with criminal enterprises. And the Chinese will bleed terribly for it. But Burma and Laos will suffer the greater scale.

Chinese will use a Tibetan/Chinese "sympathy" for the Burmese cause, and Laos has already be Communist for decades. The Chinese Communist will just move into Laos unrestrained. Thailand already has immigration problems. They will get worse.

We have to stop thinking of our adversaries as "Communists" and start labeling them what they have always been: criminals, thugs, murderers, rapists.

[wk4bush2004]

Would the rest of the world just sit and let the criminals do this?

[BroncosFan]

Yikes . . . you didn't get the memo about sleeping through diversity training? And, besides, if one can't take a poke at the greatest threat to Anglo civilization to come down the pike, what fun is life?

[Fishing-guy]

Well, as an American of Chinese/Taiwanese ancestry, I don't find it funny at all.

[elfman2]

"but it is impressive -- and scary -- to see them gathered in one place. "

Don’t be scared. Protecting their oil supply from us would be a waste of time for the foreseeable future.

If there’s any method to that madness at all, it’s to protect it from Taiwan, Japan or India.

[beaver fever]

It is a racial slur Fishing-Guy. If BroncosFan called someone a 'Chinaman' in my town he'ld get his teeth knocked out and not just by a 'Chinaman'.

[BroncosFan]

Wouldn't it be nice if we all thought of ourselves as Americans and could lighten up about various ethnic sensitivities? And isn't this thread about a foreign policy issue, not campus diversoid whining?