Stop Letting Them Treat Us Like a Turkey

Townhall.com ^ | November 30, 2007 | Diana West

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

What could the USS Kitty Hawk and Citigroup possibly have in common?

I'll start with the aircraft carrier because I'm still stewing over what happened when the People's Republic of China abruptly denied the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying ships and submarines their routine, scheduled Thanksgiving berth in Hong Kong, where hundreds of crew members' families had gathered (at considerable expense) to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones.

First, there was the nasty act itself. News accounts speculated about the "reason" -- was it President Bush's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama? Our latest arms agreement with Taiwan? -- but there's no rationale worth gleaning beyond the fact the Chinese wished to snub us very publicly on a quintessential American holiday. And so they did.

Then there was our reaction, best described as muted. Indeed, "perplexed" was one of the stronger words used to describe the U.S. attitude, which was also quick to assert that future military exchanges and whatnot with the Communist Chinese wouldn't suffer.

Well, couldn't they suffer just a little bit? There's got to be a better U.S. response -- somewhere between imitating a doormat and lobbing a nuclear warhead -- to abusive Chinese gamesmanship. The Pentagon has now issued a formal protest of the incident, which includes a second even more egregious instance in which China denied access to two U.S. minesweepers seeking shelter in Hong Kong from a storm. But overall, as a nation, we slap a relentlessly happy face on things.

And that goes for all of us, certainly as consumers. The day after the Hong Kong Affront, millions of us set out on pilgrimages all across America to malls where we scooped up all manner of goods "made in China" without a second thought for the Kitty Hawk sailors chugging back to home port in Japan without seeing their families in Hong Kong. We weren't thinking of much besides that giant plasma TV at 40 percent off. We certainly weren't wondering whether it was (dare I say it?) patriotic to buy Chinese. And not simply because of this recent cat-and-mousing around. China is using the dollars we pay for heaps of stuff we don't need to bulk up as our military and political rival.

As consumers in a global economy where brand loyalty usually trumps national consciousness, we don't think of it that way. Partly that's because our leaders don't think of it that way, either. They certainly don't talk about it that way. "Money makes the world go around" sums up the conventional wisdom. Which is probably as good a point as any to bring in the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority's recent infusion of $7.5 billion into Citigroup.

In exchange, Abu Dhabi will receive a guaranteed, whopping 11 percent return on its investment, which analysts flag as an indicator of Citigroup's desperation. But there's something else about the deal, something few consider: The deal necessarily accelerates the Islamization of Western finance. The Abu Dhabi government is now Citigroup's largest stockholder. The second-largest stockholder is a Saudi prince -- Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the one whose millions then-Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani turned down, Harvard and Georgetown snapped up, and who also owns 5.5 percent of Fox News.

Is this a great thing for America? Or is the Islamization of American banking a concern? All Western financial institutions are increasingly accommodating Islamic finance, with its adherence to Sharia (Islamic law) and the collection of zakat (charitable tax), which analysts such as Rachel Ehrenfeld and Jeffrey Imm tell us help finance jihadist indoctrination and terror groups. Do the financial mechanisms to support these anti-Western practices belong at the center of American finance?

Stunningly, the question doesn't seem to occur to the powers that be -- including Congress, where hearings on Sharia finance would well serve the nation. In a paper called "Islamic Finance or Financing Islamism?" Alex Alexiev of the Center for Security Policy outlines the threat this way: "To put it simply, any Western institution that endorses Shariah-compliant products, ipso facto endorses the hateful Islamist ideology behind it, whether they know it or not. Shariah is an integral doctrine and there is no such thing as selecting just a few convenient Shariah tenets and rejecting the rest. By endorsing Shariah, Western banks end up becoming what Lenin called useful idiots or worse to the Islamists. And it is a very thin line between that and outright complicity in the Islamist agenda."

Something else for our leaders to become, er, perplexed about.

Diana West is a contributing columnist for Townhall.com and author of the new book, The Death of the Grown-up: How America's Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization.

[rockabyebaby]

And we're STILL importing goods crap from China....

[Verginius Rufus]

The new revelations about Chinese behavior towards the US Navy yesterday were far more important than the melodrama in Rochester, NH, or the death of Evel Knievel...but probably got less than 1% as much attention.

[secretagent]

Shariah is an integral doctrine and there is no such thing as selecting just a few convenient Shariah tenets and rejecting the rest.

I dunno. Don't Muslims accuse each other all the time of heresy?

[sauropod]

read

[Gondring]

Or is the Islamization of American banking a concern?

Who cares? America doesn't care about its future...it just wants the bucks today. :-(

BTW, the USS Reuben James has been denied entry into Hong Kong on New Year's Day--the denial coming at the same time China reportedly claimed that the USS Kitty Hawk denial was in error.

Let's just get Hillary elected so we can get over all this silly misunderstanding stuff and just sell ourselves out to them.

</sarc>

[SeaWolf]

THis was not a idle action, it was a statement about the COngress honoring the Dali Lama.

[Tirian]

My made-in-China radiator lasted all of 15 months before it corroded through, and I’m getting less and less likely to buy “Made in China” unless there’s a major brand name to back it up (and even then I think about it). Maybe we need a catchy phrase
Not Made in China (NMIC)?
Anywhere but China (ABC)?
When Chinese Get the Vote (WCGTV)?

[cripplecreek]

The Dali Lama is just one excuse. We now find that they’ve done this a few times. China is just backhanding us because they can. Why shouldn’t they, mexico treats us like their lapdogs too.

[rineaux]

“China is just backhanding us because they can”

Don’t be concerned, our boys and girls in Washington (both parties) will make the relationship with China all better by sending them a billion dollar gift of some sort. Should make China our friends for some time.

Taxpayer money always fixes our “misunderstandings” with other governments.

[GATOR NAVY]

The new revelations about Chinese behavior towards the US Navy yesterday were far more important than the melodrama in Rochester, NH, or the death of Evel Knievel...but probably got less than 1% as much attention.

I would also point out that the refusal of the Chicoms to grant refuge from a storm to the two USN minesweepers is a far more serious issue than the turning away of KITTY HAWK from a liberty visit but it is also getting less attention.

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=china

#

http://truthusa.com/a/index.php?board=12.0

#

http://truthusa.com/a/index.php?topic=877.0

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http://truthusa.com/a/index.php?topic=465.0

[annie laurie]

Yet another great reason to ...

BUY AMERICAN!

Check out this thread for resources:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1929770/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1929770/posts#39

[cripplecreek]

I haven’t forgotten when they forced our spyplane down and held our airmen back in 01. We did get the plane back in pieces after the Chinese scraped every piece of technology they could out of it. Fortunately our airmen managed to destroy a lot before it reached the ground.

[matthew fuller]

Not to worry, George and Condi will take care of this right away..... George, Condi?..........George?....Condi?.....

[RC2]

Get the book “Defensive Racism by Edgar Steele”. There’s more to this book than the title. Everybody should read this book. There’s more to what’s going on with our government than people realize. Our fathers and grandfathers are probably rolling over in their graves because of what we are allowing to happen to our country.

[Verginius Rufus]

The refusal of refuge during a storm was the most outrageous incident, but that had been reported earlier. According to FNC, yesterday it came out that the pattern of behavior on the part of the Chinese government was much widespread (like 9 incidents instead of 2).

We've become so addicted to importing cheap goods and toys from China that the Chinese probably figure we have no alternative but to put up with their conduct...and they probably expect a Clinton in office in 2009 who will be as subservient as Bill was.

[Lexinom]

These two men were executed and subsequently mutilated by the selfsame China that benefits from a lopsided trade agreement tariffs on our goods and subsidies for theirs:

*******

Mr. Zuo Zhigang, age 33, was arrested on May 30, 2001, by the Shijiazhuang City police. He was beaten to death that night at the Qiaoxi District Police Station. His corpse was covered with scars, and there were two large square-shaped holes on the back of his torso, consistent with kidney harvesting.

Mr. Ren Pengwu, age 33, was arrested by the police in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province on February 16, 2001. Five days later, he was murdered and all his organs, from his pharynx and larynx to his penis, were removed. The authorities hastily cremated his remains that same day without his family's knowledge or consent.

*******

And they are a "Most Favored Nation"... Just how far do we take this charade of "free trade" with this hostile power?

Send a statement about China this Holiday shopping season. And let's do our level best to make clear to all that this is not about lead paint...

[Lexinom]

Here’s a very serious question: Why do you think that is?

[cripplecreek]

Considering the fact that they’ve seized a spy plane and refused our ships during this administration, I hate to think what they would expect out of another Clinton.