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Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, is the author of seven books on international affairs, including America's Coming War with China: A Collision Course over Taiwan (2006). The People's Republic of China continues to send worrisome signals about its security strategy. As the tone of cross-straits relations grows increasingly strident, China's latest military reshuffle and ongoing lack of transparency about its military budget are creating new tensions with both the United States and its neighbors in East Asia. In the lead-up to the opening of the Communists' 17th National Party Congress...

Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday resolved what had been viewed as the biggest obstacle to Senate progress on legislation to grant permanent favorable trade status to China. Majority Leader Trent Lott and Sen. Fred Thompson announced jointly that the Senate would vote separately next month on legislation to penalize China for contributing to weapons proliferation. In exchange, Thompson, the sponsor of that measure, agreed not to pursue it as an amendment to the trade bill. The Clinton administration and other China-trade bill supporters feared the Senate would adopt Thompson's proposal if offered as an amendment -- and that it could...

Vietnam is seeking entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). Vietnam is also seeking U.S. Congressional approval for Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) from the U.S. The President of the United States is expected to travel to Vietnam in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Conference. Yet Vietnam continues to take actions contrary to its own self interests by jailing political antagonists for “crimes” such as posting democratically themed essays on the internet. Two of these prisoners are Cong Thanh Do and Thuong N. “Cuc” Foshee, and there are others. Cong Thanh Do used the internet to spread “democratic”...

US senators launch bill to repeal China's trading status 2 hours, 7 minutes ago Two US senators have proposed legislation that would repeal permanent normal trade relations status for China, citing Beijing's alleged unfair trade practices and a rocketing US trade deficit. The US Congress granted China the PNTR status in 2000, which paved the way for the most populous nation to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO) and for US businesses to deal more seamlessly with Beijing. But senators Byron Dorgan and Lindsey Graham, co-authors of the bipartisan measure, said the status should be rescinded in retaliation for China's...

Why Rumsfeld wants to engage China By Andrew Tully WASHINGTON - US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's willingness to resume military contacts with China comes at a time of what appears to be increasing tension between the two countries. China recently issued a report expressing concern about the US military presence in the Pacific Ocean, and it described as "grim" the security situation in the strait that separates China and Taiwan - an island Beijing calls a "renegade province". But some observers say such differences are not the reason Rumsfeld is interested in visiting China. James Lilley, a former US ambassador...

By JOHN TORINUSSpecial to the Journal Sentinel Posted: March 14, 2004 Jerry Skoff and his fellow "patriots" at Save American Manufacturing (SAM) are having a grand old time. A couple dozen of them picketed a conference at the Italian Community Center Thursday by the World Trade Center Wisconsin on global outsourcing, winning coverage for SAM's position against trade agreements from three Milwaukee TV stations. Later that night, Skoff, president of Badger Metal Technologies, made his case to sympathetic ears at the Milwaukee Chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers. "We are not economic isolationists," he said. "We believe we are...

The jobs crisis and the GOP Posted: March 10, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc. President Bush and his advisers are puzzled and worried. Economic liftoff took place right on schedule in July when the tax cuts took effect. In the last six months of 2003, the economy blazed along on a growth path of 6 percent. But where are the jobs? Last week's jobs report, with hundreds of thousands giving up the search for work, and manufacturing jobs disappearing for the 43rd straight month, jolted the White House. What is going on? They're calling it a...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China has helped fuel its surging economy and military modernization by raising billions of dollars in American capital markets, raising serious concerns about the impact on U.S. national security, according to a Congressional commission. In a 200-page report obtained by Reuters, the U.S.-China Security Review Commission disclosed the findings of a year-long study on Sino-American relations. It recommended a tougher policy toward China, including possible limits on Beijing's access to U.S. capital markets, restrictions on its U.S. imports and increased reporting requirements for American companies doing business in China. The report was made available as the Pentagon...

Despite the oft-expressed misconception that communism died with a wimper in the bloodless revolutions in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1989-1991, today communism is making somewhat of a comeback in much of the world to the point that approximately one and three-quarter billion people live under communism, renamed Communist Party or Marxist-Leninist control today. While the People’s Republic of China has taken up the USSR’s old role as the communist motherland, other notable still-formally-communist states include North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and Cuba. Myanmar is ruled by a military junta, which espouses Marxist-Leninism and has closely aligned...

In recent months U.S. President George W. Bush has sent a number of signals indicating that he respects and appreciates the fact that Taiwan is a democracy and that the United States will continue to support it. First, right after the December 2001 legislative election, the White House sent a message of congratulations to Taiwan on its democratic process in choosing the nation's lawmakers. The message was not conditional as was President Bill Clinton’s in March 2000 when Chen Shui-bian was elected president. Clinton, apparently worried that the election would cause tensions between Taipei and Beijing, sought in that context...

Beijing Developing Electronic Chains to Enslave Its People For nearly a thousand years the Great Wall of China protected the Asian empire from foreign invasion. Today, red China is installing a great "firewall," hoping to stem the tide of foreign ideas from invading the authoritarian one-party state. Despite claims to be an open society, China has an extraordinary fear of free information. For example, when President George Bush recently visited the Shanghai economic conference inside China, the communist government removed blocks on the Web sites of several U.S. news services. Immediately after President Bush left Shanghai, the paranoid red forces...

Chinese Airlines Serve PLA Military The Chinese army operates over 2,000 front companies inside the United States. Newly declassified documents from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) show that China United Airlines is a one such front company. China United Airlines is a most curious business. A Chinese air force general heads China United. China United aircraft also double as troop transports for the People's Liberation Army. Yet documents obtained from the Defense Intelligence Agency show that China United is allowed to do business inside the U.S. without question. The newly declassified documents from the Defense Intelligence Agency had the names...