China's Rapidly Growing Threat To World Security

China's Rapidly Growing 
Threat To World Security    By Jess Miller

4-23-1

Strategic Infrastructure Plan Precedes Military Option   CHINA OVERVIEW   China has a population in excess of 1.2 billion.   China is a Communist dictatorship.   China is an atomic super power.   China has a large arsenal of short and medium range missiles and is thought to now have accurate long range missile capability.   China is rapidly building the world's largest navy and is ever increasing its airpower.   China has the world's largest army at over 3 million strong.   The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) directly controls and supervises more than 15,000 business and 50,000 factories. These businesses are of a widely varying nature within both the civilian and military spheres. The PLA even trades stock in financial centres.   Thousands of PLA products fill the shelves of U.S. stores.   "I have a continuing sense of awe at the scale of this. They are now running a multibillion dollar conglomerate." - James Mulvenon, RAND Corporation.   Many U.S. Companies do business with the PLA, an army that invaded Tibet, kills students and maintains the denial of basic freedoms to Chinese citizens.   According to the Institute for Strategic Affairs in London the PLA earns $25 billion a year from its businesses.   Profits go back into feeding troops, modernizing aggressive military capabilities and strengthening ambitions for regional and world supremacy.   On July 17th 1998 the emerging "strategic partnership" between the U.S. and Red China escalated significantly when it was revealed that members of the elite U.S. Special Forces would train soldiers from the PLA.   China will soon have the world's second largest economy.   China dominates the economies of Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines and runs the economies of Singapore and Hong Kong.   China disputes the following boundaries: The boundary with India; sections of the boundary with Russia; the boundary with Tajikistan; a section of the boundary with North Korea; involved in a complex dispute over the Spratly Islands with Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Brunei; maritime boundary dispute with Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin; Paracel Islands occupied by China, but claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan; claims Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, as does Taiwan.   SUDAN   In late 1999 China completed its Muglad oilfield project in the Sudan. The Chinese have built a 940 mile pipeline from Heglid in Southern Sudan to the Port of Sudan, centrally situated on the Red Sea's western coast opposite Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in what has been China's largest overseas operation by the China National Petroleum Corporation.   Chinese investment in the Sudan is now well over US $2 billion.   In late 2000 the UK's Daily Telegraph reported that China had put 700,000 troops in the Sudan on alert and was preparing to enter that country's civil war.   The U.S. State Department denied that China had such troop levels in Sudan 'otherwise we'd have known about it'. However the Chinese troops entering Sudan went undetected by other nations. Only the number of these forces is disputed, but aid workers have confirmed the levels of Chinese in the Sudan to be in the 'tens upon tens of thousands'.   This large Chinese presence midway between the Horn of Africa and Suez could become a threat to Saudi Arabia (world oil supply), the Red Sea and the Suez Canal (through which 6% of world shipping, up to 25,000 vessels a year, passes) and to Israel.   The sudden use of Chinese 'workers' as a trained military force does not bode well for current Chinese operations underway in Panama and the Caribbean, where a large influx of Chinese illegals is occurring.   CUBA   Whilst the US and NATO were busy in Yugoslavia, China was cementing relations with Cuba and is now financing and modernising Cuba's telecommunications and electronics industry.   Chinese President Jiang Zemin met with Cuban President Fidel Castro 13th April 2001 and signed contracts for US$400 million of business.   In addition to the telephone system and electronics the agreements cover sports, educational exchange, maritime relations, a fiscal agreement to avoid double taxation, economic and technical exchanges, a bank credit for a hotel now being built in downtown Havana and a US$150 million credit for the purchase of Chinese television sets.   During Jiang's visit a high level American trade delegation left Cuba empty handed.   China's Defence Minister visited Cuba over one year ago.   China already has a techno-spy base and communication bases in Cuba and is building intelligence facilities at Torrens/Lourdes adjacent to a massive Russian facility already in operation.   It has been reported that the Lourdes facility is the largest such complex operated by the Russian Federation and its intelligence service outside the region of the former Soviet Union. The Lourdes facility is reported t o cover a 28 square-mile area with some 1,500 Russian engineers, technicians, and military personnel working at the base. Experts familiar with the Lourdes facility have reportedly confirmed that the base has multiple gro ups of tracking dishes and its own satellite system, with some groups used to intercept telephone calls, faxes, and computer communications in general, and other groups used to cover targeted telephones and devices.<b r   The Lourdes facility also monitors the U.S. Atlantic fleet and elements of U.S. Pacific fleet operations as well as domestic, commercial and military communications throughout the Americas.   The Cuban Missile Crisis between Russia and America in October 1962 successfully stopped Russia from installing strategic missiles on Cuba. Today China has a strong presence within Cuba and could position strategic missiles on the island relatively easily.   Nothing has been done to address this potentially dangerous situation of cities throughout North America becoming targeted by missiles to be launched out of Cuba.   LATIN AMERICA   During Jiang's April 2001 Latin American tour he met with Communist allies in Venezuela, paid visits to Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, and addressed a meeting of the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.   VENEZUELA   Venezuela is under the revolutionary rule of self-described Maoist Hugo Chavez.   "I have been very Maoist all my life," said Chavez during an October 1999 visit to Beijing.   China is active within Venezuela in gas, oil, agriculture, mining and the national railroad plan.   COLOMBIA   In late January 2001 Colombian President Andres Pastrana sent his Chief of Staff to Beijing to ask China for help in developing agricultural programs in Colombia.   Asked if he was concerned about this development, U.S. Secretary of State for Defence Colin Powell replied: "I don't know why it would trouble me, especially if the Chinese have something to contribute. President Pastrana is free to seek advice where he finds it more useful."   Beijing has allied itself with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which receives backing from Russia, Cuba and Iran and supports China's plans to conquer the free Chinese on Taiwan.   PANAMA   The Panama Canal is 900 miles from the U.S.   The Panama Canal controls at least one third of world shipping and is vital to American trade and defence capabilities as well as being an economic and logistical bridgehead between North and South America.   Some 20% of total US imports and exports pass through the Canal including around 40% of all grain exports.   Panama is a vulnerable front-line state against the spread of narcotics and terrorism that plague its South American neighbours. When the U.S. pulled out of Panama at the end of 1999 the U.S. counter-narcotics centre at H oward Air Base was closed.   Panama is now the central base of Communist Chinese operations in Latin America and the Pacific Ocean port of Balboa is a vital component to the emerging Chinese strategy of dominating the Pacific and undermining and isol ating the United States.   A Chinese corporation, Great Wall of Panama, has a 60 year lease for an export zone on the Atlantic end of the canal.   Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong based multinational conglomerate with a market capitalisation of US$53 billion and almost 100,000 employees worldwide has spent more than US$100 million to modernize its two ports, Cristobal on the Atlantic and Balboa on the Pacific ends of the Panama Canal. These are now run by Communist Chinese allies.   Hutchison Whampoa operates five core business in 28 countries: ports and related services, telecommunications and e-commerce, property and hotels, retail and manufacturing and energy and infrastructure.   Hutchison is 10% owned by China Resources Enterprises (CRE) and has been identified by the U.S. Senate as a front for Chinese military intelligence.   CRE was identified by the U.S. Senate Government Affairs Committee as a conduit for 'espionage - economic, political and military - for China.'   Hutchison has joint venture terminal operations in Mainland China, the Bahamas, Panama, Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia.   Under controversial Panamanian Law Number 5, that was secretly implemented by the Balladarcs regime, the Hutchison Whampoa company has the right of first refusal on other Canal facilities, including former strategic facilities, which include former U.S. bases, such as the Rodman Naval Station port.   Some of the measures harmful to U.S. security and economic interests under Law Number 5, include:   Article 2.1 grants Hutchison Whampoa first option to take over the ports at Rodman Naval Station meaning that U.S. warships could be shut out.   Article 2.8 authorizes Hutchison Whampoa to transfer contract rights to any third party registered in Panama. This third party could be Cuba, Iraq, Iran or Libya or any other country which is hostile to the United States. Hutchison can extend its leases until 2047.   Article 2.12a, grants Hutchison Whampoa priority to all piers, including private piers, at Balboa and Cristobal, plus an operating area at Albrook Air Force Station.   Article 2. 12i, guarantees Hutchison Whampoa the right to designate their own canal pilots, change the rules for boarding vessels and add additional pilots - if clients claim dissatisfaction.   Secretary of State Colin Powell, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, stated on February 6th 2001 "I have not found that the so-called Chinese presence in the form of shipping companies and the like have created any danger to the Panamanian people, the Panamanian government, or to the canal itself. Our interests are served."   During his presidency Bill Clinton admitted that China would control the Panama Canal after December 31, 1999. "I think the Chinese will, in fact, be bending over backwards to make sure they run the Canal in a competent and fair manner. I think they'll want to demonstrate to a distant part of the world that they can be a responsible partner, and I would be very surprised if any adverse consequences flowed from the Chinese running the Canal."   During his presidency Mr.Clinton did more than anyone to accommodate Communist China's requirements.   Hutchison Whampoa is part of the Li Ka Shing group of companies, owner Li Ka Shing having close ties to the Chinese government. He is a board member of the Chinese government's main investment arm, the China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC), run by the PLA arms dealer and smuggler Wang Jun.   CITIC is the bank of the PLA and finances Chinese army weapons sales and the purchase of Western Technology.   Wang Jun is also the head of China's Polytechnologies Company, the international outlet for Chinese weapons sales.   China and Russia's strategic alliance is posing an ever increasing threat to the U.S. and NATO. Panama now hosts a highly dangerous mix of well-financed Chinese and Russian organised crime mobs along with Cuban government operatives, drug lords and narco-terrorist militants, who threaten the democracy of Panama and neighbouring countries and are a direct long-term threat to Mexico and the United States.   There is an ongoing massive smuggling operation of illegal aliens from China into Panama by Chinese Triad gangs on China Overseas Trading Company (COSCO) shipping.   THE BAHAMAS   In the Bahamas Hutchison Whampoa has dredged and expanded the port at Freetown on the island of Grand Bahama, 60 miles from Florida, enabling it to handle the largest container ships in the world. Hutchison is building a massive naval facility there.   Many Chinese officials as well as the Cuban ambassador have visited the Freetown port.   Hutchison has a 50% stake in the Grand Bahama Airport Company, which owns one of the world's longest airport runways at more than 11,000 feet, capable of handling the world's largest aircraft.   COSCO   The Canadian government has allowed China's state-owned China Overseas Trading Company (COSCO) to make Vancouver the gateway for its operations in North America against intelligence advice.   U.S. Senate and Canadian intelligence have described COSCO as the "merchant marine" for China's military. COSCO vessels have been apprehended carrying assault rifles into California and missile technology and biological-c hemical weapons components into North Korea, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan.   COSCO ships have been used by the Chinese government to ship missiles, jet fighters and components of weapons of mass destruction to nations such as North Korea, Libya, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan.   COSCO has been seeking to take over former naval facilities in Southern California at Long Beach.   COSCO has over 600 merchant ships in its fleet, which makes it larger than the U.S. merchant marine during World War II and the PLA's literature refers to COSCO vessels as zhanjian, or 'warships'.   COSCO'S merchant fleet is currently being refitted for military troop transportation.   THE WARNINGS   Al Santoli, an aide to Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, says that China is positioning itself commercially and militarily along key naval 'choke points'. Santoli has been monitoring Chinese mariti me activity from the Philippines to Panama. The Chinese are building military bases and expanding Chinese illegals on a massive scale at these choke points which include:   Burma (access to the Indian Ocean)   Hong Kong (to control the South China Sea)   The Straits of Malacca (where China has ties with Cambodia and is building a naval facility and fortifications on the Philippines-claimed Spratly Islands. An average of 150 ships pass through these straits daily)   The Central Pacific (a major land satellite tracking station on Tarawa)   Hawaii (a major ocean mining tract)   The Caribbean (the Bahamas naval facility and growing relationship with Cuba)   Cuba (where, amongst other activities, the Chinese are building communications intelligence facilities adjacent to Russia's huge technical spy center at Torrens/Lourdes.)   Panama (eventual control of the Panama Canal)   Sudan (to control the Red Sea, Suez Canal and possibly threaten Saudi Arabia and Israel).   The United States is expecting a possible confrontation with China over Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea, including its occupation of the disputed Spratly islands, close to the Phillipines.   Hong Kong's Cheng Ming newspaper quoted Chinese Defence Minister Chi Haotian as saying war with the United States is inevitable.       "Seen from the changes in the world situation and the United States' hegemonic strategy for creating monopolarity, war is inevitable," Mr. Chi told a military conference in early December 1999.   "We cannot avoid it," he was quoted in the newspaper as saying. "The issue is that the Chinese armed forces must control the initiative in this war. . . . We must be prepared to fight for one year, two years, three years or even longer."   Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest ranking military officer in the U.S. has concluded that China is planning on a major war with the U.S. within the next two years.< br   Admiral Moorer believes a conflict with China over Taiwan is inevitable and that such a war is likely to lead to the use of atomic weapons by both sides.   He has stated that China's new bases in Panama and Cuba will allow them to covertly strike every U.S. city with atomic weapons delivered by their large arsenal of short and medium range missiles.   Moorer warns that the new nexus between China and Russia now threatens the balance of world power and fears therefore that one or more serious conflicts may face America in the next few years.   As if to perversely reinforce Admiral Moorer's point about China and Russia's alliance being a threat to the United States the U.S. State Department in recent years has ceded several U.S. islands in the Arctic and Bering Sea to Russia without congressional approval or public debate.   These islands are significant because they hold potential mineral, gas, oil and fishing rights - not to mention possible strategic military value and have been part of America since the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867.   The Arctic islands, which lie west of Alaska and north of Siberia, include the islands of Wrangell, Herald, Bennett, Jeannette and Henrietta.   The islands in the Bering Sea make up the westernmost point in Alaska's Aleutian chain and include Copper Island, Sea Otter Rock and Sea Lion Rock. These islands together have a square mileage more than that of some U.S. States.   The U.S. Census Bureau's director, Kenneth Prewitt has said, "Census Bureau officials were informed by the U.S. Department of State that these islands remain under the jurisdiction of Russia. Without confirmation and appr opriate documentation from the Department of State to the contrary, the Census Bureau cannot include these islands as part of the State of Alaska."   The islands may already be hosts to Russian military tracking and listening facilities.   The shortest distance between the U.S. mainland and Asia is the polar route.   Asia includes China.   A senior Russian transportation official, Viktor Razbegin, was quoted in the London Times in early January as saying a railway tunnel will be built under the Bering Straits connecting Alaska to the Russian Far East. The p roject, estimated to cost $60 billion, has been talked about for years, but many consider it unrealistic. Such a tunnel would provide an access point for covertly infiltrating illegal aliens and/or military forces into No rth America.   Even the possibility of a 55 mile 'Peace Bridge' joining Siberia and Alaska has been aired.   LOS ALAMOS   In a 1988 report to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, after a 21 month investigation, the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) revealed an appalling lack of security at the three main U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) weapons laboratories: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California; Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico; and Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico.   The GAO study concluded: "During the 21-month period from January 1986 through September 1987, about 6,700 foreign nationals visited or were assigned to one of these laboratories. About 900 of the visitors were from Commu nist or other sensitive countries, including those suspected of developing nuclear weapons, such as India, Israel, and Pakistan."   The DOE attempted to downplay the seriousness of its abysmal security record by asserting that the visitors from Communist countries did not participate in any 'sensitive' projects - an assertion not supported by the GAO report, which said:   "We found that foreign visitors from Communist and other sensitive nations have been involved in activities that have been identified as sensitive by DOE's own criteria, such as lasers, nuclear physics, and particle beams that could assist countries to develop and produce nuclear weapons. Information on classified programs could be derived from available unclassified data or by observing activities at these facilities."   As bad as the situation was at that time, security under the new Clinton regime became a lot worse.   The Wall Street Journal reported that in 1993, "The Clinton Department of Energy actually widened the loophole, waiving rules requiring background checks on many visitors from countries known to be involved in nuclear wea pons programs. The laboratories said that the stream of foreign scientists, especially from China, put too much of a burden on security officials. The Clinton waivers produced a surge of unchecked visitors at the Los Alam os lab and at the Sandia National Laboratory. In the late 1980s there were 67 visitors from China at the three weapons labs, which included Livermore National Laboratory in California. Now there are almost 500, or almost one-third of all foreign scientists."   CRIMINAL THREAT TO U.S.   The United States faces a growing threat from Chinese organized crime groups that are using Canada as a base from which to conduct criminal activities. Members of ethnic Chinese criminal groups from China, Hong Kong, Taiw an, and Macao have exploited Ottawa's immigration policies and entrepreneur program to enter the country and become Canadian residents, making it easier for them to cross into the United States. Canada has become a gatewa y for Chinese criminal activity directed at the United States, particularly heroin trafficking, credit card fraud, and software piracy.   The fact that COSCO has made Vancouver its gateway for operations into North America can only aggravate the situation.   SOUTH AFRICA   South Africa could soon play a significant strategic role in the world.   At this time being heavily depopulated by AIDS and with a virtually bankrupt government South Africa is strengthening ties made by the African National Congress (ANC) before coming to power in 1994 with various 'non-align ed' countries, including Libya and China.   Recently South African president Thabo Mbeki visited Saudi Arabia and Cuba.   Saudi Arabia was visited to negotiate oil supplies and financial assistance.   Cuba was visited to make arrangements for Cuban teachers, doctors and nurses and others trained in critical civilian infrastructure areas to be brought into South Africa to fill the increasing gaps made by AIDS deaths, w hich South Africa cannot fill.   Cuban teachers were cleared to work in South Africa on the 20th April 2001 as 'a mark of respect for the contribution by Cuban revolutionaries to the ANC's struggle for power'.   During 2000 the ANC government, that claims to have little or no money to help HIV/AIDS sufferers, signed a 40 billion Rand (US$5 billion) arms deal with Europe that some forecasters estimate could escalate to 60 billion Rand (US$7.5 billion) in the final analysis.   The deal, corruption within which is being investigated at high level, is for the purchase of corvettes, submarines, helicopters and jet fighters.   How South Africa will be able to afford this arms purchase is unclear.   Precisely who is going to fly or operate this military hardware in the face of the AIDS decimation within the South African armed forces is unclear, or why this escalation of military capability might be necessary.     South Africa may well have to look to another country to provide the trained manpower to operate the hardware being purchased.   'Secret' talks are underway between South Africa and China. The Chinese are keen to get into South Africa and if their future world plans included shutting down the Suez Canal at some stage, by whatever means, then the South African Cape would immediately take on extreme strategic importance. Were the Chinese to have moved into South Africa in force by that time, their powerful navy would be in a position to put pressure on world shipping which would once again have to go around the South African Cape, as in pre-Suez canal days.   With their presence in South America burgeoning China's naval capability may soon have the ability to 'police' the other Cape of significance, Cape Horn, adding even more control to any pressure applied to shipping passing through the Panama canal.   SUMMARY AND SCENARIOS   China is moving rapidly to complete worldwide infrastructure to handle the movement of all kinds of civilian and military cargoes, both legal and illegal.   This infrastructure uses key 'choke points' that could be used for threatening other countries economically or militarily, or that could be used to launch combined military aggression from any number of strategic strongho lds.   China has infiltrated America's backyard (Panama/Cuba), where it is establishing ports and may soon have airbases.   China has the capability to launch short or medium range missiles targeted at the United States from Panama or Cuba and may also have long range capability.   China could potentially hold US shipping to ransom on passage through the Panama canal.   Having to round Cape Horn would put 8,000 miles on the journey from the East to West coasts for U.S. shipping.   China is present in strength in Sudan, from where it could threaten the region and world shipping by 'choking' the Red Sea or Suez Canal and bringing the South African Cape into play.   In coercion with Russia, China will shortly have the ability to launch an attack on North America from both within (existing infiltration) and from outside the continent.   China may commence such a scenario with planned military diversions, such as in Taiwan and the Middle East, that would require the deployment of a large percentage of U.S. forces to those regions. At that time such an attack as outlined upon the U.S. could have a devastating and extremely swift result - the consummate defeat of the United States.   China's most favoured option in an attack upon the U.S. would be to use biological/chemical weaponry.   The simultaneous release of a virulent biological agent at hundreds of key points throughout the U.S., subway systems, air ducts of crucial buildings, sporting events, rush hour traffic and upwind of selected military bases, coupled to missile delivery, would result in chaos.   The objective of such an attack would be the immediate reduction of all armed forces stationed within North America, the National Guard, police forces, militias and the civilian population by well in excess of 50%, thereby destroying all resistance infrastructure.   By utilising a relatively fast clearing biological the U.S. would then be laid open to Russian and Chinese armed forces landing from Panama, Cuba, Bahamas, Eastern Siberia via Alaska and via COSCO shipping at multiple beach heads and devastated US ports as well as by thousands of infiltrators, 'sleepers' already within the U.S.   Even without using atomic weaponry, which would render vast tracts of America useless for the future and result in catastrophic retaliation against the Chinese mainland, China has the missile capability to deliver biological/chemical weapons into every American city and the U.S. has no defence against a multiple launch out of Panama/Cuba.   Whilst China builds the infrastructure needed to create such a military option, or a variant of it, America and the Western World seem to be deaf to the warnings of respected experts like Al Santoli and Admiral Moorer and are simply letting the Chinese Communist Dictatorship carry forward its plans without so much as lifting a finger.     Jess Miller is a freelance journalist who studies the workings of world power.