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Clinton Softens Chinese Threat?
By Uri Dowbenko
http://www.steamshovelpress.com/altmedia.html
7-5-00
 
 
 
The Fiscal Year 2000 National Defense Authorization Act directs the secretary of defense to submit a report "on the current and future military strategy of the People's Republic of China." According to an article published in Aviation Week and Space Technology, "China Seen Building Conventional Might" by Robert Wall, a senior defense official involved in writing the report is now charging the White House with deliberately altering the conclusions of the report.
 
"The National Security Council staff and State Department have intervened with the details to soften the tone of the report to preserve good relations with China," charged the unnamed defense official.
 
Is the new defense report flawed? According to the June 2000 U.S. military report, "Beijing remains firmly committed to expanding its political and economic presence in such areas as Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa; however, China has no ambitions to establish a military presence in these regions."
 
The fact is Chinese military troops are already present on the ground in Africa. Chinese soldiers are in the Sudan, guarding an oil pipeline and training the brutal Sudanese forces in the art of war against an unarmed population. Amnesty International reports that to build the pipeline, armed guards from China participated in displacing the indigenous Sudanese population.
 
The oil pipeline, part of the Chinese government-owned China National Petroleum Company, is also the scene of the greatest human slaughter since the killing fields in Cambodia. Estimates are that over two million have died. Amnesty reports that Chinese troops have assisted in ethnic cleansing and rape in the southern Sudan.
 
The Sudan is not the only recent global move by the Chinese military ignored by the Pentagon report. The fact is that Chinese troops are on the ground in Cuba, manning a signals intelligence post just a few miles from Miami, monitoring U.S. military and civilian communications for the People's Liberation Army. The new report by the Pentagon also contains curious contradictions in its conclusions.
 
"Since the 7 May 1999 bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade," notes the Pentagon report, "China's leaders reportedly have been discussing ways to offset U.S. power, to include accelerating military modernization, pursuing strategic cooperation with Russia, and increasing China's proliferation activities abroad. However, none of these options is likely to improve fundamentally Beijing's position."
 
Clearly, the Clinton administration perceives recent Chinese nuclear modernization not a fundamental improvement for the People's Liberation Army. This view is not shared inside Beijing, since the Chinese Second Artillery Corps has deployed nearly 500 modern nuclear tipped missiles in the past 24 months. The Chinese Army's successful effort to upgrade its nuclear weapons using stolen U.S. technology and U.S.-made supercomputers is missing altogether from the evaluation.
 
Since 1993, China has gone from a 1940s level of nuclear science to state-of-the-art nuclear weapons designs. In 1993, China had to perform expensive live tests of nuclear weapons in order to field designs for combat. Today, the People's Liberation Army is equipped with advanced computer simulations models, using the latest U.S. high-speed computers and stolen nuclear codes.
 
During the Cold War, Europe faced a similar situation to China today. Europe faced a much larger and superior opponent in the Warsaw Pact forces. Over 50,000 Soviet tanks were poised to make a lighting strike deep into Germany and France on a moment's notice. In response, the much smaller NATO forces decided to adopt a nuclear warfare fighting strategy.
 
China and Russia have both adopted the formerly NATO tactic of using tactical nuclear weapons in theatre combat to offset a superior opponent. Red China's great nuclear leap forward is just beginning to yield results in the form of lightweight, inexpensive, nuclear warheads for Chinese missiles and a new special series of deadly neutron bombs.
 
China is reported to have exported a plutonium bomb design to Pakistan and assisted the North Korean nuclear weapons efforts. China today is the only nation to field the neutron bomb. Chinese Generals have openly threatened to destroy Los Angeles if the U.S. came to Taiwan's rescue. The Chinese Army is more than open about its doctrine shift toward nuclear combat. In a 1999 report prepared by the Chinese Central Military Command, threats of a Chinese nuclear war against America are spelled out loud and clear.
 
"So far we have built up the capability for the second and third nuclear strikes and are fairly confident in fighting a nuclear war," answers the Chinese military report. "Unlike Iraq and Yugoslavia, China is not only a big country, but also possesses a nuclear arsenal that has long been incorporated into state warfare systems and played a real role in our national defense. The PCC has decided to pass through formal channels this message to the top leaders of the U.S."
 
The newly released report prepared by the Pentagon concludes that China "will have limited capability to conduct integrated operations against Taiwan." Two conclusions reportedly deleted from the Pentagon evaluation by the Clinton White House were an increase in arms sales to Taiwan and a badly needed major increase of U.S. military forces in the Pacific theatre.
 
The Pentagon report so artfully skewed by the Clinton White House spin machine fails to note there is ample room for direct conflict with the Chinese military -- over Taiwan, the Spratly Islands, Indonesia, Korea or the continued sale of nuclear weapons to the Middle East. The muted report issued by the Pentagon not only softens the tone of Chinese hegemony, but also clearly fails to mention whole segments of recent Chinese global military moves.
 
In 1990, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein knew his military was no match against the technically superior U.S. armed forces. Much like China today, the Iraq government knew it could win a victory against its local opponent but feared to do so because such a move might draw an American response. Saddam launched his attack on Kuwait only after the Bush administration conveyed that America had no interest in his border conflict with Kuwait.
 
Miscalculation led to the Gulf War. One of the main causes of war is miscalculation. The simple misunderstanding of another nation and their intentions, often leads directly to combat. When one side perceives an easy victory and the other side does little to change that perception, then war is a grave possibility.
 
The Pentagon report does nothing to change Beijing's perception of a victory over Taiwan. The Chinese Army today makes no excuses, noting they will win only if they are also willing to accept huge losses. A pure hardware analysis such as the one conducted by the Pentagon is far too simplistic to convey the true nature of the People's Liberation Army. The report is flawed in a typical Western style, failing to document both Chinese intentions and new doctrine of fighting.
 
 
Charles Smith is a national security and defense reporter for WorldNetDaily.

 
 
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