-
- Jimmy Carter never would have been able to ram through
his two treaties giving away our Panama Canal if the Senate in 1978 could
have looked into the future and known that, when the U.S. Flag is lowered
on December 31, 1999, Red China would become its gatekeeper. But that's
what's scheduled to happen unless Congress takes immediate action to prevent
it.
-
- Don't expect the Clinton Administration to interfere
with China's stunning beachhead in the Western Hemisphere. Clinton is hopelessly
indebted to the Chinese and their allies in Indonesia for financing his
presidential elections in 1992 and 1996.
-
- China didn't need to send an invading army. Because of
what is euphemistically called "free trade," China has plenty
of cash to buy and bribe its way into our domain.
-
- Communist China is the greatest national security threat
to America today and in the foreseeable future. At a major meeting in Beijing
in 1994, China designated the United States as its primary global rival.
China is rapidly building a modern war machine with 18 long-range and 140
intermediate and medium range missiles. It's based on espionage, theft,
trade deals that include technology transfers, and cash provided by a $60
billion-a-year favorable balance of trade.
-
- Every month, China collects up to $6 billion in U.S.
cash by selling its slave-labor products to Americans, but China buys only
$1 billion worth of U.S. goods. The Chinese pocket the $5 billion a month
difference and use it to build their military-industrial complex.
-
- In order to cash in on the cash-rich Chinese, Panama
manipulated the bidding process, holding repeated rounds of bids, for leases
for the U.S.-built ports of Cristobal on the Atlantic end of the canal
and Balboa on the Pacific end. The 50-year leases were awarded to a Chinese
Hong Kong corporation named Hutchison Whampoa operating under the name
Hutchison Port Holdings.
-
- Hutchison Whampoa had come in only fourth in the bidding,
after the Japanese firm Kawasaki/I.T.S., the U.S. firm Bechtel, and the
Panamanian American company M.I.T. For exclusive control of the two ports,
Hutchison Whampoa agreed to pay $22.5 million a year plus what one Panamanian
called "bucket loads of money" under the table, and Panama's
Law No. 5 was passed on January 16, 1997 to confirm the deal.
-
- Law No. 5 blatantly violates the Panama Canal Neutrality
Treaty, Article V, which stipulated that only Panama is allowed in defense
sites. By giving Hutchison "priority" for its business operations,
Law No. 5, Art. 2.11d, also violates the treaty's Article VI, which guaranteed
"expedited" and "head of line" passage for U.S. warships.
-
- Art. 2.10c of Law No. 5 gives Hutchison Whampoa the "right"
to operate piloting services, tugs and work boats, which translates into
control of all the Canal's pilots. Art. 2.10e grants the "right"
to control the roads to strategic areas of the Canal, and Art. 2.12a grants
priority to all piers, including private piers.
-
- Art. 2.8 gives Hutchison Whampoa the right to "transfer
contract rights" to any third party "registered" in Panama.
Those rights could be transferred to China, or even Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Libya
or North Korea.
-
- The Hutchison leases even violate Panama's own constitution,
Art. 274, which requires a plebiscite on Canal matters. None was held.
Law No. 5, Art. 2.1, also grants "first option" to Hutchison
Whampoa to take over the U.S. Rodman Naval Station, the Pacific deep-draft
port facility capable of handling any warship. The Chinese will then have
the power to exclude U.S. warships while admitting Communist warships.
-
- The billionaire chairman of Hutchison Whampoa, Li Ka-shing,
was a business and political buddy of the late Deng Xiaoping and now has
the same close relationship with both Jiang Zemin and the Riady financial
empire of Indonesia. No doubt that's why he controls most of China's commercial
ports and seaborne trade as well as most of the dock space in Hong Kong.
-
- Li was China's chief agent in facilitating China's smooth
takeover of Hong Kong in 1997. Hutchison Whampoa partnered in several enterprises
with China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), which is directly controlled
by the People's Liberation Army, and served as a middleman in China's deals
with the U.S. firms Hughes and Loral.
-
- The Carter-Torrijos Treaties, bad as they were, gave
the United States the right to defend the Panama Canal militarily. The
Chinese leases, however, will make it impossible to do this without directly
confronting the Chinese Communist regime.
-
- In 1996, when China was "testing" missiles
to scare Taiwan before its election, the United States sent warships to
the area and China responded by impudently threatening to "rain down
fire" on Los Angeles from its China-based ICBMs. Would Communist China
do the same if it bases its shorter-range missiles in Panama?
-
- China will be able to ship its shorter-range missiles
across the Pacific, unload them at Balboa, and conceal them in warehouses
until the time is ripe. If Congress doesn't act immediately, we are heading
for a Panama Missile Crisis like the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
-
- Panama Law Number 5: http://www.nationalsecuritycenter.org/990927/index.html
|
