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thedrifter
06-04-03, 06:33 AM
06-03-2003

Guest Column: Chasing the Dragon – U.S. China Policy



By A. Scott Piraino

China has grown from an agrarian backwater into the world’s third-largest economy in the last 20 years. While our yearly trade deficits with China have risen from zero to over $100 billion a year, China has been the world’s fastest-growing economy. China has become a colossus precisely because of these trade deficits.

The global economy has been very good to the Chinese. Their nation has been industrialized with someone else’s money – ours. Throughout the 1990s, U.S. corporations increased their factory investments in China, seeking an endless supply of cheap labor. Today over one-third of our imports from China are produced for U.S. corporations.

China is not our ally. Their trade policy has always served to advance Chinese industry and technology. With this new wealth, China is seeking military parity with the United States. Since the Chinese could not modernize their armed forces without U.S. expertise, the Chinese turned to a shadowy cast of characters that funneled millions of dollars into Democratic Party campaign coffers. These illegal donations were instrumental in re-electing President Bill Clinton in 1996.

Clinton took contributions he knew came from China, and played another angle as well. U.S. companies wanted to sell weapons and technology to the Chinese, but the sales were prohibited by law. Economic sanctions for the Tiananmen Square massacre and restrictions on technology exports prevented these companies from selling China the armaments they wanted.

In return for campaign contributions, the Clinton relaxed export controls and allowed corporations to decide on their own if their technology transfers were legal or not. When easing restrictions wasn’t enough, Clinton signed waivers that simply circumvented the law. The president’s waivers allowed the export of machine tools, defense electronics, and even a communications system for the Chinese Air Force.

In one extraordinary case of corruption, the CEOs of Loral and Hughes each donated over $1 million to Clinton’s re-election campaign. These companies had an interest in seeing China develop reliable missiles to loft their satellites into orbit. Both companies were allowed to upgrade the launching and guidance of China’s missiles.

In June 1995, the CIA learned that China had stolen the crown jewels of our nuclear arsenal, including the neutron bomb and the W88 miniaturized warhead. Later that year, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake Was briefed on the thefts. He was quickly replaced on the Security Council by Sandy Berger, a former lobbyist for Chinese interests. In June of 1996, before Clinton's re-election, the FBI opened a formal investigation into the theft of U.S. nuclear weapon designs.

When the press learned that China had stolen nuclear weapon designs from U.S. research labs, the Clinton administration downplayed and even denied the reports. But this scandal was too big to ignore, and Congress began a formal investigation by forming the Cox committee. The administration was forced to reveal the extent of China's nuclear espionage, while insisting that Clinton was not told about the thefts until 1998, three years after the fact.

The Cox Committee report was released early in 1999. It confirmed that China had stolen the neutron bomb design and the W88 miniaturized warhead. The W88 would allow China to field smaller, mobile missiles and carry multiple warheads on larger missiles. In addition, the Cox report proved that U.S. corporations illegally transferred “missile design information and know-how.” Chief among the offenders were Loral and Hughes.

On Oct. 1, 1999, the 50th anniversary of China’s communist takeover, a new missile was paraded through the streets of Beijing. The DF-31 is a modern, mobile nuclear missile capable of hitting targets in the United States. The rocket motor and guidance systems were made possible by Loral and Hughes. News reports have alleged that the nuclear warhead is a copy of the W88, stolen from the United States.

The Chinese have not disguised their plans to use these weapons. In March 1996, on the eve of Taiwan’s first democratic elections, China used the threat of force to intimidate the island nation into electing a pro-Beijing candidate. Military maneuvers included bombing runs and launching ballistic missiles that impacted within 20 miles of the island. When the United States sent an aircraft carrier into the Taiwan straits, a Chinese general threatened to “rain down nukes upon Los Angeles.”

In the summer of 1999, the pro-independence leadership of Taiwan called for talks with China on a state-to-state basis. The enraged Chinese demanded Taiwan enter unification talks or face attack. A Communist Party-approved newspaper published a plan to conquer Taiwan. It involved using neutron bombs against any Taiwanese resistance and a nuclear standoff with the United States.

Despite China’s saber-rattling, repeated scandals, and even allegations of treason, the Clinton administration maintained a pro-China policy. The yearly renewal of China’s trade status was nothing more than political theater, where U.S. politicians criticized China and they pretended to care. The Chinese laughed up their sleeves while American corporations increased China’s wealth and military power.

The incoming Bush administration confronted this new China when a U.S. Navy EP-3 surveillance plane was damaged in a mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter. The U.S. aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing on a Chinese island. 24 crewmen were held for eleven days and repeatedly interrogated by PLA soldiers.

President Bush initially threatened to withdraw China's normal trade status and block entry into the WTO if the airmen were not released. But ultimately, the Bush administration appeased China’s demands by apologizing for the death of the fighter pilot who actually caused the collision, and for the reconnaissance plane landing on Chinese soil without permission. Immediately after the crisis, the administration signaled that there would be no long-term damage to U.S.-China relations.

True to his word, Bush granted China normal trade status after the spy plane incident. Nor has his administration investigated, or even mentioned, the China scandals of the Clinton era. While U.S. warplanes were bombing Afghanistan, Bush did not miss a chance to attend a summit in China, even appearing on national television wearing traditional Chinese robes.

The Bush administration maintains a pro-China policy because it is in hawk to the same corporate interests that corrupted Bill Clinton. American corporations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying our elected officials to pass free trade agreements and legalize technology exports. China has not been industrialized by U.S. presidents seeking “engagement,” but by our own corporations, seeking profits.

A small number of American stockholders have made fortunes modernizing China’s armed forces. Still more U.S. companies have built factories in China. These factories and plenty of cheap, docile labor earn huge profits for these investors.

Protecting these profits, despite the national security risks posed by China’s expanding military, remains America’s China policy.

Scott Piraino is a former U.S. Navy enlisted man and currently publishes his own news and analysis website, The Populist. © 2003 A. Scott Piraino. He can be reached at scopir@yahoo.com.



Sempers,

Roger