We are beginning to be inundated with an onslaught of propaganda regarding our newest enemy, China, as we are reprogrammed to think of the Middle Kingdom as our greatest threat.
I am beginning to see articles regarding China being cut and pasted from Google and this is a grave error, the poster is nothing more than a spreader of propaganda, an unwitting tool used by the administration to further their agenda.
Since the American public fell wholeheartedly into the Iraq propaganda trap which was implemented to garner public support for Bush’s invasion of Iraq it would be prudent to take a closer look at the ‘Chinese Dragon Awakens'.
"There's a growing consensus that at some point in the mid-to-late '90s, there was a fundamental shift in the sophistication, breadth and re-sorting of Chinese defense planning," said Richard Lawless, a senior China-policy maker in the Pentagon.
It was in the late ‘90s that Zbigniew Brzezinski’s ‘The Grand Chessboard’ was published calling for the U.S. dominance of Eurasia which includes all of the territory east of Germany and Poland, stretching all the way through Russia and China to the Pacific Ocean. It includes the Middle East and most of the Indian subcontinent. A quick scrutiny of Brzezinski’s book published in 1997 shows that the U.S. is an avid player of his Grand Game. http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/zbig.html
Two years after Brzezinski’s book detailing how the United States should contain China hit the stands China’s Master Plan to Destroy America, ‘Unrestricted Warfare’ was published.
Unrestricted Warfare Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui (Beijing: PLA Literature and Arts Publishing House, February 1999) #msg-2380195
Energy supply a factor For China, Taiwan is not the only issue behind the buildup of military forces. Beijing also is facing a major energy shortage that, according to one Pentagon study, could lead it to use military force to seize territory with oil and gas resources.
The United States has been attempting to control all of the flow of oil to China in an effort to starve the energy hungry giant into submission. China is facing a major energy shortage because of the United States.
In a world that runs on oil, the nation that controls the flow of oil has great strategic power. U.S. policy-makers want leverage over the economies of competitors -- Western Europe, Japan and China -- that are more dependent on Middle Eastern oil. #msg-4798276
The U.S. is not interested in Caspian oil to supply its own internal industry. The U.S. is grabbing for control of the Caspian oil fields because other countries need this oil--and because the U.S. wants to control them. Other imperialist rivals--including Germany and Japan--are "energy poor" and need access to oilfields outside their borders. Most Third World countries are heavily dependent on imported oil. #msg-3775550
For Pentagon officials, alarm bells have been going off for the past two years as China's military began rapidly building and buying new troop- and weapon-carrying ships and submarines.
Again there is no mention that the United States has been threatening China.
According to a Chinese white paper, Beijing sees “new negative developments” in the Asia-Pacific region. These include a strengthening US military presence and bilateral military alliances in China’s neighbourhood, and US development of a theatre missile defence system and plans to deploy it in Asia. “The Taiwan Straits situation is complicated and grim,” the white paper states. #msg-4383869 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_18-10-2002_pg3_8
Following are some of the ways we have been threatening the Dragon.
Taiwan intends to build "nuclear test ground" or "missile base". #msg-4682068
We have 90 nukes at the Turkish base of Incirlik and you will still have only a partial list of the weapons, troops, bases and nukes with which we are threatening Russia, China and other countries. #msg-6405164
In mid-April of this year, the Japanese government agreed to let the US Army's 1st Corps transfer from Fort Lewis, Washington, to Camp Zama near Yokohama.
Besides the recent decision to re-deploy the 1st Corps, the US is busily building up Guam as a "power projection hub", with, in the words of Pacific Commander Admiral William Fargo, "geostrategic importance". The US is also trying to shift Guam-based bombers to Yokota airbase near Tokyo. Christopher Hughes of Warwick University, an expert on the region, told the (British) Guardian, "The ramifications of this would be that Japan would essentially serve as a frontline US command post for the Asia-Pacific and beyond."
A number of Bush administration sounding boards, such as neo-conservative Charles Krauthammer, have openly advocated Japan going nuclear as a way to offset the growing influence and power of China. Acquiring nuclear weapons would be relatively easy for Japan, which has plenty of fuel to reprocess, as well as missiles and satellite targeting systems. #msg-6547899
In the first step toward erecting a multibillion-dollar shield to protect the United States from foreign missiles, the U.S. Navy will begin deploying state-of-the-art destroyers to patrol the waters off North Korea as early as next week.
The mission, to be conducted in the Sea of Japan by ships assigned to the Navy's 7th Fleet, will help lay the foundation for a system to detect and intercept ballistic missiles launched by "rogue nations." - Sep. 25, 2004 #msg-4129889
China has already protested the establishment of a Uighur Government-in-Exile in Washington and Beijing has repeatedly made it clear that it will not tolerate any political interference from abroad, where pro-independence Uighur organizations exist. This means us. It would seem we are orchestrating a riot in the Xinjiang province of China. Kyrgyzstan is one of the countries that borders the Xinjiang region. #msg-4098311
The report also highlighted the vulnerability of China's oil and gas infrastructure to a crippling U.S. attack. "The U.S. military could severely cripple Chinese resistance [during a conflict over Taiwan] by blocking its energy supply, whereas the [People's Liberation Army navy] poses little threat to United States' energy security," it said. China views the United States as "a potential threat because of its military superiority, its willingness to disrupt China's energy imports, its perceived encirclement of China and its disposition toward manipulating international politics," the report said. #msg-6795453
In order to protect itself from energy supply outages China is to build a strategic oil reserve soon.
This will give Beijing some cushion against any unexpected supply disruptions. These outages are sometimes the outcome of war.
-Am
China to have strategic oil reserve soon By Felicia Loo / June 10, 2005
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - China is on track to complete building its first strategic oil reserve storage tanks by August, but Beijing has not indicated when it may start filling them in the face of high oil prices, an industry official said on Friday.
The world's second-largest oil consumer after the United States will finish the crude oil tank farm in Zhenhai, located in the port city of Ningbo in the booming east coast province of Zhejiang, on schedule with plans announced last year, he said.
The 5.2 million-cubic-meter (33 million-barrel) facility will hold about one-third of China's initial planned emergency reserves, the foundation of state efforts to bolster energy security as consumption soars and domestic output plateaued.
"The entire infrastructure in Zhenhai will be completed by August. But prices are so high right now and it is not clear when Beijing will kick off emergency stockpiling activities," the Chinese official told Reuters.
A top Chinese government official said last week that China would build up its emergency stockpile gradually, lessening the impact on global energy prices.
He did not say when Beijing could begin filling the tanks, a move being closely monitored by oil traders fearful that even a modest build will add stress to a taut global crude market that some fear may struggle to meet global demand later this year.
China's oil demand is forecast to rise by almost 8 percent this year to nearly 7 million barrels per day (bpd), half last year's explosive growth rate but still increasing its dependence on foreign crude.
It now imports 40 percent of its oil needs and the growing reliance on imports has moved energy up the political agenda, especially as prices cling above $50 a barrel.
CUSHION
China has also earmarked three other sites for strategic stocks along the eastern seaboard, aiming to build a total of 16.2 million cubic meters (101.9 million barrels) of reserves in the next five years, equivalent to 20 days of consumption.
This would augment the commercial stocks of the country's major refiners and importers, who typically hold 10 to 30 days worth of supplies, and give Beijing some cushion against any unexpected supply outages, particularly from the Middle East.
Industrialised nations highly dependent on crude oil imports, such as Japan and the United States, built up large emergency stockpiles in the mid-1970s, after the Arab oil embargo.
The United States is due to complete filling its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to its 700-million-barrel capacity -- stored in salt rock caverns -- in August.
Top Chinese refiner Sinopec has been commissioned to build the tanks in Zhenhai, where its unit Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co Ltd is based. The 400,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery is the largest in China.
The United States also has a 2-million-barrel reserve of heating oil in its Northeast, but China has no intention of building product stocks as yet, the industry source said.
"Unlike the United States, China will concentrate on strategic crude stockpiling first. There are no plans for products reserves at this point," he said.
The other crude oil tanks will be in Aoshan in Zhejiang, Huangdao in Shandong and Dalian in Liaoning.
The capacity in Aoshan will be similar to Zhenhai, while the other two sites will each boost 30 tankers storing up to 3 million cubic meters of oil.
Posted on Sun, Jul. 17, 2005 WUHU, China - If the 20th was the American century, the 21st may belong to China.
Just five years into it, China has become the world's third-largest trader, one of its fastest-growing economies, a rising military power in northeast Asia and a global player extending its influence in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
Americans and others around the globe can feel the effects of China's voracious appetite for resources and the enormous output of its factories, staffed by an endless stream of migrants who toil for $2 a day churning out low-cost goods, undercutting foreign competitors and upending the low-end global workforce.
Silicon Valley is watching China's rise closely. It's a huge market for such key technology products as Intel's microprocessors and Hewlett-Packard's computers. It's a source of talent, from programmers to researchers, for mighty Microsoft as well as for tiny start-ups. And it looms as a competitive threat, as China's low-cost manufacturing and widespread piracy challenge the businesses of such valley giants as Cisco Systems and Adobe Systems.
Will it last?
The world has never seen a nation as big as China rise as far and as fast as China has in the past 20 years. Its ascent, like those of the United States, Germany and Japan before it, is challenging more established powers. Its continued progress depends on harmony with these and other nations.
Whether China's rise lifts all the world's boats or sinks some of them will depend, first, on whether its rapid economic development continues. There's no certainty. Most of the country is backward and poor. Small-scale rural protests erupt with growing frequency, and leaders fear a spark that could set off wider turmoil. Corruption erodes the credibility of the country's communist rulers. Citizens have huge expectations about rising standards of living.
It would be unwise, however, to bet against China. With the exception of India, no other country has such enormous scale, including such a huge pool of highly educated people. And in an age of globalization, no country has been better able than China to swallow the innovations of others and leap ahead of them.
China's conglomerates are on the prowl. Following a path Japan once took, Chinese firms are scouring the globe. But instead of buying trophy buildings and movie studios, they've bought IBM's personal computer business, and they're looking at Maytag and Unocal, the oil company.
Economist Nick Lardy, a China expert, said its economy was likely to grow rapidly during the next five to 10 years because of its openness to foreign business, high savings rate and huge pool of underemployed rural workers who are eager to work in factories, even for low wages.
Although much of China's production is still low-tech, the government is pushing innovation and research into areas that have both civilian and military high-tech potential.
American analysts figure it will be years before China's military is on par with the United States'. But it doesn't have to be an even match to pose a serious threat. China's submarines soon will acquire supersonic missiles that could slow or damage U.S. aircraft carriers if they moved to defend Taiwan
In its quest, China has extended its influence to Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Its ``see no evil'' foreign policy sometimes puts it at odds with the U.S. interest in promoting democracy, human rights and nuclear security. With investment and diplomatic support, for example, China bolsters oil-rich Iran and Sudan.
Political stability
China's Communist Party -- authoritarian and pro-business -- has had a monopoly on power since it won a civil war in 1949. Opposition is banned. While communist ideology has faded, the party stakes its legitimacy instead on its ability to meet rising expectations with rapid economic development.
China's global ambitions -- and the hopes of many Chinese for a freer society -- rest on the prospect of sustained growth. In the long run, economic openness might lead to greater political freedom, as it has in Taiwan and South Korea. As people get richer, they tend to want to join groups of people with similar interests, they seek to protect their rights in court and, finally, they want a say in how they're governed.
But China's gap between rich and poor yawns ever wider, fueling frustration and resentment.
Urban, middle-aged Chinese marvel at how much their country has changed since they were young.
``Twenty years ago, I dreamed of having a watch. My family was too poor to buy me a watch. So I drew one on my wrist with ink,'' said Li Tao, a research fellow in Beijing at Tsinghua University, one of China's premier institutions. ``Now I have a car.''
Billboards and TV ads pitch the latest BMW models, liquors and perfumes. Chinese can move about the country, switch jobs, acquire passports, start businesses, and buy and sell homes.
``I used to live in a very shabby apartment. . . . The wooden floor was rotten. There were rats everywhere,'' said Yi Shoucheng, a deputy manager at a cutlery factory in Wuhu, the last deep-water port along the Yangtze River, where industrial zones throb with activity and bulldozers flatten old homes to make way for apartments.
The farming hamlet of Xiangfengwei is a 40-minute drive from Wuhu. Running water arrived in 1973, electricity a decade later. Relief from poverty has yet to come. Many people burn straw or coal to cook.
Rural unrest is a potential flash point, and the Communist Party keeps close political control.
``Everything could fall apart. It's not that stable,'' said Wang Gungwu, the director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore. ``It's a single political party with no transparency and little accountability.''
Officials censor news of unrest, muzzle troublemakers, jail dissidents, clamp down on the Internet and stifle religion.
``Their logic is that everything depends on stability,'' said Wang Yizhou, the deputy director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. ``Development, growth, reform, all of it depends on one condition: stability.''
Other potential obstacles:
• China's banking and financial systems are in serious need of reform.
• Years of rapid growth with little concern for the environment have taken a heavy toll on the land, the air and the health of many people.
• China needs far more energy than it can supply.
• A protectionist backlash could rise from the United States or other countries. Labor-intensive industries such as textiles have been pressing Washington for protectionist measures. The Commerce Department recently agreed to temporary quotas on some cotton clothing from China after global quotas expired in 2004. In addition, U.S. companies lose millions of dollars to Chinese theft of intellectual property, such as pirated movies and software. Still, many American companies want an expanded trade relationship.
Looming tension
China's very size -- 1.3 billion people -- makes questions about its future all the more important.
``China is the largest laboratory of social, economic and political change in modern history,'' said Zhang Weiwei, a Chinese political scientist who lives in France.
The ripple effects of such rapid, large-scale economic development are being felt in Asia and the rest of the world.
China's growing tensions with Japan, for example, are partly due to disputes over undersea oil deposits in the East China Sea.
Eventually, the United States could find itself competing with China for dominance in Asia. It would be the first time the United States faced a challenger with so much economic power.
China's leaders have sought smooth relations with the United States while they focus on domestic problems. In the meantime, a growing China has started to help solve global problems, from support for the government of Afghanistan to the fight against AIDS.
``Our children and grandchildren are going to live in a world where China will be a very strong and powerful player on the world scene,'' veteran U.S. diplomat John Negroponte said during a confirmation hearing for his new job as national intelligence director.
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