Current and former members of the Chinese military are urging Beijing
to take a more “hawkish” approach against U.S. hegemony in Asia in the
immediate and long-term future, according to experts who spoke with
WorldNetDaily. At the same time, People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
officials are working double-time to acquire new, more modern weapons
systems and then proliferating those systems to other nations deemed
“hostile” or “potentially hostile” to U.S. national interests.
Wes DeMont, a former FBI agent who investigated espionage activities
for the Bureau, said China has become more aggressive in recent years in
attempting to acquire sensitive military technology from the United
States “and anywhere else they can get it.”
Recent revelations involving the theft of U.S. nuclear technology by
spies within the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons laboratories
have stunned many congressional and administration officials. But DeMont
said that’s not the only problem the U.S. may encounter from the Chinese
in the coming months.
“Right now, as we bomb Yugoslavia and Iraq simultaneously, we’re just
about stretched to our military limits,” DeMont said. “Imagine, if you
can, what would happen if the U.S. suddenly had to fight a three- or
even a four-front war, a real war. There is just no way we can do that
with our current resources.”
DeMont said that he believes the Spratly Islands, a small chain of
islands ***located at the western edge of the South China Sea***
http://www.reedbooks.com.au/heinemann/hot/spratm1.html, “is more likely
to be where World War III begins than in Yugoslavia.” Several nations
claim the islands, he said, but only one — China — has actively begun
placing military observation and support sites there. He added that at
last count, Beijing had stationed three Chinese navy warships off the
coast of the main island.
As China moves to circumvent U.S. influence, experts like DeMont
believe “it’s only a matter of time, perhaps even later this year,” that
either China or, more probably, North Korea, may “capitalize on the
opportunity of a weakened U.S. military.”
“And China has repeatedly said that if North Korea acts ‘within their
interests,’ Beijing would support them,” he added.
Meanwhile, officials within the Chinese political and military
leadership are urging a more “hawkish” approach to relations with the
United States and the west. As Russia and China move to fully resolve
their decades-old border disputes, each has been able to shift huge
amounts of military resources away from defending against one another
and towards new missions. Those missions likely include offensive action
at some point, said DeMont.
Al Santoli, an Asia expert with the American Foreign Policy Council
and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s (R-Calif.) office, says PLA officials are
urging China’s leaders to “avoid unholy military alliances” with the
West, and are backing measures which will “protect China from the West’s
‘gunboat diplomacy.'”
According to Santoli, 100 high-level economists, foreign experts,
military officials, retired generals and diplomats who attended the
seminar shared the view that “China must be on its guard” against
“hegemony and power politics.” Referring to the NATO air strikes in
Yugoslavia, the high level-delegates were told, “Unholy military
alliances are also being strengthened across the world and gunboat
policies are once again running rampant.”
Adding to the apprehension over China are the emerging details of the
level of espionage allegedly committed by Chinese spies since early on
in the Clinton administration.
Brent Bahler, a spokesman for Rep. Chris Cox’s (R-Calif.) office,
offered no comment on a new proposal by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) to
strengthen existing rules which seek to limit visits to U.S. nuclear
weapons labs, especially by foreign workers and scientists. However, he
hinted that the anticipated full report written by the Cox Committee
last fall, which he said provides an entire picture of Chinese spying,
may be due out soon.
“We believe the thirty-eight recommendations we made to the Clinton
administration a few months ago should be judged in the context of the
full report,” he said. He added that when the full report is finally
released, “I think people will get a much better understanding of the
‘how’ and ‘why'” behind the espionage activities committed by Beijing.
DeMont said, “At that point, it may not make much difference. The
damage is already done.”
He also said that it is reasonable to assume much of the stolen U.S.
nuclear technology “has landed in the hands” of military and government
officials of other nations, like North Korea, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan.
Santoli said that the Chinese indeed are continuing to ship ballistic
missile components and material to some of these countries, “in
violation of the promises they made to the Clinton administration not to
do so.”
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