You don’t have to listen very closely to the murmuring in Beijing to
hear that China is virtually promising the world it will someday attack
Taiwan in an effort to impose hegemony over the free Republic of China.
That’s what China means, for instance, when the official China Daily
announces reunification with Taiwan will be achieved “at any cost.” Such
ominous warnings are issued on nearly a daily basis for those curious
enough to scan the headlines of the Asian papers.
What will be the response of the United States when that day comes?
How has the Clinton administration reacted to such bellicose threats
from Beijing? The Clinton administration says a military invasion of
Taiwan by China would be “of grave concern” to Washington.
Of grave concern? Talk of eliminating mohair subsidies is of grave
concern in Washington. Parking is of grave concern in Washington. The
summer drought is of grave concern in Washington. In a city of political
hyperbole, the idea of World War III should be of something more than
“grave concern.”
It reminds me of a February 1999 Salon magazine piece titled, “The Mysteries
of Bill Clinton,” by unrepentant leftist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The
author, a close friend of and apologist for Fidel Castro, writes
glowingly of a dinner party with Clinton. Oh, he’s so charming, so
brilliant, so persecuted, so … tall. But the most interesting
revelation of the Garcia Marquez piece was Clinton’s off-the-cuff answer
to a question posed by Carlos Fuentes.
Asked whom he considered to be his “enemies,” the president shot back
immediately and abruptly: “My only enemy is right-wing religious
fundamentalism.”
“That announcement ended the evening,” writes Garcia Marquez. And
quite a show-stopper it must have been.
But what does this little digression have to do with the price of
thermonuclear warheads in China?
Just compare and contrast the rhetoric: Bill Clinton isn’t kidding
when he says his only enemy is right-wing religious fundamentalism. He
considers the threat from Jerry Falwell to be of graver concern than the
threat from Jiang Zemin. In fact, it’s not even a close contest for the
president. He has done everything in his power for nearly seven years to
ensure that totalitarian China achieves geo-strategic parity with the
United States. At the same time, he has used all of the power of the
presidency — plus some extra-constitutional powers — to persecute and
make war on his domestic political enemies.
Think about it: The transfer of nuclear warhead secrets … The
transfer of critical satellite technology … The transfer of the Panama
Canal … The proposed transfer of the Long Beach Navy yard. … Am I
the only one who sees the pattern here?
And let’s not forget what precipitated all these treasonous policies
— the largest foreign campaign contributions in the history of the
American political system from bank accounts linked to the Chinese
government.
That a U.S. president could so blatantly betray U.S. security is
apparently too much for the American psyche to handle. That he could do
so for money and raw political power is apparently too unthinkable. That
he could get away with this betrayal and get at least the tacit, if not
complicit, support of the opposition party is mind-boggling. But the
public, the press and the politicians don’t wish to be confused with the
facts. They prefer to go on living in a fantasy world with regard to the
basic character of their president and the threat he poses to the
nation’s security.
Nevertheless, the handwriting is on the wall — and you don’t have to
read Chinese to decipher the message.
Somewhere, somehow, some time … America is headed for a military
showdown with China. Let’s hope it’s long after this president has left
office and America has had a chance to recover, in part, from the damage
he has inflicted upon the capabilities of the U.S. military and the
strategic victories he has handed our enemies without a shot being
fired.
But that’s a big hope, wish and prayer. If I were a tyrant in Beijing
today, I might look around the world — particularly at Washington —
and think: “You know, it may never get better than this. We may never
have another opportunity like this. We are unlikely ever to have another
Manchurian president in the White House, who expresses only ‘grave
concern’ when we threaten to invade Taiwan.”
One way or another, though — in the long term or the short — Bill
Clinton’s deliberately treacherous policies have virtually assured the
world of a future cataclysm and promised the U.S. a future war with
China.
