U.S. to train 'Red Berets'

Editor's note: It was almost a year and a half ago that WorldNetDaily first
broke the story of plans for U.S. Special Forces to train the Chinese
Communist People's Liberation Army.
Now, WND's roving international reporter Anthony LoBaido updates this
ongoing story with his exclusive eyewitness report from within
China.

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION, Peoples Republic of China --
The would-be People's Liberation Army Special Forces recruits sit in
rapt attention, arranged in several neat little rows. Sweating under
the fall sun, the young men sport white karate uniforms and crew cuts.

The Chinese soldiers listen intently to Master Fang, a recognized
guru of the Chinese martial arts. Master Fang has spent a lifetime
honing his craft, and now has chosen to impart his mastery to those
lucky enough to have him as their mentor.

"God is nothing more than the masses of the Chinese people," he tells
the recruits, who kneel silently before him.

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"The Chinese people have literally moved mountains, built the Burma
Road, migrated across the continent with entire cities loaded in ox
carts," he intones. "Our physicists built our first atomic bomb using
only the abacus for their calculations. Therefore I tell you, what the
mind perceives, the body can achieve. What the mind of our leadership
conceives, the body of a united PLA Special Forces can and must
achieve."

Master Fang then holds up a large portrait of Lei Feng, the patriotic
idol of the People's Liberation Army. Feng was an ordinary soldier
killed by a falling telephone pole back in the 1960s, but his diary,
filled with devotion to Chairman Mao, was published as an example of the
finest character traits a PLA soldier can aspire to attain. The legend
of Lei Feng has grown to unimaginable levels. He is now remembered as a
combination of Boy Scout, philanthropist, social worker, cadre leader
par excellence and spirited soldier.

"Lei Feng never had the chance to serve in the special forces. But
his spirit can live on through your efforts," Master Fang tells the
eager recruits.

His motivational talk complete, Master Fang claps his hands quickly
and barks at the recruits in Mandarin. The recruits immediately leap to
their feet, moving in a lithe manner and with great purpose.

The 27 recruits divide themselves into "teams" of three men each.
Two of the aspiring special forces soldiers hold a two foot by two foot
wooden board, about two inches thick, high overhead from opposite
sides. The third "team" member waits for Master Fang's cue. When the
Master claps his hands once, the bare-footed young man launches forward
into a 360-degree somersault. Spinning rapidly at the 180-degree level,
the young recruit hangs completely upside down in mid air. At this
point, the soldier's heels smacks into the board, breaking it cleanly in
two pieces. The soldier then completes his spin and lands cat-like on
his feet, back in his starting position.

Master Fang nods his head slightly. It is all the approval the young
man will receive -- or needs for that matter.

Like the rapidly spinning airborne ninja party witnessed by
WorldNetDaily, U.S.-Sino relations threaten to spin wildly out of
control over a kaleidoscope of issues.

The Clinton administration's policy of engagement with Communist
China -- from the sale of advanced missile, satellite and computer
technology, to the 21-gun salute given at Arlington National Cemetery to
the architect of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, to the
relinquishing of the Panama Canal to de facto Chinese control -- has, in
the eyes of the administration's critics, brought China's
once-antiquated military-industrial complex into the 21st century.

The latest controversial issue to emerge in the president's
"strategic partnership" with Red China is the scheduled deployment of
U.S. Special Forces soldiers -- SEALS, Delta Force, Green Berets and
Marine Force Recon -- to mainland China in an effort to train alongside
the People's Liberation Army's own Special Forces, and moreover, to
train the PLA's regular infantry.

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"The U.S. Special Forces troops are what I would call 'Ronin,'" said
Master Fang in an interview with WorldNetDaily. Master Fang has been
training PLA Special Forces since 1990.

"The Ronin were Japanese Samurai who lost their master. Without a
master to fight for, they committed suicide. As your president is so
hated by his own military servants, the Special Forces of America have
by default turned into Ronin."

The idea of sending U.S. Special Forces troops to train alongside the
People's Liberation Army is the master stroke of Gen. Peter Schoomaker,
the U.S. Special Operations Commander. As first reported by
WorldNetDaily in July 1998,
Schoomaker believes reaching out and establishing training links with
Russian and Chinese Special Forces is "something desirable," adding,
"You need to engage so you develop rapport and understanding and have
another method of dialogue."

Assisting in this controversial approach today are Brigadier Gen.
Norton Schwartz, chief of Special Operations Command in the Pacific
Theater and the now-retired Adm. Joseph Prueher, former Commander in
Chief of the Pacific Command.

Such controversial utilization of America's elite fighting men is not
new for the Clinton administration. One such example of U.S. Special
Forces deployment, involving not China, but Russia, was typified by Bill
Clinton's Presidential Decision Directive 13. Under PDD 13, U.S. Green
Berets were dispatched to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, where
they served as mercenaries and bodyguards for Georgian President Edward
Shevardnaze.

The idea of sending the U.S. Special Forces to Communist China has
both allies and critics.

"Sharing tactics with the Chinese Special Forces is the best possible
way to improve our own people's understanding of themselves," says Maj.
Carl Bernard, a former U.S. Special Forces operator. Bernard trained
the Hmong resistance movement in Laos during the 1960s
for the CIA's Special Forces.

"A soldier's role is always, in part, that of an ambassador," Bernard
told WorldNetDaily. "Properly trained and oriented Special Forces
soldiers should be better at this than anyone else. Our people should
have language training as well as an appreciation of both Chinese
culture and their policies as part of their preparation."

Other U.S. Special Forces soldiers interviewed by WND were at odds
with Bernard's erudite assessment, however.

"I don't like the idea of going to Red China to train their troops,"
said a Navy SEAL chief who requested his name be withheld due to fear of
career reprisals from his superiors.

"Morale among our men is very low," he said, expanding the scope of
his concerns. "We don't have money for training, parachuting and
marksmanship. It's really become a joke. Our military is in disarray.
Experienced people are leaving in droves, combat experienced pilots
won't re-enlist. We have a politically correct, feminist army, yet there
are rapes going on during basic training and sex in tents in Bosnia.
Then there's more bizarre things like witchcraft, Satanism and fights
between rivals hailing from street gangs. It's a total meltdown," said
the SEAL chief.

Willem Ratte is a South African Defense Force Special Forces chief
who once trained the Special Forces of Taiwan to repel a Communist
Chinese invasion. His perspective on U.S. Special Forces engagement with
China echoed that of other critics.

"I believe the official U.S. policy is to destroy the morale of
Taiwan. To make Taiwan believe resistance to Red China is futile," said
Ratte in an interview with WorldNetDaily.

"Nelson Mandela switched South Africa's recognition to Communist
China from Taiwan. Taiwan's only remaining friends are Guatemala, El
Salvador and the few remaining real conservatives in the U.S. Congress."

"Soldiers are not ambassadors any more than ambassadors are
soldiers," added Ratte, founder of the Rhodesian Selous Scouts and the
man who ran South Africa's "Border War" in Angola against invaders from
the Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea and former Eastern Bloc states.

"I can't understand the Americans helping Red China. Chinese troops
and weapons killed American boys in the Korean and Vietnam wars. Someday
the U.S. will regret having betrayed the old order for the new one.
Russia and China, along with Islam, will attack America when they feel
the time is right."

Ratte is also deeply concerned by China's human rights record.

"Since 1949 over 90 million Chinese citizens have been sent to forced
labor camps," he said. "Forced abortion is rampant. Christians are sent
to gulags along with Catholic priests where they are forced to stand in
vats of acid."

"I'll tell you what," added Ratte. "If I'm going to Red China as a
Special Forces operator, I'm going there for only one reason -- to train
their people to overthrow their own Communist dictatorship."

Putting the finishing touches on the proposed deployment of U.S.
Special Forces soldiers to Communist China has been no easy task.
Preuher, who had been tabbed by President Clinton to be the new U.S.
ambassador to China to replace the departing Ambassador (and ex-U.S.
Senator) James Sasser, was rejected by the Chinese government.

"Preuher's credentials were improperly presented" to the Chinese
leadership, PRC officials stated in an official Chinese government press
release.

The reasons for Preuher's rejection on such apparently flimsy grounds
has many foreign diplomats stationed in China scratching their heads.

"At first I thought Admiral Preuher's rejection was a tit-for-tat
response to the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade," said
one Western diplomat who asked that his name not be used -- but not for
fear of the Chinese government. Rather, he is concerned about reprisals
from his own Western European government, which has recently honored
Chinese President Jiang Zemin during a state visit, while sending out
its own EU police to beat back Western protesters voicing disapproval of
Communist China's human rights record.

"But everyone knows that China was hiding the avionics from the
Stealth bomber that the Serbians and Spetnaz shot down during the Kosovo
conflict. That violated the 'inner sanctum' policy embassies are
supposed to have," said the diplomat. "Now I really believe that Admiral
Preuher was rejected because he is an astute military man who would be a
formidable foe for the PLA. Ambassador Sasser was basically a public
relations front man for the Fortune 500 and a lobbyist to the U.S.
Senate, where he maintained close connections. Maybe the PLA finally
woke up and realized the Preuher and his tough blokes from the Special
Forces might just be spies like us."

Calls by WorldNetDaily to Preuher's office and the U.S. Special
Forces Command were not returned.

Yet, for his part, Sasser defends the Clinton administration's policy
of "engagement" with China.

"To those who attack the policy of engagement on China, I ask them
what is the substitute? If they want to engage in a policy of
containment, how would they do it? No other country in the world would
join the U.S. in trying to contain China," said Sasser at a ceremony
marking the end of his tenure as Ambassador.

"I think China now has a world class leadership. They are
sophisticated, they understand the world, but they also have great
internal political pressures operating on them."

According to critics, those "internal pressures" of which Sasser
speaks are the People's Liberation Army and Communist Party hardliners
who seek to fight and win a war against the U.S. and her Western allies.

An insight into these pressures can be found in a recent book by two
leading People's Liberation Army Special Forces officers, Colonels Qiao
Liang and Wang Xiangsui's. "War Without Restriction," just published by
the PLA Literature and Arts Publishing House, calls for "guerilla
warfare in the enemy's urban areas, fanatic-style terrorist strikes and
computer infiltration" against America and her allies.

As for where all of this will lead, Master Fang has adopted an
historic and prophetic tone.

"Napoleon once said, 'Let China sleep, for when she awakes, let the
nations tremble.' We have taken back Hong Kong and now Macau. Taiwan
and South Korea are ready to fall. We have gained entrance to the World
Trade Organization. We are now the largest owner of U.S. debt, and
Western corporations are falling all over themselves to appease us,"
said Master Fang.

"These foolish and greedy men forget the long term view of history.
China was conquered by the Middle East and Europe on two occasions --
Attila the Hun in the 5th century and Genghis Khan in the 13th century.
History moves in cycles, and China is the wheel on which future history
will turn."

Anthony C. LoBaido is a
roving international correspondent for WorldNetDaily.