Charles R. Smith makes it clear--why engaging with Communist China doesn't work. If Bush et al could only enlighten to it--many lives would be saved.
Newsmax: June 18, 2007 China is supplying the Taliban with advanced weapons. Chinese officials have stated that they are ignorant of such weapons sales, but U.S. officials are aware of the direct transfers. The Washington Times reported that Chinese made HN-5 surface-to-air missiles were being supplied to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
According to the Washington Times, U.S. defense officials are upset that Chinese weapons are being used to kill Americans.
"Americans are being killed by Chinese-supplied weapons, with the full knowledge and understanding of Beijing where these weapons are going," noted one official.
Iran has made purchases of Chinese weapons, asking Beijing to remove markings and serial numbers in order to avoid being traced back to their point of manufacture. China, in turn, has also supplied weapons directly to the Taliban.
The Bush administration has downplayed the arms sales by China while accusing Iran of passing weapons to the Taliban. The Bush administration is afraid that a backlash against Beijing would result if it were revealed that Beijing is participating in the killing of U.S. and allied soldiers.
China is also directly linked to the sale of advanced surface-to-air missiles to terrorists inside America. Two men were indicted in Los Angeles on charges of attempting to illegally import Chinese-made missiles into the United States. Chao Tung Wu, 51, of La Puente, Calif., and Yi Qing Chen, 41, of Rosemead, Calif., were charged with conspiracy to import Chinese-made surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).
Law enforcement officials said Wu and Chen were caught in a sting developed out of the large-scale federal investigation in Los Angeles known as Smoking Dragon. Wu and Chen charged with conspiracy to import Chinese-made "Qianwei-2" anti-aircraft missiles and launchers.
The conspiracy involved a deal between an undercover U.S. federal agent and Wu and Chen, along with officials at the Xinshidai Corporation, a Chinese state-owned weapons maker, and an un-named Chinese general. The U.S. undercover agent told his Chinese contacts that the missiles were intended to shoot down American airliners inside the United States.
The missile deal used a third country to mask the weapons delivery by Xinshidai. The missiles were then to be shipped to the United States in containers identified as civilian machine parts. One alleged payment was determined to be a $2 million bribe to a foreign official to allow his unidentified country to trans-ship the missiles.
The Chinese government has done nothing to prosecute anyone involved in the scheme to shoot down civilian airliners, despite the direct involvement of a Chinese General. Again, the communists have decided at the highest levels to approve the sale of advanced arms to terrorists inside America.
Why has the U.S. government not reacted to the terror threat from China? The current Bush policy toward China is called "engagement" and it has been in place for the past 20 years. It ignores the Chinese Army and communist rule. The idea behind engagement is that by promoting free trade and economic growth China will move by itself toward a democratic government, peaceful co-existence and social freedoms.
Many who oppose engagement call it appeasement. It has not made China any freer or any nicer. It has created a small middle class that is dedicated to the CCP line because freedom would mean all those poor people voting in representatives that may not spend on weapons, space or giant gala Olympic parties.
The sale of weapons to the Taliban by Beijing is an overt act of war and the decision to do so was made at the highest levels in the ruling communist party. Appeasement will not stop China from killing Americans.
The correct policy for China is "containment". Containment was a policy put in place around the USSR. It went up after WWII with the Truman administration. Restrictions were placed on trade, travel and information. Containment ended when the USSR was no more.
There is also an illogical approach to dealing with the rise of the PRC in military and economic terms. The current policy toward North Korea is a good example of how containment - the lack of trade - can weaken a military to the point of being useless.
Of course, this can lead to a radical government, which can be a loose cannon with cheaper nuclear warheads. The containment must also be balanced with humanitarian goals of seeing that people don't starve to death. The grip of a totalitarian regime will always sacrifice the masses for the good of the leadership. When the grip fails - the leadership dies or flees.
Engagement merely extends the life of a totalitarian state. It does not end the cruelty, make it any nicer in terms of nationalistic aggression or for the economic plight of the masses. This extension also lengthens the time under which the people must suffer, living in a chained society. China is a very good example where, despite the vast income, little if anything has flowed to the massive impoverished population.
It has created a very narrow middle class that would rather the masses not have freedoms. They are living off the blood, and sweat of slave labor to buy their SUVs, stereos and TVs. They certainly do not want that to change.
The illogic of engagement with China is an extreme case of stupid. For example, the World Bank still classifies China as a developing nation so it provides billions of dollars in low cost or free loans. Primarily the U.S finances these loans. This, of course, flies in the face of economic reality. China currently runs the largest export deficit in history mainly due to its predatory currency policy of maintaining a low priced Yuan. China also spends billions on advanced military hardware and is engaged in an expensive space program.
Until recently, Canada was providing billions in loans to the Chinese government based on the premise that it was still an underdeveloped nation. The Canadians changed that because of the obvious current economic power in Beijing.
This brings the question of why should we be financing Chinese economic development when they certainly can afford to do it themselves? The answer comes in the form of corporate interests who seek these U.S. government backed loans to provide financing of their business activities in China.
In reality - We are financing the growth of the Chinese military. The idea of funding nuclear tipped missiles pointed at America is not a pleasant notion. I would prefer to not do it at all.
In the end, engagement is appeasement. It costs money, lives, and freedom. It has not helped but instead - hurt development and in the long run - hurt the chances of peace.
The only sensible solution is to adopt a unified containment policy. This means that India, the US, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines are going to have to band together and agree on joint policy, political - military - economic action toward Beijing.
It won't be an easy road because the PLA has many backers even here in the US. The US needs to dump the "engagement" policy that has failed over the past 20 years. Its time for the US to recognize that engagement does not lead to peace or freedom when you are dealing with a totalitarian state.
The greedy territory hungry PLA warlords will face a common front - whether it is the illegal occupation of the Indian territory Arunachal Pradesh, selling nuclear weapons to tin-pot dictators, selling weapons to terrorists or threats to invade Taiwan. They will have to face the lost income - forcing changes at both a social level and in a political military re-alignment of priorities. The pressure from all directions will force China to implode rather than explode.
We can make China change - but it has to be a "we" operation for it to succeed.
click to enlarge