DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON
SECTION: CHINA
SUBSECTION: GENERAL PART 2
Revised 8/20/99
LA Times 5/3/99 Maggie Farley "....When the time came in early March for the 14 boys and 18 girls to return to Shanghai, they gathered in front of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX. Program organizers handed students their plane tickets, shook hands and said goodbye. A sharply dressed Chinese American woman with a black Mercedes was there, helping interpret. Then a fleet of vans driven by Asian men pulled up. They swept up the kids and their bags and sped off, leaving the counselors dumbfounded and frightened. The counselors called police. At first, there was speculation of a mass defection or, more likely, a kidnapping. The teens, after all, were the children of Shanghai's elite: government officials, executives and bankers. Police launched an intensive search. The youths were found 48 hours later, ensconced in host-family homes, waiting to start a second program. The police--reassured by parents in long-distance calls to China--dismissed the melee as confusion between rival schools. It wasn't. Investigations by the U.S. State Department and Immigration and Naturalization Service and interviews with the parents indicate that the incident at the airport was a glitch in a sophisticated new immigration ploy--parlaying a short-term student visa into, potentially, a U.S. passport. The parents call it giving their children the best opportunity. The U.S. government calls it "an alien-smuggling conspiracy." But more than anything, it is a story that shows how porous the U.S. immigration law is, and how attractive America remains for Chinese despite a rapidly improving standard of living in their homeland...."
5/7/99 BELGRADE "...One of the people injured in a NATO strike on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade Friday night has died, the Yugoslav news agency Beta said Saturday. "One employee of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia was killed in the overnight strike on the Chinese embassy building in Belgrade,'' Beta said. The Beta agency added that two more employees were missing. ''It is feared that these two have also been killed,'' it said...."
Washington Post 5/8/99 Daniel Williams "...NATO missiles plowed into the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during a ferocious allied bombardment tonight that also struck the Interior Ministry and army headquarters and again plunged the capital city into darkness. The 26 Chinese staff members who lived in the building were taken to a hospital, and there were conflicting initial reports about the extent of the casualties. The official New China News Agency reported that four people were injured and four others were missing. Yugoslav Foreign Ministry spokesman Nebojsa Vujovic said "there are deaths and injuries," without providing details. The airstrike that hit the embassy seemed likely to complicate Western efforts to secure a diplomatic settlement to the Kosovo conflict and to raise new strains in U.S.-Chinese relations..... Earlier today, NATO cluster bombs struck a residential neighborhood and hospital grounds in Nis, Serbia's third-largest city, killing at least 14 civilians and wounding 30 others. NATO said tonight that it was "highly probable that a weapon went astray and hit civilian buildings" during an attack on a nearby airfield...."
AFP 5/7/99 "...The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting at 11:30 p.m. (0330 GMT) at the rquest of Beijing after a NATO bomb hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, council diplomats said. The independent Beta news agency in Belgrade reported at least one person had been killed in the strike, which Chinese diplomats here called a "barbarian act."
Itar-Tass 5/8/99 "...NATO's missile attack on the Chinese Embassy to Yugoslavia means that the Kosovo Albanians mean nothing to NATO, as they attacked today the embassy of a sovereign state, the Chinese Ambassador told Itar-Tass. Pan Zhanlien emphasized that "China's reaction will be tough". The ambassador also said there were victims among the staff. He could not specify how may people had died. According to the ambassador, the attack on the embassy was targeted, as the building is situated far from industrial or military objects. "That could not have been a pilot's mistake," he said...."
Daily Telegraph, London 5/8/99 David Rennie "...CHINA has launched nationwide curbs on foreign television broadcasts, seizing satellite dishes, raiding cable operators and suspending overseas channels. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation confirmed yesterday that its Phoenix cable channel appears to have been pulled off-air in provinces across China. ....Now official Chinese newspapers have reprinted the 1993 law which bans unauthorised satellite reception, on pain of fines and even imprisonment, and state television has shown illegal dishes and decoders being seized. Telephone hotlines have been set up for citizens to denounce illicit television transmissions...."
Associated Press 5/8/99 NICOLE WINFIELD "....China called an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Saturday to condemn what it called the barbaric ``NATO attack'' on its embassy in Belgrade. The United States expressed regret over the incident but vowed to continue bombing. Chinese Ambassador Qin Huasun circulated a draft statement to the press -- which would eventually have to be agreed upon by the entire council -- that calls for the United Nations to investigate the bombing and for NATO to provide an explanation. China's official Xinhua news agency said two people were killed and more than 20 injured...... Qin said China was ``greatly shocked,'' by the bombing. ``We strongly condemn NATO's act and will express our indignation. NATO's barbarian act is a gross violation of the United Nations Charter, international law and the norms governing international relations,'' Qin said. He warned that NATO would bear responsibility for the consequences of the blast, and he called on NATO to stop the bombing. China has consistently voiced strong opposition to the NATO attacks, saying they were launched without authorization of the council and violate international law...."
Press Association (U.K.) 5/8/99 "...Britain is to use an emergency session of the UN Security Council to try to persuade China that its embassy in Belgrade had not been bombed deliberately, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said. At least three people are reported to have been killed in the incident. "We will most certainly be seeking to convince the Chinese that there was no possibility, no question of deliberately targeting their embassy," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "Indeed, the target was elsewhere and was a legitimate military target," he said, adding that although he did not have full details he understood the alliance had been targeting a hotel used by indicted war criminal and paramilitary leader Arkan...."
AFP via Babelfish 5/8/99 "...More than 2.000 Chinese expressed by throwing stones Saturday against the embassy from the United States in Peking, under the glance of the police force, after the bombardment by NATO in the night of the embassy from China in Belgrade which made at least three died. The demonstrators, for the majority of the well organized students, encircled the vast complex sheltering the American embassy. They threw stones and bottles out of plastic against the building. " the United States is assassins ", shouted the crowd of demonstrators, whereas a hundred police officers were held close to the procession without intervening. On banners one could read: " NATO, Nazis " and " the United States, go to the devil ". ..."
Reuters 5/8/99 Benjamin Kang Lim Freeper starlu "...Angry students, chanting and waving banners, burned a U.S. flag outside the American embassy in Beijing Saturday during a mass demonstration against NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Students and onlookers cheered and clapped as the Stars and Stripes went up in flames outside the main embassy gates, and hurled empty plastic bottles, tomatoes and other debris over the compound's iron fence..."
USA TODAY 5/8/99 AP "...Several thousand students marched Saturday in front of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to protest the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, while the government accused NATO of a ''barbarian act.''.... A cheer of ''Hao,'' meaning ''Bravo,'' went up whenever a plastic water bottle or piece of pavement landed on the Embassy building. Police joined hands in a chain to block the embassy gate. Some of the protesters sang the Chinese national anthem, and others shouted ''Protect sovereignty, protect peace,'' and ''We don't want war.'' Signs hung on a bus that brought students to the embassy said ''Nato Nazis.'' Some police applauded the students when they sang the national anthem ....The protest was highly unusual for China, where authorities generally have banned any large gatherings or demonstrations for fear of unrest. Demonstrators said they had asked school authorities for permission to march, and it had been granted....Several hundred people with banners also demonstrated outside the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai, and several dozen protested in Hong Kong....."
5/8/99 CNN "....The protesters pushed toward the embassy, demanding to be let in and calling U.S. President Bill Clinton obscene names, CNN's Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon said. Police pushed back demonstrators who tried to ram a van and hurl a burning American flag through the embassy gate. Protesters used pieces of concrete that had been left in piles by workers rebuilding sidewalks to break many of the windows in U.S. Embassy buildings. A group of protesters tried to flip a car and started shoving police who stopped them. Several cars were smashed with chunks of concrete...."
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/1999/19990508.SC6674.html 5/8/99 UN Security Council "...QIN HUASUN (China) read a statement from the Chinese Government that said that at midnight of 7 May, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), led by the United States, flagrantly attacked the Embassy of China with three missiles from different angles and caused serious damage. Two people had died, two were missing and many were injured. Flagrant bombing by NATO, led by the United States, had already caused enormous casualties and now it had gone so far as to bomb the Chinese Embassy. That was a violation of the sovereignty of China, and of the basic norms of international relations. China expressed the utmost indignation and severe condemnation of this barbaric activity. It made the strongest protest. NATO, headed by the United States, must assume the responsibility. China reserved the right to take further measures. The working buildings and the residence of the Embassy in Yugoslavia -- indeed the whole Embassy from the fifth floor to the basement -- had been destroyed, he said. All Embassy staff had either been sent to hospital for treatment or had been withdrawn to hotels. That was a serious incident and deserved the utmost indignation and the strongest condemnation. Even in times of war, it was recognized that diplomatic institutes should not be violated and diplomats should be protected. Violation of those principles was a serious threat to the maintenance of necessary and normal international relations. The indiscriminate attack constituted a serious breach of international conventions. It was a crime of war and should be punished. China demanded a NATO investigation of the incident and that NATO account for it. The frenzied bombardment by NATO, led by the United States, of Yugoslavia over the last 45 days had resulted in civilian casualties. It had now violated a mission. This was shocking. NATO should stop the air strikes immediately and unconditionally....Mr. QIN (China) said he had followed the comments by Council members and others closely. He thanked representatives for their expressions of sympathy and condolences. However, he had also heard the absurd argument expressed that NATO did not intentionally bomb the Embassy and therefore it could not be charged with contravening the convention on diplomatic protection. It was astonishing that a senior diplomat would say this. Facts spoke louder than words. Whether deliberate or not, this was a blatant transgression of international law. He reiterated that NATO must shoulder all responsibility for its actions. He also informed the Council that China had distributed a draft presidential statement on the situation, and it hoped there would be early action on this draft....."
The Independent 5/9/99 Andrew Marshall, Teresa Poole, Rachel Sylvester "...The last time such anti-Western wrath was vented on such a scale was during the Cultural Revolution, when the British embassy was sacked and burnt down by Red Guards. Such scenes have not been witnessed in Peking since the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement. Despite busloads of police and paramilitary soldiers, and half-hearted attempts to hold back the crowds from the embassy area, the authorities appeared to have neither the inclination nor the expertise to marshal the irate protesters..."
AFP 5/9/99 "...China may have bitten off more than it can chew as the authorities unleash a wave of mounting xenophobia across the country in the wake of NATO's bombing of its Yugoslav embassy. While giving assurances by the leadership that foreign nationals on its soil will be protected, the government has also sent a much more potent message -- that the angry and often violent protests which have erupted in major cities this weekend have its full backing. "There is a risk of things getting out of hand," said a Western diplomat in the capital who declined to be named. "They have done everything to make it boil over." ...The nightly news bulletin showed scenes reminiscent of the old days of political struggle sessions during the Cultural Revolution (1966 - 1976), with older people and schoolchildren sitting in rows chanting anti-NATO slogans.... The United States evacuated all personnel from its consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu after angry protesters stormed the compound and set the residence of the consul-general ablaze. The American embassy and consulates across China will close Monday and Tuesday as a result of the violence..... "
The Sunday Times (London) 5/9/99 Stephen Grey, Matthew Campbell, and Hugh McManners "...YESTERDAY Nato admitted it had bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade after mistaking it for a Yugoslav government office. At least three people were killed in the attack, which threw diplomatic efforts to end the war into turmoil. Alliance officials said they had believed the building was Yugoslavia's federal directorate of supply and procurement, which organises weapons imports and exports. It was hit by three 1,000lb precision-guided freefall weapons, thought to have been dropped by a B2 stealth bomber. Last night Nato diplomats were looking to General Wesley Clark, the supreme allied commander who now has sole authority for selecting targets, to take responsibility. Allied intelligence agencies, including the CIA, were also facing severe criticism. "It is absolutely incredible not even to know where the embassy of such an important world power is situated," one diplomat said....The embassy, purpose-built for the Chinese in 1993, was hit during the heaviest bombardment of Belgrade in more than six weeks of bombing. Witnesses said two missiles struck the roof and one penetrated its side. Two journalists and a reporter's wife died. A fourth victim was reported missing. Chinese diplomats, some with bloodstained clothes, watched in tears as rescuers brought out 21 injured. ...."
Wash. Post 5/9/99 Steven Pearlstein "...Embarrassed and apologetic NATO officials today blamed an "intelligence failure" for causing Friday night's accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade that left at least three dead and 20 wounded, and threatened to derail diplomatic efforts to end the military conflict in Yugoslavia. NATO said its laser-guided bombs were mistakenly aimed at the embassy because CIA officials gave military planners incorrect information about the target, which they believed was the Federal Directorate of Supply and Procurement, which the alliance described as a military facility. Military authorities said the two buildings are 150 to 200 yards apart and are similar in size and age. Four bombs hit the embassy and were dropped by one or more U.S. planes, according to Pentagon officials. In an unusual joint statement issued late Saturday, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and CIA Director George J. Tenet expressed regret about civilian deaths and said that "faulty information" led to the mistaken bombing...... Unlike earlier mishaps in the air war, when bombs strayed from their intended targets, officials said the Chinese Embassy was hit by four bombs that had been targeted on the new five-story building, in the belief that it was the Yugoslav military's weapons warehouse and procurement center. But throughout the day, alliance military spokesmen in Brussels and Washington could not provide details of how such a mix-up could have occurred. Officials declined repeated requests to produce a map showing where the embassy was in relation to the procurement center or even to estimate the distance between the two sites. Initial reports said missiles were used in the attack, but in fact they were laser-guided bombs...."
ABC News on-line 5/9/99 Stacy Lu '...Enraged hackers apparently attacked the official Web site of the U.S. embassy in China yesterday, took over the Web sites of the Departments of Energy and the Interior today, and established their own online convention center at a site called "killusa." The Department of Interior Web site on Sunday showed pictures of the three Chinese journalists killed on Saturday when NATO accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The Department of Energy site read "Protest USA's Nazi action." It was unclear whether the hacking was done by Chinese or not, though several messages on Chinese Web sites and message boards based in China claimed that it was...."
Reuters 5/9/99 "....The State Department Sunday suspended official travel to China by all government employees and urged other Americans to defer plans to visit, citing the ``volatile'' conditions sparked by the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade..... ``The Department of State strongly urges American citizens to defer travel to the PRC (People's Republic of China) until the situation stabilizes. U.S. citizens should remain in, or very close to, their homes or hotels, review their security practices, stay alert to the changing situation and avoid crowds and demonstrations,'' the statement said. The statement said there had been large-scale demonstrations, incidents of harassment of private Americans and damage to U.S. business in China since NATO mistakenly struck the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade Friday night during its ongoing air attacks against the forces of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. The bombing killed four people and wounded more than 20. The U.S. ambassador to China warned Sunday that protests could ``spin out of control'' in Beijing, where angry demonstrators hurled rocks, concrete and a homemade firebomb...."
Electronic Telegraph 5/10/99 David Rennie and Hugo Gurdon ISSUE 1445 ".....MOBS bussed in by the authorities were still besieging the British and United States embassies in Beijing last night as Nato's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade threatened diplomatic efforts to end the Balkans conflict. Screaming slogans such as "Kill America", thousands of students and workers pelted the missions with stones or fire bombs and beat Western journalists and passers-by. Li Zhaoxing, the Chinese ambassador to Washington, expressed fury at the bombing and hinted that Beijing might retaliate with a Security Council veto of peace initiatives if "anyone tries to whitewash it [the bombing] as a mistake". China's reaction would "all depend" on its own investigation of the attack, which killed four Chinese, and which the ambassador linked to recent "false" allegations that Beijing's spies stole nuclear missile secrets from weapons laboratories in the United States. Beijing's response would be "in accordance with the charter of the United Nations", Mr Li said, adding: "The US-led Nato has violated the charter. I am watching. The Chinese people are watching. We are indignant. We are waiting for their response.".....The American and British ambassadors were trapped inside their missions by tens of thousands of marchers carrying Red Flags and banners reading "Nato=Nazis", "Down with American Imperialism" and "Clinton is Hitler". Crowds shouted "Get Out Nato" and, in a return to the language of the Cultural Revolution, "Death to American running dogs"....."
Washington Post 5/10/99 John Pomfret Michael Laris "...Today's protests in Beijing took on a harsher tone than demonstrations Saturday. An American reporter was hit with a rock, other Americans were threatened and one was rescued from an angry crowd by concerned protesters. "I want to kill Americans," shouted Li Guangqiao, a 25-year-old graduate student, as he marched toward the embassy. "Kill the big noses!" Attacks against U.S. diplomatic missions have already occurred in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenyang. In the southwestern city of Chengdu, protesters burned the residence of the U.S. consul general and pelted the consulate with rocks. "This hasn't been seen in 10 years," said a police officer outside the embassy in Beijing. "The masses are huge, and it's incited people's nationalist feelings." Asked if the police could lose control of the situation, he answered: "Yes." Once the protesters snaked their way through the city to the front of the U.S. Embassy, demonstrators uprooted pavement slabs and hurled them at the embassy. They also tossed burning U.S. flags and flaming effigies over the compound's white iron gates, and launched three molotov cocktails. Several Chinese tried to scale the fence surrounding the building but they were pulled back by police. Protesters shouted: "Take down the flag!" Protesters have made four demands known: that U.S. flags be flown at half staff across the United States; that NATO immediately stop its bombing campaign in Yugoslavia; that the United States issue an open apology for the attack; and that NATO be dismantled. But today, the protesters seemed to want something more violent. "Don't get Chinese mad," said one. "Remember the Korean War!" when Chinese and American troops fought each other in the early 1950s.... Sasser said he had been assured by the Chinese Foreign Ministry that the police and the People's Armed Police would be responsible for the safety of U.S. diplomats. But "there were instances today when it was very questionable as to if they could hold back the mobs," he said. "We're fully prepared to evacuate if necessary," he said. Asked where the U.S. officials would go, he responded: "That's the $64,000 question."..."
London Daily Mirror 5/10/99 LT-GEN SIR RODERICK CORDY-SIMPSON "...We have not only destroyed their embassy but killed three of their people. In one fell swoop we have managed to alienate China and Russia, two key members of the UN Security Council. And for these two sensitive nations this could be one Nato mistake too many. It's very difficult to understand how on earth we made an error on such a massive scale. Apart from bombing the Russian Embassy, it's the worst thing we could have done. To be honest it beggars belief. The Serbian government building which was the real target is nearby but the two buildings don't look even remotely alike. Nato sources are claiming we were duped by a double agent. But it's incomprehensible, with the technological intelligence at Nato's disposal, from satellites to spies on the ground, that we didn't even bother to check a good old-fashioned map....Diplomatically we will have to pay a heavy price. We have a weakened Nato which may be forced into a hastily agreed partition of Kosovo. It will be everything we said we weren't prepared to negotiate and will leave Milosevic laughing in Nato's face...."
Reuters 5/10/99 "...In mistakenly targeting the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, U.S. intelligence officials were working from an outdated map issued before China built its diplomatic compound several years ago, the Washington Post reported Monday. "The tragic and embarrassing truth is that our maps simply did not show the Chinese Embassy anywhere in that vicinity,'' a senior NATO official told the Post. Quoting unidentified U.S. and NATO authorities, the newspaper said it was the CIA that initially misidentified the site, although there has been no explanation from the agency about how such an error could have occurred. At the same time, responsibility for the blunder was said to extend beyond the CIA, according to the Post. Describing a targeting process that has numerous levels of review built in, government officials said members of the Joint Staff, the U.S. European Command and NATO all signed off on the target after failing to detect that the address they were given was wrong. "They all have a variety of means of checking on a proposed target and none of them seemed to come up with an objection to this one,'' one official told the Post...."
South China Morning Post 5/10/99 "...A CNN reporter was struck by a demonstrator in Beijing. "An older man in the crowd hit me on the back of the head," Rebecca Mackinnon said. "He was going to go at me again but the students stopped him. People were shouting 'Beat her, kill her'," she said. Mackinnon said she was shaken but not seriously hurt. Several Western reporters were punched and kicked in Beijing. The US Embassy advised American nationals to get off the streets and the International School of Beijing said it was cancelling classes today...."
Washington Post 5/10/99 Bradley Graham and Steven Pearlstein "... The erroneous B-2 bomber attack, which dropped several satellite-guided bombs on the embassy, killing four people and injuring 20 others, marked the latest in about a dozen strikes that have gone awry during the 6 1/2 weeks that NATO has been pummeling Yugoslavia from the air. The mistakes have had varying causes, with no evidence of any pattern, officials said yesterday. But they all have involved U.S. aircraft. And while the incidents amount to only a minuscule percentage of the more than 18,000 combat missions flown and 9,000 bombs and missiles fired, NATO officials from several countries acknowledged that the succession of accidents is having a damaging effect on public confidence in some alliance countries. Gen. Wesley K. Clark, NATO's top military commander, yesterday reaffirmed his confidence in the target selection process. He termed the mistaken bombing of the Chinese embassy "an anomaly" and insisted the allied air campaign would continue to intensify, although there were no new attacks on sites in Belgrade yesterday. "We're not going to let an incident like this deter us from doing what we think is right and necessary," the four-star American general said on ABC's "This Week." He called NATO's effort "the most precise, effective and collateral damage-free air operation ever conducted." ...In a joint statement issued late Saturday, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen and CIA Director George J. Tenet acknowledged that "faulty information led to a mistake in the initial targeting" of the Chinese embassy. "In addition, the extensive process in place used to select and validate targets did not correct this original error." But the two officials concluded that "a review of our procedures has convinced us that this was an anomaly that is unlikely to occur again."..."
South China Morning Post 5/10/99 "...With estimates of participants nationwide at more than 400,000, it was the largest turnout of protesters since the pro-democracy crusade in the run-up to the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Diplomatic sources in Beijing said the protests would go on until Washington paid compensation, made a commitment to de-escalate the strikes and looked for a diplomatic solution..... Popular anger was also directed at US businesses. In eastern Nanjing, students staged a sit-down protest outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and plastered posters on windows saying: "Strike the US economy." As bricks and blocks of concrete rained on the British Embassy, a man and his adolescent son weaved through the crowds carrying a sign that read: "We beseech President Jiang [Zemin] to declare war on the United States." ..."
South China Morning Post 5/10/99 WILLY WO-LAP LAM "...Sino-US ties could take a leap backwards if Washington does not take substantial action to mollify Beijing. Senior cadres, including Politburo Standing Committee members, who met in emergency sessions on Saturday and yesterday, have ordered an overall assessment of relations. A Beijing source said the "minimum requirements" set forth by relatively moderate cadres was that the US and Nato authorities issue a full apology, pay adequate compensation and allow China a bigger role in the resolution of the Balkans conflict. However, the hawks, including PLA generals, were pushing for more pressure to be applied to the US - and overall scaling down of relations - unless Nato agreed to halt hostilities against Yugoslavia. The hardliners, one of whose leaders was PLA Vice-Chief of Staff General Xiong Guangkai, have held meetings in which they insisted the embassy strike was a pre-meditated attempt to trample on Chinese sovereignty.... Foreign diplomats said that even if Washington and Nato were to meet some of Beijing's demands, a pall would still be cast over relations. "Many cadres think Kosovo heralds a new wave of 'neo-imperialism' which will cut into Chinese interests sooner or later," a Western diplomat said. "Beijing cannot live with Nato's ideal that humanitarianism is above national boundaries." A Beijing University expert said last night Nato had become a "military machine" that might one day use Tibet or Taiwan to interfere in Chinese affairs...."
WorldNetDaily 5/10/99 J.R. Nyquist "...Other reports indicate that the Chinese government is behind the protests, shipping demonstrators into the city, orchestrating their movements. Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., said on NBC's Meet the Press: "It is clear that the Chinese are orchestrating this for some political reason." What political reason could there be? Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian met last week with Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro. What was discussed? Military cooperation between Cuba and China. Soon China will join Russia in having a strategic presence on Fidel Castro's communist island-stronghold. This would further complement the Chinese position in Panama, where Chinese-controlled front companies now operate the ports of entry on either side of the Panama Canal. Meanwhile, the Chinese Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) continues its campaign to get operational control of the former Long Beach Naval Station. According to Timothy Maier, writing for Insight magazine, if the Chinese fail to get the Long Beach facility, they will attempt to get a base in Los Angeles. The idea, as in Panama, is for Chinese front companies to operate their own port facilities. Concerned U.S. intelligence experts say that Chinese control of a U.S. mainland port could create a "national security nightmare." In fact, the Chinese Ocean Shipping Company has already been linked with heroin and arms smuggling into the United States.... Anyone acquainted with recent Chinese moves should not be surprised at China's furious anti-American outburst. This outburst is, to a large extent, contrived. Everyone knows the NATO attack was an accident. President Clinton has apologized for it again and again. But the Chinese propaganda machine will not admit any accidents. Any close observation of China's strategic behavior reveals a war psychology at work behind the scenes. And before you can have a war, you must demonize your enemy, mobilize the hearts and minds of your people -- especially to justify your own actions, which might well include the unleashing of nuclear weapons.....Therefore, the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was a lucky hit -- for the Russian-Chinese alliance. In Russia, popular outrage against America has reached such an extreme that tourists dare not speak English on the Moscow subway. People have been roughed-up for reading English language newspapers. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have gone into uniform. A colossal military mobilization is underway. Slavic brotherhood has been extolled by the presidents of Belarus and Ukraine, showing that solidarity yet exists between former Soviet republics. Meanwhile, Russian officials have been openly worrying about the approach of World War III. Last week Russian President Boris Yeltsin commented on the possibility of an accidental nuclear war, saying: "Just let Clinton, a little bit, accidentally, send a missile. We'll answer immediately. ..."
NY Times 5/10/99 AP "...China broke off talks on human rights and arms control with the United States today, and waves of demonstrators hurled stones at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing for a third day to protest NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia. The government also demanded that U.S. officials apologize for the NATO bombing, investigate the attack and punish those responsible. Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan issued the demands to U.S. Ambassador James Sasser, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported..... Instead of halting the violence, police orchestrated the protest, directing the demonstrators past the U.S. and British embassies. Police also blocked nearby streets and ordered foreign reporters away from corners where they could see the embassy...... China suspended diplomatic relations regarding human rights, arms control and international security, Xinhua said, citing Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao. The suspension affected areas of key interest to the United States, including concerns that China has provided nuclear weapons or missile technology to Pakistan, Iran or other countries....."
USA Today 5/10/99 Editorial "...China's ambassador to the U.S. said Sunday, after mentioning the deaths of three Chinese and calling for an investigation, that he's piqued that Washington has accused China of nuclear spying and human-rights violations. In China, the manipulation is less subtle. U.S. diplomats deliberately are being spooked. Crassly, state TV isn't informing the public that Washington apologized or that the bombing was an accident. Students, once starry-eyed about the U.S., are angry and confused. The propaganda is helped by the White House's failure to find a way to take its apology to the Chinese people directly. The U.S. ambassador apologized in private to officials, who had no wish to pass the condolences on....."
Reuters 5/9/99 "... China has suspended military exchanges with the United States in the wake of NATO's mistaken bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia. ``China has decided to postpone the high-level military contacts with the United States,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said in a statement released by the official Xinhua news agency. ``China has decided to postpone its consultations with the United States in the fields of proliferation prevention, arms control and international security,'' the statement said. It came after two days of violent protests outside the United States and British embassies in Beijing in the wake of the strike, which killed four people and injured more than 20...."
Reuters 5/9/99 "...China has suspended its human rights dialogue with the United States in retaliation for the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia. Foreign Minsitry spokesman Zhu Bangzao announced the cancelation of dialogue in a statement released on the official Xinhua news agency...."
NY Times 5/13/99 JAMES RISEN and JEFF GERTH "..."The DF-31 ICBM will give China a major strike capability that will be difficult to counterattack at any stage of its operation," a 1996 Air Force intelligence report on the DF-31 stated. "It will be a significant threat not only to U.S. forces deployed in the Pacific theater, but to portions of the continental United States and to many of our allies." Some United States officials say the new Chinese weapon will use design technology from the American W-70 warhead, a small bomb designed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California in the 1970's. China stole secret design information about the W-70 from Lawrence Livermore in the late 1970's or early 1980's, Government investigators believe. A scientist was fired from Lawrence Livermore in 1981 in connection with the investigation into the suspected theft, but no one has ever been arrested in the case. The F.B.I. said it did not have evidence to bring charges in the case....The W-70 warhead is also known as the neutron bomb, a weapon that kills people with enhanced radiation while leaving buildings intact. But its "primary" can be used in other, conventional nuclear weapons as well...... Despite the debate, the broad conclusion that the DF-31 will come equipped with a warhead that uses stolen American technology is included in two new secret Government reports, officials said. Part of one report from a select House committee is soon to be made public. The other report is the result of a Government-wide intelligence assessment of the damage done to United States national security by Chinese nuclear espionage, according to officials. That Government-wide assessment, however, acknowledges the uncertainty..... Once the DF-31 and other advanced missiles are deployed, China is expected to begin to phase out its older and less accurate ballistic missiles. "The DF-31 ICBM will give China a major strike capability that will be difficult to counterattack at any stage of its operation, from preflight mobile operations through the terminal flight phase," the 1996 Air Force intelligence report predicted. The "road mobility" of the DF-31, the report adds, "will greatly improve Chinese nuclear ballistic missile survivability and will complicate the task of defeating the Chinese threat."
AP 5/16/99 "... NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade shows that China should hasten the modernization of its armed forces, official media said Sunday. China needs to hurry up and modernize its weaponry and tactics in order to ``assiduously safeguard national sovereignty and dignity,'' the Communist Party's flagship People's Daily said on the front page. Particularly important is China's need to defend itself against high-tech weapons, the newspaper said.....China has opposed the bombing campaign from the start, arguing that it is unlawful intervention in Yugoslavia's domestic affairs. China is dealing with its own internal strife in Tibet and Xinjiang - territories where it is accused of repressing non-Chinese native populations...."
Insight Magazine Vol. 13, No. 17 5/12/97 By Timothy W. Maier ". . . . China analysts and national-security officials say the operating officer at the heart of Beijing's master plan to seize hegemony over Taiwan, Japan, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Saipan, Guam and the Philippines is Wang Jun - Clinton's Feb. 6, 1996, coffee-klatsch guest who has taken advantage of corporate greed by persuading American investors to pour billions of dollars into joint-venture projects that allow Wang to tap into the U.S. bond market, borrowing millions from American mutual funds, pension funds and insurance companies to support the war chest. . . . . Wang chairs both PolyTechnologies, or Poly, the arms-trading company of the PLA, and China International Trust and Investment Corp., or CITIC, a $23 billion financial conglomerate that Wang says is run by China's government, or State Council. His dual control of CITIC and Poly (the PLA company caught last year allegedly smuggling 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles to U.S. street gangs) makes it difficult for American firms to know whose hand they are shaking. "He's a master of muddying the waters," says James Mulvenon, a China researcher at California-based Rand Corp. "American companies are playing a shell game.". . . . Not surprisingly, CITIC officially has controlled Poly. The relationship dates back to 1984 when the PLA created Poly for arms trading and structured it under the ownership of CITIC in part to conceal Poly's link to the PLA, according to Western analysts. Wang is the son of Red China's late vice president and Long March veteran Wang Zhen. The president of Poly is Maj. Gen. He Ping, son-in-law of the late Deng Xiaoping. A former defense expert for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, He Ping is director of PLA arms procurement and chairs CITIC-Shanghai. A second major subsidiary of CITIC is CITIC-Pacific in Hong Kong, chaired by Rong Yung, son of China's vice president, Rong Yiren, who founded CITIC. In short, this is a high-level operation of the Beijing government directly connected to the men in charge...."
Insight Magazine Vol. 13, No. 17 5/12/97 By Timothy W. Maier " . . With the help of CITIC-Beijing, He Ping engineered the billion-dollar sale of Chinese arms that included missiles to Saudi Arabia and short-range cruise missiles to Iran during the mid-1980s. That deal was assisted by the government-controlled China Northern Industrial Corp., or Norinco, which now is under investigation in the West for selling chemical-weapons materials to Iran for weapons of mass destruction, according to April testimony before a Senate Governmental subpanel. China's sale of nuclear and chemical weapons to the Middle East all are part of a strategic plan to spread out deployment of the U.S. Navy so the PLA can concentrate on the South China Sea, according to intelligence and diplomatic officials.....Wang's ability to mask Poly by showcasing CITIC has paid off handsomely for his other enterprises on behalf of Beijing's war plans. In particular, the U.S. bond market already has been an attractive target for CITIC to the tune of $800 million in borrowing. That, of course, begs the question: Why is the high-level Beijing operative Wang Jun allowed to borrow huge sums from Americans when President Clinton says it is "clearly inappropriate" even to meet with this PLA arms dealer?...... Yet, there is no national-security screening of foreign borrowers in U.S. securities markets from which huge sums are being allowed to float into China's war chest...."
South China Morning Post 5/13/99 Willy Wo-Lap Lam "...Beijing is to abandon Deng Xiaoping's low-profile foreign policy to beat back the challenges of a fast-expanding Washington-led Nato..... "The Politburo Standing Committee has decided that if the Washington-led Nato has its way in Europe, it will next target China," a diplomatic source in Beijing said. "The elite body has endorsed a number of measures to seize the initiative through asserting itself in foreign policy." Among the recommendations given preliminary approval are: Playing a more aggressive role in the United Nations..... Developing a world-class arsenal, particularly missiles, to counter the "Nato military machine". Beijing has served notice on the US that unless Nato reins in its aggressive tendencies, it will delay ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Diplomats said Chinese strategists had engaged in vague talk about the resumption of an active nuclear development programme. Forming a potential anti-Nato alliance. Beijing is working with Moscow to ensure the "multi-polar nature" of the new world order...... Western diplomat said Beijing had made veiled threats about resuming or upgrading "nuclear co-operation" with Iran and Pakistan....."
San Jose Mercury 5/13/99 Pat Buchanan "...WHETHER Wen Ho Lee should have kept his top-secret clearance at Los Alamos years after being fingered as a suspected spy misses the point. It is not Lee; it is this White House that has become an unacceptable national security risk for the United States. Not even during the Red Decade and World War II, when Josef Stalin's spies and traitors looted the Roosevelt administration at will, were U.S. security secrets under less competent stewardship. But there is this difference: Half a century ago, America was a serious nation. When Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were unmasked as atomic spies, they were marched to the electric chair. Now, yawns greet the news that Beijing has stolen every atomic weapons secret America has and acquired, through our Fortune 500 companies, the ability to rain down multiple warheads on the United States. In the Reagan era, when we learned Toshiba had transferred silent-propeller technology to Moscow, America was enraged. Yet, the report that China in 1997 stole U.S. radar satellite technology, enabling it to track and kill U.S. subs underwater, was buried in a New York Times story whose front page told of the president's latest apology for mistakenly hitting China's embassy in Belgrade..... Clinton's White House has fed this Asian tiger $250 billion in trade surpluses, with World Bank loans for dessert, in the belief that money can buy you love. Yet, yearly, China grows more brutal toward its own and more belligerent toward us...."
Reuters 5/14/99 "....The Pentagon Friday cautiously declined to predict when China might field a new, mobile intercontinental nuclear missile, which The New York Times reported could be operational in three or four years. "I'm afraid I cannot. I don't know,'' Defense Department spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters in response to questions Friday's front-page report in the Times. The newspaper reported that the planned Dong Feng-31 truck-mounted missile would be extremely hard to find and target, giving Beijing a major advance in its nuclear arms capability. But Bacon questioned a suggestion in the report that the warhead in the DF-31 might be based on technology from a now-abandoned U.S. "neutron'' nuclear weapon which intelligence officials believe was stolen by China several decades ago....."
Christian Science Monitor 5/14/99 Kevin Platt "...Nato's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia and its accidental targeting of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade are triggering calls by the Chinese Army for increased defense funding. Last Friday's attack, which killed three Chinese journalists and wounded 20 diplomatic personnel, "is reinforcing China's sense of vulnerability in the face of overwhelming US and NATO military might," says a senior Chinese official. Fear mixed with rage animated four days of often violent protests outside US diplomatic outposts across China. During virtually every Chinese newscast this week, waves of Chinese troops are shown angrily punching the sky as they denounce the Belgrade bombing. The state-controlled media here are still calling the bombing a premeditated attack, after delaying for three days publishing President Clinton's explanation of the incident as a tragic mistake and his apologies for the loss of life. On Monday the Chinese leadership said that it was suspending high-level military contacts with the US and participation in international talks on weapons proliferation. The embassy bombing, says a Western military analyst who asked not to be identified, "is throwing fuel on the fire of Chinese fears of NATO's expansion and its new military doctrine of intervening in a sovereign state on human rights grounds."..."
XINHUA 5/10/99 "...China's foremost newspaper, the People's Daily, has lashed out at the U.S.-led NATO as the archcriminal of the ongoing humanitarian disasters in Yugoslavia and called on the international courts to bring it to justice. The U.S.-led NATO outrageously attacked the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia with missiles on May 7, killing three Chinese journalists and injuring more than 20 Chinese diplomatic functionaries. "This is a rare barbaric crime in the history of international relations. The inhuman atrocity of trampling on the international law has incited extreme indignation in the Chinese people and strong condemnation from the international community," said the newspaper in a commentary to be published Tuesday. The commentary, entitled "Archcriminal of Humanitarian Disasters", said that amidst denunciations and condemnations, NATO was still going ahead with its violent bombardment of Yugoslavia...."
The Independent (UK) 5/11/99 Teresa Poole in Peking "...There were Buddhist monks, factory workers, busloads of face-painted art students and even a small jazz group calling itself "Musicians against Clinton". Throughout yesterday the Chinese government mobilised a conveyor-belt of representative social groups to show the world just how furious its people were over the bombing of its Belgrade embassy. Police ushered groups of about 100 at a time through the cordon that has sealed off the embassy district, where the British and American missions have been under siege for three days...... The media ran heart-rending pictures of the three dead Chinese journalists and their family members. The apologies from Nato and President Bill Clinton received no coverage. Outside the British embassy, the Union flag was nowhere to be seen. "We took it down this morning at the request of the police, who said it would lead to more trouble," said the ambassador, Anthony Galsworthy. In the US embassy diplomats shredded documents in case demonstrators took over the compound. James Sasser, the ambassador, said: "The [Chinese] government has appeared to have condoned . the demonstrations."...."
Los Angeles Times 5/8/99 Maggie Farley "...In a bid to tighten control in a politically sensitive year, Chinese authorities have cracked down on foreign satellite programming, a move that undercuts broadcasters such as Walt Disney Co. and News Corp. that are trying to win viewers here. Authorities reportedly ordered dozens of cable television stations to stop broadcasting foreign satellite programming, and police made widely publicized seizures of "unauthorized" satellite dishes. Industry executives had only incomplete reports on how effective and widespread the crackdown has become. But the trouble underscores the vulnerability of big foreign media interests to the political climate here. The action came a month before the 10th anniversary of the democracy demonstrations around Tiananmen Square in Beijing that were broadcast around the world on CNN and other networks. "There are periodic crackdowns when the government moves to strictly enforce its laws," said David Wolf, the managing director of media consultants Claydon Gescher Associates in Beijing. "This is the government taking extra care during a politically sensitive time." In China, satellite reception is officially limited to luxury hotels, foreign housing and companies that can demonstrate a business need. But with at least 15 approved foreign broadcasters beaming novel programming into China, unauthorized satellite dishes and decoder boxes abound..."
New York Times 5/11/99 Robert Kagan "...NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade has revealed the fallacy at the core of the Clinton Administration's China policy. While Administration officials continue to yearn for a "strategic partnership" with Beijing, China's leaders make no effort to conceal the fact they consider the United States an enemy -- or, more precisely, the enemy. How else can one interpret the Chinese Government's response to the bombing? Instead of trying to contain the damage to diplomatic relations, as any friendly nation would have after such an obvious if tragic mistake, the Chinese Government used its vast propaganda machine to whip up anti-American hysteria. The Government bused student protesters to the American Embassy, and the police cordoned off parts of Beijing to make access to the compound easier. State-run media refused to print repeated apologies from NATO and the United States. Instead of accepting NATO's explanations, in fact, the Chinese Government has persisted in claiming that NATO intentionally hit the embassy, which has only further inflamed protesters who have no other information. The result is that Ambassador James Sasser and other embassy employees are self-described hostages and in peril. This anti-American campaign in China did not begin with the bombing. For weeks Chinese citizens have been barraged by Government propaganda -- complete with old films from the Korean War -- depicting the United States and its allies as vicious aggressors against an innocent and helpless Serbia. All this fits within the broader anti-American line Beijing has been spouting for years: that the United States is an imperialist aggressor, bent on world domination, and at China's expense.....But none of these explanations preclude another possibility. Perhaps Beijing is just revealing what it really thinks about the United States. Six years ago, a report prepared by top Chinese foreign and military specialists declared that the United States was China's "international archenemy." When its military conducts war games, the primary adversary is the United States. When Chinese leaders map out their ambitions -- taking control of Taiwan and becoming the dominant power in East Asia -- they see the United States as the main obstacle. They are right....."
Koenig's Internationl News 5/10/99 Charles Smith "...Congressional investigators confronted Clinton administration officials last week with the latest information from SOFTWAR. House and Senate investigators want to know why the U.S. and China continue to operate joint signals (SIGINT) intercept bases inside the People's Republic of China. The joint CIA/PLA bases are located at Korla and Qitai in the western province Xinjiang. The bases were established in 1978, during the height of the Cold war. In response, Clinton administration Defense Dept. officials refused to answer questions about the joint CIA/Chinese Army bases. At one point, Clinton officials refused to answer any questions on joint U.S./Sino military operations. "We are going to have to call them in on the carpet," stated one frustrated Congressional investigator. "We certainly need to know about Korla and Qitai. The Chinese Army is setting up a SIGINT base with the Cubans to monitor U.S. military forces 90 miles from Florida. Just how much of that new PLA base is 'made in the U.S.A'?" ....The joint CIA/PLA SIGINT bases are also reported to be part of the National Security Agency (NSA) chain of stations linked to the "ECHELON" system. ECHELON is a giant NSA network of intercept posts, satellites and super-computers intended to monitor communications and signals on a world-wide scale. ECHELON is also plugged into various monitoring systems, each with individual code names such as "MAYFLY"....."
Wall St. Journal 5/12/99 "...Indeed, Beijing's reaction to the tragic bombing of its embassy suggests that however serious China may be about trade and market reform, it isn't quite ready for prime time. The fury unleashed on American diplomats and business enterprises by angry mobs cannot be dismissed as the work of renegades. To the contrary, Chinese officials contributed to the attacks. The state-run media, for example, reported that the bombing was deliberate, but withheld reports of Mr. Clinton's apology. On Sunday evening, Vice President Hu Jintao gave an unusual live television address endorsing the demonstrations. And the Communist Party Youth League provided bullhorns, flags, buses and suggested propaganda slogans to students who were bused in for the demonstrations.....This is a China that wants it both ways: to claim the privileges of a respected member of the international community--including permanent most favored nation trade status--and yet to retain the option of Third World thuggishness when that suits its purposes, whether in lobbing missiles off the coast of Taiwan or winking at the PLA collusion with organized crime in South China....."
Financial Times 5/12/99 James Harding & Stephen Fidler "...China expects the US to make significant concessions on sensitive military, trade and diplomatic issues to get the Sino-US relationship back on track following the Nato bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade. A senior foreign policy adviser to Jiang Zemin, the Chinese president, said yesterday: "It is up to the US . . . to take the initiative to get the relationship back to normal." .....But the Chinese policy adviser said China was seeking other conciliatory measures from the US, including: * abandoning the idea of including Taiwan in the proposed development of a US-backed missile defense umbrella in Asia. * approving China's bid to join the World Trade Organization without demanding any substantial further opening of Chinese markets; * and dismissing allegations that a Chinese spy stole US nuclear secrets...."
Los Angeles Times 5/12/99 Jim Mann "...This is a tale of hotlines. It is the story of how America tried in recent days to solve its deep-rooted problems with China through a phone call--and discovered that modern communications don't necessarily mean you can make any connection in Beijing. Less than two years ago, President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin stood side by side at their Washington summit meeting and announced that they had agreed to set up a presidential hotline. The purpose, Clinton breezily told a news conference, was "to make it easier for us to confer at a moment's notice." So what happened during this last weekend? Clinton wanted to tell Jiang that the American bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was a mistake. He sought the Chinese leadership's help in restraining the rock-throwing crowds that had trapped U.S. Ambassador James R. Sasser and others inside the American Embassy in Beijing. "He made clear he would like to speak to [Jiang] by phone," acknowledged an administration source. But the hotline went unused. American suggestions for a conversation between the two presidents went nowhere. China's response was a version of the old Beatles song: "No Reply." .... The tumultuous events of the last few days have underscored once again the vastly different perspectives and traditions of America and China. Once again, America has displayed its semi-religious faith in the power of technology, whether in hotlines or in smart bombs. But China is profoundly ambivalent about technology. If technology is so great, why do bombs hit embassies? China had countered by showing America its own, time-honored source of strength: that is, the power conveyed by its huge population. The Chinese regime unleashed its masses upon the U.S. Embassy in Beijing..... Jiang, in encouraging the Chinese demonstrations, was turning away from Deng and harking back, however fleetingly, to the methods of Mao. Maybe Jiang can bottle the country back up again, and maybe not. What can the Clinton administration do? It can offer compensation to the families of the Chinese victims of the Belgrade bombing. It can certainly stop bombing other countries' embassies. Beyond that, American officials can reduce their extravagant expectations for China. It has never been the country of American businesses' and missionaries' dreams. Nor is its government one with which the United States will build what Clinton hopefully calls a "constructive strategic partnership." During a crisis, you can't count on it to answer the telephone....."
Shanghi Daily Freeper jedi150 5/12/99 "...The heartbroken father of Zhu Ying, the young journalist who died in Nato's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade last Friday night, sent a tearful letter to US President Bill Clinton on Monday, blaming Clinton and Nato for the tragedy. "What did my daughter and her husband ever do to harm you? They were just innocent Chinese correspondents living in the Chinese Embassy. What possessed you and Nato to attack the embassy?" Zhu Fulai asked in the letter..... "You are the cause of this tragic situation. As a father, as a human being who always advocates human rights, don't you think you should say something?" Zhu asked Clinton...."
AP 5/13/99 Christopher Bodeen "....While praising victims of NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade as heroes, China's president accused the United States on Thursday of seeking global dominance and urged nations worldwide to defy American bullying and create a new just order. The harsh words showed just how much the embassy bombing in Yugoslavia has damaged Chinese political will for smooth U.S. relations. The statement marked a turnabout for President Jiang Zemin, who last year claimed credit for engineering a rapprochement with Washington. Jiang said the United States was using its economic and technological superiority to aggressively expand its influence, pursue "power politics and wantonly interfere in the internal affairs of other countries." ...."
Associated Press 5/13/99 Kevin Galvin "...President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin agreed Thursday to talk, as tensions with China over NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade appeared to be easing. Zemin had avoided talking to Clinton since the bombing Saturday, which killed three people. His readiness to talk was conveyed by Chinese Ambassador Li Zhaoxing, who took a condolence book to the White House for Clinton to sign. "He indicated a willingness to talk, and we're setting up the call,'' said National Security Council spokesman David Leavy. It was unclear whether the call could be arranged before Friday..."
Reuters 5/14/99 Benjamin Kang Lim "...China's Communist Party newspaper on Friday accused U.S.-led powers of bombing Beijing's embassy in Belgrade as part of an elaborate plot to split the country and drag it towards chaos and destruction. There were signs, however, that behind the swirling conspiracy theories and furious rhetoric Beijing was ready to start talking again with Washington...."
Freeper Thanatos 5/14/99 Kyodo via NewsEdge Corporation "...The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) fired five missiles, not three, at the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday. Initial media reports stated three missiles were fired at the embassy in what NATO describes as a tragic mistake, killing three journalists and injuring 20 other people. Chinese diplomats found an unexploded missile while cleaning up the ruins of the destroyed five-story embassy building, Xinhua said...."
Orlando Sentinel 5/6/88 Charlie Reese "... While the United States is committing a crime against Yugoslavia, where we have no legitimate strategic or national interests, President Clinton's Chinese friends have been busy little bees, 90 miles from our shores. Chi Haotian, minister of national defense, got together with Raul Castro, big brother Fidel's minister of defense, and decided that working together was a very good idea. Right next door to the still-active Russian electronic spy base, the Chinese will help Fidel build a brand-new electronic spy facility of his own and train his people. In return, the Chinese will have permanent presence and will share the intelligence data collected by the Cubans....."
The New Australian No. 119, 5/17-23/99 Peter Zhang "...On 4 June 1989 thousands of students flooded into Tiananmen Square to demand liberty and democracy. Inspired by America's example, they carried large models of the Statue of Liberty; the American embassy, which had given asylum to the dissident Feng Lizhi, was treated as if it was sacred ground. This was the moment when the Soviet Empire was crumbling and, thanks to Ronald Reagan, America's power and moral standing had no equal. China's leadership was unnerved and confused. Ten years later thousands of students are once again flooding into Tiananmen Square, not to demand liberty or justice but to damn the United States and desecrate its flag. Where once the police had to prevent students from paying homage to the US embassy they now have to stop them from burning it down. A leadership that was uncertain of its future and authority has now reasserted itself and is as politically confident as ever, treating with contempt US objections to human rights abuses while sneering at calls for greater political liberalisation. What brought about this radical and dangerous change in perceptions? The answer is President William Jefferson Clinton. Within a matter of years this depraved and cowardly man has virtually destroyed the moral authority of the United States among China's emerging intelligentsia and ignited a very dangerous brand of nationalism. Even the Chinese leadership cannot believe its luck. Not only did this man sell his country's secrets to Beijing, he even destroyed its moral credibility among the Chinese people....The ramifications are far reaching and dangerous. Far from impressing China, as did Desert Storm, the Serbian war has convinced many in the leadership that the US is truly a paper tiger. Sure it has the military means but it does not have the will, or so it is thought. If Americans, as one official told me, had the strength of character and moral fortitude they believe themselves to possess they would have thrown Clinton out of the Oval Office....."
Robert Manning 5/16/99 "...Amid the fallout over NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade came more revelations of Chinese spying, illegal campaign contributions and thefts of U.S. technology and nuclear secrets. In Beijing, students protested and vandalized U.S. property. In Washington, politicians seethed and planned congressional investigations of Chinese agents and their activities. Where will it all lead? ...."
STRATFOR, Inc. 5/17/99 "...Over the past few weeks, Russia and China have engaged in intense, manic-depressive foreign policy, shifting between sullen quiet, to near war-frenzy, to friendly cooperation. Before one prescribes medications, this behavior should be seen as the natural, terminal maneuvers of powers that are trying to get the West's attention and are not quite sure what to do with that attention once they get it. It is not that the behavior is not ominous. It represents the process of great powers going into opposition to a super-power. But the behavior is the symptom, not the problem itself. The problem is that the structure of the international system dictates an anti-American Russo-Chinese alliance, and very little can stop that. ...The real danger here is that during these periodic, ritual chest- thumping episodes, the situation might genuinely get out of hand. Yeltsin skillfully reigned in the anti-Western forces he helped unleash. The old fox never ceases to amaze us. However, he will go to the well one time too many, and unleash forces that even he can't control. The same is true in China. The leadership can whip up anti-American frenzy on demand. It is not clear that they will always be able to control it. In the end, it won't matter. The tendency toward anti-Americanism and therefore to some form of alliance is, we believe, irreversible. The path toward that end, however, is twisted and quite noisy. The noise, whether from Moscow or Beijing, is not the real issue. There is lightning behind the thunder...."
WorldNetDaily 5/17/99 J R Nyquist "... China, too, has been engaged in a serious buildup of forces opposite Taiwan. There is also China's invasion of the Spratly Islands, which are located more than 800 miles from China yet 140 miles from the Philippines...As it happens, Taiwan's lifeline runs near to the Spratlys. On Jan.12 of this year, Taiwan President Lee, taking note of Beijing's obvious attempts to encircle his small island country, called on his fellow citizens "to raise their vigilance against the military threat from China." Four days earlier, on Jan. 8, Chinese President Jiang Zemin laid out the mission of the People's Liberation Army in a speech: "We must resolutely safeguard the unity of the motherland and the nation's territorial integrity." Unity, of course, is the war cry of the Communist Chinese against the Nationalist Chinese on Taiwan. President Jiang also warned that the Chinese People's Liberation Army should prepare itself for two things: nuclear war and internal uprisings. Soon thereafter, in mid January, China conducted bomber and missile exercises in which Chinese forces practiced targeting American troops in the Far East. The Chinese have also announced radical changes in military doctrine. The Chinese Air Force was placed in "offensive mode" in January, and China's army doctrine was altered to one of global war-fighting...."
China Times 5/21/99 AFP "...China on Thursday hit out at a statement made by the US consulate in Hong Kong on the issue of right of abode for mainland children and termed it as interference in its internal affairs. "(The running of Hong Kong) is purely China's internal affair and no foreign countries have the right to interfere," foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told a news conference. "It is not suitable for any foreign country to make indiscreet comments on this issue," Zhu said. His comments echoed those made earlier by a foreign ministry spokesman in Hong Kong. The US consulate in Hong Kong has expressed "serious concern" about the right of abode issue...."
Reuters 5/20/99 "...China dismissed Thursday allegations it stole U.S. nuclear secrets and financed campaign funds for the Democrats, saying such rumors have intensified in the wake of NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. "Some people in the United States are embracing the Cold War mentality till death and creating rumors in a thousand and one ways,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told reporters. They "have turned around and put the blame on the victim,'' Zhu said. "They have ulterior motives in intensifying and playing up China stealing U.S. nuclear weapons technology and making political contributions.'' ..."
Wash Times 5/24/99 Bill Gertz "...China's intelligence service reported to Beijing earlier this month that the bombing of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade was a deliberate attack aimed at dragging China into the Balkans conflict, according to Pentagon intelligence officials. A classified report based on National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence data was sent to senior Pentagon officials last week and revealed that Chinese intelligence viewed the attack as part of a NATO "conspiracy" to involve China in the war. The Chinese spy agency based its judgment on the damage caused by the bombs. The three U.S. Joint Direct Attack Munitions, satellite-guided bombs known as JDAMs, caused the most damage to the embassy's security communications room and the defense attache's office, said officials familiar with the NSA report. "They are convinced it was intentional," one official said of the Chinese..... Officials said intelligence reports on the internal Chinese reaction to the bombing help explain why Beijing has not accepted U.S. explanations that the bombing was a tragic error. Three Chinese nationals died in the attack and 20 others were wounded.... According to the Pentagon officials, China instructed embassy people to search the bombed-out building for fragments of the missiles that hit the building. The JDAM is one of the most advanced U.S. munitions that is guided to its target by data fed from the constellation of Global Positioning System navigational satellites..... Officials said a Chinese government news organization instructed all Chinese media and reporters around the country not to report that NATO's bombing was the result of an accident. In addition, Beijing ordered news organizations to focus their criticism on the U.S. government, American citizens and U.S. corporations and investors in China, the officials said..... "
Financial Times (UK) 5/21/99 JAMES KYNGE, STEPHEN FIDLER and GERARD BAKE Freeper HAL9000 "...The U.S. is considering sending a high-level diplomatic mission to Beijing in an effort to quell Chinese anger over the accidental NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, according to Clinton administration officials. The centerpiece of the visit, which could take place within the next few weeks, is expected to be a detailed explanation of how the accident occurred...."
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=85102 5/24/99 UPI Pamela Hess "...The senior official predicted the report would exonerate NIMA, and would say the agency "didn't identify the target location nor (have) information that the target location was the Chinese Embassy." Instead, he said the investigation will find "human error" was made in selecting the target. The official said that a stock NIMA map "was used to identify a location on the ground that another agency believed was the federal directorate of supply." "They took down a NIMA map and said, 'that's the corner.' It was a product on a shelf, a city graphic from 1997," the official said. Using that location, the intelligence agency - identified in other reports as the CIA - asked NIMA to provide an overhead image of the area, which shows the layouts of the buildings but not their functions. At that point, targeters searched an all-source database for possible no-strike targets in the immediate area. The database failed to note the embassy...NIMA was created in 1996 - the same year the Chinese Embassy moved, a coincidence the official said was completely unrelated - from pieces of eight existing organizations, including the photographic analysis shop in the CIA. It was formed, in part, to provide a single voice in the government to advocate for imagery spending. "There was a large amount of underfunding, under-resourced agencies, " the official said...."
MSNBC 5/21/99 Brokaw and Cox "... Brokaw: "Are you surprised that the Chinese have not used the richest information that they have, to get on line with the most sophisticated nuclear weapons?" Cox: "Well, what our report will describe is not only for the program of the People's Liberation Army is presently, but where it appears it's headed. We expect, for example, that they will be testing a new long range ICBM this year. And we expect that that will perhaps be deployed within three years. And worse yet, that it will have sitting atop it a nuclear warhead based on ... that design." ...
MSNBC 5/21/99 Brokaw and Cox "... Brokaw: "Just so the American people has a clear understanding of the immediate threat, China at the moment, in terms of a nuclear exchange, is well behind the United States. " Cox: "I don't think even in the future that the People's Republic of China is going to seek to build a strategic force that nears the United States. They're not going to try to replay the Cold War of the 1950s, matching up warhead for warhead. But rather, they are pursuing an asymmetrical strategy, developing in areas where we are weak. For example, in the area of space weapons. For example, in the area of information warfare. And they are also targeting some of our soft spots, such as submarines ... submarine detection technology." ..."
MSNBC 5/21/99 Brokaw and Cox "... Brokaw: "The president told me in Europe recently that he was going to treat this like any other espionage case. He didn't see it [as] any worse than Israeli spying or the espionage that went on the part of the Soviet Union for a long time. Is that a fair conclusion on your part?" Cox: "No other country has succeeded in stealing so much from the United States. And no other country having stolen such secrets has used it to design weapons that will threaten the United States. And that's what makes this case different." ..."
www.scmp.com 5/22/99 AFP "...The Pentagon said last night it regretted Beijing's decision to ban US Navy ships from visiting Hong Kong, a move that could cost the SAR $390 million a year. "We regret their decision to diminish the level of intensity of the dialogue between us," a US Defence Department spokesman said. A direct dialogue offered the best prospect for addressing and resolving differences, as well as expanding co-operation, which remained the goal embraced by the presidents of both countries, the spokesman added. A spokesman for the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong declined to confirm if the ban was linked to the Nato bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade on May 7, in which three Chinese journalists were killed. But he said it was within Beijing's jurisdiction to decide whether to allow military vessels or aircraft to enter the SAR, adding that such a decision had been based on the principles of national sovereignty and the Basic Law...."
ABC This Week 5/23/99 "...BILL RICHARDSON ....We have 6,000 strategic warheads. The Chinese have close to 23. Now, this doesn't mean that we're overlooking the damage that may have been caused. But to say right now that this is enormously damaging, we don't know. It is bad.... GEORGE WILL How can the sale of 600 high-performance computers enhance our security? BILL RICHARDSON We believe very strongly that to deal with China, we have to engage them. We have to find ways to talk to them about arms control, about nonproliferation, about export controls. The Chinese have stopped many of their nuclear technology sales to Pakistan, to India, to Iran. I think we've made a lost progress, George, in restraining China's nuclear exports...... "
5/29/99 Itar-Tass Freeper Thanatos "... Urge for world domination and violation of human rights this is what the military actions against Yugoslavia, unleashed by the U.S.-led North Atlantic Alliance, actually boil down to. According to official reports, this was stated by China's Defence Minister Chi Haotian during his meeting with Viktor Sheiman, Secretary of the Belarus Security Council and Security Adviser to the Belarus President, who is currently visiting here at the inviation of the Chinese Defence Ministry...."
Boston Globe 5/29/99Indira A.R. Lakshmanan Freeper Cincinatus "...At the famed Beijing Oriental School, where 50,000 students took crash courses last year, the message is clear: forget politics - study, study, study, and learn to think the American way.A Stanley Kaplan course this is not. The tricks students learn to ace exams include advice like use ''American reasoning'' when solving logic problems - imagine you're foolish. Another teacher's tip: If an American visa officer seems ready to reject you because he thinks you're out to find a husband and stay in America, tell him you're a lesbian....."
www.scmp.com 5/25/99 WILLY WO-LAP LAM "...President Jiang Zemin has come under pressure to revise his guidelines on Sino-US ties, including the idea of a "strategic partnership" with Washington. A foreign policy source in Beijing said yesterday key Jiang advisers were conducting a review of relations with the United States. The source said such aides, including former vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Liu Ji , had come under fire since the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. While not targeting Mr Jiang directly, leftists, or quasi-Maoists, have scolded his advisers for policies that may "sell out national interests". Since the bombing, leftists have joined forces with conservative and anti-foreign elements in the army, the National People's Congress and universities. "Conservatives want Jiang to give up the idea of forming a constructive, strategic partnership with the US," the source said. "Jiang is resisting such pressure, arguing that China still needs the American market and technology. But he is under pressure to placate the leftists and PLA hawks."..."
www.scmp.com 5/26/99 DAVID MURPHY and KENNA HERNLY Freeper Thanatos "...Tension between Beijing and Washington following Nato's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade has "caused some rethinking of the posture and position of the PLA", Australian Defence Minister John Moore said. Mr Moore, the first Western defence figure to visit Beijing since the May 7 bombing, said: "They [the PLA] are now very fixed on developing their technology and will be placing more emphasis on technology and science." The Kosovo issue came up at every meeting he had in Beijing, Mr Moore said...."
www.scmp.com 5/26/99 AFP Freeper Thanatos "...Strengthened military ties between the United States and Japan should not be used to interfere in any conflict between the mainland and Taiwan, Beijing said yesterday. China would closely watch Japan's words and deeds to evaluate whether it was diverging from promises not to become a military power, foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said. Japan's Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi would use his trip to Beijing in July to dispel fears over legislation strengthening the US-Japan military alliance, his top aide, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka, said...."
5/25/99 Bill Gertz Washington Times "...By far the most detailed view of secretive Chinese weapons programs ever made public by the government, the report also says China is developing two road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile systems and a new submarine-launched version that will have more range. The report is likely to prompt a new debate over the Clinton administration's conciliatory "engagement" policy toward Beijing. China's theft and legal acquisition of military technology is aimed at pushing Beijing's international agenda and achieving long-term geopolitical goals that include taking over Taiwan and becoming the primary power in Asia, the report said. It says spy penetrations of U.S. nuclear weapons labs, where the warhead secrets were obtained, spanned several decades and almost certainly continues today. The espionage began in the 1970s and is known to have continued at least through the mid-1990s...."
5/25/99 Bill Gertz Washington Times "...The report states that despite the 1998 announcement at the summit meeting in Beijing that China and the United States would no longer target each other with nuclear weapons, Chinese missiles remain targeted at U.S. cities. China improved the reliability of those missiles and space boosters as the result of illegal technology sharing by two U.S. satellite companies, Loral Space and Hughes Electronics, whose chairmen lobbied President Clinton into relaxing export controls on militarily useful technology, the report says.....Hughes deliberately acted without seeking to obtain legal export licenses. The report also said Loral and Hughes helped the Chinese without first obtaining U.S. licenses even though both corporations knew that the licenses for sensitive, militarily useful technology transfers were required, the report says...."
5/27/99 scmp "...China is gearing up to test an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of more than 8,000km this year, military sources in Beijing said yesterday. Preparations have started to test the sea-to-surface Julang-2 (JL-2) missile in the coming months, they said. The JL-2 is the successor to the JL-1 successfully tested from submarines, including the Xia, the navy's only nuclear-fuelled submarine, in the 1980s. China is hoping the JL-2 will be operational from next year. It would carry either one warhead of 2.5 megatonnes or three 90 kilotonne warheads...."
Honolulu Star-Bulletin (special report) 5/29/99 Richard Halloran "...A year of turbulence between Washington and Beijing has plunged United States relations with China to their lowest point since Chinese and Americans fought each other in the Korean War of 1950-1953. Quarrels between the two capitals erupt almost by the day. The latest exploded this week with the release of the long awaited Cox report on alleged Chinese theft of U.S. nuclear secrets and 20 years of intelligence operations in the United States through 3,000 "front" companies. The chairman of the bipartisan House committee that compiled the report, Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., said China "has mounted a widespread effort to obtain U.S. military technology by any means, legal or illegal." Chinese officials at first scoffed at the report as the work of Americans "clinging to the Cold War mentality," then fired a furious barrage asserting that it raised "the specter of McCarthyism," was a "witch-hunt" filled with "malign slander," and was a "fabrication" that should be repudiated by President Clinton....."
Salon 5/28/99 David Horowitz "....If these revelations were not disturbing enough, the Clinton team's initial reaction to the Cox Report gives even more cause for alarm. Before the report was issued, the Clinton cover-up squad had already scrambled its famous spin control into action. We have been told by the Clinton team, for example, that the damage resulting from all this spying is not very great because China has only 18 missiles and we have 6,000. Well, that's this year. The theft has given China a 20-year jump in its nuclear weapons development -- an eternity in terms of modern technologies. What happens five or 10 years from now when the Beijing dictatorship has hundreds of missiles aimed at American cities and decides that it wants Taiwan? What consolation would it be to people in Los Angeles, for example, who have already been threatened with a nuclear attack over the Taiwan issue, should Beijing decide to launch even one missile in their direction, given the fact that their president has denied them a missile defense? In the event of such an attack, would Washington be willing to trade 17 American cities (and that's just this year) in a retaliatory nuclear exchange to defend Taiwan? On the other hand, if historical experience is any guide, the communists just might. In Vietnam, the communists were willing to sacrifice 2 million of their own citizens, while 58,000 proved to be too great a sacrifice for Americans in pursuit of the opposite result. The Chinese communists have already killed an estimated 50 million of their own population in the pursuit of a revolutionary future. Is the risk of China's willingness to pay another awful price to achieve what its leaders consider a worthy objective one that we can just brush off? ..."
Washington Post 6/11/99 John Pomfret "...When Chinese strategists peek out from behind their Great Wall these days, this is what they see: an American-spun web of security relationships from Kosovo to Kazakhstan, Mongolia to Manila, tightening around China's borders. Chinese strategists have proclaimed for two decades that peace will reign in Asia and economic development would be the priority in Beijing. But prompted by the May 7 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia and, before that, U.S. moves to bolster military relations with China's bordering states, the strategists are rethinking their security doctrine in a move that could have significant implications for security in Asia and the Pacific...... An article published in the influential magazine Outlook last month said the United States had only one goal: "the hegemonic domination of the world." Several Chinese generals at army-run strategic research departments are quoted in the June issue of China Review as saying that six U.S.-backed conspiracies resulted in the decision to bomb the Chinese Embassy. The bombing was no accident, the article contends. NATO's attacks on Yugoslavia have proved particularly useful to China's hard-line military factions because the bombings allowed them to fan Chinese fears that a vast Western alliance might attempt to limit China's power in Tibet, in the restive northwestern province of Xinjiang or in Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province. And the Chinese are galled that Western powers ignored China's demand that NATO stop the bombing before a peace plan was discussed...."
6/12/99 Itar-Tass NewsEdge Corporation Freeper Thanatos "...China's deputy chairman of the Central Military Council, Colonel-General Zhang Wanyang, who is on a visit in Russia, on Saturday visited a division of Russian Strategic Troops near Novosibirsk. He is the first Chinese high-ranking military official to visit a division of Russia's nuclear forces. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman told Itar-Tass that the Chinese military delegation was shown the Topol missile and explained its possibilities in overcoming the air defense of a "potential foe"...."
AP 6/11/99 "...China, which vehemently opposed NATO airstrikes since they began, heaped more scorn on the alliance today and claimed credit for leading the world to a peace agreement for the Kosovo crisis. Beijing argued that sovereignty is more important than human rights. In its opposition lay a deep-seated fear that NATO had set a precedent for armed intervention without U.N. approval...."
ITAR-TASS 6/12/99 Mikhail Shevtsov "...China's deputy chairman of the Central Military Council, Colonel-General Zhang Wannian, who is on a visit in Russia, on Saturday visited a division of Russian Missile Strategic Troops near Novosibirsk. He is the first Chinese high-ranking military official to visit a division of Russia's nuclear forces. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman told Itar-Tass that the Chinese military delegation was shown the Topol missile and explained its possibilities in overcoming the air defense of a "potential foe"...."
6/1/99 Xinhua Via Drudge Freeper Thanatos "..."How much do the people of NATO countries know about NATO's brutal acts and the disaster it has created in Yugoslavia and elsewhere in the world?" was a question being asked today by the Beijing media. Journalists were talking about the so-called free press in Western countries at a seminar sponsored by the All-China Journalists Association, where representatives of the Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily, Guangming Daily, and China Radio International spoke. They said that major American and British media as well as those from other Western countries have produced a lot of lies in covering the Kosovo crisis and have helped power politics and hegemonism...."
New York Post 6/1/99 Deborah Orin "...Washington Bureau ChiefChina yesterday ridiculed charges that it stole U.S. nuclear secrets, saying all the information is on the Internet and the spy charge is just plain racist. "They are no longer secrets so there is nothing to steal," China Cabinet secretary Zhao Qizheng told reporters in Beijing who were called in for a demonstration based on surfing the Internet. But White House national security spokesman Mike Hammer said China got some material that's classified - and can't be found on the Web. As part of the Beijing show, Zhao logged onto a Web site registered to the Federation of American Scientists (www.fas.org) to show graphics and data on U.S. nuclear bombs - but not specifics on how to make one from scratch. Zhao also said a bipartisan congressional panel headed by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) is racist because its 872-page report charges China uses students and businessmen to steal U.S. secrets. "This is a great slander against the Chinese nation and is typical racial prejudice," Zhao fumed...."
Reuters 5/31/99 Matt Pottinger "...China sneered Monday at allegations it stole U.S. nuclear weapons secrets, saying warhead technology is readily available in libraries and on the Internet. " Performance data on the seven types of nuclear warheads ... have long been openly published in the United States," cabinet spokesman Zhao Qizheng told reporters. "They are no longer secrets, so there is nothing to steal," Zhao said in a statement he read to reporters before logging on to the Internet to demonstrate the availability of nuclear technology...."
Chinatimes 6/1/99 "...Mainland China will spend 80 billion yuan renminbi (US$9.66 billion) on a project to strengthen the counter-attacking forces of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), The Sun newspaper of Hong Kong reported Monday. The report quoted informed sources from Beijing as saying that the project was mapped out by the National Defense Ministry and the General Staff Headquarters of the PLA, that it was approved in the wake of NATO bombing of the mainland Chinese embassy in Belgrade in early May, and that it was revealed in a recent high-level military meeting by Gen. Zhang..."
Reuters 6/1/99 Freeper Thanatos "...China on Tuesday demanded the US cancel plans to sell air-to-surface anti-tank weapons to Taiwan to avoid ''new damage'' to strained Sino-US ties. ''The Chinese side demands the US government abide by the three Sino-US joint communiques, especially the August 17 communique, and cancel the sale to prevent new damage to ties,'' ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said...."
WorldNetDaily 6/1/99 Charles Smith "...The Cox report also details for the first time the long ignored sea leg of China's strategic arsenal. "The JL-2 (Julang 2, or Great Wave 2) is a submarine-launched version of the (Dong Feng, or East Wind) DF-31. It is believed to have an even longer range, and will be carried on the PLA Navy's Type 094-class submarine. Sixteen JL-2 missiles will be carried on each submarine." What does the Great Wave 2 mean to the U.S. homeland? The Cox report noted "The JL-2's 7,500 mile range will allow it to be launched from the PRC's territorial waters and to strike targets throughout the United States." On May 27, 1999, the South China Morning Post reported that the People's Liberation Navy (PLN) had begun preparations to test the Great Wave 2 (JL-2). PLN officials reported that the JL-2 is scheduled to be deployed on the nuclear submarine Xia by 2000. The sub-launched missile is slated to carry a single 2.5-Megaton, thermonuclear warhead, or three 90-Kiloton warheads. "If the JL-2 were to employ a shroud to protect its warhead as do the majority of submarine-launched ballistic missiles today," states the Cox report. "This would be the first use of a shroud or fairing on a PRC missile."
San Jose Mercury 6/1/99 Charles Krauthammer Freeper hope "...The power of this fanciful new-era globalism has allowed the Clintonites to be insouciantly lax in every aspect of their dealings with China: espionage, technology transfer, open unregulated trade. They find it hard to understand that other nations, in particular those with histories infinitely longer and richer than ours, could have a worldview that might differ..........It is a pity that China does not share Clinton's woolly globalism. It is a scandal that he is oblivious to that reality. That is the real China scandal...."DRUDGE REPORT/London's FINANCIAL TIMES 6/2/99 "...In the coming months, China is set to test a submarine-launched ballistic missile with a range of 13,000 miles, a decision that may raise tensions in the region and concern in Washington. London's FINANCIAL TIMES is first with the report on Thursday. The Julang II (JL II) missile, being developed to carry a nuclear warhead, would have the longest range of any sea-launched missile in China's armory. The Cox report described the JL II as capable of striking targets throughout the continental U.S. if launched from Chinese territorial waters. FT reports that the unusual announcement of the test came in a respected official journal, Weekly Digest. "It coincides with a swelling tide of nationalism in China following NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, and a gathering belief among Beijing's leaders that the U.S. is preparing a cold war policy of containment against it," says the paper...."
Freeper Jolly observations 6/02/99 "...What The Admistration Was Saying "...Adm. Joseph W. Prueher: (Nominated to be the next Ambassador to China) he said that the us and china have common interests, and it is important for the two sides to understand and respect each other. the us does not view china as a threat, prueher said. he added that china's prosperity is also in the interests of the us, thus the two countries should solve any problem peacefully. he noted that the us adheres to the "one china" policy, and the taiwan issue is up to the chinese themselves to resolve. cmc vice-chairman meets us pacific commander, Xinhua, 09/05/96
Freeper Jolly observations 6/02/99 "...What The Chinese Were Doing "...The National Security Agency unwittingly dashed any remaining hope the administration had that China was following the agreement. In August 1996-less than three months after Beijing's May 11 pledge-National Security Agency electronic eavesdropping picked up what could only be called a smoking gun: CNEIC, the arm of the Chinese government that had sold the ring magnets, agreed to sell additional illegal nuclear weapons equipment to Pakistan. This time the Chinese were supplying diagnostic equipment and a special furnace to unsafeguarded facilities in Pakistan.... The intercept showed conclusively how the Chinese and Pakistani governments conspired to deceive the United States about their collaboration on nuclear weapons and technology transfers. Betrayal, Regnery Publishing, Bill Gertz, 05/99; pp. 151-152
Reuters 6/4/99 "...Senior U.S. officials are discussing sending a delegation to Beijing soon to give a complete report on NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, U.S. officials said Friday. Officials said they are hoping the report will help satisfy Chinese concerns about the May 7 bombing and lead to a resumption of stalled trade talks over China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). ``They Chinese have indicated that they would like a fuller explanation of what happened and why it happened. That work is under way, and when we have a more complete review we will find a way to communicate that to the government of China and to members of Congress,'' said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Officials want to send a senior official to deliver the report, but have not decided who it will be...."
Inside China Today 6/3/99 AFP "...The Chinese government warned the United States Thursday against ever contemplating using force against China along the lines of the NATO campaign against Yugoslavia. "NATO's attack against the sovereign State of Yugoslavia is a violation of international principles," foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told a press conference "Recently, I heard some people say that in the future, force should also be used against China to solve the Tibet question among others," he said, without identifying the source of the suggestions. "If anyone dares to impose war on China, they will lift a stone to hit themselves on the foot. We hope the US should learn lessons from the Kosovo incident."..."
www.scmp.com 6/5/99 SAMANTHA WONG "....The Cox report, which accused Beijing of stealing US nuclear secrets, had affected scientific exchanges between America and Hong Kong, legislators were told yesterday. At the Legco House Committee meeting, Choy So-yuk of the Hong Kong Progressive Alliance and non-affiliated Ng Ching-fai asked for an emergency meeting to discuss the impact of the report on the territory. Some academics in the US and Hong Kong had been asked to cancel trips to each others' countries, said Mr Ng. He showed a letter from an American academic apologising for the cancellation of his trip to Hong Kong. His request to attend a seminar had been turned down by the academic's institution. "As far as I know, there are six or seven [such] cases," Mr Ng said....."
6/8/99 South China Morning Post Freeper Thanatos "...Disruptions to academic exchanges in the wake of the nuclear espionage claims in America's Cox report were temporary, an official said yesterday. But how much Hong Kong would suffer would depend on what action the US Government took, acting Secretary for Trade and Industry Yvonne Choi Ying-pik said. In a meeting with legislators on the report, Ms Choi said she was aware academic exchanges had been refused by US institutions in the wake of the report...."
6/8/99 Reuters Freeper Thanatos "...A top aerospace firm yesterday blasted charges by a US congressional panel that it stole sensitive military technology, calling the allegations a "despicable attack". The Cox report on alleged Chinese espionage had severely damaged the image and commercial reputation of the China Aerospace Corporation (CASC), the China Daily quoted company spokeswoman Zhang Lihui as saying. "CASC authorities and the corporation's scientists and engineers feel insulted by the despicable attack," she said...."
Curt Weldon Website 6/8/99 "... Secondarily, Mr. Speaker, we have just learned that later on this year China will be testing the newest version of their long-range ICBM missile with a range of 13,000 kilometers that can be launched from a submarine that has the potential for a MIRV or a multiple reentry capability. This rocket, this long-range ICBM, the JL-2, is beyond anything they have had in the past, and it is almost a replica of the trident class ICBMs that we have used in this Nation. We did not think China would have this capability until several years down the road. We now have word they will test that missile, that ICBM, this year. Mr. Speaker, this is a very serious issue. The American people need to understand what is happening to their country. They need to understand the blame game cannot stop by firing lower level employees who are only following directions. The blame game cannot stop by saying it was industries' fault...."
South China Morning Post 6/9/99 Oliver Chou "...The visit of a high-level PLA delegation to Russia is a strong signal from Beijing to Washington over the US-led Nato bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, according to analysts. General Zhang Wannian, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, led a delegation to Moscow on Monday. Analysts said the seniority of delegation members was unusual. General Zhang took with him a selection of PLA generals in charge of military intelligence, armaments, the navy and air force, as well as the regional commander of areas close to Russia. One military analyst said: "Beijing has kept a busy schedule for military exchanges in the past month, but none involves a Western power, except for the visit of the Australian Defence Minister. The Russian navy commander and deputy chief of staff were in the Chinese capital in the past two weeks." Another analyst added: "It is by far the most vocal gesture Beijing has sent to Washington since it suspended military exchanges with the United States after the embassy bombing...."
Hong Kong Tai Yang Bao in Chinese5/31/99 "...US-led NATO has carried out military intervention in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), CPC General Secretary Jiang Zemin put forward at the Geneva disarmament conference the establishment of the concept "new outlook on security." To really safeguard national security, each country must first of all integrate political security with economic security and military security, that is, it is necessary to have the concept of an outlook on security in a broader sense The informed source quoted Zhang Wannian, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, as pointing out that the outlook on security in a broader sense is a cross-century strategic direction. As far as military security is concerned, China's armed forces must increase the strength of its defense system and upgrade the combat effectiveness of the counterattack system of the three armed services, including the counterattack strength of high-tech conventional weapons and strategic nuclear weapons. Only in this way will they be able to counterattack when hegemony and its military bloc use nuclear weapons to attack China. Zhang Wannian said: "US armed intervention in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is an important mark of the development of US hegemony. The possibility of a third world war has increased with the havoc wreaked by the United States in practicing the new 'gunboat policy' and the spread of the 'concept of common values' practiced by US-manipulated NATO. We want peace and do not want war. However, whether or not the world can be peaceful is not for us to decide and we are not staff officers of hegemony. Therefore, we must upgrade the modem high-tech weapons and equipment of the three armed services while developing the economy, and always position ourselves to fight a high-tech war to counterattack aggressors...Military specialists in Beijing said that according to the policy decision of upgrading the strength of the counterattack system of the three armed services, they believe the actual production of high-tech weapons will soon begin. If everything goes smoothly, they can be used to arm the troops in autumn next year. These new weapons will include unmanned supersonic bombers, extra-long-range modified anti-warship missiles, ground-wave over-the-horizon radar, sky-wave over-the-horizon radar, as well as tactical air-defense laser weapons and shore-to-warship laser cannon weapons...."
ITAR-TASS News Agency 6/9/99 "...Russian President Boris Yeltsin will hold a telephone conversation with Zhang Wannian, Deputy Chairman of the Central Military Council of the People's Republic of China (PRC), who is currently here on a visit, Presidential Chief of Staff Alexander Voloshin announced here on Wednesday before his meeting in the Kremlin with the high-ranking Chinese military leader. Voloshin pointed out that the Russian side regards Zhang's visit to Moscow "as yet another important step in implementation of the strategic partnership and cooperation policy worked out by the Heads of the State" of the two countries. The Presidential chief of staff said that during a telephone conversation on Tuesday, the leaders of Russia and the PRC "emphasised an immense importance of the development of military-technical cooperation between the two countries within the overall context of the strengthening of Sino-Russian relations, particularly considering the situation that has taken shape in the world"....."
ITAR-TASS 6/9/99 "..."Stepashin reminded Zhang Wannian that China was his historic homeland, because he was born at Port Arthur and lived there until the age of three. He noted that he had very good reminiscences of the Chinese people, adding with a smile that "probably none of the other foreign premiers was born in China". Taking part in the negotiations between Sergei Stepashin and Zhang Wannian is Vice-Premier Ilya Klebanov, who is in charge of the military-industrial complex in the government, and Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev. ..."
ITAR-TASS 6/9/99 Freeper Jolly "...Russian President Boris Yeltsin on Wednesday had a 30-minute telephone conversation with deputy chairman of China's Central Military Council, Zhang Wannian, who is in Moscow on a visit. "During this conversation I felt great sympathy for us. I was deeply touched by this conversation," Zhang said...."
AP 6/9/99 "...Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin said Wednesday that building close ties with China was one of Russia's top foreign policy goals and the two nations want a strong strategic partnership. Stepashin made the remarks at the start of talks with a visiting Chinese official, Zhang Wannian, deputy head of the Central Military Commission. Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev also attended the meeting, which focused on military cooperation. ''The Russian government will spare no effort for strengthening relations between Russia and China. We should jointly implement the policy of strategic partnership, outlined by Russian President Boris Yeltsin and (President) of the People's Republic of China Jiang Zemin,'' Stepashin said. Russia and China have been working to improve ties in recent years. Both nations resent what they see as the global domination of the United States and favor some form of alliance to counter Washington....."
AFP 6/9/99 "....Russian Security Council Secretary Vladimir Putin welcomed Chinese General Zhang Wannian to Moscow on Wednesday, saying the strategic interests of their two countries "coincide." "The global situation is changing at lightning speed and in these new conditions the interests of Russia and China coincide a great deal," Putin said. Zhang, vice president of the Chinese government's Central Military Commission, emphasized that "relations between China and Russia have a strategic character and are based on the concept of a multi-polar world.".... "This strategic cooperation confirmed by the Russian and Chinese presidents proves very well that Russian-Chinese links are at a high level of development. "One example (of this) is our cooperation on the Kosovo crisis," Putin said...."
ITAR-TASS News Agency 6/9/99 Vyacheslav Bantin "...Our relations, Putin said, "are based on the principles of the UN Charter and are not aimed against third countries. They proceed from the multi-polar world concept and are being built so as to extract the maximum favourable benefit from multilateral relations, taking into consideration the extension of the joint border and joint interests," he added...... He also emphasized that the Russian side is well aware of "the considerable role" the Central Military Council plays "in the activity of Chinese military organisations". He expressed hope that the visit to Moscow by a top-ranking Chinese military man will give a boost to military cooperation between Russia and China.......He also expressed the opinion that it would be expedient for the two states to "establish constant and effective communication channels for a quick exchange of information, as well as for coordinating positions and making decisions on coordinated or joint actions by Russia and China....."
WorldNetDaily.com 6/9/99 Jon E. Dougherty "...Bill Gertz, a defense reporter for The Washington Times and author of the new book, "Betrayal: How the Clinton Administration Undermined American Security," said that not only does China pose a national security threat to the United States, but that Beijing is building up military forces for other than regional security interests. "The Chinese are engaged in a pretty serious strategic and conventional military buildup," Gertz told WorldNetDaily. "The alarming part of that is that it doesn't appear as though they're building up forces just for a regional conflict. It appears as though they're developing forces [strictly] to oppose the United States." Gertz said the People's Liberation Army "is building nuclear missiles and new types of warheads," based in large measure on technology robbed from U.S. weapons labs. "Throughout the '90s, that gleaning of technology was also based on technology transfers" with the cooperation and approval of the Clinton administration...... Beyond that, he added, "based on the U.S. technology they've attained from us," the Chinese are in the process of building two road-mobile missiles that will have the capacity to deliver weapons "within three years." He said these weapons "are expected to have multiple warheads." Gertz said that was important "because the U.S. is planning -- we haven't done it yet -- but we're planning to have missile defenses, and those multiple warheads would be aimed at defeating any [U.S.] defenses." "The U.S. decided not to build mobile missiles," he said, "but our country does have submarine-launched nuclear missiles, which are the backbone of our nuclear triad." That triad, he said, consists of land, air and sea launched weapons. ..... "Theoretically, you could put a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile like that on the deck of a freighter, park a couple hundred miles off the U.S. coast, and launch one of them at an American city," he said. "In my book I make the point that that's the real reason you need to have missile defenses, and this administration has steadfastly refused to" build them. The author also said the negotiated agreements between Russia and China are endangering national security.."
The Daily Republican 6/10/99 Jan Oberg "...A new Cold War is approaching.And there is a larger framework. The Ukrainian parliament has voted unanimously to revert the country to its former nuclear status. On April 30, a meeting of the Russian National Security Council approved the modernisation of all strategic and tactical nuclear warheads. It decided to develop strategic low-yield nuclear missiles capable of pin-point strikes anywhere in the world. The defence ministry authorised a change in nuclear doctrine. Thus Russians feel humiliated through the 1990s, but go along with most US/Western demands because of its frail leadership, its economic weakness - it can hardly pay for its own troops to be deployed in Kosovo for years ahead - and its dependence on the West. And in Beijing, the bombing of the Chinese Belgrade embassy has resulted in a shift away from the no-first-strike principle. Add the spy accusation, human rights policies and WTO negotiations and we begin to see the contours of a new Cold War. Russia, China and India - and others - have learnt not to trust the stated peaceful aims of the West. Many countries with secessionist minorities are likely to anxiously wonder when they will get the treatment Yugoslavia did...."
UPI Spotlight 6/11/99 "...Following his nationally televised address on the Kosovo conflict, President Clinton headed (Thursday evening) to a Democratic party fund-raising dinner, where he told donors, "This is a night you can be proud of your country." Clinton also promised more such actions around the world in places where people are attacked for their racial, ethnic or religious background, saying, "If we can stop it, we intend to stop it."..."
6/10/99 SCMP Willy Wo-Lap Lam "...Beijing has adopted a two-pronged policy to ensure that national security is in line with its perception of an enhanced anti-China containment policy by the West. The Communist Party hierarchy is also committed to maintaining the "multi-polar" nature of the world order, meaning putting limits on the powers of the United States. After the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, President Jiang Zemin has held marathon sessions with advisers from areas including diplomacy, defence and foreign trade. One recommendation by the experts is that China must ensure peace and good neighbourliness along its borders. The past few weeks have seen dozens of meetings between Chinese officials and their counterparts from neighbouring states. The latter range from regional powers such as Russia and Pakistan to small countries including North Korea, Nepal, Laos, Burma, as well as former Soviet countries bordering Xinjiang. Several visiting delegations, including those from Russia, Pakistan and Laos, were led by military officers. PLA generals have been active on foreign trips or meeting civilian foreign dignitaries in Beijing..."
6/10/99 BBC News [referring to attached pictures] "... They are said to have been taken last year by a Mongolian construction company that helped to build new launch facilities at China's Jiuquan launch complex. They show the top-secret CZ-2F rocket. This is a version of China's successful Long March rocket that has been upgraded to be capable of launching astronauts. Arousing most interest among experts is the capsule perched on top of the rocket. It includes an escape tower housing small rockets that fire to separate the capsule from the rocket in case of an emergency during countdown. Such a tower is not normally used in unmanned spacecraft. The capsule itself appears to draw heavily on the highly successful Russian Soyuz capsule, a design that is 35 years old.....Also clearly visible is a mobile launch platform to transport the assembled rocket from the assembly building to the launch pad. This is the first time that China has employed this method of launch...."
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/china/index.html "... China has four intelligence organizations that conduct collection activities directed at the United States: the Ministry of State Security, the Military Intelligence Department, the Third or Technical Department of the Central Military Commission, and the New China New] Agency.[33] .....Ministry of State Security (MSS) The MSS was created in June 1983 by the Central Committee to centralize foreign intelligence and counterintelligence functions. The MSS is headed by the Minister of State Security, who reports to the Central Committee. It conducts counterespionage operations within China, and HUMINT and limited SIGINT operations both inside and outside of the PRC.... The MID is responsible for basic order-of-battle intelligence, studies of foreign weapons systems, and analyses of the capabilities of foreign military organizations. It obtains information through military attaches, review of open source literature, clandestine HUMINT operations, and joint business ventures. The MID is believed to play an integral role in obtaining advanced military technologies to bolster China's military capabilities and improve weapons systems vital to China's export arms business. The MID has also played a significant role in the development of clandestine relationships with Israel and other nations to gain expertise in the development of advanced weapons systems. Together with the Commission on Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND), the MID works to obtain military technologies for application to the Chinese military. Much of this technology is obtained through technological diversion and reverse engineering of products purchased from the West. The MID is also responsible, in concert with the COSTIND, for the development of China's space reconnaissance program.[36] ....."
6/15/99 AFP "...North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has told Beijing he wants to visit China, and officials are now working out the details of the trip, a Chinese official said in a report here Tuesday. "China has requested a visit by Kim Jong-Il, and he has expressed his intention to accept China's invitation," said Li Shuzheng, former head of the Chinese Communist Party's international liaison department. The timing of the trip "is being negotiated through diplomatic channels," the Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted Li saying as he held talks here Monday with Tsutomu Hata, the secretary-general of the opposition Democratic Party. The visit would mark a major event in the leadership of the mysterious Kim, the beneficiary in the world's first communist dynastic succession, who rarely meets foreigners at home and is averse to travelling abroad....."
6/15/99 AFP "...India and China, whose relations nose-dived after New Delhi's nuclear tests last year, have agreed to constitute a "security dialogue mechanism," New Delhi Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh was quoted as saying Monday. Singh, speaking on the first day of a two-day official visit to Beijing, did not give details of what the mechanism would be, India news agencies said. Singh held talks with his Chinese counterpart Tang Jiaxuan and said both countries would hold talks "at an appropriate time" to discuss the modalities of the security mechanism, the Press Trust of India reported..."
6/14/99 Reuters "...Hong Kong will make a forceful defense of its customs system next week in a bid to dispel allegations that imported strategic commodities were filtering into mainland China, a government spokesman said on Friday..... The paper, made available to the media on Friday, also warned the United States it would put bilateral relations at risk if it tried to restrict exports of strategic goods to Hong Kong...... It also argues that Hong Kong has strong vested interests in maintaining an effective and separate customs regime. The territory returned to Chinese rule in July 1997 but keeps a high level of autonomy including customs control. "The access to high-tech products is essential to our economic and industrial development," it said, adding that vehicles and personnel of China's garrison in Hong Kong were subjected to even more stringent border checks than usual...."
AP 6/13/99 "...Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering is going to Beijing to discuss NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and to repair faltering U.S.-China relations, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Sunday..... Albright said Pickering will explain to the Chinese what went wrong when a U.S. plane bombed the embassy instead of an intended target several blocks away. She said he will also emphasize that "this was a tragic accident," a conclusion that the Chinese government officially has refused to accept. Pickering will carry the message that U.S.-China relations are important, "one that needs to get beyond this," she said...."
Agence France Presse 6/14/99 "...The Kosovo conflict has prompted Russia to seek "strategic partners" in the form of China and India, Russian First Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Mikhailov here Monday. Mikhailov made the comment during a visit to this far eastern port city by Chinese General Zhang Wannian, vice president of China's Central Military Commission. "The events in Yugoslavia have inevitably forced us to take steps to strengthen Russia's defensive capacity and find strategic partners," Mikhailov said noting that "these partners are China and India." .....China plans to continue buying the most up-to-date Russian military equipment, notably in the aviation and radar sectors, according to sources in the Russian defense ministry quoted by the Interfax news agency. Beijing could also purchase submarines, ships and cruise missiles from Moscow. The two countries plan to spend an estimated five to six billion dollars through 2005 in joint research and development projects in the military sector, Interfax reported. ..."
ITAR-TASS 6/14/99 Yevgenia Lenz "...Colonel-General Zhang Wannian, Deputy Chairman of the Central MIlitary Council of the People's Republic of China (PRC), who has stayed at the main base of Russia's Pacific Fleet since June 12, is due to arrive in Komsomolsk on Amur on Monday. Over there, he is to tour a number of defence plants which will probably fill orders to be placed by the Chinese army as well. Meanwhile, a source at the Pacific Fleet headquarters has told Itar-Tass that during meetings between General Zhang and Admiral Mikhail Zakharenko, Commander of the Pacific Fleet, the sides "achieved full mutual understanding on problems of mutual concern". In the second half of this year, a naval squadron of Pacific Fleet ships is to pay an official visit to one of the ports of the PRC...."
ITAR-TASS 6/14/99 Monday Yevgenia Lenz "...Nikolai Mikhailov, Russia's First Deputy Minister of Defence and State Secretary, in his remarks during talks between Colonel-General Zhang Wannian, Deputy Chairman of the Central Military Council of the People's Republic of China, and the Command of Russia's Pacific Fleet, has stated that "Russia's strategic cooperation with China and India will rise to a qualitatively new level soon". The Russian Defence Ministry official pointed out that "the events in Yugoslavia prompted the adoption of necessary measures in the strengthening of Russia's defence capability and in a quest for strategic partners in accomplishment of this important task. China and India are such partners now"...."
ITAR-TASS 6/15/99 Boris Savelyev "....Moscow and Beijing considered military cooperation issues at a Tuesday meeting between commanders of Russia's far eastern military district and a Chinese delegation led by Deputy Chairman of China's Central Military Council Col. Gen. Zhang Wannian..... The visiting Chinese delegation has been guided through the Komsomolsk company which is ready to complete a large order for modern warplanes. Although no contract has been signed yet, the company already has six aircraft on assembly line. Ishayev told reporters that in his view, "the modern world should be either multi-polar or at least bi-polar, in order to oppose the powerful NATO bloc from the deterrent standpoint, because NATO is seeking to replace the UN Security Council and other UN bodies. " ...."
Stratfor 6/14/99 "...NATO and the United States have been dealing with men like Viktor Chernomyrdin.... Their credibility there [in Russia] is nil. In negotiating with the West, they operate from two imperatives. First, they are seeking whatever economic concessions they can secure in the hope of sparking an economic miracle. Second, like Gorbachev before them, they have more credibility with the people with whom they are negotiating than the people they are negotiating for. That tends to make them malleable. NATO has been confusing the malleability of a declining cadre of Russian leaders with the genuine condition inside of Russia. Clearly, Albright, Berger, Talbott, and Clinton decided that they could roll Ivanov and Chernomyrdrin into whatever agreement they wanted. In that they were right. Where they were terribly wrong was about the men they were not negotiating with, but whose power and credibility was growing daily. These faceless hard-liners in the military finally snapped at the humiliation NATO inflicted on their public leaders.....Machiavelli teaches the importance of never wounding your adversaries. It is much better to kill them. Wounding them and then ridiculing and tormenting them is the worst possible strategy. Russia is certainly wounded. It is far from dead. NATO's strategy in Kosovo has been to goad a wounded bear. That is not smart unless you are preparing to slay him. Since no one in NATO wants to go bear hunting, treating Russia with the breathtaking contempt that NATO has shown it in the past few weeks is not wise. It seems to us that Clinton and Blair are so intent on the very minor matter of Kosovo that they have actually been oblivious to the effect their behavior is having in Moscow. They just can't get it into their heads that it's not about Kosovo. It is not about humanitarianism or making ourselves the kind of people we want to be. It's about the Russians, stupid! And about China and about the global balance of power...."
The Financial Times 6/14/99 James Kynge "...China yesterday poured scorn on US allegations that Beijing stole nuclear weapons secrets - saying there was nothing to steal because American warhead technology was readily available over the internet. Zhao Qizheng, spokesman for China's cabinet, demonstrated his point by logging on to a website registered to the Federation of American Scientists. The site, Federation of American Scientists, appeared to have information on warheads such as the W-87 and W-88 mentioned in the Cox report, the US congressional document that alleges Beijing stole secrets, including the designs of seven types of nuclear warhead, during a 20-year spying campaign..... One indication of the mounting mistrust was contained in China Review, a respected official Chinese journal. Its June edition said the US and Nato were hatching ever greater conspiracies and China must be ready to "fight a world war"...."
Hong Kong Standard 6/13/99 Phillip Cunningham "...The Nato bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade may not have been the result of carefully coordinated strategy--but it was no accident either. That is the gist of a sneak preview of the still-classified investigative report that the United States will present to the Chinese Government by way of apology. Ezra Vogel, director of the Asia Centre at Harvard University and a former senior intelligence official of the Clinton administration is in Hong Kong awaiting arrangements to visit top officials in Beijing in the wake of anti-US animosity stirred by the attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade on 7 May. Dr Vogel gave a dinner talk at the University of Science and Technology on 7 June which contradicted the Western media story that the bombing was an accident due to outdated maps. Instead Dr Vogel's views were closer to those expressed by the Chinese government and independent investigators at the Chinese-language weekly Yazhou Zhoukan (Asia Weekly), which published a controversial report on the bombing entitled "Exposing the lies of the old map story"..."
Hong Kong Standard 6/13/99 Phillip Cunningham "...Dr Vogel's views: --There was an official cover-up and the map story was part of it. --There was a bureaucratic battle over where to assign blame, with the White House and the State Department prevailing over the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency to obtain data for the yet-unreleased official report. --The embassy bombing was a major setback to Sino-US relations in the magnitude of theTiananmen crackdown and the effects will be felt for a long time to come. --Blame will be assigned to lower-ranking people. --The security side of the embassy was precisely hit, and the Chinese embassy, like all embassies, has a lot of electronic equipment. The implication is that strong electronic signals made the embassy a hot spot for Nato bombers. --It was probably the military who did it, perhaps responding to vigorous electronic activity in the building. --Chinese popular anger, while enhanced by government manipulation of the media, was real. --President Clinton's first apology was misunderstood for cultural reasons. The president, who first spoke about the bombing during a tour of tornado-devastated Oklahoma, was perceived as insincere in part because of the casual clothes he was wearing. The possibility that the bombing was no accident is shocking and clearly has serious implications for Sino-US relations...."
Hong Kong Standard 6/13/99 Phillip Cunningham "...Chinese reports were quick to point out that the embassy was hit by three bombs from three different angles. Mr Shimatsu spoke to the National Imaging and Mapping Agency and was told the Chinese embassy was correctly marked on the map. Wang Jianmin, a staff writer for Yazhou Zhoukan, wrote a related story about two bomb attacks on the embassy. A Belgrade resident, identified only as Zoran, said the embassy was hit twice--the first attack with two missiles, the second with one. The second attack came after news of the embassy being hit was broadcast on Yugoslav media...."
6/17/99 SCMP Willy Wo-Lap Lam "...Beijing's strategists have warned against the "trigger-happiness" of the younger generation of Western politicians. The leadership of President Jiang Zemin, however, has underscored the importance of maintaining ties with the United States and Europe to procure capital and technology. Western diplomats in Beijing yesterday quoted an internal paper as highlighting the hawkish tendencies of Western leaders in their late 40s and early 50s, including US President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The paper said since these leaders had no personal experience of World War II, they had no qualms about taking risky measures to assert national interests. "Young leaders like Clinton and Blair lack the historical perspective to see their aggressive foreign policy could lead to regional or even world conflict," the paper reportedly said...."
UPI Focus 6/16/99 "...The Clinton administration is seeking compensation from China for damage to its diplomatic facilities by mobs protesting the mistaken NATO bombing of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade. U.S. officials said Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering discussed the issue during a meeting in Beijing with Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan. The main purpose of Pickering's trip was to explain how an American pilot mistook Beijing's diplomatic headquarters in Yugoslavia for a military target and bombed it, which killed two Chinese journalists and ruptured Sino-U.S. relations..... "
6/17/99 Agencies "...Leading an eight-strong delegation including officials from the Pentagon and intelligence agencies, US Under-Secretary of State Thomas Pickering used slides and diagrams to try to persuade Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi that faulty intelligence, not intentional targeting, caused Nato to fire at least three missiles at the five-storey building, killing three Chinese journalists. A Western diplomat said Mr Pickering laid out for Mr Yang "a pretty thorough" account of how Nato target planners mistook the embassy for a Yugoslav military procurement centre while planning the bombing raid..... A credible pitch by Mr Pickering was crucial to reversing deteriorating Sino-US relations. Since the bombing on May 7, Beijing has postponed military contacts and suspended talks on trade, arms control and human rights until Washington meets demands for redress...."
6/17/99 Reuters "...China said on Thursday it had rejected an explanation by visiting U.S. envoy Thomas Pickering that NATO's bombing of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade last month was a mistake. The U.S. explanation was "unconvincing" and unacceptable, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan as telling Pickering....The United States said the bombing was a "tragic mistake" which stemmed from the use of outdated maps, but the Chinese state media have consistently portrayed it as deliberate...."
Electronic Telegraph 6/17/99 David Rennie "..."You like to be America's dog. Be careful of your dog life when you walk on the streets," said the man in his tenth call of the night to The Telegraph office in Beijing. "You must get out of China immediately. The Chinese people do not welcome you." Such abuse was typical stuff in the days immediately after Nato bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The Nato bombing sparked a wave of genuine rage that was channelled into four days and nights of government-sanctioned riots outside America's and Britain's missions in Beijing. But the threatening phone calls did not come last month. They came last weekend, five weeks after the missile strike. Western diplomats were not predicting major breakthroughs. Mr Pickering was expected to repeat America's insistence that the strike was caused by faulty maps - an explanation which China's state media long ago dismissed as an insult...."
6/17/99 Willy Wo-Lap Lam "...Progress has been made in boosting military co-operation with the Russians, including the possible procurement of more advanced models of fighter aircraft. The official media yesterday played up visits by Central Military Commission Vice-Chairman General Zhang Wannian to military facilities in Russia which included the main plant for producing Sukhoi jets. Western military analysts said Beijing wanted to procure Su-30 and other advanced jets, which Moscow had traditionally denied China for its own security reasons...."
Newsmax 6/17/99 Stanislav Lunev "... With thousands of years of tradition, Chinese intelligence has been operating in the U.S. for about four decades. Inheriting old China's intelligence experience, Red China modernized its spy machine with help from the well-known Soviet KGB and the little-known Soviet GRU in the 1940s and 1950s and developed its own operations against America since the formation of Communist China...."
Newsmax 6/17/99 Stanislav Lunev ".... There are two main Chinese intelligence services: political intelligence/foreign counterintelligence from the Ministry of State Security and military intelligence, directed from the Second Directorate of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Staff. The chief intelligence officer, General Ji Shengde, is well known in America because of his direct involvement in illegal money transactions during the last presidential election campaign in August of 1996. These services are under the tight control of the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party(CCP), through his deputies in the ministries of national defense and state security. Thus the main policies, directions and targets for intelligence collection are established by secret decisions of the Politburo, which lays out primary strategy, keeps the intelligence community working in the necessary directions and concentrates efforts against the most important targets. Most practical issues are handled directly in the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the CCP, in charge of supervising the entire Chinese military machine, including military-industrial institutions and organizations. This commission collects, analyzes and summarizes the needs of Chinese industry for foreign technologies, foreign production and proprietary information. It receives requests from Chinese industry and directs the intelligence community to act upon those requests...."
Newsmax 6/17/99 Stanislav Lunev "... The CMC is supervised by General Liu Huaqing, father of Liu Chaoying, a Chinese aerospace executive and lieutenant colonel in the PLA, who was directly involved in the U.S. fund-raising scandal. The CMC provides each year a top-secret "tasking list," delivered to all intelligence units in the field on a regular basis. The list includes information about foreign leaders who might influence current affairs and state policy. This list also includes specifications for particular items, and quantities, needed for military production. This unified command enables Chinese leadership to organize effective cooperation among different intelligence services in order to fulfill strategic operations, the most important concerned with the development of mass-destruction weapons...."
Newsmax 6/17/99 Stanislav Lunev Dozens of these native Chinese specialists were delivered by Chinese intelligence agencies from the U.S. to the PRC in the 1950s and 1960s, and Chinese nuclear and missile programs were based on American technology and Soviet machinery and equipment. In the 1980s and 1990s the basis shifted fully toward the U.S. as China used American technology, machinery and equipment, received by China legally or illegally from the U.S. and other Western countries...."
South China Morning Post 6/29/99 Oliver Chou "...A national scientific initiative programme is to be established with five billion yuan (HK$4.6 billion) to be invested in the scheme by the end of next year, Xinhua reported yesterday. An official from the Ministry of Science and Technology was quoted by the news agency as saying the plan would take China into the top 10 countries in the world in terms of scientific competitiveness by 2010. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, the mainland's highest institution in science and technology, has been given the task of organising most of the research projects. A senior academy official said the proposed projects would be based on China's socio-economic development needs in the early decades of next century. The scheme would keep China in close contact with world trends in high-technology while expanding its scope for research, the official said. Projects with strategic significance in promoting the national economy and high-technology would be given priority. They include Internet technology and security, and specialised robots. The academy would also carry out projects in agriculture, information science, energy, space science and other major cross-scientific research programmes...."
InsideChina 7/1/99 AFP "...Military contacts between the United States and China have virtually ceased since the May 7 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and they are unlikely to resume soon, a senior US defense official said Wednesday. Unconvinced by US explanations that the embassy was bombed in error, Chinese officials have said they want to see more action on the bombing and progress on economic issues before resuming the military-to-military contacts, said Kurt Campbell, deputy assistant secretary of defense...He said relations with China were now at their lowest level since 1994-95 when contacts were limited to occasional visits by assistant secretaries in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre....."
South China Morning Post 6/30/99 Willy Wo-Lap Lam "...Premier Zhu Rongji has come under pressure from a group of conservative deputies who want him to appear before the NPC's Foreign Affairs Committee to explain the downturn in relations with the United States. Mr Zhu has also been criticised for policies ranging from enterprise reform to China's effort to join the World Trade Organisation. Since former premier Li Peng became NPC chairman last year, the legislature has been more aggressive in asking ministers to account for policies, particularly those deemed unsatisfactory. "Conservative NPC members want an explanation on why the US should 'target' China and what the Government has done to prevent the country from being bullied," a Beijing source said...."
AP 6/30/99 "...Underneath the hoopla surrounding the second anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from British rule is an unexpected problem: Hong Kong is suffering an identity crisis that some critics say is largely its own fault. Dignitaries from Hong Kong and mainland China will hoist flags and unveil a ``reunification monument'' Thursday, duly marking the anniversary. But Hong Kong's formerly high-flying economy has come down to earth, with falling gross domestic product, record unemployment and deflation dampening any rebound hopes.....China's National People's Congress provided a new interpretation of Hong Kong's constitution, cutting the number of potential migrants to 200,000 and saying Hong Kong judges must accept the precedent. When Britain gave up Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, concerns were rampant that China's authoritarian communist rulers would wreck the freewheeling capitalist enclave of flashy skyscrapers, lively markets and lavish self-indulgence....."
Weekly Standard 7/5/99 Robert Kagan and William Kristol "...It turns out that the reason the Chinese were so upset about the accidental bombing of their embassy in Belgrade, and the reason they still refuse to believe it was an accident, is that American bombs hit what the New York Times describes as a Chinese "intelligence-gathering nerve-center" and killed two Chinese spies-not "journalists." One can only guess what the Chinese were doing with this intelligence operation during the U.S. bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. Maybe they were gathering information on the F-117 stealth aircraft the Serbs shot down. Almost certainly they were providing whatever assistance they could to help Milosevic beat the United States and NATO. This should come as no surprise. Milosevic also got help from Saddam Hussein and kept in close contact with the Libyan government of Muammar Qaddafi. That's the thing about the world's dictatorships. They stick together...."
The Straits Times 6/30/99 "...Once sworn enemies, both countries have found common cause in challenging what they perceive as growing US hegemony. In Europe, Russia sees the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as an encroachment on its sphere of influence; and in Asia, China sees the strengthening of the US-Japan military alliance, as well as US plans to install theatre missile defence systems in the region, as evidence of an anti-China containment policy. On the principle that unless they stick together, they might well hang separately, both countries have decided to upgrade their security and political links. What does this mean for the world in general, and for Asia in particular? For the moment, perhaps not much. The partnership is still a secondary relationship for both, and calling it "strategic" will not change the global balance of power overnight. To begin with, their strategic interests do not always coincide. For example, unlike China, Russia is cooperating with Nato in peacekeeping efforts in the Balkans; and its relationship with Japan, unlike China's, is growing closer. In addition, both nations are well aware that neither can prosper economically by sticking solely to the other....Still, it would be a mistake to assume that the "strategic partnership" is just smoke and mirrors. As it is, the relationship has already borne significant fruit. The presidents of the two countries have met seven times in seven years; they have successfully resolved their long-standing border disputes; and the two countries have developed close military links. To date, China has acquired from Russia Su-27 attack jets, Kilo-636 attack submarines and Sovremenny-class destroyers equipped with SS-N-22 anti-ship missiles. Reports indicate that both countries agreed earlier this month to develop missiles, submarines and other high-tech weapon systems jointly, and that Russia has agreed in principle to sell China its state-of-the-art Su-30s, an aircraft superior to the Su-27. Reports indicate, too, that Russia proposed a military alliance between the two countries, but that China turned it down...."
London Sunday Times 8/30/98 Michael Sheridan "...FOR "Big Spender" Cheung Tze-keung the time has come to pay for his alleged crimes, probably with a police bullet in the back of the neck. But as Hong Kong's most wanted gangster sits awaiting his fate in a prison cell across the border in China, the question is whether he may take to his grave the secrets of kidnap plots involving two of the richest men in the world. Li Ka-shing, the biggest property developer in Hong Kong, and Walter Kwok, the Anglophile tycoon who controls some of the territory's most opulent real estate, are said by police to have been victims of a multi-million-pound extortion racket. Li is reported to have handed over £80m to free his son Victor from gangsters linked to Cheung, while Kwok was kidnapped and freed for a ransom of £47m...."
Chinatimes 6/19/99 AFP "....The growing number of security crises in Asia has forced China to develop "military diplomacy" with its neighbours, especially Russia, state media said Friday. General Zhang Wannian, vice-chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission, has just returned from a 10-day visit to Russia and the Xinhua news agency said the two countries had reached an "extensive concensus." It said the visit was "the latest development in China's busy military exchanges with neighbouring countries." Senior Chinese military figures have also visited Pakistan, Malaysia and Australia in recent weeks Army chiefs from Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and North Korea have been in China. "China has used its influence to urge those involved countries to avoid crisis situations through dialogue," Xinhua said. But China has made it clear that its "military diplomacy" is mainly aimed at Russia a country like China, which Xinhua said "bear major responsibility for maintaining world peace." It said Zhang's talks in Moscow had been "a major step toward the establishment of their strategic cooperative partnership." Since the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, China has moved closer to Russia's position on Kosovo and the UN role on solving regional crises...."
China Daily/Xinhua 6/18/99 "...THE US explanation of the US-led NATO attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade is "unconvincing," and therefore the Chinese Government and people cannot accept the conclusion that the "bombing was a mistake." ......Pickering noted the different parts of the US Government had the following three basic failures. First, the technique used to locate the intended target was seriously flawed. The US intended target was the headquarters of the Yugoslav Federal Directorate for Supply and Procurement (FDSP). To locate physically the address of the intended target, two maps, produced by Yugoslavia in 1989 and 1996, and a 1997 National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) map were used..... In the process of locating the target, a US intelligence officer, in breach of operational rules, employed techniques that are used in the field by the Army. These techniques involve the assumption of target locations of a street by comparing the pattern and numbering system of its parallel streets, and they can only be used for general geographic locations, but are totally inappropriate for precision targeting for air attacks. Using this process, the intelligence officer mistakenly determined that the building of the Chinese Embassy was the FDSP headquarters. The second major error stemmed from the flawed US databases, Pickering said. Despite the fact that US officials had visited the Chinese Embassy at its new address on a number of occasions in recent years, the new location was never fed into the US intelligence or military targeting databases..... Therefore, when the incorrect location of the FDSP building was fed into several US databases for review, none of the databases had detected the error. The US satellite imagery photos did not indicate any clear markings of the Chinese Embassy either. Third, the target review process failed to detect and correct the two mistakes previously mentioned above. While this target, of what was believed to be the FDSP facility, came under review, the system of checks that US and European command forces had in place to catch target errors did not at any level reveal the mistake. No one, at any stage in the process realized that the bombs were aimed at the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. As the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was not connected in any way to the US intent to strike the FDSP headquarters, no one had ever tried to consult those who knew the address of the Chinese Embassy....."
China Daily/Xinhua 6/18/99 "...First of all, it was impossible for the US side not to know the accurate location of the Chinese Embassy in FRY. The US side claims that it made an error in locating the FRY FDSP building because of its use of old maps, published by Yugoslavia in 1989 and 1996, and by NIMA of the US in 1997 that had not accurately identified the correct location of the Chinese Embassy. The Chinese side finds it difficult to believe why the US side put so much value on and faith in the out-dated maps published by Yugoslavia. The US side also acknowledges there are many maps which show the correct location of the Chinese Embassy in FRY.....What's more, the embassy building is of a distinct traditional Chinese architectural style with such clear markings as the national emblem on the facade of the main building and a sign plate at the main entrance. The FDSP is a public agency which many foreign diplomats have visited. There is a long distance between the FDSP and the Chinese Embassy and there is virtually no exterior resemblance between the two buildings. Equipped with a full array of the most sophisticated reconnaissance means, the US could not possibly have mistaken the embassy building for the FDSP building. Second, everything points to the fact that the US side knew full well the overall layout of foreign missions in Belgrade. As is known to all, the US had been planning for the strikes against FRY for a long time. Long before the military actions against FRY, it had been photographing, mapping and surveying all parts of Yugoslavia, Belgrade in particular, by various high-tech means...... Third, the US claim of locating the FDSP, an intended target for an air strike, by employing a method that is used in the field by the Army is not logical. The US side admits that all other targets had been located with other more accurate target-locating techniques, why was the Army technique of land navigation used to locate what the US believed to be an important target? .....According to the on-site inspection made by the Chinese side after the attack, five bombs hit different parts of the embassy building with 100 per cent delivery accuracy. This proves that the US side had a very detailed knowledge of the building structure of the embassy and that it must have conducted careful and accurate reconnaissance over it in advance. Fourth, the US target databases are updated frequently with a clearly distinguished target list and a no-hit list. The US argument that the Chinese Embassy was mistakenly fed into the databases as the FDSP does not hold ground. Fifth, the explanation given by the US side that its review process failed to detect and correct the intelligence errors is inconceivable. Many people in the US know the locations of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and the FDSP. How could the US intelligence authorities fail to consult any of them? This is against military operational rules and common sense..."
Centre for Defence and International Security Studies 6/13/99 "....On 12 June 1999, a high-ranking Chinese military delegation visited a Russian Topol (SS-25) Intercontinental-range Ballistic Missile (ICBM) unit in Novosibirsk in central Russia. Moscow's ITAR-TASS, the main government information agency, commented on the significance of the visit by noting: For the first time in the history of Russian-Chinese military cooperation, a delegation of top representatives of the People's Liberation Army [PLA] of China has visited a unit of Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces in the last years....The Chinese delegation reportedly was shown the Topol missile "and explained its possibilities in overcoming the air defense of a 'potential foe,'" according to ITAR-TASS. The Topol (SS-25) is the world's only operational road mobile ICBM... We recently reported that Russia had flight tested the Topol-M (a follow-on system to the Topol) that is currently deployed in small numbers in a silo-based configuration, but which also may be deployed in the future in a road mobile configuration. During this recent flight test, Russian commentators praised the system's maneuvering reentry vehicle (MARV), stating it could help overcome ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems (see Russia Tests Topol-M ICBM)....A ballistic missile with a MIRV can place nuclear warheads on multiple enemy targets in different locations. A ballistic missile with a MARV enables the warhead to perform preplanned maneuvers during reentry in an attempt to evade missile defenses. Both systems represent high levels of technology currently only mastered by the United States and Russia....."
Chinatimes 6/22/99 "...Moscow has decided to sell 72 of its front-line Sukhoi-30 jet fighter-bombers to Beijing, which will certainly strengthen the mainland's air combat capacity and boost its ties with Russia. According to a report appearing Monday in The Hong Kong Standard, following years of negotiations, Russian President Boris Yeltsin has given the green light to sell three squadrons of the state-of-art combat aircraft to the mainland. The report quoted Russian-based diplomats as saying that Moscow and Beijing had agreed in principle to negotiations on the sale during mainland Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's visit to Russia early this year. It is understood that negotiations for Moscow to grant a license for the production of another 250 Sukhoi-30 fighters in mainland China have begun as well...."
South China Morning Post 6/23/99 Rueters "...China is happy with the constant improvement in Sino-Russian ties, China's second ranking leader said on Tuesday. ''China is pleased to see Sino-Russian exchange and cooperation in politics, economy, culture and other areas have been growing constantly,'' the China Daily quoted parliament chief Li Peng as saying. ....Russian analysts say the two countries are working overtime to use the relationship to build strategic clout and chip away at the US's role as the world's only superpower...."
DCI Statement 04/21/99 "...Earlier this year, the Cox Committee recommended that appropriate Executive Branch departments and agencies conduct a comprehensive damage assessment on the implications of China's acquisition of US nuclear weapons information regarding the development of future Chinese weapons. In February, I appointed Robert Walpole, the National Intelligence Officer for Strategic and Nuclear Programs, to lead this effort. Mr. Walpole convened an interagency group including CIA, DOE, DOD, DIA, NSA, INR, FBI, both CIA's and the National Counterintelligence Centers, and multiple weapons designers, experts, and analysts from the national laboratories at Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia to draft the assessment. The assessment consisted of a thorough analysis of China's nuclear weapons program to identify where and how US information played a role. Mr. Walpole told members of the damage assessment team to view their efforts through the lens of what we know, what we don't know, what we can't know, what we judge based on evidence, and what we speculate based on experience.... "
DCI Statement 04/21/99 "...Key Findings ...Chinese strategic nuclear efforts have focused on developing and deploying a survivable long-range missile force that can hold a significant portion of the US and Russian populations at risk in a retaliatory strike. By at least the late 1970s the Chinese launched an ambitious collection program focused on the US, including its national laboratories, to acquire nuclear weapons technologies. By the 1980s China recognized that its second strike capability might be in jeopardy unless its force became more survivable. This probably prompted the Chinese to heighten their interest in smaller and lighter nuclear weapon systems to permit a mobile force. * China obtained by espionage classified US nuclear weapons information that probably accelerated its program to develop future nuclear weapons. This collection program allowed China to focus successfully down critical paths and avoid less promising approaches to nuclear weapon designs. * China obtained at least basic design information on several modern US nuclear reentry vehicles, including the Trident II (W88). * China also obtained information on a variety of US weapon design concepts and weaponization features, including those of the neutron bomb.
We cannot determine the full extent of weapon information obtained. For example, we do not know whether any weapon design documentation or blueprints were acquired. * We believe it is more likely that the Chinese used US design information to inform their own program than to replicate US weapon designs...."
DCI Statement 04/21/99 "...Key Findings ...China's technical advances have been made on the basis of classified and unclassified information derived from espionage, contact with US and other countries' scientists, conferences and publications, unauthorized media disclosures, declassified US weapons information, and Chinese indigenous development. The relative contribution of each cannot be determined.
Regardless of the source of the weapons information, it has made an important contribution to the Chinese objective to maintain a second strike capability and provided useful information for future designs.
Significant deficiencies remain in the Chinese weapons program. The Chinese almost certainly are using aggressive collection efforts to address deficiencies as well as to obtain manufacturing and production capabilities from both nuclear and nonnuclear sources...."
DCI Statement 04/21/99 "...Key Findings ...To date, the aggressive Chinese collection effort has not resulted in any apparent modernization of their deployed strategic force or any new nuclear weapons deployment. China has had the technical capability to develop a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) system for its large, currently deployed ICBM for many years, but has not done so. US information acquired by the Chinese could help them develop a MIRV for a future mobile missile. We do not know if US classified nuclear information acquired by the Chinese has been passed to other countries. Having obtained more modern US nuclear technology, the Chinese might be less concerned about sharing their older technology...."
SCMP 6/24/99 "...Beijing is refusing permission for US military aircraft to land at Chek Lap Kok. US warships were banned last month from making visits, in retaliation for the Nato bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade. The move has thrown doubt over travel plans for congressional delegations due to arrive in US air force jets during their summer break. The ban on military aircraft was revealed yesterday by Consul-General Richard Boucher who said "one or two" applications had been knocked back and a series of requests for ship visits refused. An application for a US navy P-3 Orion on a navigation training flight to touch down in the SAR was rejected, a US Consulate spokesman said....."
Reuters 6/24/99 "...The United States said on Thursday that China is refusing to allow U.S. military aircraft to land in Hong Kong, adding to a ban on U.S. warships after the bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia last month. ``U.S. military ships and aircraft have been banned,'' said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Consulate-General in Hong Kong. U.S. military aircraft on routine navigation training flights fly to Asia-Pacific destinations including Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, the spokeswoman said. Such flights continued to receive landing permission at Hong Kong's airport Kong after Britain returned the former colony to Beijing in July 1997. Under the Sino-British agreement, this southern Chinese city retains a high degree of autonomy for 50 years, but foreign policy and defence decisions are under Beijing's control. Shortly after NATO bombs hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, China halted military exchanges with the U.S...."
Enter Stage Right 6/24/99 Peter Zhang "... What has struck Beijing is not the fact that it was social democrats who ordered the attack on Serbia (the same people who never condemned a communist regime) but their lack of will revealed by their fear of suffering casualties..... To be able to plaster from a short distance a small target like Serbia does nothing to intimidate Beijing. And as far as she is concerned, these are weapons she will soon command herself, including counter-measures...... I have written before that the Chinese leadership knows its history. It knows that powers rise and fall. It is coming to the conclusion, if it hasn't already, that America is in a state of terminal moral decline. To China's ruling elite the reelection of Clinton; his popular support; the refusal of the American people to evict him from the White House, despite his contempt for them; his treason and gutting of America's military and the refusal of America's so-called intellectual elites to abandon him are symptoms of a country that has lost its spirit and rejected its heritage and destiny. Nevertheless, keenly aware of the country's weaknesses Beijing will move with caution. Now this interpretation of the American mood and its moral character could lead to Beijing taking a more aggressive stand in the near future against American policy and interests, even if it means uttering threats and demanding demeaning apologies. This will be done to undermine Asian countries faith in American resolve. By convincing Asian countries that America is straw man, an ally whose word cannot be counted on, it would hop to detonate a chain reaction that would result in these countries deciding to throw their lot in with Beijing. I doubt if Americans will ever fully learn the dreadful role Clinton has played in fuelling and strengthening the PLA's ambitions... "
Inside China Today 6/23/99 Rueters "...China compared the United States to Nazi Germany on Tuesday and said NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia reflected Washington's ambition to become "Lord of the Earth". "If you ask which country wants to become 'the Lord of the Earth' as the then Nazi Germany had tried to, there is only one answer," said a commentary in the People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party. "It is the hegemonism-pursuing United States." In likening the United States to Nazi Germany, the newspaper cited its massive defense budget, the bombing of Yugoslavia without U.N. sanction and the killing of civilians during the air campaign in Yugoslavia. ...."
El Nuevo Herald 6/24/99 PABLO ALFONSO "...China is operating in Cuba a sophisticated network of electronic espionage towards the United States, which the regime of Fidel Castro in electronic his denominated ``War against Yankee Imperialism ' in agreement with sources of intelligence and documents of governmental agencies also takes advantage of to which the New Herald has had access. ``For Chinese the use of Cuba as base of electronic listening is of a tremendous importance, because means them to locate itself strategically in the rear of United States ', commented an ex- official of North American intelligence. The Chinese bases of electronic espionage have been camouflaged under the pretext of a collaboration between China and Cuba in the field of the electronics and the radio communications, whose agreements they were the past signed month of February during the visit to Havana of the Chinese minister of Defense, Chi Haotian. The main bases of Chinese listening and tracking in Cuba are located to the northeast of Santiago of Cuba in the Eastern end of the country and in the zone of Rattan field in the province of Havana, in agreement with the intelligence information. The field of antennas of Santiago of Cuba is dedicated mainly to the tracking of the communications of the North American military satellites, while in Rattan field the Chinese have mounted a complex system of interception of the telephone communications.....``This is a such delicate subject that polticians are treating it a most confidential way. ', commented the source. The Chinese bases are apart of the electronic station of espionage that Russia inherited of the missing Soviet Union in Lourdes, province of Havana, and for which Cuba receives $200 million annually.
SCMP 6/27/99 "...Firing squads put at least 71 people to death for drug trafficking yesterday in the mainland's annual flurry of executions to mark the United Nations' anti-drug day. In all, at least 98 people have been executed or sentenced to death nationwide in recent days ahead of today's International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, according to state media reports..."
AP 6/26/99 "...Slobodan Milosevic has been offered asylum in China if he is ousted, so he can avoid prosecution on war crimes, a German newspaper reported Saturday. ``I have indications that Milosevic has an offer to flee to China, be granted asylum and therefore not be extradited to The Hague court,'' Bild am Sonntag quoted former Belgrade Mayor Zoran Djindjic as saying...."
Washington Post 6/27/99 Michael Laris "...In a move opponents said undermines the rule of law in Hong Kong, China's legislature today overturned a decision by the territory's highest court that had opened the door to a large influx of mainland immigrants. Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa had asked the legislature in Beijing to intervene and reject the Hong Kong court's ruling, warning that as many as 1.6 million new residents would rush in and overburden the already crowded metropolis. Public opinion surveys show that a majority of Hong Kong's 6.8 million residents also wanted to keep the immigrants out. But today's decision by the 160-member Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in Beijing raised an outcry among legal experts and government opponents in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's leading opposition figure, Democratic Party head Martin Lee, said in a statement that Tung and leaders in Beijing struck a "mortal blow" against Hong Kong's legal system. "They have succeeded in ripping open a gaping hole through which they will attempt to make further incursions that threaten to destroy the high degree of autonomy guaranteed to Hong Kong under the Basic Law," Lee said....."
South China Morning Post 6/26/99 Willy Wo-Lap Lam "...Beijing and Moscow have agreed to pool resources in the development of military-related high technology. The unpublicised accord was finalised while the Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission, General Zhang Wannian, was in Moscow this month. Diplomatic sources in Beijing said yesterday that while the leadership had turned down Moscow's invitation for forming a military alliance, the joint development of weapons technology was a big step forward in defence ties. "Both countries will co-ordinate development of a number of weapons systems," a source said. "Beijing will provide most of the funds and Moscow the bulk of the expertise, including personnel."...A PLA expert said priority would be given to development of hardware including missiles and submarines. The expert said that before the Kosovo crisis, the leadership of President Jiang Zemin had been reluctant to significantly upgrade military ties with Moscow. "After the air strikes against Serbia began, [Russian President] Boris Yeltsin told Beijing that unless China and Russia joined forces, the American military machine could not be stopped...."
USA Today 6/28/99 Paul Hoversten "...China could launch its first manned spacecraft as early as next spring, joining the United States and Russia as the only nations with the capability of sending humans into orbit. U.S. and British space experts believe China has the expertise and equipment to launch, orbit and retrieve a manned vehicle. China's first test launch of an unmanned capsule is set for October to honor the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Reports indicate China hopes to build a full space program, including an orbiting space station and a space shuttle-type craft, and to dispatch a robot moon probe...."
International Herald Tribune 6/19/99 Masashi Nishihara "...The Kosovo conflict has sharpened tensions between major powers in Asia and the Pacific. There is now a risk of another Cold War emerging in the region. Such a development would be destabilizing and must be averted. When NATO began bombing Yugoslavia, China and Russia once again became close political allies. High-level contacts between the two countries have increased significantly. Russia's chief naval commander, Vladimir Kuroyedov, visited Beijing in late May, followed by Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in early June. China's top military leader, General Chang Wan-Nien, went to Vladivostok in mid-June. Among other things, General Chang's visit produced an agreement to expand the two countries' military contacts. Both China and Russia suspect that the eastward expansion of NATO and the recently strengthened alliance between Japan and the United States are linked as part of a pincer movement to squeeze their countries from both east and west...."
International Herald Tribune 6/19/99 Masashi Nishihara "...On July 8, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi of Japan will visit Beijing, the first of the leaders who attended the summit talks in Cologne early this month to do so. Furthermore, he will be the first major U.S. ally to go to China since the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. During his visit, the Chinese are likely to adopt one of two strategies. They may strongly criticize U.S. actions in the Kosovo crisis but refrain from commenting on Japanese wartime conduct, in an attempt to draw Japan closer. Or they may decide to criticize the strengthened U.S.-Japanese alliance as destabilizing for the region and warn against the re-emergence of Japanese militarism. The aim of both strategies is similar: to undermine the key alliance in the Asia-Pacific region...."
UK Independent 6/29/99 Stephen Vines "..." The Chinese parliament yesterday announced that it was overruling Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal. This announcement has been greeted with alarm in the ex-colony, where the legal community fears the entire system of the rule of law has been put into question. When Britain and China talked about having a Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong to replace the House of Lords, it was believed that the court could not be overruled by a political body in Peking....."
Reuters 6/28/99 "...Chinese President Jiang Zemin urged the military to develop a core body of highly skilled soldiers and boost technical training, the official China Daily said on Monday. It said Jiang called on the People's Liberation Army to give top priority to training soldiers for high-tech warfare and developing high technology, essential to competing with other countries' fast-paced military developments. Jiang said the military should train a core body of highly skilled techinical soldiers and concentrate on improving its education system, the newspaper said. It said the president called on the army to play a larger role in defence-related scientific and academic research and to promote technological innovations used in combat. Jiang has emphasised the importance of modernising the military since NATO began bombing Yugoslavia three months ago to prevent ``ethnic cleansing'' of Albanians in the southern province of Kosovo...."
South China Morning Post 6/28/99 AFP "... President Jiang Zemin has urged the armed forces to improve through science and technology and loyalty to the Communist Party, Xinhua reported yesterday. He told delegates at the 14th Meeting of the People's Liberation Army's Institutes of Higher Learning the armed forces should develop a large contingent of skilled technological personnel "who are loyal to the Communist Party and the people", the news agency said. The President said the institutes must make sure their students were "politically qualified". Information would be the greatest factor in fighting ability on the battlefields of the future involving high calibre personnel, he said. In the face of new military developments in the world, an effort was needed to strengthen defence and the military's ability to cope with hi-tech regional wars, Mr Jiang said...."
Washington Times 6/28/99 Bill Gertz "...China is making final preparations to test fire a new mobile intercontinental ballistic missile that the CIA believes will incorporate stolen U.S. missile and warhead secrets, The Washington Times has learned. Preparations for the launch of the road-mobile DF-31 -- which could take place as early as next week -- were spotted by U.S. spy satellites at Wuzhai in central China and reported in classified U.S. intelligence reports earlier this month, said U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the reports. "They are getting ready for a launch," one official said. The official said one U.S. intelligence agency assessed the DF-31 test missile to be capable of carrying a 2-and-a-half-megaton warhead. A megaton is the equivalent of a million tons of TNT. Other intelligence estimates have said the DF-31 warhead size will be smaller, closer to the 100- to 200-kiloton range that is similar to compact U.S. nuclear warheads. China's two dozen CSS-4 long-range ICBMs each carry a five-megaton warhead and the CIA reported last year that at least 13 of those missiles were targeted on U.S. cities....."
Washington Times 6/28/99 Bill Gertz "...The 5,000-mile-range missile will be able to hit targets in parts of the western United States. According to a report released last month by a special House panel investigating Chinese espionage, the DF-31 is likely to be the first missile in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) arsenal to incorporate stolen U.S. warhead design technology, including either the advanced W-88 warhead, or the older W-70 warhead used on short-range Lance missiles. "The DF-31 ICBM and the PRC's other new generation mobile ICBMs will require smaller, more compact warheads," said the report by a committee headed by Rep. Christopher Cox, California Republican. "The stolen U.S. information on the W-70 or W-88 Trident D-5 will be useful for this purpose." The D-5 is the most advanced U.S. submarine-launched ballistic missile...."
Washington Times 6/28/99 Bill Gertz "... Intelligence monitors, including satellites and reconnaissance aircraft, are watching the Wuzhai site for the test and officials said they will be looking out for whether China makes the jump from a large single warhead to small, multiple warheads. The first flight test of the DF-31 took place in May 1995 and other missile tests showed China's use of "penetration aids" --dummy warheads designed to fool missile defenses. China has been working slowly on the new DF-31 and last tested its rocket motor during President Clinton's visit to China a year ago. The July 1 test, according to some Pentagon officials, was an "ejection test" of the DF-31 missile. Its timing was viewed as a political signal to the United States, coming as it did during the summit, these officials said...."
Washington Times 6/28/99 Bill Gertz "... "The DF-31 ICBM will give China a major strike capability that will be difficult to counterattack at any stage of its operation," states the Air Force report, labeled "secret." "It will be a significant threat not only to U.S. forces deployed in the Pacific theater, but to portions of the continental United States and to many of our allies." The Air Force report contained a map showing the range of DF-31 to be sufficient for it to hit targets throughout the western United States along a line running southwest from Wisconsin through California...."
Section of Appendix of Presidents Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board Report 6/99 Sen Rudman, Chairman of PFIAB "...China obtained by espionage classified U.S. nuclear weapons information that probably accelerated its program to develop future nuclear weapons. This collection program allowed China to focus successfully down critical paths and avoid less promising approaches to nuclear weapons designs. China obtained at least basic design information on several modern U.S. nuclear reentry vehicles, including the Trident II (W-88). China also obtained information on a variety of U.S. weapon design concepts and weaponization features, including those of a neutron bomb. We cannot determine the full extent of weapon information obtained. For example, we do not know whether any weapon design documentation or blueprints were acquired. We believe it is more likely that the Chinese used U.S. design information to inform their own program than to replicate U.S. weapon designs. China's technical advances have been made on the basis of classified and unclassified information derived from espionage, contact with U.S. and other countries' scientists, conferences and publications, unauthorized media enclosures, declassified U.S. weapons information, and Chinese indigenous development. The relative contribution of each cannot be determined....We do not know if U.S. classified nuclear information acquired by the Chinese has been passed to other countries. Having obtained more modern U.S. nuclear technology, the Chinese might be less concerned about haring their older technology...."
USA Today 6/28/99 Paul Hoversten "...Chinese leaders have long been jealous of other nations' pre-eminence in space. When the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, Chinese Communist revolutionary Mao Tse-tung reportedly muttered, "China cannot even get a potato into orbit." Now, 38 years after the former Soviet Union and the United States began sending humans into space, China appears close to doing it, too. An unmanned flight is scheduled for October, and a manned flight is expected as early as next spring. China's "Project 921" is not entirely original, says James Oberg, a Houston space consultant. Yet all space programs borrow from one another, to some degree. Aerospace experts believe Project 921 is based largely, but not exclusively, on technology that China bought from Russia. Among China's purchases have been rocket engines, a spacesuit, a spacecraft life support system and a docking mechanism to allow manned capsules to hook up with each other in orbit....."
SCMP 6/30/99 "...Premier Zhu Rongji has come under pressure from a group of conservative deputies who want him to appear before the NPC's Foreign Affairs Committee to explain the downturn in relations with the United States. Mr Zhu has also been criticised for policies ranging from enterprise reform to China's effort to join the World Trade Organisation. Since former premier Li Peng became NPC chairman last year, the legislature has been more aggressive in asking ministers to account for policies, particularly those deemed unsatisfactory. "Conservative NPC members want an explanation on why the US should 'target' China and what the Government has done to prevent the country from being bullied," a Beijing source said. ..."
THE WASHINGTON TIMES/via Drudge 6/30/99 Bill Gertz "...The Clinton administration offered to pay compensation to the families of three Chinese officials killed in the mistaken bombing of their embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, a senior State Department official said yesterday. Stanley Roth, assistant secretary of state for Asian Pacific affairs, said during a speech the administration also may pay China the cost of the bombed building, a demand made by Beijing two weeks ago. The United States is also seeking compensation from China for the damage caused to U.S. facilities by angry Chinese mobs who protested the May 7 bombing of the embassy in Belgrade during a NATO air strike. The compensation was offered by Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering in Beijing during a meeting with Chinese officials, Mr. Roth said. The Chinese then asked the United States to pay for rebuilding the embassy that was hit by several Joint Direct Attack Munitions - the Air Force's premier satellite-guided bombs dropped by B-2 stealth bombers..... "
Insidechina Rueters 7/7/99 "...China will spend 600 million yuan ($72 million) over the next three years on grants to lure overseas Chinese scientists to help its modernization drive, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday. The program, which Xinhua said was China's largest ever government-funded recruitment scheme, aimed to draw 300 overseas Chinese scientists to conduct research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences....."
South China Morning Post/Associated Press 7/8/99 "...President Bill Clinton's nomination of retired admiral Joseph Prueher as the United States' new ambassador to China appears to be in trouble. In an apparent lapse of protocol, the Clinton administration has neglected to tell Beijing about the proposed nomination. A Chinese Embassy official in Washington said yesterday Beijing had yet to be consulted. Still furious about the Belgrade embassy bombing, Chinese officials had registered displeasure at the snub, according to congressional and diplomatic officials. Nor is Beijing enthusiastic about the choice, since Admiral Prueher, 56, was commander of US forces in the Pacific when the two countries confronted each other in 1996....."
Wall Street Journal 7/8/99 Jesse Helms "...China's apologists in Washington have quickly circled their wagons in an attempt to limit the impact of the Cox report's damning disclosures on the Clinton administration's "engagement" policy toward Beijing. Incredibly, some in the administration have even had the gall to attempt to use this scandal of their own making to press for ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. If anyone believes that flimsy arms-control agreement will restrain China's now-exposed nuclear ambitions, there's a bridge in Hong Kong I want to sell him..... China is not interested in a "strategic partnership" with the U.S. as demonstrated by the spate of anti-American, government-sponsored riots all across China following NATO's accidental bombing in May of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. To the contrary, the Chinese regime views America as an adversary, perhaps an outright enemy.... Beijing's paramount goal is to displace U.S. influence in the Asia-Pacific region. China's aim is to undermine U.S. relations with its Asian allies (who they hope will increasingly turn to China as the region's security guarantor), and prevent America from defending its vital interests in Asia-particularly our ability, and willingness, to defend Taiwan against forced reunification with the mainland. China is determined to modernize its military forces, especially its nuclear capabilities, speedily in order to challenge U.S. military dominance in the Pacific.... China's nuclear espionage has brought us significantly closer to the day when Beijing will be in a position to use nuclear blackmail against the U.S. China has already shown its willingness to issue such threats. Just after China fired missiles off Taiwan's coast in 1995, a Chinese general publicly boasted that the U.S. would never come to Taiwan's defense because "Americans care more about Los Angeles than Taipei." .... Ronald Reagan's dictum of peace through strength applies as much in the Far East as it did in the East Bloc. We can convince the Chinese leadership to behave only if their avenues to adventurism and confrontation are closed..... "
Washington Times 7/12/99 James Hackett "...A similar emphasis on missiles and space is apparent in China, where preparations are now under way to flight test a new long-range ballistic missile, the DF-31, and then to test a submarine-launched version known as Julang II later this year. China also is developing anti-satellite weapons. In a July 1998 report to Congress on the military modernization in China, the Department of Defense wrote that Beijing is acquiring foreign technologies that could be used to develop ASAT systems. The report refers to frequency jammers, radar satellite trackers and high-energy lasers, and notes that China already may possess the ability to damage optical sensors on satellites. More recent reports say that China also is working on a microwave warhead to produce a burst of EMP energy to disable a satellite's electronics, and that China last September conducted a laser test against a satellite's sensors...."
Drudge Report 7/12/99 "...The NEW YORK TIMES is set to report in Tuesday's paper that the Communist Chinese expect to send two astronauts into space by next year -- making China only the third country to achieve the feat behind only the United States and the former Soviet Union! ..."
Reuters 7/10/99 "...A top State Department official will visit Beijing next week to discuss reparations for the victims of the May 7 NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, the department said on Saturday. State Department Legal Adviser David Andrews will follow up on a Clinton administration ``offer of humanitarian payment'' for the bombing victims and ``discuss the issue of property damage'' caused by the attack, a spokeswoman said. She said she did not know how large the reparations offer would be...."
4/7/99 Richard Fisher, Jr. No 1268 The Heritage Foundation "...Asymmetric Warfare - In addition to compensating for PLA weaknesses, missiles allow the PLA to exploit deficiencies in the military forces of the United States and other possible Asian adversaries which have no effective defenses against theater or tactical missiles or against supersonic anti-ship missiles. Missiles also are essential to a high-priority PLA goal: to build the forces needed to wage modern information warfare. Like the United States, China recognizes the vital importance to future warfare of gaining information dominance. China intends to use missiles to launch reconnaissance and communication satellites. China may also use missiles to attack satellites or terrestrial-based command, communication, computer, control and intelligence (C4I) systems...."
4/7/99 Richard Fisher, Jr. No 1268 The Heritage Foundation "...Some of China's sources for missile technology include: ...The United States. Stolen W-88 small nuclear warhead data; stolen neutron bomb data; possible Tomahawk cruise missiles obtained via Afghanistan use of U.S. Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) navigation signals; information derived from commercial cooperation that is critical to improving the reliability of space launch vehicles; and subsidy for future missile programs from U.S. purchase of Chinese satellite launch services. The father of China's missile program, Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen, was an important early U.S. rocket expert; he returned to China in 1955 following alleged McCarthy-period persecution. Since the 1980s, many younger Chinese aerospace engineers have studied at U.S. universities...."
4/7/99 Richard Fisher, Jr. No 1268 The Heritage Foundation "...Some of China's sources for missile technology include: ...Russia. Has marketed the Raduga Kh-65SE and Novator Alpha cruise missiles to China; has sold China the Raduga SS-N-22 Sunburn supersonic anti-ship missile, co-production rights for the Zvezda Kh-31 supersonic anti-radiation missile, and data on large military lasers; very likely has sold China data from the VEGA-M bureau on radar satellites; and sold the S-300PMU surface-to-air missile that is helping China develop future anti-missile systems. From Belarus, China has obtained a MAZ missile transporter used for a Soviet missile that can help China make mobile its new ICBMs...."
4/7/99 Richard Fisher, Jr. No 1268 The Heritage Foundation "...Some of China's sources for missile technology include: ...Israel. Possible co-development with China of a land-attack cruise missile; sale to China of its Phalcon airborne radar that could help guide Chinese anti-ship missiles; alleged sale of U.S. Patriot missile to China which may be assisting future Chinese anti-missile programs...."
4/7/99 Richard Fisher, Jr. No 1268 The Heritage Foundation "...Some of China's sources for missile technology include: ...Germany, Britain. Germany's DASA aerospace company has helped China develop communication satellites; Britain's University of Surrey is helping China develop small satellites, which are more difficult to detect and less expensive to produce and launch...."
4/7/99 Richard Fisher, Jr. No 1268 The Heritage Foundation "...Some of China's sources for missile technology include: ...Kiribati, France, Brazil. Kiribati has allowed China to establish a satellite tracking station on its island of Tarawa; France and Brazil may soon begin space-tracking cooperation with China...."
AP 7/13/99 "...China's navy has begun testing a domestically developed ``stealth'' destroyer designed to evade enemy detection, state media reported today. The radar-evading warship, dubbed the Yantai for a port city in the eastern province of Shandong, is expected to make a significant contribution to efforts to modernize the People's Liberation Army, which lags far behind the armies of Western nations...."
Dennis Bennet letter "...So China is providing arms and ammunition to Sudan, in return for future deliveries of oil (called "forward sales" in the oil business). It's a "win-win." Except that China must therefore keep the NIF in power in Sudan-else they'll never get the oil they want. Hence, they cannot afford or tolerate criticism of Sudan. And, if you like, the Clinton-Gore connection with both China and Sudan ensures that the current Administration will not do anything about this situation...... On the other hand-watch the fact that Talisman Energy (the Canadian oil company working in partnership with CNPC and Petronas) is traded on the NYSE and is owned by the states of New Jersey and Wisconsin (also documented on the www.vitrade.com) website. I'm a 20 year global banking veteran, so the research is solid. I'm also now working in South Sudan, and have personally held Chinese manufactured artillery shells captured from the GOS. Bottom Line-The South Sudan people are now fighting not only the GOS, but also the Chinese Gov't and the PLA (Chinese Army), for all intents and purposes (regardless of whether Chinese are flying planes or driving tanks or not)..."
Hong Kong Standard 7/7/99 Reuters "...: China will spend 600 million yuan (HK$558 million) over the next three years on grants to lure overseas Chinese scientists to help its modernisation drive. The program, which Xinhua News Agency said was China's largest ever government-funded recruitment scheme, aimed to draw 300 overseas Chinese scientists to conduct research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences...."
The Limbaugh Letter 7/99 Rush Limbaugh "...RUSH: By the way, where is the China story now? GERTZ: It seems to have gone off the radar screen. RUSH: It really does, except for you. Do you have a theory as to why? GERTZ: I don't know the reason. The Republicans have been taking steps in Congress, they passed some legislation to try to tighten up security. But this is a story that the Administration doesn't want out -- and as a result, most of the major media have been ignoring it. RUSH: Rep. Curt Weldon said that while the Administration was ostensibly "reviewing" the Cox Report to determine what would be declassified, they were actually preparing their spin operation. So the question arises, is this Administration at all concerned with the national security implications of this story? Or, are they just concerned about their own political standing at the end of the day? GERTZ: Yes, I think that's it. RUSH: Really? They are not concerned with national security? GERTZ: I think they have made national security take a back seat to doing business with China at all costs. And that's had devestating consequences. Their response was to blame the Republicans. But it was not the Republicans who stole these nuclear secrets or acquired the technology, it was the Chinese. Yet there was not a single word of criticism about the Chinese. Not one. If you search all the statements by Administration officials, we heard, "Well, everybody spies," and, "Isn't it too bad that the Republicans didn't do anything; we're doing something about it." Then Clinton turned around and offered to renew most favored trade status with China...."
THE WASHINGTON TIMES 7/16/99 Bill Gertz "...The Pentagon's newest spy ship, code named Cobra Gemini, was sent last month to waters near Korea to monitor the anticipated flight test of North Korea's new Taepo Dong-2 missile. The USNS Invincible is an ocean surveillance vessel outfitted with a new intelligence-gathering system developed specifically to monitor the electronic signals from short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic test missiles. It uses special eavesdropping equipment that is mounted on top of the ship that also can be placed on trucks. U.S. intelligence say the Taepo Dong-2 has enough range to reach the entire United States with a third stage and could be flight-tested some time this month. The missile was recently transported to a launch site on North Korea's east coast, according to a June 28 Defense Intelligence Agency report. A second spy ship, the USNS Observation Island, is also on missile-detection duty in the western Pacific. The ship, code named Cobra Judy, is watching central China for the expected flight test of a new DF-31 intercontinental ballistic missile...."
AP 7/15/99 "...Defending itself against U.S. allegations that it stole American nuclear weapons technology, China said today that its scientists had long ago developed their own neutron bomb and other advances in nuclear weapons. The statement came in the Chinese government's most exhaustive attempt so far to refute accusations of espionage made by a congressional committee headed by U.S. Rep. Christopher Cox..... Asked if he thought the Cox report was linked in any way to NATO's May 7 bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, Zhao said he saw no connection. But he urged the U.S. side to clearly explain the reason for the bombing. The probability that the bombing occurred through a series of errors, as Washington maintains, was ``near zero,'' he said...."
south china morning post 7/16/99 Oliver Chou "...The revelation that China has mastered the technology to build neutron bombs gives Beijing military and symbolic advantages over its enemies, military analysts said yesterday..... The analyst said the bomb carried symbolic significance because nowadays even other developing countries like India and Pakistan had developed the technology to build conventional nuclear weapons, such as atomic bombs. It has been reported that the United States, Russia and France also share the neutron bomb technology but none has admitted to building one...."
AP 7/15/99 Kevin Galvin "....The Clinton administration sought to minimize the importance of China's announcement Thursday that it had built a neutron bomb, noting that intelligence reports for years have shown that Beijing has tested such a weapon..... ``It is an escalation of the proliferation problem,'' Kerrey said. ``They were starting to move in the right direction. It means they are now moving in the wrong direction. This is not in the world's best interests.''.... Defense Secretary William Cohen said that from a security standpoint, whether China developed its own neutron bomb instead of stealing the technology from U.S. labs was a minor issue. He said the United States is more concerned about other nations gaining nuclear technology...."
Far Eastern Economic Review 7/15/99 Bruce Gilley "...When Portugal withdrew the last of its military garrison from Macau in late 1975, local community leaders worried that law and order would deteriorate without the reassuring presence of the troops. It may have been a coincidence, but that's exactly what happened as criminal gangs turned what had been one of the safest and most beautiful cities in Asia into a place darkened by murder and corruption. The enclave's decline has led the people of Macau to generally welcome China's plan to station a small military garrison in the city after it returns to Chinese sovereignty on December 20. Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen announced the plan last September. The garrison will probably number only 1,000 troops and is expected to use an adjacent Chinese island for training. But it is hoped that its symbolic presence will keep criminals at bay. "Social leaders have welcomed the troops because they expect they will help maintain public security," says Antonio Ng, a pro-democracy legislator in Macau...."
New York Times 7/17/99 "...Chinese and U.S. officials wound up two days of negotiations Friday, unable to agree on compensation for the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in May. Another round of talks was scheduled for later this month..... What is so sensitive and complex appears to be the starting point that Chinese officials still see the bombing as a deliberate attack on the Chinese nation, making them unwilling to discuss other bilateral issues until the bombing question has been resolved. A senior Chinese official, Zhao Qiz-heng, elaborated on the Chinese view Thursday at a news conference. He ridiculed the U.S. explanation that they had hit the wrong target because of defective intelligence and outdated maps, comparing the odds that three outdated maps were used simultaneously to rolling dice and getting triple snake eyes...."
China Times 7/21/99 "...US Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-NY) has introduced a House concurrent resolution that neither the United States nor the North Atlantic Treaty Organization should pay Beijing for the accidental damage of its embassy in Belgrade..... Gilman reminded his colleagues that mainland China retaliated against the accidental bombing with government sanctioned violence against American facilities in mainland China and "the injustices ... as a result of the protests that the Chinese government organized were substantial." ..."
SCMP 7/26/99 "...The military has achieved a qualitative "leap forward" with the emphasis being put on "effectiveness and technology", according to the official publication Outlook. The magazine said the PLA had also worked on preparations for high-technology warfare and rapid deployment of its forces. The article, and others on the mainland's military muscle, was seen as part of the psychological warfare being conducted against Taiwan after President Lee's statehood claim..... Beijing had developed a complete system of long, medium and short-range nuclear missiles, and was capable of launching nuclear missiles from sea, by submarine, or from land-based mobile launches, the article said. The magazine praised the ability of the mainland's nuclear submarines, saying they had succeeded in high-speed cruising and were capable of launching nuclear missiles in "very deep" waters. Dozens of models of tactical missiles had reached "internationally advanced levels", it said..... Meanwhile, the Guangzhou military region, one of three facing Taiwan, announced it had developed the mainland's first comprehensive automatic war zone commanding system, thus "greatly strengthening its ability in fighting a modern warfare", the Guangzhou Daily reported. The system combines the functions of command, control, surveillance, communications and electronic warfare, as well as tighter liaison among the region's forces, the paper said. Generals could now prepare a war or logistical plan in a few minutes instead of hours it took in the past, it said...."
London Telegraph 7/27/99 David Rennie "...CHINA staked a claim to military superpower status yesterday with a declaration that it can fire ballistic missiles from nuclear submarines....China has one nuclear submarine capable of firing ballistic missiles and four other nuclear subs. But Western experts said yesterday that Beijing could still not invade or blockade Taiwan...."
Reason website 7/28/99 Cox Reports Interviewed by Michael W. Lynch and Jeff A. Taylor 8/9 99 Reason: Another basic critique has come from Cato and other places. It says, "They haven't got that much and what they did get they can't use" and, "Keep in mind that we have 30,000 nuclear weapons, while they have a few hundred." Cox: There are several arguments there. First, "they didn't get much." Start with our most sophisticated nuclear warhead, the W-88 that goes on the Trident D-5. They successfully tested their version of W-88. They got it right, and all we can say in an unclassified way is, [they did so] "virtually immediately." In the classified report, we say just how fast that was. It took us decades and hundreds of nuclear tests. They have built and successfully tested that weapon. They have built and successfully tested the neutron bomb, the W-70 warhead. So if they can build and successfully test a weapon without doing the preliminary work, it means they stole the design...."
AP 7/21/99 "...A Chinese engineer has been arrested on charges of leaking secrets about a new warplane onto an Internet bulletin board, a newspaper said Wednesday. Authorities tracked down the engineer after the article posted in May spread to other Internet sites, the state-run China Business Times reported. The newspaper identified the engineer only by his surname, Guo...."
WorldNet Daily 7/21/99 Jon Doughtery "....Perhaps only the most cynical can see what the Chinese are doing. But for the entire world, it sure seems to me like Beijing is doing everything it can to make good on threats to diminish U.S. hegemony and power in the Asia-Pacific region. Just yesterday, for instance, Bill Gertz, defense correspondent for The Washington Times, reported that the Chinese have again shipped missile components to North Korea, in violation of every agreement -- written and assumed -- that Beijing has ever given America regarding missile proliferation. Gertz's report was nearly a carbon copy of his last report about China sending missile components to North Korea, which was similar to all the earlier stories he has written on this subject. In other words, the Chinese obviously don't care what we think of this. They're obviously going to keep doing it. What should bother Americans, however, are the characteristically muted responses to stories like this one from the Clinton administration. Instead of outrage, Americans hear about the need to "engage" Beijing. Instead of indignation, we hear about how we cannot jeopardize imagined "progress" on Chinese human rights. Instead of threats to boycott Chinese enterprise and hurt Beijing economically, we hear about how we must work to foster democracy in China through increased trade. If we keep this up the last thing we're liable to hear are the detonations of Chinese ICBMs. It's getting to be that real. ...."
International Herald Tribune 7/23/99 Ellis Joffe "...Under President Jiang Zemin, the Chinese military has gained a central policy-making role on issues that concern its interests. Nothing concerns it more than Taiwan. Lessons drawn from the Kosovo conflict, as articulated by Chinese military writers, are not uniform. Some have been clearly stated in the military press. They counsel caution in the face of U.S. technological supremacy. But other lessons point to a more assertive conclusion. These can be inferred from military commentaries on the Yugoslav experience and from Chinese strategic thinking...."
The Indian Express 7/26/99 "...Secretary of state Madeleine Albright today assured members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional forum on security that solidities with China were a top priority for Washington, reports AFP. In remarks prepared for distribution at the opening meeting of the ARF, Albright called the Sino-US relationship "a key to the Asia-Pacific's future," seeking to allay regional concerns that ties between the countries were in danger of breaking down. She also urged Stalinist North Korea to reapply for membership in the ARF, Asia's foremost security grouping...."
Associated Press 7/25/99 "...In a sign that it has not forgiven Taiwan's assertion of statehood, China will conduct more naval exercises off the southeastern coast across the waters from Taiwan, a pro-Beijing newspaper reported Sunday. Wen Wei Po and several independent Hong Kong newspapers also reported that the People's Liberation Army conducted joint sea and air exercises ahead of August 1, the anniversary of the army's founding, without specifying the exact date...."
Associated Press 7/25/99 Christopher Bodeen "...Increasingly fed up with their wealthy, democratic island's second-class political status, Taiwanese have given strong support to President Lee Teng-hui's remarks - even though many worry about a possible repeat of Chinese saber rattling three years ago that sent financial markets plummeting...."
Reuters 7/25/99 "...China said Sunday there was no longer any basis for talks with Taiwan since Taipei's decision to drop the ``one China'' policy that has underpinned peace between the rival governments. Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's decision ``to adopt his 'two-state theory' just as cross-straits ties began to warm and on the eve of (senior Beijing envoy) Wang Daohan's visit has damaged cross-straits ties to the extreme,'' the official Xinhua news agency said. ``The basis for Wang Daohan's visit to Taiwan no longer exists,'' the commentary said, referring to a long-scheduled trip to Taipei in October by Beijing's top Taiwan negotiator. While the commentary stopped short of explicitly canceling Wang's trip, it was the strongest indication yet by Beijing that the groundbreaking visit would fall victim to Taiwan's dramatic policy shift...."
The New Australian 7/26/99 Peter Zhang "...In a show of shameless political obeisance that is even remarkable for Clinton, he publicly admitted that he had personally told Jiang Zemin on the phone that he opposed Taiwan's move to secure its liberty and was urging it to toe Beijing's line. As if to demonstrate his loyalty he went so far as to even publicly humiliate Lee Teng-hui, Taiwan's President. Sources have strongly intimated that Clinton promised Jiang that despite the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act which would allow the island the necessary assistance to defend itself he would do whatever was possible to circumvent the Act, and that he would make Lee Teng-hui aware of this fact. In addition, it is believed that certain Taipei officials have complained bitterly about the role that Kenneth Lieberthal, the National Security Council's chief China specialist, played in the affair. Lieberthal's pro-Beijing sympathies are so strong that Taipei officials consider him to be nothing but Beijing's catspaw. It was this behind the scenes pressure (or should I say treachery?) that 'persuaded' Lee Teng-hui to backpedal on Taiwan's right to independence. (No wonder Jiang reckons he got a bargain.) ..."
China times 7/26/99 AFP "...Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan on Sunday warned the United States against stoking the flames of independence in Taiwan and called President Lee Teng Hui a "troublemaker" in US-China ties. Going on the offensive ahead of a key security conference here, Tang said he told US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during a meeting to act with caution in dealing with the China-Taiwan question. "This is a very dangerous theory," he said of Lee's statements that sought to redefine relations with China as a relationship between two states. "The essence of this two-states theory is to publicly deny the one-China principle and to separate Taiwan from Chinese territory," Tang said in a news conference Tang said he had "seriously pointed out" to Albright that "the US should say little and act with great caution" on the issue of Taiwan, which China regards as a beakaway province...."
Reuters 7/25/99 "...Taiwan is expected to put forward another explanation of its new stance toward China in a further effort to defuse a dangerous row with Beijing, a senior U.S. official said. He was speaking after Richard Bush, head of the organization which manages Washington's unofficial ties with Taiwan, held talks with senior officials in Taipei. China has heaped scorn on Taiwan since Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui on July 9 scrapped the "one China'' policy that has kept peace for decades. Lee said Taiwan-China discussions should take place on a special "state-to-state'' basis...."
South China Morning Post 7/27/99 Jimmy Cheung Quinton Chan "...Fears raised by the Cox report had eased amid a growing belief in the United States that Hong Kong had not been abused as a trans-shipment centre for strategic goods, an SAR official in Washington said. Commissioner for Economic and Trade Affairs Jacqueline Willis said Congressman Chris Cox changed his position after meeting Chief Secretary for Administration Anson Chan Fang On-sang in the US last month.... But Mr Cox's secretary, Paul Wilkinson, said he had not heard of a change of attitude from the congressman....."
Softwar 7/26/99 "...In 1997, USAF RC-135 "Cobra Ball" aircraft observed the successful test firings of the SS-27 (TOPOL-M).... The first deployment was reported to be in a SS-19 silo complex located at Tatishchevo in January of 1998..... The TOPOL is manufactured by the Moscow Institute for Thermal Technology. The new, truck mobile, SS-27 is reported by Russian officials to have Maneuverable Re-entry Vehicle (MARV) capability designed to defeat any expected US deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems.....The mobile Russian SS-27 also raises serious proliferation questions since the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology is providing the SS-27 design to China. China intends to produce the TOPOL-M missile under the designation "Dong Feng" (East Wind) DF-41. ...."
http://www.cato.org/dailys/08-04-99.html 8/4/99 Ted Galen Carpenter "...Taiwan has re-emerged as a potential flash point in relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. Lee Teng-hui's apparent abandonment of the "one China" principle and his insistence that Taipei-Beijing relations are to be conducted on a "state-to-state" basis caught the Clinton administration by surprise.... Although Taiwanese officials are now insisting that Lee's comments were misconstrued and did not constitute a change in policy, that assertion is greeted with widespread disbelief internationally. In any case, the upsurge in tensions between Taipei and Beijing is causing uneasiness in America. Although the United States has no explicit obligation to defend Taiwan, it is likely--as Clinton's comments suggest--that U.S. leaders would not stand by if the PRC engaged in coercion...... Even as Clinton parrots Beijing's view that Taiwan has no right to statehood (or even limited international recognition) the president implies that the United States would come to Taiwan's rescue if the island were attacked. The sending of such mixed signals virtually invites trouble...."
China times 8/5/99 AFP "...Nearly 10,000 Chinese soldiers have volunteered to take part in any operation to stop Taiwan from seeking independence, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Wednesday. The People's Liberation Army officers and troops wrote to the powerful Central Military Commission to offer their services in the "liberation warfare" against Taiwan, the South China Morning Post said quoting a military source. But the Beijing leadership has yet to decide what action to take against Taiwan, the report added...."
AFP 8/2/99 "...Indian and Chinese military officials have held secret talks to defuse tensions created by China's construction of a road in a disputed border area. A senior Indian army intelligence official in Kashmir said Monday that officials from both sides had met after the Indo-Tibetan Border Police discovered the construction work last month. ...."
Washington Post 7/30/99 John Pomfret "...Last year, China's media were packed with stories lauding the country's stirring struggle against record-setting floods. Operas were penned about heroic soldiers tossing themselves into the breach; revolutionary ballets featured brave soldier-dancers lobbing sandbags to uplifting strains. For a second year in a row, floods are ravaging the Yangtze River valley. But this time, China has changed its tune. A series of government reports trickling out in the state-run press are quietly indicating that corruption, not Mother Nature, is largely to blame for the disasters. The reports, often two paragraphs in a local newspaper here, a few sentences on a small TV channel there, come at a sensitive time for China...."
South China Morning Post 7/30/99 Oliver Chou "...A top PLA general has resorted to Cold War rhetoric by warning against sabotage engineered by Western countries under the umbrella of the United States. "We have to stay vigilant to the fact the world is not peaceful," Xinhua quoted General Cao Gangchuan, director of the General Armament Department, as saying. "The Western hostile forces led by the US have not given up the wild ambition to subjugate our country. They don't want us to be strong and stable." ...."
http://www.foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/news/wires2/ AP 8/1/99 "...China's army, the world's largest, marked its 72nd birthday Sunday with warnings to both Taiwan and an outlawed meditation group that it was ready to "smash any plot to split the nation.''...A Sunday commentary in the Liberation Army Daily newspaper warned both Lee and the banned Falun Gong meditation sect, which the government sees as a threat to its power.
"Lee Teng-hui's playing with fire further demonstrates that separatist forces on the island of Taiwan deserve serious attention,'' the newspaper said. In discussing the Falun Gong sect, the commentary said: "the task of protecting social stability is very arduous.'' ...."
Jewish World Review 8/2/99 David Limbaugh "...- RED CHINA IS A NERVOUS, unstable and menacing empire. Yet, ignoring the unmistakable lessons of history, the Clinton administration is pursuing a reckless policy of appeasement towards Beijing. Given the credible allegations that the Clinton administration willfully turned a blind eye to China's ongoing nuclear espionage while lapping up its illegal campaign contributions, you would think that Clinton would be more circumspect in his dealings with China. But you'd have to think again. Indeed, after the accidental bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade, Clinton must have groveled in apology a half a dozen times, only to be persistently rebuffed by the Communist regime. Only a week ago did China deign to forgive us for our "egregious misconduct." And I don't remember a word of reprimand from Clinton about the theft of our nuclear technology....."
AP 8/2/99 Joe McDonald "...China said it test-launched a new long-range missile today, firing another salvo in a war of nerves with rival Taiwan. A one-sentence report by the official Xinhua News Agency said only that the weapon was a ground-to-ground missile fired on Chinese territory. China had been expected to test a new missile, but such a public announcement is rare and came amid threats of military action over what China claims is a campaign by Taiwan to declare formal independence.....The missile tested today was long-range, according to Xinhua. Military analysts say such a weapon could be capable of reaching the United States, while the missiles fired in 1996 near Taiwan were short- and medium-range. A U.S. congressional report said in May that China was expected to test its new, long-range Dongfeng 31 ballistic missile this year. The report came from a panel headed by U.S. Rep. Christopher Cox that investigated suspicions of Chinese nuclear spying...."
Hong Kong Standard 8/2/99 Cary Huang "...A TERTIARY education will become a prerequisite for a People's Liberation Army officer as the mainland faces high-tech warfare challenges in the future.
By 2005, most PLA commanders and officers should have a university degree and a tertiary diploma to qualify for a commission, said a research report by the PLA department of general staff. A PLA researcher said the report on the general assessment of PLA's personnel, was compiled under the instruction of the powerful Central Military Commission to upgrade PLA combat capacity to meet the challenges in modern warfare in the foreseeable future...."
Associated Press 8/2/99 "...Chinese police have caught 35,000 suspected criminals in a month-long nationwide campaign to ensure stability ahead of the 50th anniversary of Communist Party rule, state media said Monday. Police caught around 21,000 suspects just in the past five days, the official Xinhua News Agency said...."
Financial Times 8/2/99 Louise Lucas "...Liu Mingkang, incoming chairman of China Everbright, described the abrupt management changes at the group last week as "a normal reshuffle". What spooks the market is that he may be right: that, in the murkily hybrid government/business world of the redchips, or mainland-backed companies, Beijing is seeking to tighten its grip. And, as worryingly for investors who have hitched their funds to political connections, these links are tenuous when one-time supremos fall out of favour..."
Fox Newswire 8/2/99 "...China summoned a U.S. embassy official Monday to protest Washington's announced sale of $550 million worth of military aircraft and other weapons to Taiwan, the official Xinhua news agency said. Vice Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi called in James Moriarty, the U.S. embassy acting charge d'affaires, and lodged a "strong protest'' over the weapons, which include E-2T surveillance planes and parts and equipment for F-16 fighters, Xinhua said. ..."
AP 7/30/99 "...The United States agreed today to pay $4.5 million in damages to the 27 people injured and the families of three reporters killed in the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia. The compensation is voluntary and is not an admission of liability on the part of the United States, said State Department legal adviser David Andrews, who spoke to reporters after three days of talks with Chinese officials. The Chinese government will decide how the compensation will be divided and will distribute it, Andrews said...."
ChinaOnline News 7/29/99 William J McMahon "...The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is currently investigating the possibility that an American official crossed the line in being "too obliging with the Chinese government," a reliable source told ChinaOnline on Thursday. The source also said that the official in question is not an ethnic Chinese-American, something unusual in Chinese espionage cases....
Bin Wu, a Chinese double agent, was sentence to 10 years in prison in 1993 for attempting to transfer night-vision technology to China. In 1987, four Chinese businessmen were caught trying to sell TOW2 antitank missiles, blueprints for F-14 fighter plane, and air-to-air missile information. In 1986, Larry Wu-tai, a CIA translator, was convicted for spying for China for more than 30 years. In the same year, Israel was discovered to have sold U.S. defense technology to China that lead to the development of China's J-10 fighter bomber. Da Chuan Zheng, a Hong Kong businessman, was arrested in 1984 for trying to buy advanced high tech equipment for China. Da reportedly sold over US$25 million in U.S. radar and surveillance technology to China.... "
SCmp 8/3/99 Agencies "...Beijing announced yesterday it had successfully test-fired a new type of long-range ground-to-ground missile on the mainland..... Reports said the PLA air force had been involved in exercises near Taiwanese waters after warnings that the mainland would attack and seize Taiwan if the island amended its constitution to declare independence...... Xinhua said the missile test was a success, but gave no further details. Experts had been expecting China to test its Dongfeng-31 (East Wind) missile. Jane's Defence Weekly has said the missile has a range of 8,000km and is capable of carrying a single, 700kg nuclear warhead....A US congressional report in May said China was expected to test the missile this year. However, reports in the Japanese press said the missile underwent its first round of testing in May 1995 in Shanxi province. "We have known for some time that the Dongfeng-31 should be operationally deployed by China in 2000," said Robert Karniol, Asian correspondent for Jane's. Beijing was expected to build between 10 and 20 Dongfeng-31 missiles, some of them for deployment on mobile launchers, according to Jane's Strategic Weapon Systems. They would replace the Dongfeng-4, a missile developed in the 1960s....."
Scmp 8/3/99 Oliver Chou "... The PLA is busy designing a more advanced inter-continental missile called the Dongfeng-41, according to a military analyst. ... The new missile would have a maximum range of 12,000km. US missile experts expected the first batch of Dongfeng-41 missiles to be deployed around 2010. Development of the Dongfeng-31 began in the 1970s and was completed with trials in May 1995. According to military experts, the Dongfeng-31 missile is a three-stage, solid-propellant, road-mobile weapon, capable of carrying a one-megatonne warhead, with a preparation time for launch of 10 to 15 minutes. It can hit moving and fixed targets....Discussing yesterday's announcement, Mr Li, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said: "The Xinhua report said it is a new model missile. That suggests significant improvements have been made on the Dongfeng-31, such as increasing its range and precision....."
Severnside 8/3/99 "...A PRC-owned newspaper in Hong Kong, the Wen Wei Po, in its August 3, 1999 issue may have revealed the existence of a new PLA nuclear missile. The missile in question is described by Wen Wei Po as the "DF-25". A missile of this designation was under development some years ago but thought to have been cancelled. The DF-25 does NOT/NOT show up on the list of PLA missiles in "The Military Balance 1998/99" or the Cox Report [Vol. I page 180]. Wen Wei Po describes this missile as having a 2,000 kg warhead and with a range of 1,800km. The newspaper says an "improved" DF-25 has an effective range of 2,500km and "can cover most of the countries of the Asia-Pacific region." Wen Wei Po says the DF-25 "can be loaded with multiple nuclear warheads." This is NOT/NOT the DF-31 which was tested over the weekend. ..."
Associated Press 8/2/99 Elaine Kurtenbach "...Once again, Beijing is using missile tests and war games to intimidate the island it views as a rebel province. Angered by Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's insistence that the rival governments should deal with each other as one vstate to another, China has turned up the pressure..... Military analysts had anticipated that China would test a new long-range missile this summer, possibly the Dongfeng 31 intercontinental missile. Although such tests usually are secret, this time Beijing was expected to publicize the launch to apply extra pressure on Taiwan. Xinhua's report said Monday's test of a long-range missile was conducted in Chinese territory. No other details were given. Given the mere 90-mile distance between China and Taiwan, long-range missiles probably would not directly affect the island. But they could pose a threat to the United States, which, to Beijing's annoyance, is committed by law to help Taiwan defend itself...."
State department 8/2/99 James Rubin "...Rubin said China's test August 2 of a ballistic missile having a range of 5,000 miles and capable of carrying payloads of up to 1,500 pounds was no surprise.....He added, "We do not have any basis to conclude that the timing of this launch is linked to the issues with Taiwan. This test firing has been expected for some time."....Rubin said the Clinton Administration has decided to sell two E2T early warning aircraft as well as additional spare parts to Taiwan. The spokesman said the decision is "fully consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act."..."
Washington Post 8/3/99 Johm Pomfret Steven Mufson "...Chinese and Taiwanese fighter jets have flown hundreds of sorties over the past three weeks along the center of the narrow strait of water that separates the two sides, in what analysts called the sharpest military escalation of tension in the area in three years. One U.S. official called the Chinese sorties "saber rattling," but as the jets have flown closer and closer to each other's shores, the Clinton administration has become worried that the show of force could accidentally lead to actual conflict....."
Hong Kong Standard 8/3/99 Pamela Pun "...THE seizing of a Taiwan freighter by a mainland coastguard vessel over the weekend was a political message to Taipei, mainland sources said yesterday. And the freighter, Shin Hwa, and its crew are not likely to be released in the near future as the semi-official bodies handling cross-straits ties are currently not functioning, the sources added. Quoting relevant officials in charge of Taiwan affairs, the sources said it was the first time a mainland coastguard vessel launched anti-smuggling activities beyond the middle line between mainland coast and Matzu...."
Las Vegas Sun 8/3/99 AP "...Concerned with increased military flights by both China and Taiwan over the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. government warned on Tuesday of a possible accident and advised both sides against anything that would heighten tensions. "There has been a pickup of activity by both sides," said Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon. "We urge both sides to show restraint." Bacon and State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said, however, that the number of flights has been much higher in the past and said there was no need to be overly concerned. "There have not been extraordinary actions or developments in the strait at this time, and we hope that there will not be," said Bacon.... "It's certainly something we're monitoring very closely, and we're aware that there have been a fairly large number of sorties flown by both China and Taiwan military aircraft," he said. "And any time you have military aircraft flying this close to each other in these numbers, there is concern about accidents." ..."
Washington Post 8/4/99 John Pomfret "...Taiwan in a dangerous game of chicken. And the United States has added to the tension with its announcement Monday that it is selling $550 million worth of weapons to Taiwan. Relations between China and Taiwan have hit their lowest point in three years since Lee's announcement on July 9 that Taiwan wanted to forge "special state-to-state" relations with China. Lee's new formulation marked a major break with the "one China" diplomatic framework that has kept peace between the two sides for decades. ... "
China Times 8/4/99 "...Mark P. Lagon, Council on Foreign Relations fellow at the Project for New American Century, wrote in the latest issue of "National Review" monthly magazine that Taiwan politics aside, President Lee Teng-hui's recent suggestion that cross-strait dialogue should be seen as "state-to-state" negotiation shows "Taipei may have wished to claim statehood before the military balance between Taiwan and China got any worse." The PRC is intense about acquiring high-tech weapons, a larger missile arsenal and the means for air superiority -- all making the seizure of Taiwan feasible in about ten years, he said. Lagon stated in the article titled "Taiwan Gets Bold" that to his credit, "Lee realizes that it will take boldness to lay the groundwork for the only permissible term of reunification: the democratization of the mainland." What should the United States do? First, he wrote, "stop criticizing Taiwan for being provocative. Doing so only prolongs the current crisis by giving Beijing the sense that we do not back Taiwan, and it undermines efforts to deter China from taking military action against the island." Second, find tangible ways to give Taiwan the help and respect it deserves. "Putting ceilings on levels of consultation with a democracy is simply wrong. Higher-level contacts, arms sales, and theater-missile-defense cooperation will likely deter a PRC attempt at reunification by force," he said...."
Reuters 8/2/99 "...Although Washington has strongly urged North Korea not to proceed with a planned long-range missile test, Rubin expressed no concern about China's missile test Monday. Unlike North Korea, "China already has long-range missiles, and therefore the fact that they've tested a new missile is not a dramatic new development that requires massive effort and diplomacy to try to deter,'' he said....The United States in recent years has worked to bring China - one of the world's five acknowledged nuclear powers - into international regimes aimed at halting the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical arms and missiles that deliver them. In his comments Monday, Rubin drew a distinction between China and Stalinist North Korea. China has had missiles a long time but in the case of North Korea, the aim is to prevent a sophisticated missile program from being established, he said. "On the North Korean side we also are dealing with a regime that has not shown responsibility in a number of cases around the world, a regime that we have major problems with. And so that's the difference,'' Rubin added...."
THE WASHINGTON TIMES 8/3/99 Bill Gertz "...The CIA believes the DF-31, test-launched from a base in central China, will be the first new Chinese intercontinental ballistic missile to incorporate stolen U.S. warhead design and missile technology, according to U.S. officials. ...."It is a significant modernization that will make the People's Republic of China one of only two countries in the world with a road-mobile nuclear force," Mr. Cox said in an interview. "In effect, this will give the PRC a first-strike capability against every country in the region except Russia, while limiting U.S. options, were we to intervene against aggression." The DF-31 is estimated to have a maximum range of 5,000 miles, enough to hit targets in parts of the western United States. China's small nuclear missile force -- currently about 23 land-based ICBMs -- is watched closely by the Pentagon after the CIA reported last year that 13 of China's 18 deployed long-range missiles are targeted at U.S. cities..... "It is similar in concept to the [Russian] SS-25," Capt. Quigley said. "It is not a dramatic improvement in missile capability, but the mobile aspect is something we're watching with great interest." .... U.S. intelligence reports, however, indicated several weeks ago that China has transferred missile components and materials to North Korea, a problem acknowledged by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. ...."
Financial Times 8/3/99 "...The Chinese leadership's summer retreat in the seaside town of Beidahe has never been the holiday it is claimed to be. This year, however, it stands to be especially gruelling. The weak economy, a crumbling financial system, a recalcitrant Taiwan and worries about social stability have combined to create a particularly pressing agenda. These are the most demanding set of challenges since the student protests that led to the Tiananmen Square massacre 10 years ago. The Beidahe retreat may not produce all the answers, but the long-hours of scheming in secluded beachside villas will inevitably set the general direction. The issues confronting the authorities are all urgent ones that cannot be ducked, and much is at stake...."
AFP 8/6/99 "...Seventy percent of intravenous drug users are HIV positive in parts of China, the state press reported Friday, adding scientists had identified eight different strains of HIV and AIDS in the country.The China Daily said: "It took five to six years to reach an infection rate of 70 percent among drug addicts in Yunnan, but only two to three years in Xinjiang..."
AP 8/8/99 "...A U.S. investigation of a Chinese immigrant-smuggling ring has resulted in the firing of three Panamanian government officials suspected of involvement, The Miami Herald reported Sunday. The head of Panama's intelligence agency, an airport director and the head of the national airport police were dismissed in June after Panamanian President Ernesto Perez Balladares was told of the investigation. The three have been accused of belonging to a ring that sold Panamanian visas to Chinese immigrants who left as soon as they arrived for illegal entry into the United States through California and Texas, the Herald said, citing anonymous sources. Meanwhile, premature disclosure of the investigation by U.S. Ambassador Simon Ferro riled the U.S. Justice Department, which fears it may not be able to build as strong a case as it wanted, the newspaper said...."
Drudge (Tomorrow's Washington Post) 8/7/99 "...According to publishing sources, the Sunday WASHINGTON POST will feature an explosive article exploring a new book by two Chinese colonels who advocate "terrorism, narcotics trafficking, drug smuggling, environmental degradation and computer viruses" as methods to defeat America in the "war of the future"! POST reporter John Pomfret was granted a rare interview in Beijing with Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, the authors of "Unrestricted War" -- both of whom express a deep fear of an America that imposes its ways around the world through various methods including war..... "
Kanwa news 7/10/99 "...The Chinese press has highly praised a newly published book called 'Go-beyond-the-limit War' recently. Inside the Chinese army, some scholars believe that this book will give a birth to a new military thinking in China. Co-authored by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, both the senior colonels of the Chinese air force, this book was published by the Literature and Art Publishing House of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. .... The so-called 'GBLW' means mainly include the action of computer hacking, the city guerillas, and the 'financial terrorism' etc.. The book states, 'although China is not wealthy, it is not a problem for it to spend 100 billion US dollars in attacking an unprepared power. This is enough to create a financial crisis'. ...."
Washington Post 8/8/99 John Pomfret "...Among their sometimes creative and sometimes shocking proposals for dealing with a powerful adversary are terrorism, drug trafficking, environmental degradation and computer virus propagation. The authors include a flow chart of 24 different types of war and argue that the more complicated the combination - for example, terrorism plus a media war plus a financial war - the better the results. From that perspective, "Unrestricted War" marries the Chinese classic, "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, with modern military technology and economic globalization...."
China Reform Monitor No. 229 8/3/99 Al Santoli "...: The Chinese military has achieved a qualitative "leap forward" with emphasis on "effectiveness and technology," reports the People's Liberation Army publication Outlook. The PLA has also prepared for high-technology warfare and rapid deployment of its force. According to the magazine, the army, air force and navy have developed "comprehensive equipment systems" to fight in all types of warfare. In addition, the PLA has developed a comprehensive system of long, medium and short range missiles, and is capable of launching nuclear missiles from submarines, from ships, or from land-based mobile missiles.
The PLA's submarines are capable of high-speed cruising, Outlook continues, and are capable of launching nuclear missiles in "very deep" water. In addition, dozens of models of tactical missiles have reached "internationally advanced levels." The PLA has developed the Galaxy military computer, capable of 10 billion calculations per second, making China one of the few countries capable of independently designing and constructing high speed computers. ..."
STRATFOR's Global Intelligence Update 8/8/99 "...China has taken to threatening Taiwan again, and people are asking what China will do. We have turned to the question of what China can achieve against Taiwan. In our view, it is not militarily capable of mounting a serious threat. Weaknesses in China's navy and air force mean that Taiwan is capable of defending itself quite readily. If the U.S. goes to Taiwan's aid, which we think it will, China will suffer a massive defeat in attempting to take Taiwan. China knows it. Why is it mounting this challenge? Two reasons: First, to demonstrate Beijing's will against divisive forces inside of China; second, to create a sense of embattlement that justifies increased repression inside of China in the name of patriotism...."
http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=83993 Inside China Today AFP 8/9/99 "...Chinese submarines have been mobilized in seas near the Taiwan Strait and are "awaiting orders" as tensions between Beijing and Taipei showing no sign of abating, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Monday. Some of the Chinese submarines, which participated in recent exercises, had been asked to remain in seas nearest to the Taiwan Strait, the Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po reported, citing military experts. Chinese warships have also stepped up patrols in the Taiwan Strait, while advanced air force fighters have been put on alert, the paper said. ..."
Associated Press 8/9/99 "...A cyberwar has erupted between Taiwanese and Chinese computer hackers lending support to their governments' battle for sovereignty over Taiwan. A Taiwanese hacked into a Chinese high-tech Internet site on Monday, planting on its webpage a red and blue Taiwanese national flag as well as an anti-Communist slogan: ''Reconquer, Reconquer, Reconquer the Mainland.'' A Chinese railroad website and a securities website were hacked into in a similar way..... The Web attacks came one day after several Taiwanese government and academic websites were hacked into by the Chinese, with their webpages erased and replaced by slogans stressing China's sovereignty over Taiwan and warning the island against any moves to split the motherland..... Lin Fu-jen, a Taiwanese computer expert, said Taiwanese hackers, some of whom have written widely damaging computer viruses, are more capable of wreaking havoc on China's computer systems. Lin called on both sides to exercise restraint...."
http://www.chinaonline.com/top_stories/c9080651.aspn 8/6/99 Lester Gesteland "...Taiwan's United Daily News reported today that fighter jets from China and Taiwan are "frequently" coming into close proximity in the airspace over the Straits. In an earlier report, the paper stated that Chinese Sukhoi-27s painted two Taiwanese Mirage 2000-5s with target acquisition radar. The Mirages disengaged before either side opened fire or launched missiles. When contacted about the confrontation, the island's air force said the story was "rumor." ..."
AFP 8/6/99 "...China's military leaders have ordered the air force to strike first in any confrontation with Taiwanese fighter jets, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Friday. With tension between China and Taiwan showing no sign of abating, another newspaper said the Chinese navy was practising naval blockades that would prevent any foreign intervention in a conflict. The powerful Central Military Commission ordered regional commands in Nanjing and Guangzhou in southeastern China "to step up low-flying training," the independent Chinese language Ming Pao daily said. The commission, which is chaired by President Jiang Zemin, had given the air force authority to "strike first in gaining the initiative" in any emergency situation that could lead to a clash with Taiwan, the report said citing unnamed sources...."
China Times 8/6/99 "...Chinese air force provocation almost sparked a confrontation with Taiwanese fighter jets, according to a news report Thursday. An undetermined number of Chinese Sukhoi 27s targeted two Taiwanese air force Mirage 2000-5 fighters with their firing control radars Monday, the United Daily News said. Taiwan's air force later dismissed the report as "rumour". ..."
BBC/Sing Tao (Hong Kong) 8/6/99 "...Excerpts from article by the Hong Kong newspaper 'Sing Tao Jih Pao' on 5th August by special correspondent Hsiao Peng (5618 7720); subheadings as published Amid speculation that China and the United States would mend fences and that both sides may resume WTO talks, a Beijing source disclosed that the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] Central Political Bureau recently held a three-day meeting in Beidaihe. It is understood that the meeting made several conclusions. First, Beijing must resolutely wage a struggle against Li Teng-hui's flagrant move to pursue Taiwan independence, prevent the Taiwan authorities from wilfully splitting China and indefinitely stalling China's reunification process, and set a cross-strait reunification timetable. Second, Li Teng-hui's " two state theory" has received secret support from the United States. Third, it was decided that Xi Jinping would be appointed acting governor of Fujian, with Zhao Xuemin and Shi Zhaobin to be named Fujian provincial CCP vice-secretaries in a move to step up readiness for a war against Taiwan and the Fujian front-line leadership... The Beidaihe meeting held that on the political, diplomatic, military, and economic fronts, China must take necessary measures against collusion between the United States and Taiwan independence forces and resolutely crush any attempt by foreign forces to meddle in the Taiwan issue...."
AP 8/7/99 "...Taiwan on Saturday accused China of spreading rumors of military confrontation on the Internet and increasing military flights to rattle the island's financial markets. The Defense Ministry said a Chinese-language Web site registered in the United States but apparently controlled by China posted a false news report on Friday that a Taiwanese F-5E fighter jet was downed by a Chinese SU-27. ..."
The Straits Times 8/8/99 "... The neutron bomb which has the capability to kill people but leave buildings intact will prove effective in an armed assault on Taiwan, a Chinese military journal said. The bomb can be deployed to inflict extensive damage to military targets on the island while leaving buildings minimally affected, reported the latest issue of China's Defence News. Quoting a commentary in the journal, Japan's Sankei Shimbun noted the use of nuclear warfare against Taiwan had caught the attention of military experts...."
Financial Times 8/9/99 Mure Dickie "...Taiwan has called for vigilance against attempts by mainland China to use psychological warfare to undermine confidence amid increased military activity over the narrow strait dividing the two rivals. The announcement from Tang Fei, Taiwan defence minister, came as officials investigated the source of a report falsely attributed to the semi-official Central News Agency that said Taiwanese and mainland fighters had clashed. Local media said the report was posted on an internet site apparently controlled from China. In a further sign that the cross-Strait dispute has gone firmly online, hackers sympathetic to Beijing's stance yesterday attacked the internet site for an arm of the Taiwan government and left messages declaring the island would always be a part of China..."
Bloomberg - South China Morning Post 8/10/99 Joshua Fellman "...China moved several elite Peoples' Liberation Army officers to the Nanjing military region in preparation for possible action against nearby Taiwan, the South China Morning Post reported, citing an unnamed source. Zhu Wenquan, an expert in amphibious warfare and commander of the first Group Army was made chief of staff for the region and promoted to lieutenant-general from major-general...."
AFP 8/9/99 "...China placed President Jiang Zemin in line with other leading communist theorists, including former Soviet leader Josef Stalin. The Chinese Communist Party has asked its members to study a new book entitled "Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin Discuss Materialism and Atheism", which is being printed by Central Documents Press and will be published on Wednesday, officials at the press told AFP...."
Kanwa News 8/10/99 "...As far as deterrence is concerned, the Western military observers generally believe that China's announcement of possessing the technology of neutron bombs and small tactical nuclear weapons at an appropriate time implied a deterrent to Taiwan... The Naval and Merchant Ship even directly indicates that the best way to destroy the enemy planes on the ground and the enemy ships at the naval port is to use the tactical nuclear weapons. This new movement of China marks a possible conceptual breakthrough in the 'nuclear deterrence' theory of China and it has actually given up the policy of 'taking no initiative in using nuclear weapons under any circumstances'. ... China may copy the new military theory that Russia proposed in 1993 and has, in fact, given up its promise of 'taking no initiative in using nuclear weapons'..."
China Times 8/11/99 "...In his article headlined: "US in sweet and sour relationship with China" published on the Australian Financial Review on Tuesday, Charles Krauthammer, a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group, said: "The Clinton administration's China grovel has gone from merely embarrassing to potentially dangerous...** The U.S. appeasement started from President Bill Clinton offering five public apologies and a compensation of US$3 million after the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia; ** U.S. repeatedly berating Taiwan and demanding for a retraction of President Lee Teng-hui's statement... But look at how China responds: ** It organizes massive anti-US demonstrations over the embassy bombing, leading to the stoning of the US embassy in Beijing.... ** It seizes a Taiwanese ship near the island of Matsu ... ** It flies more than 100 menacing military sorties over the Taiwan Strait. ** It denies the United States landing rights for military planes in Hong Kong. ** It launches an intercontinental ballistic missile with range designed to reach the United States. ** It sentences two human rights activists to long prison terms. ** It launches a massive crackdown on the Falun Gong sect, a peaceful semi-mystical movement in China that the regime has decided to eradicate. ...."The Clinton administration seems totally wedded to the notion that as long as it keeps feeding the Chinese economy and propping up our much-touted 'strategic partnership', it will soften China's internal repression.... "The Chinese know how pliant Clinton is and how far he will go to keep trade relations humming. That has emboldened them to openly challenge both the US 'hegemony' and its Taiwanese client," he said. "Unless Clinton draws a clear line across the Taiwan Strait, the challenge will only grow more dangerous," he warned. ...."
China Times 8/11/99 "...Both the Clinton administration and US Congress have continually acquiesced in the face of Communist Chinese defiance. If they do not make a stand against Beijing soon, they may never be able to change Communist Chinese behavior, warned an American national defense expert Monday. Jason Morrow, research associate of the National Center for Public Policy Research's National Defense Center, wrote in an analysis titled "Clinton's Flawed China Policy: Is Clinton-style Engagement Really Constructive?" that the progress on many issues that the engagement was supposed to bring Washington has not materialized, but the world has seen the following: -- Pakistan and India are at war over a border dispute, thanks in part to nuclear tests and military escalation made possible by the People's Republic of China; -- The PRC has gathered information from US nuclear laboratories giving them warhead design information on a par with the United States; -- The US trade deficit with mainland China has risen to $58 billion; -- The PRC government has begun a severe crackdown on dissidents and religious movements; and -- Communist China's threats toward Taiwan have reached new levels. Morrow noted that after all these setbacks, the Clinton administration apparently still believes that "kowtowing to China is beneficial." And in an egregious display of bad timing, President Bill Clinton proposed the continued extension of normal trade relations with mainland China earlier this year, only hours before the tenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre...."
Singapore Straits Times 8/7/99 "...China has started building its own aircraft carrier in a Shanghai shipyard and plans to launch the vessel in the year 2001, it was reported yesterday. An article posted on the Internet by a man claiming to be an engineer with the Jiangnan shipyard said that a ceremony to mark the commencement of work on the carrier was held on Monday...."
Jane's Defence Weekly 8/4/99 "...The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been carrying out live-fire exercises in coastal ranges, and ordered the mobilisation of battlefield and short-range ballistic missiles in Guangzhou Military District. These coincided with the North Fleet's annual exercises along the East China Sea coast. PLA troops also carried out the first field trials of a new surface-to-air missile system, believed to be the long-range FT-2000, during the exercises (Jane's Defence Weekly 13 September 1998). According to the official Beijing Evening News, the missiles "hit their target every time". The newspaper also reported that PLA Air Force flying training hours in January-June reached the highest levels for 15 years, including increased emphasis on low flying at night and in adverse weather conditions. Official sources have also indicated that the first JL-2 (NATO designation: CSS-NX-5) submarine-launched intercontinental-range ballistic missile (IRBM) will soon become operational with the PLA Navy. The CMC is seeking to have nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine patrols as a matter of routine by 2005, according to the Beijing-based sources. US intelligence reports indicate that China is preparing to launch the first operational DF-31 IRBM. It is believed Beijing will test launch the first operational DF-31 (CSS-X-9) at the Lop Nor test site in central China this month. The DF-31 is believed to have entered production about two years ago and it is much larger than the current DF-21 (CSS-5) system...."
Investor's Business Daily 8/13/99 "...With relations strained by the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, China is still balking at joining the World Trade Organization. The Clinton administration won't give up its quest to wrestle China into the WTO. Why? The U.S. is begging the Red Chinese to come back to the negotiating table - even though it was the White House that backed away from a WTO deal last spring. Why did it back out? Because it couldn't get China to agree to concessions that would shield some U.S. businesses from Chinese competition. Even so, Beijing should be pleading with the U.S. to enter the WTO, not the other way round. The People's Republic has somehow achieved a role reversal. There's no other way it can arrogantly claim, ''The ball is on their side. It is important for them to do something concrete for the improvement of relations,'' as one senior Foreign Ministry official put it. Leave it to this White House to respond to China's message. It was a contrite administration that recently visited Beijing in hopes of restarting talks. Undersecretary of Commerce for International Affairs David Aaron came away from those meetings still hoping that China will be admitted to the WTO by the end of the year.
At the same time, he admits that the Chinese leaders ''have yet to decide whether to re- engage us on the WTO.''
Well, then let China go back to the table when China's ready. Why chase a diffident mistress? The U.S. will never get concessions by giving China leverage in negotiations. ...."
Savannah Morning News 8/13/99 "...A cargo ship carrying 132 suspected illegal aliens from China was raided by immigration officials in a Savannah port Thursday afternoon. Immigration and Naturalization Services performed a sweep on the ship, the Cyprus-registered Prince Nicolas, around 1 p.m. as it docked in the ocean terminal of Georgia Ports Authority, said an INS official. ..."
South China Morning Post 8/14/99 Willy Wo-Lap Lam "...President Jiang Zemin plans to put more pressure on US counterpart Bill Clinton over the Taiwan issue when they meet in New Zealand next month at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit. However, at the just-ended Beidaihe leadership meetings, Mr Jiang defended his two-year-old decision to seek a "constructive, strategic partnership" with the US. In addition, Chinese leaders decided to renew their quest for membership of the World Trade Organisation. Negotiations have been stalled since the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in May. A diplomatic source said yesterday that civilian and military leaders at the Beidaihe resort agreed China should try to make the US play a more effective role in forcing Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui to abandon his so-called "two-states theory". Mr Jiang, also head of the party's Leading Group on Foreign Affairs, indicated he would turn up the heat on Mr Clinton during their private meeting at the Apec forum in Auckland. ..."
Far Eastern Economic Review 8/19/99Susan Lawrence "...Wang Mingquan, president of China's Communications Bank, might be expected to have spent this summer grappling with pressing banking-reform issues. China's debt-saddled state banks are supposed to be in the throes of remaking themselves into viable commercial institutions, instead of mere conduits for state-ordered lending. But Wang hasn't had much time to think about banking reform. In addition to being the bank's president, he is also its Communist Party boss. On the party's orders, he has spent the summer leading a political campaign within the bank to improve the "unity" of senior staff and ensure their absolute loyalty to the Communist Party and party chief Jiang Zemin. By Wang's own account, published in the August 1 issue of the party journal Qiushi, the "three stresses" campaign has required Wang and his six colleagues on the bank's Communist Party committee to participate in dozens of group meetings in which they have criticized their own and each other's political failings, and in nearly 100 one-on-one political sessions with senior bank staff...."
Zhongguo Tongxun She news agency 8/9/99 "...It is reported that the Chinese armed forces have augmented their capacity for digitizing, synthesizing [zong he hua 4844 0678 0553], and integrating their electronic information equipment, as well as their capacity for keeping military information secret and resisting jamming; that an initial operational command and control system with Chinese armed forces'characteristics is taking shape; that a military communications system is being built quickly; and that technical and applied laser research is developing with new ideas constantly appearing. A large number of electronic components for military use - especially microelectronic, photoelectronic, and microwave electronic vacuum tube devices - have appeared. For example, they have developed the multi-beam three-dimensional radar, the miniaturized fire-control radar for small antiaircraft guns, the secret and jam-proofed tactical radio station, the automated command system for air defence, and the automated command guidance system for air-to-air missile target practising, and so forth...."
Jane's Missile and Rockets 5/99 Seymour Johnson "...Recent US allegations of Chinese spying at US nuclear weapons research facilities may represent only the tip of the iceberg regarding technology-acquisition efforts by the People's Republic of China (PRC), writes Seymour Johnson. These covert and overt efforts are aimed at helping with the development of next-generation systems including improved tactical and strategic ballistic missiles, a land attack cruise missile, and directed-energy weapons for use against aircraft and missiles. They have targeted key technologies such as advanced conventional warheads, terminal manoeuvring and guidance systems, multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs), reduction of delivery system radar cross-section (RCS), improved launcher mobility, and the military use of satellite systems for functions such as targeting and weapon guidance. US concerns over alleged co-operation between Israel and PRC on anti-tactical ballistic missile (ATBM) systems are well documented but Jane's Missiles & Rockets has learned that the most fertile Chinese efforts may have been in the republics of the former Soviet Union (FSU), coupled with access to commercially available civilian (but potentially dual-use) technology....."I'm not saying they had it all their own way... Russian and Ukrainian governments were on occasion responsive to our concerns... also had their own concerns about losing certain key skills and technical capabilities... I don't think the PRC gained access to Russian 'black' programmes such as high-energy propellants or the use of EM [electromagnetic] modulated plasma screens in low-observable RVs [re-entry vehicles]... but on the other hand they did get a 'head start' with their directed energy weapon programme."...."Consider a relatively unsophisticated SRBM like the 'Tochka-U' [SS-21 'Scarab']formerly deployed by Russia... it could come in at anywhere from 1,000 to 1,800m/sec, with a RCS of less than 0.03m{2}, a terminal angle of between 40º to 85º deg and had provision for a programmed corrective terminal turn of 13g. Now imagine that technology developed over another two decades and applied to MR [medium-range] and ICBMs...."
Jane's Missile and Rockets 5/99 Seymour Johnson "...According to US specialist Richard D Fisher Jr., Senior Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center in Washington, one of these new technologies is the integration of Global Positioning System (GPS) updates in China's ballistic missile guidance systems. In particular, Fisher reports that at the Zhuhai Air Show in November 1996, he was told by an engineer from Beijing Research Institute of Telemetry (which is known to conduct research on missile guidance systems) that China was using GPS to improve the accuracy of its DF-15 (export designation M-9) short-range ballistic missile - the type fired during the 1995-1996 Taiwan crisis. The DF-15 was initially thought to be a single stage missile, however recent reports suggest that it may actually have a separating warhead with its own miniature propulsion system. This is significant because it would allow changes to be made to the warhead's terminal trajectory, suggesting that some form of terminal guidance was envisaged for the missile at the design stage...."
Jane's Missile and Rockets 5/99 Seymour Johnson "...The most exotic missile warhead technology known to be on the PRC's priority 'shopping-list' is that of directed-energy weapons. Launched over a decade ago by Wang Ganchang, the 'father' of Chinese nuclear warhead and ballistic missile research, Project 863 covers directed-energy weapons (a field in which the former Soviet Union was pre-eminent), is both well known and well documented outside the PRC. Although the bulk of Project 863 deals with anti-satellite, anti-ballistic missile and anti-aircraft applications, Guo Hezhong (formerly attached to the Electronics Research Institute of China Science Academy) set in motion efforts at developing a high-power microwave (HPM) beam weapon for the suppression of enemy C3I and air-defence assets. The precursor to such a weapon is likely to be the development of a missile warhead incorporating a non-nuclear HPM generator capable of disabling target electronics at greater range and with greater efficiency than an ordinary explosive warhead of equivalent size and weight. In the early 1990s, the US military - with the assistance of some Russian-derived technology - carried out tests of a warhead of this type, and are believed to have modified a number of AGM-86C cruise missiles to carry a developed version of this payload....."
Jane's Missile and Rockets 5/99 Seymour Johnson "...US experts have expressed some doubts as to China's ability to develop such an HPM warhead. While this would be a considerable challenge, it should not be beyond the considerable expertise of Chinese physicists, particularly if given some initial assistance by Russian 'know-how' in areas such as helical explosive flux compression generators (FCGs). Used in the former Soviet Union for both peaceful and military purposes, FCGs provide the extremely high energy density and discharge times (with further pulse-conditioning providing temporal and impedance matching between the FCG and the HPM source) suitable for HPM applications. Such hardware can generally be packaged into the cylindrical geometry required for missile applications. Chinese researchers having successfully achieved pulse power output of perhaps 35-40 million amps with rise times on the order of 100nS, the next and perhaps biggest challenge will be to focus that energy so as to deposit the required amount of energy at the right range and on target. If all the potential problems can be solved, an operational HPM warhead sized to fit a space similar to that available in the nose section of a Kh-55 or Kh-65 missile might achieve an effective range on the order of 300-500m with the pulse directed over a 25º-30º swath. Considerably more powerful effects are theoretically possible with larger explosive generators. The first Chinese HPM warheads could be fielded within the next decade...."
South China Morning Post 8/10/99 "...Police are stepping up security in preparation for National Day festivities on October 1. Measures include forcing migrants out of cities and restricting travel to Beijing. In Zhuhai, Guangdong, officers have been rounding up prostitutes, beggars and the homeless. ..."
Capitol Hill Blue 8/11/99 Lawrence Morahan "...China's testing of a long-range ballistic missile, its admission that it has the neutron bomb, and its announcement that it would test a new submarine-launched ballistic missile this year vindicate the findings of a congressional select committee, which predicted these developments in a report earlier this year. This was the conclusion of an update, published Tuesday, on the Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China, an unclassified version of which was released May 25. "Events since the release of the [Cox] Select Committee report have confirmed some of its most disturbing conclusions about the PRC espionage threat facing the United States, the weakness of our efforts to counter it, and the threats to our national security that have resulted from it." "With the stolen U.S. technology, the PRC has leaped, in a handful of years, from 1950s-era strategic nuclear capabilities to the more modern thermonuclear weapons designs," the report said. Events of the past months bear this out...."
The Economist 8/14-20/99 "...THE sky has not fallen: the Chinese army does not strut around the financial heart of Hong Kong island; pro-democracy politicians are not in prison; there has been no flood of emigrants taking up the rights of abode so painstakingly acquired in Canada or Australia; Beijing has not caused a business slump-that took a disaster that began in Bangkok. China's takeover of Hong Kong in 1997 has not been the heavy-handed disaster its critics foresaw. Yet Hong Kong is in more than just a cyclical economic downturn. It risks losing, to Singapore, its status as the region's pre-eminent financial hub after Tokyo; even within China, its position is under threat from Shanghai (see article). This is a shame, of course, for Hong Kong and for those who admire its open markets, political freedoms and entrepreneurial zest. But it is also a pity for China as a whole. Hong Kong has brought China not just capital and technology, but a successful cosmopolitan business culture. With careful nurturing it could continue to bring such valuable gifts. Sadly, China's attitude hovers between benign neglect and malign tinkering...."
The New Australian No 130, 16-22 8/99 Peter Zhang "...There is no doubt in Asia that Clinton is solely responsible for the Taiwan crisis. That an American president could be so incredibly stupid in his dealings with Beijing leaves Asian leaders both stunned and filled with contempt for the Oval Office. I have tried to stress that the Clinton's administration is a foreign policy disaster. And its most disastrous failures have been in China. Instead of working to strengthen China's reformist trends it has acted to strengthen its militaristic tendencies by rewarding bad behaviour. The more Chinese militarists behaved badly the more the Clinton administration did everything within its power to minimise their threat to American security.
The administration deliberately, and criminally, ignored Beijing's acquisition of weapons of mass destruction, its rapid attempts to try and modernise its armed services, the mischievous role it has played in nuclear proliferation, its application of US high-tech imports to military uses. As I said elsewhere, the effect of brushing aside China's reformists in favour of appeasing Chinese militarists is to strengthen them at the expense of US security. Rewarding bad behaviour guarantees more of the same. This is why China is now engaged in a fierce sabre rattling exercise over Taiwan...."
The New American 8/3/99 William Norman Grigg "...Bill Clinton's nine-day tour of the Asian gulag state illustrates, among other things, that appeasement of the Red Dragon need no longer be disguised by spurious anti-communist credentials. By way of illegal campaign donations, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) became the equivalent of a shareholder in the Clinton Administration, and Mr. Clinton's behavior before and during his visit reflected that relationship. But even before departing for Beijing, Mr. Clinton made it clear that he harbors no secret anti-communist impulses.... In a June 19th Oval Office interview with reporters from the Los Angeles Times, Business Week, and Bloomberg Business News, Mr. Clinton was asked: "Would you like to see the end of communism in China, and is that a goal of American policy?" Mr. Clinton's 723-word reply was a tightly woven tapestry of dissimulation. He spoke of China's need for "coherence and stability" and its need to "find a way to reconcile the realities it faces, its highest hopes for the future with its biggest nightmare." For the Chinese, "instability in the context of their history is something that was just around the corner, only yesterday," insisted the President; in fact, the Chinese "psyche ... is very much seared with past instabilities." Nowhere in his answer did the President state that he seeks the end of history's most murderous regime. In a fashion befitting someone on Beijing's payroll, Mr. Clinton was repackaging the official party line from Beijing, which is that communist tyranny is "necessary" in China in order to prevent "instability." In doing so, the Empathizer-in-Chief was "feeling the pain" of Beijing's autocrats. His storied empathy was less visible concerning the free Chinese on Taiwan, whose "psyches" have been "very much seared" by the criminal conduct, aggression, and tyranny of the mainland regime...."
ChinaOnline News 8/13/99 "...The president of China Great Wall Industry Corporation, one of China's leading satellite launch firms, said the U.S. congressional report on alleged Chinese espionage, the Cox Report, has led to a downturn in his company's business this year, the August 11 Hua Sheng Bao (HuaSheng Daily) reported. Last year, Zhang Xinxia said his company launched six satellites. This year, however, it has only launched two, and expects to launch only one more by the end of the year. Zhang said the launch of over ten to twenty satellites has been affected, the newspaper reported. Normally, Zhang said Great Wall received RMB 20 to 30 million (US$2.42 - 3.63 million) in profits annually from its satellite launch business Since 1985, when Long March rockets began to launch satellites, China has successfully sent 25 commercial satellites into orbit. Of this number, 24 were for U.S. companies, the newspaper reported...."
http://www.scmp.com/News/China/Article/FullText_asp_ArticleID-19990817031747909.asp AFP 8/16/99 "...Published: 8/16/99 "...Beijing has denied a satellite monitoring base in the Pacific is spying on the United States army's missile range in the Marshall Islands. Regional news agency Pacnews reported that Beijing said its facility in Kiribati was used to monitor rockets launched from China..... Kiribati, home to 87,000 Micronesians, signed a deal with China in 1997 to set up the station The station is on sparsely populated Bonriki islet, near the airport. The US is testing its Theatre Missile Defence System on Kwajalein, an atoll leased from the Marshall Islands and strictly off-limits...."
ChinaOnline News 8/13/99 "...China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) recently commented on a number of issues regarding the country's technological security and competitiveness, according to the August 11 Hua Sheng Bao (Hua Sheng Overseas Chinese Newspaper). ...MII Vice-Minister Qu Weizhi spoke in Beijing on August 10 and stated that internet hackers from Taiwan caused no damage to mainland websites during their recent "cyber raids." In cooperation with other ministries, MII has established a Network Security Management Center to provide information security and fend off internet hackers...MII stated that it has not banned the sale of Intel Pentium III computers in China, but for the sake of security it has cautioned government institutions in their use of these machines when posting information on the web. MII reportedly said that Pentium III computers may allow other internet users access to the owner's phone number, thereby compromising security...."
Investor's Business Daily 8/17/99 "...China has virtually told the world it plans to attack Taiwan. So how does the White House respond? It merely announces that military action against Taiwan would be ''of grave concern'' to the U.S. For Beijing, such a weak-kneed response is nearly an invitation to attack. China has little to care about if the U.S. is merely concerned. China would definitely care if the U.S. response were more firm. In case the White House hasn't noticed, a communist government runs the People's Republic of China. And communist governments understand only force, either through threat or by action. It's how they maintain social order and ''inspire'' loyalty.
The weasel words used by the Clinton administration are fine for diplomacy. But they won't work with regimes willing to kill their own people to keep them in line. China has shown no fear in making threats toward Taiwan. The communists know President Clinton is a pushover, especially if a few campaign dollars are waved his way. They've heard him tell Taiwan to cool the rhetoric about independence.....What is the administration looking for? Will it take actual shooting before it recognizes the gravity of the situation? It looks like the White House doesn't believe it has a dog in this fight. But it does. The U.S. has a decades-old pledge to protect Taiwan if China attacked. It was made law in 1979... But China doesn't want a war with the U.S. The Chinese are militarily inferior, and their leaders know it. That's why they've sent officials out across America to gauge possible U.S. responses to military action in Taiwan. These agents have met with China experts from U.S. think tanks, such as the Rand Corp. The Chinese already have a good idea how the White House is likely to respond - weakly and ineffectively. They're trying to see if their reading of this administration is correct...."
Hong Kong Standard 8/17/99 Fong Tak-ho "...CHINA'S war machine has geared up a propaganda campaign to denounce Taiwan's move to assert its statehood, with navy and air forces in place for military exercises. All services, departments and military zones of the People's Liberation Army recently held seminars and lectures to highlight the goal of ultimate unification with Taiwan, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Marines and the air force are now conducting drills of landing and missile warfare. This is probably the first time the government-run agency has confirmed that all wings of the army are getting ready for a possible war against Taiwan...."
Muzi Lateline News 8/17/99 "...China has granted permission for a U.S. Navy vessel to visit Hong Kong for the first time since the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, a U.S. consular spokeswoman said today. The approval signals a warming in Sino-U.S. relations, strained earlier this year after U.S. forces bombed the embassy in Belgrade and Beijing refused Washington's explanation that it was an accident, AP reported...."
BBC/Sing Tao 8/14/99 "...One of Poly's primary missions is to pick single pieces of state-of-the-art equipment that can be disassembled and then duplicated by reverse technology. In 1987, when the US destroyer Stark was hit in the Persian Gulf by two Iraqi air-to-surface missiles, one was suspected to be a Chinese clone of the French Exocet. In 1991, after Operation Desert Storm ended, Poly sent a team to Baghdad to scavenge for unexploded American Tomahawk missile debris to bring home for study. Another Poly team turned up in Teheran to bid on some of the 107 jet fighters and other aircraft that had hightailed it from Iraq. Intelligence officers in Washington believe that Iran agreed to swap the planes for 10 Chinese nuclear reactors presently under construction. ..." That quote is from Dragon's Teeth: China and the International Arms Bazaar an article that was first published in a pro-Demcracy journal run by exiled Chinese citizens...."
Hong Kong Standard 8/14/99 "...Meanwhile, weather satellites in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province have been disturbed by unidentified electromagnetic wave last week. Unidentified ``black holes'' appearing in the satellites' cloud charts over the past seven days showed they might be caused by abnormal air force manoeuvres in the southern province..."
Freeper Jolly "...I have been talking to an expert via email about this article. I got the person's permission to post these two comments: 8/15 The possibility of their using EMP weapons is very high. However, one cannot discount the possibility of satellite jamming devices--the PLA has those too. These would be used in conjuntion with exercises for the Second Artillery units in that area. Just some speculation. 8/16 Sources in Taiwan report that China has used jamming to black out the French SPOT satellite. In fact, it is less likely that China is using EMP weapons in these exercises as the effect on civil communications would have caused a minor riot in many cities...."
3/26/98 BBC Deutsche Presse-Agentur "...SOURCE: Zhongguo Tongxun She news agency, Hong Kong, in Chinese 26 Mar 98 "....Text of report by the Hong Kong-based news agency Zhongguo Tongxun She Hong Kong, 26th March: At 1410 hours 0610 gmt on 14th March, the Asiasat I satellite's transponder 2A, used by China Telecommunications and Broadcasting Satellite Company in its VSAT system, was suddenly blanket jammed by unknown external signals. The strength of the signals was about 100 times that of the normal signals. They interrupted the state earthquake forecast satellite network, and data on earthquakes from surrounding countries and remote regions could not be transmitted promptly via the network. According to a report in Beijing Qingnian Bao', experts have analysed the cause of the jamming. They have primarily eliminated causes due to the satellite itself as the interference did not disappear after they changed the satellite's communications components via remote control. This indicates that the interference was caused by transmissions from the ground. ..."
4/8/98 BC Cycle 5:11 Central European Time International News Mystery force influences China's quake-predicting Apstar satellite "...A mysterious wave of electromagnetic energy that has bombarded China's Apstar-I satellite since last month has disrupted real-time transmission of its earthquake-warning network, the official media reported Wednesday. "The State earthquake-warning system sill works, but the feedback of information is slower because of constant disturbance," the China Daily said, quoting Zhou Sumin, an expert with the Earthquake Warning Centre of the State Seismological Bureau..... The disruption has also caused chaos at more than 400 stock brokerages, more than 100 pager servicers and one million people across China served by the satellite, the report said. An electromagnetic wave some 100 times stronger than normal set upon the satellite on March 14, forcing a breakdown in transmissions and real-time reception between the satellite and the state earthquake warning network at nine seismological bureaux using digital technology, the report said. Officials have yet to identify the source of the interference, but an emergency investigation ruled out the possibility that it originated in China...."
Kyodo News Service 8/17/99 "....China and Russia have begun construction of their first jointly built nuclear reactor, China's state media reported Tuesday. According to schedule, it will be completed by 2005 to become China's sixth nuclear power plant, the overseas edition of People's Daily reported. The Russian-type two-turbine reactor is being built near Lianyun Harbor in the eastern province of Jiangsu, the report said. China and Russia signed a contract to jointly build nuclear generators in December 1997...."
AP Daniel Kwan 8/17/99 "...The mainland's cyber-police have warned Web site operators to sever links with foreign sites to prevent invasions by hackers, especially from Taiwan. A circular jointly issued by the ministries of Information Technology and Telecom Industries, Public Security and State Security reminded Web site operators to step up vigilance against hackers. Operators must cut links with foreign Web sites to avoid "invasion by foreign hostile forces", the circular said. The Guangzhou-based New Evening Express reported yesterday that a new department, the China Network Security Management Centre, had been set up to strengthen the mainland's defence against hackers. ...Chang Kuang-yuan, a National Security Bureau official, accused the mainland of launching an information war against Taiwan, saying it had made at least 72,000 Web page attacks on Taiwan this month. But only 165 of those were successful. The rest were foiled by Taiwan Web operators, Mr Chang told legislators...."
NewsMax.com 8/18/99 Col. Stanislav Lunev "... when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ideological differences became less important. As a result, Russia and China began to restore their military-intelligence ties. The Russians moved quickly to strengthen these ties in the late summer of 1992 and sent Yivgeni Primakov, special envoy of Russian intelligence (and former director of the SVR--the successor agency to the KGB) to Beijing to sign a top-secret intelligence agreement with China. The purpose of the agreement was to officially reaffirm the cooperation that had been interrupted during the Cultural Revolution. According to a Washington Times report (10/21/92), this secret treaty involved the Russian Military Strategic Intelligence (GRU) and the Foreign Intelligence (SVR). These two agencies are coordinating operations with the Military Intelligence Directorate of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Concerning the treaty, the Times report noted the "anxiety of unnamed American officials" who were troubled by "Russia's and China's efforts in conducting intelligence activities against the U.S. and other Western countries, first of all, in collecting information about modern advanced technologies." Russian and Chinese intelligence have, then, been combining their efforts again to penetrate America's military industrial complex, especially to gather information on advanced weaponry, and are pooling their best available intelligence. For example, since the Chinese have a shortage of information on spy satellites and electronic intelligence, the Russian GRU and SVR help provide them with this information. In return, the Russians receive Chinese intelligence gathered from Chinese "agents-of-influence" contacts in the U.S. and other Western countries. One of the military ramifications of this cooperation may have been China's provocation against Taiwan in 1996 when it fired missiles across the Taiwan Straight precisely at a time when the U.S. Navy had no ships nearby. Reports are that Chinese intelligence did not have its own information on global U.S. ship deployments but had received this information from Moscow. Similarly, Chinese development of the warhead known as the W-88, reportedly stolen from the U.S. by Chinese operatives, may actually have been given to the Chinese by the Russians, who had acquired this technology some years before...."
WorldNetDaily 8/19/99 J R Nyquist "... Mexico's top drug trafficking cartel, run by the Arellano Felix brothers in Tijuana, is working closely with the Chinese. According to Jamie Dettmer, writing in the August 23 issue of Insight magazine, ships arriving in Mexico from China may contain "more than illegal immigrants." The Chinese are pumping people and supplies into Mexico, and the cargo is considered so sensitive that it is "often under the apparent protection of Chinese and Mexican naval vessels." American authorities are helpless, as usual, to block this strategic smuggling operation on our southwest border. America is helpless because President Clinton will not support improved border controls, and he won't get tough with the Mexican government. Clinton's immigration policy can be characterized as appeasement of the Mexicans, appeasement of the Chinese and a "who cares?" attitude....."
Singapore Business Times 8/18/99 Leon Hadar "...THERE are increasing signs that China and the United States have entered into a dangerous period of "diplomatic fog" in which both sides are sending confusing signals and are having difficulties decoding each other's interests and intentions. As a result, there is a growing risk that a minor misunderstanding in their relationship could lead to a major diplomatic and military crisis, with dramatic regional and global repercussions. ..."
BusinessWire 8/13/99 "...Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTNA, RTNB) has successfully completed on schedule the Site Acceptance Test of the Beijing Expansion system, which will double the number of radar controller positions in the Beijing air traffic control center. This expanded system, brought on-line without any interruption to the operation of the existing AutoTrac system, will further allow the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to handle the growth in air traffic and will provide improved safety for the Beijing region. Year 2000 (Y2K) tests were successfully implemented in June....."
Hong Kong Standard 8/20/99 Fong Tak-ho "...THE ruling Communist Party has highlighted stability and unity as the two most important themes for the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the republic. The party leadership decided this at the recently-ended annual summer meeting at the Beidahe resort that stability and unity would dominate the party's working agenda in the run-up to the grand anniversary. It would also serve as the guideline in the months towards next millennium. A senior party member said that the national day will emphasise stability and unity in a mission statement to the country on the eve of the new millennium...."
Christian Science Monitor 8/18/99 John Hughes "....In the dragging last days of the Clinton administration, and certainly for whatever new administration succeeds it, China looms as the most pressing challenge in foreign affairs..... China, the most populous country in the world, is a much more serious problem, even though its military is relatively unsophisticated. Its regime has abandoned communism as an economic blueprint, but retained it to hold power. President Clinton told a group of newspaper editors, earlier this year: "The question China faces is how best to assure its stability and progress. Will it choose openness and engagement? Or will it choose to limit the aspirations of its people without fully embracing the global rules of the road? Only the first path can really answer the challenges China faces." There has been no sign that Mr. Clinton's advice to Beijing is being followed. Two disturbing events suggest that China has even moved backward. One is the virulent attack launched on the Falun Gong movement.... The other recent development of concern is China's aggressive rumbling against Taiwan.... Should that, as one American China expert puts it, result in China "taking a slap at Taiwan," the challenge for the US would be grave. The US recognizes the Beijing government. But its unofficial relations with Taiwan remain cordial and for political and moral reasons the US would be obliged to help Taiwan thwart a Chinese assault. That would torpedo the Clinton administration's delicate policy of "engagement" with China, under which it seeks an expansion of trade and other ties while castigating China for its record on human rights. Any American dialogue with China has been made more difficult by the recent US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The US has called it a targeting error and apologized, but the Chinese still harbor suspicions. Chinese military action against Taiwan, and a US riposte, would put an already frosty dialogue with Beijing quickly into the deep freeze..."
Asian Wall Street Journal 8/18/99 Gerald Segal ".... In the air Chinese fighter aircraft are flying patrols in the center of the Strait, while on the sea China seized a Taiwanese ship near the Taiwan-held island of Matsu. Hong Kong publications report on plans being hatched in Beijing for missile strikes on at least 150 civil and military targets in Taiwan, including civil nuclear power plants. Senior Chinese officials are quoted as saying they are prepared to take the U.S. to World War III if that is what it takes to regain Taiwan. Chinese officials are "unofficially" sounding out American visitors about what the U.S. might do in the event of a Chinese military strike.
But there are also good reasons to believe that this military thunder is still far away. It is true that China has military options that could cause great damage to Taiwan. But China must calculate that any serious military option will be met with at least the same kind of robust U.S. response -- the deployment of two aircraft carrier battle groups -- that warned China in 1996 against escalating its missile tests in the open sea near Taiwan. As long as the U.S. remains firm, China is a weak power even on its own maritime frontier. China certainly has no credible capability for a full-scale invasion. Taiwan itself could turn back an initial attempt, and it certainly could hold on long enough for the American fleet to arrive. Nor is it plausible to think China could seize offshore islands such as Kinmen or Matsu without considerable cost, since the U.S. could hardly view such action as any less deplorable than missile firings into empty sea...... "
WorldNetDaily 8/19/99 J R Nyquist "... Mexico's top drug trafficking cartel, run by the Arellano Felix brothers in Tijuana, is working closely with the Chinese. According to Jamie Dettmer, writing in the August 23 issue of Insight magazine, ships arriving in Mexico from China may contain "more than illegal immigrants." The Chinese are pumping people and supplies into Mexico, and the cargo is considered so sensitive that it is "often under the apparent protection of Chinese and Mexican naval vessels." American authorities are helpless, as usual, to block this strategic smuggling operation on our southwest border. America is helpless because President Clinton will not support improved border controls, and he won't get tough with the Mexican government. Clinton's immigration policy can be characterized as appeasement of the Mexicans, appeasement of the Chinese and a "who cares?" attitude....."
NewsMax.com 8/18/99 Col. Stanislav Lunev "... when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ideological differences became less important. As a result, Russia and China began to restore their military-intelligence ties. The Russians moved quickly to strengthen these ties in the late summer of 1992 and sent Yivgeni Primakov, special envoy of Russian intelligence (and former director of the SVR--the successor agency to the KGB) to Beijing to sign a top-secret intelligence agreement with China. The purpose of the agreement was to officially reaffirm the cooperation that had been interrupted during the Cultural Revolution. According to a Washington Times report (10/21/92), this secret treaty involved the Russian Military Strategic Intelligence (GRU) and the Foreign Intelligence (SVR). These two agencies are coordinating operations with the Military Intelligence Directorate of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Concerning the treaty, the Times report noted the "anxiety of unnamed American officials" who were troubled by "Russia's and China's efforts in conducting intelligence activities against the U.S. and other Western countries, first of all, in collecting information about modern advanced technologies." Russian and Chinese intelligence have, then, been combining their efforts again to penetrate America's military industrial complex, especially to gather information on advanced weaponry, and are pooling their best available intelligence. For example, since the Chinese have a shortage of information on spy satellites and electronic intelligence, the Russian GRU and SVR help provide them with this information. In return, the Russians receive Chinese intelligence gathered from Chinese "agents-of-influence" contacts in the U.S. and other Western countries. One of the military ramifications of this cooperation may have been China's provocation against Taiwan in 1996 when it fired missiles across the Taiwan Straight precisely at a time when the U.S. Navy had no ships nearby. Reports are that Chinese intelligence did not have its own information on global U.S. ship deployments but had received this information from Moscow. Similarly, Chinese development of the warhead known as the W-88, reportedly stolen from the U.S. by Chinese operatives, may actually have been given to the Chinese by the Russians, who had acquired this technology some years before...."
The New American 8/3/99 William Norman Grigg "...Bill Clinton's nine-day tour of the Asian gulag state illustrates, among other things, that appeasement of the Red Dragon need no longer be disguised by spurious anti-communist credentials. By way of illegal campaign donations, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) became the equivalent of a shareholder in the Clinton Administration, and Mr. Clinton's behavior before and during his visit reflected that relationship. But even before departing for Beijing, Mr. Clinton made it clear that he harbors no secret anti-communist impulses.... In a June 19th Oval Office interview with reporters from the Los Angeles Times, Business Week, and Bloomberg Business News, Mr. Clinton was asked: "Would you like to see the end of communism in China, and is that a goal of American policy?" Mr. Clinton's 723-word reply was a tightly woven tapestry of dissimulation. He spoke of China's need for "coherence and stability" and its need to "find a way to reconcile the realities it faces, its highest hopes for the future with its biggest nightmare." For the Chinese, "instability in the context of their history is something that was just around the corner, only yesterday," insisted the President; in fact, the Chinese "psyche ... is very much seared with past instabilities." Nowhere in his answer did the President state that he seeks the end of history's most murderous regime. In a fashion befitting someone on Beijing's payroll, Mr. Clinton was repackaging the official party line from Beijing, which is that communist tyranny is "necessary" in China in order to prevent "instability." In doing so, the Empathizer-in-Chief was "feeling the pain" of Beijing's autocrats. His storied empathy was less visible concerning the free Chinese on Taiwan, whose "psyches" have been "very much seared" by the criminal conduct, aggression, and tyranny of the mainland regime...."
ChinaOnline News 8/13/99 "...The president of China Great Wall Industry Corporation, one of China's leading satellite launch firms, said the U.S. congressional report on alleged Chinese espionage, the Cox Report, has led to a downturn in his company's business this year, the August 11 Hua Sheng Bao (HuaSheng Daily) reported. Last year, Zhang Xinxia said his company launched six satellites. This year, however, it has only launched two, and expects to launch only one more by the end of the year. Zhang said the launch of over ten to twenty satellites has been affected, the newspaper reported. Normally, Zhang said Great Wall received RMB 20 to 30 million (US$2.42 - 3.63 million) in profits annually from its satellite launch business Since 1985, when Long March rockets began to launch satellites, China has successfully sent 25 commercial satellites into orbit. Of this number, 24 were for U.S. companies, the newspaper reported...."
http://www.scmp.com/News/China/Article/FullText_asp_ArticleID-19990817031747909.asp AFP 8/16/99 "...
Published: 8/16/99 "...Beijing has denied a satellite monitoring base in the Pacific is spying on the United States army's missile range in the Marshall Islands. Regional news agency Pacnews reported that Beijing said its facility in Kiribati was used to monitor rockets launched from China..... Kiribati, home to 87,000 Micronesians, signed a deal with China in 1997 to set up the station The station is on sparsely populated Bonriki islet, near the airport. The US is testing its Theatre Missile Defence System on Kwajalein, an atoll leased from the Marshall Islands and strictly off-limits...."
ChinaOnline News 8/13/99 "...China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) recently commented on a number of issues regarding the country's technological security and competitiveness, according to the August 11 Hua Sheng Bao (Hua Sheng Overseas Chinese Newspaper). ...MII Vice-Minister Qu Weizhi spoke in Beijing on August 10 and stated that internet hackers from Taiwan caused no damage to mainland websites during their recent "cyber raids." In cooperation with other ministries, MII has established a Network Security Management Center to provide information security and fend off internet hackers...MII stated that it has not banned the sale of Intel Pentium III computers in China, but for the sake of security it has cautioned government institutions in their use of these machines when posting information on the web. MII reportedly said that Pentium III computers may allow other internet users access to the owner's phone number, thereby compromising security...."
Investor's Business Daily 8/17/99 "...China has virtually told the world it plans to attack Taiwan. So how does the White House respond? It merely announces that military action against Taiwan would be ''of grave concern'' to the U.S. For Beijing, such a weak-kneed response is nearly an invitation to attack. China has little to care about if the U.S. is merely concerned. China would definitely care if the U.S. response were more firm. In case the White House hasn't noticed, a communist government runs the People's Republic of China. And communist governments understand only force, either through threat or by action. It's how they maintain social order and ''inspire'' loyalty.
The weasel words used by the Clinton administration are fine for diplomacy. But they won't work with regimes willing to kill their own people to keep them in line. China has shown no fear in making threats toward Taiwan. The communists know President Clinton is a pushover, especially if a few campaign dollars are waved his way. They've heard him tell Taiwan to cool the rhetoric about independence.....What is the administration looking for? Will it take actual shooting before it recognizes the gravity of the situation? It looks like the White House doesn't believe it has a dog in this fight. But it does. The U.S. has a decades-old pledge to protect Taiwan if China attacked. It was made law in 1979... But China doesn't want a war with the U.S. The Chinese are militarily inferior, and their leaders know it. That's why they've sent officials out across America to gauge possible U.S. responses to military action in Taiwan. These agents have met with China experts from U.S. think tanks, such as the Rand Corp. The Chinese already have a good idea how the White House is likely to respond - weakly and ineffectively. They're trying to see if their reading of this administration is correct...."
Hong Kong Standard 8/17/99 Fong Tak-ho "...CHINA'S war machine has geared up a propaganda campaign to denounce Taiwan's move to assert its statehood, with navy and air forces in place for military exercises. All services, departments and military zones of the People's Liberation Army recently held seminars and lectures to highlight the goal of ultimate unification with Taiwan, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Marines and the air force are now conducting drills of landing and missile warfare.
This is probably the first time the government-run agency has confirmed that all wings of the army are getting ready for a possible war against Taiwan...."
Muzi Lateline News 8/17/99 "...China has granted permission for a U.S. Navy vessel to visit Hong Kong for the first time since the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, a U.S. consular spokeswoman said today. The approval signals a warming in Sino-U.S. relations, strained earlier this year after U.S. forces bombed the embassy in Belgrade and Beijing refused Washington's explanation that it was an accident, AP reported...."
BBC/Sing Tao 8/14/99 "...One of Poly's primary missions is to pick single pieces of state-of-the-art equipment that can be disassembled and then duplicated by reverse technology. In 1987, when the US destroyer Stark was hit in the Persian Gulf by two Iraqi air-to-surface missiles, one was suspected to be a Chinese clone of the French Exocet. In 1991, after Operation Desert Storm ended, Poly sent a team to Baghdad to scavenge for unexploded American Tomahawk missile debris to bring home for study. Another Poly team turned up in Teheran to bid on some of the 107 jet fighters and other aircraft that had hightailed it from Iraq. Intelligence officers in Washington believe that Iran agreed to swap the planes for 10 Chinese nuclear reactors presently under construction. ..." That quote is from Dragon's Teeth: China and the International Arms Bazaar an article that was first published in a pro-Demcracy journal run by exiled Chinese citizens...."
Hong Kong Standard 8/14/99 "...Meanwhile, weather satellites in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province have been disturbed by unidentified electromagnetic wave last week. Unidentified ``black holes'' appearing in the satellites' cloud charts over the past seven days showed they might be caused by abnormal air force manoeuvres in the southern province..."
Freeper Jolly "...I have been talking to an expert via email about this article. I got the person's permission to post these two comments: 8/15 The possibility of their using EMP weapons is very high. However, one cannot discount the possibility of satellite jamming devices--the PLA has those too. These would be used in conjuntion with exercises for the Second Artillery units in that area. Just some speculation. 8/16 Sources in Taiwan report that China has used jamming to black out the French SPOT satellite. In fact, it is less likely that China is using EMP weapons in these exercises as the effect on civil communications would have caused a minor riot in many cities...."
3/26/98 BBC Deutsche Presse-Agentur "...SOURCE: Zhongguo Tongxun She news agency, Hong Kong, in Chinese 26 Mar 98 "....Text of report by the Hong Kong-based news agency Zhongguo Tongxun She Hong Kong, 26th March: At 1410 hours 0610 gmt on 14th March, the Asiasat I satellite's transponder 2A, used by China Telecommunications and Broadcasting Satellite Company in its VSAT system, was suddenly blanket jammed by unknown external signals. The strength of the signals was about 100 times that of the normal signals. They interrupted the state earthquake forecast satellite network, and data on earthquakes from surrounding countries and remote regions could not be transmitted promptly via the network. According to a report in Beijing Qingnian Bao', experts have analysed the cause of the jamming. They have primarily eliminated causes due to the satellite itself as the interference did not disappear after they changed the satellite's communications components via remote control. This indicates that the interference was caused by transmissions from the ground. ..."
4/8/98 BC Cycle 5:11 Central European Time International News Mystery force influences China's quake-predicting Apstar satellite "...A mysterious wave of electromagnetic energy that has bombarded China's Apstar-I satellite since last month has disrupted real-time transmission of its earthquake-warning network, the official media reported Wednesday. "The State earthquake-warning system sill works, but the feedback of information is slower because of constant disturbance," the China Daily said, quoting Zhou Sumin, an expert with the Earthquake Warning Centre of the State Seismological Bureau..... The disruption has also caused chaos at more than 400 stock brokerages, more than 100 pager servicers and one million people across China served by the satellite, the report said. An electromagnetic wave some 100 times stronger than normal set upon the satellite on March 14, forcing a breakdown in transmissions and real-time reception between the satellite and the state earthquake warning network at nine seismological bureaux using digital technology, the report said. Officials have yet to identify the source of the interference, but an emergency investigation ruled out the possibility that it originated in China...."
Kyodo News Service 8/17/99 "....China and Russia have begun construction of their first jointly built nuclear reactor, China's state media reported Tuesday. According to schedule, it will be completed by 2005 to become China's sixth nuclear power plant, the overseas edition of People's Daily reported. The Russian-type two-turbine reactor is being built near Lianyun Harbor in the eastern province of Jiangsu, the report said. China and Russia signed a contract to jointly build nuclear generators in December 1997...."
AP Daniel Kwan 8/17/99 "...The mainland's cyber-police have warned Web site operators to sever links with foreign sites to prevent invasions by hackers, especially from Taiwan. A circular jointly issued by the ministries of Information Technology and Telecom Industries, Public Security and State Security reminded Web site operators to step up vigilance against hackers. Operators must cut links with foreign Web sites to avoid "invasion by foreign hostile forces", the circular said. The Guangzhou-based New Evening Express reported yesterday that a new department, the China Network Security Management Centre, had been set up to strengthen the mainland's defence against hackers. ...Chang Kuang-yuan, a National Security Bureau official, accused the mainland of launching an information war against Taiwan, saying it had made at least 72,000 Web page attacks on Taiwan this month. But only 165 of those were successful. The rest were foiled by Taiwan Web operators, Mr Chang told legislators...."
Singapore Business Times 8/18/99 Leon Hadar "...THERE are increasing signs that China and the United States have entered into a dangerous period of "diplomatic fog" in which both sides are sending confusing signals and are having difficulties decoding each other's interests and intentions. As a result, there is a growing risk that a minor misunderstanding in their relationship could lead to a major diplomatic and military crisis, with dramatic regional and global repercussions. ..."
BusinessWire 8/13/99 "...Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTNA, RTNB) has successfully completed on schedule the Site Acceptance Test of the Beijing Expansion system, which will double the number of radar controller positions in the Beijing air traffic control center. This expanded system, brought on-line without any interruption to the operation of the existing AutoTrac system, will further allow the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to handle the growth in air traffic and will provide improved safety for the Beijing region. Year 2000 (Y2K) tests were successfully implemented in June....."
Hong Kong Standard 8/20/99 Fong Tak-ho "...THE ruling Communist Party has highlighted stability and unity as the two most important themes for the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the republic. The party leadership decided this at the recently-ended annual summer meeting at the Beidahe resort that stability and unity would dominate the party's working agenda in the run-up to the grand anniversary. It would also serve as the guideline in the months towards next millennium. A senior party member said that the national day will emphasise stability and unity in a mission statement to the country on the eve of the new millennium...."
Christian Science Monitor 8/18/99 John Hughes "....In the dragging last days of the Clinton administration, and certainly for whatever new administration succeeds it, China looms as the most pressing challenge in foreign affairs..... China, the most populous country in the world, is a much more serious problem, even though its military is relatively unsophisticated. Its regime has abandoned communism as an economic blueprint, but retained it to hold power. President Clinton told a group of newspaper editors, earlier this year: "The question China faces is how best to assure its stability and progress. Will it choose openness and engagement? Or will it choose to limit the aspirations of its people without fully embracing the global rules of the road? Only the first path can really answer the challenges China faces." There has been no sign that Mr. Clinton's advice to Beijing is being followed. Two disturbing events suggest that China has even moved backward. One is the virulent attack launched on the Falun Gong movement.... The other recent development of concern is China's aggressive rumbling against Taiwan.... Should that, as one American China expert puts it, result in China "taking a slap at Taiwan," the challenge for the US would be grave. The US recognizes the Beijing government. But its unofficial relations with Taiwan remain cordial and for political and moral reasons the US would be obliged to help Taiwan thwart a Chinese assault. That would torpedo the Clinton administration's delicate policy of "engagement" with China, under which it seeks an expansion of trade and other ties while castigating China for its record on human rights. Any American dialogue with China has been made more difficult by the recent US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The US has called it a targeting error and apologized, but the Chinese still harbor suspicions. Chinese military action against Taiwan, and a US riposte, would put an already frosty dialogue with Beijing quickly into the deep freeze..."
Asian Wall Street Journal 8/18/99 Gerald Segal ".... In the air Chinese fighter aircraft are flying patrols in the center of the Strait, while on the sea China seized a Taiwanese ship near the Taiwan-held island of Matsu. Hong Kong publications report on plans being hatched in Beijing for missile strikes on at least 150 civil and military targets in Taiwan, including civil nuclear power plants. Senior Chinese officials are quoted as saying they are prepared to take the U.S. to World War III if that is what it takes to regain Taiwan. Chinese officials are "unofficially" sounding out American visitors about what the U.S. might do in the event of a Chinese military strike.
But there are also good reasons to believe that this military thunder is still far away. It is true that China has military options that could cause great damage to Taiwan. But China must calculate that any serious military option will be met with at least the same kind of robust U.S. response -- the deployment of two aircraft carrier battle groups -- that warned China in 1996 against escalating its missile tests in the open sea near Taiwan. As long as the U.S. remains firm, China is a weak power even on its own maritime frontier. China certainly has no credible capability for a full-scale invasion. Taiwan itself could turn back an initial attempt, and it certainly could hold on long enough for the American fleet to arrive. Nor is it plausible to think China could seize offshore islands such as Kinmen or Matsu without considerable cost, since the U.S. could hardly view such action as any less deplorable than missile firings into empty sea...... "