China Dominate the World?  
by Wes Vernon

“Why is America worried?” Fu Chengyu asked in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Fu Chengyu is the CEO of a huge oil company that wanted to buy another huge oil company. The bid stirred a hornet’s nest. But why should Americans worry about that? Mergers or acquisitions happen all the time.

To ask the question is disingenuous. His China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), which is 70 percent owned by the Chinese government, has tried to acquire Unocal. Unocal is the ninth biggest American oil firm.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly threw cold water on that idea by voting 398-15 to call on the Bush administration to conduct immediately a review of the possible takeover, saying that a CNOOC takeover of Unocal could threaten U.S security. The Chinese have made it clear that their efforts won’t stop with Unocal--that they very well may go after American oil properties. Chinese thirst for oil is driving its predatory aim for control of sectors of the energy industry. And other American oil firms may very well be its future targets.

So why should America worry? For starters, Major General Zhu Chenghu of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) told reporters what the U.S. could expect if America attempted to interfere with Mainland Red China’s efforts to take over free China--meaning Taiwan: Said he: “We will be determined to respond. We Chinese will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all [Chinese] cities east of Xian. Of course, the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds… of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.” Since then, the Chinese have attempted to play down the comment by saying China will not nuke the U.S. unless the U.S. attacks China first. What is largely overlooked is that China’s military prowess has been advanced in large part by stolen technology from the U.S.

Frank Gaffney, President of the Center of Security Policy said in recent congressional testimony that the PLA’s needs are being advanced “by the combined efforts of the most comprehensive espionage and technology theft program in the history of the modern world--involving untold numbers of Chinese businessmen, students, tourists, and others, as well as professional collectors.” Thousands of spies have been scattered throughout the United States close to research work at universities, think tanks, and the defense industry.

According to a story front-paged by the Washington Times’ national security reporter Bill Gertz, the gathering of such intelligence and technology has enabled Beijing to produce top of the line weapons systems, mostly aimed at the U.S.China can launch nuclear weapons that in thirty minutes could kill one hundred million Americans. That is one of many chilling warnings in the book “ China: The Gathering Threat” by the late Constantine Menges. His credentials include a stint with the Reagan administration as a CIA intelligence analyst and a special assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. Menges warns that China is pushing a stealthy, systematic strategy to attain geopolitical and economic dominance and that a showdown with America could come in the next decade.

Gertz reports this push may come to shove even sooner. He says the People’s Republic of china (PRC) is building its military forces faster than U.S. intelligence and military analysts expected, prompting fears that Beijing will attack Taiwan in the next two years. A bipartisan House committee chaired by California Congressman Christopher Cox warned in 1999 that the next generation of weapons will exploit the stolen information and that People’s Republic of China (PRC) penetration of our national laboratories spans several decades “and almost certainly continues today.”

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has defined the United States as the “main enemy.” China---along with Russia--remains the leading supplier of weapons to rogue states such as North Korea, Iran, Syria and Cuba. Both entrances to the Panama Canal are controlled by Hutchinson Whampoa Company, a Hong Kong firm controlled by the PLA.

So after the U.S. House voted against the proposed Chinese takeover, the CEO of the PRC-controlled CNOOC asked, “Why is America Worried?”

Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, is one elected official who is not content to let the good times roll aboard the China gravy train. Recently, on the floor of the United States Senate, he stated that “we are on a collision course with China on all levels: economically, militarily and ideologically.” And he added, “We are two trains accelerating in different directions on the same track. After the last decade I think we have seen that appeasement does not work.”

Menges, in “ China: The Gathering Threat” makes several recommendations, four of which are worthy of brief mention here: 1) Shift opportunities for trade in Asia from China to “American allies and security partners” so that military and commercial interests can be brought into balance. 2) Seek a new defensive alliance with India, a nation with over 1 billion people which has been invaded by China in the past and that is menaced by continuing territorial claims and encirclement through China’s relations with Burma and Pakistan. 3) Expel from the U.S. all companies that function as fronts for “any military or intelligence-related entities in China, Russia or any other non-allied state.” 4) The U.S. must move from intention to actual deployment of missile defenses, so we won’t cringe when China says we would “care more about Los Angeles” than Taiwan.

Compounding this is the fact that the American taxpayers may be asked to help pay for it. The Bush administration is offering a $5 billion subsidy in loans and loan guarantees through a U.S. Export-Import Bank subsidy as an enticement to award the bid to Westinghouse. U.S. taxpayers have already been subsidizing the Chinese. The Clinton White House approved Em-Im loans approved years ago in a deal for reactors from the Bechtel Company.

The good news is that the Chinese have backed off on the deal and saved us from ourselves.

Wes Vernon is a Washington-based writer and veteran broadcast journalist.

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