Anyone who has read many of my blogs knows that I feel China is a potential threat to the US. I don’t believe we should be drawing up invasion plans, but I do believe we need to stop treating them as a trading partner, and more like a potential military aggressor. A news story that has been running in the Washington Times illustrates my point.
Sometime in October of this year, a Chinese diesel submarine surfaced within firing distance of the USS Kitty Hawk. The Kitty Hawk was engaged in training exercises near Okinawa and was in International waters. The only reason the US found out about it was that an airplane on a routine patrol happened upon it while the Song class submarine set on the surface. The message is a clear one, if the Chinese sub wanted to fire on the Kitty Hawk; torpedos would have been in the water before anyone new the sub was even there.
Besides this pointing to an obvious need to re-evaluate our defensive measures while in International waters, it points to one more case of China not playing the part that they claim they want, or that our State Department says they want. When was the last time a British submarine was found stalking our carriers? China has repeatedly pushed the limits of our military in the Pacific. They have been playing both sides of the fence with North Korea, sending military components to the “Dear Leader” while claiming to want a share of negotiating with North Korea. There have been reports recently of repeated attacks on Washington computers from China.
At what point do we step back and say, “What exactly is our relationship with China?” Everyone believes China is preparing for what it believes to be an eventual clash with the US over the fate of Taiwan. Yet in the Washington Times we also learn that our military has been trading tours of military facilities and information on how we run our military in an effort to build good will with the Chinese. Of course, the word “trading” is a little bit of a leading word. It implies that the Chinese are also showing us around their facilities, or being candid with our military leaders regarding how the Red Army operates. Apparently, that is not so.
Obviously, we can’t attack China. We shouldn’t even be planning on it, and I don’t want to argue that we should. However, we need a more realistic strategy. No more tours of American military bases. No more seminars on the best operating practices of the military. And the next time a Song class submarine “shadows” the Kitty Hawk, we respond the same way we did in 1994, we chase the sub back into Chinese waters to illustrate that we take threats against our military seriously. It took September 11th for many Americans to realize we were at war with Islamic Fundamentalist. What will it take for us to learn that there are the Chinese aren’t the friends they claim to be?
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5 comments:
Well Japan attacked us with our scrap metal and China will do it's work with our scrap metal and cash.
They're ramping up they're space program and since we get almost nothing out of space programs (i.e., no moon mining colony yet) except military technology that's what China is working on.
If you can launch a man into spance and bring him back at a pre-designated time to a pre-designated location, it says your ballistic science is good and you can drop anything, anywhere, at anytime. The new made it seem like a good thing, but it's scary.
I'm too young to remember Sputnik first hand, but old enough to know what it signified.
I guess it's ok as long as we keep getting cheap t-shirts and they keep making the low and mid grade semiconductors for our weapons systems. (That's a joke...)
I am not as familiar with the history of Taiwan. However, I believe you are correct, the US will have to define its relationship with Taiwan, and it will have to do that quickly. Most analysis seems to be that China is building up for a conflict with the United States to settle the Taiwan matter. If the US doesn't figure out how it views Taiwan soon, China will force the US to decide when it takes military action.
Taiwan,
I was completely unaware of the ceding of Taiwan to Japan in 1895. I hace always had an interest in better understanding the political status and of Taiwan and need to do some basic research on the subject before any further comment.
Thanks for the comment.
While I am of the same mind with regards to the potential threat of China, I must remind you that China is the worlds industry and the repercussions of US lessening its ties with it would be more felt in the States than in China. For whatever the US does not buy Europe and others in the world surely will. Besides one really does not realize that the Chinese have such a huge investment in the US economy and is the purchaser of a huge portion of US Treasury bonds, which makes them the possessors of the tools to potentially crash the Bond market. Also they are the largest holder of Dollar deposits, and if they chose to dump them they would plumit the price of dollar on the global market. The rise of China surprised many, and I am concerned that pressure might not be a tool for manipulation any more.
I think many of the problems vxphobos brings up are valid ones. China is a very delicate situation. China is definately gearing up for what they perceive as a future military conflict with the United States. They are taking steps to give them every advantage they could want. I don't believe we should be planning on invading China, or attacking China. However, I think many of the things we are doing now (like letting them have access to our military bases) are preventing us from getting in the position we need to be. We can continue to trade with them, but we need to recognize that China has plans that don't include our best interest. As such, we need to have our own plans and act accordingly.
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