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May 08, 2007

Chinagate, China Today

 

 

Three months ago the U.S. Stock Market shook. The epicenter? China. The shakeup was due to unanticipated action by the Chinese government. The result? Now both sides of the Pacific have a proof-of-concept:  China need not do much to shake the U.S. economy and can do it on the slightest whim.

 

Two months ago, melamine was found to have been deliberately and illegally added in China to pet food products intended for U.S. consumers. Melamine has contaminated over 40 brands of pet food, causing serious illness and death in tens of thousands of American pets. Some are now concerned that such contamination may have found its way into the human food supply. Currently, the U.S. imports 1/3 of food products from China. Now both sides of the Pacific have a proof-of-concept: China need only manipulate or add one invisible ingredient in the mix to shake U.S. food shelves.

 

This month a document was obtained from the infamous “D.C. Madam” with the names of thousands of Washington clients, many of whom no doubt politicians, government employees, journalists, and so on. Who wants to bet that Chinese agents (the most active in the U.S.) had a copy of that list before ABC knew it existed? Who is willing to bet the Chinese have similar lists of such indiscrete clients at nearly every level of government and influential business across the country already collected as much as humanly possible? After the Chinagate scandals during the Clinton years, it’s hard to imagine the need for another proof of concept that China could shake the lives of American politicians and business leaders within our own borders who do not tow a China-friendly U.S. foreign and economic policy; however, for those who might have forgotten, this month’s big news could prove to be another lesson as well. If my guess concerning the names on that list is correct (and measuring also just how easily the personal data of ordinary Americans has been compromised en masse and most troubling: how certain sources I know with clearance – both high- and low-level military and defense contractor sources, no less – compromise their public trust for nothing more than an ego boost) we may have an unpleasent trifecta of events upon us, the confluence of which portends much more unpleasentness to come if we do not change course.

 

Perhaps, just perhaps, we have nothing about which to concern ourselves here, but the obvious vulnerability nonetheless should raise alarm bells even without a China known to aggressively seek information compromised by the blackmailed through swallows and other means; a China sworn to keep U.S. dollars flowing in and funding its military buildup (with stolen U.S. technology); a China intent on keeping the spotlight off of its Nazi-like human rights record and adventurist aims in the region; a China determined to become a superpower by first standing on the shoulders of giants (as Sun Tzu put it), then becoming so big its feet stomp one former giant into the ground that its leaders have already sworn to destroy.  

 

Is this another step in Chinese strategic evolution? If so, how did we get here? Was the Chinagate scandal the original proof of concept that China could influence American policy with its misbehavior? At what point did U.S. officials simply roll over and allow China to do what the Soviet Union had only dreamt of doing in its heyday?

 

Perhaps the trailer for the movie Chinagate due out this summer best explains that question; it seems to proffer much toward where we’ve been and why we’re here, as well as where we may be headed:

 

Chinagate: Sneak Preview

jayzel68

 

Posted by Martin at May 8, 2007 01:44 AM

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