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June 12, 2007

On China and the Americas

Cuban: Chinese "everywhere" in Panama

 

 

Awhile back I met with a Cuban who has traveled extensively throughout Latin America. As we discussed those travels and time spent in Panama there was an interesting description of the extent to which Chinese nationals have poured into the country that owns the western hemisphere’s most strategic waterway, as well as those surrounding it.

 

It was a chilly winter day in 1997, according to Bill Gertz in “China Threat”, that the government of Communist China began taking its first major steps toward a foothold in the western hemisphere and establishing reciprocal power parity with U.S. and allied forces in South Korea, Japan, and elsewhere around the South China Sea. China would also have another major semi-permanent spot from which it could branch out and solicit expanded trade in South and Central America beyond its Hutchison-Whampoa base in the Bahamas and Cuba; some of that trade including arms.

 

Former Secretary of Defense under President Reagan Casper Weinberger, as if carrying the torch of wisdom from the old guard, described the Chinese takeover of the Panama Canal and U.S. inaction as “catastrophic”, according again to Gertz in his countless articles and several books. However such warnings have been and continue to be sounded elsewhere; certainly in my earlier posts here and what others have posted, written, and spoken within the hallowed halls of the intelligence community and the armed forces, in the media, and elsewhere. They predicted and we are realizing the threat of Chinese missiles – nuclear missiles – secreted into the former naval deepwater ports of Balboa and Cristobal, sparking fears of another Cuban Missile Crisis; the threat of small arms, operatives, and support personnel the fear of another Sovietization of Latin America, or worse: using America’s porous border to ferry in an endless number of trained, ideologically obeisant insurgents (here to destroy the America Americans don’t want to destroy). Is this truly possible coming from our leading trading partner?

 

Not only Chinese weapons, but Chinese: “What surprised me was that there were Chinese everywhere…” the Cuban remarked, and then added, “but it’s the same in other countries around there, too. There are so many of them, you know.” So many of them coming from a Communist country that does not allow its citizens to travel abroad freely; especially citizens disloyal to the Communist cause as enunciated by the State. Their travels abroad must benefit the State somehow; if the state has a purpose for them to be out of the country and trusts them to be ideologically loyal outside the safe borders of the regime, then and only then do we see their faces. And we do see the faces of Chinese nationals en masse across the Americas: we see them in our universities, companies, representing Chinese front organizations, and giving aid and comfort to America’s enemies. While it should be noted that China’s regime of ideological loyalty abroad is an imperfect one, even when 50% remain loyal to a regime whose stated values are antithetical to democratic existence, they pose a grave threat. As millions of Latin American illegal aliens pour into the United States with a clear pro-communist or at least a decidedly anti-American worldview, at the same time, we are seeing a record escalation in the number of Islamic terrorists present in Latin America, hailing many times from regimes in south and west Asia receiving arms and enjoying close relations with China. Could it be China has seen its opportunity to maximize its strategic momentum by using advisors and other means to coordinate and expand the types of threats the U.S. is facing in its own hemisphere? Does any of this fall short of the definition of a Cold War or at least a prelude to a very hot one? Clearly, common sense says it may well be to the first and a very resounding no to the last.

 

One might ask if common sense even exists any longer in Washington or if the Zeitgeist that haunts our generation is a changing of the guard that marks the division of ages. As the Cuban put it, “Panama is a friendly country”. Panama and its people are friendly and open to every kind of newcomer, but this lack of widespread discernment of power emanating from Asia can be – and is being – exploited; they ask few questions and assume the best. Yet, once they have sold their souls to China, there can be no easy road for turning back. This is also what President Bush is asking of Americans in the illegal immigration debate: that we apparently smile and pat ourselves on the backs for going down like noble martyrs for some invented Crawford piety; being accepting of every harmful and hurtful thing as we watch human trains carrying AK-47s, biological, chemical or nuclear threats march across our borders so business leaders may get another fast buck to store in offshore accounts. As you read this, you may have begun to see just how the immigration debate and America's strategic national interests have once again conjoined themselves indivisibly. However, I hope a larger picture is also coming into focus.

 

 

The matter of the hour is that China, our strategic enemy, is exploiting our known weaknesses, as any good and decent enemy worth his salt should be well expected to. The difficulty arises when we fail while our enemy fails not. Our open borders and our lack of sufficient strategic presence in Latin America or serious high-level concern for something far worse than the Soviet Union has left the door wide open. And it only proffers to become something more so in that regard. Certainly, we can hope for a revolt to overthrow the Communist dictatorship in China, but pinning our futures on a cloud which may bring rain or simply evaporate (and worse yet, lies in the hands of others, not ourselves) is folly in the worst order. Were war to break out over Taiwan (or be there another casus belli), China with its presence in the Americas (along with its allies) will be able to respond rapidly and in force against the American homeland, targeting both vital counterforce assets and countervalue (civilian, industry, and infrastructure) ones, amassing a toll rivaling or surpassing that of our own Civil War. This third strategic leg as part of a whole that includes the ability to cripple our economy presently appallingly intertwined with theirs, the threat of destabilizing forces within our borders becoming active, attacks on U.S. assets in the Pacific, and the ability to disable satellite communication links neccesary for the dispersed U.S. command structure will make such a war the most costly in U.S. history during a time in which Washington’s moral resolve is the weakest. Or China could simply use one of its ports in Panama to lob a crude missile with a crude nuclear warhead 60 miles over the continental United States that would detonate and create an electromagnetic pulse that would douse every light upon every hill from Canada to Mexico. What does an overwhelming Chinese presence mean in the Western hemisphere? It represents a clear and present threat to national security, sovereignty, and interests of the United States both long and short term. For the U.S. not to push back and begin doing so soon will be to place the noose over our heads ourselves and pull the lever.

 

 

Posted by Martin at June 12, 2007 01:33 AM

Comments

Posted by: Angel at June 13, 2007 09:18 PM