China Attacks Dissent in America and It Expands Its Power to Intimidate the Neighbors
Strategy Page says they are, and that the FBI is so busy looking for terror cells that China can get away with it:
In the past year, many copies of the Epoch Times have been stolen and destroyed, and editorial staff have been physically attacked by men who appear to be Chinese. Editorial offices have also been attacked, often at night, to make it look like a burglary.
China has also been putting pressure on Chinese language newspapers in the U.S. to publish more pro Chinese government material. This often involves threats by people, it turns out, who are working for, or sponsored by, Chinese embassy staff. [Strategy Page]
Sounds like we need a bigger FBI and fewer Chinese consulates. I’ve often suspected that China asks its minions — paid and otherwise — watch and comment on blogs, too. Maybe one of them will stop by to add credence to that theory.
See also: I missed this story last week, but Richard Lawless has given his farewell address, raising concern about North Korea’s new short range missiles and the alarming expansion of China’s military power.
“What we’ve done is said to the Chinese, “˜Look, we’ve got a pretty good idea what you’re doing and where you’re taking your strategic nuclear forces over the next three to four years. This is a huge commitment of resources on your part. It will dramatically change the situation between the two countries. We need to start talking about this changed situation now.’ … To date, that has met with pretty much silence.
Lawless also was critical of China for not reciprocating U.S. offers to allow official visitors to view significant military facilities. He cited the example of China’s top naval officer being given “unprecedented access to everything that he asked for” during a visit to the United States this year.
“Nowhere near that level of reciprocity was being discussed or offered” by the Chinese in the planning for a visit by Adm. Michael Mullen, the top U.S. Navy officer. Mullen ended up not making the trip and has since been nominated by President Bush to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“So I guess the key word here is disappointment,” Lawless said. [MSNBC]
I’m obviously very sad to see Lawless go, but It’s not exactly clear to me what Lawless expects here. If he wants to count their submarines and measure their aircraft carriers, that’s what we have the CIA for. If we let the Chinese tour the Seventh Fleet, it’s an alarming lapse of discretion, because China sees itself as our competitor and potential enemy. We should view China the same way. Clearly, China is expanding its power, both economically and militarily. I’m all for making the public aware of the rising threat and preparing for it, but I see little point in trying to negotiate it away. It looks like yet another manifestation of the idea that you can talk people out of anything if your offer is generous enough. It’s an idea we’ve tried before, without success.
Also, a little more about the new North Korean missile:
The missile is designated the KN-02, or Toksa, and is a derivative of the SS-21 missile of the former Soviet Union.
“As this system, this particular system, approaches operational status and is deployed in large numbers, you have for the first time in the North Korean inventory” a highly accurate missile “whose only purpose, given its range, is to strike the Republic of Korea,” Lawless said, using South Korea’s official name.
Here’s more on the SS-21; pictures here. It’s highly mobile, like the SCUDs we had so much trouble finding during the first Gulf War, and has a range of 120 kilometers. Although it’s designed to carry a conventional warhead, it’s potentially nuclear capable, and the North Koreans are experts at modifying old Russian blueprints. Plus, the scariest potential use against South Korea might be bioweapons, of which we suspect the North Koreans have a sizeable stockpile.
Will this latest threat awaken South Koreans from their secular faith in the nationalist dogma that no fellow Korean would really harm them? This and other stories will awaken a few, but not enough to sway national policy away from feeding the beast or cutting its own military … no matter who wins the next election. What will awaken South Korea is the idea that it’s responsible for defending its prosperity — the realization that Americans won’t be in the fight with them when the toksas and nodongs rain down. It’s another argument for breaking the cycle of dependence, forcing Seoul to face the threat, and getting the rest of the Second Infantry Division out of harm’s way. We can watch the development of South Korean attitudes as that realization sinks in, and that will afford us the luxury of making a calculated assessment of whether South Korea can become a viable ally again. Then we will know whether we should reduce the alliance to a skeletal structure — along the lines of our alliance with the Philippines or Thailand — or reorder it around a combined force of South Korean boots on the ground, and U.S. air, naval, space, and intelligence assets operating from stand-off range.