In the drive to compete with China many Americans
overlook the fact that China's regime is a secretive, totalitarian and
oft-times repressive regime that suppresses representative government,
free speech, basic human rights and the rule-of-law -- things that
Americans blandly take for granted.
September eleven abruptly shifted the U.S. Department of
Defense's attention from the threat that China poses militarily to the
U.S. and Asia to the war on terrorism. China momentarily slipped off the
Department of Defense's (DoD) radar screen but the threat has not
diminished. Any number of events could be the trigger that compels China
to invade Taiwan or strike back at other internal and external threats
it views as critical to its sovereignty. Such an action against Taiwan
automatically invokes the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act [H.R. 1838]
passed by Congress on Feb.1, 2000.
There are many scenarios and events that might produce
this tripwire event. It could be as described in YEAR OF THE TIGER where
China is simply convinced it has run out of time and must prevent Taiwan
from declaring independence from the Mainland. The flashpoint could come
from Hong Kong's growing rebellion to China's repressive puppet
leadership. Rebellion could also come from within China itself as the
disparity increases between displaced workers and the nuevo riche and
erupts into civil war. Resentment towards the regime is compounded by
the simmering pain of the Tiananmen Square massacre of
student-activists.
Violence could erupt over control of the energy corridor
that supplies oil and gas to Asia. A fertile imagination can conjure up
many scenarios that could occur because of China's interference with
international waterways and airspace. The supply of oil and gas to
support China's growth engine along the energy corridor could become the
main source of instability and friction among the many other countries
that depend on a secure supply of energy for growth. This energy
lifeline traverses from the Middle East and the Mediterranean to
Southeast Asia through an endless chain of Straits along which there are
ample opportunities for pirates and terrorists to hide and prey on
shipping as the lifeline grows in importance.
Relations are tenuous at best between the one superpower
and the emerging superpower. China feigns to support the U.S. and Japan
in disarming North Korea's nuclear threat to stability in Asia. A
defiant North Korea with nuclear weapons serves China's purpose of
checkmating U.S. power and influence in Asia. And China continues to be
the world's principle proliferator of weapons of mass destruction.
China's free-trade policies are bound to collide with
its rigid inflexible fascism that could easily set-off a global banking
crisis.
Meanwhile, Al Qaida and its growing global terrorist
organization may devise a clever strategy to pit the two bulldogs
against each other in order to achieve their global terrorist
aspirations of destroying the infidels and turning the world into a
rigid form of Islam.
Copyright by S. Owen Smith. All Rights Reserved.
