Bill Gertz, in a recent Inside the Ring column in the Washington Times (see first link below) details a curious story about the “secret” visit of a top Chinese spymaster to the US Pentagon. Obviously, this visit is no longer a “secret” due to this Washington Times story. Major General Yang Hui, described as “China’s most senior military intelligence official” reportedly traveled all the way from China to the Pentagon to complain about the publicity given to a 2006 incident in which an undetected Chinese submarine surfaced while shadowing the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier task force.
Am I the only person who thinks there must have been additional reasons for this trip? The article reports that the Chinese were very upset that this naval incident was reported to the general public at all. Maybe its just me, but in the grand scheme of things, this “gotcha” incident on the high seas hardly seems sufficient to generate the need for China’s “spymaster” to travel to the Pentagon. After all, the ability of the Chinese sub to penetrate U.S. anti-submarine defenses and surface within easy “kill” range of a U.S. carrier was quite a success on the part of the Chinese Navy. It would seem that this skill was something the Chinese would have wanted to brag about, not hide from public view. The link below mentions the successful shadowing of a carrier by a Chinese submarine understandably caused much concern in the Pentagon.
The link below also mentions that the Chinese spymaster who visited the Pentagon “is an expert in cyberwarfare,” and one former State Department analyst, John J. Tkacik Jr., is cited as believing that he “has been directing the Chinese military’s vast, industrial-vacuum-cleaner cyber-intelligence campaign that has penetrated not just U.S. military computers systems, but just about every U.S. business, university and research institute’s computer systems as well.” This Chinese spying effort is of great concern to the U.S. government, military and business community. I wonder if the topic of China’s spying efforts vs. the USA came up in the secret Pentagon discussions?
The USA and China are locked in a very curious and dangerous relationship. America’s consumer economy receives many of its products from China. U.S. corporations have moved much of their industrial manufacturing operations to China. The U.S. Government has vastly overspent its budget and has borrowed unimaginable sums from China to fund its ballooning deficits. China’s rising military power obviously threatens the USA, but the USA is constrained from acting in its own interests due to the fact that China is the USA’s No. 1 creditor. In this relationship, China is clearly the rising superpower and the USA is the declining superpower. China has played its cards very well in the game of geopolitics. China duped the USA into moving its industrial facilities to China. American companies were lured to China by the promise of short term profits, but China knew the long-term consequences of these actions would work entirely to the benefit of China and entirely to the detriment of the USA.
When General Yang Hui visited the Pentagon, I wonder if any demands or ultimatums were given? If so, the public certainly wouldn’t be told about such things. However, a curious thing happened in the wake of the General’s visit. The second link below (also by Bill Gertz of the Washington Times) reports that the U.S. Government has just quietly transferred export controls over key “missile and space technology” items wanted by China from the White House to the U.S. Commerce Department. As the link notes, this is the same US Commerce Department that was responsible for lax oversight of previous American technology exports that China used to upgrade its missile forces. One analyst is cited as using words like “foolish” and “shocking” to describe the delegation of this authority to the very government office which previously was incapable of exercising proper oversight of this very function.
A cynic might wonder if the White House has just indirectly tasked the Commerce Department with the assignment of giving more critical U.S. weapons technology to China. Can we infer that this strange White House action is an indication of what General Yang was seeking when he visited the Pentagon? After all, Proverbs 22:7 states that “borrowers are servants to lenders.” The USA is the “borrower” and China is the “lender.” That is why China gets what it wants.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/08/inside-the-ring-68161223/?page=2
http://www.gertzfile.com/gertzfile/InsidetheRing.html
