Red China to take over Long Beach Navy Base

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Red China and the U.S. Naval base in Long Beach California

China and Long Beach

A project of The Conservative Caucus
450 Maple Avenue East * Vienna, Va. 22180 * 703-938-9626

VICTORY: Thanks to your help, we won! Congress prohibited COSCO from taking over Long Beach Naval Base.

Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues and Strategy Bulletin of March 15, 1997

$300 MILLION PROPERTY WILL AID COMMUNIST COMPETITORS OF AMERICAN BUSINESS

The Washington Times (3/10/97, p. 1) reports that "Shuttered by military cutbacks, a [sic] historic Navy base in Long Beach, Calif., is about to be leased to a China-owned shipping company under an agreement assisted by the White House."

"President Clinton twice met with Long Beach officials to push their plan forward....The deal approved by the Navy turns over the base — valued by the city at $65 million and by preservationists at as much as $300 million — free of charge to the city of Long Beach. The city has already agreed to lease it to COSCO, the China Ocean Shipping Co., which already has a small operation at the base."

TREASON OR GREED?

"The prospect has raised some eyebrows — a U.S. government property encompassing prime port space turned over to a foreign shipping company with a recent checkered history and in direct competition with U.S. shippers...."

DID GIFTS TO DEMOCRATS GIVE BEIJING SAFE HARBOR?

"[I]n 1996, the chairman of one of two Chinese arms companies implicated in a scheme to smuggle 2,000 illegal Chinese-made weapons into Oakland, Calif., aboard a COSCO ship had coffee in the White House in an affair associated with DNC fund raising. Officials of the weapons companies were indicted, but COSCO was not charged....

"In December, a COSCO ship plowed into a crowded boardwalk in New Orleans, injuring 116 persons. Mechanical failure has been blamed. In 1992, the company was fined $400,000 to settle allegations it violated U.S. shipping law by paying kickbacks to shippers instead of abiding by published tariffs."

WHY ARE ANTI-U.S. LAWBREAKERS GIVEN ACCESS TO OUR WEST COAST?

"Six COSCO ships have been detained for violating international safety regulations in the last year, the Coast Guard says, putting the company on a target list of shippers to monitor.

"Last summer, China promised to punish COSCO for shipping 640 tons of waste from the United States to China, where it was dumped.

"And in 1993, U.S. Navy ships stopped a COSCO ship in the Persian Gulf after U.S. intelligence warned it might be carrying chemical weapons materials....

"The historic Navy base is to be converted to a state-of-the-art cargo terminal to receive ships bearing thousands of containers of clothes, video cameras, toys and building materials manufactured in China."

Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues and Strategy Bulletin of April 30, 1997

CHINESE COMMUNISTS STRENGTHEN THEIR WAR MACHINE

The Washington Times (4/10/97, p. 1) reports that "China is engaged in an across-the-board effort to buy and develop arms aimed directly at challenging U.S. military power and capabilities. According to the officials and analysts, the Chinese defense effort includes:

" Building several aircraft carriers in the next 15 years. ‘In the 2010 timeframe, China is projected to field its first aircraft carrier,’ according to a February report by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence.

" Replacing older warships with new ships outfitted with advanced anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles and anti-submarine capabilities.

" Developing six new fighter aircraft and purchasing 48 Russian SU-27 fighters.

" Designing a new class of nuclear attack submarines and a new class of nuclear ballistic missile submarines.

" Building land-based and mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles with multiple warheads."

THE RED ARMY IS THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT

"The effort comes at a time of rising nationalism and growing anti-American sentiment in China. Analysts say those feelings are partly the product of efforts by China's rulers to restore the army's tarnished image after its role in the 1989 massacre of democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

"U.S. defense and intelligence officials now regard China as a ‘near peer’ military competitor...."

FREEDOM OF THE SEAS IS A KEY ISSUE

Adm. Joseph W. Prueher, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, the military force responsible for fighting any wars in Asia, says "‘We and the other nations are very much committed to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and the sovereignty issue of the Spratlys and Paracels.’

"Other officials and analysts say Chinese statements of benign intentions cannot mask a provocative buying spree in military hardware. China's new weapons programs, they say, are a means to project power and include capabilities far beyond those needed for countering traditional regional rivals, including Japan, India, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam."

DO GROWING CAPABILITIES REFLECT PRESENT INTENTIONS?

"The weapons being purchased...include systems designed for attacking U.S. ships and aircraft, including two Russian warships with SS-N-22 anti-ship cruise missiles, which Moscow developed to destroy U.S. Aegis-class ships...."

NEWLY FRIENDLY BORDER WITH RUSSIA FREES UP MILITARY RESOURCES

"The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 allowed China's military planners to redeploy massive numbers of ground forces protecting the country's northern and western borders....

"China has begun seeking high-quality advanced-technology weaponry and has focused its military strategy on projecting power along its 10,000 nautical miles of coastline as part of a ‘Two Island Chain’ strategy.

"The strategy calls for beefing up naval and air forces to project power from China's east coast to cover two sets of islands. One stretches south from Japan through Taiwan and all the way to Indonesia and Singapore. The other embraces a huge swath of the Pacific Ocean that includes all of Japan's islands, areas beyond the Marianna Islands and a line extending southward hundreds of miles west of the Philippines.

"‘The Chinese navy should exert effective control of the seas within the first island chain,’ says People's Liberation Army Gen. Liu Huaqing, head of the PLA navy. ‘"Offshore" should not be interpreted as coastal as we used to know it. Offshore is a concept relative to the high seas. It means the vast sea waters within the second island chain.’"

WHY DOES CLINTON ADMINISTRATION DOWNPLAY POTENTIAL THREAT?

"Ross H. Munro, co-author of a much-discussed new book with the ominous title ‘The Coming Conflict With China,’ says many U.S. intelligence and policy officials play down the Chinese military threat....

"China's technology exports also have caused continuing friction between Beijing and Washington. When he was CIA director, John M. Deutch told a Senate hearing last year that China continues to sell inappropriate weapons technology.

"A report last month by the Office of Naval Intelligence says China has been ‘actively marketing’ anti-ship cruise missiles for two decades but stepped up sales in the past two years."

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