Look Who's Arming Beijing
January 29, 1999
by Patrick Buchanan
Creators Syndicate (http://www.creators.com)
"China's army conducted a military exercise last
month with simulated missile firings against Taiwan and
also for the first time conducted mock attacks on U.S.
troops in the region ... "
That was the jolting lead of a Jan. 26 story by Bill Gertz
of The Washington Times. With those mock attacks,
China is sending a message: We will collar Taiwan and
drag the renegade province back to the embrace of the
Motherland, even if it means war with America.
In 1996, Bill Clinton sent two carrier battle groups to
respond to China's menacing of Taiwan. The
confrontation dissolved. By practicing with silo-housed
missiles, and targeting U.S. troops in Korea, in Japan and
on Okinawa, China is saying: Next time, we do not back
down.
China's imperial intentions are clear: Seize all the
disputed islands off Asia's coast, especially the Spratlys.
Build up nuclear and conventional missile forces to deter
America. Put China at the center of a
Beijing-Moscow-Teheran axis to overturn U.S.
hegemony in Asia.
Indispensable to the modernization of China's war
arsenal are three collaborators -- Israel, Russia and the
U.S.A.
"The Defense Intelligence Agency suspects Israel
shared with China restricted U.S. weapons technology
obtained during a joint U.S.-Israeli effort to build a
battlefield laser gun," writes Gertz on Jan. 27. U.S.
employees have twice "spotted Chinese technicians
working secretly with one of the Israeli companies
involved in the laser weapon program." A Chinese official
in Israel exhibited hard knowledge of the super-secret
program to build lasers to shoot down the Katyusha
rockets used by Hezbollah on Israeli towns.
Israel has been charged before with betraying vital
U.S. secrets. In 1992, The Washington Times reported
Israel had given Beijing the secret technology of the U.S.
Patriot missile. A U.S. investigation found that, while
Beijing had acquired the secrets of the Patriot, it could not
say for sure who gave them up.
According to Richard Fisher of the Heritage
Foundation, Russia and Israel have teamed up to build
China an AWACS system, using Israel's Phalcon radar.
Arms expert Duncan Clarke wrote in the July 22
Christian Science Monitor that Israel has used "U.S.
technology to assist China in developing its next fighter
aircraft -- the J-10 -- airborne radar systems, tank
programs and a variety of missiles. Over vigorous
Pentagon objections, Israel has apparently transferred to
China the most lethal air-to-air missile in the world: the
Python 4. This system employs an advanced
helmet-mounted sight, developed together by American
and Israeli firms."
China's J-10 is based on the Lavi, an Israeli plane
subsidized with $1.4 billion in U.S. tax dollars. As ominous,
writes Clarke, is "Israel's transfer to China of its STAR-1
cruise missile technology (that) ... incorporates U.S.
stealth technology and is ... 'a growth version' of Israel's
Delilah-2 missile, which contains U.S. parts and
technology."
Thus does critical U.S. weapons technology go into
machines of war that Beijing prepares for use on
Americans. Israel is engaged in the moral equivalent of
America selling Stingers to Hezbollah.
Why is Israel doing this? "When the customer is
interested," Israeli scholar Yitzhak Shichor is quoted in
Clarke's piece, "it (is) difficult for the Ministry of Defense
to abort or prevent an Israeli arms transfer to whatever
country for whatever reason." Adds Clarke: "Yet neither
President Clinton nor Congress will confront Israel and its
most powerful American partisans."
For such cowardice, U.S. Marines, airmen and sailors
may one day pay with their lives.
Russia's contribution? Moscow has sold China 48
SU-27 fighters with a licensing deal for 200 more and
hinted at selling the SU-30. This, says Heritage's Fisher,
would give Beijing "the basis of a modern strike
capability." Russia is also producing for China 30 Sunburn
anti-ship missiles that skim the ocean's surface at twice
the speed of sound. Guess whose ships they will be
targeted on.
Why is Russia doing this? As one Russian newspaper
put it, Moscow "is ready to assist China's transformation
into a first-class military power. Especially considering
the fact that Beijing is ready to pay for that in freely
convertible currencies."
Where does China get the hard currency to pay the
Israelis and Russians? From a $60 billion annual trade
surplus with the United States.
When one considers that China covets Russia's Far
East, sends missile technology to Israel's mortal enemy,
Iran, menaces our old ally, Taiwan, and uses profits from
its U.S. trade to buy weapons to target U.S. troops, ships
and planes, all three of us may one day come to rue our
stupidity and our greed.
