China claims to be creating it's own form of democracy, one not like the U.S. One has to wonder what this will be... I think I know where the Chinese are going with this one. Here's what I mean.
Webster's on-line definition of a democracy:
A system of government in which there is free and equal participation by the people in the political decision-making process.
And Webster's definition of communism:
A totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production with the professed aim of establishing a classless society.
Now, it's pretty clear the distinction here. China definitely fits into the communism definition, which makes sense because that's what they are. But, rather than create a new form of democracy, what the Chinese are doing is their normal propaganda... they are changing the definition of democracy not their way of governance. Below is how the Chinese will define democracy:
China's Definition of their new democracy:
A totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production with the professed aim of establishing a classless society.
Sound familiar? Let me ask this question. Do you think China will ever allow free speech, freedom of expression, freedom to assemble etc. etc.? That will be the true test as to a "new China". As long as they continue to cut out the organs of Falun Gong, Kill those practicing a different religion, and run tanks over protester's... they will continue to be simple COMMUNISTS!!!
Showing posts with label propagnada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label propagnada. Show all posts
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Monday, March 5, 2007
THE PRC IS BLOCKING BLOGS AGAIN: SHAME ON HU!!
The Chinese government began blocking access to the popular blogging site LiveJournal on Friday, cutting off its citizens from the roughly 1.8 million blogs the service hosts.
The timing of the block coincides with the National People's Congress meeting in Beijing, says Xiao Qiang, a Chinese dissident and founder of the China Digital Times.
(BLOGGERS COMMENT: China Digital Times is an excellent site, CFA readers are encouraged to visit it... at the link above).
While China has reached an accord with some blog hosting companies, including Microsoft's MSN Spaces, it has a history of blocking others, including Google's Blogger.com.
So COVER FOR ACTION is blocked, how can we get our message into China?
"For whatever reason (if) you've been blocked, it's almost impossible to get open again," says Xiao. "It could be one of the blogs in Livejournal has the content they want to block. They are very bluntly over-blocking sites."
The timing of the block coincides with the National People's Congress meeting in Beijing, says Xiao Qiang, a Chinese dissident and founder of the China Digital Times.
(BLOGGERS COMMENT: China Digital Times is an excellent site, CFA readers are encouraged to visit it... at the link above).
While China has reached an accord with some blog hosting companies, including Microsoft's MSN Spaces, it has a history of blocking others, including Google's Blogger.com.
So COVER FOR ACTION is blocked, how can we get our message into China?
"For whatever reason (if) you've been blocked, it's almost impossible to get open again," says Xiao. "It could be one of the blogs in Livejournal has the content they want to block. They are very bluntly over-blocking sites."
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Exposed: Chinese Black Operations On U.S. Soil - Part III
I've been conducting more research on the matter of Chinese Operatives working against U.S. interests on U.S. Soil. What better source to understand the problem than the U.S. Congress.
Every day we read or hear about U.S. authorities attempting to identify sleeper cells and black operatives on U.S. soil. Nearly all of this relates to terrorism. Yet, the halls of Congress are dressed with testimony that reads like a spy novel... and the enemy is China. I encourage everyone to Google search "Congressional Testimony" and "Falun Gong". You'll be amazed at what is known about Chinese covert operations within the U.S. Yet, we never see these reports in the media. Why?
Below I provide a few snippets of what is known about Chinese Covert Operations in the U.S., and what's worse, it's often directed against U.S. citizens.
Resolution 304 also specifically mentioned section 401(a)(1)(B) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6401(a)(1)(B)):
Agents of China’s Communist Party Operating in the US
Resolution 304 calls on China’s agents in the United States to halt all operations being carried out against practitioners of Falun Gong on United States soil.
The resolution makes reference to China’s agents carrying out acts of violence and assault, property theft and destruction, illegal wire-tapping, harassment, intimidation, and persecution against practitioners of Falun Gong in the United States.
Every day we read or hear about U.S. authorities attempting to identify sleeper cells and black operatives on U.S. soil. Nearly all of this relates to terrorism. Yet, the halls of Congress are dressed with testimony that reads like a spy novel... and the enemy is China. I encourage everyone to Google search "Congressional Testimony" and "Falun Gong". You'll be amazed at what is known about Chinese covert operations within the U.S. Yet, we never see these reports in the media. Why?
Below I provide a few snippets of what is known about Chinese Covert Operations in the U.S., and what's worse, it's often directed against U.S. citizens.
Resolution 304 also specifically mentioned section 401(a)(1)(B) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6401(a)(1)(B)):
Agents of China’s Communist Party Operating in the US
Resolution 304 calls on China’s agents in the United States to halt all operations being carried out against practitioners of Falun Gong on United States soil.
The resolution makes reference to China’s agents carrying out acts of violence and assault, property theft and destruction, illegal wire-tapping, harassment, intimidation, and persecution against practitioners of Falun Gong in the United States.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Exposed: Chinese Black Operations On U.S. Soil - Part II
Last year a Chinese Diplomat who defected to Australia appeared before the U.S. Congress to share the horror that caused him to defect. One always must question his motivation. At the time he appeared, he had already received asylum from Australia. Inflating stories and providing a fantasy tale to the U.S. gave him no benefit. Therefore, Cover For Action assumes his sworn testimony to be factual. Moreover, his statement is in line with other reports, giving it additional credence.
In his testimony he said there are thousands of informants working covertly, against the Falun Gong. He also indicated that Embassy's (missions...consulates etc.) have "at least" one official overseeing these operations.
This is nothing short of a BOMBSHELL! What he essentially said here is that Chinese Diplomatic missions within U.S. territory are launching black operations on U.S. citizens. This is powerful on many fronts: a. Chinese Covert operations are present on U.S. soil, operating out of Embassy's. and b. Chinese Covert operatives are targeting U.S. citizens (Falun Gong).
This is like saying that KGB operatives are targeting U.S. citizens. POWERFUL. Somehow though, I think if were the KGB, the story would get more play. We treat China with such Kid Gloves.
In doing a little research for this post, I was shocked and amazed at the the vast amount of congressional testimony which exists on this topic. Since the early 2000's Congress has been discussing how Chinese Covert operatives are working on U.S. soil: Covert Break-ins, Phone Intercepts, Assaults, etc. etc. again... VERY VERY SPOOKY. I'm spooked just writing this blog.
FAIRFAX DIGITAL
Mr Chen repeated claims that more than 1000 Chinese secret agents and informants were tracking and persecuting Falun Gong members. "In each Chinese mission overseas, there must be at least one official in charge of Falun Gong affairs, he said.
By Jonathon Browde WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Chen described the organization of Chinese missions worldwide, saying they are divided into two categories: diplomatic and intelligence gathering. Those working to gather intelligence, Mr. Chen said, report directly back to Beijing and not their local mission, allowing Beijing to
use missions worldwide as a vast spy network.
The US House passed a resolution in September 2004 condemning the CCP for spying on and harassing Americans who practise Falun Gong. The resolution listed instances of breaking and entering as well as assault and battery. Mr. Chen also told the committee that the CCP
controls most Chinese-language media in the West, including the U.S., largely through dictating advertisement revenue through Chinese-owned businesses. With this control, the CCP can re-iterate the Party line in Chinese communities throughout the US.
In his testimony he said there are thousands of informants working covertly, against the Falun Gong. He also indicated that Embassy's (missions...consulates etc.) have "at least" one official overseeing these operations.
This is nothing short of a BOMBSHELL! What he essentially said here is that Chinese Diplomatic missions within U.S. territory are launching black operations on U.S. citizens. This is powerful on many fronts: a. Chinese Covert operations are present on U.S. soil, operating out of Embassy's. and b. Chinese Covert operatives are targeting U.S. citizens (Falun Gong).
This is like saying that KGB operatives are targeting U.S. citizens. POWERFUL. Somehow though, I think if were the KGB, the story would get more play. We treat China with such Kid Gloves.
In doing a little research for this post, I was shocked and amazed at the the vast amount of congressional testimony which exists on this topic. Since the early 2000's Congress has been discussing how Chinese Covert operatives are working on U.S. soil: Covert Break-ins, Phone Intercepts, Assaults, etc. etc. again... VERY VERY SPOOKY. I'm spooked just writing this blog.
FAIRFAX DIGITAL
Mr Chen repeated claims that more than 1000 Chinese secret agents and informants were tracking and persecuting Falun Gong members. "In each Chinese mission overseas, there must be at least one official in charge of Falun Gong affairs, he said.
By Jonathon Browde WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Chen described the organization of Chinese missions worldwide, saying they are divided into two categories: diplomatic and intelligence gathering. Those working to gather intelligence, Mr. Chen said, report directly back to Beijing and not their local mission, allowing Beijing to
use missions worldwide as a vast spy network.
The US House passed a resolution in September 2004 condemning the CCP for spying on and harassing Americans who practise Falun Gong. The resolution listed instances of breaking and entering as well as assault and battery. Mr. Chen also told the committee that the CCP
controls most Chinese-language media in the West, including the U.S., largely through dictating advertisement revenue through Chinese-owned businesses. With this control, the CCP can re-iterate the Party line in Chinese communities throughout the US.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Exposed: Chinese Black Operations On U.S. Soil
Sounds like the stuff movies are made out of. Spend a little time reading the headlines and it wont take you long to understand there is a greater chance that not that Chinese operatives are working their MOJO on U.S. soil.
For now, their hostile operations seem to be directed at dissidents such as the Uigurs and Falun Gong. Of course, read through my previous posts and you'll get a good history of their U.S. based operations respective of Front Companies, Economic Espionage, Political Influence, and Theft of Sensitive U.S. Technology.
In an interesting article, Forbes outlines a number of Chinese black operations. With black operations comes, sleeper cells, safe houses, and spys..... the stuff spy movies are made of. Sexy stuff huh?
FORBES
Overseas Falun Gong practitioners are, for example, leading an underground campaign to hack China's Internet firewalls to counter the Chinese Communist Party's news blackout and propaganda in the Middle Kingdom. But there are many skirmishes between Chinese communism and Chinese spiritualism taking place on U.S. soil.
Last year, however, Falun Gong practitioners worldwide were themselves barraged with harassing phone calls, including death threats. Some of these campaigns involved hours of continuous and simultaneous ringing of work and home phones and private cell phones.
A few days before the July 1999 crackdown in China, Falun Gong Web sites in Canada and the U.S. began to crash. According to Ethan Gutmann, author of Losing the New China, a Falun Gong practitioner in Washington traced the "denial of service" hacker attacks through an Asia-Pacific Internet registry, to No. 14 East Chang'an Street, Beijing, where China's Ministry of Public Security is located.
The Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong followers is allegedly run by the notorious Office 6-10, a specially created unit that has overseen a terror campaign, which survivors say includes mass arrests, imprisonment in labor camps, brainwashing, torture and, in some cases, murder, for all those who failed to renounce their allegiance to Falun Gong.
For now, their hostile operations seem to be directed at dissidents such as the Uigurs and Falun Gong. Of course, read through my previous posts and you'll get a good history of their U.S. based operations respective of Front Companies, Economic Espionage, Political Influence, and Theft of Sensitive U.S. Technology.
In an interesting article, Forbes outlines a number of Chinese black operations. With black operations comes, sleeper cells, safe houses, and spys..... the stuff spy movies are made of. Sexy stuff huh?
FORBES
Overseas Falun Gong practitioners are, for example, leading an underground campaign to hack China's Internet firewalls to counter the Chinese Communist Party's news blackout and propaganda in the Middle Kingdom. But there are many skirmishes between Chinese communism and Chinese spiritualism taking place on U.S. soil.
Last year, however, Falun Gong practitioners worldwide were themselves barraged with harassing phone calls, including death threats. Some of these campaigns involved hours of continuous and simultaneous ringing of work and home phones and private cell phones.
A few days before the July 1999 crackdown in China, Falun Gong Web sites in Canada and the U.S. began to crash. According to Ethan Gutmann, author of Losing the New China, a Falun Gong practitioner in Washington traced the "denial of service" hacker attacks through an Asia-Pacific Internet registry, to No. 14 East Chang'an Street, Beijing, where China's Ministry of Public Security is located.
The Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong followers is allegedly run by the notorious Office 6-10, a specially created unit that has overseen a terror campaign, which survivors say includes mass arrests, imprisonment in labor camps, brainwashing, torture and, in some cases, murder, for all those who failed to renounce their allegiance to Falun Gong.
Friday, February 2, 2007
A Burger For China
One thing is for certain, China understands massive corruption and they were willing to import the grotesque practice to the highest levels of the U.S. government. From front companies, tobribery, China plays nothing short of high stakes hard-ball. Their presence as a military power has come at the loss of U.S. technology and the exploitation of U.S. sensitive enterprises.
Berger's China work makes archive heist look tame
Two weeks back, the Chinese military shocked America by shooting one of China's aging satellites out of the sky with a ground-based missile. Old as the satellite may have been, it was still up 500 miles in space. This was a scarily impressive bit of saber rattling.
As it happens, no American played a greater role in the success of that shoot-down than the much-discussed chairman and founder of Stonebridge International, Samuel "Sandy" Berger.
In February 1996, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown was dispatched to New York to pick up checks from Schwartz in person. It was the president's way of signaling his obeisance. For all his failings, it disgusted Brown that Clinton had turned him into little more than a "bagman."
Schwartz did not make his donations in an informational vacuum. According to the New York Times, "February 1996" represented a moment of keen impasse between warring forces within the Clinton administration. With his generous support, Schwartz surely was hoping to breach the enemy's defenses.
The enemy in this case was his own Pentagon and intelligence community. Much to Schwartz's frustration, they were standing firm on the question of commercial satellites.
Given the vital technology contained therein, much of it secret, they had convinced Secretary of State Warren Christopher in October 1995 to keep the satellites on the so-called ''munitions list,'' an inventory of the nation's most sensitive military and intelligence-gathering equipment.
The president also faced strong resistance from the genuine liberals within the administration. In the margin of a December 1995 document, for example, senior adviser George Stephanopoulos scrawled a vulgar note strongly criticizing the president's China policy.
Soon after he returned from his New York rendezvous with Schwartz, Brown learned he would be meeting – by order of the White House – with a character by the name of Wang Jun. The sheer bravado of Wang Jun's petition and the brazenness of the Clintons in welcoming him leave one awestruck.
Wang Jun chaired Poly Technologies, a company controlled by the People's Liberation Army. According to a Rand Corporation report forced from the U.S. Department of Commerce by a federal lawsuit, one of Poly Technologies' profit centers was the "importation and distribution of semi-automatic rifles for the U.S. domestic market."
Between 1987 and 1993, the company and its affiliates sold more than $200 million worth of these guns in the United States. When Clinton piously signed into law the banning of certain semi-automatic weapons in 1994, Poly Technologies only profited. They exploited export loopholes to circumvent the ban and ultimately resorted to old-fashioned smuggling.
On the day of the Wang meeting, Feb. 6, 1996, Brown did not know about Wang Jun's arms trade. Brown only knew the meeting was to be about satellite export controls.
This makes sense as Wang also owned a huge stake in a Hong Kong satellite company. Brown's task was to assure the Chinese that America intended to be a most friendly trading partner, and if Wang ever had any problems dealing with the United States, he could call Brown directly at anytime.
Brown had little choice in the matter. Later that afternoon, the White House also insisted that he join Wang at an intimate "coffee" with President Clinton. It was an only-in-America kind of moment. Wang Jun, who had cut arms deals with Chinese allies in places like Libya, Iran, Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan, now found himself at a cordial private coffee with – of all people – the president of the United States.
This friendly meeting occurred less than four years after Clinton had excoriated the first President Bush for "coddling tyrants" in Beijing and conducting "business as usual with those who murdered freedom at Tiananmen Square." No matter.
Clinton pal Charlie Trie had greased the Wang Jun meeting with a $50,000 payment. To the president's humble credit, as the Thompson Committee would later report, he did admit that the meeting with the PLA arms dealer, Wang, was "clearly inappropriate."
The president did not apologize, however, for signing waivers for four more satellite launches by Chinese rockets on that same February day. The president approved these waivers despite reports the month before that China continued to export nuclear technology to Pakistan and missiles to Iran, the latter deal Wang was suspected of brokering.
Just a week or so after Wang Jun's excellent Washington adventure, a Chinese Long March 3B rocket carrying the Loral-built Intelsat 708 satellite crashed just after liftoff and killed or injured at least 60 people in a nearby village. This was the third Long March failure in the last three years involving U.S.-built satellite payloads.
The Pentagon welcomed the news of the Chinese failure. With the collapse of the Soviets, the People's Republic had emerged as America's most serious potential enemy, and its leaders weren't afraid to say so.
Just a few months earlier, in fact, a Chinese Military officer had warned American Ambassador Chas Freeman, "If you hit us now, we can hit back. So you will not make those threats [about Taiwan]." The officer then proffered the following not so cryptic caveat: "In the end you care more about Los Angeles than you do about Taipei."
American technical advice was making these Chinese boasts more than an empty threat. And yet in their relentless drive to raise money, the Clintons were fully prepared to broker that advice. In March 1996, Berger pressed on and managed to finesse a compromise that sent satellite control to Brown at Commerce and cost the Pentagon its veto power.
Feeling confident about his relationship with the president, Schwartz up and dispatched a Loral-led review team to China to assess the February 1996 failure of the Long March 3B rocket and suggest refinements.
The Cox Committee would later describe Schwartz's actions as "an unlicensed defense service for the PRC that resulted in the improvement of the reliability of the PRC's military rockets and ballistic missiles."
So serious was the offense that in 1998 the Criminal Division of the Justice Department launched an investigation. Incredibly, while the investigation was in process, Berger, now national security adviser, sent a memo to the president urging him to "waive the legislative restriction on the export to China of the communications satellites and related equipment for the Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) Chinasat 8 project."
This waiver would present a huge problem for the prosecution. Berger admitted as much: "Justice believes that a jury would not convict once it learned that the president had found SS/L's Chinasat 8 project to be in the national interest."
But Berger was not about to let that stop him: "We will take the firm position that this waiver does not exonerate or in any way prejudge SS/L with respect to its prior unauthorized transfers to China." Berger was blowing smoke, and he knew it. A waiver would make prosecution all but impossible.
The president could only issue a waiver, however, if it served America's "national interest." Berger made an almost comically specious case that it did, arguing satellite technology would give remote Chinese villagers access "to people and ideas in democratic societies." During these misbegotten years, one trembles at what the villagers might have learned about American democracy.
So much for the national interest. Ross then added the kicker, sure to win the president's heart. "Bernard Schwartz had intended to raise this issue with you at the Blair dinner, but missed you in the crowd." Schwartz knew he had a friend in the White House. The president approved the waiver, and the prosecution came to naught.
This story merits its own book, but what deserves immediate comment is the willingness of Berger and the Clintons to risk everything to keep the cash pipeline open. In his purloining of the National Archives, Berger risked everything once again. He and the Clintons have apparently come to take the major media's complicity for granted.
As for Schwartz, he kept the cash pipeline open and full. Before he was through, Schwartz and Loral would donate roughly $2 million to the Clinton cause. Whether Schwartz gave additional money or favors off the books is a question that deserves asking. Before his untimely death in April 1996, Brown was reporting that he had.
Wang Jun ran into problems of his own when on May 23, 1996, CNN breathlessly reported "the largest seizure of smuggled automatic weapons in U.S. history." The San Francisco Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had infiltrated a smuggling ring and confiscated 2,000 fully automatic AK-47 rifles imported from China.
The weapons were found on board a COSCO ship, the enterprise that had been trying to secure the Long Beach Naval Station. CNN traced the rifles to Wang's Poly Technologies.
Wang, however, had not wasted his investment. Someone in the know did the arms merchant a large favor by leaking the news of the BATF gun-smuggling investigation well before it was wrapped up. The Bay-area bust was premature. The BATF was not able to nail the operation's ringleaders. Like Sandy Berger himself, Wang Jun was freed up for further mischief.
We may never know what Berger stole from the National Archives or how much damage he did to the nation's battle against Islamic terrorists.
It is hard to imagine, though, that China would have developed the capacity to shoot satellites out of the sky – certainly not this quickly – without the help of its good friends in the White House. At the end of the day, this betrayal will make for an anxiety of much greater magnitude.
Berger's China work makes archive heist look tame
Two weeks back, the Chinese military shocked America by shooting one of China's aging satellites out of the sky with a ground-based missile. Old as the satellite may have been, it was still up 500 miles in space. This was a scarily impressive bit of saber rattling.
As it happens, no American played a greater role in the success of that shoot-down than the much-discussed chairman and founder of Stonebridge International, Samuel "Sandy" Berger.
In February 1996, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown was dispatched to New York to pick up checks from Schwartz in person. It was the president's way of signaling his obeisance. For all his failings, it disgusted Brown that Clinton had turned him into little more than a "bagman."
Schwartz did not make his donations in an informational vacuum. According to the New York Times, "February 1996" represented a moment of keen impasse between warring forces within the Clinton administration. With his generous support, Schwartz surely was hoping to breach the enemy's defenses.
The enemy in this case was his own Pentagon and intelligence community. Much to Schwartz's frustration, they were standing firm on the question of commercial satellites.
Given the vital technology contained therein, much of it secret, they had convinced Secretary of State Warren Christopher in October 1995 to keep the satellites on the so-called ''munitions list,'' an inventory of the nation's most sensitive military and intelligence-gathering equipment.
The president also faced strong resistance from the genuine liberals within the administration. In the margin of a December 1995 document, for example, senior adviser George Stephanopoulos scrawled a vulgar note strongly criticizing the president's China policy.
Soon after he returned from his New York rendezvous with Schwartz, Brown learned he would be meeting – by order of the White House – with a character by the name of Wang Jun. The sheer bravado of Wang Jun's petition and the brazenness of the Clintons in welcoming him leave one awestruck.
Wang Jun chaired Poly Technologies, a company controlled by the People's Liberation Army. According to a Rand Corporation report forced from the U.S. Department of Commerce by a federal lawsuit, one of Poly Technologies' profit centers was the "importation and distribution of semi-automatic rifles for the U.S. domestic market."
Between 1987 and 1993, the company and its affiliates sold more than $200 million worth of these guns in the United States. When Clinton piously signed into law the banning of certain semi-automatic weapons in 1994, Poly Technologies only profited. They exploited export loopholes to circumvent the ban and ultimately resorted to old-fashioned smuggling.
On the day of the Wang meeting, Feb. 6, 1996, Brown did not know about Wang Jun's arms trade. Brown only knew the meeting was to be about satellite export controls.
This makes sense as Wang also owned a huge stake in a Hong Kong satellite company. Brown's task was to assure the Chinese that America intended to be a most friendly trading partner, and if Wang ever had any problems dealing with the United States, he could call Brown directly at anytime.
Brown had little choice in the matter. Later that afternoon, the White House also insisted that he join Wang at an intimate "coffee" with President Clinton. It was an only-in-America kind of moment. Wang Jun, who had cut arms deals with Chinese allies in places like Libya, Iran, Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan, now found himself at a cordial private coffee with – of all people – the president of the United States.
This friendly meeting occurred less than four years after Clinton had excoriated the first President Bush for "coddling tyrants" in Beijing and conducting "business as usual with those who murdered freedom at Tiananmen Square." No matter.
Clinton pal Charlie Trie had greased the Wang Jun meeting with a $50,000 payment. To the president's humble credit, as the Thompson Committee would later report, he did admit that the meeting with the PLA arms dealer, Wang, was "clearly inappropriate."
The president did not apologize, however, for signing waivers for four more satellite launches by Chinese rockets on that same February day. The president approved these waivers despite reports the month before that China continued to export nuclear technology to Pakistan and missiles to Iran, the latter deal Wang was suspected of brokering.
Just a week or so after Wang Jun's excellent Washington adventure, a Chinese Long March 3B rocket carrying the Loral-built Intelsat 708 satellite crashed just after liftoff and killed or injured at least 60 people in a nearby village. This was the third Long March failure in the last three years involving U.S.-built satellite payloads.
The Pentagon welcomed the news of the Chinese failure. With the collapse of the Soviets, the People's Republic had emerged as America's most serious potential enemy, and its leaders weren't afraid to say so.
Just a few months earlier, in fact, a Chinese Military officer had warned American Ambassador Chas Freeman, "If you hit us now, we can hit back. So you will not make those threats [about Taiwan]." The officer then proffered the following not so cryptic caveat: "In the end you care more about Los Angeles than you do about Taipei."
American technical advice was making these Chinese boasts more than an empty threat. And yet in their relentless drive to raise money, the Clintons were fully prepared to broker that advice. In March 1996, Berger pressed on and managed to finesse a compromise that sent satellite control to Brown at Commerce and cost the Pentagon its veto power.
Feeling confident about his relationship with the president, Schwartz up and dispatched a Loral-led review team to China to assess the February 1996 failure of the Long March 3B rocket and suggest refinements.
The Cox Committee would later describe Schwartz's actions as "an unlicensed defense service for the PRC that resulted in the improvement of the reliability of the PRC's military rockets and ballistic missiles."
So serious was the offense that in 1998 the Criminal Division of the Justice Department launched an investigation. Incredibly, while the investigation was in process, Berger, now national security adviser, sent a memo to the president urging him to "waive the legislative restriction on the export to China of the communications satellites and related equipment for the Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) Chinasat 8 project."
This waiver would present a huge problem for the prosecution. Berger admitted as much: "Justice believes that a jury would not convict once it learned that the president had found SS/L's Chinasat 8 project to be in the national interest."
But Berger was not about to let that stop him: "We will take the firm position that this waiver does not exonerate or in any way prejudge SS/L with respect to its prior unauthorized transfers to China." Berger was blowing smoke, and he knew it. A waiver would make prosecution all but impossible.
The president could only issue a waiver, however, if it served America's "national interest." Berger made an almost comically specious case that it did, arguing satellite technology would give remote Chinese villagers access "to people and ideas in democratic societies." During these misbegotten years, one trembles at what the villagers might have learned about American democracy.
So much for the national interest. Ross then added the kicker, sure to win the president's heart. "Bernard Schwartz had intended to raise this issue with you at the Blair dinner, but missed you in the crowd." Schwartz knew he had a friend in the White House. The president approved the waiver, and the prosecution came to naught.
This story merits its own book, but what deserves immediate comment is the willingness of Berger and the Clintons to risk everything to keep the cash pipeline open. In his purloining of the National Archives, Berger risked everything once again. He and the Clintons have apparently come to take the major media's complicity for granted.
As for Schwartz, he kept the cash pipeline open and full. Before he was through, Schwartz and Loral would donate roughly $2 million to the Clinton cause. Whether Schwartz gave additional money or favors off the books is a question that deserves asking. Before his untimely death in April 1996, Brown was reporting that he had.
Wang Jun ran into problems of his own when on May 23, 1996, CNN breathlessly reported "the largest seizure of smuggled automatic weapons in U.S. history." The San Francisco Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had infiltrated a smuggling ring and confiscated 2,000 fully automatic AK-47 rifles imported from China.
The weapons were found on board a COSCO ship, the enterprise that had been trying to secure the Long Beach Naval Station. CNN traced the rifles to Wang's Poly Technologies.
Wang, however, had not wasted his investment. Someone in the know did the arms merchant a large favor by leaking the news of the BATF gun-smuggling investigation well before it was wrapped up. The Bay-area bust was premature. The BATF was not able to nail the operation's ringleaders. Like Sandy Berger himself, Wang Jun was freed up for further mischief.
We may never know what Berger stole from the National Archives or how much damage he did to the nation's battle against Islamic terrorists.
It is hard to imagine, though, that China would have developed the capacity to shoot satellites out of the sky – certainly not this quickly – without the help of its good friends in the White House. At the end of the day, this betrayal will make for an anxiety of much greater magnitude.
A Record That Spins The Other Direction.
The horrible Chinese record on free speech is off the charts. Journalist are often times threatened, followed, monitored, sanctioned and murdered. Those who find themselves in prison end up dead or mentally finished. With such regulation of free speech one wonders the horror hidden from the rest of the world.
Reporters Without Boarders has released their annual report. It's a good read. Highlights provided here for CFA readers.
China-Annual Report: 2007
Yu Dongyue, who was arrested during the Tiananmen Square massacres of 1989, was released in February but had been driven insane as a result of long periods in solitary confinement. At least 31 journalists were in jail as of 1st January 2007.
Hu Jintao’s voiced rage against “hostile forces", whom he accused of fomenting a "coloured revolution” backed by the United States and led by human rights activists and liberal journalists, when he spoke to an audience of ministers, ambassadors and party provincial officials in August 2006. As preparations got under way for the next Communist Party Congress in October 2007, public security arrested at least 12 journalists and placed scores more under surveillance. This crackdown has also extended to lawyers. In March they were banned by China’s Association of Lawyers from speaking to foreign journalists about “masses incidents”, concerning groups such as the unemployed and the peasants. In September, Chinese judges had the same ban on speaking to the press slapped on them.
The Propaganda Department continues to attack each article deemed to be contrary to the new ideology of a “harmonious society” proclaimed by Hu Jintao. Media editors receive regularly a list of banned subjects. These might be demonstrations by peasants, the unemployed or Tibetans. Nothing escapes the censors, who cultivate a climate of fear within editorial offices. Censorship cases can be measured in their tens of thousands each year.
At the beginning of the year, the Propaganda Department dismissed prominent journalists Li Datong and Lu Yaogang from the weekly Bing Dian. This purge provoked a strong reaction within the profession and the communist party. To quell this defiance, the authorities banned any reference to it, put forums used by journalists under surveillance and sent police officers into editorial offices.
Increasing physical attacks on journalists are no longer being committed only by members of the security forces. Delinquents or henchmen in the pay of businessmen are also involved. Reporters Without Borders has recorded around 40 such incidents. But, according to the official organisation, journalism has become the third most dangerous job after mining and the police. . Two journalists, Wu Xianghu and Xiao Guopeng, were killed by police in 2006.
Millions listen to the BBC and Radio Free Asia programmes in Chinese, but their broadcasts are jammed. In 2006, Reporters Without Borders tested the jamming of Voice of Tibet and Radio Free Asia in Tibet. The authorities overlay programmes on short and medium wave with thudding sounds or educational programmes in Chinese.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Hot analysis on Chinese Satellite Threat.
The good people over at China Confidential have put together an excellent analysis of the Chinese Anti-Satellite threat, Chinese Propaganda, and deeper issues behind the latest satellite test. I've attached a few excerpts from their blog for you.
China's Slap-in-the-Face Satellite Strike
For the United States, China's destruction of one of its own obsolete weather satellites is at a minimum a serious slap in the face by an increasingly nationalistic regime bent on replacing the US as the global Hegemon.
The satellite intercept by a medium-range KT-1 ballistic missile belies Beijing's peacefully rising propaganda and the wishful thinking--or outright disinformation--on the part of the fawning US State Department that China is becoming a so-called responsible stakeholder in the international community.
The brazen blast also mocks the absurd argument of US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that China's economic, political--and even military--rise is somehow in the US national interest. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The satellite strike could be the tip of the iceberg, or missile, if you will. Worse news is yet to come. The destroyed orbiter occupied a region of space only around 500 miles high--known as low-Earth orbit--which is the lowest of the available satellite orbits. Low-Earth orbit is favored for spy satellites because it gives the military the best possible images of the ground.
"China's action makes the whole world suspect that China's self-claimed 'peaceful emergence' is deception and propaganda," Taiwan government spokesman Cheng Wen-tsan said. "Deep in its bones, China want to become a military superpower and dominate the region by force."
Ironically, in written testimony submitted to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the same day China conducted its anti-satellite test, the country was named alongside Russia as "the primary states of concern regarding military space and counter-space programs" by US Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Said Maples: "Several countries continue to develop capabilities that have the potential to threaten US space assets, and some have already deployed systems with inherent anti-satellite capabilities, such as satellite-tracking laser range-finding devices and nuclear-armed ballistic missiles."
For the United States, China's destruction of one of its own obsolete weather satellites is at a minimum a serious slap in the face by an increasingly nationalistic regime bent on replacing the US as the global Hegemon.
The satellite intercept by a medium-range KT-1 ballistic missile belies Beijing's peacefully rising propaganda and the wishful thinking--or outright disinformation--on the part of the fawning US State Department that China is becoming a so-called responsible stakeholder in the international community.
The brazen blast also mocks the absurd argument of US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that China's economic, political--and even military--rise is somehow in the US national interest. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The satellite strike could be the tip of the iceberg, or missile, if you will. Worse news is yet to come. The destroyed orbiter occupied a region of space only around 500 miles high--known as low-Earth orbit--which is the lowest of the available satellite orbits. Low-Earth orbit is favored for spy satellites because it gives the military the best possible images of the ground.
"China's action makes the whole world suspect that China's self-claimed 'peaceful emergence' is deception and propaganda," Taiwan government spokesman Cheng Wen-tsan said. "Deep in its bones, China want to become a military superpower and dominate the region by force."
Ironically, in written testimony submitted to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the same day China conducted its anti-satellite test, the country was named alongside Russia as "the primary states of concern regarding military space and counter-space programs" by US Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Said Maples: "Several countries continue to develop capabilities that have the potential to threaten US space assets, and some have already deployed systems with inherent anti-satellite capabilities, such as satellite-tracking laser range-finding devices and nuclear-armed ballistic missiles."
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