By Selwyn Duke
As preoccupied as we are with Islamic terrorism, it's easy to ignore the perhaps even greater threat posed by China. China is a burgeoning nation -- ambitious, technologically savvy, ruthless -- and she dwarfs us in population. She wants to supplant us as the world's "hegemon," and we had better take notice.
It's very hard to get Americans to understand the true gravity of such threats. We have been the king of the hill for so long, the idea that some nation could knock us off our perch may seem laughable. Sure, these "secondary" powers could be thorns in our side, but this is the United States. I'm sure the Romans probably had this attitude as well; that is, until Rome itself was sacked by barbarians in 410 A.D.
The shocking truth is that China is building up her military faster than our intelligence experts thought possible. Moreover, her population is four times the size of ours and she is producing 10 times as many scientists (I don't think too many Chinese are majoring in the humanities) . The last fact is most significant, as scientists are the ones who create the technology that will win the battles of the future.
While China probably hasn't surpassed us in the brainpower department yet, it seems that she is making us look like neophytes in the arena of espionage. Bill Gertz treated this subject in this Washington Times piece. Citing a congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report, Gertz wrote,
. . . China is engaged in a 'large-scale industrial espionage campaign' with 'scores' of cases involving spies seeking U.S. technology.
'As Chinese espionage against the U.S. military and American businesses continues to outpace the overwhelmed U.S. counterintelligence community, critical American secrets and proprietary technologies are being transferred to the PLA and Chinese state-owned companies,' the report said.
The report concluded that 'surprises' about Chinese military and technology developments raise questions about the quality of U.S. intelligence on China.
Is it any surprise that China is running rings around us with respect to espionage? With as "multicultural" as we are, with all the people we absorb whose allegiance obviously lies elsewhere, it can't be hard for foreign nations to find sympathetic individuals in any field who will be eager to do their bidding. And as handcuffed and blinded as we are by political correctness, if we applied greater scrutiny to those of Chinese descent who can access sensitive information, I'm sure a "racial profiling" lawsuit would be in the offing. Ah, the wonders of diversity. And I bet that's just what the Chinese are saying, too.
Being a relatively homogeneous nation, China has no such vulnerability. Good luck finding people living there who will be willing to help our cause; this isn't to say it's impossible to have operatives on the ground in China, but it does have to be far tougher in a more closed society where everyone looks basically the same and feels a sense of cohesiveness and national identity.
Of course, if we can convince Chinese schools to instill treasonous attitudes and self-loathing in the young, things may be different 50 years hence. But why would they do that? A nation would have to be insane to follow such a course.
I know, I know, I must be a bigot to even be talking about this. We all know that immigration in the United States is grand, the very lifeblood of the nation; that is, the Chinese nation, the Russian nation, the Iranian nation, the Korean nation . . . .
So we should definitely forget that stupid apocryphal saying: "A sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." No, we shouldn't change a thing.
You show your ignorance by saying that all Chinese look alike. To Chinese al white man look alike.
Posted by: Li Chow Ho | November 23, 2007 at 11:20 PM
I notice tht you have become very sarcastic MR.Duke.
Posted by: larry gilbertson | November 23, 2007 at 11:23 PM
There is good reason we are “preoccupied with Islamic terrorism.” A week doesn’t go by when something doesn’t appear in the news that makes you ask yourself, “Are these people just nuts?”
With the kidnappings and murders, the shooting down of massed tourists, the stonings, the riots, the hand choppings, the video-slow-slicing off of living human heads with small knives, the suicide bombing-murders and honor killings; One has to wonder what is going on in that culture that tolerates that madness, let alone seems to accept it. Today, I read that a fifty-four year old, European, woman was arrested and jailed in Sudan for naming a Teddy Bear in her class Mohammed. She faces prison and forty lashes. Need more be said?
One wonders if we are actually occupied enough with the clearly voiced threat all this is to America. There really is no question that they intend to destroy us. They have said so. The question is, “How closely were we listening?”
Posted by: | November 26, 2007 at 06:45 PM