Eyes On Communist China

Last week, Americans got a sense of how foreign investment can also have a downside. The China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), 70% owned by the Chinese government, offered to buy Unocal, a 115-year-old U.S. energy producer.The $18.5 billion bid raises a number of thorny policy questions. Among them: Would ceding control of a major oil company to a communist government-controlled entity pose a national security threat? And if the bid were to be blocked, would China retaliate against U.S. companies seeking to expand in China? These questions would be considered by a special national security panel if Unocal accepted the CNOOC bid. Link

"Chinese dragon awakens?"WASHINGTON -- China is building its military forces faster than U.S. intelligence and military analysts expected, prompting fears that Beijing will attack Taiwan in the next two years, according to Pentagon officials.U.S. defense and intelligence officials say all the signs point in one troubling direction: Beijing then will be forced to go to war with the United States, which has vowed to defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack.China's military buildup includes an array of new high-technology weapons, such as warships, submarines, missiles and a maneuverable warhead designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses. Recent intelligence reports also show that China has stepped up military exercises involving amphibious assaults, viewed as another sign that it is preparing for an attack on Taiwan. Link

Analysts missed Chinese buildup

A highly classified intelligence report produced for the new director of national intelligence concludes that U.S. spy agencies failed to recognize several key military developments in China in the past decade, The Washington Times has learned. The report was created by several current and former intelligence officials and concludes that U.S. agencies missed more than a dozen Chinese military developments, according to officials familiar with the report. The report blames excessive secrecy on China's part for the failures, but critics say intelligence specialists are to blame for playing down or dismissing evidence of growing Chinese military capabilities.... Link

Thefts of U.S. technology boost China's weaponry

China is stepping up its overt and covert efforts to gather intelligence and technology in the United States, and the activities have boosted Beijing's plans to rapidly produce advanced-weapons systems."I think you see it where something that would normally take 10 years to develop takes them two or three," said David Szady, chief of FBI counterintelligence operations.He said the Chinese are prolific collectors of secrets and military-related information."What we're finding is that [the spying is] much more focused in certain areas than we ever thought, such as command and control and things of that sort," Mr. Szady said. LINK

Cyouincourt007: None of this is "new" to me... I hope it wasn't a wakeup call for anyone but "just in case"...Sooner or later we will have to deal with communist China...