China, Taiwan, Japan, US -- Weapons and Trade

"Chinese trade is going to be a lightning rod in Congress in the coming months"

U.S. flooded by imports from China Patrice Hill, Apr. 13, 05, Washington Times

The trade deficit surged to a record $61 billion in February on the escalating cost of imported oil and a flood of Chinese clothing imports, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.

With the deficit already threatening to beat by one-third last year's astronomical $666 billion total, the possibility of political retaliation on Capitol Hill — especially over China's currency manipulation to gain a competitive advantage — is growing.

The Senate last week overwhelmingly approved an amendment to impose stiff trade sanctions on China unless it stops keeping its currency artificially low. The legislation was withdrawn after sponsors won agreement to bring it up for a separate vote by the end of July. [. . . . ]

The same has happened in Canada; imports from China are away up. Canadians blithely buy more imported stuff -- until one by one, they likely will lose their jobs -- and can't afford to buy much any more.





Asia Times: The real 'China threat' Chalmers Johnson, Mar 19, 2005, Asia Times -- from Japan Policy Research Institute: The real 'China threat' by Chalmers Johnson, president of the Japan Policy Research Institute.

[. . . . ] The truly significant trade development of 2004 was the EU's emergence as China's biggest economic partner, suggesting the possibility of a Sino-European cooperative bloc confronting a less vital Japanese-American one. As the Financial Times observed, "Three years after its entry into the World Trade Organization [in 2001], China's influence in global commerce is no longer merely significant. It is crucial." For example, most Dell computers sold in the US are made in China, as are the digital-video-disc players of Japan's Funai Electric Co. Funai annually exports some 10 million DVD players and television sets from China to the United States, where they are sold primarily in Wal-Mart stores. China's trade with Europe in 2004 was worth $177.2 billion, with the United States $169.6 billion, and with Japan $167.8 billion.

China's growing economic weight in the world is widely recognized and applauded, but it is China's growth rates and their effect on the future global balance of power that the US and Japan, rightly or wrongly, fear. [. . . . ] Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs reports that the number of men in Japan already declined [. . . . ]

[. . . . ] Japan still possesses the world's largest foreign-exchange reserves, which at the end of January stood at around $841 billion. But China sits on a $609.9 billion pile of dollars (as of the end of 2004), earned from its trade surpluses with the US.[. . . . ]

A "breakaway" province? Was Taiwan ever formally a part of China? A fiefdom? A democracy now -- but Hong Kong thought it was, too.




The following is relevant at this point.

BBC: China's anti-Japan rallies spread Apr. 10, 05, via Jack's Newswatch


China's Military Goal Is to Stop U.S. Defense of Taiwan Edward Cody, Washington Post, April 12, 2005 -- from NewsMax.com

BEIJING -- A top-to-bottom modernization is transforming the Chinese military, raising the stakes for U.S. forces long dominant in the Pacific.

Several programs to improve China's armed forces could soon produce a stronger nuclear deterrent against the United States, soldiers better trained to use high-technology weapons, and more effective cruise and anti-ship missiles for use in the waters around Taiwan, according to foreign specialists and U.S. officials. In the past several weeks, President Bush and his senior aides, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Director of Central Intelligence Porter J. Goss, have expressed concern over the recent pace of China's military progress and its effect on the regional balance of power.

[. . . . ] U.S. and Taiwanese military officials pointed in particular to China's rapid development of cruise and other anti-ship missiles designed to pierce the electronic defenses of U.S. vessels that might be dispatched to the Taiwan Strait in case of conflict.

The Chinese navy has taken delivery of two Russian-built Sovremenny-class guided missile destroyers and has six more on order, equipped with Sunburn missiles able to skim 4 1/2 feet above the water at a speed of Mach 2.5 to evade radar. In addition, it has contracted with Russia to buy eight Kilo-class diesel submarines that carry Club anti-ship missiles with a range of 145 miles.

[. . . . ] The Nuclear Deterrent

Strategically, China's military is also close to achieving an improved nuclear deterrent against the United States, according to foreign officials and specialists.

[. . . . ] Projecting Force to Taiwan

[. . . . ] High-Tech Emphasis

A little-discussed but key facet of China's military modernization has been a reduction in personnel and an intensive effort to better train and equip the soldiers who remain, particularly those who operate high-technology weapons. Dennis J. Blasko, a former U.S. military attache in Beijing who is writing a book on the People's Liberation Army, said that forming a core of skilled commissioned and noncommissioned officers and other specialists who can make the military run in a high-tech environment may be just as important in the long run as buying sophisticated weapons.

[. . . . ] Air Superiority

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