- While China publicly states that it is
not a threat to U.S. national security, dangerous actions taken by the
Chinese government are putting America and her allies at risk.
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- China is arming Iran with advanced missile
technology. Recent Iranian missile tests highlight the close working relationship
between Beijing and Tehran.
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- While Chinese diplomats in the U.N. talk
of finding peace with a nuclear Iran, the People's Liberation Army is rapidly
provided Tehran with advanced weaponry.
-
- Iran demonstrated its newfound missile
technology from China by test-firing a new anti-ship missile during recent
military exercises. The shore-launched firing of a C-701 anti-ship missile
was carried out by Iran during the large-scale war games. Iranian reports
described the test-firing of a "Kosar" missile during the games.
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- China Precision Machinery Import-Export
Corp. (CPMIEC) has been working for two years with its Iranian counterpart,
the Aerospace Industries Organization, developing a radar-guided variant
of the C-701 cruise missile. The radar-guided C-701 is designated "Kosar"
by Iran.
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- The Iranian test is the first demonstration
of a radar-guided C-701, giving the small missile the capability to search
and lock onto a target ship without direct control. CPMIEC sources claim
the new C-701/Kosar is equipped with an advanced millimeter-wave radar
seeker that can provide high-resolution target imagery, allowing the missile
to identify its target and select a specific impact point.
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- In addition, Iran also fired an air-launched
version of the Chinese C-802 cruise missile, named "Noor" by
Iran. The launch platform was believed to be a Russian Mil-17 helicopter.
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- The C-802 anti-ship missile was developed
by China HaiYing Electro-Mechanical Technology Academy (CHETA), also known
as 3rd Aerospace Academy, located in the southwest suburbs of Beijing.
The C-802 is powered by a turbojet with paraffin-based fuel and carried
a 363-pound high-explosive warhead. The turbojet gives the sea-skimming
weapon a range of over 100 miles. The missile could pose a threat to major
warships including U.S. aircraft carriers.
-
- Iran also demonstrated a modified Shahab-3
ballistic missile, vaguely described by Tehran as having stealth capabilities
and multiple warheads. Instead, the weapon appears to have been equipped
with decoy or dummy warheads designed to confuse anti-missile defense such
as Patriot or the Israeli Arrow system.
-
- The Chinese missile proliferation to
Iran has brought sanctions against some of the specific PLA-owned companies
involved. However, the Bush administration officially gave the Chinese
government a waiver against broader sanctions that should have been imposed
due to the weapons sales to Iran.
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- China has previously been sited as the
source of missile, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons sales to Iran,
Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan, North Korea and Libya. In one case, detailed Chinese
blueprints of an atomic bomb were turned over to U.S. intelligence officials
by Libya. Libya has since abandoned its WMD projects and has invited U.S.
and European allies to help dismantle its nuclear and chemical weapons
programs.
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- Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled
to visit President Bush in Washington, D.C., on April 20. The proliferation
issue is not scheduled for discussion between Bush and Hu.
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- Port Insecurity
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- Meanwhile, another national security
issue involving China is nearing the boiling point. The Bush administration
selected Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa to operate a U.S.-made nuclear
weapons detection system at a container ship port in the Bahamas.
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- Hutchison Whampoa is documented as being
closely linked to the Chinese government, and the China Ocean Shipping
Company (COSCO) is the official flag carrier of the Chinese government.
Hutchison has exclusive rights to and control of all Chinese ports south
of Guangzho.
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- However, a recent failure has brought
the capability of Chinese port security operations into question. Twenty-two
illegal Chinese immigrants managed to make it to America inside a container
loaded onto the MV Rotterdam, a COSCO ship.
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- The Rotterdam arrived at Seattle's Harbor
island with a 40-foot metal container filled with 18 men and four women.
The illegal immigrants were caught by an unarmed guard and a local truck
driver moments after they freed themselves from the container.
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- According to a report by Brad Knickerbocker
of The Christian Science Monitor, the discovery showed "just how easy
it would have been to load that 40-foot metal box aboard the MV Rotterdam,
a vessel of China Shipping Line, with a weapon of mass destruction."
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- "If this was a chemical weapon exploding
in Seattle, the plume could contaminate the rail system, Interstate 5 and
SeaTac Airport, not to mention the entire downtown business and residential
district," stated Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
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- It is no coincidence that Hutchison Whampoa
operates all the main terminals in Shanghai; Hanghuabang, Jungonglu, Baoshan,
the Waigaoqiao Terminal and the Shanghai Mingdong Container Terminal. Hutchison
and COSCO are so closely linked that the Hong Kong company has a virtual
exclusive contract to handle all loading and security.
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- The MV Rotterdam incident highlights
the poor security and often corrupt activities associated with COSCO. COSCO
has been linked in the past by U.S. intelligence agencies to illegal smuggling
and international arms trafficking. COSCO ships have carried weapons to
Iran, Iraq and Cuba.
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- COSCO Ships
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- James Mulvenon, a China analyst with
the RAND Corporation, said that the Chinese Communist Party's military
organ approved establishment of COSCO as an arm of the Chinese navy in
1985.
-
- Mulvenon stated in his book "Soldiers
of Fortune" that COSCO's establishment "legitimized the use of
navy ships for civilian shipping and thus provided a legal cover for the
navy's smuggling."
-
- According to Mulvenon, the Chinese navy
was linked in 1985 to illegal smuggling in foreign cars, vans, TVs and
VCRs out of Hainan island in the South China Sea.
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- On March 18, 1996, undercover Customs
and BATF agents accepted delivery of guns smuggled aboard the COSCO ship
Empress Phoenix. The undercover agents had lured the Chinese into making
a trial shipment of Chinese machine guns, as part of an ongoing sting operation
dubbed "Dragon Fire."
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- The Chinese representatives of China
North Industries and Poly Technologies made it clear to the undercover
agents that everything in the PLA inventory was available for sale, from
grenade launchers to shoulder-fired Red Parakeet surface-to-air missiles.
-
- Federal agents unpacked COSCO crates
containing 2,000 Poly Technologies AK-47s delivered from the hold of the
Empress Phoenix. It was the largest seizure of fully operational automatic
weapons in the history of U.S. law enforcement.
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- In 1998, U.S. intelligence agencies tracked
a COSCO freighter from Shanghai to Karachi, Pakistan, with a load of weapons-related
goods, including specialty metals and electronics used in the production
of Chinese-designed Baktar Shikha anti-tank missiles.
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- On April 12, 2001, the Vancouver Sun
reported that the sound of laughter alerted crew members of the COSCO ship
Pretty River to the presence of what turned out to be two containers of
Chinese being smuggled into the country at the retired navy base at Long
Beach, Calif.
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- New Policy Needed
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- These samples of Chinese shipping security
do not give one a warm fuzzy feeling about allowing Hutchison Whampoa to
protect America against nuclear weapons smuggled on board a COSCO ship.
The Bush administration should reconsider its decision to select Hutchison
and assign the task to U.S. officials either in Homeland Security or the
Coast Guard.
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- In addition, President Bush should confront
Chinese President Hu with the facts. The continued Chinese missile proliferation
and poor security measures threaten the entire globe. The Bush policy of
"look the other way" will not protect America nor will it bring
peace between the U.S. and China.
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- http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/4/16/153834.shtml
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