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Posted on 10/10/2001 6:55:26 AM PDT by InvisibleChurch

The quiet resolve that President Bush has demonstrated in his response to terrorist outrages against the United States has impressed the Chinese regime, awakening it to the fact that it is now dealing with something very different from the cowardly and thoroughly corrupt Clinton administration.

While Clinton was treated with silent contempt masked with a veil of Oriental politeness Bush has earned the grudging respect of men who admire the application of cold steel and who understand the need for iron-like resolve and calculating patience. To the surprise of many, President Bush has exhibited these qualities, qualities that will stand him in good stead in the future when once again he will have to deal directly with Beijing.

The American people will probably never know how fortunate they were when in their hour of need and grief that it was Bush who sat in the Oval Office, the leader of the world’s most powerful and generous nation, quietly assessing the situation and with grim determination deciding on the necessary course of military action. And military action is something that Beijing understands.

I know there are those within the Chinese military who have made the grave error of mistaking the terrorists’ successful attack on the United States as weakness. There are those, however, within the ‘inner’ Party who fully understand that the terrorists owe their success to the nature of America’s open society and not to cowardice or to any moral or military weakness on the part of Americans.

President Bush’s civilised and carefully planned response to bin Laden’s barbarism and to the ruling Taliban’s arrogant stupidity has strengthened the hand of those within China’s regime who are urging caution in dealing with the new administration. One might successfully threaten Clinton with vaporising Los Angeles but never Bush.

The ramifications in Asia of a sustained and successful assault by America and its British ally against the Taliban and the just destruction of the evil and fanatical bin Laden cannot be calculated. That these two powers are so willing to cooperate with each other militarily at any time, regardless of casualties, will impress those in the region who felt that America was on the retreat in the Pacific-Asian region.

The importance of what has just been said must not be understated. There has been speculation that Beijing will use the attack on the Taliban as an opportunity to strike at Taiwan. Forget it. Any possibility of that happening was quashed by President Bush’s decision to bring down the Taliban and terminate bin Laden. (Only an idiot would think that bin Laden will ever be brought into a court of law. And only an idiot would insist on it).

No, regardless of speculation and rumours the PLA is not going to launch an attack on Taiwan. Any possibility of that happening in the near future, which was remote in any case, has been firmly put to rest. Anyhow, those who engage in such wild speculation are overlooking the fact that Beijing is as anxious as the Americans that bin Laden and his network is destroyed before he causes China more serious trouble in Xinjiang province.

Far better from Beijing’s point of view that the troublesome bin Laden be killed by a Western power, particularly if it’s America, then be allowed to run loose throughout central Asia.

Life is always full of ironies, and the irony here is that Beijing is also lucky that it’s President Bush who is facing bin Laden and his allies down and not some New Age twit like Gore or an out and out corrupt coward like Clinton.

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