Posted on 09/06/2004 9:31:55 AM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
China's Public Security Ministry is set to dispatch a 130-man "special police" unit to Haiti this month in the first deployment of Chinese forces to the Western Hemisphere, Bush administration officials say.
The first advance unit of the police troops, who are specially trained for riot and crowd control, will over the next two weeks join the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, the multinational force known as Minustah dispatched to the war-torn Caribbean island...
...Administration officials are concerned that the Chinese government will use the troop deployment as a way to put political pressure on the Haitian government, one of the few nations retaining diplomatic relations with China's rival Taiwan...
... The official says China's first military presence near U.S. shores would boost Beijing's long-term strategy to "supplant U.S. influence" in the region. "China is pursuing a maritime strategy in the Caribbean to gain access and control over port facilities, free trade zone infrastructure, fisheries, oil and minerals, and off-shore banking platforms,".... "They will assert political influence [through Chinese companies]," the official says. "That is where this is headed."...
...China has covertly dispatched military trainers and intelligence personnel to Venezuela, whose leftist president, Hugo Chavez, recently defeated a recall referendum. Beijing recently obtained observer status in the Organization of American States and will sponsor a China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum later this year.
China has shipped military goods to Cuba and is working with Cuba's communist government on intelligence and military issues, the officials say.
A classified study by the U.S. Southern Command in the 1990s stated that China is working to establish bases, primarily economic, at strategic choke points near the United States, said to officials familiar with the study....
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
President Bush,
Nip this in the f**king bud, now.
China is preparing to build up their covert ops network.
Expect an HQ for such a thing to appear underground in Haiti.
Where the Chinese are concerned I am paranoid.
The invasion begins.
China already has a strong foothold in Panama, as its corporation operates the canal ports on both ends of the canal. The Carribean is becoming a "West China Sea".
LOL! Like what? We're going to sink their ships in our hemisphere?
We're all over the Pacific rim. China is a growing super power and will, whether we like it or not, be active over here.
How did this happen? WHO voted to allow it?
Probably most American states interested in keeping in touch with the country that now operates the canal...
ping
MONROE DOCTRINE!!
That reminds me..why were so many open traitors to the US allowed to survive unincarcerated? [Carter, Kerry, etc ad infinitum]
Tough to feel sorry for an incestuous government.
Not a good idea.
5.56mm
So much for the Monroe Doctrine.
Well, I wouldn't say that giving back the Canal after the fixed renting period was betrayal. I mean, you strike a deal with a country, you respect the deal, that seems sound diplomacy. But surely some assurances that the Canal, which is vital to the Western hemisphere and the Western Nations would stay in Western hands wouldn't have killed anybody !
It is certainly a shock that China, the once landlocked China, is establishing itself as a major player in the Carribean ! Now two major canals are under non-Western hands, and China is asserting its power along the sealanes used by our tankers around the world. Goddamn, CHina is playing 19th-Century Great Britain, next thing they'll offer to buy Gibraltar from the UK !
Two words:
Monroe Doctrine.
Dust it off.
The OAS did of course.
You can follow their proceedings and the proceedings of the Summit of the Americas by going to their websites.
Well I hope they brought tanks. As I understand it, heavy tanks are the Chinese method of crowd control ala Tienimen Square.
The problem with that analysis is that the original 1903 treaty with Panama had no fixed term. It, in fact, gave the USA sovereign rights in perpetuity.
Jimmy Carter was and is a traitor.
China is playing the "great game" with us.
China is setting itself up to control some major caro and oil shipping choke points, the Panama Canal being one of them.
Panama Canal and Trans-Panama Pipeline
Location: Panama; connects the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean
Oil Flows (2003): 0.4 million bbl/d
Concerns/Background: The Panama Canal extends approximately 50 miles from Panama City on the Pacific Ocean to Colon on the Caribbean Sea. The largest vessel that can transit the Panama Canal is known as a PANAMAX-size vessel (ships ranging from 50,000 - 80,000 dead weight tons in size). A long-term program is underway to widen the narrow, eight-mile stretch of Gaillard Cut to allow unrestricted two-way traffic of PANAMAX-size vessels.
The United States is the dominant country of origin for products transiting the Panama Canal, and it is also the single largest destination as well. Most of the traffic through the Panama Canal moves between the east coast of the United States and Asia, while movements between Europe and the west coast of the United States and Canada comprise the second major trade route at the waterway. However, other regions and countries, such as the neighboring countries of Central and South America, are proportionately more dependent on the Panama Canal for their trade.
Really ? Wow, I thought it was a 50- or 99-year thing, a bit like Guantanamo.
Well, in that case, if Carter wanted to give Panama some control over the land where the canal was built, he indeed had the sacred duty to insure that the Canal itself would remain in American hands, no ifs or buts about it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.