Washington looks at cash-flow security fears (China)

scmp ^ | Friday, April 12, 2002 | Reuters

[maui_hawaii]

A panel on US-China trade is scrutinising money flows between the two countries to see if they threaten United States national security, according to the group chairman.

"Because of the nature of the relationship, there is a huge transfer of resources from the US to China at this time," Richard D'Amato, chairman of the US-China Security Review Commission, said on Wednesday.

Mr D'Amato said the panel, scheduled to make recommendations to Congress in June, was examining the large trade surplus China enjoys with the US and the access Chinese companies have to the US stock market to raise funds against the backdrop of a Chinese arms build-up.

"The connection there is . . . 'do we have a responsibility to think about that transfer of resources and the impact on the US security regime'," he told a Washington trade group.

Congress created the commission in 2000 as part of a defence authorisation bill.

The 12 commission members produce an annual report, in both unclassified and classified forms, on the national security implications of the growing US-China trade and economic relationship.

Mr D'Amato said the panel had hired Chinese-language experts to monitor Chinese Internet sites and six mainland daily newspapers to assess whether Beijing was portraying the US more favourably than it had in the past.

It would be difficult for the two countries to enter into a new era of co-operation if Beijing espoused "rather virulent" anti-American sentiment, such as it did after the Nato bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and last year's incident over an American spy plane, he said.

A US spy plane and a PLA fighter jet collided off Hainan Island on April 1 last year. The Chinese pilot was killed and the American crew held for 11 days after landing the crippled plane on the island.

Mr D'Amato said the panel would closely monitor China's implementation of commitments it made as a World Trade Organisation member to open its market to more foreign competition, as well as Beijing's adherence to non-proliferation and Customs agreements it had signed with the US.

[maui_hawaii]

bump

[zog]

--this is a big duh. the cfr guys are destroying the domestic independent farmer/ domestic food production, and domestic manufacturing, along with other ho hum things like mining and logging and fishing. We close off our best, cleanest coal mine resources, china gets the bid for the same exact stuff to be imported in. On and on. China has made exactly zip zero nada concessions towards this 'freedom" deal to their own people, despite all the international profiteers assurrances that this would magically happen with increased trade with china. All we have for our efforts is the loss of millions of jobs in the critical middle class, wealth creating jobs, and much richer chinese warlord goons. Who AIN'T gonna change. Who DO have nukes and missiles, and who ARE expanding their military in double figures, year, after year after year. And don't ferget, a buck in china is the same as ten or twenty bucks here in what happens with it. Phooie. You don't need a sham think tank to figure out what's going on.

Thanks for the article, at least they are making some noises about looking into the longer range ramifications of this trade policy beyond the end of the next financial quarter.

[batter]

Thanks for the bump. Interesting article. I was also just reading a Jamestown Foundation article on China's leadership struggling with reforms and recent protests. I thought you might be interested in it:
STABILITY AT THE EXPENSE OF REFORM?

Also, here's an interesting one I found on ChiCom Watch:
New charges in case of stolen Lucent trade secrets