Missile Attack On Passenger Jet?

In a news story that was reportedly broadcast over many WABC affiliate radio stations, a pilot of an American Airline jet called the control tower and reported seeing a missile heading at him when he was 6,000 feet in the air. The quote from the person who heard the news report is:

"I heard on the radio this morning, that a pilot of a passenger jet departing LAX claimed to have narrowly avoided being hit by a missile. It was reported that the jet was about 6,000 feet in altitude & over the ocean when the event occurred. The news report further stated that authorities believe it was possibly a flare or a 'bottle rocket.'"

The reason why this is important is first and most importantly because it represents another clear attempt by terrorists to strike at the US on its own soil, and the media once again covering it up. You can read a more in-depth analysis of this on the Northeast Intelligence Report (just scroll down a little).

Secondly, if everyone would remember the story of the Chinese state run company trying to import surface to air missiles into the US, you can now through the alleged story above see the link between China and terrorism. This link also includes Russia, which by its own accounts has trained most of the world's terrorists. Both China and Russia use terrorism as a way to soften and weaken American military might, in order to make it easier for them to later defeat US in an armed conflict.

The Price of Chinese Lives

In a few stories that have happened over the past week, the rest of the world really gets to see how little the Chinese government thinks of the lives of its citizens.

The first story is of the dangerously contaminated drinking water in Heilongjiang Province, in the Chinese Northeast. This contamination has now been brought under control after a couple of weeks of cover-up. The only reason why the world found out about this very toxic spill is because the river and thus the toxins have to pass through Russia. However, the worst part of this story is that until a few days ago the only people that knew about the spill in China, were party members in the region. Thus the rest of the population drank contaminated water with untold consequences to their health.

In a second story, at least 134 people have died and 15 others are trapped after a coal mine blast in the same Heilongjiang Province. The mine blast is a very common story in China, where the mining industry is the most dangerous in the world. The annual numbers for the mine accidents are:

• Accidents killed more than 2,700 miners in the first half of this year.
• China’s worst coal mine accident this year killed 214.
• Accidents and disasters cause more than 1 million casualties annually in China.
• They also bring economic losses of $80.5 billion each year.

I just bring this up to show how if the PRC cares so little for the lives of their own citizens, you can only imagine what they are prepared to do to all the "barbarians" of the outside world in their quest for world dominance.

China's Front Companies

The current scandal over China's manipulation of the copper market has raised the business world’s eyes to the possibility that the PRC might not be a fair market player. This realization however, only touches the economic effects of Chinese toying with the West's own economic system.

A more dangerous threat comes from a security stand point, where there are more then 3,500 front companies that China uses to steal technology from the West. Many stories have been written about this ongoing problem, whether it’s a government sponsored attempt to take over an American oil company or China United airlines being a front for the PLA's air force to acquire modern Western aircraft.

These front companies not only help to deindustrialize the West in general and America in particular, but also manage to steal technology that is vital to the construction of weapons that can ensure that China will be able to beat the American militarily when the communist decide it is time to dominate the world.

China vs. Speculators

In life when you play with fire you usually are going to get burned. China is learning that in a market system if you play with the market the market will send speculators on you, which is much worse then getting burned.

In a complicated story that is yet to be fully uncovered a known commodities trader for the Chinese government, Liu Qibing, has disappeared after he set a short position on copper (also meaning he bet that copper prices would fall). The reason why he disappeared is that instead of falling, copper prices have hit all time highs. To tell the full story here I would have to do another post and I don't think anyone is interested in reading the details.

In short, the reason why prices rose is that speculators knowing that Liu was an agent for the PRC felt like he was bluffing, and took on China's bluff. The results are that the Chinese State Reserve Bureau, the country's metal stockpiling agency, has had to open up about previously undisclosed numbers of reserves of copper it is holding. Even more interesting is that the reserve bureau is responsible for setting Chinas market policy and then executing it through its own bought market traders.

The result of PRC's meddling in the copper market has been major financial loss for China, and even more importantly we now openly see how the communist government is manipulating the free market. This is the reason why we should not have let it enter the market system, and why we should either remove them from the WTO or fight them on their terms (I mean defensive tariffs).

However, I know this will not happen because most economists will say you can't use tariffs in an open market system. What they should realize is that the country we are fighting does not play fair, but plays on their own terms and uses the market only when it is advantageous to them.

PLA: Future Technological Juggernaut

Mary C. FitzGerald, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute, has written a very good paper on the technological future of the Peoples Liberation Army. In it she has stated how the new generation of Chinese generals now understands and promotes the importance of technology to military superiority.

She gives us a figure of 500 billion Yuan ($61.9 billion) annual spending by the Chinese to acquire the technology necessary to conquer Taiwan in seven days. Obviously the 62 billion is a number from Chinese sources that are notorious for understating military spending, and it is usually safe to double the given numbers in order to come close to true spending values.

In addition, she points out how outside observers like the Russians, have seen the way that the PLA has been modernizing as an attempt to push US military presence away from Asia’s shores. As one Russian analyst says about the new Chinese Monroe doctrine, "All of Asia belongs to the Chinese — and not only Asia.”

China's Oil Quest

China continues on its quest to secure access to oil both near home and far away. The oil supply is vital to both the ever growing Chinese industrial and military complexes. It is also trying to secure supplies that would be hard to cut off in case of war, with lets for hypothetical purposes say the US.

Today they signed an oil pact with a new ally in Hugo Chaves of Venezuela. Venezuela is the fifth largest exporter of oil in the world, and one of the main suppliers to the US. The communist Chavez has been trying to move oil exports away from the US and more towards China ever since he came to office. This obviously does not sit well with Washington, but there is nothing they can do since he threatens to cut the oil supply off if the US does anything that he perceives as being threatening.

In other oil news, China finished construction on an oil pipeline to Kazakhstan. This will insure oil supply in case delivery by sea is again for whatever reason, even maybe a US naval blockade, stopped.

China's Industry Keeps on Churning

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that China's manufacturing sector has grown 16.1 % from last year a .1 % decrease from expectations. It is also expected to grow at 16% for the full-year growth as compared to last year.

The strong numbers are due to exports and sustained investment growth, most of that coming from the US.

These numbers parallel with the US manufacturing numbers, which have been steadily declining, due to lack of exports and slowly dwindling investments. This is due to the Chinese slowly taking over industries which have been traditionally US staples, like steel and automotive.

China understands that to be a world power you need an economy that can produce and not one that blindly consumes. They also realize that by slowly taking away our manufacturing industry they bleed us to death by a thousand cuts, weakening us enough to be able to eliminate us out of the way without firing a single shot.

Deely Dallying With the Lama

Today, President Bush has paid a visit to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, who currently resides in exile in India. To this the Chinese issued a strongly worded press release condemning what they called American interference in their religious affairs.

Wooh, I got to tell you that statement is a relief, because here I was thinking that communism was just an oppressive political system run by a repressive communist political party, but apparently I was wrong.

All those millions of Tibetans tortured and killed were just sacrifices to the gods of communism. Now that makes it all better, which means the rest of the world can finally forget about Tibet with a clean conscience.

Soon, President Hu willing, Taiwan will become an internal religious conflict, since they seem to oppose being ruled by the head god, PRC President Hu himself.

Soldiers Conundrum

I know I link to Lev Navrozov's articles a little too much, but this one is good not because of the threats that he exposes but the letter from a US soldier he received.

At the end of the column the soldier writes: "I am nothing but a soldier with a gun in my hand and the only difference between me and the unknowing masses is that I see my death moving towards me out of the East in slow motion." In my opinion this guy is a little too pessimistic, but he probably has the right idea.

Even though I disagree with both the soldiers and Mr. Navrozov's opinion that we should not be in Iraq (because while Islamic fascism is not as dangerous as Chinese communism, the Islamic world is used in large part by China to undermine our interest and weaken our strengths), they still both have it right that our leaders don't want us to wake up to the Chinese threat.

However, if we in the West don't wake up to the real threat that China poses to us, and wake up soon, we will either not be able to wake up at all, or we will only be able to wake up when our communist masters allow it.

National Insecurity

In another show of how compromised the US intelligence community is, Bill Gertz writes an article about the recently exposed naval technology spy ring. This is a ring that has been operating for more then a decade, and has been able to steel vital data on US surface and submarine fleet.

It is believed that due to this data the Chinese have been able to build their own Aegis utilizing destroyer capable of engaging and neutralizing US missiles. In addition, by getting the information on our noise reducing technology for ships and submarines the PLA now has the ability to neutralize what was our greatest advantage (the US Navy).

A week ago he also published a shocking article on the arrest of a Chinese cell charged with importing surface to air missiles into the US. The story is interesting because it happened in my home town of Newark, NJ. What is more interesting is that a state owned Chinese company was behind this, so the only thing that I can draw from this is that the PRC leadership new of this and approved it.

Higher Oil Prices?

China has started to prepare to implement a strategic oil reserve plan, which they said should help to manage any supply crisis. It should also help them in case of military action to ensure a proper reserve of oil in case of temporary blockade of supplies.

The upcoming laws will also help to manage other fossil fuels in a way that will benefit industry and insure developing growth.

Of course for the rest of the world means that this stockpile will end up increasing the strain on supply, and raising prices even higher then they are today.

PRC Capitalizes on Capitalism

In a positive sign coming out of China, we see that there is some sign that capitalism is taking hold in this socialist paradise. Statistics have shown that the wealthiest Chinese just keep getting wealthier, with overall 100 wealthiest having $400 million, soaring 38 per cent over last year.

Just thinking back to a little more then twenty years ago, when the wealthy were being cannibalized in China following one of their seeming yearly Cultural Revolutions, it is good to see that some aspects of capitalism have seeped through the Great Wall.

Of course with anything positive coming out of China there are always negatives. In this case is that all the wealthy Chinese on this list are all highly placed members of the Chinese Communist Party and most of them are either current or former generals of the PLA.

China Protects Banks

In another example of the "free market" in China, the government has announced that it will require foreign banks that bought stakes in Chinese banks to hold the shares for at least three years.

This is not all; the PRC has restricted foreign investment in each bank to 25%, with any single investor limited to a stake of 20%. In addition, China defined a foreign strategic investor as one that buys a stake of more than 5%, and has required these investors to transfer management and technology expertise in exchange for permission to be a board member.

China has said it is doing this to protect its banking industry from foreign banks that have competitive advantages. I say that the US should do the same thing with our steel, manufacturing, and electronics industry. Since just like China we don't want foreign companies to get control and hurt our economy.

Falun Gone

In another good column, Lev Navrozov again brings to light a large group of people that are being persecuted by the Chinese communist government. This time it’s the torture to death of members of the Falun Gong movement.

This is a faith group that has a hundred million members world wide, with 75 million of them in China. This of course is a threat to the Chinese government, because any group that follows a belief other then the state sanctioned communist ideology has a possibility of realizing the evils of Red China and maybe waking the rest of the population up.

So currently members of Falun Gong are probably the most oppressed people in China (if not the world) even suppressing the Tibetans, another forgotten people.

While the world is at arms over the treatment of faith groups in countries like Serbia and Bosnia, no nation is willing to stand up to China over its horrendous human rights record.

As the saying goes first they came for the Tibetans and I did nothing, then they came for the Falun Gong and I did nothing, and then they came for me and there was no one left to do anything.