TERROR THREAT 

- 10-31-05

 

10-27-05 - DREAM - I went somewhere to a neighborhood church gathering of people where people came in and used the pastor's wife's dishes and cooking pots to cook food for large gatherings. 

I was an area that was right by the ocean, with sand dunes and a long pathway where people could walk out into the water - like a narrow Peninsula.

We went with the tourists and while we were out there, a huge extra high wave came in and washed over everyone. We were able to hang onto tall reeds and let the wave go by. Then we hurried back to dry land before another wave came.

We went back to the house and various people were gathering . Some were cooking, some were just sitting around talking. 

One older man had a coin collection. I found two dimes on the floor, each one in its own plastic case. I handed them back to the old man. He said, "Thank you so much. Do you know what the old man and the little boy are worth?"  (referring to the dimes) 

I said, "No!"

He said, "They are worth several hundred dollars each." 

I was amazed and he sat there with 1/2 cup of them, treasuring his dimes.

We were sitting at a table, and I took an envelope out of my purse that I hadn't seen before. In bright red ink or blood, was written 

"10-31-05 - 
LARGE EXPLOSION ON THE DOCKS."

I didn't want to frighten anyone, so I didn't say anything. I stuffed the envelop back in my purse.

A few minutes later, we went outside and were standing near the building when I saw a military flying boat. The men were in uniform and were all highly visible in the convertible-type flying platform (similar to a helicopter)  They were all heavily armed, carrying weapons and every was silver colored.

They looked like they were looking for someone and I did want it to be me, so I quickly went under a porch overhang and when the swung around at the end of their flight path at the ocean's edge, I quickly ducked back into the house.

One of the guys in the building had a religious radio show going on, warning people of what was coming. I could hear him in the next room, but I didn't tell him about my prediction for 10-31-05 for the explosion on the docks. It was too non-specific as they say. 

I was getting late in the day by then, and as we were leaving, one of the older men  said to me, "Thank you for what you do. We really appreciate it."

I thanked him, and we left and I woke up as we went out the door.  
The time was 3 a.m.
Joe woke up at the same time and left the room.

DREAM #2 - I was given another envelope with red numbers: 

3-14-21   

NOTE: I think that's the time of day.

DREAM #3  - I heard a loud horn in my left ear and I saw what resembled an American Express card.  I examined the card for what it said. At the top it said,  REMEMBER THE EAST WIND

DREAM #4 - I saw what looked like an insurance card.  In the upper left hand corner, it said:

AMERICAN PENNSYLVANIA

DREAM #5 - I was walking down the street on 17th and Center, with an oblong gravy boat dish that was colored reddish brown. It had an upside-down 1/2 yellow grapefruit on top of dirt in the dish. A worm came out from under the yellow grapefruit and then a second white grub worm came out from under the yellow grapefruit. The two worms crawled around on the dirt and I became squeamish that they were there. 

Some girls walked by and laughed at me for being afraid of the worms.

Right then, the caterpillar crawled over to the edge of the dish and launched itself into the air like a missile and flew off towards my left shoulder towards the southeast. 

The other grub worm was gyrating and rolling around and doubling over in the gravy boat still, like it was highly agitated.

I was afraid to touch the worm and didn't know what to do with it.

I went to a downtown jail and met with some young men criminals there. One guy's name was TEVEO. I handed out coloring books and other fun things for the young men and made friends with them.

Later, I was walking past a gas station on the corner of 16th and Center. On the driveway was a sign that said, HAVE JOB.  TEVEO was walking up 16th street towards me so I told him to apply for the job and he got it. 

Another criminal boy I had met at the jail also came down the sidewalk towards me and I told him to go into the gas station as well and apply for a job too. 

Then I went inside and TEVEO and the other kid and some young black men were there with the boss.

I said to the boss, let me recommend these two kids. They deserve a chance.

When I walked out, someone asked me if I was afraid of the criminals. I said, "I made friends with them and gave them stuff and they trust me now. 

I then went to an apartment building where my spiritual teacher lived. I was told he lived in apartment #314. But when I said I was going up to see him, someone told me he was out on the town with another woman.

But I knew he'd be glad to see me when I arrived at his door.

I was then told by another person, "Remember to tell Mr. Gordon".

 

USS PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY

The USS Pennsylvania was used in "Operation Crossroads" as a target ship for Atomic Bomb testing. Following the first Atomic explosion at Bikini Island on July 1, 1946 and then a second explosion on July 25, 1946, the USS Pennsylvania did not sink. Almost two years later, February 10, 1948, the USS Pennsylvania was towed to the Island of Kwajalein in the South Pacific and a small crew went aboard and opened the "Sea Valves" and removed the Evaporator cover plates and sent the "Grand Old Gal" to the bottom of the sea. So ends one of the greatest chapters in Naval history. She takes with her the hearts and minds of all who served and with whom she shared a place of Patriotism, Honor and Tradition.....  

EAST WIND

Riding the East Wind
by Otohiko Kaga
translated by Ian Hideo Levy
Kodansha International, 1999, 518 pages

This historical novel, published originally in Japanese in 1982, features diplomatic intrigue, strong family bonds, and intense wartime suffering. The Association for 100 Japanese Books, an organization that promotes translations of modern Japanese classics, provided funds for this fine English translation.

Ken Kurushima, the son of a senior Japanese diplomat and an American woman, joins the Japanese Army and becomes a test pilot for new fighters. Although he strongly supports the continued development of a high-altitude fighter with a pressurized cabin in order to stop American B-29s, the Army leadership decides to concentrate on production of suicide planes to be used in ramming attacks on B-29s. When Ken departs in a Hayate fighter to meet a B-29 squadron, he says to a friend, "I'm not a Kamikaze. If I attack I'll do it with my guns." However, when he spots a B-29 below him, he dives to make a ramming attack that brings down the American plane.

Real people and events form the basis for this novel. Saburo Kurusu (named Saburo Kurushima in book) served as Japan's special envoy to Washington in a eleventh-hour attempt to conduct peace negotiations with President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hull. Although most historians depict Kurusu's mission as a tactic to delay and deceive the Americans while the Japanese Navy prepared for an attack, Kaga suggests that Prime Minister Tojo deceived Kurusu by telling him to try to reach a peaceful settlement while never revealing the plan to attack Pearl Harbor. Just like the novel, in real life Saburo had an American wife named Alice who became a Japanese citizen when the two married.  Saburo and Alice Kurusu had a son named Ryo, who served in the Japanese Army as in an experimental fighter squadron. The original Japanese title of this translated novel is Ikari no nai fune (Ship Without an Anchor), which aptly describes the Kurusu family (and Kurushima family) members as they moved to several diplomatic posts around the world before 1941. The Japanese title also portrays the lives of Alice and her half-American children as they lived in Japan during the war.

The author, Otohiko Kaga, became a cadet in the Junior Army Academy as a teenager and saw his hometown Tokyo go up in flames in the last year of World War II. He started his career as a professor of criminal psychology and in his late thirties turned to writing novels. Kaga's works achieved best-selling status in 1979 with The Sentence, an epic novel about Japan's condemned prisoners. Riding the East Wind is his first novel to be translated to English.

This epic novel covers events chronologically from August 1941 to August 1945, with the first half focused on Saburo's diplomatic efforts to stop the war and the second half concentrated on Ken's experiences in the Army. In addition to Saburo, Ken, and Alice as the protagonists, Kaga also carefully develops distinct personalities for another dozen or so minor characters. For example, the journalist Arizumi enthusiastically supports the ultranationalists and Nazis, which sharply contrasts with the tactful, diplomatic approach of his father-in-law Saburo. Kaga skillfully weaves historical events into the plot and accurately presents the harsh conditions faced by Japanese people near the end of the war. Descriptions of near starvation are especially heartbreaking, as many people must barter their household goods just to obtain food to survive.

The book's characters present varied attitudes toward suicide attacks carried out by the Japanese military near the war's end. Ken's mother Alice expresses several times in the book her desire for her son to stay alive. Lieutenant Colonel Asai from Imperial Headquarters expresses the official military view (p. 397), "In the Philippines we've already had magnificent results with Kamikazes attacking enemy ships. If we're not willing to use suicide planes, we'd be failing in our duty to protect the Emperor." Ken expresses the opposite position held by many Army fighter pilots (p. 399), "Kamikaze tactics involve the loss of men and planes. It would be better to complete an advanced fighter." Ken gets rebuffed by a General from Air Command, "You coward! Trying to save your own skin, are you?" Ken's two good friends have different views toward the idea of suicide attacks. Lieutenant Haniyu, who played a Mozart duet with his younger sister during a visit to Ken's home, volunteers for a suicide squad and brings down a B-29 over Tokyo in a suicide ramming attack. Lieutenant Yamada, who marries Ken's other younger sister after the war, reminds Ken before his final flight not to forget his parachute and to come back alive. Even though Ken had expressed his opposition several times to suicide attacks, in the end he decides to ram a B-29 with his fighter.

Kaga's brilliance as a novelist shines through even in a translation. He lets readers think for themselves regarding the truth behind certain actions and situations, since he only provides some facts and certain characters' opinions but does not give definitive conclusions. This reflects real life where people often do not know for certain the entire truth. For example, the local police arrest Father Henderson, the Anglican Church pastor in the Kurushima family's neighborhood, on suspicion of being a spy, but the reader never knows for sure whether or not the police planted the evidence.

The book depicts racial prejudice in several different forms. Ken sometimes receives physical abuse in the Army for his foreign-looking face, but he has reserves of strength since he had received beatings since starting in schools in Japan when he was eight. He also recalled his time in Chicago, where children at the Japanese Consulate there were spat on, tripped up, or sworn at by children simply because they looked Asian. After Ken rams a B-29 bomber, he somehow survives after a crash landing. However, three men from a local village kill him with bamboo spears since he looks like an American soldier [1].

With an evenhanded approach, Kaga presents a moving story of the conflicts faced by this Japanese-American family in the midst of war. The novel provides excellent insights into wartime Japan and the Army pilots who made ramming attacks on B-29s.

Note

The actual death of Ryo Kurusu, son of Saburo and Alice Kurusu, was quite different than Ken Kurushima's fictional death described in this book. Yasukuni Jinja (2003, 76) states that he fought single-handedly against eight American planes and shot down one on February 16, 1945. Watanabe (1999) gives the following account of Ryo Kurusu's tragic death after returning to base (translation by Mieko Morita):

Capt. Kurusu, born in January 1919, died due to an accident at Tama Army Airfield on February 16, 1945. When an air-raid siren sounded at the airfield, all pilots including Capt. Kurusu ran to their aircraft. As he was trying to pass in front of one plane, it moved forward two to three meters, and its propeller cut his neck. His severed head flew up two meters, and his headless body moved forward four or five more steps. This accident was unavoidable even though 1st Lieutenant Umekawa, the pilot of the plane that hit Capt. Kurusu, had fourteen and a half years of flying experience. If someone had given instructions to 1st Lieutenant Umekawa on the taxiway, this unfortunate accident could have been avoided. However, no one was giving directions to the aircraft. Capt. Kurusu was running in 1st Lieutenant Umekawa’s blind spot as everybody hurriedly ran to their planes to make sorties. 1st Lieutenant Umekawa honestly reported the accident to his commander, Maj. Yoshitsugu Aramaki.  Maj. Aramaki did not say anything to 1st Lieutenant Umekawa, whose face was pale. Later, the Imperial Army leaders overlooked the accident since it was unavoidable.

Sources Cited

Watanabe, Yoji. 1999. Rikugun jikken sentoukitai (Army experimental fighter squadrons). Tokyo: Green Arrow Publishing.

Yasukuni Jinja. 2003. Yasukuni Jinja Yushukan zuroku (Yasukuni Jinja Yushukan in pictures). Tokyo: Yasukuni Jinja.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Antarctic Coastal Current, also known as the East Wind Drift Current, is the southernmost current in the world. This current is the counter-current of the largest ocean current in the world, Antarctic Circumpolar Current. On the average, it flows westward and parallel to the Antarctic coastline. Although it is circumpolar, the Antarctic Peninsula partially impedes its flow (Tchernia, 1981; Grelowski and Pastuszak, 1984). The current is an important component of the very active air-sea exchange in this area that leads to deep convection and production of deep ocean water masses. The Antarctic Bottom Water and Antarctic Intermediate Water obtain their fundamental characteristics (Tchernia, 1981) in this region.

http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/ southern/antarctic-coastal.html  with map
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Nineteenth Chapter. The Rock

Up they got, early next morning, out of the silken beds; and they saw that the sun was shining brightly and that the wind was blowing from the South.

Jip smelt the South wind for half an hour. Then he came to the Doctor, shaking his head.

"I smell no snuff as yet," he said. "We must wait till the wind changes to the East."

But even when the East wind came, at three o'clock that afternoon, the dog could not catch the smell of snuff.

The little boy was terribly disappointed and began to cry again, saying that no one seemed to be able to find his uncle for him. But all Jip said to the Doctor was,

"Tell him that when the wind changes to the West, I'll find his uncle even though he be in China--so long as he is still taking Black Rappee snuff."

http://www.online-literature.com/lofting/doctor-dolittle/20/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New PRC Short Range Ballistic Missiles Aimed at Taiwan:  A Pentagon report released in February 1999 in response to a Congressional mandate, according to published sources, reveals that the PLA has about 100 short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) targeted on Taiwan and could build up to 650 SRBMs by 2005.  These include the 360-mile range Dong Feng (“East Wind”) 15—which were fired toward Taiwan in 1995 and 1996. The PLA is also building one brigade of the 180-mile range M-11 missile, which carries a larger warhead than the DF-15.  Both the East Wind and the M-11 are mobile missiles and thus especially threatening offensive weapons, because they are nearly impossible for a defending force to neutralize.  These new offensive systems are being made more effective with new highly accurate navigation systems based on the U.S. Global Positioning Satellite (GPS)system and with new non-nuclear warheads. A stealthy warhead shape and novel two-stage design will make the DF-15 difficult to shoot down even for the Patriotanti-missile systems the U.S. has sold Taiwan.

FROM: http://www.fas.org/news/china/2000/000131-cgtaiwan.htm

 
GRAPEFRUIT SYMBOLISM:

The grapefruit was first described in 1750 by Griffith Hughes who called it the "forbidden fruit" of Barbados. In 1789, Patrick Browne reported it as growing in most parts of Jamaica and he referred to it as "forbidden fruit" or "smaller shaddock". In 1814, John Lunan, in Hortus Jamaicensis, mentions the "grapefruit" as a variety of the shaddock, but not as large; and, again, as "forbidden fruit", "a variety of the shaddock, but the fruit is much smaller, having a thin, tough, smooth, pale yellow rind". In 1824, DeTussac mentions the "forbidden fruit or smaller shaddock" of Jamaica as a variety of shaddock the size of an orange and borne in bunches. William C. Cooper, a citrus scientist (USDA, ARS, Orlando, Florida, to 1975), traveled widely observing all kinds of citrus fruits. In his book, In Search of the Golden Apple, he tells of the sweet orange and the grapefruit growing wild on several West Indian islands. He cites especially a fruit similar to grapefruit that is called chadique growing wild on the mountains of Haiti and marketed in Port-au-Prince. The leaves are like those of the grapefruit. He says that it was from the nearby Bahama Islands in 1823 that Count Odette Phillipe took grapefruit seeds to Safety Harbor near Tampa, Florida. When the seedlings fruited, their seeds were distributed around the neighborhood.
CATERPILLAR WORMS IN CHINA

Cordyceps in Chinese or Japanese herbal terminology are termed and called "The Winter-Worm-Summer-Grass". Thus in Winter, it is a Worm and in Summer it is a Grass".

But in actual fact, Cordyceps are a type of Insects (Moth) and Mushroom combination.

In high altitude of over 3,500 M (In Tibet, ChingHai, Sichuan), during the Winter season, a kind of mushroom spores on the ground, penetrate the body of the infant of a kind of Moth's Caterpillar Worm, either through the body or through the caterpillar Worm's feeding.

These spores starts to germinate and grow along with the Caterpillar Worms taking in the body nutrients of the Moth caterpillar.

And in the month of Summer July, when the Caterpillar Worm is motionless in a Cocoon, while it is a Chrysalis, the Mushroom sprout its mature Mushroom-Stem through the insect's mouth, out of the ground, and having consumed all the nutrients of the Caterpillar, thus killing it, then, wilted also to become a combination of an "Insect-Mushroom" Cordyceps.
GRUB WORMS

Garden Terms: Definition of grub worm


Definition of grub worm. Search Terms:. Definition as written by Terry:.
These grayish-white c-shaped worms become Japanese beetles later in life. ...
davesgarden.com/terms/go/416/

 
WEIRD COINCIDENCES TO DREAM

On 10-29-05 - I watched 5 TV shows in row that had been taped by my DVR - called TEEVO I guess.  I had not seen any of these shows previously.

The show was called THRESHOLD

In show 2 - they said, "Information starts as a trickle and ends as a wave." 

In show 3 - they said, "They were stealing dime-size microchips."  The microchips downloaded virus information into cell phones, and other machines like computers, etc.  These viruses changed the DNA of people to alien DNA. 

In show 4, which was a second running of show 1 - there were all sorts of scenes that related to the first dream: 

One person said, "What is this? War of the Worlds"
Another person showed a video of the UFO coming down and making the virus sound that infected all the people watching it.  Many people were killed outright, and those who weren't started turning into aliens.

Another person said, "The bomb at Hiroshima burned shadows onto contrete."

Another said, "Math is a language."

Another said, "Cell phones causes brain tumors." 

Another person said, "Can you download a program into an indigenous population and turn them into you? "

Then they blew up the ship at the docks that contained the virus.

Then they said, "We don't have time for fear oro the have the luxury of self doubt".

 

TEVEO - is manufactured by Orange ______

 
Robert Novak

Is China really a threat?

October 27, 2005

BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

BEIJING -- The message from officials in this huge, shiny, booming capital is that China's military buildup does not connote desire to kick the Americans out of East Asia. Their assertion is buttressed by the clear impression that people here are interested in making money, not war. Yet, that members of the U.S. Congress see China's communist regime as a threat is felt here to be endangering the relationship between the two powers.

The Chinese position was laid out unequivocally for me by Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang, the highest official made available to me on my first visit to China in 12 years: ''China has no intention to restrict or limit United States influence. We do not have the capability. Nor would we have such need" to attain that capability. He added: ''We are not a threat to anybody.''

But difficulty in Sino-American relations is no mere paranoia among hard-line congressmen in Washington. Chinese officials and U.S. diplomats admit that the love affair with America by ordinary Chinese ended more than a decade ago, replaced by a worrisome anti-Americanism. The United States is not much better loved in Beijing than it is in Paris.

On the surface it is difficult to see militarism here. The dusty old city I encountered for the first time in 1978 is now a glittering giant of 11 million dedicated to commerce. Patriotic posters have been replaced by corporate ads. Once omnipresent, soldiers of the People's Liberation Army are nowhere to be seen, either demobilized or back in barracks.

Assistant Foreign Minister Shen expressed exasperation at anybody imagining that the Chinese military could crowd U.S. forces out of Asia. ''We are not that strong. There is not a military buildup,'' he told me, because Chinese spending is at only one-eighth of the U.S. level.

The Chinese regime wants to reassure Washington, giving Donald Rumsfeld remarkable access here last week even though the secretary of defense had been demonized in the Chinese press as instigator of the Iraq intervention. Sources close to communist leaders say they're not really that concerned with nuclear weapons in North Korean hands but are aggressively engaging in the six-power process to please Americans.

The issue cited by Shen and other Chinese officials most dangerous to Sino-American amity is the Taiwan question. But sources say the regime actually is not eager to incorporate Taiwan as long as it does not move to independence. With the Kuomintang party apparently poised to regain power in Taiwan, the independence threat would be gone for now.

Bad blood was spawned in the streets in the early '90s when the U.S. Congress opposed the 2000 Olympics for Beijing. The bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo War was not regarded as an accident by either the people or the authorities and is still talked about here. Displeasure with Iraq followed these special irritants.

Beyond the streets, however, is one prominent Chinese businessman who feels he was treated unfairly by U.S. politicians: Fu Chengyu, chairman of the China National Offshore Oil Corp. A little more than 70 percent of the company is owned by the state, the rest by private investors. But Fu told me the communist regime had nothing to do with his decision to buy California-based Unocal oil company or his decision to back off when a firestorm developed in Congress.

In the oil company's gleaming Beijing office building, Fu said he thought the Unocal deal would not only have benefitted his shareholders but also fit the U.S. ideal of unimpeded investment across national borders. Instead, China was accused of trying to corner the international oil market. ''We thought we were doing a good thing,'' Fu told me. ''I was naive. But this is the world we live in.''

The company, he said, is a good global citizen. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the company's employees contributed $100,000 for relief of the victims, which was matched by the company. That unpublicized charity, he said, reflects a China that members of Congress don't know about. ''China has changed,'' he said. ''Even the Communist Party has changed. But the world does not know it.''

 
US wants a more aggressive Japan

The commander of US troops in Japan sees the US-Japan military alliance evolving

By ERIC TALMADGE

10-27-05

Misawa Air Base, Japan _ Just an hour's flight from the shores of North Korea, Lieutenant-General Bruce Wright, commander of the United States Forces in Japan, has spent most of the afternoon in his F-16 fighter flying manoeuvres over the Sea of Japan. For a seasoned combat pilot like Lt-Gen Wright, the training is routine. But as the top US military representative to Washington's most important Asian ally, it offers him a sense of perspective.

``You just have to take a look around the region to see why it is so important,'' he said in an interview. ``The size of militaries, and in fact the growing military capabilities in this region, certainly gets my attention.''

Since World War II, Japan has been the key to Washington's security posture in Asia.

US bases in Japan provided a staging area for the Korean and Vietnam wars, and today Japan continues to be home to about 50,000 American troops, including the largest contingent of US Marines based overseas, Asia's largest US air base and the only ``forward deployed'' fleet in the US Navy.

But Washington's alliance with Tokyo is evolving.

With US military resources drained by Iraq and the global war on terrorism, the two countries are in talks that could lead to the most sweeping realignment of US troops in Japan _ and the biggest shift in Japan's own leadership role _ in recent memory.

What Washington wants is a more effective use of its own forces and to foster a stronger Japan that will play a more aggressive role in regional security issues and, perhaps, serve as a counter-balance to China's rising strength.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi backs that shift. He has sent hundreds of troops to Iraq in a humanitarian role and supports efforts to revise Japan's postwar ``peace'' constitution, which severely restricts the use of the nation's military.

``There is tremendous promise for Japan to be an international security leader,'' Lt-Gen Wright said. ``We have proven to the world that Japan and the US can be mutually supportive partners. ...I have a lot of confidence in Japan.''

Japan already has its Self-Defence Forces, with 250,000 troops and state-of-the-art ships and fighters.

Over the past several years, Japanese and US troops have also significantly boosted their ability to work together, from refuelling each other's ships and planes, to improving command communications.

But many Japanese believe their country should demonstrate it has learned the lessons of World War II by restricting its international relations to diplomacy, aid and political leadership.

Mr Koizumi's insistence on visiting a shrine in Tokyo closely associated with pre-1945 militarism has raised concerns around Asia as well. His latest visit last week prompted strong protests from South Korea and China.

The talks in Tokyo have an added sense of urgency because of related changes in South Korea.

The United States is scaling down its forces in South Korea, where it has maintained a contingent of about 37,000 troops for decades. By the end of this year 8,000 of the 12,500 troops designated for withdrawal will have left.

No such cuts are expected in Japan, though Japanese media reports have indicated Tokyo is seeking a significant reduction in the military footprint on Okinawa, where most of the US troops in the country are stationed.

In particular, the two sides are at odds over the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. Both agree the facility should be moved from the heavily populated area where it is now located, but can't agree on where it should go. The stalemate and other issues have slowed the talks, though an interim report could be issued as soon as this weekend.

Many Japanese saw Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's decision not to visit Tokyo on his five-country swing through Asia last week as a sign of Washington's growing impatience with the impasse over Futenma, and the slow pace of the consensus-building within Japan's government regarding the alignment talks overall.

Lt-Gen Wright acknowledged the talks have been complicated. ``There are a lot of stakeholders,'' he said. Even so, he said he believes they have shown ``a lot of progress'' and stressed that ``we have well-established common objectives''.

Washington has good reason to want a strong partner in Asia. North Korea has one of the biggest standing armies in the world and has shown its missiles have the range to attack virtually any of the dozens of US military facilities in Japan, and possibly the American west coast.

Islamic insurgencies are long-standing in the Philippines and southern Thailand. Al-Qaeda has been linked to terrorism in Indonesia. Piracy is a constant threat to shipping in the Strait of Malacca, which connects the Indian and Pacific oceans.

And then there is China.

Along with tensions over Taiwan and increasingly heated territorial disputes with Japan, China's rise as an economic and military power in the region is generating a good deal of concern _ though Lt-Gen Wright and other US officials are careful not to call Beijing a threat. ``It's my job to plan for the worst case,'' Lt-Gen Wright said. ``I think the best thing to say about China is that we look forward to increased transparency regarding Chinese military growth.'' AP
U.S. opposes Lee's name change proposal

2005-10-21 / Taiwan News, Staff Reporter / By Evelyn Chiang

 In response to former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's proposal to rename the country "the Republic of Taiwan," the U.S. State Department said Wednesday that it is opposed to any moves that would seem to unilaterally change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, including changing Taiwan's official name.

The 82-year-old pro-independence Lee, who is currently visiting the U.S. capital, said during a Washington Post interview that "Taiwan is already an independent country" and that what is needed now is for the official name of the country to be dropped in favor of one that accurately reflects reality.

As the highest ranking Taiwanese dignitary to be greeted on Capitol Hill, Lee was welcomed by U.S. lawmakers who called China's leaders tyrants and praised Lee as "the founding father of Taiwan democracy" for his unrelenting stand against Beijing.

Lee, who mapped out Taiwan's transition from dictatorship to democracy, is promoting a movement during his visit, featuring the creation of what he calls "national identity" for Taiwan and claiming that Taiwan's own lack of identity, rather than Beijing's unification tactics, is the biggest threat facing the country.

He added that the major purpose of his current U.S. visit is to help Washington better understand the prime threat facing Taiwan, and stressed that "Taiwan is Taiwan, and it is by no means a part of China."

Lee noted that a growing military imbalance with China has made it increasingly necessary for the island to acquire long-range missiles to equip it with an offensive capability. A purely defensive posture "is a very big risk to the military balance across the Taiwan Strait," he said.

China has deployed more than 700 ballistic missiles pointed at Taiwan, and much of China's military development appears targeted at achieving an upper hand in air and sea in any conflict with the island.

Lee also warned in a speech that China could become a mirror of Japanese militarism of the past, and expressed the view that China's democratization was key to preventing conflict in Asia.

"Without democracy there is always the danger of a large country spreading its power outwards and becoming a threat to world peace," he added.

In the Capitol Hill reception attended by a few dozen members of the U.S. Congress, Lee reiterated, "we hope that our American friends will understand and accordingly support the Taiwan people's desire to be free and to choose our own future."

Lee's last U.S. visit in 1995, when he was president, drummed up furious protest in China, where officials criticized him for promoting international recognition for Taiwan. China fired missiles into Taiwan's nearby waters and held military drills on Chinese territory facing Taiwan.

The cross-strait crisis continued until March 1996 when the United States sent two battle carrier groups to waters off the island to warn Beijing not to use force to settle its governance dispute with Taiwan.

Lee was slated to give a speech at the National Press Club on Thursday that would call attention to China's alleged threats to Taiwan and other neighboring countries before heading to Los Angeles for the last stop in his five-city U.S. visit.

 Greater China

 Oct 15, 2005


Revving up the China threat
By Michael T Klare

Ever since taking office, the Bush administration has struggled to define its stance on the most critical long-term strategic issue facing the United States: whether to view China as a future military adversary, and plan accordingly, or to see it as a rival player in the global capitalist system.

Representatives of both perspectives are nestled in top administration circles, and there have been periodic swings of the pendulum toward one side or the other. But after a four-year period in which neither outlook appeared dominant, the pendulum has now swung conspicuously toward the anti-Chinese, prepare-for-war position. Three events signal this altered stance.

The first, on February 19, was the adoption of an official declaration calling for enhanced security ties between the US and Japan. Known officially as the "Joint Statement of the US-Japan Security Consultative Committee", the declaration was announced at a meeting of top Japanese and US officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The very fact that US and Japanese officials were discussing improved security links was deeply troubling to the Chinese, given the continued salience of Japanese World War II militarism in the 60th anniversary year of Japan's surrender, and their ongoing anxiety about US plans to construct an anti-Chinese alliance in Asia.

But what most angered Beijing was the declaration's call for linked US-Japanese efforts to "encourage the peaceful resolution of issues concerning the Taiwan Strait through dialogue". While sounding relatively innocuous to American ears, this announcement was viewed in Beijing as highly provocative, an example of illicit interference by Washington and Tokyo in China's internal affairs.

The official New China News Agency described the joint declaration as "unprecedented" and quoted a senior Foreign Ministry official as saying that China "resolutely opposes the United States and Japan in issuing any bilateral document concerning China's Taiwan, which meddles in the internal affairs of China and hurts China's sovereignty".

The second key event was a speech Rumsfeld gave on June 4 at a strategy conference in Singapore. After reviewing current security issues in Asia, especially the threat posed by a nuclear North Korea, Rumsfeld turned his attention to China.

The Chinese can play a constructive role in addressing these issues, he observed. "A candid discussion of China ... cannot neglect to mention areas of concern to the region." In particular, China "appears to be expanding its missile forces, allowing them to reach targets in many areas of the world," and is otherwise "improving its ability to project power" in the region. Then, with consummate disingenuousness, he stated, "Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder: why this growing investment? Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases? Why these continuing robust deployments?"

To Beijing, these comments must have been astonishing. No one threatens China? What about the US planes and warships that constantly hover off the Chinese coast, and the nuclear-armed US missiles aimed at China? What about the delivery over the past 10 years of ever more potent US weapons to Taiwan? What about the US bases that encircle China on all sides? But disingenuousness aside, Rumsfeld's comments exhibited a greater degree of belligerence toward China than had been expressed in any official US statements since September 11, and were widely portrayed as such in the American and Asian press.

The third notable event was the release, in July, of the Pentagon's report on Chinese combat capabilities, "The Military Power of the People's Republic of China". According to press reports, publication of this unclassified document was delayed for several weeks in order to remove or soften some of the more pointedly anti-Chinese comments, to avoid further provoking China before President George W Bush's November visit there.

In many ways, the published version is judicious in tone, stressing the weaknesses as well as the strengths of China's military establishment. Nevertheless, the main thrust of the report is that China is expanding its capacity to fight wars beyond its own territory and that this constitutes a dangerous challenge to global order.

"The pace and scope of China's military build-up are, already, such as to put regional military balances at risk," the report states. "Current trends in China's military modernization could provide China with a force capable of prosecuting a range of military operations in Asia - well beyond Taiwan - potentially posing a credible threat to modern militaries operating in the region."

This annual report, mandated by Congress in 2000, is intended as a comprehensive analysis, not a policy document. However, the policy implications of the 2005 report are self-evident: If China is acquiring a greater capacity to threaten "modern militaries operating in the region" - presumably including those of the US and Japan - then urgent action is needed to offset Chinese military initiatives. For this very reason, the document triggered a firestorm of criticism in China. "This report ignores fact in order to do everything it can to disseminate the 'China threat theory'," a senior Foreign Ministry official told the American ambassador at a hastily arranged meeting. "It crudely interferes in China's internal affairs and is a provocation against China's relations with other countries."

While much of this was going on, the American public and mass media were preoccupied with another source of tension between the US and China: the attempted purchase of the California-based Unocal Corporation by the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). This attempt received far greater attention in the media than did the events described above, yet it will have a far less significant impact on US-Chinese relations than will the Pentagon's shift to a more belligerent, anti-Chinese stance - one that greatly increases the likelihood of a debilitating and dangerous military competition between the US and China.

Shifting positions

What lies behind this momentous shift? At its root is the continuing influence of conservative strategists who have long championed a policy of permanent US military supremacy. This outlook was first expressed in 1992 in the first Bush administration's Defense Planning Guidance (DPG) for fiscal years 1994-99, a master blueprint for US dominance in the post-Cold War era.

Prepared under the supervision of then-under secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz, and leaked to the press in early 1992, the DPG called for concerted efforts to prevent the rise of a future military competitor. "Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival ... that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union," the document stated. Accordingly, "We [must] endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power." This has remained the guiding principle for US supremacists ever since.

In this new century, the injunction to prevent the emergence of a new rival "that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union" can apply only to China, as no other potential adversary possesses a credible capacity to "generate global power". Hence the preservation of American supremacy into "the far realm of the future", as then-governor, George W Bush, put it in a 1999 campaign speech, required the permanent containment of China - and this is what Rice, Rumsfeld and their associates set out to do when they assumed office in early 2001.

This project was well under way when the September 11 attacks occurred. Those events gave the neo-conservatives a green light to implement their ambitious plans to extend US power around the world. However, the shift in emphasis from blocking future rivals to fighting terrorism was troubling to many in the permanent-supremacy crowd who felt that momentum was being lost in the grand campaign to constrain China.

Moreover, antiterrorism places a premium on special forces and low-tech infantry, rather than on the costly sophisticated fighters and warships needed for combat against a major military power. For at least some US strategists, not to mention giant military contractors, then, the "war on terror" was seen as a distraction that had to be endured until the time was ripe for a resumption of the anti-Chinese initiatives begun in February 2001. That moment seems to have arrived.

Why now? Several factors explain the timing of this shift. The first, no doubt, is public fatigue with the "war on terror" and a growing sense among the military that the war in Iraq has ground to a stalemate. So long as public attention is focused on the daily setbacks and loss of life in Iraq - and, since late August, on the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina - support for the president's military policies will decline. And this, it is feared, could translate into an allergy to costly military operations altogether, akin to the dreaded "Vietnam syndrome" of the 1970s and 1980s. It is hardly surprising, then, that senior US officers are talking of plans to reduce US troop strength in Iraq over the coming year even though Bush has explicitly ruled out such a reduction.

At the same time, China's vast economic expansion has finally begun to translate into improvements in its net military capacity. Although most Chinese weapons are hopelessly obsolete - derived, in many cases, from Soviet models of the 1950s and 1960s - Beijing has used some of its newfound wealth to purchase relatively modern arms from Russia, including fighter planes, diesel-electric submarines and destroyers.

China has also been expanding its arsenal of short-range ballistic missiles, many capable of striking Taiwan and Japan. None of these systems compare to the most advanced ones in the American arsenal, but their much-publicized acquisition has provided fresh ammunition to those in Washington who advocate stepped-up efforts to neutralize Chinese military capabilities.

Under these circumstances, the possibility of a revved-up military competition with China looks unusually promising to some in the military establishment. No American lives are at risk in such a drive. Any bloodletting, should it occur, lies safely in the future.

These moves are supported by a recent surge in anti-Chinese popular sentiment, brought about in part by high gasoline prices (which many blame on China's oil thirst), the steady loss of American jobs to low-wage Chinese industry, and the (seemingly) brazen effort by China's leading oil company to acquire Unocal.

The oil factor

This appears, then, to be an opportune moment for renewing the drive to constrain China. But the brouhaha over Unocal, together with other Chinese attempts to secure oil and natural gas, also reveals something deeper at work: a growing recognition that the US and China are now engaged in a high-stakes competition to gain control of the rest of the world's oil supplies.

Just a decade ago, in 1994, China accounted for less than 5% of the world's net petroleum consumption and produced virtually all of the oil it burned. True, China was already number four among the world's top oil consumers, after the US, Japan and Russia, but its daily usage of 3 million barrels represented less than one-fifth of what the US consumed on an average day.

Since then, however, China has jumped to the number two position (supplanting Japan in 2003), and its current consumption of about 6 million barrels per day is approximately one-third of America's usage. However, domestic oil output in China has remained relatively flat over this period, so it must now import half of its total supply.

And with China's economy roaring ahead, its need for imported petroleum is expected to climb much higher in the years to come: According to the Department of Energy (DOE), Chinese oil consumption is projected to reach 12 million barrels per day in 2020, of which 9 million barrels will have to be obtained abroad. With the US also needing more imports - as much as 16 million barrels per day in 2020 - and with no credible research on alternative energy sources approaching conclusion, the stage is being set for an intense struggle over access to the world's petroleum supplies.

This would not be such a worrisome prospect if global petroleum output could expand sufficiently between now and 2020 to satisfy increased demand from both China and the US - and in fact, the DOE predicts that sufficient oil will be available at that time.

But many energy experts believe world oil output, now hovering at about 84 million barrels per day, is nearing its maximum or "peak" sustainable level, and that there is no way that the world will ever reach the 111 million barrels projected by the DOE for 2020. If this proves to be the case, or even if output continues to rise but still falls significantly short of the DOE projection, the competition between the US and China for whatever oil remains in ever diminishing foreign reservoirs will become even more fierce and contentious.

The intensifying US-Chinese struggle for oil is seen, for instance, in China's aggressive pursuit of supplies in such countries as Angola, Canada, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Venezuela. Until recently China derived very little of its petroleum from these countries; now it has deals with all of them to secure new supplies.

That China is competing so vigorously with the US for access to foreign oil is worrisome enough to American business leaders and government officials, given the likelihood that this will result in higher energy costs leading to a slowing economy; the fact that it is seeking to siphon off oil from places like Canada, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela - which have long sent a large share of their supplies to America - is the source of even greater concern, holding as it does the potential to result in a permanent shift in the global flow of oil.

From a strategic perspective, moreover, US officials worry that China's efforts to acquire more oil from Iran and Sudan have been accompanied by deliveries of arms and military aid, thus altering the balance of power in areas considered vital to Washington's security interests. China, whose reach not long ago seemed to be limited to regions on its immediate borders, has emerged as a significant global player in the energy sweepstakes and beyond.

Initially, discussion of China's intensifying quest for foreign oil was largely confined to the business press. But now, for the first time, it is being viewed as a national security matter - that is, as a key factor in shaping US military policy.

This outlook was first given official expression in the 2005 edition of the Pentagon's report on Chinese military power. "China became the second largest consumer and third largest importer of oil in 2003," the report notes. "As China's energy and resource needs grow, Beijing has concluded that access to these resources requires special economic or foreign policy relationships in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, bringing China closer to problem countries such as Iran, Sudan, and Venezuela."

Again, the implications of this are obvious: China's growing ties to "problem states" constitute a threat to strategic initiatives in volatile areas of particular interest to US policymakers and so must be met with countermoves of one sort or another.

Two trends have thus joined to propel this new swing of the pendulum: a drive to refocus attention on the long-term challenge posed by China and fresh concern over China's pursuit of oil supplies in strategic areas of the globe.

So long as these two conditions prevail - and there is no repeat of September 11 - the calls for increased US military preparation for an eventual war with China will grow stronger. The fact that Bush has seen his job-approval rating plummet in the wake of Hurricane Katrina might also tempt the administration to play up the China threat.