Arguably, the War on Terror is the most serious issue facing our country today. Radical Islamofascists, aided – whether knowingly or unknowingly – by the progressive left and the mainstream media, pose a grave danger to the safety of our citizens, and further, to our very existence. But our government cannot afford to have tunnel-vision when it comes to national security threats. Islamofascism isn’t the only threat facing our nation today.
 
As the United States struggles to bring democracy to the Middle East it would be foolish to ignore or underestimate the potential threat that is China. Alarmingly, some in the State Department and the Pentagon downplay the severity of this threat. They do so in the face of a verifiable military build-up, the detection of unregistered Chinese agents attaining military technology for their government and a booming Chinese economy flush with massive technological gains and fueled by an almost explosive consumption of raw materials.
 
Economists have been talking about the modernization of China over the past decade. Most of this conversation has had to do with cheap labor and China’s entrance into the global economic community. But along with joining the global economic community China has also positioned itself as a world-class consumer nation. This was never more evident than during the most recent gas price spike.
 
A recent study by the Hudson Institute titled, China’s New Great Leap Forward: High Technology and Military Power in the Next Half Century, cites the fact that many in the world – some, I think, within the inner circles of the State Department and the Pentagon – are missing “a proper sense of the transition now underway in China’s economy – a transition from lower-order to higher-order production.” It is logical to conclude that if a nation of over a billion people is transitioning from a lower-order to a higher order in one aspect of its society (production) that other aspects will follow suit, either quickly or over a period of time. In the area of consumption the transition has been quick.
 
This transition, the study suggests, becomes even more ominous when one considers China’s “remarkable progress in science, technology and engineering” as it applies to their military pursuits.
 
Look at the recent arrests of Chi Mak and three others charged with running a Chinese intelligence-gathering ring out of Los Angeles to understand how easily the newly acquired “higher-order” technology available to the Chinese government is converted from peaceful use to military advantage.
 
The spy ring, which had funneled technology and military secrets to China, had been compromising the effectiveness of US weapons systems, including the Aegis weapons system and technology related to our submarines and warships, for over a decade according to federal authorities investigating the matter. They contend that it could prove to be the most damaging spy case since 1985 when John A. Walker Jr. was found to have passed Navy communication codes to Moscow for over 20 years.
 
Couple this disturbing bit of news with the fact that since the 1990s (who was in office and in charge of intelligence throughout the 90s?) China has been engaged in a rapid building up of its military.
 
According to a report made public by the Pentagon in July of 2005, the Chinese arms buildup includes, but is not limited to: deployment of between 650 and 730 mobile, short-range CSS-6 and CSS-7 missiles opposite Taiwan and the addition of 100 missiles per year; plans to use its ballistic missiles to conduct "anti-access/sea-denial missions" against US and other warships; development of three new types of long-range missiles, and a new medium-range missile, giving Beijing missiles capable of striking targets across the globe, including in the US; new submarines, amphibious ships, mines and possibly high-power microwave devices.
 
This report accompanied a statement by Gen. Zhu Chenghu, head of China’s military defense school, that if US forces interfere in a conflict over Taiwan, "the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds...of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese" with nuclear weapons.
 
Break to last week when pro-democracy demonstrations took place in Hong Kong. Mix in the fact that China and the US have serious differences regarding the future of Taiwan and North Korea. Then sprinkle the top of this concoction of complexities with the memory of a tank bearing down on a pro-democracy demonstrator in the middle of Tiananmen Square. Viewed together with China’s huge technological strides, their acquisition of military technology and their increased appetite for all things consumer it isn’t hard to imagine how this potentially lethal concoction could lead to a full-scale conflict between two key players on the world stage.
 
So, while US forces battle Islamofascism to provide the hope of freedom to those who have only known oppression in the Middle East, we need to make sure – despite the political climate in Washington DC – that those charged with identifying and tracking national security threats to our nation keep an eye on all the threats gathering on the horizon, not just those of a Middle Eastern origin. With a shrieking progressive left and mainstream media that would rather ponder whether midday tea served without lemon down in Gitmo constitutes torture or not, this may be harder than we think.
 
Related Reading:

China's New Great Leap Forward:
High Technology and Military Power in the Next Half-Century http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/China_Great_Leap_Forward.pdf

Report: China's Military Modernization Poses Wide Range of Threats http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1310726&C=america

Four arrests linked to Chinese spy ring
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051104-111851-2539r.htm

Chinese military buildup reaches beyond Taiwan
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050719-103400-7322r.htm