China Soldiers

August 3, 1998
Since President Clinton's trip to China there has been a lot of talk about engaging the Chinese, but I fear it is nothing more than talk. From here it looks a lot more like appeasement and conciliation.

Consider the story from the South China Morning Post. It says that elite U.S. Special Forces units will train People's Liberation Army soldiers under a plan being put forward by the Pentagon. A top general said, "What we encourage is low-level contact at the small-unit level... To develop trust and confidence that then brings in higher people." This is incredible. Can you imagine the response if the U.S. sent Special Forces soldiers to the former Soviet Union in the 1980s or even to South Africa (during that same period of time) to train those soldiers?

Mind you this is taking place at a time when the Pentagon confirms that China has added six new Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles to the arsenal. A bipartisan commission headed by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield recently reported that China is a major exporter of ballistic missiles to Iran and other rogue nations.

And China is not only a military competitor, it's an economic competitor. We are currently running a $60 billion trade deficit with China. And the deficit is not just because we buy so many Chinese products. It's also because they buy so few of our products. The small country of Belgium buys more from the United States than China does.

Is China a friend or foe? The Clinton administration talks about engagement, but it looks a lot more like appeasement to me.

I'm Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, and that's my opinion.

© 1998 Probe Ministries International