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A series of different things going on currently…some related, some not.

Firstly, at the time of T.A.R.P. and the rest of the financial bailouts, we were repeatedly warned by all of the Washington establishment that this was essential in order to prevent a total, and irreparable financial meltdown. But what if the bailouts had never taken place?…

Iceland did not bail out the banks or the bank investors and its economy is thriving, proving that the the US-Irish model of bailing out the banks with taxpayer money was harmful unless you were a wealthy bank investor

What was the ultimate effect?

Today, Iceland is recovering. The three new banks had combined profit of $309 million in the first nine months of 2010. GDP grew for the first time in two years in the third quarter, by 1.2 percent, inflation is down to 1.8 percent and the cost of insuring government debt has tumbled 80 percent. Stores in Reykjavik were filled with Christmas shoppers in early December, and bank branches were crowded with customers.

Meanwhile, there are items relating to the B.O. administration is engaging in apparently betrayal and/or mistreatment of allies and friends abroad:

ITEM:
The American betrayal
Op-ed: Obama’s abandonment of Mubarak shows Israel cannot count on US at times of crisis

…there is one more thing we can learn from the events in Egypt, aside from the fragility of the region we inhabit, and it is something that’s not easy to digest: The Western world’s and mostly America’s treachery. We learned that the way they abandoned President Mubarak and gave him the cold shoulder can happen to us too. Or in other words, we cannot count on the Americans at a time of crisis.

ITEM:
WikiLeaks cables: US agrees to tell Russia Britain’s nuclear secrets

The US secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The US, under a nuclear deal, has agreed to give the Kremlin the serial numbers of the missiles it gives Britain Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal to be signed by President Barack Obama next week.

After his returning the Churchill bust, snubbing Brit leaders, including the Queen, one gets the idea that B.O. REALLY does not like Britain.Along with this, the upside-down policy orientation of B.O. is further illustrated by policies that refuse to recognize those who are our enemies:

Failures by FBI, Pentagon contributed to Ft. Hood massacre, report says

The FBI and the Pentagon are responsible for a “string of failures” in the way they attempted to track a disgruntled Army major in the years before he allegedly opened fire at a crowded Ft. Hood, Texas, deployment center in the worst domestic terror ambush since the attacks of September 2001, two key Senate leaders concluded Thursday.

In addition, Army supervisors repeatedly referred to Maj. Nidal Hasan as a “ticking time bomb,” and FBI agents and the military knew he had become radicalized under the influence of a violent Islamist extremist. Yet the agents never arrested him, and his military superiors never disciplined or furloughed him out of the Army.

In an apparent triumph of political correctness no action was taken lest it offer offense to Islam. The Chief’s response would have been to s–tcan Hasan, and f’em if they can’t take the joke.

Meanwhile, there is also THIS particular bit of craziness:

China Maneuvers for U.S. Defense Contracts

The maker of China’s new stealth fighter jet has teamed up with a tiny, unprofitable California company to try to launch bids for U.S. defense contracts, possibly including one to supply Chinese helicopters to replace the aging Marine One fleet used by the president, according to people involved in the partnership.

Fortunately this one looks to be beyond the reach of even B.O.’s aspirations for playing kissy-face with the ChiComs:

Any Chinese bids for this or another contract under discussion would be certain to meet intense political resistance and would appear to have very little chance of success given mounting U.S. concern about China’s military power and long-term strategic goals, and the often-prohibitive opposition in the past to Chinese attempts to enter other strategic U.S. sectors, such as energy and telecommunications

UNforunately, they may be back for another attempt:

…the two companies have also been discussing putting forward AVIC’s new L-15 trainer jet as a candidate to replace the U.S. Air Force’s fleet of Northrop T-38s, which entered service 50 years ago and on which American fighter pilots learn skills such as how to fly at supersonic speeds.

That contract is expected to be one of the most lucrative military aviation contracts this decade, with the U.S. likely to buy about 400 and other allied countries about 600 more as the jet will become the standard for training pilots to fly the U.S. F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters.

Is it just me, or does anyone else get a really bad feeling about the US becoming dependent on the ChiComs for maintaining our military? Sheeesh!

China Watch, National Insecurity

Military Malpractice: Blitzkrieg then and Now

Remember the Blitzkrieg before it’s too late

First, a basic history review:

Seventy years ago today, on May 10, 1940, the German armed forces launched the deep-penetration attack through southern Belgium to the English Channel that split the French and British armies in two – a form of warfare known to the world as Blitzkrieg or “lightning war.” Three weeks later, the campaign ended with the German subjugation of France, Belgium and the Netherlands and Britain’s ignominious withdrawal from the European continent.

To contemporary Western military observers accustomed to the grinding attrition battles of World War I, Germany’s incredibly successful Blitzkrieg seemed magical. But there was no magic. For any great victory to occur, the winning side must get most things right while the losing side gets most things wrong.

How did this happen?

The Germans got most things right. They integrated new technology into new organizations – radio communications, tanks, armored infantry and air power – under vastly superior battlefield commanders, commanders who led Germany’s superbly educated, physically fit and trained soldiers from the front, not the rear. But it’s what the British and French got wrong that should command America’s attention.

First the Brits:

In the 1920s, Britain’s top generals focused the British army on organizing, training and equipping its troops to police the declining British Empire. British military leaders decided the only enemy Britain would fight for at least 10 years would be a colonial enemy, a hostile tribesman or insurgent. The long-term results of this thinking were nearly fatal to Britain.

As far as the frogs were concerned:

In France, where defense spending rose to account for one-third of all government expenditures by 1939, there was no shortage of modern equipment, only a shortage of competent senior leadership in the general-officer ranks. “Methodical battle,” a concept of war-fighting emphasizing set-piece battles and the application of preplanned firepower over maneuver, was enshrined as the French national vision of future war. Its strategic effect was devastating.

(France fell is six weeks.)
Now for the really scary bit; what are WE doing lately?

Today, stars will only fall on American Army and Marine officers who religiously embrace counterinsurgency inside the Islamic world as the future. The notion that the generals have “discovered” a military solution to Islam’s societal misery in the form of counterinsurgency is untrue, but no one in the White House, the Senate or the House, let alone the media, is willing to challenge it.

Sad but true!

But armies are what they do, and, for the moment, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps are light constabulary forces designed to police Muslim Arabs and Afghans with AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mines. This conversion to light forces designed to operate from fixed bases while depending heavily on timely and accurate air strikes for effectiveness and survival has left American ground forces in a weakened, vulnerable state.

For the United States, the critical military lesson of May 10, 1940, means avoiding Britain’s mistake of optimizing its forces to fight weak insurgents, especially when Muslim rebellions against unwanted American military occupations are easily avoided. It also means understanding that future conflicts will involve wars among nations and alliances of nations waged by powerful armed forces for regional power and influence; fights for energy, water, food, mineral resources and the wealth they create. Otherwise, the generals’ current obsession with counterinsurgency will leave the American armed forces as unprepared for a real war in 10 years as the British and French forces were for their confrontation with Germany in 1940.

Of course, it is claimed that now there is no likelihood of anyone being able to fight a “real war” against us, right?

(Move along folks, nothing to see here.  Ignore that 800 lb. gorilla that lives just to the north of the South China Sea; or what his buddy in the USSR Russian Federation is up to with continuing to develop shiny new high-performance aircraft, subs, nuclear weapons, missiles, and tanks.  No concerns at all, right?)

China Watch

ChiCom’s Recycled Body Parts “e-Bay”

“Paging Dr. Mengele, Dr. Mengele, stat!”
And we’re supposed to keep negotiating and doing business with the ChiComs?

Chinese accused of vast trade in organs
Harvests come from religious dissidents

China’s hidden policy of executing prisoners of the forbidden quasi-Buddhist group Falun Gong and harvesting their organs for worldwide sale has been expanded to include Tibetans, “house church” Christians and Muslim Uighurs, human rights activists said Monday.

In a news conference on Capitol Hill, several speakers, including attorney David Matas of B’nai Brith Canada and Ethan Gutmann of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said their investigations have unearthed a grisly trade in which an estimated 9,000 members of Falun Gong have been executed for their corneas, lungs, livers, kidneys and skins.

They likened the practice to the Nazi treatment of Jewish prisoners in World War II concentration camps, which included using them for sadistic medical experiments and taking the gold fillings from the teeth of corpses.

The newest wrinkle, they said, is that organs from other religious prisoners — specifically dissidents from China’s Christian, Muslim and Tibetan Buddhist communities — are also being harvested to satisfy an insatiable global demand.

“These groups are useless to the state,” Mr. Gutmann said. “They are toxic, so you can’t release them. But they’re worth a great deal of money in terms of their organs.”

Organs from just one person can fetch a total of $100,000 on the worldwide market, he added.

Remember the investigations on corporations who were in bed with the Nazis?

So what about the same or worse with the ChiComs…or is a business one that’s deemed “too big to fail”?

China Watch, National Insecurity

Navy Brass Admit to ChiCom Threat

Admiral: China’s buildup aimed at power past Asia

The commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific said Thursday that the buildup of Chinese armed forces is continuing “unabated” and Beijing’s goal appears to be power projection beyond Asia.

“China’s rapid and comprehensive transformation of its armed forces is affecting regional military balances and holds implications beyond the Asia-Pacific region,” said Adm. Robert F. Willard, the Pacific Command leader. “Of particular concern is that elements of China’s military modernization appear designed to challenge our freedom of action in the region.”

The comments in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee are likely to fuel an ongoing debate inside the U.S. government among military, policy and intelligence officials over whether China’s military buildup is limited to a future conflict with Taiwan or whether China harbors global military ambitions.

Uh…just a hint: the ChiComs don’t require aircraft carriers and long-range anti-ship missiles to deal with Taiwan if they decide to pull that trigger.

China Watch, National Insecurity

Cold War-II China Updates

From the London Telegraph:

Is China’s Politburo spoiling for a showdown with America?

The long-simmering clash between the world’s two great powers is coming to a head, with dangerous implications for the international system.

China has succumbed to hubris. It has mistaken the soft diplomacy of Barack Obama for weakness, mistaken the US credit crisis for decline, and mistaken its own mercantilist bubble for ascendancy. There are echoes of Anglo-German spats before the First World War, when Wilhelmine Berlin so badly misjudged the strategic balance of power and over-played its hand.

There are a lot more gory details in the piece…it’s not cheerful reading.

A part of the overall problem is this:

China opposes US and EU demands for yuan revaluation

Premier Wen Jiabao made it clear during a press conference marking the end of the country’s parliamentary meetings that he did not think the yuan was undervalued and blamed the US for the deterioration in relations between the two superpowers.

He made a renewed call for the US to take concrete action to reassure investors about the security of the dollar, declaring he was still worried about China’s considerable holdings of US Treasury securities, currently standing at just under $900bn (£596bn).

The premier’s comments offered little comfort for US President Barack Obama as he considers growing demands from US businesses and unions to impose trade sanctions against cheap Chinese products. He has urged China to adopt a more “market related exchange rate” and is considering whether to go a stage further and name China as a “currency manipulator.”

An increase in tension has been fuelled by US arms sales to Taiwan and the visit of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, to Washington along with the attacks on Google which has threatened to withdraw from China unless it can be assured it can run its search engine without interference.

There had been hopes that Premier Wen’s press conference, the Chinese leadership’s traditional platform for sending coded signals to the rest of the world about policy shifts, would provide some pointers to change but economists saw no sign of any movement on the crucial currency question.

So far the deterioration in relations has been reflected by an increase in the level of rhetoric but economists fear President Obama may be forced into tougher action.

Stay tuned.

China Watch

CHINA Worried About Obamacare Costs!

This is sourced from Reuters…not exactly noted as a nerve center of the VRWC!

China questions costs of U.S. healthcare reform

Guess what? It turns out the Chinese are kind of curious about how President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform plans would impact America’s huge fiscal deficit. Government officials are using his Asian trip as an opportunity to ask the White House questions. Detailed questions.

Boilerplate assurances that America won’t default on its debt or inflate the shortfall away are apparently not cutting it. Nor should they, when one owns nearly $2 trillion in assets denominated in the currency of a country about to double its national debt over the next decade.

Nothing happening in Washington today should give Beijing any comfort or confidence about what may happen tomorrow. Healthcare reform was originally promoted as a way to “bend the curve” on escalating entitlement costs, the major part of which is financing Medicare and Medicaid. That is looking more and more like an overpromised deliverable.

Looks like even the ChiComs get the picture…now, if we can only get SanFranNan Pelosi and Dusty Harry Reid to exercise some fiscal rationality….

China Watch, National Insecurity

“Here’s the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss”

Russia’s Leaders See China as Template for Ruling

Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Communist Party, Russia’s rulers have hit upon a model for future success: the Communist Party.

Or at least, the one that reigns next door.

Like an envious underachiever, Vladimir V. Putin’s party, United Russia, is increasingly examining how it can emulate the Chinese Communist Party, especially its skill in shepherding China through the financial crisis relatively unbowed.

United Russia’s leaders even convened a special meeting this month with senior Chinese Communist Party officials to hear firsthand how they wield power.

18russia.big

In the words of Rod Stewart:  “Every picture tells a story, don’t it?”

A police state is a police state – whether you call it the “Communist Party of (insert country here)”, “United Russia”, or the “National Socialist German Workers Party”, it’s just different sides of the same coin.

China Watch, Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

ChiCom Missiles to be Boosted by B.O.?

Obama loosens missile technology controls to China

President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department — a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development.

The president issued a little-noticed “presidential determination” Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

Even Bill Clinton had enough shame to do stuff like this under the radar. As fas as B.O. is concerned, why bother.
Of course, the message to the country is “Nothing to see here. Move along folks. Go back home and watch NBC some more.”

Commerce officials say the shift will not cause controls to be loosened in regards to the export of missile and space technology.

DUH…by delegating the authority for approval DOWN the chain of command…the controls have ALREADY been loosened!

Besides…there is no reason to change the regulatory setup…unless there is already the intention to use the changed system to sell our technology to the ChiComs.

Eugene Cottilli, a spokesman for Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, said under new policy the U.S. government will rigorously monitor all sensitive exports to China.

Right…they will be monitored. Logically, this means that they will be occurring! Otherwise, there would be nothing to monitor! (Dang! That pesky logic…)

The presidential notice alters a key provision of the 1999 Defense Authorization Act that required that the president notify Congress whether a transfer of missile and space technology to China would harm the U.S. space-launch industry or help China’s missile programs.

How can a “presidential notice” repeal a law? Did I miss something here?

The law was passed after a late-1990s scandal involving the U.S. companies Space Systems/Loral and Hughes Electronics Corp. Both companies improperly shared technology with China and were fined $20 million and $32 million, respectively, by the State Department after a U.S. government investigation concluded that their know-how was used to improve China’s long-range nuclear missiles.

This was the afore-mentioned Clintonista “problem” with missile tech security.

Section 1512 of the 1999 law requires the president to certify to Congress in advance of any missile equipment or technology exports to China that the export will not harm the U.S. space-launch industry and that “missile equipment or technology, including any indirect technical benefit that could be derived from such export, will not measurably improve the missile or space launch capabilities of the People’s Republic of China.”

Of course, if B.O. is ignoring Congress on this, Congress will surely respond vigorously, right?

Oh…yeah…THIS Congress…never mind.

China Watch, National Insecurity

B.O. Middle East Disarray

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The B.O. administration seems unable to get itself organized in the middle east, with the resulting development of serious economic consequences, as illustrated by the unfortunate pattern of the following articles found online today…as contradictory as they are.

White House angry at General Stanley McChrystal speech on Afghanistan

At the time that General McChrystal was appointed, B.O. pledged to take care of the needs of the force as communicated by the commanding general…that WOULD be McCrystal. Ooops! When he says something that B.O. doesn’t want to hear, it’s a different story. Support for the war apparently only goes so far now that the election is over.

According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week.

Truth is a bitch!

The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One on the tarmac in Copenhagen, where the president had arrived to tout Chicago’s unsuccessful Olympic bid. In an apparent rebuke to the commander, Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary, said: “It is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations, civilians and military alike, provide our best advice to the president, candidly but privately.”

This ignores the situation that McChrystal’s requests were made weeks ago, with hardly a “Howdy do?”  In reply. B.O. doesn’t seem able to realize that military combat doesn’t operate according to the whims of his attention…or rather, inattention.

Less than perfect decisive action is generally better than no action at all, which has been the White House pattern of late.

If there was an incipient plan to cut out and abandon the effort (without commenting on the merits of THAT), then there MAY be some rationale to the non-response from Washington, but…that’s NOT what they are insisting:

White House: Leaving Afghanistan not an option

The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama is not considering a strategy for Afghanistan that would withdraw U.S. troops from the eroding war there. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that walking away isn’t a viable option to deal with a war that is about to enter its ninth year. “I don’t think we have the option to leave. That’s quite clear,” Gibbs said.

If that’s really the case, not to put a fine point to it, then it’s past time for B.O. to s–t or get off the pot!

In addition, to completely have two opposite trends at the same time, comes SECDEF Gates

Taliban Afghan momentum due to lack of U.S. troops

The Taliban has the momentum in Afghanistan now because of the inability of the United States and its allies to put enough troops into the country, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday.

HUH?

Firstly, Gates essentially is agreeing with McChrystal that we do not have enough troops in-country to successfully do the job: so now both the Commanding General AND the Secretary of Defense apparently don’t buy into B.O.’s pusillanimous inaction.

Secondly, is the United States Secretary of Defense REALLY saying that this is due to the “INABILITY of the United States and its allies to put enough troops into the country” [emphasis added]?  We are UNABLE to carry out a policy that would enable winning the war in Afghanistan?

Anyone else remember B.O. proclaiming that AFGHANISTAN was the “central front” of the war on Islamoterrs, in contrast to Iraq? Apparently that was then (campaign mode) and this is now (Administration mode).

However it plays out, our allies and so-called allies are betting that the United States uner B.O. is a paper tiger, so they are getting together behind our back and planning to slip it to us financially and economically, apparently with no fear of possible effective response:

The demise of the dollar

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar. Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.

Our reaction thus far is in any practical sense, ineffectual, as we slip towards an expansion of Cold War II.

The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place – although they have not discovered the details – are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs. Against the background to these currency meetings, Sun Bigan, China’s former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. “Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable,” he told the Asia and Africa Review. “We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security.”

This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil…

God help us…we’ll need it if we don’t start to get our sh… er… stuff together.

China Watch

Shocking! ChiCom Censorship of Web?

China to censor Internet during Games: official

China will censor the Internet used by foreign media during the Olympics, an organising committee official confirmed Wednesday, reversing a pledge to offer complete media freedom at the games.

I mean, did anyone REALLY expect otherwise? One supposes that there are libmoonbats that think everything is warm and fuzzy over there, but hey – the ChiComs are doing what the ChiComs do, in spite of what any moonbats think about them.

It’s always worth noting that Google, etc. are implicit and cooperative with the ChiComs in building and maintaining the “Great Firewall of China”, which is why the Chief recommends use of the new search engine Cuil. Besides, they don’t track your search patterns like Google does – a definite plus!

China Watch

Oil Price Crunches Globalist Trade Pattern

Oil price shock means China is at risk of blowing up

The Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is one of the sharpest reporters around, and has been for some time. He describes a very interesting situation.

The great oil shock of 2008 is bad enough for us. It poses a mortal threat to the whole economic strategy of emerging Asia. The manufacturing revolution of China and her satellites has been built on cheap transport over the past decade. At a stroke, the trade model looks obsolete….

Can you say “schadenfreude“?

“The monumental energy price increases will be a ‘game-changer’ for Asia,” said Stephen Jen, currency chief at Morgan Stanley. The region’s trade model is about to be “stress-tested”.

Energy subsidies have disguised the damage. China has held down electricity prices, though global coal costs have tripled since early 2007. Loss-making industries are being propped up. This merely delays trouble. “The true impact of the shock will only be revealed over time, as subsidies are gradually rolled back,” he said. Last week, China raised internal rail freight rates by 17pc.

BP ‘s Statistical Review says China’s use of energy per unit of gross domestic product is three times that of the US, five times Japan’s, and eight times Britain’s. China’s factories “were not built with current energy levels in mind”, said Mr Jen. The outcome will be “non-linear”. My translation: China is at risk of blowing up.

Non-linear…as in jagged, or sharp and sudden, not smooth and gradual.

Any low-tech product shipped in bulk – furniture, say, or shoes – is facing the ever-rising tariff of high freight costs. The Asian outsourcing game is over, says CIBC World Markets. “It’s not just about labour costs any more: distance costs money,” says chief economist Jeff Rubin. Xinhua says that 2,331 shoe factories in Guangdong have shut down this year, half the total.

North Carolina’s furniture industry is coming back from the dead as companies shut plant in China. “We’re getting hit with increases up and down the system. It’s changing the whole equation of where we produce,” said Craftsmaster Furniture.

It’s an ill wind indeed that blows no good!

Evans-Pritchard concludes with a turn of phrase that is well worth some serious contemplation, as it cuts to the real heart of the matter IMHO:

Come what may, globalisation has passed its high-water mark. The pendulum will now swing back from China to America. The mercantilists will have to reinvent themselves.

Interesting times, indeed!

China Watch, National Insecurity

ChiCom Notes

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A couple of relevant items pertaining to recent doings of the Comrades of Beijing.

Lawmaker says Chinese hacked Capitol computers

A Virginia congressman says the FBI has found that four of his government computers have been hacked by sources working out of China. In remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Frank Wolf says he has been told by the FBI that four computers in his personal office were compromised.

The Virginia Republican says that similar incidents – also originating from China – have taken place on computers of other members of Congress and at least one House committee.

Why would they be so uncollegial as to do this?

A spokesman for Wolf says the four computers were being used by staff members working on human rights issues. Wolf is a longtime critic of the Chinese government’s human rights record.

Dang! That pesky old “human rights” again. Unlike the ACLU’s version of human rights issues, like being offended by someone peacefully praying, for example, ChiCom human rights problems often involve the injection of a 9 mm bullet to the back of the head…with the cost of said bullet being billed to the victim’s family.

…meanwhile, on a different note highlighting something that’s more of a problem with Washington than Beijing:

China’s Drilling for Oil in America’s Backyard

House Republicans want the American people to know that right now — around 60 miles off the coast of Key West, Fla. — China is drilling for oil, thanks to a lease issued by Cuba.

But 1,200 miles north of Key West, Democrats in Washington are blocking the United States from conducting its own environmentally-safe oil and gas exploration in similar U.S. coastal areas, said a news release from House Republican leader John Boehner’s office.

Democrat Congresscritters, wooden rail, hot tar, feathers. Some assembly required.

China Watch, Defense Matters!

ChiCom Crap Stuff Zaps US Troops?

Families demand answers in Iraq electrocutions

Here’s another one to add to the litany of ChiCom garbage foisted off on us, which has ranged from bad ped food, adulterated or faked food additives (for humans), toxic toys, etc.

Three years and three months before Ryan Maseth stepped into a shower Jan. 2 in Baghdad, an Army safety specialist identified electrocution as a “killer of soldiers.”

Still, when the 24-year-old Shaler Green Beret turned on the faucet, water flowed from a pump powered by an improperly grounded electrical system manufactured in China. Borne on water, an electrical current surged through the pipes, out of the shower head and into his body. His heart stopped.

Maseth’s electrocution, the latest of 14 among service personnel in Iraq since 2003, set into motion a series of events to determine how and why these deaths occurred.

China Watch

ChiCom Olympic Preps Continuing…

Senator: China plans to spy on Olympic hotel guests

So what’s the news here?

A Senate lawmaker accused the Chinese government on Thursday of ordering U.S.-owned hotels in China to install Internet filters that can spy on international visitors coming to see the summer Olympic games.

Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, made the charge at a Capitol Hill news conference where he and other lawmakers denounced China’s record of human rights abuses and urged President Bush not to attend the opening ceremonies in Beijing.

HAH! Fat chance of Bush not kowtowing to Beijing – unfortunately.

“This is wrong, it’s against international conventions, it’s certainly against the Olympic spirit,” Brownback said. “The Chinese government should remove that request and that order.”

Olympic spirit? Is there such a thing any more?

Brownback said he has seen the language of memos received by at least two U.S.-owned hotels. He declined to name them, and said he obtained the information from two “reliable but confidential sources” in the hope that public pressure would persuade the Chinese government to back off the demand.

Public pressure? Affecting the ChiCom regime? Only on a frigid day in hell.

The senator called China “the foremost enabler of human rights abuses around the world” and said the Chinese government is turning the summer games into “an Olympics of oppression.”

HEAR, HEAR! The Chief heartily concurs, but without surprise…the ChiComs are still…the same bunch that killed off some 10’s of millions of their own people in the name of the Glorious Chairman Mao’s Revolution. What’s a bit of surveillance compared to that? A mere bagatelle! A nothing!

China Watch

Fun and Games with the ChiComs…or not?

IOC: Don’t Boycott Olympics Over Tibet

Of course not…just go ahead and give a stamp of international approval to what is arguably one of the most thuggish regimes on the planet. (Picky, picky, picky!)

Besides, it might seriously cut down on the corporate sponsorship and income to support the I.O.C. administrators in their accustomed style.

Meanwhile, the discontent is still alive in spite of Beijing’s best (or worst) efforts thus far.

Tibet Protests Spread to Other Provinces

Protests spread from Tibet into three neighboring provinces Sunday as Tibetans defied a Chinese government crackdown, while the Dalai Lama decried what he called the “cultural genocide” taking place in his homeland.

Demonstrations widened to Tibetan communities in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces, forcing authorities to mobilize security forces across a broad expanse of western China.

Hundreds dead in Tibet unrest: parliament-in-exile<

Hundreds of Tibetans have died in unrest in Lhasa and elsewhere in the Chinese-ruled Himalayan region, the India-based Tibetan parliament-in-exile said in a statement Monday.

“The massive demonstrations that started from March 10 in the capital city of Lhasa and other regions of Tibet, resulting (in the) death of hundreds of Tibetans, and subsequent use of force… needs to be brought to the attention of the United Nations and the international community,” the statement said.

The Chief gets it now! They’re holding try-outs for the Olympic marksmanship events!

China Watch, Defense Matters!

ChiComs NOW Upset about possible A-Sat Shot

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China concerned by U.S. satellite missile plan

China is concerned by U.S. plans to shoot down an ailing spy satellite and is considering what “preventative measures” to take, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

“The Chinese government is paying close attention to how the situation develops and demands the U.S. side fulfill its international obligations and avoids causing damage to security in outer space and of other countries,” spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

What a hoot! The ChiComs are upset about US plans to knock apart an already incoming satellite?

After THEY hit one in full orbit with THEIR A-Sat missile leaving behind an orbiting pile of space junk?

F’ em if they can’t take the joke!

China Watch

Possible ChiCom Olympic Spectacle?

Animals torn to pieces by lions in front of baying crowds: the spectator sport China DOESN’T want you to see

You’ve got to read this to believe it. Great shades of the Roman Circus!

The smiling children giggled as they patted the young goat on its head and tickled it behind the ears.

Some of the more boisterous ones tried to clamber onto the animal’s back but were soon shaken off with a quick wiggle of its bottom. It could have been a happy scene from a family zoo anywhere in the world but for what happened next.

A man hoisted up the goat and nonchalantly threw it over a wall into a pit full of hungry lions. The poor goat tried to run for its life, but it didn’t stand a chance. The lions quickly surrounded it and started tearing at its flesh.

“Oohs” and “aahs” filled the air as the children watched the goat being ripped limb from limb. Some started to clap silently with a look of wonder in their eyes.

The scenes witnessed at Badaltearing Safari Park in China are rapidly becoming a normal day out for many Chinese families.

Check out the full piece from the UK Daily Mail…but be warned, there ARE graphic photos included, but they aren’t any worse than you’re likely to see on the Discovery channel.

Any motion to change the situation? Judge for yourself:

In 2004, Beijing proposed animal welfare legislation which stipulated that “no one should harass, mistreat or hurt animals”. It would also have banned animal fights and live feeding shows. The laws would have been a huge step forward. But the proposals were scrapped following stiff opposition from vested interests and those who felt China had more pressing concerns.

And this is the central problem for animal welfare in China: its ruling elite is brutally repressive and cares little for animals.

Hey, they don’t treat people very good either, so why should they treat animals any better?

Centuries of rule by tyrannical emperors and bloody dictators have all but eradicated the Buddhist and Confucian respect for life and nature.

As a result, welfare groups are urging people not to go to Chinese zoos if they should visit the Olympics, as virtually every single one inflicts terrible suffering on its animals “They should tell the Chinese Embassy why they are refusing to visit these zoos,’ says Carol McKenna of OneVoice. “If a nation is great enough to host the Olympic Games then it is great enough to be able to protect its animals.”

Why should this interfere with their Olympic status? I mean it didn’t bother the IOC to stage the games in the midst of the Third Reich, did it?
(What’s a few goats compared to the Jews, anyway?)

For the record, the Chief subscribes to PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals! But, he also believes that animals should be respected…if an animal is shedding it’s life for me, then the least I can do is render due respect…the traditional Native American attitude is instructive here.

What will the ChiComs think of next, using condemned prisoners for the shows? Wow, they could put it on a YouTube type service, with a subscription fee…you just KNOW some people would pay for it: live death!

This is the ultimate destination of any society that deliberately denies the intrinsic dignity of any life, and reduces humanity to a “national resource” only valuable inasmuch as it contributes to building the glory of the new, Communist paradise (Remember? They ARE the ChiComs!)

China Watch, Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

WSJ: The importance of a strong Navy

Why T.R. Claimed the Sea

This relates to our current and future circumstances, as well as to an earlier posting concerning the sad decline of the Royal Navy.

On Dec. 16, 1907, the 16 battleships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet sailed from Hampton Roads, Va., on a 43,000-mile journey around the world. The occasion was immediately understood as Teddy Roosevelt’s way of declaring that the United States, already an economic superpower, was also a military one. Unnoticed by most Americans, this past Sunday marked its centennial.

There is an enduring, bipartisan strain in American politics (think Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich) that wishes to forgo the military role. As wonderfully recounted by Jim Rasenberger in “America 1908,” the voyage of the Great White Fleet, as it was popularly known, was energetically opposed by members of Congress, who sought to cut off its funding when it was halfway around the world. Sound familiar?

Even as many in Congress (and elsewhere) would like to repeal the need for us to be actively engaged and capable of militarily maintaining our proper interests in the world, nothing in our history has repealed the truths noted by Adm. A.T. Mahan and which were known to T.R. as we built and deployed the White Fleet.

Whatever the procurement problems or tactical issues, a supremely powerful Navy is not a luxury the U.S. can safely dispense with. In September, ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy made their first-ever port calls in Germany, France, Britain and Italy, and Chinese admirals are frequent guests on American warships. “The Chinese Great White Fleet is not too far off on the horizon,” says a senior Navy official in a recent conversation.

China’s current rise, like America’s a century ago, is not something anyone can stop. It can be steered. Making sure our vision for the Navy stays true to Teddy Roosevelt’s is one way of ensuring the Chinese don’t make the mistake of steering it our way.

We ignore our history and current situation at our mortal peril.

China Watch, Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

ChiComs Going for new Rope-a-Dope

Pentagon eyes China nuke talks

The Pentagon this week proposed holding a strategic nuclear “dialogue” with China, as Chinese military officials asked that Congress lift its guidelines banning military exchanges with Beijing on nuclear operations.

Defense officials said yesterday that the Chinese military’s request to end the 1999 “Smith guidelines” was made during the two days of meetings between U.S. and Chinese defense and military officials that ended Tuesday.

Hmmmm. Let’s see. maybe we should do this…after all, haven’t the ChiComs been nice lately?

Officials familiar with the talks said they also included a discussion of China’s refusal to permit the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk from docking in Hong Kong for a long-planned Thanksgiving port call.

Oh. Never mind.

If we go for this one, it’ll only prove that something in the Pentagon water turns brains to mush, and we’ll once again take on the role of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football being held by Lucy.

China Watch, National Insecurity

Extension of Corporate Ability to Sell-out US Sought by Admin.

Justice, DHS ‘still object’ to CFIUS order

National security and trade officials are deadlocked over provisions of a draft White House order aimed at bolstering the security aspects of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, The Washington Times has learned.

The interagency dispute over a draft executive order on the Treasury Department-led committee, known as CFIUS, took place during several interagency meetings over the past two months, but differences on the wording and authority remain unresolved, according to officials close to the debate who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

So what’s the argument about, really?

However, the official said that the National Security Council staff are ready to push ahead with the current order despite the objections from security officials and members of Congress from both parties.

Additionally, several members of Congress have asked for briefings on the executive order but have been put off by the White House, the officials said.

At issue are the law’s implementing regulations, which critics in the administration say will limit the authority that national security agencies had to order “mitigation agreements” designed to curtail national-security threats from proposed foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies. Under the draft order, the Treasury secretary will have more power to resolve disputes when before the committee, while the White House National Security Council staff gets more authority in the appeals process.

In other words, these administration moonbat internationalist corporate lackeys want to smooth the path for a continuing program of literally and figuratively sellling out the US to the ChiComs, with minimal regard to the US’s own national security.

What’s the solution?

Rope. Tree. Traitors. Some assembly required.

China Watch, National Insecurity

Report: Nix on 3Com + ChiCom Funny Business

Intelligence report hits China deal

More blowback via Bill Gertz in the D.C. Times to the proposed merger of 3Com into a ChiCom “business”:

U.S. intelligence agencies informed a Treasury Department-led review committee recently that a merger between 3Com and a Chinese company would threaten U.S. national security, The Washington Times has learned.

Bush administration intelligence officials said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) recently submitted a required threat assessment to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, which is conducting a 30-day investigation of the proposed deal between 3Com and China’s Huawei Technologies.

The assessment, which is classified, described the deal as posing a “threat” to U.S. national security, according to officials familiar with the document.

Another maladroit attempt, with even more of a problem than the late, unlamented Dubai ports deal.

China Watch, Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

ChiComs to USN: Go away!

Admiral ‘Perplexed’ by Snub at Hong Kong

It was just last week that the Chief commented that in his humble opinion that the US Navy’s top brass was being taken for a ride by their ChiCom counterparts, who effectively were playing them for a bunch of chumps. After this incident, there are signs that this is starting to penetrate their awareness.

The top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said he’s “perplexed and concerned” by China’s last-minute decision to deny a U.S. aircraft carrier entry to Hong Kong for a previously scheduled port visit. The USS Kitty Hawk and its escort ships were due to dock there for a four-day visit Wednesday until they were refused access. Hundreds of family members had flown to Hong Kong to spend Thanksgiving with their sailors.

Nice slap in the chops from our ChiCom “friends”. Commenting further, CinCPAC noted:

“It’s hard to put any kind of positive spin on this,” Adm. Timothy Keating told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday…

Gosh Admiral, d’ya think so? Can you remember something about the ChiComs – Chinese COMMUNISTS – maybe not REALLY having the interest of the world’s leading capitalist power at heart? (Hmmmmmm. Think. Think. THe clue’s right there on the edge of awareness….)

It’s even better that it’s part of a pattern:

It was the second time in a week that China refused to let U.S. Navy ships into the port. Two U.S. minesweepers seeking to refuel and shelter from bad weather in the South China Sea had asked for permission to enter Hong Kong three or four days before the Kitty Hawk. Those ships were denied, Keating said.

And all this unfriendliness came after we extracted our own spinal columns in our effort to be pals and play nice with the ChiComs:

The developments come as the U.S. military has been trying to bolster ties with the Chinese military to prevent misunderstandings and the potential for miscalculation.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Beijing earlier this month and high-level commanders have traveled back and forth between the two Pacific powers. Chinese warships visited U.S. naval bases in Pearl Harbor and San Diego last year, and the two navies have since held basic search-and- rescue exercises together.

Asked if the refusal to let the Kitty Hawk into Hong Kong would hurt the U.S.-China military relationship, Keating said: “We’ll keep working it of course, but it is difficult for me to characterize this in a positive light.”

DUH!

It’s an ill wind indeed that blows no good…and at least now there MAY be an inkling of what we are really up against with what is shaping up to be a significant Communist superpower.

China Watch

ChiComs Being…ChiComs

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The Bible among objects prohibited at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

So much for any Olympic spirit of tolerance and diversity.

The Spanish daily La Razon said the rule was one of a number of “signs of censure and intolerance” towards religious objects, particularly those used by Christians in China. Currently in China five bishops and fifteen priests are in prison for opposing the official Church.

But then again, they ARE the ChiComs…that’s what they do, and who they really are.

China Watch, National Insecurity

“Every picture tells a story, don’t it?

Sarkozy brings ‘new tone’ on role in NATO

Kyrgyzstan’s foreign minister sought to allay U.S. concerns about the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in an interview, maintaining that the burgeoning alliance is not a military organization and is not designed to limit U.S. influence in the region.

In spite of this diplospeak, the record of the meeting tells another story altogether:

The bloc linking China, Russia and four Central Asian states…

(a central Asian anti-American version of a sort of wannabe NATO?

…startled the U.S. government at its 2005 summit in Kazakhstan with a call for a deadline for the closing of all foreign bases in the region. Kyrgyzstan is home to the Manas base, the key U.S. Air Force site for supporting the mission in Afghanistan.

The SCO countries also granted Iran “observer” status in the organization, something the United States was denied.

Of course, given that none of the participants are really very sympathetic to the Islamist agenda, they’re supposedly not QUITE cutting off their noses to spite their face:

Kyrgyzstan, considered the most politically liberal of the Central Asian states, hosted the most recent SCO summit in its capital, Bishkek, in August. Speaking through an interpreter, (Kyrgyz President) Mr. Karabaev, who met with top Bush administration officials on a visit here last week, said there is a “common understanding” among all the SCO partners that Manas will be available to the United States and its coalition partners as long as needed for stabilization and counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan. All the SCO members “do recognize that the base helps to solve issues of international security in our region,” he said.

Sort of like the Donks here in the US, who inveigh ad nauseum against the war in Iraq, but won’t cut off the funding, or for that matter impose a surrender date-certain.

Weasels one and all!

China Watch, National Insecurity

ChiCom Trade Shell Game Unraveling for US

Is China quietly dumping US Treasuries?

The economic shell game that the US has been playing for far too long in maintaining a ruinous trade deficit with the ChiComs may be on the verge of ending…with some very unpleasant consequences for us, and for much of the rest of the world’s economy.

A sharp drop in foreign holdings of US Treasury bonds over the last five weeks has raised concerns that China is quietly withdrawing its funds from the United States, leaving the dollar increasingly vulnerable.
# China threatens `nuclear option’ of dollar sales

Data released by the New York Federal Reserve shows that foreign central banks have cut their stash of US Treasuries by $48bn since late July, with falls of $32bn in the last two weeks alone.

Perhaps not coincidently, Taiwan is making sounds about renewing its quest to re-enter the UN, something the ChiComs harshly reject as being a preliminary move towards independence. Their stated policy is to counter such a move with all means – including military force.

Two top advisers to the Chinese government gave strong hints in August that Beijing should use its estimated $900bn holdings of US Treasuries and agency bonds as a “bargaining chip”, words taken as an implicit threat to trigger as US bond crash if provoked.

The US policy of defending Taiwan could be quietly abrogated, under the threat of ChiCom economic pressure…like dumping off US T-bonds, which could seriously affect the status of the dollar internationally, with immediate further ramifications on the world energy market.

The picture is further complicated by US ATTEMPTS to pressure a currency market revaluation of the ChiCom Yuan to try to stanch the trade hemmorhage, which (surprise, surprise, is being received with little enthusiasm in Beijing.

Neither alternative would be good for us. If YOU were Dubya, do you throw Taiwan off the bridge, or watch the dollar be brought down, triggering a serious recession if not an actual depression. We do have one thing in our favor. They hold so much of our debt paper, if they crash it, they lose a lot of money. Of course, they ARE Communists, and just maybe the money is NOT the object at all.

Looks like the ChiComs are getting ready to score a big win over us, without a shot being fired. Lao Tzu would be proud of his descendants for implementing his ancient advice.

China Watch, Defense Matters!

Selling our birthright for a mess of pottage…

Genesis 25:
29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:
30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

Trinkets and treasure: China tames the US

A new version of an old story. All it takes to see this is a quick trip to the local Wal-Mart.

…the real dreadnoughts of modern-day Chinese naval power, the huge containerized cargo ships, some Chinese, most not, full of Chinese manufactured goods, making another one of their visits to the port of Seattle, the same way they do to hundreds of other Western ports every single day….You frequently see containerized cargo ships making their way down Puget Sound to the port facilities in Seattle, completing their two-week high-seas journey from the massive Hong Kong and Shenzhen port complexes in southern China.

And the point is…

Most of the time, as they complete these voyages in from the Pacific, they ride low in the water, right down to the waterline. On these ships, the thousands of containers visible on deck, and the many more you don’t see under the decks (the largest container ship in the world, the Maersk Line’s Emma Maersk, can hold more than 14,000 individual 20-foot container units) are chock full, with TVs, washing machines and appliances, tires, toys and trinkets; the full catalogue of rapidly depreciating disposables over which North America is sacrificing its treasure.

As the containerized cargo ships leave Seattle, or San Francisco, or Long Beach, San Diego, Vancouver, all the way north to the newly bustling port of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, the ships ride a lot higher in the water. Most of the cargo containers are empty; they’re being sent back to China to be refilled. With the Chinese trade surplus with the US now running at about $150 billion a year, there’s a lot more stuff coming into the US west coast than leaving. (And much of the value of what the US does export to China comes from either Boeing jetliners or intellectual properties, such as first-run teen-slasher movies, neither of which gets much transported to China on containerized cargo ships.)

Or maybe it just seems that way. What really is being transported back to China in those empty containers is power.

The gory details of Wally-World (and others’) addiction to “Made in China” are clearly and unambiguously, and depressingly detailed., leading inevitably to this congealed lump of inconvenient truth:

China does not have to lobby US congressional representatives to look after its interests; the US industrial elite does that quite well on its own. In much the same way that Nazi Germany established Vichy France to further its interests without actually occupying the country, the US corporate elite’s desire to use China to enrich its wealth further has allowed China to create Vichy America.

That is a REALLY ugly concept to wrap one’s mind around. And to return to global realpolitik…we approach a potentially more serious consequence: Taiwan.

Here can be seen the true genius of the Chinese plan to subdue the US with trinkets and treasure. To counter the US militarily would be hugely expensive, and probably beyond China’s current technological capacity. Far better to do it the way it has, with trade. The Chinese could have America’s industrial elite, fearing a shutoff of the China wealth spigot, whisper in the ears of American policymakers that they should lay off any military countering of a Chinese move against Taiwan.

Give China 10 days to two weeks of unhindered military access to the Taiwan Strait, and it’ll put the flag of the People’s Republic of China over the Presidential Palace in Taipei. This is the classic “indirect approach” of mid-20th-century English military strategist Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart; instead of facing the US at its strongest, its technological superiority, China has attacked the US at its weakest point, its acquisitive, materialist, greedy soul.

After noting what China has done with two surplus” Soviet mini-carriers (turned them into tourist traps!) the conclusion here notes that

Real power now lies in those cargo ships forever steaming inexorably to the American heartland. In a couple of years, the United States will conclude its (by then) million-death, trillion-dollar misadventure in trying to subdue a few spits of green land between the Tigris and Euphrates. It will discover that, even if General David Petraeus’ “surge” might have won the battle of al-Anbar, back home the US ruling elite has surrendered to China in the battle for the United States, without even firing a single shot.

Someone PLEASE tell me this is all wrong?

China Watch, Culture Wars

Christianity…Still on the Ascent

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Christianity finds a fulcrum in Asia

One of teh Chief’s favorites: Spengler writing over at Asia Times, with another offering of great interest and at least potential importance.

Ten thousand Chinese become Christians each day, according to a stunning report by the National Catholic Reporter’s veteran correspondent John Allen, and 200 million Chinese may comprise the world’s largest concentration of Christians by mid-century, and the largest missionary force in history.

There’s a lot more in this piece…among the more interesting morsels is this one:

While the Catholic Church has worked patiently for independence from the Chinese government, which sponsors a “Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association” with government-appointed bishops, the evangelicals have no infrastructure to suppress and no hierarchy to protect. In contrast to Catholic caution, John Allen observes, “Most Pentecostals would obviously welcome being arrested less frequently, but in general they are not waiting for legal or political reform before carrying out aggressive evangelization programs.”

Allen adds: “The most audacious even dream of carrying the gospel beyond the borders of China, along the old Silk Road into the Muslim world, in a campaign known as “Back to Jerusalem”. As [Time correspondent David] Aikman explains in Jesus in Beijing, some Chinese evangelicals and Pentecostals believe that the basic movement of the gospel for the last 2,000 years has been westward: from Jerusalem to Antioch, from Antioch to Europe, from Europe to America, and from America to China. Now, they believe, it’s their turn to complete the loop by carrying the gospel to Muslim lands, eventually arriving in Jerusalem. Once that happens, they believe, the gospel will have been preached to the entire world.”

Aikman reports that two Protestant seminaries secretly are training missionaries for deployment in Muslim countries.

The plot thickens!

China Watch

Bad Chinese Food: ChiComs doing it to themselves too!

Beijing Steamed Buns Include Cardboard

With all the trouble lately with food products from the ChiComs, here’s one where they are doing it to themselves :

Chopped cardboard, softened with an industrial chemical and flavored with fatty pork and powdered seasoning, is a main ingredient in batches of steamed buns sold in one Beijing neighborhood, state television said. The report, aired late Wednesday on China Central Television, highlights the country’s problems with food safety despite government efforts to improve the situation.

This is NOT a pretty picture:

Baozi are a common snack in China, with an outer skin made from wheat or rice flour and and a filling of sliced pork. Cooked by steaming in immense bamboo baskets, they are similar to but usually much bigger than the dumplings found on dim sum menus familiar to many Americans.

The hidden camera follows the man, whose face is not shown, into a ramshackle building where steamers are filled with the fluffy white buns, traditionally stuffed with minced pork. The surroundings are filthy, with water puddles and piles of old furniture and cardboard on the ground.

In case you’ve got to know – here’s the recipe:

“What’s in the recipe?” the reporter asks. “Six to four,” the man says.

“You mean 60 percent cardboard? What is the other 40 percent?” asks the reporter. “Fatty meat,” the man replies.

The bun maker and his assistants then give a demonstration on how the product is made. Squares of cardboard picked from the ground are first soaked to a pulp in a plastic basin of caustic soda — a chemical base commonly used in manufacturing paper and soap — then chopped into tiny morsels with a cleaver. Fatty pork and powdered seasoning are stirred in.

Soon, steaming servings of the buns appear on the screen. The reporter takes a bite. “This baozi filling is kind of tough. Not much taste,” he says. “Can other people taste the difference?”

“Most people can’t. It fools the average person,” the maker says. “I don’t eat them myself.”

The police eventually showed up and shut down the operation.

The Chief generally doesn’t applaud the ChiCom police, but this is one of those exceptions to the rule.

Watch out for snacks during the upcoming Beijing olympics.

China Watch

ChiCom Product Recalls – Not Only Food

Company must recall faulty Chinese tires

Federal highway safety officials say the New Jersey company being ordered to recall as many as 450,000 faulty tires imported from China faces millions of dollars in fines if it fails to remedy the situation.

Most of this deals with business details of a possible recall, but the key point to the Chief is that the ChiComs are sticking us with more crappy product.

AGAIN: Get a clue and read the labels!