THE CHINA QUESTION (continued) THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S ECONOMIC WAR ON JAPAN Another disturbing twist in policy has developed with the
Clinton Presidency. Unlike many of the Democrat contenders
to 1992, Clinton presented a posture of non-trade warrior
mentality toward the Japanese. However, the real Clinton
agenda regarding Japan took on a different character when,
at the onset of his administration, it named anti-Japanese
trade warrior Walter Mondale as our Ambassador in Tokyo.
Under a calm facade, a much more antagonistic relationship
between Washington and Tokyo has actually been unfolding
from that juncture.


Just the appointment of Mondale was viewed in Japan as a slap
in the face from Clinton -- and this involving a culture
which puts high importance on 'face.' Except in fits, the
government has put a kind face on our relationship and its
rhetoric with Japan. That is almost entirely a ruse, however.
We have been about a general racheting up of the trade war
tensions with Japan since 1993. That, in part, is a reason
for the sluggishness of the Japanese economy for some time
now. This has been complicated further by our other actions
and policies in Asia, including with respect to Vietnam,
Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and Indonesia, among other items.
Japan has developed a nervousness over American plans and
intentions for the past five years. This has led on the one
hand to Japanese efforts (in awareness of our unilateral
disarmament and virtual abdication of power in the Asian
sphere) to shore up its military capacity, and on the other
to both a renewed effort by them to cultivate their
'relationship' with mainland China and to the emergence of a
stronger Socialist Party position in Japanese government.
The Clinton Administration has at a fundamental level
sabotaged both Japan and our relationship with one of our
strongest allies. And, as with so much else involving this
bunch, it has done so while presenting a totally different
image of what it was about.


INDONESIAN COAL AND THE RIATI CONNECTION

Clinton's liaison with China's communist regime has led to
some other highly questionable actions by our government,
in contravention of American economic and security interests.
China represents a large market for coal, the source of which
could readily have come from the United States, one of the
world's largest producers. We also have great untapped
deposits which could have been developed to meet Chinese
needs. That would also have helped close the trade deficit we
have with the PRC. A very large such source of coal lies in
southern Utah, an area which Clinton late in second term put
on hiatus by declaring it a national preservation area at a
ceremony held at the Grand Canyon.


Coincidentally, the source of the coal which China will
undoubtedly tap into as a result of such closure of American
sources is Indonesia, a source controlled by the Riati family
which has played such an important part in the Clinton
campaign funding scandals. Whether by conscious design or
not, the Riati group will reap huge benefits from Clinton's
decisions, quite a return on the investment the Riati group
made to Clinton's coffers. This connection is not a new one
developed for 1996, of course, but it does take on the
appearance of a pay-off.


The timing of the events also seems to reek of a move by
Clinton to line the Riati pockets in time to warrant their
continued financial support for his re-election bid.
The Riatis also found it in their interest to pay Web Hubbell
a huge retainer which looks a lot like hush money to buy his
silence on Whitewater and the plethora of interconnected
Clinton involvements.


THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S UNILATERAL DISARMAMENT

Of even greater concern, however, is the course of our
nation's military strength under the present administration.
What has been taking place is more than a sapping our of
strategic power. We have pursued a course tantamont to
unilateral disarmament since the supposed end of the Cold
War, but at an even more accelerated pace since Clinton took
office. Our military expenditures have been reduced to a
level we have not seen since the period just before
World War II. This has occured as the world has become
generally an ever more dangerous place, and at the same time
that China has been expanding its military and naval power at
startling rates -- and expanding strategically across the
Pacific Rim, as addressed earlier. Quite clearly, this would
be something that the Communist Chinese government would have
a great interest in promoting, especially if their designs
are as surreptitious as the big picture seems to indicate
they very well may be, and not surprisingly.


The strategic blundering reaches to both conventional and
strategic power. We have been actively pursuing a course of
nuclear disarmament, as well. We hear of efforts to work with
Yeltsin to rachet down the strategic power of both countries.
Amidst rumors of underground proliferation, we continue this
course of folly. The only way to protect the American
population from organized or terrorist attack, perhaps coming
down to nuclear blackmale or worse, is to guarantee that we
have the strategic capacity to respond with an iron hand
against anyone raising a fist against us. Faced with assured
retaliation, such forces would be clearly disinclined to risk
the prospect. That is not a reformed version of the M.A.D.
'mutually assured destruction' of some years ago, it is the
only way to guarantee the peace and security of the
United States and the world.


OVEREXTENSION OF OUR MILITARY CAPABILITY

And while he has been about slashing our military, Clinton
has been more pro-active than any recent President in
committing U.S. forces around the world. We now have troops
stationed in more places around the globe than at any time
since the end of the Second World War. The already strapped
capability is thus strained by overextension which has it
tied down as well as diminished.


Overextended, it does not possess even adequate support
resouces. Not only could we clearly not put together the kind
of effort that was carried out in Desert Storm, but our
ability to respond to crises has been sabotaged. And the
morale of our troops has been sapped by an endless barrage
of Clintonesque social engineering and experimentation,
as well as being undermined by administratation response to
social problems which have effectively weeded out much of the
officer contingent. Reenlistments are sagging with the
declining morale and pay scale.


American troops are assigned in inadequate numbers in all
corners. Months after they were supposed to have been
withdrawn, they are still policing, collecting garbage, and
confiscating weapons from the population in Haiti. They are
stuck between a rock and a hard place in the Balkans. And
Clinton seems to have a bottomless pit of ideas for new
extensions of our forces. It is a recipe for disaster, and a
wreckless abandon of men and women asked to go into harm's
way without proper support that has been unmatched since the
Johnson debacle tying our troops into no-win actions that
cost us so dearly in Vietnam.


THE ABROGATION OF OUR MILITARY COMMAND TO THE UNITED NATIONS

This administration has also taken what had become an all too
frequent and convenient practice which dates back perhaps
even to the time of Korea when it involved a new organization
and was utilized as recently as the previous Presidency,
and has tremendously increased the amount of control over
American forces and troops by the United Nations. One can
read into some of Clinton's executive orders a total
capitulation of control over American military forces to
the U.N. While that may carry his words too far, he is
blazing a extremely troublesome precedent. From Somalia to
the Balkans, there have been American casualities who wore
blue helmets and flags on their uniforms. It is true that our
troops in Bosnia are now under NATO command (hardly the ideal
scenario) and such as those in Haiti (whatever they may be
doing) are not given over to UN authority, Clinton has
clearly overstepped the limits here.


China, of course, may not be impressed by such moves. After
all, they attacked UN forces in Korea, but they are now a
Security Council member of the UN. With respect to the
Chinese situation, though, the real danger of this abrogation
of duty by Clinton probably is of more concern in terms
of our dimunition of military strength.


THE FALL OF HONG KONG

Clinton surely cannot be blamed for the surrender of the
millions of people in Hong Kong to Communist China. This was
a British decision and one set in motion some time ago, and
one which even Reagan, Thatcher, Bush, and Major agreed to.
That makes it no less palatable. A firm resistance by an
American 'leader' could have altered the sell-out terms,
if not the abdication itself. Bill Clinton was obviously not
that kind of President!


The fact that Hong Kong has been sold down the river only
makes the entire development of the Chinese danger more
pronounced. Maybe the theory is that, with time, forces
in China for capitalism will push the country to really open
society. It may also lead to a schism within China, maybe
even along sectional lines which could lead to civil war
(or into spheres of influence?). Or the regime could implode
much as we saw in the Soviet Union.It could also continue to
advance as a 'state capitalist' regime bent on expanding its
power and challenge to us. Will men one day have to reckon
with such decisions alongside those of the Munich accords?
What will have been the cost of such folly?


In any event, this entire matter is bigger than Clinton's
bungling, although in typical liberal fashion, its propensity
has been to advance the ever-growing state's control at every
turn,but only incrementally, since it has failed to do so
in fell swopes. It has also advanced that agenda in ways that
can only serve to weaken our posture and leave doors open to
Red Chinese incursion.


THE ADMINISTRATION'S WAR ON THE INDUSTRIALIZED WEST:
THE ENVIRONMENTALIST CARD

No where is this more apparent than in ?????????????????????
fanatacism of this Presidency. In late October of 1997, Wall
Street took one of its biggest plunges in history on the
heels of a global stock exchange convulsion. The timing of
this turn in stock performance, even though temporary,
cannot be overlooked, having come only days after Clinton
launched his push in preparation for the upcoming December
1997 Kyoto Summit on the greenhouse effect. The market fell
over 600 points over the period of Friday, October 24 thru
Monday, October 27 -- nearly a ten percent decline. Fed by
Asian currency crises compounded by the huge decline in the
Hong Kong exchange that has occured since it was handed over
to mainland control, the ripple effect has been felt around
the world.


But the consequences of the instability in Asia could prove
quite destabilizing for America. An investment shock
resulting from the perhaps trillion dollar impact of this
stock market dislocation could itself lead to contractionary
disequilibrium, but as Asian economies continue to flounder
and their levels of operation and profit suffer, that could
diminish the flow of foreign capital into the U.S., further
reducing investment, while lower production there amidst
widespread deflation could raise the costs of exported goods
to the U.S. on scarcity and diminish a growing U.S. market,
setting back our export growth to them. This would enlarge
what has been a shrinking trade deficit. The only
possibility of averting a contractionary disequilibrium out
of this would be if Asian capital takes flight into America
as a safer harbor and swells investment, although part of the
reason for the Wall Street bloodletting has been a decline in
Asian participation while U.S. bond markets appear to have
strengthened slightly. This may not portend a general
immediate collapse on Wall Street, but it clearly has
tremendous dilatory consequences, and there is indication
that Clinton and his cohorts may seek to soak the American
economy with a bill for bailing out the effected Asian
currencies with upwards of a $100 billion dollar tab
out of taxpayers' pockets. Above all, it should serve as a
warning of the dangers of China's extension of power.
American stocks may, in fact, be a bargain given corporate
earnings, and the bond markets have benefited, but in the
long run, there is much more here than meets the eye at
first. Even the danger of an eventual economic slowdown
growing out of the events of late October 1997 are bound to
mitigated by the capital gains tax cut which Congress
enacted which is bound to unleash a great deal of economic
activity.


But the costly plans of what Clinton and Gore are promoting
to be advanced both at Kyoto and over and above it would be
tremendous throughout the industrialized world. Already,
over five years, other similar costs have grown out of
efforts of thisadministration, but this set of policies
would be frosting on
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
standards in these nations. The sort of damper it would put
on the industrialized world altogether was demonstrated by
the earthquake in stock values.


This dislocation may be temporary, for now. There is going
to be great opposition to what Clinton and Gore would like
to do. But, as they fan the flames of crisis with
irresponsible rhetoric about el Nino and global warmimg and
the ozone layer, the impact of any movement in this direction
will be detrimental.


TOO MANY PEOPLE IN THE THIRD WORLD

Al Gore tipped their hand in the weeks before the Clinton
policy proclamation. At the White House conference designed
to enlist American broadcast weather announcers in the fight
'against global warming,' he said that one of the causes of
the greenhouse effect was that there were too many people
in the developing sector, and pronounced a need for
furthering the administration's past record of coercive
population control in the LDC's.If you scratch a liberal,
you will find Malthus. If you push one in debate, he will
inevitably come to a pronouncement that there are too many
people and too few resources and too little wealth in the
world. This will lead to cries for redistribution of wealth.
And the green movement suddenly manifests its 'redness.'


Both men have suggested that perhaps the best way to get
countries such as India and China to eventually come along
with their designs for dealing with this fabricated crisis
is by setting the example for them to follow. But
particularly China is not going to do that, at least under
any scenario the current leadership there is going to go
along with. It has, of course, already outdone the Gore
prescriptions for population control, but there is going
to be little alteration of their movement toward advancing
as a major economic power under their state capitalist
(ie, socialist or collectivist or corporatist) regime.


THE FREE WORLD SLEPT

In the meantime, as we perhaps pass ourselves along a course
of reduced living standards and power, the power of China
will continue to expand unabated, and indeed aided by our
leaders' misdirection. Market forces are powerful and it is
conceivable that events in China could develop well beyond
the capabilities of the present government to constrain them.
What we have been doing, however, is hardly of a character to
encourage that. In fact, we have been effectively working
in the opposing direction.


Return to beginning of eJPS Return to beginning of Winter 97 issue Continue with Winter issue 1