Nearly two years after they threatened the
US with a Military Cooperation Treaty, Russia and China signed the
"Economic Cooperation and Friendship Treaty" with little
fanfare. The mainstream media generally reported the treaty to be benign.
Not so claimed former Soviet defector Col. Stanislav
Lunev. He warned in the July
18 NewsMax that even though the treaty claims "The military and
military-technical cooperation between the two countries … is not
directed against third countries," Taiwan is not considered a third
country to the Chinese. It considers Taiwan a rogue province that must
eventually be brought back into the fold. Hence, the non-aggression
statement of the treaty does not apply to Taiwan. Furthermore, why should
we trust the Chinese, when they have consistently lied to the world
before.
According to Drs Alexandr Nemets and Thomas
Torda in the July
19 NewsMax, the treaty "will have grave consequences for
prospects of war and peace around Taiwan and, probably, in all of East
Asia – if not the entire world." Nemets is a consultant for
Science Applications International Corp., and a consultant to the American
Foreign Policy Council. Torda has been a Chinese linguist specializing in
science and technology with FBIS, and a Chinese/Russian defense technology
consultant with the Office of Naval Intelligence. They claim that the
Russian agreement to protect China with its Pacific Fleet if and when
China attacks Taiwan is not only still in force, but is now formalized
with the signing of the treaty. Joint military operations between the two
nations have sharply increased over the past six months.
According to early data, claim Nemets and
Torda, the volume of Russian weapons technology deliveries has doubled
over the same period as 2000. Now that the Friendship and Cooperation
Treaty has been signed, they expect the volume of Russian sales of
advanced technology to sharply increase again. "No illusions should
remain here: After signing of the treaty, the entire Russian defense
industry will be at the unlimited disposal of the PLA," claim Nemets
and Torda. Add this to the metamorphosis of the Shanghai Five alliance
into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) with the admission of
Uzbekistan into the group, plus the new reuniting of Belarus and soon
Ukraine with Russia and a very powerful Asian axis is emerging.
With this as background, China analyst Bill
Gertz reports in Geostrategy-Direct
that China is preparing to conduct a flight test of its short-range CCS-6
(also called the M-9 or the DF-15) ballistic missile. The CCS-6 and the
CCS-7 intermediate range ballistic missile make up most of the 300
missiles that are staged along the Taiwan Strait. "The testing is
believed to part of efforts by China to upgrade the guidance of its
short-range missiles," claims Gertz. DTT has long been concerned that
China intends to use this highly advanced technology, given to them
courtesy of Bill Clinton, to surgically strike Taiwanese military
installations above and below ground with neutron or low-yield EMP
nuclear bombs within minutes, leaving the civilian infrastructure
untouched.
Alarmed, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian
compared China's missile buildup along the Taiwan Strait to the Kennedy
era Cuban missile crisis, according to the July
16 Washington Times. "I believe that peace in the Taiwan
Strait is key to the overall stability of the Asia Pacific region. So
maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait and avoiding a PRC threat against
Taiwan is something that the U.S., Japan and Taiwan must jointly deal with
in a manner of division responsibilities and cooperation," said Chen.
He then strongly hinted that Taiwan would like to take part or invest in
the development of a theater missile defense system being developed by the
US and Japan. The US quickly responded to Chen's veiled request by
indicating America would be open to such a joint proposal, according to
the July 20 Scotsman.
The saying, "the more things change,
the more they remain the same" applies to Russia and China. Nothing
really has changed. America is still at risk. V
mc
