Christopher Ruddy
Monday, Jan. 15, 2001

The signing of such an agreement is a natural outcome of a warming relationship between the two great nations that began more than a decade ago.

The two countries have made clear their reason for the new pact: to challenge the worldwide influence of the United States.

China openly calls the treaty a "strategic partnership" signifying that a new global axis has developed between Moscow and Beijing.

Press dispatches, including one in Sunday’s New York Times, cite a key reason for the closeness between Russia and China. The new Bush administration plans to build a missile defense system.

The new agreement is not an abrupt development. China and Russia have been stepping up economic and military cooperation in recent years, to the point they have been withdrawing troops on their once militarized borders.

Bill Clinton’s 1999 war in Kosovo also ignited old fears of an "imperialist" America and only helped to tighten the ties between Beijing and Moscow.

But recent events may have poured kerosene under the budding fire being kindled between the two nations.

The most important recent development was the election of George Bush.

Bush campaigned on rebuilding U.S. defenses. It was not a politically winning issue, but Bush went out of his way to decry the deplorable condition of our armed forces.

Bill Clinton took steps to cut America’s defenses almost in half during his two terms.

Today, no military man would dare claim the U.S. could, in a timely manner, handle another Gulf War, let alone a major blow up over Taiwan, Korea, Israel or some other hot spot.

I believe our adversaries – the Iranians, Khadafy, Saddam, and, yes, the Russians and Chinese – have kept quiet over the past eight years (have you noticed that?) because they knew they had a fool in the White House.

The last time such a man served in the White House was when Jimmy Carter was president.

But the enemies of the U.S. took advantage of Carter and overplayed their hand. Remember Afghanistan, the Iranian hostage crisis?

Americans realized that Carter was foolish, naïve and dangerous. In 1980 they took to the polls and voted for Reagan-Bush.

By making Carter look bad, America’s adversaries ended up with 12 years of Reagan-Bush military policies. Reagan quickly engaged the nation in the largest peacetime buildup ever.

Apparently, our enemies learned their lesson from the Carter days and figured it would be nice to have a two-term Carter in the person of Bill Clinton. Our enemies made Clinton look good at almost every turn. They almost succeeded with three terms of Carter in the person of Al Gore.

Unfortunately for our adversaries, the American public voted for a change this past November.

While I don’t believe Americans voted for Bush because of national security issues, it is our good fortune that our president-elect truly believes in rebuilding America’s defenses.

We know he believes it because personnel is policy. He picked, for starters, former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney as his vice president.

Perhaps the most important Cabinet selection was Donald Rumsfeld, another former secretary of defense.

Rumsfeld comes to the Pentagon without having to learn the job. At confirmation hearings last week, Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee that building and deploying a missile defense system was his No. 1 priority.

I have only applause – and worry – about this.

First, I believe Ronald Reagan will be remembered as a great prophet for having sought the creation and deployment of a missile defense system. Almost two decades later, however, Reagan’s vision has yet to be fulfilled.

Cleverly, the Clinton administration created high and perhaps impossible standards for their proposed missile defense program. For eight years they sought to sabotage development of the system through every bureaucratic means.

Clinton never wanted the system, and Moscow and Beijing were happy with him for such a policy.

But Bush’s policies are exactly the opposite of Clinton’s.

Since Russia and China have made preventing the development and deployment of such a system the hallmark of their foreign policy toward the U.S. for more than a decade, we can only imagine what actions they may take to stop Bush.

Russia and China, despite all the media spin we hear, have continued to invest heavily in strategic weaponry – nuclear, biological and chemical.

Thanks to Bill Clinton, China was transferred ballistic missile technology that allows them to hit U.S. cities like Los Angeles with pinpoint accuracy.

Most Americans would be surprised to learn that Russia, not the U.S., has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal of strategic and tactical weapons. China has a growing nuclear arsenal and the world’s largest conventional army.

Both countries will not stand idly by as America tries to build a missile defense system. Nor will rogue countries like North Korea and Iran. All parties know that even if the Bush administration were to begin rebuilding America’s defenses tomorrow, it would still take three to five years to see any measurable result, including the development of a practical missile defense system.

This is why the next few years are ominous ones.

Our adversaries know we will be weak for just a little while longer before their window of opportunity will begin to close. The new China-Russia pact should be viewed in that context and with great concern.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Russia
China-Taiwan
Missile Defense

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