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Bush Gets Tough With China NewsMax.comThe days of appeasing China, the policy of the Clinton administration, are over. There's a new boy on the block, and he's flexing his muscles and letting Beijing's communist leaders know that, unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush is no pushover, hungry for campaign cash, big-buck business deals for corporate campaign donors and willing to do just about anything to get them. According to the prestigious Center for Security Policy, certain White House "senior advisers" say that in meetings with Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen, President Bush was plain-spoken in addressing a host of issues, leading off with a harsh condemnation of China's detention of American scholar Gao Zhan. Zhan, an American citizen, was abducted by Chinese security police and forced to confess to unidentified "crimes." In addition, the president openly discussed the fact that the United States is seriously considering selling Aegis air defense-equipped destroyers to Taiwan, an action that has Beijing warning the sale would lead to a new arms race, but one that is fully in accord with U.S. mutual defense obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act. Taiwan wants to buy four U.S. destroyers equipped with the Aegis battle-management radar system. Taiwanese officials claim that as many as 300 missiles have been deployed on the mainland Chinese coast across the straits from their island, noting that Beijing continues to insist that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and that it will take the island by force if necessary. Wrote columnist Jeff Jacoby in the March 22 issue of the Boston Globe: "No doubt Qian will repeat what he has been saying all week: that there will be dire consequences if Washington says yes to Taiwan's request. But consequences may be even more dire if Washington says no. Nothing is more likely to embolden China into an attack on Taiwan than the perception that America is hesitant about defending its democratic friend." The president also is believed to have told the visiting Chinese official that he is determined to go ahead with the deployment of the missile defense system, which also has raised howls of protest from Beijing. Insiders say that Bush is well aware of the damage done to U.S. national security by former president Clinton's policy of closing his eyes to Beijing's increasingly aggressive activities and its horrendous record on human rights, and that he is determined to undo that damage. "Bill Clinton slammed the first George Bush for 'coddling tyrants' in Beijing," wrote Jacoby. "But U.S. policy soon became even more lopsidedly pro-China. Clinton hailed the world's last totalitarian empire as a "strategic partner," ignoring Beijing's undisguised anti-American hostility. Human rights and trade were 'de-linked.' Counterintelligence against Chinese spies was weakened. U.S. companies – many of whose CEOs were Clinton donors – sold high-tech missile technology to China.'' He quoted veteran correspondent Ross H. Munro, who covered Asia for Time magazine: "The Clinton administration's legacy in Asia has been to weaken America's standing and to make China a greater danger to its neighbors and the United States than it would otherwise have been." The president is said to be keenly aware that China must be put on notice that the days of appeasement are over, and that in the future Beijing will be expected to act in a responsible manner consistent with its standing as a member of the world community and not as an outlaw state threatening peace. "In short, this meeting afforded an important opportunity for the new president to establish that the United States will no longer strive to appease the PRC, as was the practice of the Clinton administration, and that it would now take a more definitive stance in opposing acts that go against American principles,'' the Center for Security Policy concluded.
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