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Chinese Companies With Ties to Military Encircle U.S. Phil BrennanIn a classic example of the military envelopment strategy, two companies with strong ties to the Chinese government are expanding their presence in the Western Hemisphere while Beijing tightens its relationships with Latin America.
China Ocean Shipping Co. (COSCO), partly owned by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China, plans to operate out of Boston beginning next January, while the huge Hutchison Whampoa company expands its presence in Latin America, now one of Beijing's prime targets.
COSCO, the same company caught red handed trying to smuggle thousands of assault weapons for distribution to U.S. street gangs, already has a strong presence in California and according to the Washington Times is now looking to the U.S. East Coast for new operations, thus straddling the nation.
Hutchison Whampoa, already in control of both ends of the Panama Canal, now operates out of the strategically important ports of Veracruz, Manzanillo and Ensenada. In addition, company Chairman Li Ka-shing is a director of Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, which owns a hefty 20 percent of Mexico's Serfin Financial Group, according to Mexico's Reforma newspaper. The newspaper reports that China has doubled its commercial operations in Latin America and bolstored its influence throughout the Panama Canal zone.
In Cuba and Venezuela, strong ties are being forged with the Chinese military.
In June NewsMax.com reported that China is shipping arms and explosives to Cuba in a sign of increased military cooperation between Beijing and Havana, according to the Washington Times. The Times quoted intelligence officials as saying that while details of the arms shipments are sketchy, all involved a "known Chinese arms dealer" who arranged the transfers.
The Times added that at least three arms shipments were traced from China to the Cuban port of Mariel over the past several months.
Significantly, all the arms were delivered by COSCO vessels. COSCO has been linked in the past by U.S. intelligence agencies to illegal smuggling and international arms trafficking.
Chinese ties to Fidel Castro's Cuba strengthened in April when Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited Havana and signed agreements worth about $400 million in loans to Havana.
During the same Latin American trip, Jiang arranged sales of aircraft to Venezuela. Intelligence sources say such purchases could open the door to sophisticated Chinese armaments flooding into Latin America.
In Cuba, Castro has allowed China to operate sophisticated electronic eavesdropping stations, where Chinese experts can eavesdrop on telephone calls made by North Americans and on military communications. In Brazil, another pact permits Chinese technical workers to work in satellite-tracking stations.
According to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., as reported by NewsMax.com on June 29, China already has "two electronic eavesdropping stations in Cuba." Monitored by sources inside Cuba, great numbers of Chinese are monitoring telephone calls at the electronic espionage facility in Paseo, between 11th and 13th streets in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana.
In 1999, Cuban sources on the island reported the Chinese presence in the satellite-tracking facility at Jaruco, near Havana. The same sources said that they were engaged in modernizing the base and supplying Castro with spare parts for military equipment, including his Russian war planes, like the ones used to kill three U.S. citizens and a resident on Feb. 24, 1996.
In Venezuela, Castro crony Hugo Chavez has embraced China as an ally. According to pro-democracy Venezuelans, who resent the "involvement and invasion by Chinese and Cuban communists" in their "internal affairs," workers are being replaced "with Cuban and Chinese agents to the detriment of national security and defense."
As NewsMax.com's Col. Stanislav Lunev reported on May 17, during the two-week period when U.S. attention was focused on the EP-3 plane incident in April, China's Jiang visited six nations in Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Cuba and Venezuela, where he was warmly welcomed by the authorities. Jiang was actively involved in advancing Red China’s interests in the area.
The Chinese president received an especially hearty welcome in Venezuela. "It’s a glorious day for Venezuela," a beaming Chavez told Jiang. "We welcome not only the man, but we welcome the idea of sovereignty, the idea of justice, the idea of liberty, the idea of peace, the idea of self-determination of peoples."
Chavez said he "strongly supports China’s position on defending self-determination and sovereignty."
In Beijing, China's No. 2 man, Li Peng, met with delegates from Panama's parliament. He called for formal diplomatic ties to Panama, which recognizes Taiwan, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
"Panama has distinctive geographic features and is strategically located. The Chinese people are following the development of all undertakings in Panama with great interest," Li told Hector Aleman, chairman of Panama's parliamentary foreign affairs committee. "I hope the statesmen in Panama could view and handle this issue at a strategic height by seriously making endeavors for the normalization of China-Panama relations."
Aleman said he'd work for an early normalization of relations between the two nations. China continues to make heavy investments in the Panama Free Trade Zone, as well as the ports of Balboa and Cristobal on the Panama Canal, according to Muzi Lateline News.
Slowly, the noose tightens.
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