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Chinese Port Operator Linked to Weapons Smuggling A ship owned by a Chinese government-run company that currently operates two giant terminals at the Port of Long Beach, California was found 10 years ago to have been used to smuggle a huge cache of illegal weapons - with the smugglers saying they planned to import missiles that could "take out a 747." On the night of March 18, 1996, undercover Customs and BATF agents discovered 2000 AK-47's in a container smuggled aboard the Empress Phoenix, a ship owned by the China Ocean Shipping Company [COSCO] docked at the Port of Oakland. The guns were manufactured by another state-run company, Poly Technologies, the international outlet for Chinese weapons sales. According to Vanity Fair magazine, which covered the episode in detail, the Empress Phoenix's gun cargo was earmarked for sale to deadly Los Angeles street gangs. It was the largest seizure of fully operational automatic weapons in the history of U.S. law enforcement. Operatives nabbed after the seizure told investigators that they were ready to smuggle in everything from grenade launchers to shoulder-fired Red Parakeet surface to air missiles, which they boasted could "take out a 747." The Empress Phoenix episode has largely been forgotten as the debate rages over whether Dubai Ports World should be allowed to operate several dozen terminals at 21 U.S. ports. But it begs the question, if Dubai Ports World - a company with no history of terrorism or smuggling operations into the United States - is unfit to play a role in U.S. ports management, what about Chinese companies? In fact, the 1996 weapons smuggling operation was far from the only instance where questionable cargo has been discovered aboard COSCO vessels. Ships owned by the Chinese line have been repeatedly caught smuggling illegal immigrants in the United States. In 2001, COSCO ships delivered weapons to Cuba, a move that triggered calls in the United States for sanctions against China, according to the Washington Times. Still, Americans might come to regret giving COSCO the boot from U.S. port operations - a move currently favored by Sen. Hillary Clinton, who wants to ban all foreign ownership of U.S. ports. In 2001, for instance, COSCO ships carried 434,000 containers to the United States, representing 12.1 percent of all the goods shipped between China and the United States. Undoubtedly those numbers have increased in the last five years. In 1998, when COSCO first tried to lease terminal space at the Port of Long Beach formerly used by the U.S. Navy, Congress blocked the deal over national security concerns. Three years later, however, other tenants at the port vacated space and COSCO was able to build its own terminal. Art Wong, public information officer for the Port of Long Beach, told the San Francisco Chronicle last week that COSCO now operates terminals in a joint venture with a U.S. company, Stevedoring Services of America, with the Chinese company acting as the majority lease holder with 51 percent control. By the end of the decade, COSCO plans to expand its Long Beach facility into a giant five terminal operation covering 300 acres, according to the Long Beach Press Telegram.
Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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