US-China Relations - 139. page

On September 25, 2011, PLA Major General Luo Yuan told an audience of about 400 at the Wenhui newspaper lecture room, “I view the full range of strategic threats from the United States as the most major external threats to us.” Luo summarized the U.S. threats as the threat of the (democratic) system and the military threat. “The U.S. government spends $4.4 billion in strategic funds each year on foreign subversion, infiltration, and intervention. Previously, their targeted country was the former Soviet Union, but now their main target is China.” 

In his speech, Luo gave a detailed explanation of how China is facing U.S. military containment and why China must develop its military, build up its information armed forces, and prepare to win an information war.

Source: China Gate, October 3, 2011
http://www.wenxuecity.com/news/2011/10/03/1487698.html

(Ed. Note: The original article, which was published on Wenhui, is no longer available.)

Huanqiu, the official newspaper under People’s Daily, published a commentary on September 29, 2011, titled “Powerful Retaliations against the U.S. – Many Benefits with Little Downside.” The article suggests retaliating against the U.S. by suspending high-level dialogues, stopping all military exchanges, ending human rights dialogues, imposing sanctions against the companies that sold arms to Taiwan, reducing imports from the U.S., temporarily stopping the purchase of U.S. Treasury bonds, and even selling a small amount of the U.S. Treasury bonds, which is China’s “economic atomic bomb.”

The article suggests seizing the “god given” opportunity to “reverse China’s passive role in the arms sale to Taiwan problem.”

“Since China singles out the United States as the target for retaliation, which is morally justified, other Western countries will only watch without uniting together to besiege China.” “We are sure that the United States will not end its relationship with us. Currently, the U.S. needs us more than we need them.”

Source: Huanqiu, September 29, 2011
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-09/2045548.html

Huanqiu published an editorial advocating that China should take substantive actions to retaliate against the U.S. for its arms sale to Taiwan. “This would involve some risk. The worst result would be that the U.S. brings in China’s neighboring countries and reacts. The best result would be China taking action on one issue but having an overall impact throughout.” According to Huanqiu, the U.S. arms sale is the right issue. “China can retaliate in many ways. China can announce that it suspends all military exchanges with the U.S. In addition, China can announce that it launches investigations into the U.S. companies that participate in the arms sale and can sanction those companies. China can also reduce imports from the U.S. so that the number of the jobs lost would offset the number of the jobs gained in the arms sale. … What we need to do is to share the pain with the U.S, instead of China bearing the pain by itself. Let us believe: we can do it.”

Source: Huanqiu, September 24, 2011
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-09/2032110.html

On September 23, 2011, Huanqiu (the Chinese edition of Global Times), a state media under Xinhua, published an editorial titled “(China’s) Protest against the U.S. Arms Sale to Taiwan Should Not Be Limited to Words.” The article stated, “Our protest should be real, coupled with strong retaliatory measures.”

The article admitted that the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan is a problem that traces back to past years and cannot be stopped completely. “Let us fearlessly ‘tolerate’ the U.S. (arms sales to Taiwan) and also courageously retaliate against the United States. No matter what we do, nothing worse will happen. Several billion dollars worth of arms will not change the Taiwan Strait. If China kicks back at the United States for the Taiwan Strait, the Sino-U.S. relationship will not change either.”

The article contained a survey asking, “Should China increase its arms sales to the countries hostile to the U.S.?” It attracted thousands of responses. 37,026 participants (95.9%) agreed to increased arms sales to the enemies of the U.S., while 1,588 participants (4.1%) disagreed.

Source: Huanqiu, September 23, 2011
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-09/2028712.html

China Review News (CRN) recently published an article predicting that the United States and China will have more conflicts in the future. With the U.S. global policy arrangements on “the war against terror” and its “unilateralism” (a term often used in China referring to the U.S. acting without the support of other countries), the geo-strategic areas surrounding China are getting into more and more trouble. The article suggested that the the U.S. suffered a large loss of wealth as a result of the wars in which it was involved. While that involvement gave China a good opportunity to develop into the second largest economy in the world, the Obama Administration is now transferring more military attention to the Asia Pacific region. The downturn of both the U.S. and the EU economies is placing a large amount of pressure on China’s economic growth. The author believes that China cannot reach a strategic common understanding with the U.S. The fact that the U.S. is withdrawing from Afghanistan and Iraq and shifting its focus to China will establish the trend for the near future. There will be a tough road ahead, especially when the U.S. is entering a presidential election year.

Source: China Review News, September 19, 2011
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1018/3/6/1/101836139.html?coluid=148&kindid=0&docid=101836139&mdate=0919001955

Xinhua quoted the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification (NACPU), which is based in Washington DC as strongly condemning the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. NACPU claims that the oversea’s Chinese population in the Washington DC region strongly oppose the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. Wu Huiqiu, president of the NACPU called it an “unwise decision” which “casts a shadow over the US-Sino relationship” and will “hinder the development of cross strait relations.”

On September 21, 2011, the U.S. announced the decision to sell arms to Taiwan. A number of times, China has strongly criticized and objected to the decision.

Source: Xinhua, September 22, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-09/22/c_122073286.htm

An article on the People’s Daily website anticipates an increase in U.S. arms sales to Asian countries. “The large sale of arms to Taiwan once again shows that U.S. arms exports are an important part of its Asia Pacific strategy. In recent years, the United States has increased its arms exports to the Asia Pacific region and, in particular, to ASEAN countries. Further it is trying to bundle its weaponry systems with these countries’ need for munitions so as to serve its own strategic goals.”

Source: People’Daily Online, September 23, 2011
http://world.people.com.cn/GB/15735907.html

Recently, Chinese media have paid a lot of attention to Gary Locke, the new U.S. Ambassador to China. The media have highly praised him for his humble and simple lifestyle, which is in sharp contrast to Chinese government officials. For example, he flies economy class, has no servants, carries his own backpack, and buys coffee with a coupon.

Huanqiu (Global Times), a state media under Xinhua, published an article on the media’s attention, warning against “inappropriate” reports about Mr. Locke. The article stated, “They are gradually becoming like ‘Paparazzi,’ reporting on Locke. His every little action is packaged as ‘high moral trivia.’” The article criticized such reports as being ignorant of common international ways. It continued, “For Mr. Locke’s part, he should purposely avoid being a ‘star’ in the Chinese media. As a matter of fact, he may have unintentionally cooperated (with the media), perhaps out of his own preferences, or out of his ‘new tasks’ at the U.S. Embassy in China. He seems to enjoy this ‘moral show’ in the Chinese media, although he is very clear that he is not as ‘humble’ as reported on China’s Internet.

“The U.S. ambassador should focus on the development of Sino-U.S. relations and resolve misunderstandings, not play a character in the internal conflicts within China’s media so as to interfere with Chinese media in a sneaky (but really smart) way and increase the misunderstandings and suspicion between China and the U.S. … Those Chinese media that actively report Gary Locke’s ‘moral show’ should also have more self respect and dignity. They can find other angles for criticizing the corruption and bureaucracy of China’s government officials. To overly beautify a foreign ambassador in China, particularly when his China task is ‘quite complicated,’ is very inappropriate. … We hope Gary Locke can focus on his ambassador’s job in China. To those Chinese media: don’t have any illusions about [Mr. Locke]’s identity.”

Source: Huanqiu, September 22, 2011
http://finance.huanqiu.com/data/2011-09/2026319.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2011-09/22/c_122073734.htm