Newsweek: Bullets for Beijing (alarming article)

[UpInArms]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5570509/site/newsweek/

The big EU powers are moving to lift the ban on arms sales to China in a frontal challenge to U.S. policy and power in Asia

Aug. 9 issue - Bush administration officials call it the "new great game." It threatens to rival the war in Iraq as a source of transatlantic tension and poses a serious, if subtle, challenge to U.S. hegemony in the world's most dynamic and populated region.

The European Union is reviewing the arms embargo imposed on China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, and is likely to scrap it soon, widening Beijing's access to modern weaponry. Pentagon officials say France and Germany, which are spearheading the drive in the face of fierce U.S. opposition, hope to have the matter settled in time for a Sino-EU summit in December. "The Americans are laying very clear markers to warn the Europeans how they feel about this," says Banning Garrett, an Asia expert at the Washington-based Atlantic Council of the United States. "But there is a good chance the embargo will be lifted late this year."

The embargo battle reveals the creeping return of multipolarity in a world dominated by a single superpower for the last 15 years. Earlier this year, during a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao, French President Jacques Chirac said it "makes no sense" to maintain the embargo, given the improvement in Chinese civil liberties since Tiananmen. While the United States has cajoled EU members into respecting the arms sales ban, its stand is beginning to erode under the centrifugal forces of Chinese growth and EU expansion in a global marketplace. "In Singapore, they're talking about shifts in the 'balance of influence' " in China's favor, says Clyde Prestowitz Jr., president of the Economic Strategy Institute in Washington. "In Australia, they're asking, 'Please do not ask us to choose between Washington and Beijing.' The unipolar world is being challenged in Asia."

...more...

more evidence of our nation's loss of status under the BFEE :(

[bpilgrim]

1. hey, we're the worlds ONLY super power!

doesn't that count anymore?

(cheney must be eff'n up a storm, since he can't get in on the 'action')

peace

[nodictators]

10. Look who's coming up fast in the Superpower race

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3939585.stm

On China's fast-track to luxury
By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC correspondent, Beijing

The rapid growth of the Chinese economy is causing some concern around the globe. Other countries fear they will soon no longer be able to compete. It's a revolution based on a limitless supply of manpower.

Watch out Japan and the US; China already has the world's third biggest economy... and it just keeps growing.

In Beijing this summer the latest fashion statement is a Hummer H2.
<much more>

[xchrom]

2. our's is the only opinion that counts, damn it!

what fucking hogwash -- if the eu opens up arms sales to china -- it's not just to thumb it's nose at the u.s.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

3. Under the NeoCon Junta we've managed to alienate three major....

...countries with whom we previously had good to excellent relationships: France, Germany, and China.

What is beginning to happen to us now has happened to countries throughout history that were looked upon as rougue nations. A short list includes Napoleonic France at the beginning of the 19th century, Germany prior to both World Wars, the old Soviet Union after WWII, China to a certain extent after the Korean War, and now us.

There is still time to turn this around, but we are going to have to work very hard over the next 5-10 years to make that happen.

[ugarte]

4. 'The creeping return of multipolarity...'

Why is this alarming?

[bemildred]

9. Why is it "creeping" for that matter?

It's happening rather fast, thanks to the buffoons
now running our foreign policy.

[Nambe]

5. Sanity seems to rule in Europe.

What a stange place.
Go to the Store!

Get an Excelent ’04 Party Hat!

[shraby]

6. My guess is, they are armed to

the teeth anyway...this will make it easier for them to buy arms. There is a huge black market on arms and I'm sure they have been availing themselves of it all the time.

[madrchsod]

7. the usa military is already

developing weapons to target the major sea ports and industrial centers along the coast of china. but the bigger question is-what will the big box store chains in america do without china? there isn`t anywhere else to go- africa is to poor and uneducated to exploit..

[Media_Lies_Daily]

14. What do you mean "developing" weapons...they've had those for....

...decades. Those are the kind that leave behind a glow-in-the-dark crater with a half-life of several thousand years or more.

[donsu]

8. somebody has to stop the criminal, murderous bushgang

if we, the american people, cannot.

we haven't stopped them from doing what they want, yet.

[BeHereNow]

12. You are telling the future Donsu-

The rest of the world has no choice but
to work together on stopping the runaway
freight train that is, the U.S..
Coalitions, econonmic and otherwise are
their only choice.
Why do they hate us?
Cause we do not know crap about
what our government does in our name.
BHN

[KT2000]

11. China does not need arms

against the US. All they have to do is threaten to stop manufacturing goods for the Americans. What if consumer goods stopped coming into this country from China? Rioting in the streets that's what!

[David__77]

13. The US should lift the embargo too.

What's the purpose of it? It makes no sense at all--actually, it greatly strengthens the political hand of nationalism within China if it is maintained. Better to integrate China as much as possible.

[PhuLoi]

15. This is the end of the United States as the sole superpower.

China and unified Europe as an entity will overwhelm the US as we collapse as a manufacturing nation. Corporate corruption and an absence of their loyalty to our nation and we the people have brought this about.

[Disturbed]

16. US Govt. Complicity .

"Corporate corruption and an absence of their loyalty to our nation and we the people have brought this about."

US Govt. from Nixon on have sold out America. Mfg. Re-locations, Unfair Trade Agreements and Outsourcing.

[struggle4progress]

17. The Neocons have started a new arms race. eom

[teryang]

18. Chinese dollar currency reserves will buy EU weapons

...the sole superpower nonsense certainly was ephemeral. Two small wars against already devasted and ruined enemies and the truth is known.

[quaoar]

19. Sort of depends

On what weapons systems might be offered to China.

If China buys tanks, short-range missiles, artillery systems, etc. it's no big deal. They aren't about to launch a land invasion of anyone.

If they are seeking to buy long-range bombers, missile subs, heavy sea-lift vessels, then we can start worrying about an invasion of Taiwan or a threat to the U.S.