Red Star Rising
But is Anyone Watching?
Part 1: Aiding and Abetting the Enemy
James F. Gauss
I am a firm believer in the People.
If given the truth, they can be depended upon
to meet any national crisis.
The great point is to bring them the real facts.
Abraham Lincoln
It has been said that Vladimir Lenin predicted that the West was so corrupt that it could be counted on to sell the communists the rope by which they would eventually hang us.
As America continues to open up its storehouse of corporate and military secrets to the communist Chinese leaders and flood them with billions of dollars in “economic” and “development” aid, Lenin’s portent of the future is inching ominously closer.
And we, the American consumer, are all too willing to oblige the self-proclaimed enemy of the United States---the Communist Party of China (CPC) and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA)---and help them get stronger and stronger with our tax dollars and our insatiable yen for Chinese-made goods.
Just take a look around your home at the last ten non-perishable items you purchased at your local drug store, discount store, book and gift store, “outlet” center or elsewhere. Unless you are a regular shopper at Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany & Co., Abercrombie & Fitch, or other high end boutique, you are likely to find that your new item of clothing, footwear, stuffed animal, trinket, ceramic angel, wooden cross, your child’s favorite toy, that have-to-have tool or piece of sporting equipment, or kitchen item was not made in the USA, even though you might recognize the brand name as a favorite U.S. company icon. Go ahead, take a look at the manufacturer’s label or imprint, and see where that item was made. Probably eight out of ten are made outside the U.S. and at least half of those are made in China.
So what! you say. What do I care where something is made. Just so I can get it for a good price.
I am not an isolationist. I believe in “free trade” and that world trade is essential to the continued health and wealth of the American economy. But Americans better start paying more attention to where they spend their money and to whom and what it is embracing and supporting.
Just about everywhere in America that the “common” person shops, you will find hundreds of items with the “Made in China” label in place of what use to proudly declare, Made in America. Despite the renewal of patriotic fervor in the wake of September 11, 2001, Americans continue to shop and purchase based on price and rarely by conscience. We are consummate “bargain hunters” no matter what we are looking for, and that is just what our Chinese communist adversary is counting on.
“It’s like deja-vu, all over again,” baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra would say. We are repeating the same mistakes we made before the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Prior to that malicious fatal attack, the U.S. helped build up Japan through aid and trade. We did the same thing with Hitler’s Germany, post-shah Iran, pre-Gulf War Iraq and just about every country that eventually became our enemy. Once again we seem to be on the same dangerous track, only with more far-reaching and potentially devastating consequences.
Bookstores and gift shops---including Christian ones---are loaded with “Made in China” items. Even Christian and secular publishers are having some of their books printed in China. Americans bought $112 billion in Chinese-made goods last year without giving it another thought. But we should, and we better. We should think long and hard, and then act in a manner that supports the persecuted peoples in China, as well as not aid the military build-up of a political regime that has vowed to destroy us.
Yes, September 11, 2001 was a day of infamy in America that brought out the best in most of us. Out of the ashes and rubble of Manhattan, the Pentagon and the hills of southwestern Pennsylvania has come a resurgence of U.S. patriotism that has not been seen since the era of World War II. Everywhere across this diverse country, Americans are proudly flying the nation’s flag in front of homes and businesses. Flag decals and miniature flags have become normal vehicle attire, while patriotic slogans like “United We Stand” and “God Bless America” pleasantly invade our ocular and auditory senses far and wide. Why, even the Pledge of Allegiance, long ago forgotten and dropped from our schools, is now, once again, in vogue.
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Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion,
but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.
Adlai E. Stevenson
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However, with this show of patriotic pride, how much of it is backed by patriotic actions? How many U.S. corporations and businesses along Main Street USA flying the American flag (some for the first time) are inadvertently or knowingly supporting our number one enemy and greatest declared adversary? How many U.S. patriots and people of faith, using their hard-earned money, are ignorantly aiding the military build-up of the largest potential foe in the history of the United States, and at the same time supporting its persecution of millions of its citizens?
While terrorism is a worldwide threat to reckon with and an evil that knows no boundary, no nationalism, and no respect for innocent lives, and currently has the undivided attention of our nation’s leaders and citizens, it is the economic and military power of the world’s most populated country, China, that could pose the greatest security risk for the United States. A nation, that despite all the rhetoric of reform and vicissitudes of peace, is still under the repressive, iron-fisted dictatorship of devout and aggressive communists who have made it abundantly clear that the United States is their number one enemy and that all out war with us is inevitable, and one that they are planning to win at all costs.
Threatening Behavior Pays. In spite of this overt threat to our nation’s safety and security, our country and it’s leaders have not viewed China as a clear cut enemy since the Reagan/Bush era. In the past ten years we have come to see China and its 1.2 billion-plus people mostly as a trading partner and source of great economic opportunity.
We have rewarded them with billions of dollars in U.S. capital to aid their mushrooming economic growth and rapid military build-up and modernization, while conveniently looking the other way on the issue of human rights violations and bellicose threats to America. Aided by America’s insatiable appetite for Chinese-made goods and unprecedented U.S. tax-supported billions from the World Bank and other financial institutions, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and China’s state-controlled banks sit on a cash hoard of $335 billion in foreign currency reserves while running a minuscule foreign debt.
“China is the largest holder of America’s foreign debt,” noted Eunice Xu of the China-Indochina Christian House in Hong Kong. “As such, they are America’s bank. There is persecution and marginalization of Christians in America going on right now, so we can’t expect the U.S. government to help our brothers and sisters being persecuted in China now, or in Laos and Vietnam.”
In support of that opinion, the U.S. State Department’s recent release of its 26th human rights report on almost 190 countries pretty much subjugates foreign policy and human rights issues to the more important questions of trade and military imperatives.
The policy of “peaceful engagement” that blossomed throughout the Clinton years is both an utter disaster and failure. The espoused concept of such capitalistic engagement with Red China was an idealistic plan at best. The reasoning went like this: The more U.S. corporations and government help to build up the Chinese economy; the more trade secrets we offer them in appeasement; the more prosperous and peaceful the Chinese people will become and therefore less of a threat to U.S. interests and its citizens. While over-simplistic, it has turned out to be a gross miscalculation by greedy and pompous U.S. capitalists and politicians who have now put the United States at risk like never before.
“If the West believes it can use money, trade and development as a carrot to end persecution of Christians in Asia, they are very mistaken,” Ms. Xu added.
Aiding the Enemy. When we shop do we care where things are made, whether they are made by Chinese peasants in sweat shops making 50-cents an hour or by Christians in forced labor camps? Do we care where our spent dollar is going and what it is supporting?
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And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you;
ask what you can do for your country.
President John F. Kennedy
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How about a little tour of your favorite discount store, like Target or Wal Mart, or whatever is nearby? How about your book and gift shop or your “outlet” stores?
Recently, my curiosity got the best of me, so I conducted my own little random survey of my hometown Target and Wal Mart stores. I was shocked---really shocked! Oh, I expected that most items would be made abroad nowadays (unfortunately), but I did not expect that the overwhelming majority to be made in China---and by joint ventures with leading U.S. corporations.
In a check of approximately 140 “hard good” (non-food, non-clothing) items at each store, I discovered that 70-75 percent were made in China. Of the fourteen or more brands of footwear carried by each store, all were made in China---100 percent of shoes, slippers, children’s shoes, boots, work shoes, athletic shoes, etc. At Target, 100 percent of the Kitchen utensils of Calaphalon, Copco, INOX, Oneida and Oxo were China-made. Only 12-13 percent of the items surveyed in both stores were made in the USA. Virtually all electronics and accessories are made in China, Southeast Asia or Mexico. An overwhelming number of children’s toys, stuffed animals, dolls, games, and television or movie characters are made in China. Indeed, of all the toys made in China, America imports 60 percent of them. Today, there are very few American companies that do not have all or some of their products made in China.
Because of our infatuation with a “bargain” our nation’s trade deficit with China was an astounding $83 billion last year. Ten years ago, our trade deficit with China was just about non-existent. Since many of China’s “businesses” are owned and operated by the PLA or PLA-sympathizing Chinese nationalists, the PLA is being enriched with billions of U.S. tax dollars and American consumer purchases of China-made products.
Howard Phillips, President of The Conservative Caucus Foundation, who led a 23-member tour of China in late August last year has raised deep concerns about the United States and its consumer base supporting China.
“Without the American taxpayer, communist China would be far less a threat to [U.S.] vital interests than it now is,” Phillips noted in an interview. “Our policies are very unwise” in dealing with China. His greatest concern is the “underestimation of U.S. leadership of the PRC and PLA goals of world domination.”
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James F. Gauss is a free lance writer, frequent public speaker and the author of Christians Confronting Crisis, We the People, Volumes I, II (historical document series) and other books. He may be reached at ampatriot@charter.net.
Copyright 2002. James F. Gauss. All Rights Reserved.
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