Unclassified
THE RED GIANT
What China's sinking islands tell us
Exclusive: Lt. Col. James Zumwalt discusses 2 issues regarding U.S.-Sino
relations
By Lt. Col. James Zumwalt <https://www.wnd.com/author/jzumwalt/>
Published April 1, 2020 at 7:31pm
Two long-existing realities of doing business with China have, as a result
of the COVID-19 crisis, been thrust into the public spotlight. Both should
disturb us. One should disturb China as well, having gained Beijing's
attention due to a recent development in the South China Sea.
1. U.S. Dependency
The first reality we should recognize is our heavy dependency upon China for
various products.
It is shocking that we currently rely upon that country for about 90%
<https://www.americanjobsalliance.com/news/where-your-drugs-come-90-many-com
mon-drugs-made-china-fda-has-lost-control> of our pharmaceuticals and
vitamins. Obviously, Beijing could easily weaponize our dependency either by
disrupting flow or tainting it.
It should be a wake-up call for us as well that for 825 of 5,000 products
the U.S. imports, China supplies
<https://www.piie.com/blogs/trade-investment-policy-watch/how-dependent-are-
us-consumers-imports-china> more than all our other trade partners
combined.
Concerning too is our rare earth mineral dependency. These are commonly used
<https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/30/heres-why-chinas-trade-war-threat-to-restri
ct-rare-earth-minerals-is-so-serious.html> in high-tech devices,
automotives, clean energy and defense products. In 2017, while China
accounted
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-military-china-idUSKCN1MC275> for
81% of global rare earth mineral mining, the U.S. accounted for 0%. Again,
this leaves China with an ability to disrupt exports of this strategic
mineral at will - an action it has threatened to take before.
Concerns have mounted in the past over electronics imported from China, not
only for consumers but also for our military. Additionally, our military
depends upon the Chinese for components such as propellant for the Hellfire
missile, launched from helicopters and used against terrorist targets today.
The manufacture
<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/some-us-military-parts-imported-from-china/>
of our night-vision goggles involves a soft white-colored metal known as
"lanthanum" - 90% of which comes from China.
A 2013 internal U.S. Army report identified 14 categories of mineral or
technology requirements, foreign-sourced back then. It is doubtful much has
been done since to alleviate this reliance.
A deep-seated fear our military has long held is Chinese-manufactured
microchips might contain a secretly embedded
<https://foreignpolicy.com/2008/05/02/could-china-install-kill-switches-in-m
ilitary-microchips/> "kill switch" by which an instrument or weapon could
cease operating during times of conflict. Our intelligence agencies have
already forewarned us that "made in China" mobile phones and network
equipment have the capability to spy on Americans. Even fitness monitoring
devices have demonstrated
<https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/01/31/cellphone-ban-pentagon-possi
ble-after-exercise-tracker-disclosures.html> such a tracking ability,
generating a Defense Department ban on wearing them at certain locations.
(China uses cellphone data to track
<https://retiredpatriotnews.com/247-alerts/the-creepy-way-the-cdc-is-trackin
g-millions-of-americans-without-their-knowledge/?aff_id=1262&utm_placement=c
flg-rpn> their citizens' movements to ensure compliance with current virus
travel restrictions - a capability our Centers for Disease Control now has
as well.)
2. Chinese Workmanship
A second disturbing reality is Chinese workmanship. In assessing it, we need
consider two possibilities - workmanship defects made intentionally and
those made unintentionally.
An example of an intentional workmanship defect was shared by a Vietnamese
veteran of the war with the U.S., reflecting the historical animosity
between China and Vietnam.
China and Vietnam share a thousand-plus-year history of confrontation. While
the latter broke away from Chinese rule in the 10th century, almost every
century since then has been marred by China invading Vietnam. When the U.S.
went to war with North Vietnam, China undertook a half-hearted effort to
assist Hanoi.
One way China assisted Vietnam was in providing weapons and ammunition.
Early on in the conflict, it shipped mortar rounds to its purported ally.
However, the Vietnamese soon realized the rounds were unreliable,
periodically falling short of the target. Only later was it learned the
Chinese had intentionally manufactured them with insufficient powder.
A recent blog exchange involving the CEO of a Chinese company manufacturing
forehead thermometers and his workers may be telling that such a Vietnam war
era mentality among the Chinese - to intentionally manufacture substandard
product for certain buyers - still remains. These bloggers "jokingly"
discussed accelerating COVID-19's spread in the West by fixing thermometers
<https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/826583-chinese-company-jokes-abo
ut-selling-faulty-thermometers-to-us-special?utm_source=c-pm&utm_medium=c-pm
-email&utm_term=c-pm-AOL&utm_content=81Ykd4PcA99fNjl04dmRVrt2gikcJ9_eIxiUikV
6bG4A.A> to display a lower temperature.
On the unintentional side of defective product workmanship, China has a
less-than-stellar manufacturing history:
In 2007, the U.S. stopped
<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-to-stop-some-chinese-seafood-imports/>
some Chinese seafood imports, contaminated with drugs unapproved for use in
fish farming. It was a particularly bad year for China as only half way
through it, 60% of all recalls
<https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11656278> were
Chinese-made products.
As of 2015, more than 4,000 U.S. homeowners had complained
<https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/chinese-drywall-problems-health-eff
ects-32402.html> about metal corrosion caused by Chinese-made drywall,
contaminated by high levels of sulfur, resulting in numerous health-related
issues.
China is the third-largest
<https://keepthetailwagging.com/12-facts-about-dog-food-made-in-china/> pet
food importer to the U.S. However, the lack of comprehensive Chinese
regulations concerning the safety of pet foods led to the deaths of
thousands of animals here. In 2016, more than 5,300 pet food products were
recalled
<https://truthaboutpetfood.com/how-many-pets-have-ingredientsproducts-from-c
hina-killed/> as vegetable proteins were contaminated with melamine.
With COVID-19 spreading globally, the world community has desperately needed
test kits, masks and ventilators. Philanthropist Elon Musk bought
<https://whoknewnews.com/elon-musk-buys-over-1200-ventilators-from-china-bec
ause-of-shortage/> 1,200 ventilators from China to distribute to various
hospitals in the U.S. The good news is while China has been selling/donating
test kits, masks and equipment to Europe, the bad news is many have proven
defective.
<https://americantruthtoday.com/politics/2020/03/29/china-sends-hundreds-of-
thousands-of-coronavirus-tests-masks-to-nations-many-reportedly-don-t-work/?
utm_source=sprklst&utm_campaign=conservativewatch-china-03_29-mid> With the
fourth-highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world, Spain purchased
640,000 kits, only to discover they failed to detect the virus 70% of the
time.
While China may not have been paying much attention to its defective
workmanship in the past, it has awoken to the issue due to developments in
the South China Sea.
Ever since 2013, and contrary to international law, China has been building
man-made islands atop reefs there, effectively serving as stationery
aircraft carriers. As has been reported, "the Chinese government has dredged
<https://americanactionnews.com/military/are-chinas-artificial-island-bases-
sinking/> and mostly destroyed ecologically delicate reefs in disputed
waters in order to build seven major military bases complete with ports,
airstrips and radar and missile installations."
However, to Beijing's dismay, it is learning a costly lesson - artificially
inseminated South Sea islands do not fare well. Already there are reports
bases are collapsing
<https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/sunk-how-chinas-man-made-islands-are
-falling-apart-and-sinking-ocean-132047> and sinking into the sea - the
result of both weather conditions and shoddy workmanship.
Once the COVID-19 crisis passes, hopefully both countries will have learned
some costly lessons.
