Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (2892)	4/6/2001 11:47:33 AM
From: Texas_M	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Hi Jay I like this one - GOP and Big Business Could Benefit From Clash China Conflict: The Profit Motive by James Ridgeway WASHINGTON, D.C., April 5—The Bush administration's great China standoff has less to do with a downed American spy plane and a missing Chinese pilot than it does with U.S. and China competing for control of the world oil routes that cross through southern Asia. Also at stake is an electronics gravy train for the corporate interests of Silicon Valley. In seeking to protect shipping lanes for oil tankers, the U.S. has considered equipping nations along the Asian routes—including Taiwan—with the military might needed to defend the surrounding seas. China, which is also seeking greater access to fuel, has expressed anger over the transfer of arms to neighboring Taiwan. China is the world's second-largest energy consumer. A net importer since 1993, by 2020 the Communist nation will be importing up to two-thirds of its oil. Eighty percent of those supplies will come from the Middle East. The main exporters now are Oman and Yemen, but China is hoping to obtain supplies from Saudi Arabia as well. U.S. conservatives tie China's needs together with the perpetually vexing Saddam Hussein, noting that Chinese oil experts were working in Iraq when the U.S. bombed it recently, and that Chinese-fostered improvement in Iraqi air defense systems will make it more difficult for the U.S. to run its immense police operation in the Middle East. In recent years China has been more active in attempting to spread its hegemony over ocean supply lines that lead from the Middle East through the Straits of Malacca. Protecting these key trade routes are of major concern to U.S. conservatives; they see arming Taiwan as one step in spreading a military presence around southern Asia. Other nations situated along the routes are the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. Naturally China objects to American plans for beefing up Taiwan's military. Major arms could include new destroyers, or possibly refurbished older ones intended for the shah of Iran before he was overthrown. They are built by shipyards in Mississippi (home of GOP senators Trent Lott and Thad Cochran) and in Maine (represented by GOP senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins). Both the conservative and liberal ends of the Republican Party make out on this one. So do big corporations. The engines would come from General Electric. And electronics, which include the super-duper Aegis missile system, advanced radar, command and control, and warfare systems will come from a range of Silicon Valley subcontractors. Whether it's enough to resurrect the pathetic NASDAQ stock market is anybody's guess, but it certainly won't hurt any. The question now is how China's need for energy to fuel its modernization will affect global energy markets, environmental standards (or the lack thereof), and defense. Though the country is increasingly looking to hydroelectric and nuclear power, easy access to oil remains the key for China's move into the global economy.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (2892)	4/6/2001 3:32:23 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

So Jay... does that mean that any Cuban military vessel or plane that transits the US 200 mile economic zone is "hostile"? How about the fact that the Russians still have an extensive listening and collection operation located in Cuba listening to every communication we send out? Call we call that an intrusion into our national sovereignty? Doe that mean that Taiwan, since it falls within China's 200 mile economic zone really belongs to China? Would that apply to N. Korea as well? And since China claims the Spratly Islands, will they extend that economic zone from there as well and claim to be able to control all traffic that flows between there and China? Again, Jay... China is suddenly making up rules to justify their claim as well, DESPITE the long established protocols that denote national sovereignty being limited to 12 miles. To permit China to extend their soverign borders to 200 in distance would set a terrible and very dangerous precedent, and tremendous conflicts between nations that overlap each others EZs... And it would provide China justification to attack any military ship that traveled through the Taiwan Straits. That's just simply BS and I don't care what these libertarians state. 12 miles has been the long-established soveriegn boundaries for nations, not 200 miles. Furthermore, if China can claim full economic control over that 200 mile portion of the air and sea, they can theoretically assert territorial control over all traffic that passes through. This is why the US must stand by the 12 mile borders, and not cave in to the 200 mile limit. It would create a nasty precedent that many other nations would assert against both the US and their own neighbors. And btw, I don't have a problem with the Chinese flying within 12 miles of the US with their spy planes. The Russians do it all the time. Regards, Ron