To: Mary Cluney who wrote (22942 ) 9/23/2007 8:24:05 PM From: TobagoJack Respond to Compare ... iht.com "The $5 billion that China is plunking down promises a great leap forward for Congo, and this begins with about 3,200 kilometers of new rail lines and an equivalent amount of new roads. The money will also pay for 31 hospitals and 145 smaller health care centers, along with two large new universities and 5,000 new government housing units ... If war or political upheaval doesn't get in the way, Congo stands to experience more progress in 36 months than it has in 47 years of independence from Belgium, or as a colony of Brussels for that matter ." iht.com "It's no secret that a major reason for the Pentagon's decision to establish its new Africa Command is to contain and keep an eye on China's growing web of development projects across the sub-Saharan regions ." iht.com , though not in so few words."In addition to submarines, Beijing has focused on naval mines, ballistic missiles ( edit: janes.com ) that can hit moving objects at sea and technology that blocks GPS satellites. The goal is "sea denial": dissuading American carrier strike groups from closing in on the Asian mainland wherever and whenever we like. Such dissuasion is the subtle, high-tech end of military asymmetry, as opposed to the crude, low-tech end that we've seen with homemade bombs in Iraq. Whether or not China ever has a motive to challenge America, it will increasingly have the capacity to do so."
