To: Maurice Winn who wrote (31567 ) 6/3/1999 2:01:00 AM From: JMD Read Replies (3) | Respond to
Hi Maurice, I have been steadfastly avoiding the China debate for fear that Ramsey will go postal, but I bumped into some very heavy dudes this past weekend whilst gamboling in Washington. This one guy is very connected as in: must remain anonymous. However the story he tells me is that the Chinese are indeed VERY FRIGGING PISSED OFF and it ain't a convenient excuse to get everybody to forget Tienamen (sp?) Square which was my take on the whole thing. Seems that the Chinese were invited by us to take a close peek under the covers as we took the hide off Saddam and the boys in the Gulf War. Gist is that we thoroughly convinced them that our technology was beyond terrific and they bought in. Telling them now that we made a little goof ain't going down at the Great Wall. Point 2 is, of course, that they made the mistake of believing Slick Willie and thought WTO was in the bag. When Bill thought his fanny would get singed by Congress if he pushed it, he dropped our Chinese friends like a bad habit. Personally I can't believe that they believed him [don't they read the Washington Post?] but they did and they're as mad as Monica when she found out that the post-White House offer of matrimony was in the 'just kidding' tone we've all come to adore. Last, this guy noted what nobody in the press has picked up: the Cox report concluded that China SHOULD BE GIVEN (actually that it should not be denied)WTO NOTWITHSTANDING the prior 792 pages (I'm paraphrasing of course) so, this guy asks, how bad could their espionage sins have been? Answer--ain't no biggie: mostly Cox just wanted to give the Clinton administration a wake up call before things got serious.
