Tomorrow The Chinese President Hu Jintao will begin his official state visit. This visit will be accompanied by a media blitz showing smiling friendly Chinese people. The purpose is to convince us that China is our friend. But the Chinese are anything but friendly. Their smiles can not hide an aggressive foreign policy that has one purpose in mind. Control commodities, control manufacturing, stop anyone who gets in the way of their plans.

Think of how China manipulates their currency to give themselves an economic advantage in trade. All the time crying when other countries complain about it. How about the theft of intellectual property? China is making a lot of money by the illegal copying and selling of protected material. While the countries who developed them lose. How about locking out foreign businesses from many areas of China's economy, while insisting on having full access to your markets.

And then there is the military aspect. Now I know that on face value this is not a military incident but remember how a Chinese fishing boat captain rammed a Japanese navy vessel? How different is this incident and China's reaction to the time when a Chinese fighter plan rammed a US patrol plan. Now really. The US plane is a medium size aircraft using turbo-prop propellers. On the other hand is a much faster, smaller and highly maneuverable Chinese jet fighter. The Chinese pilot could easily evade the US plane. But the US plane would not be able to out maneuver the Chinese plan. But China cried loudly that it was all our fault. This inspite of repeated complaints by the US on the dangerous reckless actions of Chinese fighter pilots. Not enough?

And then there is the constant threat to Taiwan. How about the published plan China has for going to war with the US. Or the threats to Vietnam and ExxonMobil over an oil deal. How about the continued occupation of Tibet? We must remember that China is a totalitarian state. And history shows us that totalitarian leaders have no problem in sacrificing the lives of their citizens to further their desire for power.

So they will smile at us, they will show us beautiful pictures of China. Large groups of well trained smiling children. They will talk about the benefits of cooperation with them. But they are not our friends. They are not the Japanese friend, They are not the Koreans friend. They are not the Europeans friend. China is only friends with China...

-- Thomas Paine 2

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