by John Melendez

Created on: July 22, 2009   Last Updated: July 23, 2009

Comments on DOD Concerns Re China's "Informatization" & Military Buildup

CHINA "HIJACKED" MAJOR US SEARCH ENGINES

Following President George W. Bush's 1997 attendance of an award ceremony honoring the Dalai Lama's efforts as a peacemaker, China states that the bestowal of the award had "gravely undermined" relations between the US and China. Further exacerbating circumstances for Beijing include President George W. Bush's decision then to meet privately with the Dalai Lama at the White House.

In an apparent response to these events, reports contended that all search traffic arising from China using major US search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN were then redirected to the Chinese-owned search engine Baidu.

Amid apologies and tensions arising from quality of children's toys, poisoned pet food, the ever-growing US Trade debt with China, and the bestowal of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama, China's apparent response alarmingly reflects concerns previously stated by the US Department of Defense.

These concerns now carry on into the Obama administration.

THE DOD'S OWN WORDS

After living and working in China for several years, I have retained a keen interest in US-China relations and events. Some months ago, I researched the US government's military outlook on China and ran across United States' Department of Defense (DOD) 2007 Annual Report to Congress regarding China's use of information as a weapon.

The following words are an excerpt from the DOD report:

"The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is pursuing comprehensive transformation from a mass army designed for protracted wars of attrition on its territory to one capable of fighting and winning short-duration, high intensity conflicts against high-tech adversaries - which China refers to as "local wars under conditions of informatization." China's ability to sustain military power at a distance, at present, remains limited but, as noted in the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review Report, it "has the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States and field disruptive military technologies that could over time offset traditional U.S. military advantages."

INTERPRETING THE DOD'S WARNING

Before going into this statement any further, we need to glean a few crucial words and phrases:

1. "comprehensive transformation"- These words point out a "symptom" peculiar to all of China's activities as a complex working entity, whose interrelated parts include government, economy, living culture,

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