Rumsfeld to make key trip to China next week

[Judi Lynn]

Rumsfeld to make key trip to China next week
Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:23 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will visit China next week amid concerns in Washington over the Asian giant's increased military spending as well as regional security worries over North Korea.

Rumsfeld -- who the Pentagon said will also go to South Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Lithuania -- is making his first trip to China since taking office in 2001.

The visit follows a series of events this summer that underscored a mutual wariness between the United States and rising power China.

But it also caps moves by both sides to normalize military relations and solve security problems including terrorism and North Korea's nuclear arms programs.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-10-14T162339Z_01_EIC459004_RTRUKOC_0_US-CHINA-USA-RUMSFELD.xml

[drb]

1. ...with a side discussion of whether they would grant...

...his murdering ass political asylum!

[ozymandius]

2. Sarcasm warning: Why is it always a "key" trip?

Why don't our public servants ever venture on either a "showboaty" or "inconsequential" trip?

Since he will address America's banker (China) over their defense spending, I will make the leap and say his trip will be extremely inconsequential.

[gratuitous]

3. Got some more chemical weapons to sell, does he?

Two words: Work camp.

[zbdent]

4. Can you say

"Flight risk"?

I knew you could . . .

[MADem]

5. KEY trip? What, is he gonna hand over the key to the treasury???

Hell, China owns all our debt.....

[HereSince1628]

15. Begging China's blessing on attacking Iran I suspect.

[MADem]

17. Well, that would be a moneymaker for them

They supply a shitload of arms to Iran, and they have a favored nation oil deal going with them as well.

I suppose if it looks like we might have trouble paying our bills, and they might have to extend our notes, that they could make a little money on a side war or two...

[Voltaire99]

18. That and holding out his tin cup.

Uncle Sam's broke; the People's Republic isn't.

Could the nice Communists help a running dog fallen on a little cyclical bad luck?

[HereSince1628]

20. It's because China owns the US that the US has to go hat in hand

to get permission before something violent is done to Iran.

If we don't do their bidding they can make us really hurt. This is one of the great benefits of free enterprise. Let your enemies buy your government's debt, and without firing a shot, China cripples the hyperpower.

[Voltaire99]

22. Exactly.

China's success in this regard--and our failure in becoming beholden to its cheap products and debt servicing--together are staggering.

"This is the way the world ends," T.S. Eliot wrote. "Not with a bang, but a whimper."

[Richard Steele]

6. Note to self: purchase shares of Chapstick™, ASAP.

Cuz rummy's gonna need alot of it after kissing
all those Chinese butts.

There's a Brazilian of 'em, you know!

[yorgatron]

7. is that what Nixon was doing all those years ago,

selling us out to China?

[MarsThe Cat]

8. the minute he lands- China should place him under arrest...

and send him to the Hague for a war crimes trial...

oh well- a guy can dream can't he?(no, really- have they outlawed fantasization yet??)

[Ezlivin]

9. They should INDEFINITELY DETAIN the fucker

And they should serve him the full menu of Gitmo, including a nice dessert of roasted balls.

[Village Idiot]

10. What a CROCK of SHIT!!!

".S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will visit China next week amid concerns in Washington over the Asian giant's increased military spending as well as regional security worries over North Korea.
"

Their fucking military budget for 2005 is less than $30 BILLION, in comparison with the USA's $450 BILLION in military expenditures (not counting Iraq and Afghanistan)...

How many foreign bases do the Chinese have? Zero. Nada.

I wonder what the REAL REASON behind the visit is???

[sweepster]

12. Their military budget is way above 30 billion..

That is what the chinese say they spent. Also their private and military sectors are intertwined so it's anyones best guess what they actually spend.

Also since the chinese do not have bases outside their own country that 30 billion goes along way. Most of our 450 billion budget is spent on overseas base budgets etc.

The chinese have been on a huge military spending spree with Russia and Isreal.

[sweepster]

11. Waste of aviation fuel we will still get screwed by the chinese....

with Bush and Co and the corporations leading the way.

[splat@14]

13. K.Hughes should go also to complete the embarrassment.

[lovuian]

14. It will be a smile smile joy joy visit hoping China will give us

assurances they are being good little boys and girls in space!!!

[katty]

16. Tripping out before indictments...suddenly everyone is overseas

[dkofos]

19. Is he going to ask for parts for his war machine??

[pinniped]

21. Don't they know only the US is allowed to increase their military spending

?

Whatsa matter with them?

He's a spy, lock him up.

[Moderator]

23. kick

[norml]

24. Rumsfeld making first China visit amid U.S. doubts

Posted 10/15/2005 1:33 PM

Rumsfeld making first China visit amid U.S. doubts


WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld hopes China will reveal more about a massive military that the Bush administration sees as a potential near-term threat to U.S. interests in Asia and a possible global rival in the future.

Rumsfeld departs Monday on his first trip to China as defense secretary, marking a new opening to the country. China's military, with about 2.5 million people under arms, is the largest in the world, and Rumsfeld wants Beijing to detail more about the scope of its budget and the intentions of its leaders.

As a nod to the Americans, China agreed to allow Rumsfeld to visit 2nd Artillery Corps headquarters at Qinghe, which runs its strategic missile forces. Rumsfeld would be the first U.S. official ever to see the complex, according to Pentagon officials speaking on condition of anonymity who briefed reporters on the trip.

The Chinese, however, denied Rumsfeld's request to visit the Western Hills command center, a secret underground facility that serves as a national military command post. No foreigner is believed to have been inside Western Hills, although Chinese officials have visited the Pentagon.

Rumsfeld is scheduled to meet with President Hu Jintao, who also is chairman of the Central Military Commission, which runs the military, and other senior officials, including Rumsfeld's counterpart, Gen. Cao Gangchuan.


snip


http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-10-15-rumsfeldchina_x.htm

[aquart]

25. NOOOOOOOOOO! We do NOT need Rummy

Threatening China. For god's sake, they hold all our treasury notes.

[54anickel]

26. Rumsfeld, China and Hypocrisy

http://www.counterpunch.org/poff06062005.html

"Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder; Why this growing investment? Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases? Why these continuing robust deployments?"

Thus spake the yet to be tried war criminal Donald Rumsfeld. But when one looks closely at the situation one is struck by the fact China is surrounded on all sides by threatening, or possibly threatening nations, least of which is the U.S.

To the East lies Japan, a nation with the second largest military budget in the world, the capability of maunfacturing nuclear weapons in days if not hours, and most worrisome a bellicose government bent reliving the militarism which plagued Japan in the 1930's. Indeed so rampant is the resurgent militarism in Japan, openly encouraged by the Bush regime, that Japanese troops are sent to War in a nation thousands of miles from Japan, purely at the behest of America.

snip>

And then there is the greatest threat of all, the United States of America; the most warlike nation in the history of mankind. A nation which has overthrown numberless governments, invaded countless nations including those so tiny as Grenada as to not possess armed forces, and which most importantly openly boasts of "full-spectrum dominance", militarizing space, and spends as much as the rest of the world COMBINED on its military (not including hundreds of billions on "black programs" and "intelliegence" agencies). A nation, lest it be forgotten, which in attempting to assassinate Chou-en-Lai blew up the wrong civilian aircraft. A nation which to this day constantly violates Chinese airspace with provacative overflights by manned and unmanned aircraft.

No, as usual, when Rumsfeld points his blood-soaked finger the other four point directly back. A more accurate statement would be "Since no nation threatens the United States, one must wonder: Why this growing investment? Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases? Why these continuing robust deployments?"

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