Customer Reviews

The China Threat: How the People's Republic Targets America

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

Nehao! I found the book to be easy to read. If you're less than enamored with the current administration, or are a veteran China watcher, you'll love this book. If you're a dyed-in-the-wool, "they can do no wrong" Clinton-Gore fan, you won't like the book, probably ought to save your money, and should go to the next review now.

This book is more of an indictment of the Clinton-Gore administrations' naivity than anything else: You can't blame the Chinese for trying to get the upper hand when offered to them.

Mr. Gertz provides well researched and clear perspectives on China's intentions, and on the well meaning but misguided "backwoods" approach to a country that looks at foreign policy over decades and centuries, not by the current term of office.

He illustrates through released documents that Bill Clinton is the very best president Chinese money could buy, or at least that the Chinese government could hope to have. He points out correctly that the US has no published consistent foreign policy, allowing the US State Department to take short-term-positive but long-term-bankrupt positions, resulting in backroom deals good for the current administration but highly inconsistent with national longevity or will of the American people.

My personal bias: I voted for Clinton for the domestic policies, but deal with the PRC on a daily basis. Gertz is "dead nuts" right.

In CHINA THREAT, Gertz warns fellow Americans:

*How the FBI pursued six Chinese intelligence agents and never found a senior Chinese mole inside the U.S. government code-named "Ma" who had access to top secret intelligence.

*"The Hug": How spy suspect Wen Ho Lee was embraced by China's top nuclear weapons scientist during a visit to the United States. The nuclear scientist, Hu Side, was overheard by an FBI informant at the time as saying Wen Ho Lee provided great assistance to China's nuclear weapons program.

*How a classified Chinese government document, known as Document 65, reveals that China is willing to attack the United States with nuclear weapons if U.S. forces intervene to defend Taiwan in a regional conflict.

Gertz unleashes a Chinese spying manual, translated into English, revealing a massive weapons technology collection effort involving the gathering of data and covert espionage.

The timing of the book's release -- just days before the election -- has raised eyebrows in official Washington.

Gertz reported in recent days: If Texas Gov. George W. Bush is elected president, Republican national security officials are planning a major house-cleaning for the CIA's China analysis division. The Clinton-Gore administration has favored a dangerous "benign view of China," claims Gertz.

In his new book, Gertz publishes a secret White House report by NSC staff aide Gary Samore offering missile technology to China if it agrees to join the Missile Technology Control Regime limiting missile exports.

Once again Bill Gertz warns about the very real threat of China's philosophy and threat to take over the world by first targeting the U.S. This book is well researched as was his last book "Betrayal." In his new book he explains in detail how the China threat works and amidst talks of peace and cooperation with China and the full inclusion of China into the WTO, the real danger which is imminent, is easily overlooked. Another brand new book that explains the whole scenario extremely well in form of a novel, although the book is based on a (de)classified CIA report, and it's a breathtaking thriller and strongly recommended, is Alec Donzi's "The Consultant."

Whether or not China does participate in global subversion of the Unites States I'm not certain. What can't be denied is that China has been fairly successful in recetn years in its intelligence operations in the U.S. Gertz writes of what he believes is a larger Chinese strategy to undermine the U.S. and often blames the Clinton administration for China's success at doing this. Chronicaling such actions as attempted Chinese business take over of the Panama Canal, Gertz makes an interesting argument that should probably be further researched. he does provide interesting documents in the apendix that are worth looking over.

... get ready for a scare. If anyone has any questions just how bad the Chinese Ministry for State Security can be, this is as good a place as any to find out. Mr. Gertz does seem to rely heavily on the Cox report, but for those of us that haven't actually looked at it, this will definately give you a dark interpretation of it.

I have to say that the author's dripping dislike of the Clinton administration gets tiresome around the middle of the book, we get the point. Judging from the titles of his other related books, Gertz didn't limit his Clinton-bashing to just this book and that makes wary first-time readers like me rather tentative in reading more of his publications.

There are two contradictory themes put forward in this book. The first is that the leadership of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is a very patient one, thinking in terms of decades and sometimes even in centuries, and the overwhelming majority of people who study the country hold this view. Many experts have argued that the greatest weakness of the American political and economic system is that there is little long-term vision. Therefore, from that perspective the PRC has a distinct advantage over the United States.
The second theme is that the PRC leadership is willing to risk nuclear war with the United States in order to regain control over Taiwan. This position is diametrically in opposition to the first, as only the most short sighted (psychotic) of people risk nuclear war when not directly threatened. While some of the leaders of the PRC make noise, there is no real evidence that the PRC would ever launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike to retake what they believe they will eventually win back anyway.
While the PRC is still a repressive communist state and is certainly a long-term threat to the United States, it is a threat that must be met with facts and reason, rather than misstatements and partial truths. On page xiv, there is the comment, "But the evidence from trade with Beijing over the past two decades shows that China today is less free and more threatening than it was before the United States established formal government-to-government relations in 1979." This is nonsense, in the last two decades the PRC has gone from a Stalinist style centrally planned economy to a very dynamic one that is rapidly converting to capitalism. The freedom to pursue entrepreneurial ventures is greater now than it has ever been in China.
On page 108, there is the statement, ". . . . China is also trading with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, building a gas turbine electrical power generating plant worth $160 million. Any enemy of America is a possible customer of China." China having non-military commercial ties with Iraq hardly poses a threat to the Unites States, and this point is quite a stretch looking for one. Many of our allies, such as the Russians, have commercial ties to Iraq.
On page 173, PRC leader Jiang Zemin is quoted as saying, "President Clinton and I have decided that China and the United States will not target the strategic nuclear weapons under their respective control at each other." Gertz then argues that Zemin lied because it was later discovered that the PRC military conducted exercises that included simulated nuclear attacks on Taiwan and US military forces in the region. Once again, he twists the facts. By definition, strategic nuclear missiles are those used to threaten the fundamental infrastructure of a country and tactical weapons those used to defeat opposing military forces. Therefore, the statement by Zemin is in no way a lie.
Finally, on page 202, there is the statement, "India's turn toward reliance on nuclear weapons is a direct result of the pro-China policies adopted by the Clinton administration." This is absolute nonsense, and shows two things. A complete lack of understanding of the geopolitical realities of south Asia and a fervent desire to blame the Clinton administration for everything. India is constructing nuclear weapons as a counterweight against traditional enemy Pakistan, a country that it is also building nuclear weapons.
There is no question that the PRC has embarked on an aggressive course that puts it at odds with the United States in the western Pacific. However, twisting the facts and in some cases making them up is no way to face the threat, which is what Gertz often does.

Another scary book, like Mosher's "Hegemon". Showing the many ways in which China regards the U.S. as an enemy and acts accordingly. Whether they are justified in doing so is an irrelevant argument if you are on the U.S. side of the ocean. I note that most of the 1 star reviews simply shriek that the author is a racist or Americans are terrible because they read these racist books etc., which seems increasingly to be what passes for discourse on the merits of a set of propositions, as opposed to actually dealing with content. There is one one star review which actually deals with the content and for which I have great respect.

Otherwise, folks, I think the author has done a good job of investigating and reporting on facts which a lot of people, particularly in the Clinton administration, do not want to think about because they are so giddy with the prospect of the exciting things happening in China on the business side of the ledger. Too bad; if anyone thinks that the communists at the top of the country, when confronted with a choice between economic benefits for all and political power for themselves, would choose the former, they are in for some disappointment.

For too long the liberally-biased media has ignored the true ramifications of a country like China in the world, and its relation to America's future. After all, their own left-wing interests are used to hide the truth -- that China is an incredible threat to America, and any other democratically-elected country. Why else did the communist-Chinese military give money to the Bill Clinton via the Democratic party? What was their real long-term agenda? Why was this issue never really talked about in the media?

Gertz stays away from the liberal rhetoric to expose the dark- side of China with relentless evidence from both de-classified government material to his own in-depth research and analysis. It is this intense research, and personal arguements based on FACTS, that gives Gertz the intellectual credibility that has so many liberals in the media crying foul. One just needs to look at the reviews on Amazon that find the truth being exposed as "unfair" and disliked greatly. It is exactly this reason why The China Threat will be a valuable read to anyone interested in protecting America from historical Chinese aggression, ethno-centric arrogance, and corruption of the human spirit.

Given that this book is a fairly easy read for most, and gets to the major points fast with a tremendous amount of supporting evidence, will make it a best seller...And a GREAT WEAPON in destroying all the left-wing, liberally-biased media propaganda that is displayed on our televisions and newspapers through the likes of CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

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I'll keep this review short and to the point, precisely because that's what the book is. Twenty years of bumbling policies toward China have left our doors open for an impending (and, per Gertz, inevitable) switch and take. We look to 2004 as the year when Taiwan changes its name from the Republic of China to the Republic of Taiwan, and thanks to (mostly) George Bush (the elder) and Bill Clinton (the philanderer), our hands will be tied when China lashes out with a series of short-range ballistic missile attacks on the newly born country.

Gertz's assumptions on Panama's role in the impending melee (which I believe are a bit heavy handed) are far outweighed by the known variables - Los Alamos, Wen Ho Lee, and the rest of the usual suspects are rounded up and dissected accordingly. The results of the autopsy shows that the US stands to face a severe lesson in embarrassment unless strategic movements are enacted now.

This is a highly readable book, and it can be absorbed in the span of a few hours. Pick it up today!

As a long-time fan of Gertz's work at the Washington Times, I had high expectations. "The China Threat" exceeded these.
I do think that a follow up is needed after 8 years of Chinese perfidiousness in trade and international affairs.