China fears repeat of Ronald Reagan strategy<\/p>\n
By Ching Cheong<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE: The recent downturn in Sino-American relations has
\nmade the Chinese refocus their attention on U.S. policies that
\nled to the downfall of the former Soviet Union.<\/p>\n
This is because they find stark similarities in the policies
\nof U.S. President George W. Bush towards China and former
\nPresident Ronald Reagan towards Russia.<\/p>\n
\"The need to study seriously how Reagan brought about the
\ncollapse of the Soviet Union becomes imperative now,\" said social
\nscientist Lu Jianhua, who specializes in China's foreign
\npolicies.<\/p>\n
\"It is not just an academic issue but one that concerns life
\nand death,\" added the researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social
\nSciences' Institute of Political Studies.<\/p>\n
Citing Peter Schweizer's book, Victory: The Reagan
\nAdministration's Secret Strategy That Hastened The Collapse Of
\nThe Soviet Union, Lu found that Bush's policy towards China is
\nsurprisingly similar to what Reagan did to the Soviet Union two
\ndecades ago.<\/p>\n
The author was a fellow at the Hoover Institute of Stanford
\nUniversity. His book was written in 1994 using highly-classified
\ndocuments like National Security Decision Directives (NSDD).<\/p>\n
He also interviewed key personnel in the Reagan
\nadministration, such as Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger,
\nNational Security Adviser William Clark and Secretary of State
\nGeorge Shultz.<\/p>\n
The former Reagan stalwarts also helped review the manuscript
\nto ensure its accuracy and validity. This amounted to an
\nendorsement by the top executors of the plot. In his book,
\nSchweizer concluded that Reagan's strategy, which attacked the
\nvery heart of the Soviet regime, included four main thrusts:<\/p>\n
Covert financial, intelligence and logistical support to the
\nSolidarity movement in Poland that ensured the survival of an
\nopposition movement in the heart of the Soviet empire;<\/p>\n
Substantial financial and military support to the Afghan
\nresistance, as well as supply of mujahideen (pan-Islamic
\nseparatists in Russia) personnel to take the war into the Soviet
\nUnion itself;<\/p>\n
Attempts to ruin the Soviet economy by launching a campaign to
\nreduce dramatically its hard-currency earnings through driving
\ndown the price of oil with Saudi cooperation and limiting
\nnatural-gas exports to the West;<\/p>\n
Aggressive high-tech defense build-up, like the Strategic
\nDefense Initiative (SDI), designed to strain the Soviet economy
\nseverely.<\/p>\n
These were set out in several top-secret NSDDs signed
\npersonally by Reagan early in his administration.<\/p>\n
NSDD-32 stated that it was U.S. policy to \"neutralize\" Soviet
\npower in Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n
NSDD-56 fired the first shot in the economic war that helped
\nbankrupt the Kremlin.<\/p>\n
Said Lu: \"Although it was a story about the Soviet Union, yet,
\nif one substitutes China for the Soviet Union, Taiwan for
\nAfghanistan, Hongkong for Poland, Radio Free Asia for Radio Free
\nEurope, and national missile defense (NMD) for SDI, then the
\nparallels become apparent.<\/p>\n
\"In particular, we found Bush's May 1 announcement on
\ninstalling the NMD and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's May 8
\nstatement suggesting the weaponisation of outer space
\nparticularly disturbing ... according to Peter Schweizer, an
\nintegral part of the strategy outlined in NSDD-75 was to commit
\nthe Soviet Union to an arms race that eventually bankrupted its
\neconomy.\"<\/p>\n
The NMD was estimated to cost between US$60 billion (S$108
\nbillion) and US$100 billion over the next 10 years, according to
\nPentagon estimates.<\/p>\n
As for the development of space weapons, roughly US$6 billion
\na year has already been spent in the past few years, according to
\nKarl Grossman, professor of journalism at the State University of
\nNew York.<\/p>\n
If China were to engage in such an arms race, its economy
\nwould be strained severely.<\/p>\n
In his book, Schweizer wrote that NSDD-75 declared it would
\nhenceforth be administration policy to exacerbate Soviet economic
\nproblems in the hope of plunging the system into a crisis.<\/p>\n
It was signed by the president for a specific purpose, which
\nwas to squeeze the Soviet economy by both reducing income and
\nforcing an increase in expenditure.<\/p>\n
Said former National Security Adviser Bill Clark, who was
\nquoted in the book: \"Ronald Reagan wanted a complimentary
\nrelationship between the U.S. military build-up, futuristic
\ndefense-related technologies like SDI, and econo- mic-security
\npolicies directed at Moscow.<\/p>\n
\"Frankly, our intention was to divert priority Soviet
\nresources to meeting future U.S. capabilities beyond their
\ngrasp.\"<\/p>\n
If Reagan's plot brought about the implosion of the Soviet
\nUnion, the social scientist added, \"we had reason to be skeptical
\nof Bush's current policy towards China, which bore much semblance
\nto Reagan's\".<\/p>\n
\"NMD and space weapons aside, there were other similarities.<\/p>\n
\"Bush's Taiwan policy was comparable to Reagan's support for
\nthe mujahideen which eventually developed into the separatist war
\nof Chechnya a decade later,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Beijing had objected to Bush's arms sales to Taiwan on the
\ngrounds that it would embolden separatism.<\/p>\n
\"This is taking the war into China, like what Reagan did with
\nthe mujahideen,\" Lu said.<\/p>\n
When Schweizer's book was first published, only the orthodox
\nMarxist ideologues in China paid serious attention to it but,
\nnow, Bush has forced everyone, including the liberals, to revisit
\nthe Reagan plot, he added.<\/p>\n
-- The Straits Times\/Asia News Network<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/china-fears-repeat-of-ronald-reagan-strategy-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }