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Analysts say Beijing getting ready for ops
– beyond Far East
May 9, 2008

By Gordon Thomas
Reposted from the G2 Bulletin with permission - The G2 Bulletin is a subscription only news source.

Hainan Island

LONDON — Defense analysts for the British intelligence service MI6 believe China is preparing for the “eventuality of a nuclear war.” The conclusion follows evidence that Beijing has built secretly a major naval base deep inside caverns which even sophisticated satellites cannot penetrate.

In an unusual development, the analysts have provided details to the specialist defense periodical, Jane’s Intelligence Review, which published satellite images of the base location which is hidden beneath millions of tons of rock on the South China Sea island of Hainan.

The MI6 analysts have confirmed the submarine base hewn out of the rock will contain up to 20 of the latest C94 Jin-Class submarines, each capable of firing anti-satellite missiles and nuclear tipped rockets.

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Knocking out the satellites would leave Taiwan, Japan and other countries around the Pacific Rim effectively without a key warning system. An attack also would disrupt vital communications between U.S. battle squadrons in the region and Washington.

Satellite images studied by GCHQ, Britain’s spy in the sky intelligence gathering organization based at Cheltenham that works closely with the U.S. National Security Agency, have confirmed the entrance to the base is through no fewer than 11 separate tunnel openings.

A Royal Navy nuclear submarine, one of those in the Typhoon Fleet, now has joined another from the U.S. Pacific Fleet to build up a clear image of what is happening inside the secret base which, as well as China’s nuclear subs, could house “a host of aircraft carriers.”

Naval intelligence officers in London and Washington have confirmed the discovery of the base will present “a significant challenge to U.S. naval dominance and protection to countries ringing the South China Sea.”

The base is sited at Sanya on the southern tip of Hainan island. The island came to the attention of Western intelligence in April 2001, when a U.S. EP-3 spy plane trying to test the island’s electronic defenses was forced to land there by Chinese fighters, one of which crashed in the sea killing the pilot.

The 24 U.S. crew on board, including specialist technicians, brought the first international crisis to the administration of George W. Bush.

The EP-3 was released two days later, gutted of all its secrets. Since then Beijing has secretly evacuated the base — an engineering feat that one of the MI6 analysts said took “even more skill than building the Great Wall of China.”

One of the advantages of the base is that submarines can sail from there already submerged into very deep Pacific water — exceeding 15,000 feet — making their detection that much harder.

In comparison, Britain’s Trident submarines have to remain on the surface when they leave their base in northwest Scotland and cannot submerge to patrol depth until they are beyond the Irish Sea.

Intelligence analyst Alex Neill at the Asia Security Program in London, which works closely with MI6, believes the secret base “is a clear indication that Beijing is preparing for wider operations in the Far East and very possibly beyond.”

Another Ministry of Defense analyst, who cannot be named for security reasons, believes “this could be the prelude to China preparing for a nuclear response.”

More certain is that Chinese defense spending could be as high as $200 billion. Kerry Brown, a China analyst at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, says the secret base is part of “a sea denial campaign which will prevent the United States intervening in any conflict with Taiwan. The base’s submarine fleet will use their anti-satellite missiles to ensure that U.S. satellites over the Pacific would be ‘blind’ and unable to keep the Pentagon in touch. The fact is that China is determined to challenge the power of the U.S. Pacific Command. The Sanya base is just a start.”

Gordon Thomas is the author of the newly published Secrets and Lies: A History of CIA Mind Control and Germ Warfare (Octavo Editions, USA) and the forthcoming Inside British Intelligence (JR Books, UK).

Comment and Question from Casper:

Hello Friends!

One of Freedomthirst’s readers posted a comment on the post “The Day Socialism Comes to America” that I decided to respond to with a full post instead of just a reply.

Casper said:

To be a conservative, you must believe that every person who works for government is lazy, foolish, shiftless and corrupt, and that the result of any efforts these people make will be a tragedy and a farce.

My Response:

Hello Casper!

I don’t believe every person working for the government fits your description and yet some have called me a conservative.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” — John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

“Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it” — William Pitt the Younger

I want to research the word “liberalism.” I don’t consider the word an insult or a “name”, but a description of a way of thinking. My observation is that liberalism almost always equals secular humanism. Some who label themselves “liberal” have embraced a secular humanist world view. Others simply call themselves liberal because they prefer some of the list of beliefs that liberalism espouses.

As a general rule, it appears to me that “liberals” and “secular humanists” believe in pursuing some degree of a Socialist Economy.

I recently re-read the Communist Manifesto. The Manifesto mentions a number of goals such as, for example, “A heavy progressive or graduated income tax” that seem to me to be very similar to liberal beliefs.

These observations are what led me to be quite interested in Joseph Farah’s article!

It is interesting to me that you responded the way you did. I think one of the essential viewpoints of Conservative belief is that power entrusted to government tends to corrupt, yet freedom entrusted to individuals tends to reproduce more and more freedom.

As always, thanks for your participation!

ThirstyJon

Well, the original conversation on Ray Comfort’s Blog spilled over to the Digg site for further thoughts. I posted this response to someone called “The Butter Stick.” Butterstick was asserting the alleged success of communes around the world, especially in Norway (which butterstick referred to as paradise).

Here is my response to Butterstick that I posted at the digg.com site, for your reading pleasure:

Interesting thoughts Butterstick. But remember where this conversation started, on the blog that was dugg. Irish made a comment that Communism was consistent with the teachings of Jesus. I pointed out that it is not. He charged me with not having read the Communist Manifesto. Indeed I had read it.

I pointed out that he didn’t appear to understand the Communist Manifesto.

Apparently you don’t either. A bunch of people voluntarily living in community is NOT the vision of Communism that has been presented to the world. The violent overthrow of property, the following (allegedly temporary) dictatorship of the proletariat, free love, centralized NATIONAL control of the economy — These are the things that Karl Marx and Communism have presented to the world.

If you want to live in a commune, please enjoy yourself. I would rather be free.

I would rather be a part of a community where everyone “takes dominion” over what God gives them and we all trade and prosper together under God’s Justice. I would like to be a part of a community where those who have learned to create prosperity lend a helping hand to those who either have not learned to create prosperity or have suffered misfortune.

Humans by nature look after their own self-interest. This is not inherently evil unless it is done at the expense of another. A bunch of folks living in a commune are unlikely in most cases to produce much for themselves or others. (I have seen this happen this way).

In fact, the Separatists who came over to the New World on the Mayflower had problems with their communal experiment. Many starved to death. When they instead gave each some land to grow their own food, etc., amazingly enough they began to prosper! Hmmmm.

ThirstyJon
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