NATO Keeps Eye On China

At the Paris Air Show and other major European exhibitions of military equipment, major arms manufacturers from Germany and France have shown little interest in the Chinese market; they are not pressuring the EU to lift the embargo on China. French and Italian arms manufacturers learned their lessons through brief attempts at cooperation with China in the 1980s. Not only did these efforts yield little profit, but the companies found their technologies had been stolen and replicated by the Chinese. The United States and Japan are behind a plan to strategically isolate China, which has been very successful so far. Both Tokyo and Washington believe that the scale, pace and strategic intent of China's arms expansion in recent years are far beyond its needs for a future conflict in the Taiwan Strait. They see China posing an immense challenge, over a much broader area, against the United States, Japan, NATO and even India. China's latest moves to construct an aircraft carrier and build new nuclear-powered submarines are specific examples of this challenge. Why is NATO planning to locate ballistic missile defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic? The United States managed to convince NATO that China's intercontinental ballistic missiles may pose a threat to NATO members' territory. These facilities would not only be directed at Russia, according to multiple military sources within NATO countries. ... http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Industry/Analysis/2008/02/08/analysis_nato_keeps_eye_on_china/2944/

Note: http://www.upi.com/Inte...