[Shadow_Group] Fw: China Will Send Troops To Haiti

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rense.com

China Will Send Troops To Haiti 
By Bill Gertz
The Washington Times
10-5-4
 
China's Public Security Ministry is set to dispatch a 130-man "special
police" unit to Haiti this month in the first deployment of Chinese
forces to the Western Hemisphere, Bush administration officials say. 
  
The first advance unit of the police troops, who are specially trained
for riot and crowd control, will over the next two weeks join the U.N.
Stabilization Mission in Haiti, the multinational force known as Minustah
dispatched to the war-torn Caribbean island. 
  
The main body of the force will arrive a short time later and will deploy
to the port of Gonaives, say officials who insist on anonymity. 
Administration officials are concerned that the Chinese government will
use the troop deployment as a way to put political pressure on the
Haitian government, one of the few nations retaining diplomatic relations
with China's rival Taiwan. 
  
"It's been a big year for China," says one official opposed to the
deployment. "They put a man in space, won gold medals at the Olympics,
and now they are going to put troops in the Western Hemisphere for the
first time." 
  
The official says China's first military presence near U.S. shores would
boost Beijing's long-term strategy to "supplant U.S. influence" in the
region. "China is pursuing a maritime strategy in the Caribbean to gain
access and control over port facilities, free trade zone infrastructure,
fisheries, oil and minerals, and off-shore banking platforms," 
  
For example, a Chinese company whose leader is close to Beijing's
communist rulers operates major port facilities at both ends of the
Panama Canal. 
  
"They will assert political influence [through Chinese companies]," the
official says. "That is where this is headed." 
  
Administration officials say the decision to permit the Chinese to join
the U.N. force in Haiti was made quietly, without a full debate among
defense, foreign policy and national security agencies. 
  
"This was done by the people in charge of peacekeeping," one official
says. 
  
China has sent small numbers of observers to previous U.N. peacekeeping
missions but has declined earlier requests to send active units. 
  
According to China's state-run Xinhua news agency, the Chinese security
forces, known as the People's Armed Police, have spent three months in
special training and passed exams administered by the United Nations. 
  
Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang, head of the Communist Party's
political police and security organ, says the dispatch of the troops is
an important diplomatic move and reflects China's "devotion to world
peace and stability". 
  
Chinese Embassy spokesman Sun Weide says 125 riot policemen will arrive
in Haiti in early September and will stay for six months. The unit will
be drawn from police troops in Beijing, Shanghai and two other cities. 
  
A State Department official says he has "mixed feelings" about the
Chinese deployment in Haiti. 
  
"They don't have benign intentions when they deal with countries that
have formal relations with Taiwan," the official says. "On the other
hand, the administration has been trying to organize support for the
peacekeeping operation in Haiti." 
  
"We would really prefer to have someone other than the Chinese there, but
[peacekeeping] is something we need others to contribute to. It's a
difficult challenge, and there are conflicting views on what to do about
this." 
  
China has covertly dispatched military trainers and intelligence
personnel to Venezuela, whose leftist president, Hugo Chavez, recently
defeated a recall referendum. Beijing recently obtained observer status
in the Organization of American States and will sponsor a China-Caribbean
Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum later this year. 
  
China has shipped military goods to Cuba and is working with Cuba's
communist government on intelligence and military issues, the officials
say. 
  
A classified study by the U.S. Southern Command in the 1990s stated that
China is working to establish bases, primarily economic, at strategic
choke points near the United States, said to officials familiar with the
study. 
  
Al Santoli, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, says
the deployment of Chinese forces to Haiti sets a bad precedent. "This now
gives them a legitimate mandate for having a martial presence in our
hemisphere and sets a very dangerous precedent," Mr. Santoli said. "This
is something China could do more of as it develops economic relations
with smaller countries in Latin America and the Caribbean."

 
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