[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 31 (Thursday, February 16, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        THE SPRATLY ISLAND GRAB

                                 ______


                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 15, 1995
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I was alarmed but not surprised to read in 
Saturday's Washington Post that Communist China used its growing 
military strength to take over a large area of disputed territory in 
the Spratly Islands.
  Many of our friends in that region, including our important Filipino 
allies, have been warning us of the dangers of understating the 
People's Republic of China [PRC] military buildup as a moderate 
modernization program. As anyone knows who seriously studies the issue, 
the PRC's military budget, recent acquisitions, technology transfers--
legal and otherwise--and their expanded espionage program in the United 
States is a cause for the highest concern.
  The Spratly Island grab occurred just 2 days after the Wall Street 
Journal reported that the PRC raised tensions in the region by buying 
four Russian submarines. The PRC already has over 100 submarines. 
Taiwan has only two and yet our State Department will not allow our 
democratic friends on Taiwan to purchase any submarines from the United 
States.
  Time and time again the Communist leaders have refused to work with 
the ASEAN nations to defuse the Spratly tensions. All attempts to get 
Beijing to address specific issues such as: A regional arms registry, 
maritime surveillance, various military transparency proposals, and 
contentions regional security and territorial disputes have been 
ignored. The result is that Beijing's rulers incrementally grab what it 
wants and without a peep from the State Department.
  Some 40 years ago, when the Communists sought to create a buffer 
between themselves and democratic India, it expanded its territory by 
swallowing up Tibet, a country the size of Western Europe. In 1989, 
when the Communists felt threatened by a possible democracy emerging on 
its border with Burma, it sent $1.4 billion in military assistance to 
the State Law and Order Restoration Council [SLORC] is Rangoon. Due to 
SLORC's rule, opium production has doubled and perhaps quadrupled in 
Burma and New York's streets are awash in cheap, almost pure heroin.
  Taiwan, Tibet, the Philippines, India, New York--people all over the 
world, including the United States, have good reasons to be concerned 
about the PRC's aggressive acts. Regrettably, the State Department does 
not have any strategy for dealing with it other than to enhance its 
trading capacity in the hopes that its economic growth will bring about 
positive political changes. In the meantime, the PRC uses its booming 
economy fueled by its exports to the United States to make bold and 
substantive strategic gains.
  The basic lesson that some policy makers in the State Department have 
yet to learn is that if you give in to a bully he will keep coming back 
for more.


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