ALWAYS AN EYE ON CHINA

There are many American domestic issues that concern me and upon which I comment but never far from my thoughts and concerns is Communist China.

Several times I have published the fact that our nation's biggest foreign creditor is Communist China. The most current available Treasury Department figures show that our nation owes $877,500,000,000.00 to Peking. As scary as this figure may be, it is in reality some limited good news in that this obligation has been reduced by $60,800,000,000.00 since October of 2009. Most likely this multi-billion dollar reduction was the result of an unhappy China selling American debt to other nations for we all know that Washington does not have the intention much less the resources to partially liquidate the national debt.

Just as worrisome are the real continuing efforts of Communist China to solidify and extend its presence and influence in Asia and beyond.

Currently the Chinese have a physical presence, by treaty with the host nations, in the Bay of Bengal; the Indian Ocean; the Arabian Sea, in several ports in North Korea, in Burma's Coco Islands, in the Gwadar Port of Pakistan and in the Paracel Islands. These are not embassies or consulates but rather commercial port transactions by which Communist China builds, maintains and occupies the land and the created structures. Taking a minute to examine an atlas confirms the fear that China is progressively expanding its presence in and beyond the far-east part of the world.

It would be nice to think that the powers in Washington, and that unfortunately means Obama, are aware of the potential negative impact on America by this growth of Communist China's influence and are acting to curtail it. This growth is not only commercial in nature but also diplomatic and potentially even military.

Wishful thinking as we watch our President consistently bow to foreign leaders and not just physically.