Horse, I absolutely agree that there will be voices calling for the United States to limit aid to China. There is, however, a logic to sending top-notch vehicles and missiles to the PRC that has nothing to do with military planning. We know from the v1 chronology that the West sends state-of-the-art missiles to China prior to the start of the Soviet Spring offensive in 1996. Therefore, we know that the West is willing to risk having some of the best technology of the free world fall into Soviet hands.
The Chinese Communists are smart people. We can see today that they know how to use Western capitalism to their advantage. As I have argued in the past, the Chinese capacity to employ the dynamics of capitalism in service of their own purposes would find expression in Twilight: 2000. While many conservative Western voices (none more so than American voices) might tell the Chinese to go hang, the bankers, investors, and arms manufacturers of the West will sing a different tune. France will lead the way, since France has a well-developed arms industry and a penchant for doing her own thing. Once France arranges for loans at handsome rates and closes her first multi-billion dollar (franc) deal, the bankers, investors, and arms manufacturers of the western democracies will be howling for their elected officials to open the doors for British, American, German, etc. involvement. It's hard to imagine how the House of Representatives would be able to resist such an opportunity and such strident calls for profit-making. Once the US acquires a major stake in the future of the PRC, the various barriers will come crashing down.
Webstral
|