BBC: Chen Berates World for Double Standards on Chinese Arms

The Beeb reports:

While welcoming the efforts by the US and Japan to support Taiwan, he pointed out that six-party talks are going on in Beijing to try to resolve the issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons while at the same time some European countries are trying to lift the embargo on selling arms to China.

In view of the fact that China has more than 700 missiles pointing at Taiwan, with 100 more being added each year, Mr Chen said that would indicate double standards.

And he added that the absence of any external threat to China should cause democratic nations to question Beijing's motives for the military build-up.

It's interesting to contrast Chen's remarks with an essay from Counterpunch, which bare mentions Taiwan. In The Pentagon's China Hypocrisy Brian Cloughley argues that:

There is a fascinating document called the "Base Structure Report" that lists some -- just some -- of the Pentagon's power projection springboards around the world. The Pentagon admits to having 770 military bases in 39 countries from Antigua to the UK, but doesn't catalog any of the new strongholds in Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan (smack up against the Chinese border), nor -- and this is sidesplitting stuff -- does it mention Afghanistan or Iraq where gigantic military fortresses and strike airfields have been and are being built, thanks to Cheney's Halliburton.

There is no mention of installations in the Balkans, and not a word in this "comprehensive listing of installations and sites owned and used by the Department" (which includes leasings) about Qatar, for example, where the vast airfield and Command headquarters cost $1.5 billion. The Pentagon's global inventory of property is as deceitful a document as we might expect from an outfit that has Rumsfeld trying to run it.

But something Rumsfeld's Pentagon will never mention is that China doesn't have any foreign bases.

Washington has 7088 nuclear weapons. China has, perhaps, five hundred, of which about a score are intercontinental. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace notes that "China currently has the capability to strike US cities with a force of approximately 20 long-range Dong Feng-5 missiles, each armed with a single 4- to 5-megaton warhead," and the Institute for Strategic Studies says it has about thirty ICBMs.

Cloughley attempts to show that the Pentagon is completely hypocritical on China. He makes some good points, but one can't help feeling that Taiwan (and Tibet) make a mockery of his central theme. Tibet is not even mentioned; Taiwan mentioned only in passing. It is high time that progressives stop ignoring Taiwan.

UPDATE: MeiZhongTai points out that Cloughley's claims are bullshit; China in fact has several foreign bases and is expanding. Whatever the sins of the Pentagon, they do not excuse China.

[Taiwan]