Is the Chinese military threatening the strategic posture of the U.S. and its allies in East Asia? Former CIA Director James Woolsey thinks so. He had the following to say on today’s broadcast of Secure Freedom Radio:
Well, the Chinese are behaving I think very much like a 19th century realpolitik power such as imperial Germany in the late 19th Century. They’re trying to throw their weight around in the South China Sea and in areas near them and to be the absolutely predominant power, and other countries that are near them such as South Korea, and Japan, and Philippines and Thailand; many of whom are democracies and a number of whom have close relations with the United States are very worried about this.
And we need to in a calm and reasonable but very tough fashion assert our right to, for example, operate in the South China Sea and the like. I think the right tone is Teddy Roosevelt’s: ‘speaking softly and carrying a big stick.’ But part of the big stick we need to carry is defensive systems better than we have now against things like Chinese cruise missiles and ballistic missiles with homing capability that can zero in on aircraft carriers and large ships. The Chinese have been working on those technologies for some time and they’re getting better and better. And we have not done nearly as much with ballistic missile defense as we should have.
Listen to the whole segment:
[audio: http://cairunmasked.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/08202010_Seg3_JimWoolsey_9min30_32bit.mp3]
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