Is anyone in Washington paying attention?

From The Washington Times:

China's military is engaged in a major buildup of submarines that includes five new strategic nuclear-missile boats and several advanced nuclear-powered attack submarines, according to the Office of Naval Intelligence.

The new nuclear-powered missile submarines (SSBNs), identified as Type 094s, will be outfitted with new 5,000-mile range JL-2 missiles that "will provide China with a modern and robust sea-based nuclear deterrent force," the ONI stated in report made up of written answers to questions on the Chinese submarine buildup.

[. . .]

The buildup is raising new concerns among senior Pentagon planners already worried by Beijing's broader strategic nuclear-forces buildup, which also includes several new long-range land-based nuclear missiles and a land-attack cruise missile similar to the Tomahawk.

"This is a troubling development," Richard Fisher, a specialist on the Chinese military with the private International Assessment and Strategy Center, said of the submarine buildup.

The five missile submarines, each equipped with 12 JL-2 missiles, shows that China is working to achieve a force of 120 long-range nuclear missiles over the next decade, about half of them to be carried on the submarines, Mr. Fisher said. The other half would be the 60 land-based DF-31 missiles that current deployment rates will give China by then, he said.

The 120 missiles also could have multiple-warheads, since China is known to have acquired all the needed technology from the U.S. during the 1990s. [Thank you Bill fraking Clinton - LC]

[. . .]

Chinese Gen. Zhu Chenghu told reporters in 2005 that China would attack U.S. cities with nuclear weapons in response to any conventionally armed U.S. missile strikes against China during a conflict over Taiwan. Years earlier, Gen. Xiong Guangkai threatened to use nuclear weapons against Los Angeles if the U.S. helped Taiwan defend against a Chinese invasion of the island.

[. . .]

The new advances are part of China's efforts to bolster its anti-ship weapons to permit strikes at greater ranges from the Chinese coast than its current diesel-powered submarine force offers, the ONI said. China currently is upgrading its current force of about 55 attack submarines -- most of them easy-to-track diesel boats -- with more-advanced and harder-to-track vessels, including Russian-made Kilos, and its own Song- and Yuan-class submarines.

The Kilos are the quietest submarines in the world. They will make it very difficult for our aircraft carriers to operate in the waters around Taiwan.

A Song-class submarine surfaced undetected within five miles, well within firing range, of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk in October.

And if that didn't sound warning bells in the Pentagon then we need new admirals.

ONI also said that in addition to new destroyers, "by 2020, China is likely to operate an aircraft carrier, the initial unit of which may be the refurbished ex-Varyag, acquired from Ukraine in 2000, to further support SLOC protection."

Listen closely. China is the enemy. I know that the economic relationship we have with them is beneficial to US consumers and that the standard of living of the average Chinese citizen has gone up dramatically in recent years. However the behavior of the Chinese government indicates that their abandonment of economic Marxism did not come from any desire to liberalize their regime. It was, rather, a calculated decision geared toward bringing in as much hard currency as possible in order to purchase a dramatically expanded military capability.

A military capability which they intend to use to first establish hegemony in Asia then to challenge the US for dominance in the rest of the world.

The Chinese are building to a point where feel that they can engage in and win a war with the United States. This war will be fought on the sea and air with their new Navy, in cyberspace with attacks on the computer networks which everything from our banking system to our electrical power grid depend upon and on the economic front. The Chinese are holding nearly a trillion dollars of US debt which they believe could be used to crash the Western stock markets and destroy the value of the US dollar. They miscalculate in this as the debt would be repudiated in the event of war - you cannot expect folks who were communists up till a few years ago to get all the in and outs of capatalist economics, after all. But over all they have what appears to be an excellent plan.

I just hope we are comming up with an excellent counter plan.