The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE SPRATLY ISLAND GRAB” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E356 on Feb. 16, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE SPRATLY ISLAND GRAB
______
HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN
of new york
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, February 15, 1995
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I was alarmed but not surprised to read in Saturday's Washington Post that Communist China used its growing military strength to take over a large area of disputed territory in the Spratly Islands.
Many of our friends in that region, including our important Filipino allies, have been warning us of the dangers of understating the People's Republic of China [PRC] military buildup as a moderate modernization program. As anyone knows who seriously studies the issue, the PRC's military budget, recent acquisitions, technology transfers--
legal and otherwise--and their expanded espionage program in the United States is a cause for the highest concern.
The Spratly Island grab occurred just 2 days after the Wall Street Journal reported that the PRC raised tensions in the region by buying four Russian submarines. The PRC already has over 100 submarines. Taiwan has only two and yet our State Department will not allow our democratic friends on Taiwan to purchase any submarines from the United States.
Time and time again the Communist leaders have refused to work with the ASEAN nations to defuse the Spratly tensions. All attempts to get Beijing to address specific issues such as: A regional arms registry, maritime surveillance, various military transparency proposals, and contentions regional security and territorial disputes have been ignored. The result is that Beijing's rulers incrementally grab what it wants and without a peep from the State Department.
Some 40 years ago, when the Communists sought to create a buffer between themselves and democratic India, it expanded its territory by swallowing up Tibet, a country the size of Western Europe. In 1989, when the Communists felt threatened by a possible democracy emerging on its border with Burma, it sent $1.4 billion in military assistance to the State Law and Order Restoration Council [SLORC] is Rangoon. Due to SLORC's rule, opium production has doubled and perhaps quadrupled in Burma and New York's streets are awash in cheap, almost pure heroin.
Taiwan, Tibet, the Philippines, India, New York--people all over the world, including the United States, have good reasons to be concerned about the PRC's aggressive acts. Regrettably, the State Department does not have any strategy for dealing with it other than to enhance its trading capacity in the hopes that its economic growth will bring about positive political changes. In the meantime, the PRC uses its booming economy fueled by its exports to the United States to make bold and substantive strategic gains.
The basic lesson that some policy makers in the State Department have yet to learn is that if you give in to a bully he will keep coming back for more.
____________________
