Richard Whalen

Why has China repudiated the historical principle that calls on all nations to assist ships in danger at sea and blatantly insulted the United States?

In two separate incidents, the Chinese government refused U.S. warships access to the Hong Kong port for a routine visit. Some 50 U.S. warships visit Hong Kong annually. In early November, two U.S. minesweepers – relatively small vessels – asked permission to enter the port in order to avoid a storm and refuel. Beijing refused. Admiral Gary Roughead, the U.S.’s chief of naval operations, said the Chinese offered no explanation. A U.S. tanker refueled the minesweepers.

Later in November, the Chinese government, at the last minute, withdrew previous permission for the U.S. aircraft carrier, the Kitty Hawk, which is based in Japan, to make a long-scheduled port call in Hong Kong at Thanksgiving. Hundreds of family members of the crew aboard the Kitty Hawk had flown to Hong Kong for the visit. Beijing abruptly refused access, then changed its mind but it was too late for the carrier to turn around and return.

CNN reported Sunday that U.S. military officials say China has refused nine U.S. Navy ships and one Air Force jet entry to Hong Kong in the past month and speculated that the reasons may be China’s concerns about U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and President Bush’s October presentation of a Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama.

The United States has filed a formal protest with China over their government’s “inhospitality.” Whatever, how often must the U.S. turn the other cheek to maintain, in the words of Admiral Timothy J. Keating, commander of American forces in the pacific, “a military-to-military dialogue to avoid any calamity in relations?”

That protest will be filed you know where. China is the largest foreign dollar-holder and U.S. creditor and has $1.4 trillion dollars in reserves, growing at the rate of an estimated $500 billion a year.

Better than verbal protest would be a decision to reduce the outflow of dollars to China dramatically over the next two fiscal years. Our presidential candidates ought to acknowledge that there are far too many dollars circulating in the world – and dangerously too many are in the hands of America’s enemies.