ST. LOUIS (KMOX Radio) - The romance with China over a cargo air hub at Lambert Airport may be hitting a rocky road, as U-S Chinese relations sour over proposed arms sales to Taiwan , Chinese censorship of Google, and President Obama's plans to meet with the Dalai Lama.
Missouri Senator Kit Bond, a long time backer of the cargo hub, says the U.S. "isn't going to back off on our positions."
Specifically, Bond says he supports the Obama Administration plans to sell Taiwan anti-missile missiles, mine-hunting ships and Black Hawk Helicopters. Such a sale, Bond believes, would be in accord with the Taiwan Relations Act, passed by the U-S Congress in 1979.
"I told the people on the mainland we want peaceful relations. We have no intention of supporting any Taiwanese independence , " Bond said, "But, if they want to stop us supplying protection like Patriot anti-missile weapons to Taiwan , the first thing they ought to do is take down the twelve-hundred missiles pointed at Taiwan."
A member of the Senate Intelligence Committee , Bond says he also supports the U-S backlash against China over its censorship of Goggle searches by Chinese citizens.
When asked if he supports President Obama's plans to meet with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, Bond suggested the issue is only part of a complicated courtship.
"Frankly, I'm not telling President Obama with whom he should meet," Bond said, "I think he's probably going to do that. That's another thing that the Chinese aren't going to like.
"But we don't like them refusing to take our beef, providing arms to countries that shouldn't be having them, their refusal to join us in supporting sanctions against Iran, their threats acquaint Taiwan, and most off all, the tremendous number of cyber attacks coming out of China on not only private computers, but government computers of the United States."
With a dash of diplomacy, Bond added that "we've got to work through all these things and nobody ever said it would be easy."
When pressed on whether the China Hub deal seemed less likely now than a year ago, when both sides were smiling and announcing a feasibility study, Bond says even then he knew it would be no easy romance.
"I was smiling but I was working on it, "Bond said, "and I know the problems. I serve on the Intelligence Committee. I know a whole lot of details that I won't go into here."
Bond's sober assessment comes after last week's champagne tour of Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, who met with Governor Nixon and other state and local officials to tout the benefits of the proposed air cargo hub at Lambert.
Local backers of the hub include developer Paul McKee, who's Northpark project near the airport would cash in on the coming and going of goods to and from China. |
