WE ARE INDEED IN A COLD WAR WITH RED CHINESE

Can someone please explain to me what is meant by this fantastic notion that the United States is not in a cold war with the Red Chinese?

I believe the Red Chinese government is every bit as oppressive, brutal and pugnacious as its Soviet mentor. It is also increasingly powerful and dangerous. We ignore these realities at our peril.

Communist regimes are based on lies, and their survival depends on perpetuating those lies. The truth is their abiding enemy. Look at China's dealings with its own people and the United States:

* The Tienanmen Square massacre was not an exception to the rule, but the rule itself. The Chinese government continues to suppress dissenters and others, such as the Falun Gong, who refuse to make the state the object of their worship.

* China has stolen most of our nuclear secrets and has acquired much of the technology necessary to manufacture and deliver these weapons of mass destruction.

* China has become increasingly militaristic and aggressive in international relations, especially toward Taiwan.

* The Red Chinese military is engaged in a power struggle with the regime's civilian leaders, and the military appears to be on the ascendancy.

* The military has an interest in demonizing the United States so as to fan the flames of anti-Americanism among the Chinese people.

* The military is taking actions consistent with that interest. Among those actions are the jingoistic overtures toward Taiwan -- the constant threats to recapture it, sending warning missiles and jets over the island -- and toward the United States.

* China's hostile actions include its war games in the South China Sea against our legal reconnaissance aircraft.

* Refusing to recognize universally accepted standards regarding international waters, the Chinese military directed its fighter pilots to play chicken with our surveillance aircraft. Anyone who believes that the pilot was acting on his own and outside the authority of his military superiors is abundantly naive.

* After ramming our plane and nearly causing it to crash and kill the 24 American soldiers on board, China refused to grant our damaged plane authority to land on Hainan Island. It refuses to return our $80 million plane.

* China held our troops hostage (they were hostages, not detainees) with absolutely no justification.

* China preposterously insists that our lumbering EP-3 caused the collision with its fighter jet because we were flying in sovereign Chinese waters and deliberately (and suicidally) turned into the jet.

* Videotapes showing harassment of our flights by other Chinese jets have failed to move China from its fraudulent claims of U.S. culpability in the incident.

But wait just a minute. Let's get real here.

Why do we persist in playing these games? Why do we act like we expect the Chinese military to admit its pilot caused the crash?

China doesn't want this issue resolved. It can't afford to tell its people the truth, because it wants to keep its people inflamed in order to support its rapacious appetite for further militarization and aggression. To admit the Chinese caused the collision is to calm the people.

China has proven itself to be a tyrannical regime with malevolent intentions toward Taiwan and the United States. Like other such regimes in history, this nation cannot be persuaded through ginger diplomacy. It is not receptive to a spiritual conversion.

I am not suggesting that we rattle sabers or deliberately provoke the Chinese. But I am saying that we shouldn't assume that we can win them over merely by being nice to them. We must proceed under the assumption that they will be deterred not by peace overtures, but by our maintaining superior military power and the courage to use it if we are forced to.

Independent of how we manage our trade relations with China, we must expeditiously assist Taiwan in upgrading its military defense with the best available technology and rebuild our own military and develop the Strategic Defense Initiative. Recognizing the reality of a cold war is better than having to engage in a hot one.

~David Limbaugh is a Cape Girardeau lawyer, author and syndicated columnist.