U.S. defense analysts now consider the Chinese air defense network to be the most dangerous system in the world. The Chinese system is considered more dangerous than the formidable Russian system.

The reason for China's great leap forward into first place is due to the wholesale use of U.S. commercial products that make the Chinese air defense network flexible, easy to upgrade, and tough to exploit.

The Chinese investment into its air defense network is calculated to be one-tenth the cost of the U.S. expenditures. The low cost is attributed to what one analyst described as "Cisco in Chinese."

Chinese telecom companies run by the People's Liberation Army frequently steal U.S. industrial and military secrets which are then modified into operational systems for the military. This effort began in 1994 during the Clinton administration and was led by Chinese Gen. Ding Henggao.

Ding should receive a medal for being a hero to the Chinese Communist Party because he was able to obtain a vast array of U.S. technology through a good friend inside the Clinton administration ?then Defense Secretary William Perry. The technology included secure fiber-optic communications electronics.

Ding was able to set his wife, Madam General Nie, up as head of a false corporation that obtained advanced U.S. fiber optic systems. Madam Nie's company was staffed entirely by Chinese army officers who specialized in exploiting communications and electronics.

The American side of the deal was spearheaded by a good friend and co-worker of Perry's, Dr. John Lewis from Stanford University. In fact, documents obtained from the Department of Defense using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that Lewis was paid by the Chinese army while also serving on the U.S. Defense Policy Board and working for DoD as a contractor.

In 1994, Dr. Lewis was officially listed on the U.S. Defense Dept. payroll as Defense Secretary William Perry抯 personal 揷onsultant? Dr. Lewis traveled to Beijing with Perry to meet with Ding and his subordinate, Gen. Huai Guomo as a consultant to Perry.

The fiber-optic export was so controversial that even the General Accounting Office wrote an entire report on how it would be exploited by the Chinese military. The 1994 export deal led to a flood of systems sold to Chinese army front companies.

One such company, Huawei, is also run by a former Chinese Air Force general. Huawei obtained advanced fiber-optic electronics from the U.S. during the Clinton administration and then resold the equipment to Saddam Hussein for use as an air defense network. Huawei was caught in the act by the CIA, which documented its find in the Iraq Survey Group Final Report.

"One Chinese company, illicitly provided transmission equipment and switches to Iraq from 1999 to 2002 for projects that were not approved under the UN OFF (oil for food) Program. Reporting indicates that throughout 2000, Huawei, along with two other Chinese companies, participated in extensive work in and around Baghdad that included the provision and installation of telecommunication switches, more than 100,000 lines, and the installation of fiber-optic cable," notes the CIA report.

The Huawei network installed for Saddam allowed the Iraqi air defense network to shoot down U.S. and allied aircraft. Despite repeated bombings by the allies, the network continued to function literally until Saddam was overthrown.

As the CIA report noted, the Huawei system was bought and paid for with money that was suppose to help starving Iraqi children. Instead, Huawei willingly took the illegal cash, violated an U.N. embargo, and helped Saddam kill allied soldiers.

Huawei not only obtained advanced communications equipment from the Clinton administration. During the Clinton years, the U.S. Commerce Department allowed Huawei to buy high-performance computers worth $685,700 from Digital Equipment Corporation, $300,000 from IBM, $71,000 from Hewlett Packard and $38,200 from Sun Microsystems. In addition, Huawei got $500,000 worth of telecommunication equipment from Qualcomm.

Huawei's history is filled with similar episodes. Huawei provided a similar fiber-optic network to the Taliban in Afghanistan. The source for this information comes directly from the voice of the Taliban, Kabul Radio Voice of Shari'ah in Pashto. The fact remains that Beijing was willingly doing military deals with the Taliban despite its repeated denials today.

Huawei is also known to other intelligence agencies for its close ties to the Chinese military. The RAW (the Research and Analysis Wing), India's equivalent of the CIA, concluded that Huawei posed a specific threat. RAW stated that Huawei "has been responsible for sweeping and debugging operations in the Chinese embassy. In view of China's focus on cyber warfare, there is a risk of exposing our strategic telecom network to the Chinese."

In addition, India's Ministry of External Affairs noted Huawei's "links with the Chinese military and intelligence establishment, their clandestine operations in Iraq and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, and their close ties with the Pakistan army."

Today, the Bush administration is being played by Huawei just as the Clinton White House. The Bush administration supports Huawei in its efforts to purchase U.S. computer communications maker 3Com. The multibillion-dollar deal will equip Huawei with a wide variety of commercial products that can be proliferated around the world as military systems aimed at killing Americans.

The technological basis for the number one air defense network in the world is firmly rooted in America. Its origin is clearly documented as having started during the term of President Bill Clinton. Unfortunately for U.S. pilots, that air defense network resides in a hostile China.

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