Chile-China
CIPER Chile points out a Wikileaks cable the U.S. embassy sent in 2005, fairly dripping with paranoia about Chinese espionage.
China’s growing commercial, educational and military ties with Chile will increase its access to many areas of Chilean government and society. This, in turn, will increase Chile’s vulnerability to Chinese intelligence gathering activities. And – if used as a base for increased Chinese presence in the region – Chile may become a platform country in more ways than it ever imagined. End Summary.
No drama here. Of more interest, though, is Craig Kelly's assessment of Chilean foreign policy. It is the best example of the pot calling the kettle black that I have seen in some time.
Given its political “”shyness”", it is unlikely Chile will independently raise difficult issues of human rights violations, democratic processes, labor protections or environmental preservation for the time being, especially if it perceives its continued economic prosperity to be at risk.
This is, of course, precisely what the U.S. does, and has done forever, and it is just a basic articulation of realism. That it is draped in a naivete argument makes it pretty insulting as well.
1 comments:
Greg, I'm afraid you are treating those words "human rights, democratic processes" etc. to actually mean something when they come from the lips of a US diplomat. You should know darn well they are talking about one thing - reluctance to criticize Cuba and Venezuela. They just can not be so blunt, but this harsh judgement on countries who don't carry our water on these issues is a common threat running through much of the Latin American wikileaks documents.
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