http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=124811LONDON – A secret intelligence report warns a number of Western nations soon could be caught up in a new "cold war" brewing between China and the United States, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The dispute apparently was sparked by a Washington decision to arm Taiwan with $6.4 billion of state-of-the art weapons systems. The deal includes 60 Black Hawk helicopters, 114 Patriot anti-missile missiles and 12 Harpoon missiles.
Now the impact could be felt in Britain as well as Germany, France and other European nations that have substantial trading relationships with China.
For the U.K., the slowest nation to recover from global recession, any threat to its business relations with China could be devastating.
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The threat is contained in a highly confidential report about the U.S. sale to Taiwan and Washington's criticism of China's position on Tibet, climate change, Internet freedom and human rights that has poisoned relationships between the Obama administration and Beijing.
The collective views of global industrialists, internationalists, economists and heads of companies who trade with China have been analyzed by MI6 strategists for the intelligence service's political chief, Foreign Secretary David Milliband.
Sources close to Milliband say he is alarmed that the Chinese leadership could use the arms sale to Taiwan as a reason to sell a range of its latest weapons to Syria and Iran to kick-start the trading cold war.
Both those countries already present strategic problems for Britain and other nations which trade with China.
"Certainly Britain would strongly object to China arming either country," said a Foreign Office source in London.
But the MI6 analysts conclude that senior members of the People's Liberation Army have argued, "China must pressure the United States and those countries who trade with China and do not criticize American policies."
One of the Beijing leaders, Liu Menxiong, last week insisted, "If Washington can arm Taiwan we should be allowed to trade what we like and with who we wish. The North Koreans have stood up to America and nothing has happened to them. And Iran is doing the same. We should support them."