China’s Trojan Horse: Cruise Ship Converted to Transport Military Troops, Tanks, & Equipment

China’s Trojan Horse: Cruise Ship Converted to Transport Military Troops, Tanks, & Equipment

Read the Daily Intel Hub News Brief:

By Shepard Ambellas
theintelhub.com
September 1, 2012

CHINA — A cruise ship has been transformed into ominous modern day Trojan Horse, ready to fully invade by way of stealth.

What are the Chinese up to?

Wired reports;

The media freaked out about China’s crappy aircraft carrier and hyperventilated over the J-20 stealth fighter. But China’s newest addition to its military is more subtle, and stylish. It’s a 36,000-ton pleasure boat capable of disgorging thousands of troops and hundreds of vehicles held inside its belly.

That would be the Bahai Sea Green Pearl, a 36,000-ton ferry and cruise ship commissioned in August at Yantai Port in China’s northeastern Shandong Province.

At heart a vessel for pleasure and civilian transport, the ship is intended to normally ferry cars and passengers across the Yellow Sea. But when needed by the People’s Liberation Army, the Green Pearl can double as a troop carrier. During its launching ceremony and demonstration on Aug. 8, PLA troops could be seen loading dozens of tanks, artillery pieces and armored vehicles on board.

Photos from Chinese state television posted to the China Defense Blog show some of the action, including what looks like fully loaded soldiers running through a corridor. Tanks and artillery pieces are also seen inside one of the ship’s three vehicle compartments. How they got there: via the ship’s roll-on/roll-off (or ro-ro) ramp on its stern.

China also has three more of the vessels under construction, which Zhang Wei, chief of the PLA’s Military Transportation Department under the PLA General Logistics Department, said is a “new leap in our military use of civilian vessels to improve the strategic projection.” The Green Pearl reportedly has room for more than 2,000 people and 300 cars. It’s even got a helicopter pad.

It’s also got luxury. When the ship isn’t ferrying civilians, China’s troops could take in the pleasure of tall windows for observing “the beautiful scenery of the sea,” reported the Yantai Daily Media Group. Not only that, but rooms — which range from first to third class — are equipped with televisions, cellphone signal amplifiers and wireless internet access. And if the troops get bored in their rooms, there’s always mingling in one of two staterooms and a cafe.

There are even rooms set aside for reading and chess. And no cruise ship would be complete without some collective entertainment at a multi-purpose auditorium. If troops are feeling cooped up, they can always go above deck for excursions in the sun.

Could China be gearing up for an incursion of the CONUS (Continental United States)?

Brandon Turbeville reported in April of this year;

If recent accounts coming from some in the alternative media are to be believed, then Operation Fast & Furious may soon give way to an even bigger story surrounding the U.S./Mexico border. Indeed, even the notorious Mexican drug cartels might find themselves taking a back seat.

This is because claims are now being made suggesting the major presence of Chinese troops stationed inside Mexico, both along the U.S. border and the port areas.

The first question, of course, is whether or not this information is accurate. If it is, the second question immediately becomes, “why?”

Unfortunately, however, all the information we have currently comes from anonymous sources who have yet to be verified in terms of their reliability.

The reports currently garnering the most attention are those coming from Steve Quayle of the Q-Files Radio Show who recently interviewed a cross-border trucker who claims to have actually seen a major Chinese military base inside Mexico.

The trucker claims he was delivering a trailer load of food to a military camp 60 miles south of Laredo, Texas. As he was entering Mexico, he says he was escorted into the country by the Mexican Federal Police to protect the truck from hijackings and robbery.

The camp itself, according to the trucker, was about 2 miles wide and 3 miles long and was staffed by Chinese soldiers complete with armored vehicles and living quarters constructed from refurbished shipping containers. As his truck was being unloaded by the soldiers, he claims he was able to count the armored vehicles parked neatly in rows. According to the trucker, there were 10,000 armored vehicles located in this facility. He also claims that there were water tanks, generators, and communications complexes.

After this report and based upon the information given by the trucker as well as the geographical knowledge available to him through other individuals, Quayle claims he enlisted his own source which he refers to as “Cross Border Eyes,” to go to the area which was the most likely location for the Chinese base. This area was determined to be in the triangle between Sabinas Hidalgo, Lampazos de Naranjos, and Arroyo Blanco.

Upon entering the area, “Cross Border Eyes” claims he immediately noticed large numbers of Mexican Federal Police in many different types of vehicles, including some that were painted “that odd green characteristic of Red Chinese vehicles.” “Cross Border Eyes” then claims that he tried numerous other entrances to the triangular region by other roads, tracks, etc. but, at each location, there were massive levels of Federal Police on patrol. He is quoted as saying, “it was like you stuck a firecracker into a red ant hole and blew it, and you know how all the red ants come up out of the hole . . .”

Quayle also reported on the same day that High Frequency communications were being broadcast on U.S. military frequencies carrying with them “heavily oriental accented operators speaking broken English in direct communications with Conus [Continental United States] Military Comm Stations . . . . . . . . the accent was not Japanese either, but Chinese.”

In July it was also reported by the New York Times that China is sending troops to disputed islands;

The Central Military Commission, China’s most powerful military body, has approved the deployment of a garrison of soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army to guard disputed islands claimed by China and Vietnam in the South China Sea, the state-run Xinhua news agency said Sunday.

On Monday, there was a first meeting of the 45 legislators elected over the weekend to govern the 1,100 people who live on the island groups of the Spratlys, the Paracels and the Macclesfield Bank, Chinese authorities told state media. The meeting was the latest escalation of the territorial dispute between China and its neighbors over the island groups, known in Chinese as the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha Islands.

The new legislators will not only govern the island groups, many of which consist of rocks and atolls, but also about 772,000 square miles of the South China Sea over which China claims jurisdiction, state media said.

The troop deployment and elections appeared intended to reinforce China’s claims over the South China Sea and its potential energy resources. The moves came a week after a meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, at which China, according to diplomats at the meeting, used its influence to stop even a rudimentary communiqué on the South China Sea among the 10 nations.

The recent film trailer for the new movie Red dawn gives us insight with some predictive programming.