China's espionage business.

ITEM: The August 20th Atlanta Journal and Constitution, under a headline, "China's business potential explored," reported that Communist China's role in the "global economy and Georgia's ability to do business with the emerging Asian market will be the focus of three forums around the state." The state Senate, noted the newspaper, adopted a resolution this year "establishing a committee to gauge business opportunities with China. The panel, after listening to business and academic experts, will recommend strategies to promote trade with China."

BETWEEN THE LINES: The Atlanta Journal editors avoided mentioning one of the most important aspects of Beijing's so-called business potential--namely, its economic espionage activities. FBI Director Robert Mueller told a congressional hearing this summer that the People's Republic of China has more than 3,000 front companies whose real business in the U.S. is espionage. China will be the greatest espionage threat to the U.S. over the next 10-15 years, the bureau says.

In addition, according to analysts, Beijing uses its thousands of visitors, students, and businessmen in intelligence-gathering forays for its military. Beijing has for years pilfered whatever it could from the open societies in the West, a point made years ago in John Fialka's book War by Other Means, which describes how stolen technology has assisted China's military machine. Indeed, lawmakers in the Midwest have recently been trying to halt the transfer to China of sensitive materials from an Indiana factory--technology used in the guidance system of U.S. smart bombs.