The big Chinese giveaway

     To the editor:
      Without telling Congress or the National Security Council, Bill Clinton is giving away the Long Beach Shipyard and naval base to the Chinese and their shipping company, COSCO. He gave away our American troops to the United Nations, so what else could one expect?
      We know for a fact that a COSCO executive visited with Mr. Clinton in the White House, and I don't think the topic of conversation was the Little Red Book of Chairman Mao. It probably wasn't about illegal AK-47s smuggled into this country by COSCO, either.
      Weren't these naval facilities closed to save money? Why are the taxpayers of California -- and the rest of us -- going to dump $200 million into the area to dredge the dock area and remove contaminated material? Why are we going to pay the Chinese another $200,000 to help them move here?
      The Chinese and COSCO will pay us $14.5 million a year for 10 years to lease the base, with the option to develop another nearby 150 acres ... at our expense. My math reasoning being rather sound, this is an absolute giveaway as the Chinese will never pay us back for what we are going to initially invest. We're told 600 jobs are to be created, but for whom? Certainly not for the thousands of Americans who lost their jobs in the first place.
      With their own private shipyard on our soil, the Chinese will definitely have an easier time bringing in those illegal weapons and whatever else they choose to ... unless they give us their "word" that they won't.
     RUTH SMOSNA
     Las Vegas