Posted on 06/02/2012 10:20:34 AM PDT by jmaroneps37
Since mid April Chinese naval vessels have been circling a pile of rocks situated 124 miles off the coast of the Philippines that barely qualifies as an “island”. The rocks are called the Scarborough Shoal and save for there position, and rumors of oil and gas under them, they have no value to anyone.
Nevertheless it is precisely because they are so far from their own shore that the Chinese are trying to pressure the Filipinos into relinquishing their long held claim (since 1734) to Panatag as they call them.
Moreover since the Scarborough Shoal at just 124 miles off the Philippines it is well within the island nation’s 200 nautical miles Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) recognized by international law as Filipino “fishing territory.”
China is slowly but surely attempting to increase her hold on the entire South China Sea and in doing so she is pushing asides the overlapping claims to the fishing rights of Malaysia, Brunei Vietnam Taiwan, and the Philippines.
Because they are our allies the involvement of these last two has the potential to bring us into this dispute and a no win result.
True to its consistent refusal to abide by laws it doesn’t like, the Chinese government has sanctioned incursions into Scarborough waters that involve not only fishing, but firing at Philippine boats and removing coral from a reef included in the Panatag.
China’s claim to all of the South China Sea grows out of necessities the Communist country did not anticipate when it began to modernize.
This move is rooted in a much bigger story concerning the Chinese how they are dealing with some unexpected consequences attending their rapid expansion as a manufacturing center in Asia.
This led to over fishing the waters just off China’s coast …
(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...
There is a golf game with his name on it waiting to be played!
What will Obama do? Golf.
Those of us who think clearly and understand the meaning of weakness, decadence, and the rest of the horrifying lessons of history are already horrified--at the stupidity of those who don't.
Um, nothing?
He will golf. Maybe have one of his mouthpieces release a pro-China memo.
Obama to send a strongly worded letter...
Obama will do nothing because he will not go against his masters in Beijing.
Exactly, I have some issues with calling them "allies" considering how anxious they were to have us out.
The amusing thing is that every important Filipino pol probably had dibs on a slice of the land around the bases that they figured would become extremely valuable once it was opened up for commercial development. While I believe it's important to prevent the Chinese from getting too big for their britches, what the Filipinos want is for their rich Uncle Sam to perform the janitorial duty of sweeping away the Chinese while leaving Pinoys the luxury of criticizing us as imperialists who still owe them big-time for the Philippine-American War.
What is extremely annoying about this "ally" is the fact that its defense budget is $2.4b compared to Vietnam's $3.3b despite the fact that the Pinoys have almost double Vietnam's GDP. In addition, the Philippines have no jet fighters, whereas the Vietnamese have over 200. Vietnam's flagship is a several year old Soviet frigate armed with Harpoon clones, Gatling clones and SAM's, whereas the Philippines has in that role a 40-year-old gun-armed US Coast Guard corvette that is capable of mounting anti-ship, CIWS and SAM's but was never ordered in that config because the Filipino government was too cheap to pay for it. Bottom line is that they are little more than military welfare dependents who will be jeering from the sidelines while we're taking casualties in the course of tangling with the Chinese.
Followed by 3 fundraisers, and a fast-food photo-op.
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