Posted on 05/19/2018 9:51:28 PM PDT by Oscar in Batangas
....State-run Chinese newspaper People’s Daily on Friday posted on its Twitter account a video of a long-range bomber landing in an island in the disputed waters.
Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) said the video was taken at Woody Island, China’s largest base in the Paracel Islands that is also being claimed by Vietnam.
“Chinese bombers including the H-6K conduct takeoff and landing training on an island reef at a southern sea area,”read the Twitter post by People’s Daily.
With its deployment in the Paracels, AMTI said the bombers could now reach almost the entire South China Sea. “Nearly all of the Philippines falls within the radius of the bombers, including Manila and all five Philippine military bases earmarked for development under the US-Philippines Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement,”the AMTI said.
“An H-6K, with its technical upgrades giving it a combat radius of nearly 1,900 nautical miles, would dwarf this radius, putting all of Southeast Asia in range of flights from Woody Island,”it added.
AMTI said China has also built large hangars that could accommodate bombers like the H-6 series at its “Big 3”outposts in the Spratlys, which is comprised of Philippine-claimed Zamora (Subi), Panganiban (Mischief) and Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reefs.
/SNIP
Since the Philippines on its own cannot confront China and expect a positive response, Lacson said the government should appeal to its allies.
He said the country has the ruling of the Arbitral Tribunal to back up its claims in the West Philippine Sea so it has something to stand on when arguing its case against China’s incursions.
By tapping the help of its international allies, Lacson said there would be a greater chance to apply pressure on China and have a balance of power in the region.
(Excerpt) Read more at philstar.com ...
I hope that they can get re-educated, but the Pandora's Box analogy seems sort of inevitable
strictly show business. one drone could take them all out in one pass. Maybe they are upset because we are going to sell submarines that carry missiles to Taiwan , our good friends. Remember when soviet Russian tried to out do us in an arms race and wet bust? Went from the USSR to just Russia. Well, China , meet the new Ronald Reagan, President Trump.
So, just where would that drone be launched from?
Only, this time, it's completely different. We were not absolutely tied to the hip of the Soviet economy as we are now with China's. Furthermore, the Soviet's didn't own our debt like the Chinese do. It's a different ball game and not quite as clear as before.
From an allied aircraft outside the eight-mile boundary?
By all means let’s continue to de industrialize and import finished durable good from a Chinese dictatorship and in return ship them agricultural products to feed their military. That is a long term winning economic strategy that must be kept up. /SARCASM
Flying a 60-year-old bomber is pure publicity. Badgers are simply targets for the U.S.
“this time, it’s completely different. We were not absolutely tied to the hip of the Soviet economy as we are now with China’s. Furthermore, the Soviet’s didn’t own our debt like the Chinese do.”
True it is different, and the communist Chinese have been given advantages that the Soviets were not. They have a lot more money, and lot more people.
But they have weaknesses as well. The Soviets depended on oil exports, and were dependent on grain imports. The Chinese are highly dependent on manufactured products export, and raw materials/energy imports.
The Chinese hold about 1/15th of our outstanding Treasuries, a fraction of what the Federal Reserve does. China must use Treasuries to settle their trade shipment transactions. If they sold them all, they could spike the market in Treasuries in the short term - but it would shut down the core of their economy (and they would be selling their assets at fire sale prices). The Federal Reserve could buy up whatever they sold, with a book keeping adjustment.
“Flying a 60-year-old bomber is pure publicity. Badgers are simply targets for the U.S.”
We fly 60 plus year old B52s.
now days, anywhere but Taiwan would do. any carrier will do,
Because the B-52s flying are the much updated H models with 21st century electronics and weapons systems. The H-6s flying now are the 1960 models with the same 1960s vacuum-tube technology.
Diego Garcia...
Oh yeah, just a 3,000 mile cruise away.
We aren't the only market for china's exports.
They are far more intertwined in the world economy than the Soviets could ever dream (contradictory to their system).
With each passing year, China's grip on our throat and that of the world's get's tighter and tighter.
After the first 100 nuclear weapons go off, everybody is on a level playing field and the Chinese are a far, far bigger threat to the U.S. than the Soviet Union ever was...and the Chinese play the long game.
“If the Chinese decided to go scorched earth on our treasuries, the shock to our markets would cause most investors to panic the likes we haven’t seen in modern times. There are more people in the U.S. that would be hurt than in China.”
I agree with you that in many ways, communist China is a bigger threat to the US than the Soviets were. But their financial power in the Treasury market is nowhere near what you said.
The Chinese hold about one trillion, of the fifteen trillion outstanding. Plenty to flood the market on any given day, sending that day’s price into freefall, and sending interest rates up. To maintain that effect and make any real economic impact, they would have to keep dumping lots more treasuries on the market every day, selling their assets at the lower prices - losing money on the deal.
On the US side, the Federal Reserve can buy up the excess supply from China if they so choose - they already hold several times China’s total holdings. The Fed has long had procedures in place to maintain the Treasury market in the face of any potential market manipulator, and they have great enough purchasing power to do it.
Not only would China lose money on the trade if they chose to dump a lot of their bonds into a sinking market, they would suffer real economic difficulties from not having enough on hand. Treasuries serve as China’s dollar-based bank account/credit card, with which to settle their bills with foreigners.
For ships to be unloaded at their ports, payment must be made (overwhelmingly) in dollars. Oil (for which China is hugely dependent on imports) is priced in dollars globally. China needs to have $400-$500 billion in their Treasury account, just to maintain the rate of goods clearing their ports.
China’s currency would be greatly effected by any wholesale attempt to dump treasuries. Their treasury account is not just the bulk of their foreign exchange, it is also the bulk of their cash. It is what they use when they need to manage the value of their currency, and to shore up their stock markets when they go into a tailspin.
On the one hand, they must maintain an adequate reserve to defend their currency and markets (potential market competitors are always watching for any weakness they could press). On the other hand, selling a lot of treasuries in an attempt to hurt the US with higher interest rates, would simultaneously (although temporarily) drive their currency much higher.
Keeping their currency cheap has been a central practice in their unfair trading practices, to take business from others - so it would cost them real business, and their economy is exceptionally dependent on export of manufactured goods.
In percentage terms, the effects on China’s GDP would be much greater than USA. More than that however, a sudden, wholesale dumping of treasuries risks catastrophic collapse of China’s real economy and markets in several ways, but not the real economy of the US (markets could freak out for a while).
Their buying and selling of treasuries is driven by their own need to manage their currency and accounts. They can only afford to use sales/purchases as a weapon on a short term, tactical basis, more for psychological rather than structural effects. Net, they have been sellers of treasuries over the last few years, basically because they had to spend the money - when their stock markets crashed, to support their currency in the face of capital flight, and because they are in debt up to eyeballs.
In addition to the Treasury market, the US has other financial options that could devastate China financially (like sanctioning their banks for money laundering), but China has no other comparable policy options against the US. If China were to openly use treasury bond sales as an attack, the likely responses would be much worse for them.
” Badgers are simply targets for the U.S. “
More like easy targets for beginners.
China is a serious threat now, but these islands are obliterated easily when the time comes.
Also, this is simply a provocation they know the US likely won’t respond to as NK is the bigger fish to fry.
As soon as NK deal gets done, if it gets done, we should fly B52’s directly over the islands, along with a few frigates and destroyers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.