Posted on 10/16/2015 9:32:31 PM PDT by Mariner
China will never "recklessly" resort to the use of force in the South China Sea, a senior Chinese general said on Saturday, amid tensions over Beijing's building of islands in the disputed waters.
China's relations with several Southeast Asian countries, especially the Philippines and Vietnam who have competing claims in the South China Sea, have been strained over Beijing's increasingly assertive tone on territorial claims in an area through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually.
Beijing's move last year to step up the creation of artificial islands, which it says are mostly for civilian purposes, has drawn strong criticism from Washington.
Fan Changlong, one of the vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission which controls the Chinese armed forces and is headed by President Xi Jinping, told a high-level security forum that China had sought to avoid conflict.
"We will never recklessly resort to the use of force, even on issues of sovereignty, and have done our utmost to avoid unexpected conflicts," Fan told the forum, attended by Southeast Asian defense ministers.
Fan reiterated that China's islands "will not affect freedom of navigation in the South China Sea" and said recently completed lighthouses on Cuarteron Reef and Johnson South Reef in the Spratly archipelago "have already begun to provide navigation services to all nations".
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I guess the US Seventh Fleet is getting close.
I think they want to drill for oil, not have a naval battle with the US that they are not yet ready to win,.
but i could be wrong.
much more concerned about Syria. Obama is crushed that first Egypt and now Russia have foiled his plans for a muslim brotherhood dominated Middle East.
I have no doubt he is funneling money to MB in Egypt.
And we know he already dropped 50 tons of weapons in Syria,. Lord only knows who grabbed it.
I suspect Russia will or has already blown most of it up on the ground
This...is going to be bad, then.
How will it be bad?
Excellent, called Chinese bluff.
It’s something like one guy sitting in the middle of the movie theater 10 minutes before they start showing previews, and claiming he’s saving the five rows ahead and behind him for friends.
A military guy views recklessly resorting to force as losing.
This guy is confident he won’t lose..
Then he's either suicidal or delusional.
China cannot, does not have the ability to protect those islands from the US Navy. And, they know if they fire, all hell will break lose.
So when hostilities do break out, everyone will know China did everything it could to prevent it.
Hogwash!
Lets see what wouldn't be recklessly: Forced into it by the U. S. Territorial waters breached Illegal listening going on U. S. was an aggressor and China couldn't take it anymore It's an interesting claim China and territorial waters in that area. We could pick an island there and play the same game. Hey, China came within our territorial waters too!
There won't be any hostilities...certainly not in the near term.
Hell, I'd bet that when the battle group does cruise through (close enough to see the hull numbers with the naked eye), they'll be downright courteous and turn off the fire control radars.
China has no substantial force in place there and very little ability to project sufficient force to deter or destroy a US Navy group.
“China will never “recklessly” resort to the use of force “
Note that he did not say they wouldn’t use force with calculated malice aforethought.
Fan Changlong vice chairman of the Central Military Commission: “Nothing reckless. Nope.”
“If those roundeye Yankee running dogs even look at us wrong, we’re going to the mat”
Hung Wa Low, Chairman, Central Military Commission
“Say there, ‘Fan’ and ‘Hung’—if those are your real names.
What are you doing dressed in those ridiculous costumes?”
General Jack D. Ripper, Chinese Embassy
How WW III started ...
China cannot, does not have the ability to protect those islands from the US Navy. And, they know if they fire, all hell will break lose.
That’s right.
When we see them take out an American aircraft carrier, they will be confident. Until then, they will stand back and show intelligent restraint.
I recognize that others out there know a lot more than I on certain matters, but I am nowhere near as confident in Chinese rationality as you are.
Shooting our P3 out of the air wasn’t exactly a peaceful act. Not returning our people right away wasn’t either.
I don’t trust those idiots.
They didn’t build that military base in the Spratleys just to let it sit there and grow dust.
They didn’t build that military base in the Spratleys just to let it sit there and grow dust.
That’s true.
But they will use it when the time is right. The time is not right just yet.
Well, FWIW, it was a reckless Chinese jet fighter pilot who buzzed too close, got his jet sawn in half (and died) and it did enough damage to the P-3 that they had to put it down.
Rather than ditching it, they landed on Hainan Island.
It's good that you mentioned the Air Force General Ripper.
He probably flew 4-5 C-5's into Clark Air Base to carry ordinance and spare parts for the 3-4 squadrons of F-15c's and may one of the F-22.
And they'd be but 450 miles from China's new light towers.
Not to mention a probable SSGN somewhere out there...and 3-4 SSN's.
Then here come the US battle group...carrier or not.
Say it's 4 Arleigh Burke DDG's. Each with 128 VLS tubes.
Each tueb can carry 4 AA missiles or 1 Tomahawk.
China will not do anything. Even the good general has said so.
Hell, they can't.
Ping
Don’t the Chinese have some seriously bad anti ship missiles?
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