Posted on 06/02/2012 1:51:33 PM PDT by IbJensen
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 and how they are dealing with some unexpected consequences attending their rapid expansion as a manufacturing center in Asia.
After modernizing their farming industry the Chinese saw massive population shifts to their already over crowded cites where food can’t be grown but must be brought in. The farms can’t keep up with the demand so the seas are being increasingly relied upon to feed China’s city dwellers. This has led to over fishing the waters just off China’s coast and fishing boats being forced to work further and further away until they end up in the Scarborough Shoals claimed by the Philippines.
Barack Obama and his media lackeys can ignore this crisis but that doesn’t mean it poses no threat to world peace. In the 1930’s another Asian nation tried to solve her rapid expansion problems and that ended in World War II.
They’d rathter sell to us than feed thier people.
Philippines Orders U.S. to Leave Strategic Navy Base at Subic Bay
Published: December 28, 1991
The Philippines told the United States today that it must withdraw from the Subic Bay naval base by the end of 1992, ending a vast American military presence that began with the capture of the islands from Spain in 1898.
The decision, which resulted from an impasse in negotiations, follows a year of intense talks between the countries on the fate of American bases in the Philippines. The announcement also comes just three days before President Bush begins a 12-day Asian tour.
The shutdown of the sprawling Subic Bay base, together with the closing of Clark Air Base after a volcanic eruption this year, amounts to the biggest reduction to date in the United States military presence in the western Pacific. The 60,000-acre Subic base is the Navy’s principal supply and ship-repair installation in the region. U.S. to Look for New Sites
Although it is theoretically possible that a new agreement could be hammered out, Administration officials in Washington said that they considered this unlikely, and that they would accelerate the pullout and the search for alternative sites in the Pacific.
There is nothing about the volucanic eruption that permanently damaged the harbor.
Thanks IbJensen.
Maybe those Philipinos should not have died while trying to help our soldiers being force marched to death either, on the death march of Bataan. And the Japanese shot many of them when they tried to bring food and water to our soldiers...
We have very close ties with the Philippine people we still are allies militarily. They and we are fighting Jihadists in the Philippines who are trying to take over the country. Most of this fighting is done in secret. But we still have a presence there...
The US has done far more for the Philipines and Filipinos than the other way around.
Including giving them military helicopters and intelligence fighting their Muslim insurgents/terrorist.
Kicking the US out of Subic Bay was not only a slap in the face to the US but strategically stupid for them.
And any people that risks their lives and died trying to help our soldiers while our soldiers were being tortured and killed by the Japanese is worthy of our respect and should not be forgotten. We had been asked to leave by a left leaning government in the 1990's and political climates change.
And lets not forget that the U.S. supported Marcos who abused his own people and milked that country of money during his rule. Which precipitated a backlash in the 90's.
We cannot ever support dictators, in the long term we will suffer some way for it.
Sorry you are so grossly misinformed.
American blood and treasure have been spent over and over again to make the Philipnes a better place.
When Filipinos complain about American Imerialism they forget what real Spanish and Japanese Imperialism looks like.
Never claimed we are fighting Jihadist by ourselves.
You are living in a Fantasy land if you think the US can get by on a policy of never co-operating with dictators.
Without US giving Marcos the final push “People Power” would have never worked.
Without US support for Marcos a far worse Marxist dictator would have ruled there for many years.
I believe the chief source of the poisoning are the damned farm-raised Chinese talapia. They’re raised in cages along rivers polluted by human waste that drop down from stilted shacks with a hole in the floor.
Watch carefully where seafoods comes from. If it’s from Asia, shop on. Canada, USA and Iceland are okay.
Stupid Americans look for the central socialist government to look out for them, but this evil regime is stocked with worthless bureaucrats who couldn’t care less about citizens.
As I stated in #29, which addressed the fish mess, the same thing applies to what you feed your pets. Don’t feed them garbage from China that even the Chinese won’t eat. Don’t buy Chinese food or it will appear that you’re asking for it!
The Federal government colludes with transnational corporations to hide the source of the erzatz food and goods from China.
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