Posted on 05/26/2023 8:14:03 AM PDT by Red Badger
A Chinese salvage ship has been caught looting British World War II shipwrecks near the Malaysian coast.
The vessel, a dredger named Chuan Hong 68, was seen lurking near the shipwrecks of the Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and cruiser HMS Repulse, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
Imperial Japanese forces destroyed both ships in December 1941, resulting in the loss of 842 British sailors — a significant setback for the Royal Navy in the Far East.
The sites of the shipwrecks are officially designated war graves, according to a statement from the Royal Navy National Museum.
Chuan Hong 68’s activities were first noticed by Malaysian media and “open-source intelligence analysts” last week, News.com.au reported.
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According to the U.S. Naval Institute, a private nonprofit military association, local reports indicated that Chuan Hong 68 was using a large dredging crane to lift metal scraps from the shipwrecks.
HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse were built with high-quality steel, according to reports. As such, the wrecks are a lucrative source of scraps that can be smelted and reused.
According to News.com.au, police discovered live ammunition, British anti-aircraft cannons, an anchor and pieces of a ship’s hull at a jetty in Malaysia.
Chuan Hong 68’s crew has a reputation for being a group of “illegal scavengers,” the Mail reported.
Speaking to the Malaysian outlet the New Straits Times, a source said that the vessel has been looting shipwrecks for about 10 years.
“Ten years ago, it resembled a dilapidated barge. But it is now fitted with high-technology equipment,” the source said of the ship.
“They operate mechanically and entirely from the surface of the barge, which is equipped with cranes sporting huge metal claws,” the source said, adding that “the claws can plunge more than [200 meters] deep. It chops up the ship and pulls up [100] tonnes of metal in one go.”
The crew reportedly consists of well-paid Chinese, Nepalese, Malaysian and Bangladeshi nationals.
The Times reported that Chuan Hong 68 has engaged in illegal scavenging of World War II shipwrecks off the coasts of Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam and is wanted by authorities in Indonesia.
Adm. Lord Alan West, former head of the Royal Navy, called the scavenging operation an “absolute disgrace,” according to the Mail.
“These are burial sites with all the bodies still there. These Chinese wreckers or scrap metal men don’t give a damn about this,” he said.
“It’s a loathsome thing to do. It’s very distressing for the families and next of kin of those sailors killed on HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales.”
The chicoms are such a beautiful people with such an enlightened society.
Chuan Hong 68 sounds like a valid military target.
U.S. foreign policy history looks very different when you realize what "Making the world safe for democracy" really meant.
Same with the USSR. Somehow, the vital lend lease was of no consequence in the revised history.
One of the stories was that any goods sent to the USSR for lend lease couldn’t say it was from the US Government, but some “friendly” group like “The Workers Party of New York” or somesuch.
The US did nothing in 1931 when Japan invaded and seized Manchuria.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_of_Manchuria
The US was largely uninvolved from the start of WW II in Asia with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937 until after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The war was half over before the US became an official combatant. Although WW II for China doesn’t really end until 1949 with the expulsion of all foreign influences.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War
Because then it was none of our business.
.
The Chinese are probably taught history as well as students in our "schools" are and have no idea what happened in the past.
You lying sack of Communist Chinese propaganda!:
1. The US stood up for Manchuria and China in the League of Nations and imposed embargoes on the Japanese to try to restrain their open violations of international law. The Japanese answered by leaving the League.
2. In June 1941, the first aircraft and American pilots of the American Volunteer Group - the Flying Tigers - began operations in China against the Japanese. There were also large investments in combat materiel and humanitarian aid to the Chinese people from the US and other Allied nations. The US provided massive aid to China throughout the war and hundreds - perhaps thousands - of Americans died in China to help save China.
WWII ended with the unconditional surrender of the Japanese in August 1945. You Chinese Communists used the weakened state of the Nationalist Chinese Army (and the relatively uncommitted and unused forces of the communists) to overthrow the Nationalists and seize control of China in 1949.
Pound sand, enemy agent!
Despicable.
“Be too bad if that Chinese ship were to hit a mine or something. Or if they happened to dredge up some live 14-inch shells”
If we can bomb a pipeline, we can stop this outrage.
The Han Chinese are arguably the worst racists on the face of the Earth.
The US was not a member of the League of Nations. It did sit in on conferences and participate to a degree. It did nothing effective following the Mukden incident and the conquest of Manchuria.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/mukden-incident
The United States and other western powers were at a loss on how to respond to the rapidly developing crisis. Even as the Japanese moved far from the original site of the “attack” at Mukden to bomb the city of Jinzhou (Chinchow), there was little sense that U.S. interests in the area were anywhere near profound enough to make military intervention necessary or desirable. Given the 1930s worldwide depression, there was little support for economic sanctions to punish the Japanese. Instead, the United States sat in on League of Nations council meetings for the first time to try to convince the League to enforce the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which both Japan and China had signed. Appeals based on the pact, however, proved ineffective.
See Post #31
Chinese people are so honorable. Just sayin’
I’m sick of hearing conservatives, i.e., Bannon, say that most of “the PEOPLE” (lao baixing) are good. Sounds like Hannity saying the majority of efbeeye are honorable.
Hubby was surrounded by Chinese while at Berkeley. All they did was cheat and steal. Their core values were that cheating and stealing are perfectly fine.
Not until 1940 did the US start to embargo Japan.
Japan, China, the United States and the Road to Pearl Harbor, 1937–41
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/pearl-harbor
Spot the lie in your first post (among others)?
It’s been a cultural thing with them for thousands of years.
Intellectual Property is a foreign concept to them.
They have no qualms about ‘stealing’ technology, because they don’t see it as stealing.
If a person develops a better wheel, they will use that technology to make wheels. It just common sense to them..................
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