Posted on 05/31/2008 9:00:38 AM PDT by indcons
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates issued a set of thinly veiled warnings to China on Saturday, cautioning that it could risk its share of further gains in Asia’s economic prosperity if it bullied its neighbors over natural resources in contested areas like the South China Sea.
Three years ago at the same lectern here, Mr. Gates’s predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, bluntly criticized China’s swift military buildup. Last year Mr. Gates struck a more conciliatory tone, saying Beijing and Washington had a chance to “build trust over time.”
Mr. Gates seemed to take a third approach in his remarks to a major regional Asia security conference here, seeking to lay down clear markers of continued American commitments to the region while also obliquely criticizing China.
He said that in his four trips to Asia since becoming defense secretary 18 months ago, several countries had expressed concern about “the security implications of rising demand for resources” (translation: China’s voracious quest for new sources of energy) and about “coercive diplomacy” (translation: China’s contested claims of resource-rich territorial waters).
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The MSM will accuse Gates of being a bully by kicking China down because of the recent earthquake.
Once upon a time, in an America quite unlike this one, a SecDef’s warning to China would have been taken seriously.
Now? Nah.
The current administration has squandered their credibility.
As I stated a while ago on a different thread, the earthquakes in China are proving the regime with a bigger propaganda coup than the failed Olympic torch runs.
The rest of the world is starting to wake up to China’s aggressive and evil intentions in Asia and Africa. Will it be too late?
I wish this adminstration had the guts to stand up to environazis who have successfully bullied America on energy.
Thanks.
I agree with “czar”’s comment: Well good, another toothless warning.
We have done nothing — zero, zip, zilch, nada — to stop Iran from killing and dismembering our fighting men with impunity. Even as they stick their finger in our eye and continue to develop nuclear weapons.
W’s foreign policy is a flaccid mess. We’re everyone’s doormat and too timid to do a damn thing about it. W’s state department is “headed up” (I use the term only figuratively) by an incompetent who has been bridled and ridden hard by the very bureaucrats she is supposed to be “leading”. And on and on.
Why the hell SHOULD china take us seriously? They’re not blind, nor are they stupid.
Pei-ping
Thought you might be interested in this article. PRC has increased its annual defense spending by record numbers. The increasingly offensive capabilities of PLA/N should be worrisome to all countries in Asia.
While strong language from Def. Sec. Gates and the Japanese Foreign Ministry is welcome, this has to be followed up with concrete action.
The ChiComs are upto no good, as always.
General Ma is comparing our defensive plans with their unprecedented offensive buildup. Ridiculous.
We can’t go around knocking on everyone’s door... the reason the enemy is embolded is because of the weak pathetic left.
No other reason.
I agree.
The problem is that We are now in debt to China bigtime
which does not place us in the driver’s seat. With the Federal Reserve printing money like crazy, the dollar is
dropping like a rock!
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