Having this guy at the helm makes me very nervous
Having this guy at the helm (if he could find a helm) makes me nervous too. I could never imagine him, or any member of the Democratic party, actually confronting an enemy of this country anywhere but in a courtroom. I’d sooner have voted for Donald Duck for president than this guy, or anybody from the current Democratic party.
Having said all that, i’m glad he at least issued this press release and i hope it represents actual action. I’d like to think it’s better than nothing.
By Eugene Tang and Tian Ying March 13
China, the U.S. government?s largest creditor, is ?worried? about its holdings of Treasuries and wants assurances that the investment is safe, Premier Wen Jiabao said. ?We have lent a huge amount of money to the United States,? Wen said today at a press conference in Beijing that marked the closure of the annual National People?s Congress meeting. ?Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am a little bit worried. I request the U.S. to maintain its good credit, to honor its promises and to guarantee the safety of China?s assets.? China should seek to ?fend off risks? as it diversifies its $1.95 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves and will safeguard its own interests, according to Wen. He requested that Chinese investors held $696 billion of U.S. Treasuries as of Dec. 31, an increase of 46 percent from the prior year.
Merrill Lynch & Co.?s U.S. Treasury Master index shows the securities declined 0.5 percent last month, after falling 3.1 percent in January, the worst since April 2004, as President Barack Obama sells record amounts of debt to fund his $787 billion bailout. The dollar has dropped 17 percent against the yuan since China ended a fixed exchange rate in July 2005
. ?Our goal is to maintain a basically stable yuan at a balanced and reasonable level,? Wen said. ?At the end of the day, it is our own decision and any other countries can?t press us to depreciate or appreciate our currency.? While the yuan has weakened 0.2 percent against the dollar this year, there has been a ?drastic depreciation? in the euro and Asian currencies that has put a lot of pressure on Chinese exporters, Wen said.
The Obama administration has backed away from January comments by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that the Chinese government manages the currency to gain a competitive advantage
These word from Wen are brutally direct. I would not be surprised if they were coordinated with the military confidence-testing.
Do our ships actually have to BE there, to contribute to the fight, if there is one? I assume that their physical movement is mostly symbolic at this point?? Of course proximity wowuld certainly be a convenience...shorter flight time for missles and planes, etc.
"After years of conjecture, details have begun to emerge of a "kill weapon" developed by the Chinese to target and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers.
First posted on a Chinese blog viewed as credible by military analysts and then translated by the naval affairs blog Information Dissemination, a recent report provides a description of an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) that can strike carriers and other U.S. vessels at a range of 2000km. [snip]
If operational as is believed, the system marks the first time a ballistic missile has been successfully developed to attack vessels at sea. Ships currently have no defense against a ballistic missile attack. Along with the Chinese naval build-up, U.S. Navy officials appear to view the development of the anti-ship ballistic missile as a tangible threat.
After spending the last decade placing an emphasis on building a fleet that could operate in shallow waters near coastlines, the U.S. Navy seems to have quickly changed its strategy over the past several months to focus on improving the capabilities of its deep sea fleet and developing anti-ballistic defenses.[snip]
"The Navy's reaction is telling, because it essentially equals a radical change in direction based on information that has created a panic inside the bubble. For a major military service to panic due to a new weapon system, clearly a mission kill weapon system, either suggests the threat is legitimate or the leadership of the Navy is legitimately unqualified. There really aren't many gray spaces in evaluating the reaction by the Navy…the data tends to support the legitimacy of the threat."