Posted on 10/26/2015 1:46:41 PM PDT by amorphous
For anyone who might still be somehow unaware, the US is currently in a superpower staring match with both Russia and China. The conflict in Syria has put Moscow back on the geopolitical map (so to speak), creating an enormous amount of tension with Washington whose regional allies have been left to look on in horror as Russian airstrikes and an Iranian ground incursion dash hopes of ousting President Bashar al-Assad.
Meanwhile, in The South China Sea, Beijing has built 3,000 acres of new sovereign territory atop reefs in the Spratlys and although the reclamation effort itself isn’t unique, the scope of it most certainly is and Washington’s friends in the South Pacific are crying foul.
Beijing has continually insisted that it doesn’t intend to use the islands as military outposts, but the construction of runways and ports seems to tell a different story and so, Washington felt compelled to check things out over the summer by sending a Poseidon spy plane complete with a CNN crew to the area. Once the PLA spotted the plane the situation escalated quickly with the Chinese Navy telling US pilots to “Go Now!”
After that, an intense war of words developed with Defense Secretary Ash Carter insisting that the US would sail and fly anywhere it pleased and Beijing assuring the US that sailing within 12 nautical miles of the islands would prompt a harsh response from the PLA.
For weeks, the US was rumored to have been planning a freedom of navigation exercise in the Spratlys which, as we’ve pointed out several times this month, amounts to sailing by the islands just to see if China will shoot.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Well, it already happened.
Last night, the USS Lassen, an Arleigh Burke Flight IIA Destroyer sailed through the 12 mile limit of Subi and Mischief Reefs (both of which have been turned into large artificial islands).
China issued a warning, but there was not ate m,pt to block the Lassen.
That satus quo will hold for a while. Although China has tremendously modernized and increased its fleet...it is not ready to challenge the US directly over such an issue.
Give them another 15 years at the rate they are going...and they very may very well try to do so.
In the mean time, they will be building fortress SCS in anticipation of that happening and we cannot stop that, short of a HUGE investment in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam to do the same in terms of reclamation and then building up their new islands. We would have to have Australia, Japan, and India join with us in making that possible.
Of course under this administration, I just do not see us doing that.
Beijing Condems US Naval Patrols in South China Sea
http://www.afr.com/news/world/beijing-condems-us-naval-patrols-in-south-china-sea-20151027-gkjck8
“China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has warned the United States not to create trouble after it was reported the US Navy had started freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea. A senior US defence official briefed journalists that the destroyer USS Lassen had sailed through the 12-nautical mile zones of two islands in the disputed Spratly chain early on Tuesday morning.”
My guess is that you are correct: Nobama and China are on the same side.
Aren’t all these Chinese-stolen and Chinese-expanded islands going to be covered by rising seas?
Are we using our military to threaten Chinese expansion or warn the Chinese of their supposed folly?
It’s not just Obama and his crew saying that Global Warming is the greatest of foreign policy threats, senior Navy officials are saying this also.
He’s also sending troops into the front lines in Syria and Iraq “to fight Isis.” This is on Drudge now.
We are in a world of hurt if this animal sets us off into multiple wars against China and Russia, given what he has done to our military. And he really does not care.
If it's harmful to the USA, Obama will support and encourage it.
Something like 60% of China’s trade goes through the Malacca Straights and Singapore is hostile to China these days. This is an effort by the Chinese to project power forward to cover their strategic choke point. If Canada were hostile to us we’d be doing something similar in or around the Saint Lawrence. This project won’t matter after China manages to field an effective aircraft carrier. That is, assuming they can actually do so - something the USSR never managed to pull off.
Chinese expansion into south Asian sea lines of communication and commerce is of greatest strategic interest to the United States and global economic well-being. Chinese growth is perhaps our #1 long-term, strategic, foreign policy and national security interest. The United States desires a relatively weak, benign Russia and relatively week, benign China.
The limp-wristed pansy Obama won't necessarily be a limp-wristed pansy on this issue, as Pacific rim politics and China-as-potential-superpower consideration don't touch significantly on Obama's Progressive Left ideological world view. In other words, Obama may approach Chinese expansionism rationally, and not as a liberal moonbat.
At the same time, we need a grown up adult at the helm when poking our finger at the Bear or Dragon. I hope that their are enough grown men left in the Pentagon so that Obama can receive sound military advice. I have my doubts. And who knows what the moonbat liberal mind can conceive when it has carrier battle groups to work with.
Something like 60% of China’s trade goes through the Malacca Straights and Singapore is hostile to China these days. This is an effort by the Chinese to project power forward to cover their strategic choke point. If Canada were hostile to us we’d be doing something similar in or around the Saint Lawrence. This project won’t matter after China manages to field an effective aircraft carrier. That is, assuming they can actually do so - something the USSR never managed to pull off.
Chinese expansion into south Asian sea lines of communication and commerce is of greatest strategic interest to the United States and global economic well-being. Chinese growth is perhaps our #1 long-term, strategic, foreign policy and national security interest. The United States desires a relatively weak, benign Russia and relatively week, benign China.
The limp-wristed pansy Obama won't necessarily be a limp-wristed pansy on this issue, as Pacific rim politics and China-as-potential-superpower consideration don't touch significantly on Obama's Progressive Left ideological world view. In other words, Obama may approach Chinese expansionism rationally, and not as a liberal moonbat.
At the same time, we need a grown up adult at the helm when poking our finger at the Bear or Dragon. I hope that their are enough grown men left in the Pentagon so that Obama can receive sound military advice. I have my doubts. And who knows what the moonbat liberal mind can conceive when it has carrier battle groups to work with.
“Oh great. Not that it shouldn’t be done, but by Obama...”
If the pattern holds, Obama is doing this so that China can sink the ship and start a war so that he can quickly and easily surrender the US to China.
And own a lot of Detroit too.
Han is a very pretty language. I guess it won’t be too bad after Obama hands us over to China.
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