China warns US after warships sail in disputed South China Sea
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Showing posts with label South China Sea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South China Sea. Show all posts
5/6/19
12/16/16
US - China Relations: Trump’s Swaggering Sparks War Talk from China
In mid-summer 2015, the Pentagon deployed a vast fleet to the Western Pacific with an invasion force of 33,000 troops. The little reported exercise was supported by warplanes and attack helicopters, along with 21 ships, including the aircraft carrier George Washington and three nuclear missile-bearing submarines.
It was only a game, the Navy said. But it looked very much like practice for the real thing on or near Chinese shores. On the night of July 4—Independence Day in the U.S.—Operation Talisman Saber kicked off with U.S. high-altitude paratroopers dropping from the sky near Fog Bay, in Australia’s Northern Territory. Naval artillery boomed. Tanks rolled ashore. The invasion was on.
A U.S. Navy press release made it sound routine, an “exercise [that] illustrates the closeness of the Australian and U.S. alliance…” But Military Times, a close observer of the Defense Department, put its finger on what it was really about: “Talisman Sabre: Trying to Deter China,” its headline said.
The problem with The Coming War on China is that it’s not so much about a future conflict as it is a dramatic rehash of America’s march to military supremacy in the Pacific, including updates on local resistance to U.S. bases. While it offers a salutary alternative to the often frantic media reports about China’s militarization of islets in the South China Sea, it only vaguely recognizes that Beijing may be overreaching. Now the “unthinkable,” a military clash between the two, has suddenly became all too thinkable—even inevitable, in some circles. When President-elect Trump triggered Beijing’s wrath by taking a telephone call from Taiwan’s pro-independence leader in early December—threatening four decades of diplomatic stability—the two countries inched closer to the type of incident that could lead to a dangerous string of tit-for-tat reprisals. Trump’s further disparagement of China in the following days only ratcheted up the potential for a face-saving showdown.
While Chinese President Xi Jinping has plenty of power in the Politburo to deal with Trump on several contentious matters, starting with trade, he has none on Taiwan’s status, analysts firmly believe. Beijing’s bedrock policy on Taiwan, reiterated for decades in official documents and private conversations with foreign visitors, is that the island has been a renegade province ever since U.S.-backed nationalist forces retreated there in 1949. With the triumph of its revolution in 1950, the Chinese Communist Party ended more than a century of repeated humiliations at the hands of foreign invaders—except for “breakaway” Taiwan. And it will not countenance any efforts by Trump to declare Taiwan free, says Fu Ying, a former Chinese ambassador to Britain and now spokeswoman for the National People’s Congress. “History matters,” she told a group of visiting reporters, including Newsweek’s Jonathan Broder, in June. “We’ve lost enough.”
Xi will not risk being seen as “soft” on Taiwan, Wang Dong, a professor of international relations at Peking University, tells Newsweek. "If the upcoming Trump administration pursues policies that tramp on China's core interests—sovereignty and territorial integrity—then they shouldn't expect anything short of a forceful response.”In mid-summer 2015, the Pentagon deployed a vast fleet to the Western Pacific with an invasion force of 33,000 troops. The little reported exercise was supported by warplanes and attack helicopters, along with 21 ships, including the aircraft carrier George Washington and three nuclear missile-bearing submarines.
It was only a game, the Navy said. But it looked very much like practice for the real thing on or near Chinese shores. On the night of July 4—Independence Day in the U.S.—Operation Talisman Saber kicked off with U.S. high-altitude paratroopers dropping from the sky near Fog Bay, in Australia’s Northern Territory. Naval artillery boomed. Tanks rolled ashore. The invasion was on.
A U.S. Navy press release made it sound routine, an “exercise [that] illustrates the closeness of the Australian and U.S. alliance…” But Military Times, a close observer of the Defense Department, put its finger on what it was really about: “Talisman Sabre: Trying to Deter China,” its headline said.
The problem with The Coming War on China is that it’s not so much about a future conflict as it is a dramatic rehash of America’s march to military supremacy in the Pacific, including updates on local resistance to U.S. bases. While it offers a salutary alternative to the often frantic media reports about China’s militarization of islets in the South China Sea, it only vaguely recognizes that Beijing may be overreaching. Now the “unthinkable,” a military clash between the two, has suddenly became all too thinkable—even inevitable, in some circles. When President-elect Trump triggered Beijing’s wrath by taking a telephone call from Taiwan’s pro-independence leader in early December—threatening four decades of diplomatic stability—the two countries inched closer to the type of incident that could lead to a dangerous string of tit-for-tat reprisals. Trump’s further disparagement of China in the following days only ratcheted up the potential for a face-saving showdown.
While Chinese President Xi Jinping has plenty of power in the Politburo to deal with Trump on several contentious matters, starting with trade, he has none on Taiwan’s status, analysts firmly believe. Beijing’s bedrock policy on Taiwan, reiterated for decades in official documents and private conversations with foreign visitors, is that the island has been a renegade province ever since U.S.-backed nationalist forces retreated there in 1949. With the triumph of its revolution in 1950, the Chinese Communist Party ended more than a century of repeated humiliations at the hands of foreign invaders—except for “breakaway” Taiwan. And it will not countenance any efforts by Trump to declare Taiwan free, says Fu Ying, a former Chinese ambassador to Britain and now spokeswoman for the National People’s Congress. “History matters,” she told a group of visiting reporters, including Newsweek’s Jonathan Broder, in June. “We’ve lost enough.”
Read more: Trump’s Swaggering Sparks War Talk from China
It was only a game, the Navy said. But it looked very much like practice for the real thing on or near Chinese shores. On the night of July 4—Independence Day in the U.S.—Operation Talisman Saber kicked off with U.S. high-altitude paratroopers dropping from the sky near Fog Bay, in Australia’s Northern Territory. Naval artillery boomed. Tanks rolled ashore. The invasion was on.
A U.S. Navy press release made it sound routine, an “exercise [that] illustrates the closeness of the Australian and U.S. alliance…” But Military Times, a close observer of the Defense Department, put its finger on what it was really about: “Talisman Sabre: Trying to Deter China,” its headline said.
The problem with The Coming War on China is that it’s not so much about a future conflict as it is a dramatic rehash of America’s march to military supremacy in the Pacific, including updates on local resistance to U.S. bases. While it offers a salutary alternative to the often frantic media reports about China’s militarization of islets in the South China Sea, it only vaguely recognizes that Beijing may be overreaching. Now the “unthinkable,” a military clash between the two, has suddenly became all too thinkable—even inevitable, in some circles. When President-elect Trump triggered Beijing’s wrath by taking a telephone call from Taiwan’s pro-independence leader in early December—threatening four decades of diplomatic stability—the two countries inched closer to the type of incident that could lead to a dangerous string of tit-for-tat reprisals. Trump’s further disparagement of China in the following days only ratcheted up the potential for a face-saving showdown.
While Chinese President Xi Jinping has plenty of power in the Politburo to deal with Trump on several contentious matters, starting with trade, he has none on Taiwan’s status, analysts firmly believe. Beijing’s bedrock policy on Taiwan, reiterated for decades in official documents and private conversations with foreign visitors, is that the island has been a renegade province ever since U.S.-backed nationalist forces retreated there in 1949. With the triumph of its revolution in 1950, the Chinese Communist Party ended more than a century of repeated humiliations at the hands of foreign invaders—except for “breakaway” Taiwan. And it will not countenance any efforts by Trump to declare Taiwan free, says Fu Ying, a former Chinese ambassador to Britain and now spokeswoman for the National People’s Congress. “History matters,” she told a group of visiting reporters, including Newsweek’s Jonathan Broder, in June. “We’ve lost enough.”
Xi will not risk being seen as “soft” on Taiwan, Wang Dong, a professor of international relations at Peking University, tells Newsweek. "If the upcoming Trump administration pursues policies that tramp on China's core interests—sovereignty and territorial integrity—then they shouldn't expect anything short of a forceful response.”In mid-summer 2015, the Pentagon deployed a vast fleet to the Western Pacific with an invasion force of 33,000 troops. The little reported exercise was supported by warplanes and attack helicopters, along with 21 ships, including the aircraft carrier George Washington and three nuclear missile-bearing submarines.
It was only a game, the Navy said. But it looked very much like practice for the real thing on or near Chinese shores. On the night of July 4—Independence Day in the U.S.—Operation Talisman Saber kicked off with U.S. high-altitude paratroopers dropping from the sky near Fog Bay, in Australia’s Northern Territory. Naval artillery boomed. Tanks rolled ashore. The invasion was on.
A U.S. Navy press release made it sound routine, an “exercise [that] illustrates the closeness of the Australian and U.S. alliance…” But Military Times, a close observer of the Defense Department, put its finger on what it was really about: “Talisman Sabre: Trying to Deter China,” its headline said.
The problem with The Coming War on China is that it’s not so much about a future conflict as it is a dramatic rehash of America’s march to military supremacy in the Pacific, including updates on local resistance to U.S. bases. While it offers a salutary alternative to the often frantic media reports about China’s militarization of islets in the South China Sea, it only vaguely recognizes that Beijing may be overreaching. Now the “unthinkable,” a military clash between the two, has suddenly became all too thinkable—even inevitable, in some circles. When President-elect Trump triggered Beijing’s wrath by taking a telephone call from Taiwan’s pro-independence leader in early December—threatening four decades of diplomatic stability—the two countries inched closer to the type of incident that could lead to a dangerous string of tit-for-tat reprisals. Trump’s further disparagement of China in the following days only ratcheted up the potential for a face-saving showdown.
While Chinese President Xi Jinping has plenty of power in the Politburo to deal with Trump on several contentious matters, starting with trade, he has none on Taiwan’s status, analysts firmly believe. Beijing’s bedrock policy on Taiwan, reiterated for decades in official documents and private conversations with foreign visitors, is that the island has been a renegade province ever since U.S.-backed nationalist forces retreated there in 1949. With the triumph of its revolution in 1950, the Chinese Communist Party ended more than a century of repeated humiliations at the hands of foreign invaders—except for “breakaway” Taiwan. And it will not countenance any efforts by Trump to declare Taiwan free, says Fu Ying, a former Chinese ambassador to Britain and now spokeswoman for the National People’s Congress. “History matters,” she told a group of visiting reporters, including Newsweek’s Jonathan Broder, in June. “We’ve lost enough.”
Read more: Trump’s Swaggering Sparks War Talk from China
12/3/16
Nuclear Holocaust; The Coming War on China - by John Pilger
 |
| The Unthinkable - Could it happen again? |
I have spent two years making a documentary film, The Coming War on China, in which the evidence and witnesses warn that nuclear war is no longer a shadow, but a contingency. The greatest build-up of American-led military forces since the Second World War is well under way. They are in the northern hemisphere, on the western borders of Russia, and in Asia and the Pacific, confronting China.
The great danger this beckons is not news, or it is buried and distorted: a drumbeat of mainstream fake news that echoes the psychopathic fear embedded in public consciousness during much of the 20th century.
Like the renewal of post-Soviet Russia, the rise of China as an economic power is declared an “existential threat” to the divine right of the United States to rule and dominate human affairs.
To counter this, in 2011 President Obama announced a “pivot to Asia”, which meant that almost two-thirds of US naval forces would be transferred to Asia and the Pacific by 2020. Today, more than 400 American military bases encircle China with missiles, bombers, warships and, above all, nuclear weapons. From Australia north through the Pacific to Japan, Korea and across Eurasia to Afghanistan and India, the bases form, says one US strategist, “the perfect noose”.
Read more: The Coming War on China
10/30/15
South China Sea: China confirms test of new hypersonic strike vehicle 'Wu-14'
The Chinese Defense Ministry confirmed the fourth test of a hypersonic
nuclear delivery vehicle, which the US called an “extreme maneuver,”
amid rising tensions between the two powers in the South China Sea.
The test of the hypersonic glide vehicle, which the US has dubbed the “WU-14”, was carried out on June 7 and is the missile’s fourth test in 18 months.
"The scheduled scientific research and experiments in our territory is normal, and those tests are not targeted at any country and specific goals," the ministry said in response to a report published on Thursday by the Free Beacon.
The strategic strike weapon is extremely advanced and can travel at 10 times the speed of sound, or 12,231.01kph.
US missile defenses can only counter ballistic missiles and warheads that have predictable trajectories. The Wu-14 is capable of maneuvering during flight while travelling at the edge of space, and so is extremely difficult to shoot down.
Read more: China confirms test of new hypersonic strike vehicle 'Wu-14' — RT News
The test of the hypersonic glide vehicle, which the US has dubbed the “WU-14”, was carried out on June 7 and is the missile’s fourth test in 18 months.
"The scheduled scientific research and experiments in our territory is normal, and those tests are not targeted at any country and specific goals," the ministry said in response to a report published on Thursday by the Free Beacon.
The strategic strike weapon is extremely advanced and can travel at 10 times the speed of sound, or 12,231.01kph.
US missile defenses can only counter ballistic missiles and warheads that have predictable trajectories. The Wu-14 is capable of maneuvering during flight while travelling at the edge of space, and so is extremely difficult to shoot down.
Read more: China confirms test of new hypersonic strike vehicle 'Wu-14' — RT News
4/1/13
For The US, Russia, And China, A Busy Week In Military Drills
Washington and Moscow have followed Beijing’s lead this week, calling elements of their armed forces into action for military exercises across the Pacific and European theaters.
After Chinese naval vessels and aircraft participated in maneuvers across the South China Sea earlier this week, the United States announced today that it had flown two of its stealth B-2 bombers over North Korean airspace in a display of force and technological superiority.
The presence of the bombers in North Korean airspace was not reported by the country’s state media, and was only disclosed once the planes returned to their home base in Missouri.
Across the Asian continent, Russia has announced its plan to use 36 ships and up to 7,000 soldiers as a part of military drills to be held in the Black Sea.
Although “combat readiness” was cited by the Chinese and Russians for their exercises, the American bomber runs possess a clearer link to an ongoing security crisis, that of North Korea and the rogue nation’s latest nuclear threats against the U.S. and its allies.
Read more: For The US, Russia, And China, A Busy Week In Military DrillsTalk Radio News Service
After Chinese naval vessels and aircraft participated in maneuvers across the South China Sea earlier this week, the United States announced today that it had flown two of its stealth B-2 bombers over North Korean airspace in a display of force and technological superiority.
The presence of the bombers in North Korean airspace was not reported by the country’s state media, and was only disclosed once the planes returned to their home base in Missouri.
Across the Asian continent, Russia has announced its plan to use 36 ships and up to 7,000 soldiers as a part of military drills to be held in the Black Sea.
Although “combat readiness” was cited by the Chinese and Russians for their exercises, the American bomber runs possess a clearer link to an ongoing security crisis, that of North Korea and the rogue nation’s latest nuclear threats against the U.S. and its allies.
Read more: For The US, Russia, And China, A Busy Week In Military DrillsTalk Radio News Service
12/3/12
China sounds clear warning over South China Sea - by by Greg Torode
Beijing's assertiveness in buttressing its controversial nine-dash claim to the South China Sea is already challenging regional strategic assumptions. If that is followed by a sweeping new enforcement regime at sea, then tensions can only escalate. "Make no mistake … this is potentially a huge move if it is really what Beijing intends to do," one Pentagon official said privately. "We are urgently trying to get some answers."
Freedom of navigation lies at the heart of the dispute. Beijing officials repeatedly insist China would never threaten such freedoms and yet Washington says the need to protect those freedoms underpins its interest in finding a peaceful and legally sound solution to the territorial disputes. The ongoing rhetoric is a jarring reminder that the two giants have divergent opinions on the rights and responsibilities of nations in international waters.
Not surprisingly then, the moves by Hainan - which administers the new Sansha prefecture through which Beijing is manning its claims in the area - are raising more questions than answers. What activities are they likely to object to and take action against? Will they seek to stop ships heading to islands and shoals claimed by China but occupied by other states?
Then came the statements from the Philippines' Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario that provide a rare window on Beijing's strategic intentions - and its regional manoeuvring.
He warned that Beijing had recently made clear to Manila that it would make its maritime presence at the disputed Scarborough Shoal - currently three coastguard-type ships - permanent. That would mark a significant challenge to not just Manila, but also its US treaty ally as well.
Read more: China sounds clear warning over South China Sea | South China Morning Post
Freedom of navigation lies at the heart of the dispute. Beijing officials repeatedly insist China would never threaten such freedoms and yet Washington says the need to protect those freedoms underpins its interest in finding a peaceful and legally sound solution to the territorial disputes. The ongoing rhetoric is a jarring reminder that the two giants have divergent opinions on the rights and responsibilities of nations in international waters.
Not surprisingly then, the moves by Hainan - which administers the new Sansha prefecture through which Beijing is manning its claims in the area - are raising more questions than answers. What activities are they likely to object to and take action against? Will they seek to stop ships heading to islands and shoals claimed by China but occupied by other states?
Then came the statements from the Philippines' Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario that provide a rare window on Beijing's strategic intentions - and its regional manoeuvring.
He warned that Beijing had recently made clear to Manila that it would make its maritime presence at the disputed Scarborough Shoal - currently three coastguard-type ships - permanent. That would mark a significant challenge to not just Manila, but also its US treaty ally as well.
Read more: China sounds clear warning over South China Sea | South China Morning Post
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