VP Biden visits NZ to drum up support

Biden was here in New Zealand to drum up support for the Empire in their intervention in the South China Sea dispute.

Joe Biden visits NZ – cosying up to Empire

First the bullshit - 

Joe Biden to NZ: 'We are cut from the same cloth'

Biden was speaking at a reception in Auckland tonight hosted by Foreign Minister Murray McCully.

....He is on a Pacific tour to assert the United States' role in the Pacific.

"We are a Pacific power," he said, echoing comments made in Australia yesterday. "We have always been a Pacific power. We are going nowhere. We mean what we say when we say we are rebalancing to the Pacific."

"This is where the action is going to be."

The energy and dynamism of the region was absolutely undeniable and it was "sparking" with incredible potential.

"Whether or not we reach that potential, whether or not we continue to prosper and live in peace, in our view depends on our ability to maintain a free and fair and open and liberal international system on the seas, in the skies and with free and open commerce."

He said the US and New Zealand had a vested interest in ensuring continued growth, stability and economic prosperity through the region "and I think we are better equipped to do that when we stand side by side to advance our mutual interests".

"It is no longer what America can do for New Zealand; it is what we can do with New Zealand that animates how the President [Obama] and I look at this relationship and, God willing, president Clinton will look at this relationship."

New Zealand and the United States shared the same values, the same commitment to freedom and equity, and the same fierce independence.

"You nor we never bend. We never bow. We know who we are. We mean what we say. We say it in slightly different ways but it is the same."

The US, like New Zealand, was constantly in pursuit of a more perfect union...[ ]

Then the reality - 

Despite Beijing’s Warnings, US Vows to Continue S. China Sea Operations

While China has warned against escalating tensions in the South China Sea, the Pentagon has remained defiant, announcing that its forces will continue to operate in the region.

Sputnik,

20 July, 2016

In the wake of the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration decision that determined Beijing has no legal basis for claiming historical rights to territories within the nine-dash line in the South China Sea, tensions have continued in the waterway.

Hague Decision 'Stirred the Pot,' But South China Sea Agreement on Horizon

On Monday, Sun Jianguo, admiral and deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China’s Central Military Commission, warned against continued US military aggression.

"But China consistently opposes so-called military freedom of navigation, which brings with it a military threat which challenges and disrespects the international law of the sea," he said. "This kind of military freedom of navigation is damaging to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and it could even play out in a disastrous way."

But on Wednesday, US Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson maintained that the US will continue to operate in the region.

Describing a meeting between Richardson and Yuan Yubai, commander of the Chinese North Sea Fleet, the US Navy stated that the former "underscored the importance of lawful and safe operations in the South China and elsewhere professional navies operate."

"The US Navy will continue to conduct routine and lawful operations around the world, including in the South China Sea, in order to protect the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of sea and airspace guaranteed to all," Richardson said, adding, "This will not change."

Beijing Launches Combat Air Patrols Over South China Sea

Also on Wednesday, state news agency Xinhua reiterated Beijing’s calls for outside influences to refrain from creating animosity in the South China Sea.

"Western countries have a long history of failing to establish orderly rule over parts of the world. The Middle East is a classic example," it said.

A highly-contested region through which roughly $5 trillion in international trade passes annually, most of the waterway is claimed by China, though there are overlapping claims by Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei.

The US and its Pacific allies have expressed opposition to China’s construction of artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago, accusing Beijing of attempting to establish an air defense zone. China maintains it has every right to build within its own territory and that the islands will be used primarily for civilian purposes.


New Zealand - STAY OUT!!!

China warns Australia: stay out of the South China Sea or risk damage to bilateral relations

Australia has been issued with an unusually blunt warning from China — stay out of the South China Sea or risk damage to bilateral relations.

China says it will decisively respond against anyone who takes provocations against its security interests in the South China Sea

China's Foreign Ministry has said it was shocked by remarks Foreign Minister Julie Bishop made on AM on Wednesday, that China should abide by the UN ruling and Australia would continue freedom of navigation exercises.