Posts
In our own backyard, but mostly unreported in NZ media
China
dispatches military vessels & fighter jets to warn off US warship
4
July, 2017
End
of the Honeymoon: China accuses US of military provocation
The
game playing continues
[ Note: It’s
summer time, and the news cycle can get slow, so what better than to
do a billion-dollar plus arms deal with Taiwan, followed by a US
missile destroyer “drive by” of one of China’s new fortified
atolls. While RT picked a good title theme of the honeymoon being
over, lots of married couples can tell you that does not mean the
relationship is on the rocks.
China
still holds a pile of US Treasury bonds, and has the largest
long-term infrastructure plan in the world in motion, not the US. Its
military expenditures are focused on defense, which is much cheaper
than offense; and that leaves the saved money to go into
infrastructure capital spending, which many would view as enhancing
one’s defense even more by building a strong long term economy.
I
took a gamble here with this RT interview, with my strong emphasis on
the theatrical side of the US-China island spat, and even the N.
Korea “threat” itself. But we have all been here before, with the
puffed-up threat baloney, and I don’t see much commentary on it,
even in alternative media. My point was not to trivialize the
dispute, but to spotlight the US addiction to its bogeyman threat
hustle of the American people.
N.
Korea’s offer to end missile testing simply if the US and S. Korea
ended their big joint maneuvers they hold every year, something that
the NKs rightfully deem to be a major ongoing provocation. The offer
was ignored not only by the US, but western media, also. When it was
followed by the NKs saying they would begin talks with no
qualifications at all, that also was ignored.
What
we got instead was the age-old con of demanding something you know
the other party cannot agree to, so the refusal can be spun to a
distracted public as posing a threat. The NKs would be out of their
minds to give away their missile testing card on the front end…for
nothing.
But
that is where Mr. “Art of the Deal” has put us, still not
understanding that being President of the US is not a real estate
deal that he can put into bankruptcy, or a reality TV show. I have
been telling him this for some time, but unfortunately my record for
presidents taking my advice has not been good.
However,
I have put it on the record, as has Gordon so many times; so it is
there to look back on in retrospect when the smoke clears and we can
see what is still standing amid the ashes if the game playing spirals
out of control… JD ]
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*
It
seems that Gunboat Diplomacy is still in style
– First
aired … July
2nd, 2017 –
China
has sent military vessels and warplanes to
“warn off” USS Stethem, a guided-missile destroyer, that sailed
near a disputed island in the South China Sea, according to Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang.
“Under
the pretext of ‘freedom of navigation,’ the US side once again
sent a military vessel into China’s territorial waters off the
Xisha Islands without China’s approval,” the spokesperson said
in a statement, adding that such US behavior “violated Chinese
law and relevant international law, infringed upon China’s
sovereignty, and disrupted the peace, security and order of the
relevant waters.”
“China dispatched
military vessels and fighter planes in response to warn off the US
vessel,” the statement reads.
“The
Chinese side is dissatisfied with, and opposed to, the relevant
behavior of the US side,” Lu added, calling the US warplane’s
maneuvers a “serious political and military provocation.” He
said that the US is “deliberately stirring up troubles in the
South China Sea, as well as running in the opposite direction from
countries in the region who aspire for stability, cooperation and
development.”
The
US Navy did not officially confirm the operation. The US Pacific
Fleet spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Matt Knight, told Fox News that the fleet
conducts “routine
and regular FONOPs, as we have done in the past and will continue to
do in the future,” without
specifically mentioning the Sunday incident.
However,
an unidentified US Defense Department official earlier told Reuters
that the US Navy destroyer USS Stethem came within 12 nautical miles
of Triton Island, which is a part of the Paracel Islands located in
the South China Sea between China and Vietnam.
The
head of US Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris, recently criticized
China’s activity in the region. “China
is using its military and economic power to erode the rules-based
international order,”
he said in a speech delivered on Wednesday in Brisbane during the
joint US-Australian military exercises. “Fake islands should not be
believed by real people,” he added, as reported by Fox News.
The
Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based
think tank, said in its recent report that “Beijing
has undertaken substantial upgrades of its military infrastructure in
the Paracels”
and particularly started building new facilities on Triton Island.
It
was the second such operation conducted by the US during Donald
Trump’s presidency. On May 24, the US Navy guided-missile
destroyer, the USS Dewey, came within 12 miles of the Mischief Reef
in the Spratly Islands – another disputed archipelago that lies in
the southern part of the South China Sea.
At
that time, the Chinese Defense Ministry also sent two frigates to
“warn off” the US vessel and said that it was “firmly opposed
to the US behavior of showing force and boosting regional
militarization.”
The
Paracel Islands are contested by China, Taiwan and Vietnam while the
Spratlys are also additionally claimed by the Philippines, Malaysia
and Brunei. China claims sovereignty over a large part of the South
China Sea, a region crucial for China’s maritime trade.
Paracel
Islands
China has already
built runways, aircraft hangars, radar sites and hardened
surface-to-air missile shelters on its artificially-created islands
in the region, according to photos analyzed by the Washington-based
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Beijing’s
actions have sparked concerns in Washington and the US Navy, which is
fiercely opposed to this Chinese initiative, has deployed additional
warships in the disputed zone, conducted maneuvers near China’s
artificial islands, and flown over them, claiming it has been done in
the interest of the “freedom
of navigation.”
In
response, China called Washington’s involvement in the dispute
the “greatest” threat
to the region.
In
early June, China and the US both held exercises involving air and
navy forces, in another episode of confrontation over the disputed
South China Sea. The US sent two B-1B Lancer supersonic bombers to
fly a 10-hour mission from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, which was
conducted in conjunction with the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class
guided-missile destroyer the USS Sterett.
A
day earlier, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted
its own air and navy exercise off Hong Kong. The patrol mission
involved three helicopters and two Type 056 corvettes, the Qinzhou
and the Huizhou, the Defense Ministry reported.
Jim
Dean, managing editor at Veterans today, told RT he believes
Washington is getting embroiled in a territorial dispute it has no
part in as part of a PR game against China.
“This
is a part of a sparring campaign that I think is going to go on for
quite a while,” Dean said, adding that the latest incident,
which comes on the heels of a US arms deal with Taiwan, is “a part
of turning the screws” by the US administration.
“It
[territorial dispute] really does not involve the United States,
because it’s on the other side of the world, but the US likes to
show the flag,” Dean noted, arguing that the US is inflaming
tensions there “just to get the publicity that we can do it
and we will continue doing it.”
The
incident might be also a deliberate move intended to provoke China
into deploying more forces in the South China Sea, in order to
justify a US response, according to Dean.
“We
really have some theater going on with this, and this all is going to
go on for some time,” he said.
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