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is just chest-thumping hubris. The SCS is a Chinese lake in the sense that most of the 5 trillion trade that goes through it is BOUND for CHINA!!!! So, the US is defending the freedom for navigation for China-bound trade FROM China itself???????What a freaking joke.
The Filipino, Vietnamese, Thai, Malaysian, etc claim for "freedom of navigation" in the SCS
Fixed that....
Last edited by Oldhag1; 01-31-2016 at 08:30 AM..
Reason: Do not "fix" quotes within a quote attributed to the poster. It is like putting words in their mouth.
It's a little more complicated than you've been led to believe. Bashing the U.S. again is stupid but convenient, I understand.
not a fan of the U.S.foreign policy but it's not all dark and evil as you would be led to believe. Again, not a fan but not blind either.
Bash the US? I am American. But that doesn't make me "Go USA #1" all day.
It is as clear as day here. The US is using this straw man excuse of freedom of navigation, and the fear of those puny SE asian countries like the filipines and vietnam to try to get into the SCS and block China's effort to protect its own vital sea lane. Yes, the SCS is not an international sea lane, it's a vital CHINESE sea lane, and the US wants unimpeded access to it so that it can choke China whenever it wants. The vietnamese and the filipinos are just pawns for the US to use against China.
It's just bad precedent. Go out in the middle of international waters somewhere, build and island, and claim it's part of your country. I don't think so.
is just chest-thumping hubris. The SCS is a Chinese lake in the sense that most of the 5 trillion trade that goes through it is BOUND for CHINA!!!! So, the US is defending the freedom for navigation for China-bound trade FROM China itself???????What a freaking joke.
As it's stated above, it's not a China vs. US issue, it's China vs. Every Other Country in Southeast Asia issue.
It's not all about trade navigation, if one wanted to control trade navigation with China one could close the Straight of Malacca with practically a fishing net and ruin China overnight. No - oil is in that sea, over 10 billion barrels worth. And that is what it's all about. Oil platforms and drilling.
As it's stated above, it's not a China vs. US issue, it's China vs. Every Other Country in Southeast Asia issue.
It's not all about trade navigation, if one wanted to control trade navigation with China one could close the Straight of Malacca with practically a fishing net and ruin China overnight. No - oil is in that sea, over 10 billion barrels worth. And that is what it's all about. Oil platforms and drilling.
Guess what folks, you want to talk about claiming island out of nothing? Then, first check who started all this building island business...it was the viets and the filipinos 20 years ago. They are just bad at it because after 20 years at it, all they have to show are some rickety mudflats in the middle of the sea. Once China started doing exactly what they were doing for 20 years...boom, in just a few years you have a set of huge islands with jumbo jet rated runways. You can't blame the Chinese for their engineering capabilities. The viets and the filipinos are just incompetent and now they are complaining that China is grabbing these islands. They should blame themselves for being so incompetent.
As far as oil and such, same thing. The viets have been drilling all over the SCS for years. They just can't build any decent oil rigs and platforms like China can and so they are whining now that the massive Chinese rigs are going to topple their little crappy pho-wells.
The US flying missions are even less than meaningless. China has these shiny new airfields where fighter jets will land soon. The US will waste precious fuel sailing ships around those islands because China doesnt care...and the SE minnows will keep whining.
Character assasination of entire countries/cultures is a lame tactic for trying to win an argument. Does any nation have the right to build islands in international waters and then claim them as part of their land area (with accompanying "coastal" marine zones now considered part of that country as well)? I would say no, even if that country is the great, powerful, virile, and all-wise Chinese state (wink, wink).
US Will Push Harder On Chinese Territorial Claims: PACOM
At Center for Security and International Studies forum in Washington, head of Pacific Command Admiral Harris said China is pretty rigid in their view of their ownership of the islands in the South China sea and all the resources that can be gained from them [e.g. oil, gas, and fisheries]". In a trip last fall to China, he said, "I made clear my view, my personal view, that those islands do not belong to China and that the land reclamation activities [i.e. island building] were increasing the tensions in the region and the Chinese actions were provocative & we debated that quite strenuously."
Harris did not expect tensions to let up. Yes, he continues to work on reducing tensions with the People’s Liberation Army. Yes, China contributes positively to global concerns like counter-piracy. Yes, China is halting its island building in the South China Sea.
Retired Navy Capt Hendrix & active-duty Cdr Armstrong in their Center for a New American Security study said that ships on presence duties are constantly performing one mission or another: exercises with friendly nations, showing resolve to hostile ones, building goodwill with humanitarian assistance and port visits, training their own crews in any available moment, so on. But naval THEORISTS typically focus on fleet battles, wartime convoys, and commerce raiding, not operations that stop short of violence. The theory suggests that the more interactions there are between nations, the more opportunities there are to demonstrate national interests: what you stand for and perhaps more importantly, what you will not stand for, Interactions allow nations to bleed off tensions continuously rather than infrequently and catastrophically.
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