U.S., China Scoreless After One

National Review ^ | November 30, 2013 | Michael Auslin

[Cincinatus' Wife]

".............Within 24 hours of Beijing’s announcement of the new ADIZ and rules, civilian airlines from Singapore, Australia, South Korea, and Japan accepted the new conditions. This was a prudent move, given that the lives of their thousands of passengers are suddenly in the hands of 25-year-old Chinese fighter pilots with no record of dealing with fast-moving crises. Yet it also was a huge victory for China, giving legitimacy to its claims to have administrative control over huge swaths of the skies of Asia. Again, if reports are to be believed, Japan requests information only if undocumented flights appear to be approaching Japanese territory, and not simply flying through the airspace. China’s more intrusive demands were quickly met with resignation by most civilian airlines in Asia. Later, Japanese carriers ANA and JAL were pressured by Tokyo not to accept China’s demands, and so flew through parts of the zone without complying.

In a moment of true weakness, however, the Obama administration flailed at the ball, telling U.S. airliners to use their best judgment and do what they felt necessary to operate safely. This is a clear strikeout: The State Department should have categorically rejected Beijing’s new demands and told U.S. airliners that they would be escorted, if necessary, through the newly contested area. Instead, Washington seemed indecisive and all too ready to turn the other cheek when it came to the right of freedom of navigation for commercial aircraft. The fact that the State Department could not confirm whether the Chinese restrictions applied to commercial aircraft as well was irrelevant to the larger issue of free passage. China’s claim should have been flatly rejected out of the box.

.... Now the second inning begins,with Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to East Asia starting on Sunday. He’ll visit Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo....

[Cincinatus' Wife]

This is on tap when Biden is on Chinese soil:

A Chinese Long March rocket is scheduled to blast off to the Moon on Sunday evening at about 6pm British time carrying a small robotic rover that will touch down on to the lunar surface in about two weeks’ time

[BenLurkin]

P-Q4 ...

[Former Proud Canadian]

Joe Biden is up to bat with American prestige on the line? We are in BIG trouble.

[allendale]

The Chinese are demonstrating with their policies whether it be in Iran, Korea, flight zones, fishing and territorial rights, that they are the predominant power in Asia and absolutely abhor American involvement and interference in Asian affairs.As their economic power grows this message becomes ever more apparent.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Nov 2, 2013 - China reveals its ability to nuke the US: Government boasts about new submarine fleet capable of launching warheads at cities across the nation"

The Chinese government has revealed for the first time that it has nuclear submarines capable of attacking cities throughout the United States.

Last week, state-run Chinese news agencies - such as China Central TV, the People’s Daily, the Global Times, the PLA Daily, the China Youth Daily and the Guangmin Daily - ran identical reports about the 'awesomeness' of the People's Liberation Army's submarine force.

'This is the first time in 42 years since the establishment of our navy’s strategic submarine force that we reveal on such a large scale the secrets of our first-generation underwater nuclear force,' the Global Times said in a lengthy article titled 'China for the First Time Possesses Effective Underwater Nuclear Deterrence against the United States.'.....

[BenLurkin]

Meet the man responsible for modernizing Red China's nuke force:

[Don Corleone]

In a moment of true weakness, however, the Obama administration flailed at the ball, telling U.S. airliners to use their best judgment and do what they felt necessary to operate safely.

IOW he voted "Present" once again.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Clintoon is now worth $80 million.

[BarnacleCenturion]

“The State Department should have categorically rejected Beijing’s new demands and told U.S. airliners that they would be escorted, if necessary, through the newly contested area”

Bingo!

Jarrett and her clown are fools. The islands have effectively been surrendered to China. So what’s next? China sure as hell won’t stop there.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

We could escort our airliners thru the area with US jets. Assuming that we have any that will still fly and that the US can afford their fuel.

We also could approach the ChiComs on our knees and kiss their asses or perform other sexual acts so they would not hurt us.

[onedoug]

soetoro lives for the second choice.

[Zhang Fei]

The Chinese are demonstrating with their policies whether it be in Iran, Korea, flight zones, fishing and territorial rights, that they are the predominant power in Asia and absolutely abhor American involvement and interference in Asian affairs.As their economic power grows this message becomes ever more apparent.

That's not the issue here. Nobody cares who the predominant power is, as long as that power is an honest broker that does not have territorial claims that encroach upon the territory of regional states. Those countries are about to discover the reason that China has, over thousands of years, been viewed with great wariness in the Far East. While Obama's weakness encourages Chinese adventurism, it's also true that China's neighbors need a wake-up call, and significant boosts to their defense budgets. These countries have been free-riding on Uncle Sam's back for decades, and it's time they realized that American support fluctuates depending on American public opinion. And that public opinion is probably at a record low vis-a-vis defending America's military dependents around the globe, given their near non-existent support for our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled with a significant amount of jeering from the sidelines.

[RayChuang88]

China has a small number of DF-5A missiles (around 20) that could threaten US cities in a countervalue (striking a population centers) nuclear strategy. But the US Navy possesses Ohio-class submarines operating in the eastern Pacific that could strike at Chinese targets in both a countervalue and counterforce (striking at military targets) fashions.

[Zhang Fei]

China has a small number of DF-5A missiles (around 20) that could threaten US cities in a countervalue (striking a population centers) nuclear strategy. But the US Navy possesses Ohio-class submarines operating in the eastern Pacific that could strike at Chinese targets in both a countervalue and counterforce (striking at military targets) fashions.

A number of civilian analysts at Georgetown have suggested that China has thousands of warheads capable of reaching the US. Why would they conceal this capability, given that deterrence is traditionally a major reason for developing a large nuclear force? I have to wonder if they're gearing up for a surprise first strike, after they've crippled our surveillance and command and control capabilities.

[GeronL]

Airliners are civilians, they should probably ID themselves to anyone that asks just as a matter of course.

Military aircraft should not play China’s game though

[RayChuang88]

China may have somewhere over 1,000 nuclear bombs, but most of those are gravity bombs dropped from airplanes. There are relatively few nuclear ballistic missiles in Chinese service, most of those for countervalue strikes.

[Zhang Fei]

China may have somewhere over 1,000 nuclear bombs, but most of those are gravity bombs dropped from airplanes. There are relatively few nuclear ballistic missiles in Chinese service, most of those for countervalue strikes.

From the article:

They spent three years translating secret military documents, scouring the internet and studying satellite images for clues – and concluded that China may have as many as 3,000 missiles, compared with general estimates of between 80 and 400.

My assumption is that if we couldn't tell whether Saddam had nukes, we probably don't know how many nukes China has. Given the current $166b Chinese military budget, I suspect they have a lot more than just about every other country apart from the US and Russia. The articles seem to indicate that instead of silos, they're built rail-mounted ICBM's housed in tunnels dug into mountains.

[jpsb]

If I am not mistaken they demonstrated their ability back in Nov 2010 off the cali coast.

[RayChuang88]

I think China needs shorter range missiles as a counter to South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and ESPECIALLY India. That's where most of the ballistic missile forces are concentrated. Their small number of longer range ballistic missile forces are more in the countervalue category, similar to the British and French nuclear forces during the height of the Cold War.