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Chinese Leaders Threaten To Sell US Debt As Punishment For Taiwanese Arms Sale Vince Veneziani Feb. 9, 2010, 3:12 PM The doomsday scenario we've feared since World War II has arrived. In response to the United States' latest arms sale to Taiwan, the Chinese military has suggested that China sell off some of the U.S. debt it owns to give the U.S. an economic punch of sorts. Reuters: Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defense spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to...

The doomsday scenario we've feared since World War II has arrived. In response to the United States' latest arms sale to Taiwan, the Chinese military has suggested that China sell off some of the U.S. debt it owns to give the U.S. an economic punch of sorts. Reuters: Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defense spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan. The calls for broad retaliation over the planned U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island came from officers at...

LONDON (Commodity Online): In the last few months, we have been reading predictions and forecasts from bullion analysts who insisted and argued that gold price is booming to touch $2,000, $3,000, $5,000, $10,000 per ounce in the coming years. These forecasts have caught people’s attention who have been pouring money into gold and other precious metals all these months. But after the big surge of gold price to $1,227 per ounce some two months back, the yellow metal has been climbing down the ladder of speculation. Despite speculators going on the 'boom-in-gold-price predictions', the yellow metal price has been sinking...

Flush with cash despite the global economic downturn, China’s sovereign wealth fund quietly snapped up more than $9 billion worth of shares last year in some of the biggest American corporations, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup. Although most of the stakes were small, China Investment Corp., the government’s $300 billion investment fund, now owns stock in some of the best-known American brands, including Apple, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola and Visa. The detailed list, which contained holdings totaling $9.6 billion as of Dec. 31, was disclosed Friday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission;...

China on Tuesday warned US President Barack Obama against meeting the Dalai Lama, saying it would "seriously undermine" Sino-US ties -- the latest salvo in an escalating row between the two powers. Beijing also said no progress had been made in the latest round of talks between Chinese officials and envoys of the Buddhist monk, saying the two sides remain "sharply divided" on the future of the Himalayan region. The comments came after the first negotiations between the two sides in more than a year, which wrapped up at the weekend. The envoys of the Dalai Lama returned to their...

China on Tuesday warned US President Barack Obama against meeting the Dalai Lama, saying it would "seriously undermine" Sino-US ties -- the latest salvo in an escalating row between the two powers. Beijing also said no progress had been made in the latest round of talks between Chinese officials and envoys of the Buddhist monk, saying the two sides remain "sharply divided" on the future of the Himalayan region.

The Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) annual threat assessment on China finds that the country is strengthening its ability to conduct military operations along its periphery on its own terms. According to the report, which was published in March, 2009, but was just declassified in Jan. 2010: “(China) is building and fielding sophisticated weapon systems and testing new doctrines that it believes will allow it to prevail in regional conflicts and also counter traditional U.S. military advantages. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is increasingly building its own sophisticated aircraft, surface combatants, submarines and weapon systems while still purchasing select systems from...

China's indignant reaction to the announcement of U.S. plans to sell weapons to Taiwan appears to be in keeping with a new triumphalist attitude from Beijing that is worrying governments and analysts across the globe. From the Copenhagen climate change conference to Internet freedom to China's border with India, China observers have noticed a tough tone emanating from its government, its representatives and influential analysts from its state-funded think tanks. Calling in U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman on Saturday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said the United States would be responsible for "serious repercussions" if it did not reverse the...

China threatened to impose sanctions on U.S. arms firms and cut cooperation with Washington unless it cancels a $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, in an unprecedented move signalling Beijing's growing global power. China on Saturday bitterly denounced the Obama administration's announcement a day earlier that it planned to sell the package of weapons to Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing views as an illegitimate breakaway province. The dispute deepens the rifts between Beijing and Washington, also at odds over trade, currency, Tibet and the Internet. Beijing said it would sanction U.S. companies that sold arms to Taiwan, a break...

In this week's issue of Defense News , Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, warns, "Stagnation threatens U.S. arms superiority." After noting recent tests by Russia and China of new nuclear-armed missiles, Berman writes, Indeed, practically every declared nuclear weapon state is engaged in a serious modernization of its strategic arsenal. The United States, by contrast, has allowed its strategic infrastructure to atrophy since the end of the Cold War. The results of this neglect are striking, as scholars Bradley Thayer and Thomas Skypek have detailed in a pair of studies. America's ICBM force is aging...

Raytheon, the world's largest missile maker, has won a $1.1 billion order from Taiwan for new Patriot missile systems. The order covers an initial ground-system hardware contract valued at $965.6 million and a $134 million contract for spares. The order, according to a statement by Raytheon, will include advances in technology, improved man-machine interface and reduced lifecycle costs. The deal has been in the making since October 2008 when the U.S. Defense Department proposed a $6.46 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, including the most advanced Patriot anti-missile system. Raytheon said the new Patriot fire units will be produced in...

At a stroke the cold reality of China's attitude to the outside world was laid bare for all to see. Rather than being a partner that can be trusted to work with the West on issues of mutual concern, the Chinese have demonstrated that their default position is that Beijing's only real priority it to look after its own interests, whether it is enforcing its zero tolerance policy on drug abuse or refusing to cooperate with global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. China's self-centred approach to international affairs should come as no surprise to the British government. American President Barack...

Why did Chinese premier Wen Jiabao choose to publicly humiliate Barack Obama at Copenhagen? In their eyes, and those of much of the world, he has lost face, and with it, power and influence. While getting widespread play overseas, this story has been kept very quiet by our disinterested, nonpartisan media (I haven't seen it mentioned in any major U.S. outlet). After promising to meet the Messiah at 7:00 p.m., Premier Wen stiffed him in favor of a meeting with the leaders of India, South Africa, and Brazil. Rather than wait, a no-doubt infuriated Obama stalked into the room in...

Don't everybody thank me at once. Here's the Saturday Night Live skit featuring Obama and Jintao.

Indonesia to equip navy with Chinese-made missiles 16:40, December 22, 2009 Indonesia is going to equip its own navy's warships with missiles made in China so as to upgrade combat capabilities, Agus Suhartono, Indonesian Navy Chief of Staff Admiral said Monday. "We will continue to procure C-802 missiles from China after we test the weapon with good results,” he said adding that the Indonesian Navy was also negotiating with China to obtain C-705 missiles that were more slender in shape. C-705 "Both types of missile will be added to the armament of the navy’s fast patrol boats and Van Speijk...

Harder to buy US Treasuries Created: 2009-12-18 0:13:35 Author:Zhou Xin and Jason Subler IT is getting harder for governments to buy United States Treasuries because the US's shrinking current-account gap is reducing supply of dollars overseas, a Chinese central bank official said yesterday. The comments by Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, referred to the overall situation globally, not specifically to China, the biggest foreign holder of US government bonds. Chinese officials generally are very careful about commenting on the dollar and Treasuries, given that so much of its US$2.3 trillion reserves are tied to their...

COPENHAGEN | Found a seat at meeting, worked out key accord with ChinaWASHINGTON -- It was almost unthinkable. The president of the United States walked into a meeting of fellow world leaders, and there wasn't a chair for him, a sure sign he was not expected, maybe not even wanted. President Obama didn't pause, however. "I'm going to sit by my friend Lula," he said, moving toward Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. A Brazilian aide gave the U.S. president his chair, and Obama spent the next 80 minutes helping craft new requirements for disclosing efforts to fight global...

Senior US officials insist that President Barack Obama did not "crash" a secret Chinese meeting in the final dramatic hours of the Copenhagen climate change talks. They portrayed the President as pulling negotiations back from the brink of collapse on a day that veered between chaos and farce. Aides said that by standing up to the Chinese on the make-and-break issue of transparency, he helped force a deal, however flimsy. The President was desperate not to return to Washington empty-handed after his risky one-day dash to Denmark.

Hmm, did anyone notice the complete absence of mention of this story by the MSM? Times of India BEIJING: Describing Tibet as part of China, US President Barack Obama today supported the early resumption of talks between Beijing and representatives of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama. ( Watch Video ) "We did note that while we recognise that Tibet is part of the People's Republic of China, the United States supports the early resumption of dialogue" between the Dalai Lama's representatives and Beijing," Obama said after his meeting with Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. Chinese President Hu Jintao hailed...

<p>I guess that being a 'Citizen of the World' has hidden relatives all over the world.</p> <p>BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama took time out of his busy diplomatic schedule in China to meet with his half-brother, who lives in the southern part of the country -- but only for five minutes.</p>