Posted on 07/26/2005 10:32:35 PM PDT by LibWhacker
The 2005 US report on Chinese military power has a previously undisclosed part that says China has nine brigades armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the US, claims an article on a Web site which specializes on China's military weapons.
The article, carried by the Web site www.zgjunshi.com, claims that the unreleased part of the Pentagon report released July 19 says that three of the nine brigades are equipped with Dong Feng-31 land-based mobile strategic missiles, with the other six armed with Dong Feng-5 ICBMs.
In addition, China's 094 nuclear submarines, armed with strategic missiles, have undertaken many secret sea trials.
These submarines could become China's new, less expensive way of deploying ICBMs, the article quotes the undisclosed part of the Pentagon report as saying.
China plans to have six Type 094 nuclear-powered submarines armed with strategic ballistic missiles and four Type 093 nuclear attack submarines, so that the nation would have the capability to launch a second wave of nuclear strikes, according to the Web site.
It also claims that the US is concerned about China's development of cruise missiles and that currently China has two brigades equipped with these missiles.
...and at the end of the day: We still have more.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1446084/posts
Historic breakthrough for India-US relations
BBC ^ | Tuesday, 19 July, 2005, 08:11 GMT 09:11 UK | By Seema Sirohi
Posted on 07/19/2005 1:28:38 PM EDT by Gengis Khan
By Seema Sirohi in Washington
Mr Singh (left) and President Bush
India and the United States have made a historic breakthrough in their relations, striking a deal on civilian nuclear co-operation.
The deal recognises India as a responsible nuclear power entitled to benefits and gains denied for three decades.
The announcement amounts to a huge policy change by the Bush administration which is likely to signal to other nuclear powers that India's situation and position is unique.
It is both a moral and a substantive victory for India which has argued for years against the discriminatory nature of the nuclear world order and insisted on maintaining its nuclear weapons status.
The unprecedented agreement came after President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met at the White House on Monday.
'Exceeded expectations'
The two leaders carried forward their determination to be global partners in a wide and varied agenda that stretches from fighting terrorism and proliferation on the one hand and promoting democracy and peace on the other.
India's Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran described the outcome as one that "exceeded expectations".
What we have done is to develop a broad, global partnership of the like that we've not seen with India since its founding in 1947
Nicholas Burns, US undersecretary of state
The agreement would allow nuclear fuel for India's Tarapur reactor. The US helped build the reactor but later reneged on contractual obligations to supply fuel for it because India refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Officials said that President Bush's personal commitment and intervention was crucial in pushing the US bureaucracy to set aside their entrenched positions and look at India with new eyes because of the changing global environment.
Apart from the nuclear bargain, India and the US unleashed a series of new initiatives which showcase the broad nature of the new relationship.
As undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns said: "What we've done is to develop with the Indian government a broad, global partnership of the likes that we've not seen with India since India's founding in 1947.
The two leaders agreed a series of new initiatives
"This has consequences for American interests in South Asia, but also has larger consequences for what we are trying to do globally, in terms of promoting democracy, fighting terrorism, fighting HIV/Aids - and all of those issues were discussed by the two leaders."
New love
The official enthusiasm is matched by the show the Americans put on for their new love - India.
A grand welcome ceremony at the White House with full honours, a banquet - only the fifth in as many years of the Bush presidency - and complete and total attention to showcasing the new relationship.
India's ambassador to the US, Ranendra Sen, a great champion of better relations, has worked behind the scene to bring new ideas and initiatives to the table as has the US ambassador to India, David Mulford.
A new forum of chief executive officers was announced where 10 top brains from both India and the US will sit together and think of ways to energise the economic relationship.
At least 10 new initiatives were launched, ranging from ways to spread education in rural India to improving agriculture through linking research organisations of the two countries.
But the nuclear deal was the highlight of the visit.
The deal recognises India's unique position as a nuclear state with rights and benefits which is outside the club of the five permanent nuclear powers.
It is expected to lead to changes in the global nuclear order and accommodation of India.
Nuclear commitment
President Bush agreed to "work to achieve full civil nuclear energy co-operation with India" and work with the US Congress to "adjust US laws and policies" and work with other nuclear powers to change "the international regimes" to allow this new path to be charted.
Condoleezza Rice is credited with improving the relationship with India
He made a commitment to invite India to participate in international nuclear research, something that India has demanded for years.
In exchange India will ensure that its military and civilian nuclear programmes are separate, place its civilian reactors under international safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency and continue India's moratorium on nuclear testing
It will also maintain strict controls on all nuclear technology and observe guidelines of the Missile Technology Control Regime and other guidelines observed by nuclear powers.
The agreement shows the seriousness of the Bush Administration's commitment to not just improving but "transforming" relations with India, the emerging global power on the world scene.
Keeping a keen eye on today's geo-politics, the US is strengthening relations with key countries in Asia to counter the rise of China.
While China is never publicly mentioned, it is often the underlying subtext and the reason for the Bush administration.
India is nuclear weapons-capable, as is its main rival, Pakistan
But it is President Bush himself, and his key advisers such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who began the second term with a determination to cut through the fog of suspicion, old habits, older policies and defeat the powerful non-proliferation lobby in Washington which has long opposed any accommodation of India in this area.
The nuclear deal was not an easy one to strike and negotiations went on until the very last minute.
But in the end a smiling Mr Singh was able to say at a joint press conference with President Bush that the nuclear issue had been resolved to his "great satisfaction".
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1448659/posts
India, US make a tectonic move
The Australian ^ | 23rd July 2005 | Greg Sheridan
Posted on 07/22/2005 6:26:33 PM EDT by naturalman1975
THOUGH all Australian eyes were on John Howard in Washington this week, the big action in the global capital was taking place with another, altogether more unlikely, prime minister. In one of those moments when you can feel the tectonic plates of geo-strategic power shifting, US President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were transforming the global equations.
But first a little background. Some little time ago a senior US defence official received an admiral of the Indian navy. The Indian admiral explained that his country's military doctrine envisaged in due course Indian nuclear-armed submarines permanently in the Pacific Ocean. That would be unacceptable to the US, said the American defence man (or words to that effect).
The Indian made two replies. First, he said, the Pacific doesn't belong exclusively to you and we can sail there if we want to. But also, consider the effect that our having nuclear subs in the Pacific would have. It would mean that the cities of northern China, presently beyond the range of our land-based missiles, would be covered by our nuclear deterrent.
Well, of course, said the American, in that case we can probably make a deal. And what a deal they have made.
Singh is one of the most consequential, and in his way attractive, democratic leaders of the past 30 years. It was he, as finance minister, who 15 years ago set India on the path of revolutionary economic liberalisation, from which all of India's subsequent rapid growth and new power have flown. Now, as Prime Minister, he is cementing the geo-strategic transformation of India. As he said in his joint press conference with Bush in Washington: "The President and I share the goal of making this one of the principal relationships for each of our countries."
But it was Singh's speech to a joint session of the US Congress that was most masterful. It was beautifully crafted for an American audience. The Congress was packed. Both sides of US politics have bought into this relationship in the biggest way. And Singh touched every right note for the Americans - India and the US are common democracies, one the oldest democracy, one the largest. They are united in the war on terror. At the press conference Singh lavished praise on Bush for his leadership in the war on terror. He told Congress that the two nations shared values and interests. India's success, he said, was in the national interest of the US.
One of the delightful touches in the speech was that it completely omitted mention of Pakistan, the most exquisite punishment an Indian leader in Washington could possibly administer to his troublesome neighbour. It is a sign of the decoupling of India and Pakistan in the Western mind, and the way in which India is moving forward on a much higher economic and strategic plane than Pakistan.
Singh emphasised that what he and Bush have embarked on is a broad-ranging partnership, ranging from IT investment and agriculture to heightened defence co-operation. Astoundingly, one of Singh's greatest applause lines was: "I would like to reiterate that India's track record in nuclear non-proliferation is impeccable."
It is certainly true that India has never given nuclear technology to anyone else, but India has also never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and, less than a decade ago, earned great US and international condemnation for testing a nuclear weapon. Singh's Washington visit is the emphatic end point of any sense of illegitimacy of India as a nuclear power.
This is especially evident in the agreement by the US to begin serious nuclear technology co-operation with India, confined to its non-military energy sector. This is a fundamental turning point. The new US-India partnership is not solely about balancing China but there can be little doubt that India would not have got this agreement without the China factor weighing so heavily in the US.
Clearly, the US sees India as a critical strategic counterweight to China. This does not involve Washington crudely "playing the Indian card". India is too powerful and independent for that. No one can play the Indian card except the Indians. But just by being there, being economically successful, modernising its military, demonstrating the prestige of democracy in a big, developing country and embracing such a close relationship with the US, New Delhi has fulfilled almost every wish Washington could have for it.
The other strategic counterweight to China is Japan, an even bigger economic colossus and also an Asian democracy.
This is a relationship that India and the US want with almost equal ardour. It is bipartisan in both countries. The moment of truth came at India's last election, last year. The more nationalist BJP government had pioneered a new approach to the US and it was unclear whether the new Congress Government of Singh would maintain this.
As it happened, shortly before the election I was in New Delhi and had the chance to visit Natwar Singh (no relation to the Prime Minister), now the Foreign Minister, at his home. A charming and formidable man, Natwar Singh was nonetheless full of old-fashioned non-aligned movement rhetoric and I wondered whether he would, if foreign minister, take India back to the old days of denouncing the US. That question has been definitively answered in the negative. That's why we can see this shift as a genuine paradigm change.
Oddly enough, one of the more difficult areas of US-India collaboration will be conventional defence co-operation. This is essentially because India still finds US defence equipment expensive. There are only four sources of defence hi-tech: the US, Europe, Russia and Israel. India is developing a substantial defence relationship with Israel. This is almost as remarkable as the US relationship, given that the governing Congress Party traditionally represents India's huge Muslim minority and has traditionally made a lot of its solidarity with the Palestinians.
India was disappointed that, at the moment at least, the US has decided not to support immediate plans to expand the UN Security Council. But the Indians certainly weren't going to let that get in the way of the new relationship. With two such big and intensely democratic nations as the US and India, there will always be disagreements. The relationship will require continued high-level attention on both sides.
It almost (but not quite) goes without saying that the opportunities for Australia in the new US-India strategic entente are entrancing. I hope we're up to taking advantage of them.
The great equalizer: we have a helluva lot more.
Thank you President Clinton. (Tongue firmly in cheek)
More bluster. The minute China launches a nuke in our direction, they will be laid waste by the following morning. They aren't stupid, they know that. If they were really going to initiate a nuclear war, they would've tried already.
Attention on deck.
This is why, in terms of nuclear war, it won't matter who has the bigger arsenal...it will only matter who fires first.
China can rattle their sabers all they want. It's about time people saw them for the threat they are to the free world.
There's just one thing the Chinese must know about us: the U.S. beat the 18th-century world's military superpower; we prevailed against an invasion by said superpower and survived our own civil war intact in the 19th century; we ended not one but two world wars; and we vanquished our only global opponent without firing a shot in anger at their motherland.
With all that in mind, if the Chinese want to screw with us, they do so at their own peril.
Those type 094 subs will never make it out of Chinese Littoral waters... The 7th fleet will assure that... The best the ChiComs have is at best polaris/poseidon class by comparison (Trident and Seawolf class stuff can detect such a sub like it is a boombox on maximum bass in an airtight sound test room.)
There's just one thing the Chinese must know about us: the U.S. beat the 18th-century world's military superpower; we prevailed against an invasion by said superpower and survived our own civil war intact in the 19th century; we ended not one but two world wars; and we vanquished our only global opponent without firing a shot in anger at their motherland.With all that in mind, if the Chinese want to screw with us, they do so at their own peril.
But don't forget that China has already fought us to a standstill in North Korea (a Chinese proxy), and (in the eyes of many) defeated us in Vietnam (North Vietnam was another Chinese proxy). China no doubt sees itself as 2-for-2 against us. Also, they see us having trouble subduing a bunch of two-bit islamic terrorists in Iraq, and standing by while Iran goes nuclear.
Who knows what sorts of lessons they're drawing from all of this? One thing is beginning to become clear, though: they're not going to believe that we'll go up against them when they decide it's time to gobble up Taiwan. And if we don't lift a finger to help Taiwan, what other countries in the world will put any faith in our 'security guarantees'? Very few, I'd guess. Everybody else will realize that they have to make an accommodation with China because, if they don't, they, too, might get steamrolled.
It's a tough few decades we're heading into, and it's best that we brace for tough times.
Of course, perhaps the American electorate will come to believe that only Hillary can save it from oblivion. If that day comes, the sh*t will have really hit the fan.
and if a democrat is in office at that time?
LOL
She will negotiate our surrender in exchange for gaining the title of Chairman Of The Peoples' Republic Of New York, whereupon a list of Republicans will be distributed so that they can be rounded up and made into potstickers.
Thank you Bill Clinton. I hope it was worth it.
Launch one, I dare You. Well shoot it down then god bless..
What pisses me off is we read this crap like every day and yet EVERY thing we buy has a little "Made In China" sticker on it. Don't say later that we didn't ask for it.
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