Posted on 01/24/2017 6:48:12 AM PST by blam
January 24, 2017
The latest diplomatic spat between the US and China erupted overnight, when China said on Tuesday it had "irrefutable" sovereignty over disputed islands in the South China Sea after White House spokesman Sean Spicer vowed to defend "international territories" in the strategic waterway. Spicer's first official comments on Monday signaled a sharp departure from years of cautious U.S. handling of China's assertive pursuit of territorial claims in Asia.
"The U.S. is going to make sure that we protect our interests there," Spicer said when asked if Trump agreed with comments by his secretary of state nominee, Rex Tillerson. Two weeks ago, Tillerson said China should not be allowed access to islands it has built in the contested South China Sea.
"It's a question of if those islands are in fact in international waters and not part of China proper, then yeah, we're going to make sure that we defend international territories from being taken over by one country," Spicer said.
This led to the now traditional escalating Chinese response, when, as cited by Reuters, the country's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing on Tuesday "the United States is not a party to the South China Sea dispute".
She added that China's sovereignty over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea was "irrefutable" and said that China was also dedicated to protecting freedom of navigation and wants talks with nations directly involved to find a peaceful solution.
"We urge the United States to respect the facts, speak and act cautiously to avoid harming the peace and stability of the South China Sea," Hua said.
"Our actions in the South China Sea are reasonable and fair. No matter what changes happen in other countries...
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
The Chinese are not dealing with Obama any more... they should quickly learn NOT TO make public threats.
Dear China,
Your pansy is gone.
Shut up.
Donald
Oh China, You guys don’t know what you are getting yourselves into do you?
How strategic are those islands? They’re like little dots in the ocean. One good storm, and they’re washed away.
I fail to see the advantage of them.
Just cruise by them, fly over them and in short ignore them.
Nice dam you have there. Be a shame if anything happened to it.
Powder keg - instant escalation possible w/ China vs U.S.A, Taiwan, Japan.
Recent military drills by Taiwan; bomber flyovers of Taiwan by China; USS Reagan carrier group in Japan. Keep an eye out.
Not flyovers....more like, fly-arounds.
Hahahaha...
Hahahaha...
China can be brought to it’s knees if US forbids getting screwed every year with $500,000,000,000 trade deficit. The laid off Chinese factory workers will be in bigger revolt than ever.
Yes, caution is always a useful strategy, especially when you are dealing with a new and much more forceful set of circumstances.
China should try it.
When you find yourself out on a limb, stop sawing away at it.
Those islands give much needed port space for their Navy. Also, it is like the story of letting one foot of camel in the tent. Where does it stop?
A Coolie revolt wouldn’t be hard to engineer.
Yes, not precise “flyovers”, but more like “fly-throughs” between islands owned by Japan and other “fly-adjacent” to territory of Taiwan. The intent is to stir up trouble & escalate tensions.
—— Dec 11, 2016
BEIJING: China patrolled the waters of a series of hotly contested islands on Sunday, a day after staging a flyover of two strategically important waterways near Taiwan and Japan.
However, the Chinese government said both these weekend exercises were routine. The exercises come shortly after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen spoke to US President-elect Donald Trump, in a call strongly denounced by China, which considers Taiwan to be Chinese territory.
At least 10 Chinese planes on Saturday flew over the Miyako Strait between two Japanese islands, Taiwan’s defence ministry said in a statement. Four planes also flew over the nearby Bashi Channel adjacent to Taiwan, according to the statement.
Think expansion of China's 200 mi!e costal zone limit and the ability to militarily interdict the South China Sea lanes. Trump would be willing to try and protect freedom of the seas but is the US Navy up to the task (readiness) at this point in time.
“How strategic are those islands? They’re like little dots in the ocean. One good storm, and they’re washed away.
I fail to see the advantage of them.”
I think it was there attempt to “test the waters” with Obama. The asshat does nothing. So they move in. If Hillary were in, they’d take more.
I think their experiment is over.
I don’t think there’s an issue until they take action against us, like they when they stole the research sub.
Trump is going to free us up from being energy dependent.
I think he’s going to work with China to take North Korea out of the equation. I read where he’d like to see the two Koreas united again. Wouldn’t that be something.
Wow. Had not thought of the dam. Half a billion people drowned. Interesting.
I suspect a “strong show” of a Naval “cruise by” is forthcoming. The prior admin used a single US navy destroyer to pass through South China Sea waters.
A much stronger show of a Naval “cruise by” would be using a Carrier Group.
Even though this action is not a formal “blockade” (act of war), the Chinese military may go non-linear and fire missiles.
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