Congressional Report: Chance of Military Conflict with China Increasing

Not a surprise to me, but worth noting. And at least there's some attention being paid to China's progressively aggressive behavior.

From The Washington Free Beacon:

China’s decades-long buildup of strategic and conventional military forces is shifting the balance of power in Asia in Beijing’s favor and increasing the risk of a conflict, according to a forthcoming report by a congressional China commission. 

China’s military has greatly expanded its air and naval forces and is sharply increasing its missile forces, even while adopting a more hostile posture against the United States and regional allies in Asia, states a late draft of the annual report of the bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. 

As a result, “the potential for security miscalculation in the region is rising,” the report said, using the euphemism for a conflict or shootout between Chinese forces and U.S. forces or those of its regional allies. 

The report paints an alarming picture of China’s growing aggressiveness and expanding power, including development of two new stealth jets, the first deployment of a naval expeditionary amphibious group to the Indian Ocean, and aerial bombing exercises held in Kazakhstan. 

China’s communist government also views the United States as its main adversary—despite strong trade and financial links between the two countries, the report says.

Yes, thank you for finally acknowledging that Beijing sees America as an adversary, if not enemy. They have had this view for decades. I guess we need to send Hilary Clinton over there with a big ol' red "Reset" button, huh?

Other key findings of the report include:

• Chinese President Xi Jinping has made China’s missile forces the “core strength” strategic deterrence.
• Chinese defense spending will continue to fund an acceleration of the military modernization for the next five years.
• A U.S. defense analyst said China’s efficient defense spending could render U.S. aircraft carriers difficult to defend. China could build 1,127 DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missiles for the cost of one U.S. aircraft carrier at $13.5 billion.
• China is using the estimated 235,000 Chinese students studying in the United States to conduct technology collection for the Beijing government.
• Joint ventures between Chinese and U.S. companies include a legal requirement for the Chinese firms to share technology with the Chinese military and intelligence services.

But hey, let's not worry about this. Russia is our good pal, Ebola will never come to America, the CDC hasn't been politicized to the point of mockery, we'll be able to keep our doctor/health insurance plan, ObamaCare will be super popular, and China will never be aggressive to ourselves or our allies in Asia. We have Obama's word on all of this.

That's enough. Right?

China and Iran to Engage in Joint Naval Exercises

I doubt this news will even garner a hashtag from our State Department

Great...

Well, I'm sure John Kerry will tell us that both China and Iran can fight ISIS. Won't that be great?

From The Washington Free Beacon:

Chinese warships have pulled up to docks at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf as the countries prepare to conduct joint naval exercises. 

“The voyage of the Chinese Army’s fleet of warships for the first time in Persian Gulf waters is aimed at joint preparation of Iran and China for establishing peace, stability, tranquility, and multilateral and mutual cooperation,” Admiral Amir Hossein Azad, commander of Iran’s First Naval Zone, said Saturday.  

[...]  

The visit is just one example of growing ties between China and Iran. A Chinese fleet commander, Rear Adm. Huang Xinjian, said the visit was intended to “deepen mutual understanding, and to enhance exchanges between our two countries’ navies.” 

“I’m sure that this visit will encourage the constant advancement of friendly cooperation between our two countries’ navies,” Huang said.

Well, both countries have terrible records on human rights and have expressed a rather "enthusiastic" desire to expand their territories. I'm sure they'll have all sorts of things to talk about.

As distressing as this news is, it's hardly unexpected. China has been an ally of Iran for many years, and has helped Iran enormously with its nuclear program-- there are Chinese nuclear teams in Iran for many years.

Watching our enemies train while the US dithers and reduces its military capabilities is very difficult. It turns out that "smart" diplomacy doesn't replace military might.

China Jails Anti-Corruption Activists

That's because China's whole government runs on corruption. The more the government controls the more it's open to bribes to dole out the rationed benefits. This has been proven to be the case in the Soviet Union, all its vassal states, China, North Korea, etc.

From The Washington Free Beacon article by Daniel Wiser:

Jinping pledged to target graft among both high- and low-level officials—whom he called “tigers” and “flies”—after he assumed power in 2013. However, Chinese authorities and courts have now imprisoned 14 activists who peacefully advocated for similar anti-corruption measures, such as disclosing the wealth of government officials. 

Zhang Lin, an activist from the eastern Anhui province, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison last week on charges of “gathering a crowd to disrupt order of a public place,” according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD). Zhang was initially detained in July 2013 after protesting the treatment of his daughter, who was barred from enrolling in an elementary school because of his activism. 

Zhang suffers from joint degeneration in his vertebrae, a dental disease, and an eye infection after years of previous detention, and he has been denied medical release multiple times. 

More activists could soon join Zhang in jail. Yang Maodong, more commonly known by his pen name Guo Feixiong, faces trial on Friday along with demonstrator Sun Desheng. Both could be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison on the same charge leveled at Zhang.

China is busily doing what China does best, talk a (relatively) good game to the public, and then imprison political rivals and dissidents...

Is it any wonder why people get nervous when Democrats start pining for a Chinese style of government so that "they can get things done." The idea of "getting things done" seems to be pretty much the reason behind every modern totalitarian government. So, what's not to admire?

China Denies Democracy in Hong Kong

Let's all remember when the Empire State Building was lit up with the Chinese national colors to honor the country, shall we?

China denying democratic elections in Hong Kong is not a surprise.

From The Washington Free Beacon article by Dan Wiser:

China’s legislature on Sunday denied fully democratic elections to Hong Kong in a move that could spark mass protests in the city’s streets. 

The National People’s Congress Standing Committee ruled that nominees for Hong Kong’s chief executive in 2017 would still have to obtain approval from 50 percent of a mostly pro-Beijing committee. The financial center’s pro-democracy movement had pushed for minimal involvement from China in both the nomination and election process. 

One pro-democracy legislator in Hong Kong told the New York Times that the city’s residents feel “betrayed.” 

“After having lied to Hong Kong people for so many years, it finally revealed itself today,” said Alan Leong. “Hong Kong people are right to feel betrayed. It’s certain now that the central government will be effectively appointing Hong Kong’s chief executive.” 

China regained administrative control of the former British colony in 1997. Hong Kong has since operated under a “one country, two systems” agreement that grants it more civil liberties and local freedoms than the mainland, making it a potential flashpoint in the clashes between Beijing and pro-democracy groups. 

The group Occupy Central now says it will stage nonviolent demonstrations in Hong Kong to protest the new electoral rules. 

Democratic members of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council could still attempt to block implementation of the electoral changes, which require approval by a two-thirds majority. However, the city’s current chief executive—loyal to Beijing—warned that not passing the rules could bar residents from voting at all.

Nice-- follow Beijing's instructions, or you won't be able to vote at all. Nothing like a little threat to force people to follow your edicts.

Stop if I'm wrong, but haven't a number of Democrats expressed admiration of China for its abilities to get things done? Well here's a sample of that.

And again the American Left reveals their desire for control and coercion-- all for the good of the people, of course.

India Increasing Troops Along Its Chinese Border

Not a surprise considering (a) China's recent belligerence, (b) India's rocky history with China-- the two countries briefly went to war in 1962, and (c) India's recently elected BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party government.

From India Today (h/t Leslie Eastman at Legal Insurrection):

The new BJP government is keen to send out a strong signal to Beijing regarding border disputes by nearly doubling the deployment of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel on the India-China frontier. Top government sources said the ITBP will very soon have more boots on the ground to effectively guard the border that has witnessed several Chinese incursions in the past few years. The previous UPA government was often criticised for being "soft" on the issue of Chinese incursions. 

The Home Ministry has approved the construction of 54 new border outposts along the disputed frontier with China. A proposal in this regard was made by the ITBP before the polls but the previous government did not go ahead on it. 

With the new outposts, the number of troops on the ground too will increase. Currently, there are close to 40 outposts and nearly 15,000 troops guard the sensitive zones. Sources said the number could now go up to 30,000. "There were critical gaps regarding security on the China border that need to be filled up," said a senior Home Ministry official.
"The increase in deployment should not be construed as an aggressive approach on our part. We are only securing out territory," a top government official said.

I would characterize India's security build-up as more of a domestic political position, rather than any response or in preparation for a direct Chinese threat. China's bellicose stances against the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan are another matter entirely...

Tensions Mount as Chinese Sink Vietnamese Fishing Boat

More tensions in the South China Sea...

From Bloomberg (via Drudge):

Vietnam and China traded barbs over the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat, their most serious bilateral standoff since 2007 as China asserts its claims in the disputed South China Sea.  

“It was rammed by a Chinese boat,” Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said by phone of the Vietnamese vessel, with the crew of 10 rescued after the scrap. The incident occurred after some 40 Chinese fishing vessels encircled a group of Vietnamese boats in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, the government in Hanoi said in a statement on its website.  

China said the Vietnamese vessel capsized after it rammed a Chinese fishing boat, having intruded into a “precautionary area” around an oil rig that China has located near islands claimed by both Vietnam and China.  

“We once again urge the Vietnamese side to stop immediately all kinds of disruptive and damaging activities and avoid in particular dangerous actions on the sea,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters in Beijing.  

[...]  

“The message China is sending Vietnam is, this area of water is Chinese territory,” Ha Hoang Hop, visiting senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said by phone of the boat sinking. “Yesterday a spokesman for China said Vietnam’s claims are ‘ridiculous.’ They are escalating things at sea and with their language.”

China’s placement of the rig near the contested Paracel Islands sparked violent protests in Vietnam this month and led China to send ships to evacuate workers from the country after three Chinese nationals were killed. It spurred confrontations between coast guard vessels, including the use of water cannons and accusations of boats being rammed. China says the rig is in its territory and that it has long drilled in the area.

This ongoing issue in Asia merits close attention. As China's economy, which is based on completely wrong economic theories, flounders, China could become very aggressive as it desperately attempts to add resources, territory, and wealth from its surrounding countries. Let's not forget that China has done this before. Unfortunately many of these neighboring nations-- Vietnam not among them-- have heavily relied upon the United States for protection. If China becomes aggressive while Obama is still in the White House, countries like Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, and others are on their own. And if Obama succeeds in major crippling the U.S. economy and/or the military, any Chinese aggression for the next several years will go unchallenged by the America-- aside from sanctions, idle threats, and such.

Obama has done an unprecedented job at destabilizing the world and encouraging thuggery among rival nations. Even Carter wasn't this bad.

Tensions Simmer and Ships Clash in South China Sea

We'll probably see more of these sort of incidents as China expands its territories from the necessity of an inefficient economy, the U.S. continues to show apathy weakness. Without the stability of America's military presence and with Obama's legacy of betraying allies China's neighbors must either stand-up to the giant under very uncertain circumstances or back down to China's bullying.

From The Wall Street Journal article by Brian Spegele:

Strains between China and its neighbors burst to the surface in two parts of the South China Sea, taking the high-stakes struggle for control over the waters to new levels of friction.

Off Vietnam, dozens of Chinese military and civilian ships clashed with the Vietnamese coast guard, with Vietnamese officials complaining its vessels were repeatedly rammed. On the same day, Philippine police apprehended Chinese fishing vessels loaded with hundreds of sea turtles in disputed waters.  

About 80 Chinese vessels moved into an area near the disputed Paracel Islands, where Hanoi has sought to prevent China from deploying a massive oil rig, said Rear Adm. Ngo Ngoc Thu, vice commander of the Vietnamese coast guard. He said the flotilla included seven military ships and that it was supported by aircraft. 

He said the situation, which started brewing over the weekend, was "very tense" and said six Vietnamese officers had been injured in the standoff.  

The confrontation—by far the most serious in recent years between the two neighbors—marked a significant escalation in Beijing's willingness to press its natural-resource claims, analysts said.  

[...]  

A senior administration official said the White House views the latest escalation as part of a pattern of behavior as China continues to try to advance its territorial claims. "We're obviously very concerned about it," the official said. "We have conveyed our concerns to the Chinese."

With a strongly written letter that might have used the word "dude,"  no doubt. Seriously, Obama has shown repeatedly that his words are hollow-- if not outright lies-- and that he's most concerned about shifting rather than protecting allies or even American lives.

President Barack Obama toured the region last month, stressing U.S. security cooperation. The latest escalation of tensions in the South China Sea reinforces that the disputes "are not going to be solved with one trip or one speech," said Michael Green, senior vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "And it shows that the Chinese side is not fazed by the negative reaction in the region," Mr. Green said.

If China's not careful, the First Lady might hashtag them with a sad face. That'll show 'em.

Security scholars said the latest escalation in tensions is the cumulative result of deep-seated mistrust over China's intentions among smaller regional players combined with Beijing's increased assertiveness as well as a lack of mechanisms to prevent and manage crises. 

The confrontation also illuminated the role of China's state-owned energy companies in helping advance China's territorial ambitions, despite frequent assertions by executives that they are driven by profit and not politics.  

[...]  

The Philippines on Wednesday apprehended a Chinese fishing vessel "carrying large numbers of endangered species" near Half Moon Shoal, a sandbar in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and a hotbed for illegal sea-turtle poaching. Philippines police senior inspector Dante Padilla said an inspection of the boat yielded around 500 sea turtles, some of them dead.  

He said the police had arrested the captain of the Chinese vessel and its 10 crew  

The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement it seized the Chinese fishing boat "to enforce maritime laws and to uphold Philippine sovereign rights over its [exclusive economic zone]." 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying urged the Philippines to release the fishermen and to refrain from taking further provocative actions. Ms. Hua said the Chinese Embassy in Manila had complained to the Philippine government. 

The Philippines and China have overlapping maritime claims in several areas in the South China Sea. Amid China's recent aggressive assertions of its claims in the dispute areas, the Philippines had brought its case before an international tribunal to rally international support for its territorial claim.  

On his visit to the region last month, President Obama assured the Philippines that American military support is "ironclad," though he left vague whether the U.S. would come to the aid of the Philippines in its island disputes.

Of course Obama say "ironclad" and then not commit to defending the Philippines. Community organizers give speeches in which they make distorted claims and then give false reassurances. Then they move on to the next controversy and expect people to forget their first speech. It's crap. And Obama's been practicing it for decades. Did anyone truly believe that would all change after being elected following and ugly campaign?

I think there's little doubt China will continue to test the limit of what it's neighbors and the U.S. will tolerate. And the Obama Administration will tolerate quite a lot-- especially when others bear the brunt of the China's bullying. China's neighbors on the other hand... I don't know. There's a lot of trouble brewing in Asia.

Internationally, things look pretty bleak right now. Russia is invading Ukraine and stirring up a hornet's nest in the rest of Europe. Iran is practicing blowing up American ships. Islamic Extremism has taken a firm root in several Middle Eastern countries. And China is encroaching all along its oceans.

Unless there's a dramatic shift in the near future (1 year), I'm betting there will be a fair-sized conflict in either Asia and Europe. That is, of course, in addition to the Russia/Ukraine conflict.

U.S. Warns China Not to Annex (More) Asian Territories and Islands



Don't worry. According to Obama and Kerry, using these troops is not proper for the 21st-- and it's a sign of weakness too.

Or else what? My bet is that Kerry will tell them that they're not acting properly for the 21st Century. *gag*

From Reuters:

China should not doubt the U.S. commitment to defend its Asian allies and the prospect of economic retaliation should also discourage Beijing from using force to pursue territorial claims in Asia in the way Russia has in Crimea, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. 

Daniel Russel, President Barack Obama's diplomatic point man for East Asia, said it was difficult to determine what China's intentions might be, but Russia's annexation of Crimea had heightened concerns among U.S. allies in the region about the possibility of China using force to pursue its claims. 

"The net effect is to put more pressure on China to demonstrate that it remains committed to the peaceful resolution of the problems," Russel, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  

Russel said the retaliatory sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States, the European Union and others should have a "chilling effect on anyone in China who might contemplate the Crimea annexation as a model." [Bwah ha ha! Stop it! You're killing me!]  

This was especially so given the extent of China's economic interdependence with the United States and its Asia neighbors, Russel said.  

[...]  

Russel termed the deployment of large numbers of Chinese vessels in its dispute with the Philippines in the South China Sea "problematic" and said that Beijing had taken "what to us appears to be intimidating steps." 

"It is incumbent of all of the claimants to foreswear intimidation, coercion and other non-diplomatic or extra-legal means," he said. 

In Asia, China also has competing territorial claims with Japan and South Korea, as well as with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan in potentially energy-rich waters.

Oh yeah, and also various islands (including Pagasa Island) located between Japan, China, and the Philippines.

China has somewhat recently turned to hard-Left regime, and as the country slumps economically, as the living conditions for China's citizens continues to deteriorate, China has focused more and more on the expansion of its territory. Nothing drums up support at home like a great, patriotic conflict against usurpers and aggressors.

Beyond that, Marxism is never self-sufficient so it has to expand, find a patron to pay its bills, or collapse. There is no patron large enough to cover China's expenses, so it has to either expand or reform. And there's really to incentive for the Chinese leadership to reform.

I really don't think that the State Department staff sending out selfies of themselves is going to worry China all that much.

NBC Headlines Chinese News Service Using Racial Slur While Russians Head into Ukraine

It's good to know they have priorities.

From NBC News:

An official Chinese government news service lobbed a racial slur at outgoing U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke, calling the third-generation Chinese-American a "rotten banana" — an Asian with Western values. 

"When a banana sits out for long, its yellow peels will always rot, not only revealing its white core but also turning into the stomach-churning color of black," the China News Service editorial said, according to the Associated Press.

The invective shocked some members of the Chinese public, who have applauded Locke in the past, and the State Department declined to respond to the rhetoric.

A racial slur from the Chinese?! No! Really?!

Why the next thing you know, somebody will talk about how Blacks have been known to use the word Oreo in a similar fashion! Will these revelations never end?

Seriously, NBC has nothing better to headline on the MSN homepage today?

Report on Ant & Rat Tribes-- Chinese People Living Literally Underground

The video is not in English, but English subtitles are available in the options lined at the bottom of the video.

I found this video on Breitbart. It is awful, but not surprising.

Never let an American Leftist fool you, the Chinese poor live in crippling poverty and in dire conditions.


From the Breitbart article by Fances Martel:

Vice magazine visited the groups in Beijing, often called "ant" or "rat" tribes because of the hours of labor they work and their lives underground. They found a ravaging and severely unhealthy economic situation below the already dismal lifestyles that the communist country's economy has yielded millions. The "ant" tribe tends to be composed of young professionals who are forced to take unskilled labor jobs because of the closing job market. They can only afford to live in these tight spaces. The "rat" tribe is far less wealthy and typically composed of migrant unskilled workers. They occupy former bomb shelters and other underground lairs in a much less orderly way as they toil dawn-to-dusk trying to make ends meet. 

The "ants," who are described in the report as "highly-educated working poor," pay rent to the owners of these underground areas, owners who have established a system of living spaces where up to six people could be paying rent to live in the same room. The rooms are makeshift creations in places like parking lots that were never meant for permanent dwelling, particularly of so many people at once. 

The rent for living in a small room in one of these colonies is inexpensive enough for a young professional working in private industry to afford, as the largest salaries in China are reserved for high-ranking members of the government or employees working for the government. While they are above ground, though impoverished, they are sometimes in suburban areas further away from work or school. Private industry pays 70% less than government work but constitutes a great number of the white collar jobs in urban areas. This is especially important in a smog-filled city where young workers find themselves with no health care aid and are forced to take unskilled or low-skill jobs after receiving liberal arts or professional degrees. "Even minor symptoms will cost you a lot of money," says one of the dwellers in Vice's documentary, noting that he does not see the possibility of ever saving money to move out of the space he currently rents, especially if he gets even mildly sick. 

Those living in air-raid shelters face a host of different problems even more dangerous than those who find spaces slightly higher underground. These shelters were never meant for dwelling, so they lack a number of amenities, including fire escape paths, kitchens, and bathrooms. They cook by lighting a fire on the floor and make amends to fix other living situations, but with no windows or means of ventilation, most create dangerous fire hazards and pollute the already smoggy Beijing air.

And let's not forget, the Democrats have repeatedly used China as an example of how we should run an economy.

Will Chinese Troops Seize Zhongye Island from the Philippines?

Well, according to the China Daily Mail they will.

The following report is a translation from Chinese media. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily Mail. 

Relying on US support, the Philippines is so arrogant as to announce in the New Year that it will increase its navy and air force deployment at Zhongye Island, a Chinese island that it has illegally occupied for years. 

It will be an intolerable insult to China 

According to experts, the Chinese navy has drawn a detailed combat plan to seize the island and the battle will be restricted within the South China Sea. 

The battle is aimed at recovery of the island stolen by the Philippines from China.
There will be no invasion into Filipino territories. 

A report in the Philippines Star confirmed the Philippines military buildup on the island.

Well, if this is to be believed (and it reads as a translation of pretty typical Chinese propaganda chest-beating), China's hardliners are hoping for an easy military victory to buttress up their increasingly unpopular regime. Can you say "powder keg for Obama to completely ignore because he's intent on controlling your health insurance?"

Is this credible? Maybe. Obama has shown nothing but weakness and disinterest in the rest of the world-- especially with Asian allies. Perhaps China has plans to forcibly increase its influence in Asia, and this is a test run to see how the rest of Asia, the U.S. and other powers like Russia, respond. If so-- and all of this is a lot of ifs-- then China could be thinking of invading Taiwan. I have no doubts that Obama would allow that to happen.

You know... to allow for peace in our time.


UPDATE: I should note that when I ran a search for "Pagasa Island" (as Zhongye Island is known in the Philippines), on the major Philippine newspapers' websites, I came up with a couple of interesting articles.

There is, in fact, a military build up on the island according to a 12/4/13 article in Malaya Business Insight.

The government has allotted P479.75 million in upgrading Navy and Air Force facilities at the Pagasa Island, one of the nine areas occupied by Filipino troops in the Spratly Islands. 

The Department of National Defense said the project, which is at the Defense Acquisition of System level, aims to boost the implementation of the AFP modernization program. 

The project, which will go through public bidding, is funded by Republic Act 7898 or the AFP Modernization Law of 1995.  

On December 2012, President Aquino signed into law RA 10349 or the Revised AFP Modernization Law extending the program for another 15 years. 

A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the project seeks to upgrade the airstrip and improve Navy facilities at Pagasa Island, which serves as the seat of government of Kalayaan town, Palawan. 

The eight other areas in the Spratly Islands occupied by troops include Lawak Island, Panatag Shoal, Likas Island, Parola Island, Panata Island, Kota Island, Rizal Reef and Ayungin Shoal. These areas also form part of Kalayaan town. 

A military official said it was very important to improve the facilities “because that is our complete station in the Kalayaan Island Group.” He said upgrading facilities in the island will mean “better monitoring.” 

“Our awareness will be improved,” the source said, adding that the facilities in the island are only “basic requirements” to sustain the needs of troops in the island. 

The Spratly Islands or the Kalayaan Island Group is situated at the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea. It is a chain of islands and islets believed to be rich in oil and mineral deposits. 

It is being claimed in part or in whole by the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.  

The strongest in terms of military might, China, has turned aggressive in its claims over the past years.

I also found this article "2 Chinese ships spotted anew near disputed island" from The Daily Tribune from August 24, 2013.

Despite rough sea conditions in the South China Sea, at least two Chinese maritime surveillance ships (MSS) were monitored near Ayungin Shoal where Philippine Navy personnel are stationed. 

Kalayaan Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon said based on the latest information given to him by local fishermen who sought shelter in Ayungin Shoal around noontime last Monday, two Chinese MSS were spotted in the area. 

“Local fishermen sought shelter in Ayungin due to bad weather conditions and spotted two Chinese ships stationary about 200 meters from the shoal,” he added.  

But there was no aggressive move against the local fishermen, Bito-onon said.
According to him, three other unidentified “huge ships” were seen approximately five kilometers from Pagasa Island, the seat of Kalayaan local government. 

The three unidentified ships are suspected to be harvesting corals within the country’s territorial waters. 

Meanwhile, Bito-onon reiterated calls for the national government to fast-track the planned dock in Pagasa Island to boost local fishing industry in the area. 

A better fishing facility in Pagasa Island, Bito-onon said, will surely attract investment in the area, which is known to be a rich fishing ground. 

Chinese vessels have maintained presence in Ayungin Shoal since last May despite the presence of Philippine Navy personnel there.

These two articles certainly do not mean that the Chinese plan to invade the Philippines, but it is enough for me to not completely dismiss the idea. We'll have to pay attention to the Chinese propaganda and see if they start ramping up the anti-Philippine rhetoric. If they do, then I'd start to give this Chinese threat some serious thought.

Shanghai Smog at Epic Hazard Levels

Yet so many American "progressives" have such an absolute love affair with China. China get things done, invests in infrastructure, bans plastic bags, and stuff... and makes the air harmful for everyone! How fair.

From the AP (via Drudge):

Shanghai authorities ordered schoolchildren indoors and halted all construction Friday as China's financial hub suffered one of its worst bouts of air pollution, bringing visibility down to a few dozen meters, delaying flights and obscuring the city's spectacular skyline.  

The financial district was shrouded in a yellow haze, and noticeably fewer people walked the city's streets. Vehicle traffic also was thinner, as authorities pulled 30 percent of government vehicles from the roads. They also banned fireworks and public sporting events. 

"I feel like I'm living in clouds of smog," said Zheng Qiaoyun, a local resident who kept her 6-month-old son at home. "I have a headache, I'm coughing, and it's hard to breathe on my way to my office." 

Shanghai's concentration of tiny, harmful PM 2.5 particles reached 602.5 micrograms per cubic meter Friday afternoon, an extremely hazardous level that was the highest since the city began recording such data last December. That compares with the World Health Organization's safety guideline of 25 micrograms.  

The dirty air that has gripped Shanghai and its neighboring provinces for days is attributed to coal burning, car exhaust, factory pollution and weather patterns, and is a stark reminder that pollution is a serious challenge in China. Beijing, the capital, has seen extremely heavy smog several times over the past year. In the far northeastern city of Harbin, some monitoring sites reported PM 2.5 rates up to 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter in October, when the winter heating season kicked off. [emphasis mine]

Far be it from me to question China's actions, but banning fireworks doesn't seem like it's quite the answer...

Mega-Smog Shuts Down Chinese City of 11 Million

Despite the shutdown, I see that bicyclists were out in force. (Photo from the Reuters story)

We should all be like China. Because, you know, China can get things done...

From Reuters: (via Drudge)

Choking smog all but shut down one of northeastern China's largest cities on Monday, forcing schools to suspended classes, snarling traffic and closing the airport, in the country's first major air pollution crisis of the winter. 

An index measuring PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), reached a reading of 1,000 in some parts of Harbin, the gritty capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province and home to some 11 million people. 

A level above 300 is considered hazardous, while the World Health Organisation recommends a daily level of no more than 20. [yikes.]

The smog not only forced all primary and middle schools to suspend classes, but shut the airport and some public bus routes, the official Xinhua news agency reported, blaming the emergency on the first day of the heating being turned on in the city for winter [Really? That's the best the Chinese government can come up with? Really?].  

Visibility was reportedly reduced to 10 meters. 

The smog is expected to continue for the next 24 hours. 

Air quality in Chinese cities is of increasing concern to China's stability-obsessed leadership because it plays into popular resentment over political privilege and rising inequality in the world's second-largest economy. 

Domestic media have run stories describing the expensive air purifiers government officials enjoy in their homes and offices, alongside reports of special organic farms so cadres need not risk suffering from recurring food safety scandals.

Yeah, the would-be petty Leftists tyrants of this country just love China. There's nothing like exercising hideous amounts of control over the media, political adversaries, and the common people in the name of "fairness" and "justice" and political graft.

But don't worry. The Chinese government has it all in hand by tackling the major causes of smog in China.

Last week, Beijing city released a color-coded alert system for handling air pollution emergencies, to include the temporary halt of construction, factory production, outdoor barbecues and the setting off of fireworks.

Yup. Backyard barbecues and fireworks. If it wasn't for that, then China would smog free.

Both Russia and China Hold Large Scale War Games; The Cold War Part 2?

Okay, this looks a little bad as China and Russia begin to subtly saber rattle-- but President James Bond Obama is busy defending us from racists, the GOP, and anyone who doesn't think the feds shouldn't ration health care to the masses. I mean, he can't look outside the U.S. for enemies when there's plenty that need his vengeance right here.

Nothing to worry about. Russia isn't a rival to the U.S. or anything. And besides Obama had Hillary give them a "overcharge" "reset button" so it's all okay.

From The Free Beacon" article by Bill Gertz:

Pentagon intelligence agencies are closely watching Russian and Chinese war games now taking place in Europe and Asia involving tens of thousands of troops. 

Meanwhile, NATO military forces are set to conduct large-scale maneuvers in November that will be designed to counter growing concerns of a westward Russian military encroachment, according to U.S. officials. 

“The Russians are moving forces closer to Europe, and that is troubling,” said a military official. 

Russia’s Zapad-13 military exercises in Belarus are scheduled to end Thursday. They included practice attacks on a western state, said one official familiar with reports of the maneuvers. 

Some 13,000 Russian and Belarusian troops took part with over 60 aircraft and helicopters and up to 250 vehicles. 

The forces practiced “rapid reaction” drills. 

Russian officials recently denied Polish press reports that the Zapad-13 would include a notional nuclear attack on Warsaw. However, Russian officials have said the war games will involve practicing precision air and missile strikes.

The Russians have been practicing to invade Poland for about ten years that I can recall. It's one of the reasons why a strong U.S. ally is vital to Poland, and not the apologetic and schizophrenic frenemy that marks Obama's international policies and rhetoric.

In response to Polish press reports on the simulated nuclear strike on Poland’s capital, state-run Interfax news agency in April denied the reports. “Claims that West 2013 will allegedly practice a preventive nuclear strike on Warsaw are nothing but imagination of Polish journalists,” a high-ranking officer was quoted as saying.  

[...]  

U.S. military officials said the war games are part of a larger Russian effort to use military power to bolster its position in the former Soviet republics with a larger military presence. 

Russia also has a ballistic missile warning radar at Baranovichi, Belarus, and a Navy communications facility used to communicate with Russian submarines. Moscow also supplied Belarus with advanced S-300 missile defenses and Tor-M2 surface-to-air missiles.  

[...]  

Meanwhile in China, Chinese military forces are engaged in large-scale exercises involving some 40,000 troops. 

The People’s Liberation Army announced its “Mission Action 2013” began Tuesday.
Troops from the Nanjing and Guangzhou military regions and air forces were set to take part. 

The PLA troops will conduct maneuvers over large areas using military ground vehicles, trains, ships, and aircraft to test forces for “real war” conditions. 

The exercises will include coordination between military and civilian assets, including civilian jets and trains to transport forces, according to state-run Chinese press reports.
Chinese aircraft taking part in the war games include jet fighters, bombers, and other aircraft. 

 Yeah, nothing to worry about...

China's Communist Party Takes Aim at the Concepts of Human Rights, Media Independence, Civic Participation, Pro-Free Market Viewpoints, and Criticisms of the Party’s Genocidal Past

Xi Jinping

You know, it's good for China to occasionally remind us all that Marxism is built upon genocide, the most intimate and personal government coercions, a ridiculous economic theory, demonizing of politically convenient targets, secrecy, government misinformation, and lots and lots of heavy-handed propaganda. So many of us choose not to read about North Korea and we tend to forget the hundreds of millions of deaths that Marx has caused.

From The New York Times article by Chris Buckley (via Drudge):

Communist Party cadres have filled meeting halls around China to hear a somber, secretive warning issued by senior leaders. Power could escape their grip, they have been told, unless the party eradicates seven subversive currents coursing through Chinese society.  

These seven perils were enumerated in a memo, referred to as Document No. 9, that bears the unmistakable imprimatur of Xi Jinping, China’s new top leader. The first was “Western constitutional democracy”; others included promoting “universal values” of human rights, Western-inspired notions of media independence and civic participation, ardently pro-market “neo-liberalism,” and “nihilist” criticisms of the party’s traumatic past.  

[...]  

“Western forces hostile to China and dissidents within the country are still constantly infiltrating the ideological sphere,” says Document No. 9, the number given to it by the central party office that issued it in April. It has not been openly published, but a version was shown to The New York Times and was verified by four sources close to senior officials, including an editor with a party newspaper.         

Opponents of one-party rule, it says, “have stirred up trouble about disclosing officials’ assets, using the Internet to fight corruption, media controls and other sensitive topics, to provoke discontent with the party and government.”  

[...]  

Mr. Xi’s edicts have been disseminated in a series of compulsory study sessions across the country, like one in the southern province of Hunan that was recounted on a local government Web site.  

“Promotion of Western constitutional democracy is an attempt to negate the party’s leadership,” Cheng Xinping, a deputy head of propaganda for Hengyang, a city in Hunan, told a gathering of mining industry officials. Human rights advocates, he continued, want “ultimately to form a force for political confrontation.”  

[...]  

“Constitutionalism belongs only to capitalism,” said one commentary in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily. Constitutionalism “is a weapon for information and psychological warfare used by the magnates of American monopoly capitalism and their proxies in China to subvert China’s socialist system,” said another commentary in the paper.

Well, I'm sure it's just a phase for Mr Xi, and a little "smart diplomacy" from Obama's State Department will clear this all up. Maybe Obama can send Kerry over to China with a big, candy red reset button.

China's slide back into harder Left socialism is a problem that should not be overlooked. Hard Left socialism tends to eventually lead to either expansionism to pull in foreign resources, or genocidal scales of death to lessen the number of people needing resources. It's a tragic fact, but that's been the case in past for North Korea, China, the Soviet Union, Cuba, Cambodia... It's a sad list.

If China continues down this road, I can see several worst case possibilities that could lead to great instability (read that as possibly a war) in Asia. First, China could continue to contest the China Sea Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands with Japan. There's not a whole lot in the way of resources on the islands, but it could lead to a pretext for the Chinese to envelop more of the China Sea including more resource significant islands. Japan and other powers would not take to that lightly.

Second, it could lead to closer relations with North Korea. And should North Korea's saber rattling get really out of hand, China might become directly involved in a military conflict with South Korea and the United States. The severity of this conflict could range from naval vessels lobbing warning shots at each other to a war. Right now, I don't believe that China would go to the mat for North Korea and this keeps North Korea's provocations with South Korea and Japan slightly in check. If China were to get very chummy with their Marxist brother-in-arms for the glorious revolution and embolden North Korea, well...

Third, China could overstep their provocations against Taiwan. China tends to play provocateur toward Taiwan, both politically and militarily, with depressing frequency. With the United States' rather ambiguous military stance regarding a Chinese attack on Taiwan due to President Carter's annulment of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, these provocations could increase, both in frequency and intensity, and lead to war. What the U.S.would do, especially with an Obama-like appeasement attitude, is uncertain.

But hey, it could be that China's slide to the hard Left is temporary. That, of course, would be best for everyone, but I honestly wouldn't hold my breath on that hope. And frankly I see the time as ripe for China to expand their military influence in Asia.

I believe that interesting times are ahead.

Chinese Official Orders Man Crushed by Steamroller

So, do you think Joe Biden, The New York Times and Thomas Friedman are still smitten with China. I mean, they sure get things done over there. Right?

From the Inforwars.com article by Paul Joseph Watson (warning extremely graphic pictures at the link):

"A villager in northern China attempting to resist a forced government relocation by remaining on his land was brutally crushed to death by a road flattening truck on the orders of a Chinese government official.

"The story, which was censored in China’s state controlled media, has caused outrage amongst users of Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, given it’s horrifying similarity to what happened to student protesters who were crushed to death by tanks during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

 

"The victim, He Zhi Hua, refused to accept a paltry payment from the government which has forcefully evicted Changsha Village locals in order to re-appropriate their land for commercial use.

 

"When Hua began a protest by lying down on the spot through which construction vehicles had to pass, the local Vice Mayor ordered workers for the state-owned company to murder Hua by driving over his body with a huge road-flattening truck.

 

"Shocking images show Hua’s pulverized brains and his mangled body in the aftermath of the state-sponsored execution.

 

"Fearing unrest if the story got out to a wider audience, the government sent in 200 men to keep angry locals at bay and hide the remains of the body. The man’s family was offered a sum of money in order to keep quiet about the incident."

 

A man protests the government's usurpation of his land (a terribly common occurrence in China) and is then callously murdered. That'll teach him, and others, to stand in the way of progress.

 

Does anyone remember when Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was waxing praise on China's ability to build infrastructure?

 

From the Foreign Policy article by Josh Rogin:

"Echoing the laments of pundits like Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood argued Saturday that China outpaces the United States in building major transportation infrastructure like high-speed rail because of its authoritarian system and because the Chinese don't have the Republican Party holding up progress.

"'The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do, 3 million,' LaHood said in a short interview with The Cable on the sidelines of the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival on June 30. 'In a country where only three people make the decision, they can decide where to put their rail line, get the money, and do it. We don't do it that way in America.'

"LaHood said that despite this, democracy is still preferable. 'We have the best system of government anywhere on the planet. It is the best. Because the people have their say,' he said."

Of course, LaHood then went on to blame people having their say for spoiling high speed rail.

LaHood's --and the rest of the Left's-- naivete on how China "gets things done" and the results of their heavy-handed brutality borders on the stupid. The Chinese government is a totalitarian regime that routinely robs its citizens of their property, their basic freedoms, their rights to have children, and their citizens' dignity-- as well as indulging in many more unacceptable practices.

And we're to admire or envy them? Hmm. Weren't certain naive Americans admiring Hitler back in the '30s?

US Solar Panel Maker Moving to China-- After $43 million in US Assistance

Do you remember when green energy and green jobs would lead us out of the recession?

From the NYT article by Keith Bradsher (h/t Nickie Goomba):

"Aided by at least $43 million in assistance from the government of Massachusetts and an innovative solar energy technology, Evergreen Solar emerged in the last three years as the third-largest maker of solar panels in the United States.

"But now the company is closing its main American factory, laying off the 800 workers by the end of March and shifting production to a joint venture with a Chinese company in central China. Evergreen cited the much higher government support available in China.

[...]

"The Obama administration has been investigating whether China has violated the free trade rules of the World Trade Organization with its extensive subsidies to the manufacturers of solar panels and other clean energy products."

[...]

"Evergreen, in announcing its move to China, was unusually candid about its motives. Michael El-Hillow, the chief executive, said in a statement that his company had decided to close the Massachusetts factory in response to plunging prices for solar panels. World prices have fallen as much as two-thirds in the last three years — including a drop of 10 percent during last year’s fourth quarter alone.

"Chinese manufacturers, Mr. El-Hillow said in the statement, have been able to push prices down sharply because they receive considerable help from the Chinese government and state-owned banks, and because manufacturing costs are generally lower in China."

So Evergreen is moving from one government's subsidies to another. It's kind of like corporate welfare hopping. I wonder how long that business model can last?

Belligerent North Korea and China Reaffirm Ties

As the US, South Korea, and Japan unify over recent North Korean belligerence and attacks, senior Chinese foreign policymaker Dai Bingguo met with Pyongyang. Hard to say what actually was said, but the both the Chinese and North Korean governments touted "consensus" regarding the situation.

From the AFP article:

"North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and a top Chinese envoy Thursday touted 'consensus' between the communist allies regarding the region's worst crisis in years, official media reported.

"China's most senior foreign policymaker Dai Bingguo visited Pyongyang as pressure intensifies on Beijing to rein in its unruly ally, after North Korea's deadly shelling of a South Korean island inflamed tensions on the peninsula.

"'The two sides reached consensus on bilateral relations and the situation on the Korean peninsula after candid and in-depth talks,' said a brief report from China's Xinhua news agency, datelined Pyongyang.

"North Korea's official news agency said the delegations discussed 'issues of mutual concern' and efforts to improve friendly relations.

"It marked the first time that Kim has met a senior foreign official since the North's shock artillery attack on the South Korean island, and since his regime startled the world by showing off a sophisticated new nuclear programme.

"China is the isolated North's sole major ally and provides it with a crucial fuel and food lifeline.
But Beijing has come under increasing pressure from the United States and US allies to rein in North Korea following the incident, which was the first shelling of civilian areas in South Korea since the 1950-53 war.

"It has so far refused even to condemn the North for the November 23 artillery attack, which killed four people including two civilians.

"In Tokyo, the top US military officer Thursday accused China of aiding and abetting the hardline regime's 'reckless behaviour' as he touted a united defence front with South Korea and Japan against North Korea.

"'Northeast Asia is today more volatile than it has been in much of the last 50 years,' Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said.

"'Much of that volatility is owed to the reckless behaviour of the North Korean regime, enabled by their friends in China.'

"Mullen also said he felt a 'real sense of urgency' about building up three-way defence ties with Seoul and Tokyo. US forces have separately held major military drills with the two allies since North Korea's attack.

"The admiral has proposed three-way drills and said Thursday that any threat is 'much better addressed with all of us together, in terms of showing strength and getting to a point where we can deter North Korean behaviour'.

[...]

"The flare-up on the Korean peninsula has confronted Beijing with a wider diplomatic challenge, wrote Zhu Feng, deputy director of the Centre for International and Strategic Studies at Peking University.

"'Perceptions that China "protects" North Korea could lead to the emergence of a powerful Washington-Tokyo-Seoul axis directed not only against North Korea but also implicitly at China,' he said."

Oh to be a fly on the wall at that North Korea-China conference... China has so much to lose from North Korea and precious little to gain. China is absolutely reliant on continued good trade relations with the US, Japan, and Korea (all of whom have money), while North Korea costs them nothing but cash and resources. It'll be very interesting to see how relationships develop in the future. My bet is China will "strongly encourage" Kim Jong-un to modernize economically like China-- something that I think is fully beyond Kim Jong-un's capabilities. Following Kim Jong-il's stroke, it's hard to say who exactly is running North Korea, and I'm very skeptical that Kim Jong-un will be to rein in and unify North Korea's party factions.

Mao Killed 45 Million People in Four Years

The British newspaper The Independent (h/t Jacobson at Legal Insurrection) is reporting that Mao's Great Leap Forward killed a staggering 45 million Chinese citizens.

From the article by Arifa Akbar:

"Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China, qualifies as the greatest mass murderer in world history, an expert who had unprecedented access to official Communist Party archives said yesterday.

"Speaking at The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival, Frank Dikötter, a Hong Kong-based historian, said he found that during the time that Mao was enforcing the Great Leap Forward in 1958, in an effort to catch up with the economy of the Western world, he was responsible for overseeing 'one of the worst catastrophes the world has ever known'.

"Mr Dikötter, who has been studying Chinese rural history from 1958 to 1962, when the nation was facing a famine, compared the systematic torture, brutality, starvation and killing of Chinese peasants to the Second World War in its magnitude. At least 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death in China over these four years; the worldwide death toll of the Second World War was 55 million.

"Mr Dikötter is the only author to have delved into the Chinese archives since they were reopened four years ago. He argued that this devastating period of history – which has until now remained hidden – has international resonance. "It ranks alongside the gulags and the Holocaust as one of the three greatest events of the 20th century.... It was like [the Cambodian communist dictator] Pol Pot's genocide multiplied 20 times over," he said.

"Between 1958 and 1962, a war raged between the peasants and the state; it was a period when a third of all homes in China were destroyed to produce fertiliser and when the nation descended into famine and starvation, Mr Dikötter said.

"His book, Mao's Great Famine; The Story of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, reveals that while this is a part of history that has been 'quite forgotten' in the official memory of the People's Republic of China, there was a 'staggering degree of violence' that was, remarkably, carefully catalogued in Public Security Bureau reports, which featured among the provincial archives he studied. In them, he found that the members of the rural farming communities were seen by the Party merely as 'digits', or a faceless workforce. For those who committed any acts of disobedience, however minor, the punishments were huge.

"State retribution for tiny thefts, such as stealing a potato, even by a child, would include being tied up and thrown into a pond; parents were forced to bury their children alive or were doused in excrement and urine, others were set alight, or had a nose or ear cut off. One record shows how a man was branded with hot metal. People were forced to work naked in the middle of winter; 80 per cent of all the villagers in one region of a quarter of a million Chinese were banned from the official canteen because they were too old or ill to be effective workers, so were deliberately starved to death."

I knew that The Great Leap Forward had killed millions, but 45 million... It should be noted the later Cultural Revolution (approx. 1966 - 1976) also killed a multitude (likely millions) of people as Mao ruthlessly clawed his way back into political power.

So, does anyone remember Anita Dunn declaring her two favorite political philosophers were Mother Theresa and Mao Zedong? Oh, that's right. She was being "ironic." I suppose the Left's general admiration of Mao in articles, papers, books and classes are all meant to be ironic as well. Come on. Mao is on almost as many T-shirts as Che.

Newsweek Sinks to New Low: Claims Chinese Oppression is Good for Tibet

Newsweek is claiming that Tibet is better off under the yoke of China. Isaac Stone Fish made this outrageous claim in his article "Charity Case."

Newsbusters has their take here in a post by Kyle Drennan.

Yup, those Tibetans just don't know what's good for them. I mean sure, they have to chafe under China's tyrannical rule and have their culture, history and religion systematically and violently stripped away by an invading foreign power... But I guess that's just the price you have to pay to be forcibly pulled into the Chinese co-prosperity sphere.

Once again we see the Left exposing their elitist core. When Bill Maher says things like: "They're not bright enough to really understand the issues. But like an animal, they can sort of sense strength or weakness. They can smell it on you." He's giving the the same line of thought that Fish in Newsweek gives the Tibetans. We're all just proles. Too stupid to know what's best for us, too stupid to be allowed to little things like liberty and self-determination. We need strength to lead us.

I'll repeat Lincoln's quote that I have posted earlier. "They are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden. That is their argument, and this argument of the Judge is the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it."

Words to remember.