Peking Opera

One of Romney's advisors, Rich Williamson, warned today of the dangers that still exist with the Soviet Union. Uh, Rich, the Soviet Union kicked the bucket in 1991. This, by the way, is at least the third time Romney or one of his advisors has brought up the soviets. Methinks somebody misses the cold war.

If you want to be afraid of a country, I suggest that you fear communist China. Fresh from the quite successful appropriation and cultural extermination campaign in Tibet, Beijing now sets its sights on the whole of the South China Sea and historical holdings of Vietnam and the Philippines. They are squabbling with the Japanese and Russia over the Kuril Islands. The continued existence of Taiwan is a major thorn in their side and there are problems arising on the border with India.

When you hold most of the world's mortgage, people have a habit of looking the other way. China is now preparing to build a garrison to assert military control in southeast asia. China thinks that the world should understand that it no longer wants to adhere to, and should not be held to treaties that it made in former times.

"Some top Chinese policy makers say neighboring countries should accept that an increasingly powerful China would seek to re-shape relationships that had been established earlier when it was weak."

The garrison, called Sansha, will be built on the disputed 2.13-square km Yongxing Island, and contains a small military airport, a sea port, roads, a clinic, a post office and an observatory. This island is in the Paracels, a group of islands also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.

This is of course, about oil reserves. It also resembles chess and these initial gambits might prove quite critical. China is fighting a similar battle with the Philippines in the Scarborough Shoal and with Vietnam over oil exploration. Another disputed area, rich in oil and gas reserves are the Spratly Islands, at one time occupied by China, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan.

This week Japan protested  the entry of Chinese patrol boats into disputed water and recalled their Ambassador.  Three Chinese fishery patrol boats entered the waters near the disputed islands - known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China and also claimed by Taiwan.


Japan has a proposal in place to buy the islands, further enraging the chinese.

China is blaming the United States for its problems in the region. A front page commentary in the Overseas Edition further criticized Washington for "fuelling" conflicts in both the East and South China Seas, warning that such "tricks" could backfire. The People's Daily was also unhappy with recent remarks from Secretary Clinton urging China to expand "human rights."
*
The scope of the revisionism is incredible indeed.



BEIJING, July 10 (Xinhua) -- A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday that any private deals made between the United States and Japan after the World War II concerning the Diaoyu Islands are illegal and invalid.


Spokesman Liu Weimin made the remark at a regular press briefing when asked to comment on a recent U.S. claim that the Diaoyu Islands and their affiliated islands fall within the scope of a 1960 U.S.-Japan security treaty.


"China has expressed grave concern and firmly opposes such a claim," Liu said. "The Diaoyu Islands and their affiliated islands have been China's inherent territory since ancient times and China has indisputable sovereignty over them."


According to Japan's Kyodo News Agency, a senior U.S. State Department official said Monday that the Diaoyu Islands (referred to as the Senkaku Islands in Japan) fall within the scope of Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, as the Senkaku Islands have been under the administrative control of the government of Japan since they were returned as part of the reversion of Okinawa in 1972.


"Private deals made between the U.S. and Japan after World War II concerning the Diaoyu Islands are illegal and invalid," Liu said. The U.S.-Japan Security Treaty should not undermine the interests of third parties, including China, Liu said.

*


The enormity of China's intentions is mind boggling. A few months ago, a party appatchik laid claim to the Philippines themselves. Imagine the Ottomans staking a present day claim to the Austro- Hungarian empire or the French asking for Louisiana back. They made the deal when they were weak, during a bad month.


*
China's neighbor and sometime ally Russia is not immune from the muscle flexing. Maritime and naval authorities in Russia dispatched a large patrol ship July 16 that chased a group of intruding Chinese fishermen who were inside Russia’s Exclusive Economic Zone near Vladivostok. The Russians captured by force 17 Chinese fishermen, and one is missing and presumed dead after an at-sea shootout, according to Andrey Orlov, spokesman for the Russian Border Guard Service in the Far East.


*
China is also now officially claiming the state of Arunachal Pradesh, historically a part of himalayan India as its own. This dispute has festered since the 1950's. It also disputes the Indian ownership of the ancient trade route of Aksai Chin in the Karakoram Mountains of Kashmir.


*
Chinese expansionism is real, concerted and will probably be very effective. They are master strategists and we are highly leveraged. And have little appetite for a conflict against such a powerful enemy. Watch us turn our heads and pretend we aren't aware of what is about to happen.


*
China, is of course destined to fall, but ironically, the change is going to happen from within. All of the ipads, bigmacs, iphones and western material goods and dollars are bound to unwittingly awake that sleeping giant that craves freedom and liberty and decides to not put up with the shit anymore. Or am I being a hopeless, romantic optimist again?