Another point I made also requires clarification. I said that Chinese submarines "have been spotted" near Hawaii recently. On June 1st, 2013, the Interpreter reported about the Shangri-La Dialogue that had just taken place in Singapore:
"[...] it was striking to hear a Chinese military officer reveal in an open discussion at this conference today that China had 'thought of reciprocating' by 'sending ships and planes to the US EEZ', and had in fact done so 'a few times', although not a daily basis (unlike the US presence off China).
This was news to me. It turns out, from discussions with several maritime security experts in the margins of the conference, that rumours have been circulating for some time of China sending ships on missions to waters off US territory – not the continental US, but probably Hawaii and possibly Guam too. Still, this is the first time any of us can recall this point being made on the public record."
In early October, a Chinese navy ship was spotted near Hawaii, as reported by Goldsea, then in late October, China announced that it had a submarine fleet that could strike US cities on both the West and East coasts, and that these submarines have started routine patrols.
As for China's new Air Defence Identification Zone, what's unusual about it is best explained at, again, the Intepreter.
Today, I will go on Press TV live to discuss this topic further, but with a better lead time, I won't mess up any fact, I hope. The video will be up later, but in the meantime, you can check out my Thanksgiving piece, "Sharing the Turkey," written a couple years ago.
.
1 comment:
re: the 8% of the 17t we owe China and that is approximately the same amount as we owe Japan, or 1.36t respectively, it is important to recognize that in the strictest sense we do not even owe them this money but in fact are returning in interest-yielding bonds the $$ they swap with us after having earned it selling us cheap goods. This is the financial equivalent of what during the Cold War was called MAD--and in fact it is a little mad because there are economists out there who ask why we do this at all. But too late now, once this relationship is established it cannot really be broken. Unless, of course, due to a manufactured political crisis we default on that debt, at which point all hell breaks loose (and we really don't want to live in a world where America doesn't own the world's reserve currency--and which would in time be the inevitable result of said default).
Post a Comment