Images show rapid Chinese progress on new South China Sea airstrip

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Images show rapid Chinese progress on new South China Sea airstrip

WASHINGTON: Recent satellite images published on Thursday show China has made rapid progress in building an airstrip suitable for military use in contested territory in the South China Sea's Spratly Islands and may be planning another, moves that have been greeted with concern in the United States and Asia.

IHS Jane's Defense Weekly said March 23 images from Airbus Defence and Space showed work on the runway on reclaimed parts of Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago, which China contests with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

It said images from earlier in March showed reclamation work on Subu Reef in the Spratlys creating land masses that, if joined together, could create space for another 3,000-metre (3,281-yard) airstrip.

The report said other images suggested China was working to extend another airstrip to that length in the Paracel Islands further north in the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, a vital shipping route through which $5 trillion of trade passes every year.

The report comes a day after the US military commander for Asia, Admiral Samuel Locklear, said China, which claims most of the South China Sea, could eventually deploy radar and missile systems on outposts it is building that could be used to enforce an exclusion zone should it move to declare one.

Senator John McCain, chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, called the Chinese moves "aggressive" and said they showed the need for the Obama administration to act on plans to move more military resources into the economically important Asian region and boost cooperation with Asian countries worried by China.

McCain referred to a US intelligence assessment from February that China's military modernization was designed to counteract US strength and said Washington had a lot of work ahead to maintain its military advantage in the Asia-Pacific.

"When any nation fills in 600 acres of land and builds runways and most likely is putting in other kinds of military capabilities in what is international waters, it is clearly a threat to where the world's economy is going, has gone, and will remain for the foreseeable future," he told a public briefing in Congress.


A spokesperson for the US State Department said the scale of China's land reclamation and construction was fueling concerns within the region that China intends to militarize its outposts and stressed the importance of freedom of navigation.

"The United States has a strong interest in preservation of peace and security in the South China Sea. We do not believe that large-scale land reclamation with the intent to militarize outposts on disputed land features is consistent with the region's desire for peace and stability."

The issue was discussed in a meeting in Washington between US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Japanese and South Korean counterparts.

Read more at

Images show rapid Chinese progress on new South China Sea airstrip - The Times of India
 

Rashna

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Its a tough job for us. We have to stop chinese incursions in to Ladakh and also stop pakistanis from infiltrating in to Kashmir. We have to protect our seas too. The way China is out to woo all our smaller neighbours with railway links and submarines and infrastructure projects we are going to have a tough time doing all this for others because we are ourselves not "quite" there with infrastructure building. China is an old player at it and has made it a shadow economy. I will post one video about that soon. In this scenario our incursions in to south china sea will not be viewed favorably by China and they will likely create trouble for us in Arunachal and Ladakh. :tsk:


What is ur opinion on it.

This is actually :pop: corn time for us,Chinese r not stupid Indians they will start attacking after completion of airstrips or military installation ,if US and its allies threaten or not follow Chinese orders.China want to change the world order,only country can 'contain China' is India.(US can defeats China but war is not the solution)

Now US,west,jpn&Asean need India more than India need them.
 

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Pak is a snake who needs to be crushed before its given a chance to bite. They don't understand common sense, it has to be dinned in to them. Countries in SCS want India to be more vigilant and pro-active to control chinese hegemony. Building islands in international waters is really a big move by China. The US is not going to sit idle and just let China expand its territorial rights while impinging on its smaller neighbours. India may have a role to play in this juxtaposition, so let's see if we can handle the heat at AP, Ladakh and put on some heat in SCS.

Pakistan is dead case,no one bothered about it.China needs pakistan to contain India and that is failed totally.These terrorist attacks will continue either pak supports or not,15% muslims with their only pass time is riots&bombings.

AFA Indian ocean,Indian ocen was,is,will be India's. China only need bases in IOR,Pakistan provides them at Gwadar port.

China aggression or main concentration is in SCS and to change world order.I know after occupying SCS,they may think AP.But cool, when two big elephants (enemies) are fighting only grass that suffers (here grass Pak/Nkorea/viet/phip etc). :D
 

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You need to read this Brahma Chellaney article.

Is Tibet another blunder from Nehruvian past of India which will not stop biting us?

Why Tibet Remains The Core Issue In China-India Relations

Despite booming two-way trade, strategic discord and rivalry between China and India is sharpening. At the core of their divide is Tibet, an issue that fuels territorial disputes, border tensions and water feuds.

Beijing says Tibet is a core issue for China. In truth, Tibet is the core issue in Beijing's relations with countries like India, Nepal and Bhutan that traditionally did not have a common border with China. These countries became China's neighbors after it annexed Tibet, which, after waves of genocide since the 1950s, now faces ecocide.

China itself highlights Tibet as the core issue with India by laying claim to Indian territories on the basis of purported Tibetan ecclesial or tutelary links, rather than any professed Han Chinese connection. Indeed, ever since China gobbled up the historical buffer with India, Tibet has remained the core issue.



The latest reminder of this reality came when President Xi Jinping brought Chinese military incursions across the Indo-Tibetan border on his India visit in September. Put off by the intrusions, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government permitted Tibetan exiles to stage protests during Xi's New Delhi stay, reversing a pattern since the early 1990s of such protests being foiled by police during the visit of any Chinese leader.

However, during Xi's visit, India bungled on the Tibet question and another issue relating to the small Indian Himalayan state of Sikkim. The diplomatic goof-ups escaped media attention.

In response to China's increasing belligerence — reflected in a rising number of Chinese border incursions and Beijing's new assertiveness on the two Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir — India since 2010 stopped making any reference to Tibet being part of China in a joint statement with China. It has also linked any endorsement of "one China" to a reciprocal Chinese commitment to a "one India."

Yet the Modi-Xi joint statement brought in Tibet via the backdoor, with India appreciating the help extended by the "local government of Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China" to Indian pilgrims visiting Tibet's Kailash-Mansarover, a mountain-and-lake duo sacred to four faiths: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Tibet's indigenous religion, Bon. Several major rivers, including the Indus, the Brahmaputra, the Sutlej and the Karnali, originate around this holy duo.

The statement's reference to the "Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China" was out of place. It lent implicit Indian support to Tibet being part of China by gratuitously changing the formulation recorded during Premier Li Keqiang's 2013 visit, when the joint statement stated: "The Indian side conveyed appreciation to the Chinese side for the improvement of facilities for the Indian pilgrims."

This new formulation ran counter to India's position since 2010 — a stance that came with the promise of repairing the damage from India's past blunders over Tibet, including by prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi. Nehru in 1954ceded India's British-inherited extraterritorial rights in Tibet and accepted the sprawling region's annexation without any quid pro quo. Under the terms of this accord, India withdrew its "military escorts" from Tibet, and handed over to China the postal, telegraph and telephone services it operated there.

In 2003, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee went further than any predecessor and formally surrendered India's Tibet card. In a statement he signed with the Chinese premier, Vajpayee used the legal term "recognize" to accept what China deceptively calls the Tibet Autonomous Region as "part of the territory of the People's Republic of China."

Vajpayee's blunder opened the way for China to claim Arunachal Pradesh as "South Tibet," a term it coined in 2006 to legitimize its attempt at rolling annexation. Had Vajpayee not caved in, China would not have been emboldened to ingeniously invent the term "South Tibet" for Arunachal Pradesh, which is three times the size of Taiwan and twice as large as Switzerland. And since 2010, Beijing has also questioned India's sovereignty over the state of Jammu and Kashmir, one-fifth of which is under Chinese occupation.

In this light, the reference to China's Tibet region in the Modi-Xi joint statement granted Beijing via the backdoor what India has refused to grant upfront since 2010. This sleight of hand implicitly endorsed Tibet as being part of China without Xi committing to a "one India" policy.

Now consider India's second mistake — falling for China's proposal for establishing an alternative route for Indian pilgrims via Sikkim, a state that strategically faces India's highly vulnerable "chicken's neck" and where Beijing is working to insidiously build influence.

Ironically, it is by agreeing to open a circuitous alternative route for pilgrims via Sikkim's Nathula crossing that Beijing extracted the appreciation from India to China's Tibet government. Given that Kailash-Mansarovar is located toward the western side of the Tibet-India border, the new route entails a long, arduous detour — pilgrims must first cross eastern Himalayas and then head toward western Himalayas through a frigid, high-altitude terrain.

China currently permits entry of a very small number of Indian pilgrims through just one point — India's Lipulekh Pass, to the west of Nepal. This year, for example, China will allow a maximum of 1,080 pilgrims to visit in small batches.

The Tibetan plateau is Asia's "water tower." © Brahma Chellaney, "Water: Asia's New Battleground" (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013).
The Tibetan plateau is Asia's "water tower." © Brahma Chellaney, "Water: Asia's New Battleground" (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013).

One obvious reason China chose the roundabout route via Sikkim is that the only section of the Indo-Tibetan border it does not dispute is the Sikkim-Tibet frontier, except for the tiny Finger Area there. Beijing recognizes the 1890 Anglo-Sikkim Convention, which demarcated the 206-kilometer Sikkim-Tibet frontier, yet paradoxically rejects as a colonial relic Tibet's 1914 McMahon Line with India, though not with Myanmar.

The more important reason is that China is seeking to advance its strategic interests in the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction, which overlooks the narrow neck of land that connects India's northeast with the rest of the country. Should the chicken's neck ever be blocked, the northeast would be cut off from the Indian mainland. In the event of a war, China could seek to do just that.

Two developments underscore its strategic designs. China is offering Bhutan a territorial settlement in which it would cede most of its other claims in return for being given the strategic area that directly overlooks India's chokepoint. At the same time, Beijing is working systematically to shape a Sino-friendly Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism. This sect controls important Indian monasteries along the Tibetan border and is headed by the China-anointed but now India-based Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley.

The Indian government has barred Ogyen Trinley — who raised suspicion in 1999 by escaping from Tibet with astonishing ease — from visiting the sect's headquarters at Rumtek, Sikkim.

Yet — redounding poorly on Indian intelligence — the Mandarin-speaking Ogyen Trinley has been regularly receiving envoys sent by Beijing. In recent years, he has met Han Buddhist figures as well as Xiao Wunan, the effective head of the Asia-Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation. This dubious foundation, created to project China's "soft power," has unveiled plans with questionable motives to invest $3 billion at Lord Buddha's birthplace in Nepal — Lumbini, located virtually on the open border with India.

Ogyen Trinley — the first Tibetan lama living in exile to include Han Buddhist rituals in traditional Tibetan practices — was recently accused by the head of the Drukpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism of aiding Beijing's frontier designs by using his money power to take over Drukpa Himalayan monasteries, including in the Kailash-Mansarovar area. Indeed, Indian police in 2011 seized large sums of Chinese currency from the Karmapa's office.

Since coming up to power in May, Modi has pursued a nimble foreign policy. His government, hopefully, can learn from its dual mistakes. With China now challenging Indian interests even in the Indian Ocean region, it has become imperative for India to find ways to blunt Chinese trans-Himalayan pressures.

One key challenge Modi faces is how to build leverage against China, which largely sets the bilateral agenda, yet savors a galloping, $36-plus billion trade surplus with India. Modi's "Make in India" mission cannot gain traction as long as Chinese dumping of goods undercuts Indian manufacturing.

Also, past Indian blunders on Tibet have helped narrow the focus of Himalayan disputes to what China claims. The spotlight now is on China's Tibet-linked claim to Arunachal, rather than on Tibet's status itself.

To correct that, Modi must find ways to add elasticity and nuance to India's Tibet stance.

One way for India to gradually reclaim its leverage over the Tibet issue is to start emphasizing that its acceptance of China's claim over Tibet hinged on a grant of genuine autonomy to that region. But instead of granting autonomy, China has make Tibet autonomous in name only, bringing the region under its tight political control and unleashing increasing repression.

India must not shy away from urging China to begin a process of reconciliation and healing in Tibet in its own interest and in the interest of stable Sino-Indian relations. China's hydro-engineering projects are another reminder that Tibet is at the heart of the India-China divide and why India must regain leverage over the Tibet issue.

That a settlement of the Tibet issue is imperative for regional stability and for improved Sino-Indian relations should become India's consistent diplomatic refrain. India must also call on Beijing to help build harmonious bilateral relations by renouncing its claims to Indian-administered territories.

Through such calls, and by using expressions like the "Indo-Tibetan border" and by identifying the plateau to the north of its Himalayas as Tibet (not China) in its official maps, India can subtly reopen Tibet as an outstanding issue, without having to formally renounce any of its previously stated positions.

Tibet ceased to be a political buffer when China occupied it in 1950-51. But Tibet can still turn into a political bridge between China and India. For that to happen, China must start a process of political reconciliation in Tibet, repudiate claims to Indian territories on the basis of their alleged Tibetan links, and turn water into a source of cooperation, not conflict.

Brahma Chellaney is a geostrategist and the author, most recently, of "Water, Peace, and War" (Rowman & Littlefield).

Why Tibet Remains The Core Issue In China-India Relations - Forbes

Are u ppl out of ur mind... Ladakh&AP in not vacant (&resource full) place ppl are living there they are Indians like u&me.Tomorrow some Chinese come and rule the place and u think ppl will simply obey them.Is this joke or what,do u think it is possible in this century

Indian can also print some AKHAND BHARAT map and show burma/tibet/pak/bd also in bharat ..... who cares these stupid maps.So forget abt those claims by china, they r only capable of capturing vacant resourceful SCS. Asean,Jpn,West&US are face heat.That is nothing to do with India to finger in Chinese&US internal matters.
 

t_co

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You need to read this Brahma Chellaney article.

Is Tibet another blunder from Nehruvian past of India which will not stop biting us?

Why Tibet Remains The Core Issue In China-India Relations

Despite booming two-way trade, strategic discord and rivalry between China and India is sharpening. At the core of their divide is Tibet, an issue that fuels territorial disputes, border tensions and water feuds.

Beijing says Tibet is a core issue for China. In truth, Tibet is the core issue in Beijing's relations with countries like India, Nepal and Bhutan that traditionally did not have a common border with China. These countries became China's neighbors after it annexed Tibet, which, after waves of genocide since the 1950s, now faces ecocide.

China itself highlights Tibet as the core issue with India by laying claim to Indian territories on the basis of purported Tibetan ecclesial or tutelary links, rather than any professed Han Chinese connection. Indeed, ever since China gobbled up the historical buffer with India, Tibet has remained the core issue.



The latest reminder of this reality came when President Xi Jinping brought Chinese military incursions across the Indo-Tibetan border on his India visit in September. Put off by the intrusions, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government permitted Tibetan exiles to stage protests during Xi's New Delhi stay, reversing a pattern since the early 1990s of such protests being foiled by police during the visit of any Chinese leader.

However, during Xi's visit, India bungled on the Tibet question and another issue relating to the small Indian Himalayan state of Sikkim. The diplomatic goof-ups escaped media attention.

In response to China's increasing belligerence — reflected in a rising number of Chinese border incursions and Beijing's new assertiveness on the two Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir — India since 2010 stopped making any reference to Tibet being part of China in a joint statement with China. It has also linked any endorsement of "one China" to a reciprocal Chinese commitment to a "one India."

Yet the Modi-Xi joint statement brought in Tibet via the backdoor, with India appreciating the help extended by the "local government of Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China" to Indian pilgrims visiting Tibet's Kailash-Mansarover, a mountain-and-lake duo sacred to four faiths: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Tibet's indigenous religion, Bon. Several major rivers, including the Indus, the Brahmaputra, the Sutlej and the Karnali, originate around this holy duo.

The statement's reference to the "Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China" was out of place. It lent implicit Indian support to Tibet being part of China by gratuitously changing the formulation recorded during Premier Li Keqiang's 2013 visit, when the joint statement stated: "The Indian side conveyed appreciation to the Chinese side for the improvement of facilities for the Indian pilgrims."

This new formulation ran counter to India's position since 2010 — a stance that came with the promise of repairing the damage from India's past blunders over Tibet, including by prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi. Nehru in 1954ceded India's British-inherited extraterritorial rights in Tibet and accepted the sprawling region's annexation without any quid pro quo. Under the terms of this accord, India withdrew its "military escorts" from Tibet, and handed over to China the postal, telegraph and telephone services it operated there.

In 2003, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee went further than any predecessor and formally surrendered India's Tibet card. In a statement he signed with the Chinese premier, Vajpayee used the legal term "recognize" to accept what China deceptively calls the Tibet Autonomous Region as "part of the territory of the People's Republic of China."

Vajpayee's blunder opened the way for China to claim Arunachal Pradesh as "South Tibet," a term it coined in 2006 to legitimize its attempt at rolling annexation. Had Vajpayee not caved in, China would not have been emboldened to ingeniously invent the term "South Tibet" for Arunachal Pradesh, which is three times the size of Taiwan and twice as large as Switzerland. And since 2010, Beijing has also questioned India's sovereignty over the state of Jammu and Kashmir, one-fifth of which is under Chinese occupation.

In this light, the reference to China's Tibet region in the Modi-Xi joint statement granted Beijing via the backdoor what India has refused to grant upfront since 2010. This sleight of hand implicitly endorsed Tibet as being part of China without Xi committing to a "one India" policy.

Now consider India's second mistake — falling for China's proposal for establishing an alternative route for Indian pilgrims via Sikkim, a state that strategically faces India's highly vulnerable "chicken's neck" and where Beijing is working to insidiously build influence.

Ironically, it is by agreeing to open a circuitous alternative route for pilgrims via Sikkim's Nathula crossing that Beijing extracted the appreciation from India to China's Tibet government. Given that Kailash-Mansarovar is located toward the western side of the Tibet-India border, the new route entails a long, arduous detour — pilgrims must first cross eastern Himalayas and then head toward western Himalayas through a frigid, high-altitude terrain.

China currently permits entry of a very small number of Indian pilgrims through just one point — India's Lipulekh Pass, to the west of Nepal. This year, for example, China will allow a maximum of 1,080 pilgrims to visit in small batches.

The Tibetan plateau is Asia's "water tower." © Brahma Chellaney, "Water: Asia's New Battleground" (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013).
The Tibetan plateau is Asia's "water tower." © Brahma Chellaney, "Water: Asia's New Battleground" (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013).

One obvious reason China chose the roundabout route via Sikkim is that the only section of the Indo-Tibetan border it does not dispute is the Sikkim-Tibet frontier, except for the tiny Finger Area there. Beijing recognizes the 1890 Anglo-Sikkim Convention, which demarcated the 206-kilometer Sikkim-Tibet frontier, yet paradoxically rejects as a colonial relic Tibet's 1914 McMahon Line with India, though not with Myanmar.

The more important reason is that China is seeking to advance its strategic interests in the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction, which overlooks the narrow neck of land that connects India's northeast with the rest of the country. Should the chicken's neck ever be blocked, the northeast would be cut off from the Indian mainland. In the event of a war, China could seek to do just that.

Two developments underscore its strategic designs. China is offering Bhutan a territorial settlement in which it would cede most of its other claims in return for being given the strategic area that directly overlooks India's chokepoint. At the same time, Beijing is working systematically to shape a Sino-friendly Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism. This sect controls important Indian monasteries along the Tibetan border and is headed by the China-anointed but now India-based Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley.

The Indian government has barred Ogyen Trinley — who raised suspicion in 1999 by escaping from Tibet with astonishing ease — from visiting the sect's headquarters at Rumtek, Sikkim.

Yet — redounding poorly on Indian intelligence — the Mandarin-speaking Ogyen Trinley has been regularly receiving envoys sent by Beijing. In recent years, he has met Han Buddhist figures as well as Xiao Wunan, the effective head of the Asia-Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation. This dubious foundation, created to project China's "soft power," has unveiled plans with questionable motives to invest $3 billion at Lord Buddha's birthplace in Nepal — Lumbini, located virtually on the open border with India.

Ogyen Trinley — the first Tibetan lama living in exile to include Han Buddhist rituals in traditional Tibetan practices — was recently accused by the head of the Drukpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism of aiding Beijing's frontier designs by using his money power to take over Drukpa Himalayan monasteries, including in the Kailash-Mansarovar area. Indeed, Indian police in 2011 seized large sums of Chinese currency from the Karmapa's office.

Since coming up to power in May, Modi has pursued a nimble foreign policy. His government, hopefully, can learn from its dual mistakes. With China now challenging Indian interests even in the Indian Ocean region, it has become imperative for India to find ways to blunt Chinese trans-Himalayan pressures.

One key challenge Modi faces is how to build leverage against China, which largely sets the bilateral agenda, yet savors a galloping, $36-plus billion trade surplus with India. Modi's "Make in India" mission cannot gain traction as long as Chinese dumping of goods undercuts Indian manufacturing.

Also, past Indian blunders on Tibet have helped narrow the focus of Himalayan disputes to what China claims. The spotlight now is on China's Tibet-linked claim to Arunachal, rather than on Tibet's status itself.

To correct that, Modi must find ways to add elasticity and nuance to India's Tibet stance.

One way for India to gradually reclaim its leverage over the Tibet issue is to start emphasizing that its acceptance of China's claim over Tibet hinged on a grant of genuine autonomy to that region. But instead of granting autonomy, China has make Tibet autonomous in name only, bringing the region under its tight political control and unleashing increasing repression.

India must not shy away from urging China to begin a process of reconciliation and healing in Tibet in its own interest and in the interest of stable Sino-Indian relations. China's hydro-engineering projects are another reminder that Tibet is at the heart of the India-China divide and why India must regain leverage over the Tibet issue.

That a settlement of the Tibet issue is imperative for regional stability and for improved Sino-Indian relations should become India's consistent diplomatic refrain. India must also call on Beijing to help build harmonious bilateral relations by renouncing its claims to Indian-administered territories.

Through such calls, and by using expressions like the "Indo-Tibetan border" and by identifying the plateau to the north of its Himalayas as Tibet (not China) in its official maps, India can subtly reopen Tibet as an outstanding issue, without having to formally renounce any of its previously stated positions.

Tibet ceased to be a political buffer when China occupied it in 1950-51. But Tibet can still turn into a political bridge between China and India. For that to happen, China must start a process of political reconciliation in Tibet, repudiate claims to Indian territories on the basis of their alleged Tibetan links, and turn water into a source of cooperation, not conflict.

Brahma Chellaney is a geostrategist and the author, most recently, of "Water, Peace, and War" (Rowman & Littlefield).

Why Tibet Remains The Core Issue In China-India Relations - Forbes
If India pushes via Tibet, China will push even harder via Pakistan - and Pakistan can do a lot more damage to India than Tibet can do to China.
 

Rashna

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What exactly will you push for and how through pakistan? Is this a tacit agreement that you use pakistan against India or that you are involved in cross border terrorism in to India?

If India pushes via Tibet, China will push even harder via Pakistan - and Pakistan can do a lot more damage to India than Tibet can do to China.
 

Hari Sud

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Do not be alarmed at every development in South China Sea. It is to confront US Naval might. I believe that is a wishful thinking. China will never confront US. They cannot jeopardize $1 Trillion exports to US. So what can a airstrip in South China do, it is to intimidate the little guys in the neighbourhood.

In the twenty first century that intimidation will not work, because US will run with military help, hence who looses, it is China who is the looser in any confrontation of any sort whether it is with Japan or with Taiwan, Phillipines, Vietnam etc.

What is the best advice, stop printing those Chinese inspired news items. Their main purpose is intimidation. As a matter fact if Chinese Navy survives a week in any confrontation with US, I would be a surprised.

Chinese survival in Indian Ocean is very much in doubt. These naval ships are four thousand miles away from home ports, lack deep sea experience and face toughened Indian Navy supported by shore based bombers and missiles. Their best bet is supporting Pakistani Navy, which they are doing anyway. Net result, Pakistanis will be eating grass sooner than later because they have to increase defence expenditure from $12 a year now to $40 billion, if everything they say want are able to buy by hook or by crook.
 

s002wjh

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Do not be alarmed at every development in South China Sea. It is to confront US Naval might. I believe that is a wishful thinking. China will never confront US. They cannot jeopardize $1 Trillion exports to US. So what can a airstrip in South China do, it is to intimidate the little guys in the neighbourhood.

In the twenty first century that intimidation will not work, because US will run with military help, hence who looses, it is China who is the looser in any confrontation of any sort whether it is with Japan or with Taiwan, Phillipines, Vietnam etc.

What is the best advice, stop printing those Chinese inspired news items. Their main purpose is intimidation. As a matter fact if Chinese Navy survives a week in any confrontation with US, I would be a surprised.

Chinese survival in Indian Ocean is very much in doubt. These naval ships are four thousand miles away from home ports, lack deep sea experience and face toughened Indian Navy supported by shore based bombers and missiles. Their best bet is supporting Pakistani Navy, which they are doing anyway. Net result, Pakistanis will be eating grass sooner than later because they have to increase defence expenditure from $12 a year now to $40 billion, if everything they say want are able to buy by hook or by crook.
actually its not, is meant to solidfied their claim, and meant toward country such as phillippine/vietnam
 

HeinzGud

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Its a tough job for us. We have to stop chinese incursions in to Ladakh and also stop pakistanis from infiltrating in to Kashmir. We have to protect our seas too. The way China is out to woo all our smaller neighbours with railway links and submarines and infrastructure projects we are going to have a tough time doing all this for others because we are ourselves not "quite" there with infrastructure building. China is an old player at it and has made it a shadow economy. I will post one video about that soon. In this scenario our incursions in to south china sea will not be viewed favorably by China and they will likely create trouble for us in Arunachal and Ladakh. :tsk:
To be frank India is not ready yet to become at least a regional player. There are several issues that India needs to iron our before heading into the Internationale arena.
 

no smoking

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If India pushes via Tibet, China will push even harder via Pakistan - and Pakistan can do a lot more damage to India than Tibet can do to China.
Why? There is nothing India can do about Tibet except lip works. We don't need Pakistan's assistance on this. There is plenty of Indian insurgents desperately need some foreign help.
 

Ray

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If India pushes via Tibet, China will push even harder via Pakistan - and Pakistan can do a lot more damage to India than Tibet can do to China.
True.

That is what Col Yu of WAB had said:

China will fight India to the last dead Pakistani
! :rofl:

Why? There is nothing India can do about Tibet except lip works. We don't need Pakistan's assistance on this. There is plenty of Indian insurgents desperately need some foreign help.


Spot on.

We are seeing it all the time in India, the Chinese assistance to the Maoists and insurgents.

But thing maybe changing and China's growth has dropped astronomically shocking China in their janks.
 
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Rashna

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India does not have a choice. If China continues its expansionist agenda India will have to enter the fray. India, US, and Japan are active in the SCS region with an aim to check China's ingress in to international waters.

To be frank India is not ready yet to become at least a regional player. There are several issues that India needs to iron our before heading into the Internationale arena.
 

Compersion

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i would not doubt the ability of India in testing the cohesiveness of PRC relations with its neighbors including Pakistan and North Korea
 

HeinzGud

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India does not have a choice. If China continues its expansionist agenda India will have to enter the fray. India, US, and Japan are active in the SCS region with an aim to check China's ingress in to international waters.
Japan and US can check Chinese ingress into SCS. India do not have such capability let alone control IOC.

India should first iron out out it's issues first before heading out to world arena.
 

Rashna

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What issues? Every big country has some issues but they are out there and in the thick of things.
You massively underrate India's capabilities. Maybe this will help change your mind.


In South China Sea Row, Top US Commander Roots for India


NEW DELHI: Less than two months after the release of the US-India Joint Strategic Vision statement for the Asia-Pacific region during President Barack Obama's visit, one of America's top military commanders has made it clear that China has no right in opposing Indian naval operations in the disputed South China Sea.

Admiral Harry Harris Jr, whose area of responsibility extends to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, said, "The South China seas are international waters and India should be able to operate freely wherever India wants to operate. If that means the South China Sea, then get in there and do that."


In July 2011, when the Indian Navy amphibious warfare ship INS Shardul set course from the Nha Trang military port in south Vietnam towards Haiphong port in north Vietnam to make a friendly visit, she was buzzed on an open radio channel and told by the Chinese Navy, "You are entering Chinese waters. Move out of here." In 2014, China opposed the India-Vietnam agreement which would enable the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to explore oil wells in waters which China claims to administer.

Voicing his concerns on China's regional disputes in the South China Sea, Admiral Harris said, "I view with concern China's land reclamation process. I think it's provocative, and it causes tensions to be raised in the South China Sea and all of the countries in the South China seas. So, I am concerned about it. For all of us who are concerned about freedom of navigation, it behoves us to pay attention to what China is doing in the South China Sea and its dramatic land reclamation. They are, in fact, changing facts on the ground."

Though the US Admiral did note the increased Chinese submarine presence in the Indian Ocean, his primary concern was on safeguarding maritime security and ensuring the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, very much in line with the joint statement released by the US and Indian delegations during President Obama's visit to New Delhi in January.

China, for its part, claims much or all of the South China Sea as its territorial waters. The region contains several islands, reefs and sandbars and is thought to be a region enormously rich in hydrocarbons, particularly around the highly disputed Spratly Islands.

Though this has remained largely unstated in public, the United States sees India as a key part of its pivot towards the Asia-Pacific region. Not only is the Indian Navy one of the most powerful forces in the region, it is a useful training partner which engages the US Navy in exceptionally high-level wargames in the annual Malabar series of exercises which are held during the fall. According to Admiral Harris, "I was involved with Malabar 1995 and now you look at Malabar 2014, and it is leaps and bounds beyond what it was. I would like to have an increase with India in special operations exercises."

Last year, India opened up the Malabar exercises to include Japan, a strong ally of both New Delhi and Washington. Australia, another regional partner of the US and India, also has concerns with Chinese naval expansionism.

While India and the United States stand committed to engaging China economically, a new strategic order clearly seems in the process of being established across both the Pacific and Indian Oceans with the US being the big brother.

"As part of the US rebound, the Pacific fleet is going to get bigger. 60 per cent of the US Navy will be in the Pacific fleet by 2020. For me, my area of responsibility for the US Navy is the Pacific and Indian Oceans and so, I say that my area of responsibility goes from Hollywood to Bollywood and Polar Bears to Penguins. So that's kind of all of it. That's 52 per cent of the world. That's my area of responsibility," Admiral Harris said. The US sees India as an important part of this new order.

In South China Sea Row, Top US Commander Roots for India

Japan and US can check Chinese ingress into SCS. India do not have such capability let alone control IOC.

India should first iron out out it's issues first before heading out to world arena.
 

HeinzGud

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What issues? Every big country has some issues but they are out there and in the thick of things.
You massively underrate India's capabilities. Maybe this will help change your mind.
Yes. India can send ships to SCS. But can it sustain it's operations in SCS? Even China has issue when navigating the IOR. IMHO only US has the capability operate in any of the world's oceans.
 

Rashna

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India is not just sending ships to SCS. India's ONGC is involved in oil exploration in SCS and is helping Vietnam. China is laying to claim to international waters and all the affected countries have objections. China does not have a coastline like India so they are trying to lay claim to everything bordering it. See this map below to get a better idea.



Yes. India can send ships to SCS. But can it sustain it's operations in SCS? Even China has issue when navigating the IOR. IMHO only US has the capability operate in any of the world's oceans.
 

sorcerer

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South China Sea: China Is Building on the Paracels As Well
As Vietnam's Communist Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong met with China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing last week, China's government news service Xinhua extolled a "deep-rooted partnership" between the two nations. But 400 kilometers off Vietnam's coast, in the Paracel Islands, China was rapidly consolidating its hold on islands that both countries vehemently claim as their own.

Woody Island 4in1 5.8M


High-resolution satellite images from March 17 show that Woody Island, occupied by China since 1956, is undergoing a major expansion of its runway and airport facilities. Within the past five months, a 2,400-meter airstrip has been completely replaced with a new concrete runway measuring 2,920 meters in length, accompanied by a new taxiway, expanded runway aprons and adjacent large buildings under construction. Additional land reclamation is also underway on Woody Island, called Yongxing Dao in Chinese and Đảo Phú Lâm in Vietnamese.

Map Woody and Duncan islands




Eighty kilometers southwest of Woody, on Duncan Island (seized by China from Vietnam in 1974) satellite images show landfill that has increased the size of the island by approximately 50 percent since April 2014. Known as Chenhang Dao in Chinese and Đảo Quang Hòa in Vietnamese, the island houses a military garrison, four radar domes, a concrete manufacturing plant, and a port that has recently been expanded via dredging and coral cutting. A reinforced sea wall is being constructed around recent landfill. New buildings have also appeared on nearby Drummond Island, occupied by China.


Much attention has been focused in recent weeks on China's exceedingly rapid land reclamation and construction on at least seven disputed reefs further south in the South China Sea, within the Spratly Island group. China's land grab for these reefs and atolls, variously claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei, meets with little to no resistance; in the Paracels, even less so. Yes, in the past few months there has been a dialogue regarding a possible strategic partnership between Vietnam and the Philippines, the latter being especially alarmed by China's reef takeovers in waters close to its shores. The U.S. has partially lifted its embargo on weapon sales to Vietnam, which is bolstering its navy, receiving patrol boats donated by Japan, and acquiring six kilo-class submarines from Russia. The Philippines has reopened its Subic Bay base to U.S. Navy vessels, and Manila is seeking redress in a UNCLOS arbitration case against China.

But all of these reactions appear to be occurring in slow motion compared to the speed with which China's dredgers, bulldozers, and portable concrete factories are being deployed across the South China Sea.

Victor Robert Lee reports from the Asia-Pacific region and is the author of the literary espionage novel Performance Anomalies.
http://thediplomat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/thediplomat_2015-04-14_01-32-04.jpg
 

nimo_cn

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China has been urging the relevant countries for years to obey the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, but no country heeds Chinese suggestions.

Vietnam and Philippines have been doing land reclamation to the islands they illegally occupied and transforming them into military fortresses for decades, except that they could not progress as fast as China because they dont have the means and tools.

I think China is doing the right thing, now they are going to take Chinese suggestions seriously. they are aware that they cant match China in the speed of land reclamation, if they dont stop China will continue, which in fact is a good thing for China.

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