U.S. takes a tougher tone with China - READ
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U.S. takes a tougher tone with China
By John PomfretWashington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 30, 2010The Obama administration has adopted a tougher tone with China in recent weeks as part of a diplomatic balancing act in which the United States welcomes China's rise in some areas but also confronts Beijing when it butts up against American interests.
Faced with a Chinese government increasingly intent on testing U.S. strength and capabilities, the United States unveiled a new policy that rejected China's claims to sovereignty over the whole South China Sea. It rebuffed Chinese demands that the U.S. military end its longtime policy of conducting military exercises in the Yellow Sea. And it is putting new pressure on Beijing not to increase its energy investments in Iran as Western firms leave.
The U.S. maneuvers have prompted a backlash among Chinese officialdom and its state-run press, which has accused the United States of trying to contain China. Yang Jiechi, the minister of foreign affairs, issued a highly unusual statement Monday charging that the United States was ganging up with other countries against China. One prominent academic, Shen Dingli of Fudan University, compared the planned U.S. exercises in international waters of the Yellow Sea to the 1962 Russian deployment of nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba.
U.S. officials explained the moves as part of a broader strategy to acknowledge China's emergence as a world power but to also lay down markers when China's behavior infringes on U.S. interests. So at the same time that the administration has welcomed China into the Group of 20 major economies, held the biggest meeting ever between U.S. and Chinese officials, and backed China's push to increase its influence in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, it is also seeking to limit what it thinks are China's expansionist impulses. To this end, the Obama administration has also intensified its diplomacy and outreach to other Asian and Oceanic nations, ending a 12-year ban on ties with Indonesia's special forces and strengthening its alliances from Tokyo and Seoul to Canberra, Australia.
The strategy has won rare acclaim in Washington among the generally fractious community of China watchers. James Mulvenon, director of Defense Group Inc.'s Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, called it "a masterful piece of diplomacy" in dealing with China, which, he said, "continues to be this paradoxical combination of bluster, swagger and intense insecurity and caution."
The decision to confront China on the South China Sea dates back several months, after administration officials noticed that the sea -- an international waterway through which more than 50 percent of the world's merchant fleet tonnage passes each year -- had crept into the standard diplomatic pitter-patter about China's "core interests." In March, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Cui Tiankai told two senior U.S. officials that China now views its claims to the 1.3 million-square-mile sea on par with its claims to Tibet and Taiwan, an island that China says belongs to Beijing.
In addition, Southeast Asian nations had informed the United States that they, too, were uncomfortable with China's pressure on countries and companies interested in exploring for gas and other minerals in the sea. China had warned Exxon Mobil and BP to stop explorations in offshore areas near Vietnam. It had also begun routinely arresting or harassing fishing vessels from other countries, according to sources from the region.
The U.S. response was unveiled July 23 in Hanoi when 12 nations -- Vietnam as the first and the United States as the last -- raised the issue of the South China Sea at an annual security forum of the Association of South East Asian Nations. Calling freedom of navigation on the sea a U.S. "national interest," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered to facilitate moves to create a code of conduct in the region. And then she said: "Legitimate claims to maritime space in the South China Sea should be derived solely from legitimate claims to land features."
Translated, it meant that China's claims to the whole sea were "invalid," said a senior administration official, because it doesn't have any people living on the scores of rocks and atolls that it says belong to China.
Foreign Minister Yang reacted by leaving the meeting for an hour. When he returned, he gave a rambling 30-minute response in which he accused the United States of plotting against China on this issue, seemed to poke fun at Vietnam's socialist credentials and apparently threatened Singapore, according to U.S. and Asian officials in the room.
"China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that's just a fact," he said, staring directly at Singapore's foreign minister, George Yeo, according to several participants at the meeting.
On Monday, Yang issued a statement on the Foreign Ministry's Web site saying that there was no need to internationalize the issue, that China was still intent on solving all of the disputes bilaterally and that China's view represented the interests of "fellow Asians."
"After the meeting, about a dozen Asian delegates expressed their congratulations to the Chinese side," the statement said, despite what many in the meeting thought were clear indications that most of the participants supported the U.S. view.
The Obama administration has also pushed back on statements, particularly from China's People's Liberation Army, over planned military exercises in the Yellow Sea -- thousands of miles to the north.
The United States and South Korea have been planning the exercises after the March 26 sinking of a South Korean warship that left 46 sailors dead. An international investigation of the incident pointed to North Korea as responsible for the attack.
But then China inserted itself into the debate, claiming that any military exercise in the Yellow Sea would be seen as threatening to Beijing -- something that struck U.S. officials as unnecessarily complicating what was supposed to be a simple message of U.S.-South Korean solidarity in the face of an attack by Pyongyang.
On July 3, Gen. Ma Xiaotian, the deputy chief of general staff of the People's Liberation Army, told the Phoenix TV channel that "as far as these exercises are conducted . . . in the close proximity to our territorial waters, we strongly protest." Yet in November, the USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier, had been in the Yellow Sea without eliciting criticism from China.
In an attempt to cool China's ire, the administration conducted its first exercise this week with the USS George Washington in the Sea of Japan (also known to Koreans as the East Sea) farther from China's coast. But partly because China made an issue of it, a second exercise is also being planned -- in the Yellow Sea. U.S. officials also predicted that the George Washington will soon be back in the region -- this time in the Yellow Sea.
Finally, the Obama administration continues to push China over Iran. The United States won Beijing's support for enhanced U.N. sanctions on Iran in June after Tehran's refusal to halt its program to enrich uranium. As part of the deal, the sanctions were kept relatively weak, and China, which has substantial investments in Iran's energy sector and is Iran's third-largest oil customer, was exempted from many of them.
But now U.S. officials are concerned that as Western countries enact additional sanctions on Iran -- the United States, Canada and the European Union have all slapped on more in recent weeks -- Chinese state-owned energy firms will step in as Western and Japanese investments dry up, negating any possible effect of the measures.
"We're not done on Iran," said the senior administration official. "We are looking for maximum Chinese restraint."
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How interesting.. America is in no position to be doing the shoving here there are so many ways China can financially devastate America - Revalue its currency, dump its trillions of dollars of debt and cause hyper inflation..
This may be abit of a stretch, but i think America is just looking for a fight, itching for another huge war.. After all America got out of its great depression after the two world wars and into prosperity.
And this is (IMHO) what the bush administration also tried to do with the middle east with a terrorism excuse(which i feel they concocted the 9/11 attacks themselves), just that maybe the war wasnt big enough LoL..
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American started the war in Iraq and Afganistan to shaft up their economy. Billions are spend in the war in that mostly American military companies benefited.
Strategically, they are now in control over the oil field in Iraq and the world largest known iro-ore and naturally resources rich Afganistan.
They robbed the world of billions from the financial crisis and will continue to do so with the free print of the dollars.
The Chinese perfer peacefully developing their economic over confrontation. As the country grown wealthier, their ppl demand a greater involvement in ther world affair and shown of Chinese nationism.
Meantime,the world will continue to distrust the Chinese because the communist is known to be notorious about distorting every information they give the world. The commnunist propaganda machinery is very much alive as it will continue to maniputate its ppl to distract them from the problems at home. The Chinese ppl, especially the younger generation hated the corruption in the government. The rural poor are still very much the same except that factories now provide a better living for their Children who prefer to work in the city.
Unfortunately, as China prosperous, the materialism demand from the young is unstatisfiable. Housing is the main problem as corruptions and high property price is a time bom waiting to explode.
Same time, the world demand PRC to be fairer in opening up their market as PRC state owned companies and banks are notorious in taking over private business that performed well. Often businessmen are the target of envy and still taken in prison for tax frauds and other offences. This is the reason why many Chinese riches have the weath park in Singapore that go into property and other movable assets.
With Chinese growth, will small countries like Singapore be affected?
Yes. with growthing demand for nationalism in PRC, they will be more aggresive in dealing with neighbours, especially with territory claim. It is likely they will start a war in the future, especially in the South China sea. They try to keep a balance with claims and provacative actions from Vietnam and Philippines now in order to pacify Asean, especially the oil rich malaysia and Indonesia as they too fear any aggression will draw these countries closer to the American. I dont know they will give a damp to these countries in the future.
Afica and Iran alone will not satisfy Chinese quest for natural resources. Australia will play hardball because of its ally to American. China cannot rely on Russian as both have deep distrust of each other
Meantime, American has succeded in taking over the production of bean and is trying to control production of maze. PRC becomes net importer in many type of food and is feeling the threat of American boycott in food export. They cannot tit for tat and not lending to the American.
While American continue to hold the world hostage with their free print of dollars, it is a matter of time that hardship will arrive with another explosion of crisis in finance, food and competing for scarce natural resources.
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...china has so many us currencies...all it takes is one 
and USA may listen to ChinaThe deep distrust between China and Russia is actually due to something which I can't really comprehend. Could someone enlightened me?
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U know that day i read our Chinese newspaper,it pro China n say that the U.S has "cancelled" its military exercise with South Korea in Yellow Sea,n that the China netizens were cheering at it.
While our local English newspaper say that the U.S carry on the military drill with South Korea despite the protest from China.
What i want to say is,Why our government control local newspaper soooo Gay????Chinese n English newspaper version are so different?Its feel like our PAP ministers are cork sucking both the China n United States without letting our media to report the "Truth"!!!!
The PAP ministers should let our local newspaper report the truth!!!If China is wrong,screw China.If United States is wrong,screw United States.Why order the local media to cork sucking both sides,its really Gay!!!!
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Originally posted by Tanrave:
U know that day i read our Chinese newspaper,it pro China n say that the U.S has "cancelled" its military exercise with South Korea in Yellow Sea,n that the China netizens were cheering at it.
While our local English newspaper say that the U.S carry on the military drill with South Korea despite the protest from China.
What i want to say is,Why our government control local newspaper soooo Gay????Chinese n English newspaper version are so different?Its feel like our PAP ministers are cork sucking both the China n United States without letting our media to report the "Truth"!!!!
The PAP ministers should let our local newspaper report the truth!!!If China is wrong,screw China.If United States is wrong,screw United States.Why order the local media to cork sucking both sides,its really Gay!!!!
please state the date and section of the publication. If it's possible, please give a short para of important points -
this is gettin interesting
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You miss the point in this article..........
The decision to confront China on the South China Sea dates back several months, after administration officials noticed that the sea -- an international waterway through which more than 50 percent of the world's merchant fleet tonnage passes each year -- had crept into the standard diplomatic pitter-patter about China's "core interests." In March, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Cui Tiankai told two senior U.S. officials that China now views its claims to the 1.3 million-square-mile sea on par with its claims to Tibet and Taiwan, an island that China says belongs to Beijing
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For all of you who assume this is between the US and China.......I hope you think again..............
Wall Street Journal.
China has established a worrying M.O. in these waters, sometimes referred to as "talk and take." In 1992, Beijing signed the Asean Declaration on the South China Sea, designed to protect the status quo. But three years later, it seized Mischief Reef from the Philippines and eventually built a military outpost there.
The islands dispute is heating up again because Chinese officials and scholars have begun to classify the country's claims as part of its "core interests"—a category previously reserved for Tibet and Taiwan. On China's maps, it draws a U-shaped line around almost the entire sea, encroaching on other nations' continental shelves.
Good luck to all ya....this is about South East Asia countries. How it is to balance interest and Rights with China.
Please wake up from the days of the "colonial times". If you don't take the initiative to negociate now we might have to pay Kowtow to China for right of passage.
Remember The US is far far away in between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
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araphoe,
is ok....japan,viets,spore is against china.i remebered frend of the japs were building off shore rigs to be sent to bohai area in the past.its those kinda dark secrets nobody should know...but its alright with everyone as long as no one knows who n where they originated from.:)
hot spot in spratley islands is nothing new.....its something malaysia,viets,japanese should fight it out.the japs also have a stakeon the region too.cant remeber the map on region where they all wanted.....spore dun wanna get involved in the fight.it prefers to refine the oil n minerals from the victorious party.but thing is china wont send oil tospore as china has oil refineriesin china already.the viets need spores help and the japs would share their spoils with spore.....so...they would side with viet or japs more on this issue.
actually there are more sporean civilian activities in commercial and building structures in spratley island region as compared to sporemilitary in the past.
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Originally posted by dangerboi: please state the date and section of the publication. If it's possible, please give a short para of important points
Its in the Chinese newspaper a few days or weeks ago,so its impossible for me to state the date n section,as once i read newspaper,i move on n dont go n remember all the details like date or section blah blah blah.....This is what majority ppl will do,they dont remember fussy details but the content of the news.
Anyway,it says that the United States are withdrawing its drill with South Korea from Yellow Sea,due to China protest.BUT,the English newspaper Straits Times n Todays say that the United States are going to carry out the military execise despite China protest.I love to compare the contradiction between Chinese n English newspaper when they reporting news.And the way they cork sucking other countries under the instruction of LKY n his cowardice PAP ministers.
As for the news of the United States military execise,i believe the English newspaper are reporting the truth in this case.Coz afterall,U.S military power are far more superior than China,they dont really give a damn about those stupid Communists.Furthermore,China most advance fighter planes also have to use Russia's airplane engines to install in their planes.The stupid Communist cant even develop their own planes engine.What a shame!!!This kind of "superpower"(which i believe China are far from being one),who will scare him?
Besides,China always like to kpkb(anyhow make noise)on varies issues,whether its related or important or unimportant issues.From Taiwan issue,to Tibet,North Korea,even U.S n South Korea execise a military drills just to protest to North Korea of sunking South Korea battleship,those fuking Communist China also want to make noise,like a mad woman like that.Jesus...
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Another thing i want to point out,and that is i hope our local newspaper can report the truth,not to bootlicking certain countries n cover up the facts.
From my view,this is the spirit of what a reporter n newspaper should function,n perform their profession.If LKY n his PAP ministers want to intervene the profession way of our local newspaper should operate,i think they themselves better close down our local news media,n setup their own propaganda newspaper.
They can name it whatever they want,"Pro PAP","Pro LKY","Long-lived LKY Empire" or whatever sh!t.But using our local media n manipulate how it should operate,honestly,its a shame...
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Originally posted by Tanrave:
Another thing i want to point out,and that is i hope our local newspaper can report the truth,not to bootlicking certain countries n cover up the facts.
From my view,this is the spirit of what a reporter n newspaper should function,n perform their profession.If LKY n his PAP ministers want to intervene the profession way of our local newspaper should operate,i think they themselves better close down our local news media,n setup their own propaganda newspaper.
They can name it whatever they want,"Pro PAP","Pro LKY","Long-lived LKY Empire" or whatever sh!t.But using our local media n manipulate how it should operate,honestly,its a shame...
For all ya should know about singapore newspaper.....
Our newspaper destiny are tied to our govt....it is a voice representing the state. As such it can never blow horns as it wishes certain truth are thus subjected to "edit"
it can never be an effective paper if you want ST to blow horns. There is a invisible state line. It has its own prime directive that cannot be cross that virture state line....
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I hope our leaders get a grip. China, USA, England or whatever, they don't give a damn who you support. Because at the end of the day when there is a conflict, no matter how much you 'por' previously also no use.
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Originally posted by Tanrave:
U know that day i read our Chinese newspaper,it pro China n say that the U.S has "cancelled" its military exercise with South Korea in Yellow Sea,n that the China netizens were cheering at it.
While our local English newspaper say that the U.S carry on the military drill with South Korea despite the protest from China.
What i want to say is,Why our government control local newspaper soooo Gay????Chinese n English newspaper version are so different?Its feel like our PAP ministers are cork sucking both the China n United States without letting our media to report the "Truth"!!!!
The PAP ministers should let our local newspaper report the truth!!!If China is wrong,screw China.If United States is wrong,screw United States.Why order the local media to cork sucking both sides,its really Gay!!!!
So what is the "Truth" in this particular incident, that should be reported?
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U.S. should take a good look at her own economy and stop trying to play big brother.
china are rising and there is no way to stop them.
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There is something the American and those pro american should know.
the yellow sea where the US and South Korean navies wanted to play game is just next to China! Why can't they play at the Sea of Japan, between Japan, South and North Korea. Don't play at China doorstep and you can leave them out of the picture.
Everybody knows that while the internationally recognized territorial water is 12 nautical miles from land. But if your naval vessel or aircraft were within 320 miles from the coast of US, you will meet the F15 to escort you out. and what make them think they can play war games just outside 12 miles from china?
If the US were to play war games near Vietnam, I hate to think that the vietnamese would welcome them again with vietnam roses. China is growing and is the only one with the power to stick it to the US, not in territory near to the US, but certainly outside China's door step.
South China sea is shared by countries in Asia. If the US want to play a role in the security of the area, it better shows some respect and sensitivity to countries in the area, including China.
Respect and engagement is the only way to maintain regional stability.