China says it's ready if US ‘stirs up any conflict’ in South China Sea
Source: CNBC
BEIJING China's attempts to claim a nearly 1.4-million-square-mile swathe of open ocean are without precedent and probably without legal merit, but Beijing continues to assert its right to the economically critical zone and increasingly puts its claims in military terms.
Speaking to a small group of reporters in Beijing on Thursday, a high-ranking Chinese official made his warning clear: The United States should not provoke China in the South China Sea without expecting retaliation.
"The Chinese people do not want to have war, so we will be opposed to [the] U.S. if it stirs up any conflict," said Liu Zhenmin, vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Of course, if the Korean War or Vietnam War are replayed, then we will have to defend ourselves."
The so-called "nine-dash line" that China has drawn over most of the South China Sea a gargantuan territorial claim that stretches about 1,200 miles from its shores would give Beijing control over a zone that's estimated to handle about half of global merchant shipping, a third of the planet's oil shipping, two-thirds of global liquid natural gas shipments, and more than a 10th of Earth's fish catch. The Obama administration, backed by several Asian governments and entities such as the Brookings Institution, argues that such massive ocean claims at great distance from land are "inconsistent with international law."
Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/19/china-says-its-ready-if-us-stirs-up-any-conflict-in-south-china-sea.html
MisterP
(23,730 posts)and, yes, Vietnam can help
phazed0
(745 posts)elljay
(1,178 posts)ISIS/Boko Haram/Al Qaeda are all horrible but not powerful enough to do more than slaughter innocent people. Putin is very strategic and selective in his military engagements, designing them precisely to not bring in the other larger powers. China, on the other hand, seems to be in full aggression mode, with aspirations to be a 19th century imperial empire. This could turn very bad, very quickly.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)faster than it can regenerate itself to grow things, and fouling their water faster than it can be drinking water in a million lifetimes. A bomb from either side would only be an accelerant, a catalyst to what they are already doing.
The above is just arguing about how much room one side has to play deck bowling on the Titanic.
but that's a slow frog-in-the-soup destruction that most people seem quite comfortable to ignore. I can't believe we just lifted mandatory water restrictions here in California. Most people had adjusted just fine to saving water where we can (agriculture is a different situation that needs to be separately resolved). Though, "surprisingly", the rich were never punished sufficiently for continuing to maintain their landscapes because they could easily afford the fines. Now that restrictions will be implemented at a local level, we will head back to rampant waste until we get the next drought in a couple of years and everyone is shocked that we're out of water. That is how most people continue to treat our impending climate catastrophe - heads in the sand.
The situation with China could turn into the next big militarization/war/disruption. China got away with destroying Tibet because it was a small, powerless country. They have gotten away with the destruction of the Uighur region of the country because they control access to the area and to information. However, their territorial claims would interfere with those of Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia and, as the article mentions, would be catastrophic for much of the world's shipping and economy. These are stakes that cause wars and the last thing we need is another war.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)the waters drown both sides, ever so slowly.
Last thing you see are the gun barrels, and then nothing but water.
elljay
(1,178 posts)if the casualties were the people who cause the wars, instead of the poor people who have to fight it.
jb5150
(1,177 posts)Refuse to sell us all that shiny, lead-painted crap?
LS_Editor
(893 posts)Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Feeling the Bern
(3,839 posts)Beijing knows if they tried anything against us, we cancel our debts to them and will probably annihilate them.
The US has:
ICBM capability
First Strike capability
A large Deep Blue Navy
Subs capable of SAM launches
Sorry, China. . .I live among you. Your sabre rattling doesn't work.
You are the ones itching for a war. Look in a mirror, if you can. I mean, saving face is more important than learning from mistake, right, Mr. Liu.
You guys are so predictable.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)For sure.