South China Sea: Next Area Of Conflict?

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Is the Obama administration provoking China? Or are we, for once, doing the right thing and supporting our allies? Or will Obama pretend that we will support them, then when they commit, betray them like he has other allies?

Isn’t it a shame that America is getting the reputation of betrayal instead of knowing that she will stand behind her allies? How low Mr. Obama, the man that was supposed to increase our respect in the world, has taken us down! At the rate he is going, he may have caused the whole of the world to be involved in war before the end of his term. Is that his real goal?

Mr. Obama presented himself as an agent of change, it wasn’t exactly the change that most  people expected though. If you look at our relations with other countries throughout the world, it has gotten worse. But then again so has relationships between other countries due to the interference of Obama. And it is not just foreign policy. Look at the financial health of the rest of the world. In the Middle East the strain on their finances due to conflict has been tremendous. Our own financial house is a mess and everything he is doing seems to be aimed at making it worse. Read the article from China * US Focus and see what you think:

United States Should Stay Out of the South China Sea Disputes

Fred S. Teng

July 12, 2011

The wave of tensions in the South China Sea has escalated sharply in recent weeks, and it didn’t help when the United States openly encouraged the Philippines and Vietnam to take more provocative actions. China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and other countries involved in the dispute are working out their differences directly. The United States should not take sides but should respect these countries’ rights to settle their disputes on their own.

In late February, a confrontation occurred between two Chinese vessels and an oil exploratory ship from the Philippines. On June 9, Chinese fishing boats were being chased away by armed Vietnamese ships. During the chase, the fishing net of one of the Chinese boats became tangled with the cables of a Vietnamese oil exploring vessel. The Vietnamese armed ship dragged the Chinese vessel for more than an hour before the net had to be cut.

In response to this incident, Vietnam conducted a live fire naval drill. On the same day, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung signed a bill clarifying eligibility for military conscription. At present Vietnam has 450,000 active military personnel. Conscription would call up five million additional troops.

The Philippine navy continues to actively remove China’s markers and buoys in disputed waters. In addition, the annual Philippine-US naval training has become sharply different from previous years. Rather than joint exercises between the Philippines and the United States, this year’s naval training involved all of coastal South East Asia. Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines all participated in exercises this year that simulated the defense of the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea against enemy ships.

The United States has demonstrated a rather one-sided view on the disputes in the South China Sea. Secretary Clinton has reiterated that “the United States honors our Mutual Defense Treaty and our strategic alliance with the Philippines.” Senator Jim Webb and Senator James Inhofe, both of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia, introduced a bill that both condemns “the use of force by naval and maritime security vessels from China in the South China Sea” and supports the continued operations by United States forces to “assert and defend freedom of navigation rights in international waters and air space in the South China Sea”. The Webb/Inhofe resolution justified this condemnation of China by saying that “patrol boats from China attempted to ram one of its surveillance ships.” However, there was no attempted ramming. Read the rest at China * US Focus:

http://www.chinausfocus.com/slider/united-states-should-stay-out-of-the-south-china-sea-disputes/

Related articles

• SE Asia walks tightrope amid sea spats with China (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• China attacks US naval exercises and army spending (telegraph.co.uk)
• China rejects Manila offer to bring dispute to UN (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Stronger Military Needed to Defend Spratlys (socyberty.com)
• America Stirs Anti-China Fears in South China Sea (Huanqiu, People’s Republic of China) (themoderatevoice.com)
• Mullen Begins Tour of China (nytimes.com)
• Us Obliged to Defend Philippines in Spratlys (socyberty.com)
• Rep. West warns U.S. on China (loopyloo305.wordpress.com)
• China rocks South China Sea boat (search.japantimes.co.jp)
• China warns U.S. to keep out of S. China Sea dispute (ctv.ca)
• China ups the ante in South China Sea disputes (search.japantimes.co.jp)
• Vietnam-China Naval Confrontation / My Beijing interview “China’s Oil Aims in South China Sea” (globalbarrel.com)
• China is the ultimate target of all the Empire’s wars (redantliberationarmy.wordpress.com)
• South China Sea disputes could lead to Asian war: think tank (gingerjar2.wordpress.com)

July 14, 2011 | Categories: America, Barack Obama, freedom, people, Politics, President, United States, world | Tags: Beijing, China, Mutual Defense Treaty, Philippine, South China Sea, Spratly Islands, United States, Vietnam | 7 Comments »