"Singapore, China vow to bolster ties as Xi visits" Associated Press November 07, 2015
SINGAPORE — Singapore welcomed President Xi Jinping of China on Friday with a state banquet, as the countries pledged to strengthen economic links and cooperation in regional and international affairs.
It is Xi’s first state visit to Singapore since taking the presidency in 2013, and marks 25 years of strong bilateral ties.
Despite Singapore’s small size — it has a population of 5.5 million, a fraction of China’s 1.4 billion — it is a strong investor in China. The country has also maintained warm relations by remaining neutral in disputes involving China and its Southeast Asian neighbors.
More than 70 percent of Singapore’s population is Chinese.
During his visit, which ends Saturday, Xi is to approve a government-to-government project in western China, deliver a lecture, and launch negotiations on upgrading a free trade agreement with Singapore that came into force in 2009.
Also see:
Warren steps up criticism of the Pacific Rim trade deal
Obama administration releases text of Pacific Rim free-trade accord
Read for the corporate per$pective, anyway.
Related:
TPP Text Finally Released … It’s Even Worse Than We Thought
TPP Ignores Global Warming & Allows Murder of Labor Union Organizers
The Horrific And Very Secretive Trans Pacific Partnership "Agreement"
Links to the Full Text of the TPP as Released by New Zealand
TPP
The trade treaty is a piece of crap unless you are a corporation.
On Saturday he also is to take part in a meeting in Singapore with Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, the first between the two sides’ presidents."
Related: Leaders of China and Taiwan set to meet
Did you know relations between China and Taiwan have improved in recent years?
Taiwan Tilts Toward U.S.
No, I suppose you wouldn't if you read only the Bo$ton Globe.
"China-Taiwan meeting offers change at future; Leaders’ huddle is first in 66 years" by Christopher Bodeen and Ralph Jennings Associated Press November 05, 2015
BEIJING — The presidents of China and Taiwan have set a historic first meeting for this weekend that offers a shot at posterity for the former bitter Cold War foes after more than six decades of division, while testing recent years of rapidly warming ties.
The sides on Wednesday announced the talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwanese counterpart Ma Ying-jeou on neutral ground in Singapore, the Southeast Asian city-state whose government maintains friendly ties with both. Those would be the first direct discussions between the leaders of China and Taiwan since civil war divided their lands 66 years ago, a highly symbolic move that reflects their quickly improving relations.
Why is everyone moving away from the United States these days?
Saturday’s meeting could be the last chance for Xi to press China’s case for closer economic and political ties before Taiwan’s January elections for the presidency and legislature.
Already the most powerful Chinese leader in decades, Xi would benefit from a successful outcome to the meeting by appearing to further what China calls the ‘‘great goal of national unification.’’
The meeting is riskier for Ma, whose ruling Nationalist Party is lagging in polls. The elections could serve as an unofficial referendum on Ma’s pro-China policies, and his party could be dragged down further by perceptions Ma is pandering to China’s ruling Communists to burnish his own legacy and benefit the island’s pro-China elite.
Meaning what, the U.S has rigged the election?
A win for the opposition could see a significant curtailing of Ma’s pro-China initiatives, something Beijing would be loath to witness.
And if that doesn't work, the U.S. can go back to sabotaging and bombing Chinese ports (notice how quickly those disappeared from the CIA/Zionist war sheet?).
‘‘This will be tricky politically in Taiwan, as the opposition will obviously use this to charge Ma and the Nationalists with kowtowing to Beijing,’’ said Alan Romberg, East Asia program director with Washington think tank the Stimson Center.
That really makes one think, huh?
Yet Saturday’s meeting could also boost the Nationalists’ credentials for driving progress in relations with China and heading off past threats and hostility from Beijing that rattled many Taiwanese. It may also help that the meeting puts Ma, leader of 23 million people, on equal footing with the leader of the world’s most populous country and its second-largest economy.
‘‘Ma and presumably the rest of the Nationalists will cast this as demonstrating the benefits of adhering to the 1992 Consensus as a constructive basis for handling cross-strait relations — indeed as the indispensable basis,’’ Romberg said.
The 1992 Consensus refers to an agreement that formed the basis of talks between the two sides, under which both consider Taiwan and the mainland to be one country with separate interpretations according to their own constitutions.
--more--"
So how can the U.S. stir up trouble in the region?
The old foil of Korea isn't working, so....
US to sail warship in South China Sea
It was the USS Lassen, a guided missile destroyer, but it's not a threat or anything.
"Beijing denounces US warship’s pass near island; Maneuver tests South China Sea territorial claim" by Simon Denyer Washington Post October 28, 2015
Were the situation reversed and Chinese warships were sailing close to Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government would sink them.
BEIJING — China denounced what it called a ‘‘dangerous and provocative’’ act Tuesday after an American warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese-built artificial island at the center of a regional dispute over maritime territory and sea routes.
The incident reflects rising tensions between the United States and China over Beijing’s aggressive program of land reclamation and construction on rocks and reefs in the Spratly archipelago in the South China Sea, whose shores include Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.
Then they better stop buying cars and building homes in Bo$ton -- or get them to change the country name to Israel.
The US naval action — which followed months of debate in Washington — was intended to uphold the principle of freedom of navigation in international waters, US officials said, and underscores that Washington does not accept China’s claim to territorial waters around the man-made islands.
Only the U.S. government (and its master Israel) is allowed to violate it.
Experts said it was also aimed at reassuring nervous American allies that Washington would not allow Beijing to throw its weight around in the region unchallenged. But there is a risk it could raise military tensions.
China said it viewed the move as an infringement on its sovereignty, and declared it would damage regional peace and stability.
Sure are calm about it.
The Foreign Ministry warned that Beijing might respond by speeding up its construction program. More ominously, the Chinese navy said additional US missions of this sort could ‘‘trigger eventualities,’’ without elaborating.
China said it had monitored the USS Lassen as it passed close to the Subi reef, sending out a missile destroyer and a patrol boat of its own to deliver a warning.
Those ships stayed in the background from what I read, while merchant shipping vessels and such dogged the Lassen.
However, a US defense official said the mission had been completed ‘‘without incident.’’
The Chinese Navy has been repelled, and the U.S. and its allies have prevailed!
The USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, was accompanied by Navy surveillance planes, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The decision to go ahead followed months of deliberation in Washington, reflecting the fine balance between standing up to China and potentially provoking a spiral of further confrontation and regional militarization.
This war propaganda sucks!
Last month, Beijing warned it would ‘‘never allow any country’’ to violate what it considers to be its territorial waters and airspace around the islands. China’s vice foreign minister, Zhang Yesui, summoned US Ambassador Max Baucus to deliver a formal protest.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea as its territory, including the main islands and reefs, and contends that giving up that claim would ‘‘shame its ancestors.’’ The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan also have overlapping claims, and several of them also occupy different islands, reefs and rocks.
It's the South CHINA Sea, is it?
That settles that.
A massive Chinese program of land reclamation and construction on several islands was launched last year, upsetting ties with the United States and several of those countries with rival claims.
This week’s naval mission is also seen in part as intended to test a pledge by President Xi Jinping during his visit to Washington last month that Beijing would not militarize the islands.
The Subi reef, which lies close to the Philippines, used to be submerged at high tide before China began a massive dredging project to turn it into an island. It is now big enough to potentially host an airstrip.
Looks like the Filipinos have already declared war.
WhereTF were the security services?
Satellite images also show what looks like a surveillance tower and multiple satellite antennas on Subi, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, part of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Another war-promoting think thank making you think!
Under the international law of the sea, turning such formations into artificial islands does not imply any rights to claim the law’s 12 nautical miles of territorial waters around them, something the US mission is designed to underline, although countries can claim a ‘‘safety zone’’ of 500 meters around previously submerged reefs.
Yes, AmeriKa is such a peacekeeper of the planet.
A Chinese airstrip is already under construction at the Fiery Cross reef, and experts say another could potentially soon be built at the Mischief reef.
It's like the Japanese during WWII.
China says the construction work is primarily designed for civilian use and will not affect freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Four other countries already have airstrips in the Spratly island chain....
--more--"
Related: Arbitration panel OKs jurisdiction in South China Sea case
That will settle that.
"US commander says sailing past Chinese isles was no threat" Associated Press November 04, 2015
BEIJING — Top Chinese officials again expressed their country’s pique over the US warship sailing past Chinese-built islands, while also expressing hope that the two sides could build further trust.
Incredible!
Speaking at a university in the Chinese capital, Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr. cited a recent statement by US Defense Secretary Ash Carter that the international order ‘‘faces challenges from Russia and, in a different way, from China.’’
Oh, so NOW WE KNOW WHAT THIS IS REALLY ABOUT -- and it isn't about freedom of navigation, blah, blah.
Harris said the decision to send the USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, into the South China Sea last week near Subi Reef, was meant to demonstrate the principle of freedom of navigation.
‘‘I truly believe that these routine operations should never be construed as a threat to any nation,’’ Harris said, according to his prepared remarks. ‘‘These operations serve to protect the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations under international law.’’
Yeah, it's not a threat as long as we get to do what we want and violate your sovereignty.
China had protested the Lassen patrol, calling it a ‘‘deliberate provocation,’’ and sent two warships to shadow the US vessel and issue warnings....
--more--"
If nothing else, China mistreats its women:
"Women who smoke, drink, and dress provocatively are more likely to be raped, a court in China has concluded, drawing ridicule from Web users. Attackers were described by the court as youths whose sexual needs were not being satisfied and didn’t know any better. The mocking Web backlash is the latest glimpse into China’s parallel worlds: old-style official pronouncements and often feisty dissent online. The court in Beijing also appeared to blame women for being too ‘‘bold’’ in meeting with people they barely know. In almost half of the cases, the offender was a co-worker, friend, or client, the court said. But instead of suggesting workplace harassment education for the offenders, the court concluded that rape occurred because the women failed to reject the offenders right from the beginning."
“This is progress,” I'm told, after the brutal horror of China’s one-child policy.
If that doesn't make you want to wage war on China nothing will.
Also see: Indonesia seeks help in quelling fires
That was the last spark I saw from Singapore.
UPDATES:
UN head may soon visit Kim Jong Un
If....
Beijing stops construction in South China Sea
