Chinese Military,Political and Social Superthread

[Kirkhill]

You find the FN responses a mixed bag, depending on the product and where they sit on the supply chain and the risk/benefit analysis for them. examples http://haisla.ca/economic-development/kitimat-advantage/
http://www.metlakatla.ca/overview/economic-development

I think another part of the problem is one that the First Nation governments share with all other authorities: legitimacy.

My sense is that in a number of instances the "government", the chief and his clan, negotiate a deal but the deal is not upheld by the rest of the "nation", for a variety of reasons.  It is kind of like the problem that the federal and provincial governments have in microcosm  - not everybody accepts the legitimacy of the government.  This is particularly true of the activist community where the only legitimate authority appears to be the conscience of the individual unless their "tribe" is in control.

Heck of a way to run a railroad.

Really should have been more careful with that "following orders" defence at Nuremberg.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Outside the trade/oil pipeline front, some recent signs of another element (?) of China's hybrid approach to poking without fighting (for now, anyway) ...

The Chinese are set to consolidate their control over the South China Sea with their final and most controversial round of island building right up against the Philippines.

Key points:

    China paying fishermen to build guerilla force in South China Sea
    Hainan island fishermen build on, and occupy, the disputed islands
    Many are ancestors of fishermen who helped establish the People's Republic

To do the job they will be relying on their maritime militia, a well-funded force drawn from China's vast fishing fleet.

The fishermen of Hainan Island are the forward guards in China's battle to take all of the South China Sea.

Operating as a guerrilla force and under civilian cover, they occupy and help build disputed islands ...

More here, here and here.

 

[tomahawk6]

Work is progressing on China's second aircraft carrier.Impressive learning curve.

http://www.businessinsider.com/satellite-imagery-reveals-chinas-progress-on-their-second-aircraft-carrier-2016-6

 

[YZT580]

They are ramping up their dominance of the South China Sea.  News reports released today indicate that they are establishing an ADIZ  to effectively assume control of all aviation activity there.  They have already indicated that they will not accept the World Court ruling regarding authority and they have militarized the Spratleys.  Finally they are infiltrating many of the other islands via their very extensive fishing fleet and backing them up with the coast guard, an armed fleet that is greater than the majority of Pacific nations naval fleets.  Very perilous times.

 

[tomahawk6]

Like Hitler moving into country after country,until he was stopped- China may only be stopped by force.Who will have the stones to do the deed has yet to be seen.

 

[CougarKing]

On the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre today:

Source: Reuters

Democracy is nothing to fear, Taiwan tells China on Tiananmen anniversary

Published June 5, 2016 1:35am
By J.R. WU, Reuters

TAIPEI - On the anniversary of China's bloody crackdown on student-led protests in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Taiwan's new president told China on Saturday that democracy is nothing to fear.

Tsai Ing-wen said in a Facebook post on the 27th anniversary that Taiwan could serve as an example to China.

Tsai said in the run-up to Taiwan's elections earlier this year that she had seen people from China, as well as the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, mixing with crowds in Taiwan.

"These many friends, after experiencing things for themselves can see that in fact there's nothing scary about democracy. Democracy is a good and fine thing," wrote Tsai, who took office last month.

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[tomahawk6]

China gave Iraq 3 Cai Hong-4 (CH-4) drones.The Chinese say that it is superior to the US Predator.It is bigger than the Predator so a better comparison might be the Reaper.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a21197/the-iraqi-army-is-flying-chinese-made-killer-drones/

 

[CougarKing]

And it happens again since the earlier Sept. 23 2015 buzzing of another RC135: the old Cold War-era normal is now the "new normal" :

CNN

U.S.: Chinese jet makes 'unsafe' intercept of Air Force plane

By Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspond

Updated 10:20 AM ET, Wed June 8, 2016

(CNN)A U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft flying Tuesday in international airspace over the East China Sea was intercepted in an "unsafe manner" by a Chinese J-10 fighter jet, several defense officials tell CNN.

The Chinese jet was never closer than 100 feet to the U.S. aircraft, but it flew with a "high rate of speed as it closed in" on the U.S. aircraft, one official said. Because of that high speed, and the fact it was flying at the same altitude as the U.S. plane, the intercept is defined as unsafe.

The officials did not know if the U.S. plane took any evasive action to avoid the Chinese aircraft or at what point the J-10 broke away. It is also not yet clear if the U.S. will diplomatically protest the incident. Officials said the RC-135 was on a routine mission.

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[CBH99]

I know I might get flamed for this, but does anybody else find the narrative of the media reports on things like this to be somewhat embellished?

I'm pretty sure if a Chinese EW/ISR aircraft were flying near our coastline, we might have a few CF-18's go out & meet them.  And I'm sure the Hornets would be approaching at a fairly decent rate of speed also. 

In the case of some of the Russian intercepts - yes, absolutely.  Dangerously close.  Barrel rolls over the NATO aircraft - deserving of the media report of "dangerous intercept".  But this doesn't seem to be the case in regards to this particular incident.

 

[CougarKing]

So much for rule of law even in China's courts:

South China Morning Post

1,000 Chinese lawyers condemn police attack after attorney has clothes ripped off in court

Wu Liangshu assaulted after he refuses to hand over mobile phone for checks, according to media report
PUBLISHED : Monday, 06 June, 2016, 12:42pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 07 June, 2016, 10:21am

About 1,000 lawyers in China have signed a statement condemning an attack on a lawyer who says he was assaulted in a courtroom by police officers.

The lawyer, Wu Liangshu, says he was beaten by three court policemen in the presence of two judges and one other official on Friday after his request to file a case in a district court in Nanning, Guangxi, was rejected.

The clash broke out when Wu refused to hand over his mobile phone for inspection by Qingxiu district court police. Wu had used the phone to record a conversation with court officials in its petition office.

“The refusal to establish a court case and the violent assault and search of a lawyer seriously damage the rights of attorneys. If even a professional lawyer is treated with barbaric and violent means, just imagine how they deal with civilians,” said the lawyers’ statement, posted online on Sunday evening.

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[tomahawk6]

China has been trying to get US military jet engines the age old way,trying to steal the technology and or use a front man to buy the engines.So far no dice but they will keep trying.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/10/news/us-china-military-jet-engine-espionage/index.html

China appears to be going to great lengths to get its hands on high-tech U.S. jet engines to beef up its military capabilities.

On Thursday, a woman named Wenxia Man was convicted in a Florida court of conspiring to evade U.S. export laws by illegally acquiring and sending fighter jet engines and drones to China, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Prosecutors said Man was working with an associate in China to buy and export engines made by Pratt & Whitney and General Electric (GE), which are found in a range of top U.S. military aircraft, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the F-22 and the F-16 fighter jets. She was also found to have tried to export a General Atomics drone, and technical data for the different hardware items.

 

[CougarKing]

The last thing one wants to see when they arrive at Shanghai's Pudong airport:

CNN

Man hurls explosive device at Shanghai airport, then attempts suicide

By Steven Jiang and Paul Armstrong, CNN

Updated 1427 GMT (2227 HKT) June 13, 2016


Beijing (CNN)Four passengers were wounded after a man hurled an explosive device at a check-in counter at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport on Sunday afternoon, before attempting to kill himself.
"According to the initial police investigation, a man took out a homemade explosive device in a beer bottle from a bag he was carrying and threw it in front of the check-in counters.
"After the beer bottle exploded, the man took out a dagger from his bag, slashed his own neck and collapsed on the floor," according to a Shanghai Police press statement.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[jollyjacktar]

I am sure the Chinese government will assist him with his quest to die down the road.  Just not as he envisioned, that's all.

 

[CougarKing]

Xi's anti-corruption drive continues, going not only after officials but their families as well:

Wall Streel Journal

China Sentences Son and Wife of Ex-Security Chief to Prison
Prosecutors accused Zhou Yongkang’s son and wife of accepting bribes
By James T. Areddy
Updated June 15, 2016 9:43 a.m. ET
2 COMMENTS

SHANGHAI—A Chinese court on Wednesday found a son of China’s disgraced former security czar, Zhou Yongkang, guilty of engaging in a business conspiracy along with his father to illegally control millions of dollars in assets, and sentenced him to a lengthy prison term.

The son, 44-year-old Zhou Bin, was jailed for 18 years and fined $53 million, according to a court document published in Chinese state media that accused him of accepting bribes and business offenses. State media also reported a guilty verdict against the elder Mr. Zhou’s wife, a 47-year-old former television personality named Jia Xiaoye, who received a nine-year sentence and a $155,000 fine for corruption-related offenses.

The prosecution of the elder Mr. Zhou shortly after he retired in 2012 stood out as the high-water mark of an anticorruption push pursued by Chinese President Xi Jinping. In the past, party members of Mr. Zhou’s rank were considered untouchable, as were their family members.

​More recently when Chinese officials have fallen, prosecutors have invariably alleged corruption by family members. It is less common, however, for details of action against the family members to be aired publicly. But Mr. Zhou’s case has been handled differently. Both before and after the party announced a formal investigation of the politician in mid-2014, numerous associates from his personal, business and government life also have faced prosecution.

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[CougarKing]

An update on the bookseller Lam case:

Source: AFP via Channel News Asia (Singapore)

Hong Kong bookseller 'blindfolded, interrogated' during detention in China
By: Agence France-Presse
June 16, 2016 10:44 PM


HONG KONG - A Hong Kong bookseller known for selling titles critical of Beijing told Thursday how he was blindfolded, kept in a cell and interrogated by Chinese authorities after going missing eight months ago.

Lam Wing-kee is one of five booksellers who published salacious titles about leading Chinese politicians and disappeared at the end of last year in a case that heightened fears Beijing was tightening its grip on Hong Kong.

He said that although he was not physically harmed, he had suffered mentally in detention and was unable to contact a lawyer or his family. He was kept in confinement, unable to walk outside and repeatedly interrogated.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[CougarKing]

China will not be happy if these US officials do meet Tsai.

Defense News

US Congressional Commission in Taiwan To Meet With New President
Wendell Minnick, Defense News 10:22 a.m. EDT June 20, 2016


TAIPEI — The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission is in Taiwan this week meeting with senior members of the new presidential administration and members of the legislature.

Taiwan’s 14th president, Tsai Ing-wen, the first woman to serve, won the presidency in January. The election also covered the legislature and resulted in a clear mandate for the independence-minded Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tsai’s DPP also won a majority of legislative seats and confirmed long-held suspicions among political pundits that the then-ruling party, the Kuomintang (KMT), was out of touch with the demographic shifts in the society.

Larry Wortzel will lead the US delegation. Wortzel, a 32-year military veteran, had served as a US Army attaché to Beijing where he witnessed the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. He is also the only defense attaché to have jumped with China’s airborne corps. His book, “The Dragon Extends its Reach,” is considered required reading among many China military watchers.

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[CougarKing]

More about China's "proxy navy" as a tool for furthering its South China Sea claims : its fishing fleet.

Diplomat

Chinese Fishermen: The New Global Pirates?

It’s not just the South China Sea — Chinese fishing vessels have been accused of illegal activities all over the world.
By Cal Wong
June 21, 2016


The Indonesian Navy intercepted a Chinese vessel that was caught illegally fishing in Indonesian territory off the Natuna Islands on Saturday, June 18. Indonesian Navy spokesman First Admiral Edi Sucipto said the seven crew members of the Chinese vessel were detained. This is the third incident in the Natuna Islands involving Chinese vessels.

A statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that the Indonesian navy had fired warning shots at a Chinese vessel, injuring one Chinese fisherman and damaging the boat. However, China emphasized that the waters in question are regarded as “China’s traditional fishing grounds,” and accused Indonesia of an “abused of force.”

For its part, Indonesia has said it will continue to take “decisive” action against foreign ships operating illegally in its waters after the comments from Beijing. “We will not hesitate to take decisive action against foreign ships, whatever their flag and nationality, when they commit violations in Indonesian territory,” Sucipto said


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[CougarKing]

And China backtracks on years of progress in cross-strait relations under Pres. Ma in what seems to be a campaign to isolate a Taiwan under the DPP's Tsai.

Associated Press

China cuts contact with Taiwan liaison body over Tsai
[Christopher Bodeen, The Associated Press]

June 25, 2016


BEIJING, China - Beijing said Saturday it had cut off contact with the main Taiwan liaison body because of President Tsai Ing-wen's refusal to endorse the concept of a single Chinese nation, ratcheting up pressure on the new Taiwanese leader.

In a statement posted on the website of the Cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office, spokesman An Fengshan said contacts between bodies responsible for ties had been suspended starting from Tsai's May 20 inauguration.

"Because the Taiwan side has been unable to confirm the '92 consensus that embodies the common political foundation of the one-China principle, the mechanism for contact and communication between the two sides has already been suspended," the statement quoted An as saying.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[CougarKing]

Please note an older thread on the separate, Chinese-funded Nicaragua Canal project.

Agence France Presse via Yahoo News

Chinese ship to inaugurate wider Panama Canal
By: Agence France-Presse
June 26, 2016 6:31 PM


PANAMA CITY - A giant Chinese-chartered freighter is to nudge its way through the Panama Canal on Sunday to mark the completion of nearly a decade of expansion work forecast to boost global trade.

The vessel, especially renamed COSCO Shipping Panama, will inaugurate the widened canal in an hours-long voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean via a new shipping lane and gigantic locks that have been fitted to the century-old waterway.

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[CougarKing]

I could have sworn there was an older thread on this, but it doesn't seem to turn up in any searches.

MSN

The World's Largest Military Plane in Production is China's Y-20
Popular Science

Jeffrey Lin and P.W. Singer
20/06/2016

These billionaires certainly still understand the importance of money – most of the time anyway. We reveal the spending secrets of the world's most frugal billionaires.
The world's most frugal billionaires

China Y-20 transport aircraft 11051 © Provided by Popular Science China Y-20 transport aircraft 11051 On June 15th 2016, the first operational Y-20 heavy transport aircraft entered service into the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). China has now joined the United States and Russia as the only countries which can design and built its own strategic transport aircraft. It's built by the Xian Aircraft Corporation, and apparently has been assigned the call sign "Roc", after the giant mythical bird. In fact, of planes still in production, the 200 ton Y-20 is the world's largest, as it's larger than the Russian Il-76 and the American C-17A Globemaster ended production in 2015.

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