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China Deploys Missiles on Disputed Island in South China Sea
- eccstartup 11y agoThe title is misleading: China Deploys Missiles on US-Considered Disputed Island in South China Sea.
- it_learnses 11y agoChinese thug of a government needs to be put out of its misery.
- tomp 11y agoMaybe by the US thug of a government?
- it_learnses 11y agoThe two thugs are not equivalent. And yes. I would have US govt. over Chinese govt. any day.
- 1stop 11y ago... Let me guess, you are not Chinese.
- it_learnses 11y agoI am not american either.
- stingraycharles 11y agoThe internet tells me you're Canadian. That is close enough to have a bias. Look at the world from a different point of view, and you would understand that corruption is everywhere, not just in China. Some people are just better at hiding it.
- tossaway1 11y agoWell, saying you'd prefer one government over another isn't the same as the preferred government doesn't have flaws.
- vinay427 11y agoI don't think you need to look at the US from a different point of view to understand that it has corruption. Just browse comments on one of the more popular Reddit subreddits and the top comments are regularly about politicians supposedly not taking their constituents ' interests to heart.
- golergka 11y ago> corruption is everywhere, not just in China If the famous US corruption cases, like Flint, have taught me anything, it's that corruption in US is on much lower level than in countries like Russia or China, and people and media are much, much less tolerant to it. Basically, Flint scandal could never happen in Russia because no one would ever give a fuck.
- knowaveragejoe 11y agoCorruption in Russia and China are a matter of policy. They are bold-faced and completely open about it. Corruption certainly exists in the US, but it is much less overt and much less common. There is significant precedence in the US of politicians being caught in the act and prosecuted as a manner of policy, rather than the sacrificial examples in RU and CH where it is more about politics and/or making an example of someone. Just look up the lists of American Federal/State/Local politicians convicted of crimes, there are a number of lists on Wikipedia.
- golergka 11y ago> Corruption in Russia and China are a matter of policy. They are bold-faced and completely open about it. From my personal experience, you're mistaken: the corruption is not a matter of policy. Rather, the policy is a matter of corruption.
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- tomp 11y agoRight, US treats their own citizens marginally better, but they're pretty much equally thugish with their foreign affairs.
- knowaveragejoe 11y ago"Marginally" would be a severe understatement.
- pavlov 11y agoChina has started detaining foreign citizens and making them give forced confessions on national TV: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/20/swedish-activist-peter-dahlin-paraded-on-china-state-tv-for-scripted-confession http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/20/swedish-activis... Can you imagine the United States doing this to a Swedish citizen? Chinese lawyers specializing in human rights risk life in prison: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/14/chinas-pursuit-of-human-rights-lawyers-signals-aggressive-push-against-subversion http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/14/chinas-pursuit-... Can you imagine the United States prosecuting ACLU lawyers like this?
- melling 11y agoDoubtful. Our little wars cost us too much. China already has the second most powerful economy in the world, and they've greatly increased military spending. http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/05/asia/china-military-spending/ http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/05/asia/china-military-spending/
- knowaveragejoe 11y agoComparing nominal dollars spent on the world's militaries is a totally flawed analysis of their capabilities with respect to each other.
- melling 11y agoNo where did I provide an analysis of their capabilities. I simply stated that they are the second largest economy in the world and they are greatly expanding their military. This would indicate that any military conflict would be costly, thus best avoided.
- bobby_9x 11y agoYes, a thug that has to spend all of its military money defending other countries..so they can throw it back in their face that they don't spend as much on the military. Without the US, the world would be fucked.
- mineshaftgap 11y agoEveryone knows that but they would rather pretend that China and the US are equally bad for political correctness.
- ionised 11y agoGotta love that American exceptionalism. I wonder what people did before the US existed? I imagine they were all hurtling towards some political, moral and cultural black hole.
- 1stop 11y agoI'm sorry, but isn't this just bigotry? Why is China a thug of a government?
- it_learnses 11y agonon-elected dictatorship.
- Cyph0n 11y agovs. heavily lobbied Congress that makes the real decisions. I build you a factory in your home town, you say yes to these heavy arms sales. My point is that the line between democracy and autocracy is quite thin in reality.
- stevetrewick 11y agoThat's on you then, elect some better ones. That thin line is the demos.
- Cyph0n 11y agoYep, that's the beauty of it. The choice is yours, so choose wisely. If you're not satisfied, wait until the next election and choose someone else. I'm from Tunisia, so I can appreciate how it feels to successfully transition from an autocracy to a democracy.
- vkou 11y agoIn 2014, Congress had a ~5% approval rating, and a 95% re-election rating. "Kick the bastards out" works well in some democracies, and less well in others.
- knowaveragejoe 11y agoThis is an admonishment of the American public more than anything. Apathy is rampant among most people.
- zcbenz 11y agoI don't know a government that is not thug.
- ibic 11y agoHow more retarded can a comment be? - From the article, how could you have intelligently drawn the conclusion that "Chinese thug of government"? Off the thin air? The territory, is at most, as described by the western media, "disputed", while in my opinion, it's simply part of China. Comparing this to the shameless invasion of Iraq, by this logic, U.S. is way much much more a "thug" of a government. (No, I'm just illustrating the logic of the comment, not endorsing this conclusion). - And if a government is a "thug", then it's nothing of "misery" sort, let alone "to be put out of". - And, if not that obvious already, this has nothing to do with democracy. So talking about that simply makes no sense.
- leereeves 11y ago"The US government is a thug" isn't an argument that the Chinese government isn't a thug. It's quite possible to think they're both thugs.
- venomsnake 11y agoGo for it. We have good track record how that works out.
- dantillberg 11y agoBBC has before-and-after satellite photos: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35592988 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35592988
- est 11y agoIn case anyone did't get the "disputed" part, Vietnam occupies most of South China Sea islands especially in the 70s and 80s around Sino-Vietnam war. China (actually Republic of China) claimed them earliest but didn't occupy.
- dogma1138 11y agoIt's disputed because 3 countries claim ownership of the the island as it's within their "territorial" (with the exception of Taiwan which claims it because it's still pretends to represent "real China") waters. China pretty much made claim to all of the waters it's claim extends as far as the shore lines of Malaysia. China also extends it's claim over waters outside of the immediate territorial waters by building artificial islands so far only within the 200 n/M of their exclusive economic zone which it claims extends it's coastal waters even further (this isn't exactly the case for this specific island (it's land mass was artificially extended, and a large harbor was built) but an important background point for the entire dispute). So far countries have refrained from militarizing the islands too much sure they might post a couple of sailors here and there but this is a long rang air defense system capable of shooting down aircraft as far as 400km away, this is basically an S-300/400 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-400_(missile) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-400_(missile)] "copy" with a much more advanced radar and better interceptors by all counts.
- varjag 11y agoS-400 long range capability is mostly theoretical, as there's no stock of the 40N6 missile capable of it. Especially doubtful in case of China, given the secondary nature of their missile technology.
- dogma1138 11y agoChina builds their own interceptors so the availability of Russian stockpiles isn't relevant, they've both deployed and conducted real world tests on multiple interceptors beyond the initial 200 KM range that the system went into service with including having improved interceptors that can counter ballistic missiles and satellites[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Chinese_anti-satellite_missile_test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Chinese_anti-satellite_mi...].
- caleb 11y agoIn other news, China hacked the ocean.
- sharetea 11y agoIt looks like the dictator/autocratic states in Asia (Russia/China) with its economy collapsing, is resorting to territorial aggression against neighboring countries in order to get resources and get people to look away from its collapse. China exports fall 11.2% in January, imports down 18.8% http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/14/china-releases-trade-data-for-january-yuan-denominated-and-us-dollar-imports-and-exports.html http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/14/china-releases-trade-data-for.... Russia's ruble collapses to lowest level, with "Inflation reached 12.5% in 2015 while real wages kept dropping, leaving many people much worse off." everhttp://money.cnn.com/2016/01/20/investing/russia-ruble-record-low/ http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/20/investing/russia-ruble-recor... With Russia bumping against all of Europe, and China bumping against Japan/Korea/Taiwan/Vietnam/Malaysia/Indonesia/Phillipines, this is going to be bad for world stability.
- sharetea 11y agosome data points about the Russia/Chinese dictators that some people love (or they're just paid trolls from Russian/Chinese government) Putin is worth $200 billion, "After 14 years in power of Russia, and the amount of money that the country has made, and the amount of money that hasn't been spent on schools and roads and hospitals and so on" http://www.businessinsider.com/russias-former-largest-foreign-investor-putin-is-worth-200-billion-2015-2 http://www.businessinsider.com/russias-former-largest-foreig... China's rubber-stamp parliament is a billionaires' club http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/10/news/economy/china-billionaire-parliament/ http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/10/news/economy/china-billionai...
- xiaoma 11y agoThere are several other border disputes, especially between China and India: https://www.facebook.com/notes/tarek-fatah/chinas-border-disputes-with-18-countries-imperialism-or-expansionist-designs/10153551812290247/ https://www.facebook.com/notes/tarek-fatah/chinas-border-dis...
- legulere 11y agoIt's kind of funny that China is getting the only attention, when all countries around are occupying the islands: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Spratly_Is_since_NalGeoMaps.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Spratly_...
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ceejayoz 11y agoChina's claiming the entire sea, though, and building new islands to extend that claim. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_South_China_Sea#/media/File:South_China_Sea_claims_2.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_So...
- chvid 11y agoRussia and China are quite different and in different situations. China benifits hugely by the drop in commodity prices and Russia does the opposite. It is also much easier to understand the strategic goals of China: This "dispute" will eventually amount to nothing; it is mere posturing showing the Americans that any military action will be too costly. In a couple of decades; Taiwan will join China in a manner similar to what happened to Hong Kong and Macau. This will happen when the wealth of the average mainland Chinese is compareable to that of the average Taiwanese and China will be Taiwan's absolutely dominant trading partner. When this happens China will for purposes have broken American control of the South China sea.
- sharetea 11y agoNope Victory for Tsai Ing-wen, head of a party promoting independence from China, will likely usher in uncertain relations between Taipei and Beijing http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/taiwan/12103176/Taiwan-elects-first-female-president-in-defiance-of-China-warning.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/taiwan/121031... Foxconn (Taiwanese manufacturer for Apple) decision to invest a whopping $5 billion in India has caused unease in China as it marks the first top international firm opting for India amid a slowdown in the Chinese economy. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-08-10/news/65415069_1_foxconn-india-chinese-employees-xiaomi-phones http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-08-10/news... Taiwan GDP per capita $30,000 China GDP per capita $3,000 Mark Hart: The Yuan Devaluation Still Has 50% To Go http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/01/mark-hart-the-yuan-devaluation-still-has-50-to-go/ http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/01/mark-hart-the-yuan-devaluat...
- chvid 11y agoYour GDP numbers are wrong. The gap is factor 2-3.
- jason_wang 11y agoIf you Google the GDP numbers, The GDP for the Republic of China (Taiwan) is $31,900USD and China is $6,800USD. ~4.7x.
- awl130 11y agochina will get its way. imagine china building a military base on cuba or hispaniola and see how well that sits with the us government, un commission be damned. as china grows it wants to secure it's geographical sphere of influence, and all the western powers in the world will not win this battle. china has much more to lose and win. protestations by the phillipines and other smaller outlying nations are again, the same as cuba or puerto rico or haiti protesting against guantanamo bay. the bottom line is that the dominant regional power dictates the terms and the smaller guys follow. if i were a western power i would spend just a modicum of effort pushing back against china but concurrently prepare to lose this battle.
- xiaoma 11y agoIt's more likely that China will end up starting WWIII. They are claiming not only international space but also that of their neighbors.
- GrandTheftR 11y agoRon Paul's take on this from few month ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KudfRyn3ZbA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KudfRyn3ZbA interesting to watch it now, where will this lead to, and what is the strategic goal here?
- tankenmate 11y agoThe problem with the powers that be playing the ultra-nationalist card is that is difficult to stop playing; like gambling or burying corporate debt it might lead to short term gains, but sooner or later you have to pay. There are ample examples of ultra-nationalist states that have exploded, imploded, or withered on the vine; and none have lasted the distance with out some kind of revolution, quiet or otherwise. Things will get worse before they get better, this is definitely not the bottom of the barrel. You can tell the wise ones are already cashing in their chips and are exfiltrating their wealth. Loans that were once prime will become sub-prime once the capital has fled. These state financed, but often personally influenced, loans that are currently sub-prime; well...
- Pitarou 11y agoWave if you're old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis!
- cafard 11y agoPretty well, actually. The Cleveland Plain Dealer (as I recall) showed Cleveland as within range of the missiles meant to be set up there. In the 1980s I talked with a guy who had been a landing-craft driver for the Army in the early 1960s. His unit was sent down the Intercoastal Waterway to pick up an armored division in Florida. Fortunately for all, the tanks stayed on dry ground, and landing craft went back north.
- NiftyFifty 11y agoNice to see that the WSJ has confirmed us to subscription service just to read what I can get on Ruetz
- NiftyFifty 11y agoNice to see that the WSJ has confirmed us to subscription service just to read what I can get on Ruetz