Chinese ships ram vessels near oil rig;
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing that the oil rig was in China's territorial waters and therefore drilling is "normal and legal." The country previously said foreign ships would be banned within a 3-mile (4.8-kilometer) radius of the rig. "The disruptive activities by the Vietnamese side are in violation of China's sovereign rights," she said. A Vietnamese official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity said earlier that Vietnam's ships were outnumbered by the Chinese flotilla. He said the Vietnamese ships were trying to stop the rig from "establishing a fixed position" at the spot where it wanted to drill. China's assertiveness, along with its growing military and economic might, is alarming many smaller neighbors even as they are aware they need to keep relations open with a vital trading partner. Hua said the U.S. has no right to make unwarranted remarks on China's sovereign rights.
Update: Vietnam’s Stocks Post Biggest Loss in Decade on China Tensions
Where’s Greenpeace? I doubt they’ll protest this oil rig and Chinese action.
Greenpeace? I think they are still in jail in Siberia?
Greenpeace is doing what they always do, harming the environment through progressive stupidity.
Great time to have only one working destroyer and half of our city class frigates. Oh Canada….
Hua would probably not want to talk about China having observer status on the Arctic Council..you know, that place no where near China, and not close to any of its contiguous borders?
kommies at each others throats, beer and popcorn time, and pray for a little war
My friends, welcome to 1931. Or possibly 1908.
Its a good thing my old Grandpa isn’t here to see this sh1t. He would be P!SSED to say the least. Lived through WWI, saw the whole thing from the sidelines in WWII, now here we are again watching yet another totalitarian state with its back to the wall acting like a cornered rat.
When you see guys like the Chicoms and Russians doing this kinda stuff, its not because they’re so confident they don’t think anybody can hurt them. Its because they’re hanging on by their last fingernail, and they can feel the breath of the mob on the back of their necks.
Meanwhile as Robert Mein said above, our Royal Canadian Navy is a bunch of inflatables with 50 horse Evinrude outboards on them. Our fighting RCAF is a single squadron of CF-18 aircraft built in the 1970’s. Our tiny Army is tired from having been deployed fighting Mooselimbs in Afghanistan, and all our tanks that still work are in Europe. Our officer corps are top heavy with Colonels and Brigadiers with vast experience as Ottawa Desk Pilots and zero time commanding men in the field. Just like 1931.
The only arms manufacturers left in Canada are the place that makes MRAPs in London and some one-building outfit that makes high-end M-16 clones in Mississauga. Oh, and the capper is all the heavy/medium industry that used to be here is now in China.
Anybody who so much as views this with alarm in public is a racist/sexist/bigot/homophobe.
Thanks, Liberals.
A review of the historical relationship between Viet Nam and China reveals the animosity between the two nations, in whatever the then existing iteration, has been hostile.
The main aggravation for The U.S.A. of the “Nam” war of the sixties and seventies was the fear the Chinese would become involved. Such stupidity at the highest military and especially political levels of the U.S. is what led to the loss of so many lives and America’s biggest embarrassment.
China was more likely to become an ally than a belligerent. Cheers;
Good rant. I was going to post but you said it perfectly. All I would like to add is this :
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8876656/US-weapons-full-of-fake-Chinese-parts.html
I’m sure some would claim that Vietnam could easily defeat China given their past but remember that they were fighting against the biggest pussies in the world : American liberals and the french. Anyone could beat those two. China won’t screw around.
Obama’s foreign policy is, like multiculturalism, a nullity. As Conrad Black recently pointed out, If Obama wants to retreat US interests into a new isolationism, at least have the debate and allow her former allies to prepare for it.
In Asia and the Pacific that would mean a a re-arming of Japan, this time with nukes along with South Korea and Taiwan. Good idea for Oz, NZ, and the deranged Dominion as well. No single nation can match the US in conventional battle but with those forces idled, shrunken, and repatriated, former free-loaders can make the cost of their own defeat prohibitive.
About ten years ago the usual stupid and ignorant US media personality interviewed a senior Vietnamese official.
Media thingy: “You must hate us Americans.”
Vietnamese: “No, we don’t.”
Media: “But we treated you abominably.”
Vietnamese: “no. We don’t hate you.”
Media thingy: “how can that be?”
Vietnamese: “Let me explain it to you. We fought you Americans for ten years. We fought the French for forty
years. We’ve been fighting the Chinese for a thousand years.”
Chinese on Vietnamese is somewhat worse than German on Dutch.
Unfortunately no. They were let out, along with the Pussy Rioters, in connection with a general amnesty about
eight months ago.
Despite all the verbiage about the evil Putin I personally think he’s an OK guy.
Where the Hell are Ivan the Terrible or Josef Stalin when you really need them?
Well, if things get really nasty we can un-retire combat veteran Romeo Dallaire.
Interesting about them thar Evinrudes,the company is now owned by Bombardier,and motors are still assembled in Wisconsin!
I’m too shocked to type more…..
You should read about Alexander Litvinenko.
Litvinenko wrote two books, ‘Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within’ and ‘Lubyanka Criminal Group’, in which he accused the Russian secret services of staging Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts to bring Vladimir Putin to power.
Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium on 1 November 2006 in London England at a lunch meeting with 2 KGB agents.
He died on the 23rd of the same month at the age of 43.
Vlad Putin is a stone cold killer.
I recall that PLA (Chinese) punitive invasion in early ’79….
It wuz a beer and popcorn event fer us….Both sides lost thousands…..the PLA withdrew after 19 days….said they had “punished the Vietnamese enough”….Har… The Vietnamese didn’t withdraw from Cambodia.
The Vietnamese had fewer casualties than the PLA, because they did not commit their reserves…(The PLA intent was to lure the NVA into a war of attrition)…just regional militias….the PLA knew the Vietnamese reserves (regulars) could block their push on Hanoi and inflict even bigger losses…..the NVA was attacking the PLA columns from the beginning.
The PLA only committed about 200,000 troops and about 200 Main Battle Tanks….
Neither side ever reliably reported their losses….eg: NVA claimed about 60,000 PLA killed…..the PLA claimed about 6,000 lost….
sasquatch, you beat me to it. Still remember vividly about the Chicom’s wanting to “teach Vietnam a lesson” and it was a disaster for the Chicoms. It’s been quite a while since the Vietnamese have accumulated any combat experience but the Chicom’s have none. I suspect that despite the PLA being considerbly more technologically advanced than they were in 1979 that they haven’t had any real experience in using their new toys. You’re right, beer and popcorn time when the Chicom’s try to teach the Vietnamese another “lesson”.