Between the anti-Japanese tensions and the converging dominance of the Japanese with the Chinese to our fiscal status quo, it seems the Chinese are increasingly pushing the US hand to supporting the Japanese.
Via Ai Weiwei, contemporary Chinese artist, the US Embassy in Beijing is under protest by the Chinese marchers demanding (Google Translated) "Pay Back The Money" and "Down with US Imperialism". Some embassy cars were attacked - apparently on the back of the US role in the China-Japan tensions.
The question now is what happens to China's Treasury holdings? They already threatened Japan with economic sanctions and now the populist view is turning anti-American at a time of new leadership. We assume they will continue to sell down their USD-based Treasury holdings and convert to Gold as they have been for the past year.
With 2 months until the election, this will be an interesting distraction of global importance as the US is forced to support Japan or throw them under the bus.
An excerpt:
For the past several decades, the Chinese government has largely avoided military confrontation. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has instead bolstered its legitimacy by providing economic growth. Foreign disputes were put on the backburner as the government focused on the singular goal of increasing material prosperity. Because the Communist Party did not have clear internal divisions, and because the autocratic nature of the Chinese system largely shielded the party from direct accountability to the people, the Chinese leadership has taken a decidedly long-term strategy for enhancing China's international power. A major crisis, such as the 1999 North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing of the Chinese embassy in Serbia, did not lead to a prolonged or drastic Chinese response, despite intense popular anger.
This pattern may no longer hold true. Divisions within the Communist Party are surfacing in the wake of former Chongqing municipality party chief Bo Xilai's dramatic fall from grace. Furthermore, a recent prolonged absence of heir apparent Xi Jinping from the public eye fueled speculation of a violent confrontation within the ranks of the Party. In the event of a serious struggle for political power in China, a ruling faction may seek to shore up domestic support by initiating an armed conflict with China's historical nemesis.
Western governments that pressure China to democratize do so with supreme geopolitical shortsightedness. If the government in mainland China was currently a Western-style representative democracy, popular pressure for a war against Japan would be almost impossible to resist. I dunno how much of the protests are spontaneous or how much they are instigated by the government. But how would the young rioters in China know so much about Japanese atrocities in WWII if the government wasn't constantly reminding them? And why, after 70 or more years can't they get over it and focus on the benefits of peaceful coexistence that they have enjoyed since then?
There has been some discussion on Rantburg lately about the difference between international socialists (communists) and national socialists (NAZIs or facists). Sounds to me like the Chinese are tilting toward facism with all of the militancy and racism that goes with it.
Calm, quiet negotiations would be far more likely to benefit the Chinese as well as the Japanese, IMHO. So it's worrisome that the Chinese are taking this tack. But then, what did our own dear leaders expect when they decided to grant most favored nation trading status to a hostile totalitarian dictatorship, be it communist or facist?
And so now that the Chinese have used their profits to beef up their navy our leaders seem reluctant to speak up in support of our friends and allies throughout the region. Weak.
#2
To Chinese, events of 150 years ago might as well have happened yesterday. It's not uncommon at all to see references to the Boxer War online.
The government keeps the flame of hate burning bright, to keep anger focused outward while they steal everything that isn't nailed down.
Now that China is powerful again, it's time for all the old vassal kingdoms to pay tribute again. Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Philippines all need to kowtow in front of the superior race.
Irans nuclear-energy chief said Monday that his nations most heavily defended nuclear-enrichment plant had been unplugged with extreme prejudice last month.
Actually, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani said the electrical lines powering the buried plant at Fordow from the nearby city of Qom had been blown up by unknown saboteurs. The same thing happened at Irans Natanz plant at an unspecified earlier date, he told the annual member-state session of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
The world fears Tehran which says it wants to develop nuclear power solely for peaceful purposes is seeking nuclear weapons. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned Sunday that Iran was six to seven months away from being able to build an atomic bomb.
It should be recalled, Abbasi-Davani told the IAEA, that power cut-off is one of the ways to break down centrifuge machines.
No kidding. For years, U.S. war planners looking for ways to attack such sites have focused on their so-called umbilicals the power, air and water links that any major industrial facility requires to operate. With those destroyed, any industrial site becomes very expensive pile of scrap. Hardening such systems against such ancillary attacks could prove daunting.
A functional defeat may be achieved by various means: closing ingress/egress portals, destroying umbilicals such as electrical power lines, phone line and radio antennas, or by denying life-support systems relating to air and water supplies, a 2004 Air Force study noted.
A new study says substance abuse among troops has become a "public health crisis" and Pentagon methods for dealing with it are outdated.
The study by the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, says about 20 percent of active duty service members reported they drank heavily in 2008, the last year for which data is available. And, binge-drinking rose to 47 percent in 2008 from 35 percent in 1998.
The study says new methods are needed to help troops. Those include better trained counselors and more outpatient care as opposed to relying so heavily on hospitalizations and residential programs.
#1
Huh. Obviously the 'researchers' never were around the military in the 60s or 70s. Big Enlisted and Officer Club system throughout the services, most of which have largely diminished or disappeared. Wasn't a crisis then?
Maybe they need some pilot 'rehab' programs, say, at the universities as proof their concepts effectiveness.
#3
From the title I thought they had found a record number of tee-totallers in the service.
Weird how you never see studies decrying the level of substance abuse among those on the dole.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/18/2012 12:01 Comments ||
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#4
Just another faux study with foregone conclusions to make the military jump to some tune. Besides, what is "drank heavily?" How was this quantified? If this was just a multiple choice questionnaire or "rate your drinking habits" type then its all empty BS. Anything to spend that federal grant so they can ask for more federal grants.
Liberal progressives! Sheesh!
#7
We received a stat for volunteer firefighters marking a spike in abusive drinking as part of a wider effort for personal counciling concerning tough runs. I'm not going to say there are no tough runs, but best we could figure such a jump was a lowering of the amount of alcohol consumed for an abuse/binge rating. Basically, if we had three beers over the course of the next twelve hours it is a binge, which a number called b&ls!t.
#8
Big Enlisted and Officer Club system throughout the services, most of which have largely diminished or disappeared. Wasn't a crisis then?
Man, doesn't that bring back some memories. We'd hit the Enlisted Club for lunch and have Dollar Pitchers, then go back to the Hanger for the afternoon sorties at N.A.S. Cecil Field. In the 70's.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
09/18/2012 14:57 Comments ||
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#9
Setting the example with White House home brew.
#11
Big Enlisted and Officer Club system throughout the services, most of which have largely diminished or disappeared. Wasn't a crisis then?
And in addition to the dollar pitchers as per S.A.M., there used to be topless dancers rightalongside the brewskis.
THEN back to the NAS JAX hangars to work on the mighty Sea Kings in the hot Florida sun. Chief Virgil taught this young'un a thing or two about excess drinking, there was always a rotor head that needed some work. no UCMJ, Captain's Mast or nothin, just sun, heat and Miller draft. self correcting.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
