Who's Packing Your Parachute?

            I had to share this with you because it is so true and inspirational!

These are great thoughts for all of us!! Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands.

He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience! One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked !" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "! I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor."

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute? "Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory, he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachutes. This is my way of thanking you for your part in packing my parachute.

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com

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We gave China their rare earth mineral monopoly like everything else they abused it, it will end soon!

rare earth usage

Obama Blasts China in WTO Complaint, China Claims it Can't Stop Hoarding: The economic leadership of China is either brilliant or diabolical, depending on your perspective. The world's fastest growing economy is accelerating its high-tech efforts at a breakneck pace, thanks to heavy government subsidizing and a favorable regulatory atmosphere that gives domestic competitors advantages over their foreign peers. They better start while they have a market unless they are using it all on their rapidly growing and developing military. Regardless their edge will not last much longer!

China's rare earth policy justified: China's restrictions on rare earth exports are justified and are in line with World Trade Organization rules, Shen Danyang, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said Thursday."The policy aims to protect resources and environment, and realize sustainable development. China has no intention of restricting free trade or protecting domestic industries by distorting its foreign trade," Shen said at a regular press conference.
Faced with mounting resource and environment pressures, the government has restricted the development of heavy energy consumption, heavy pollution and resource-related industries in recent years, which helped promote not only the country's scientific development but also the world's sustainable growth, Shen said. On Tuesday, the European Union, United States and Japan formally asked the WTO to settle a dispute with China over restrictions placed on exports of raw materials including rare earth elements. The country supplies more than 90 percent of rare earth products on the global market, but its reserves only account for about one-third of the world's total. Disorderly mining of rare earths has been blamed for environmental damage in rare-earth-rich regions across China. Yeah right China is worried about pollution, since when?

Ever since we gave up our dominance of the critical rare minerals used in today's high tech equipment China has held a monopoly and held the high tech world predominantly Japan and the US hostage. Their dominance never should have been allowed and is about to end.

Japan finds rare earths in Pacific seabed: Japanese researchers say they have discovered vast deposits of rare earth minerals, used in many hi-tech appliances, in the seabed. The geologists estimate that there are about a 100bn tons of the rare elements in the mud of the Pacific Ocean floor. At present, China produces 97% of the world's rare earth metals. Analysts say the Pacific discovery could challenge China's dominance, if recovering the minerals from the seabed proves commercially viable.

Rare earth mine in US reopened: At one point, the majority of the world's rare earths were mined at the Mountain Pass facility. Then, in 1998, Molycorp halted chemical processing at the mine following an environmental disaster; radioactive wastewater flooded the nearby Ivanpah Dry Lake. At the same time, China was dramatically increasing its rare earth production.The resulting lower market prices forced Molycorp to close their mine in 2002. Although Molycorp has continued to extract metals from stockpiles of ore mined at Mountain Pass, China now produces between 96% and 99% of the world's total rare earth supply. The government carefully allocates supply to individual companies to support domestic electronics production. In 2009, they cut export quotas of rare earths from 50,000 to 30,000 tonnes, sending already-high prices on international markets even higher.
Molycorp has been working for several years to begin mining for rare earths once again, to help wean US manufacturers off Chinese imports. This year, they will reopen the Mountain Pass mine, an operation they've aptly named "Project Phoenix."

Getting to this point, however, has been expensive -- about $1 billion so far -- and has required a lot of special environmental permits. In July 2010, Molycorp went public on the NYSE with an Initial Public Offering of $394 million. In December 2010, they secured permits to start building a mining and manufacturing center so they could resume mining light rare earth elements such as neodymium and europium. The next month, they started mining bastnaesite ore. in October 2011, Molycorp announced that they discovered a heavy rare earth deposit near their Mountain Pass facility and received permission to drill two months later. The heavy rare earths terbium, yttrium, and dysprosium are necessary for manufacturing wind turbines and solar cells, so the government has a particular interest in finding sources of those elements within the US.

Japanese scientists produce artificial palladium: The new alloy has properties similar to the rare metal palladium. Part of the platinum group of metals, palladium should not to be confused with the rare earth minerals (also known as rare earth metals), a collection of seventeen elements in the periodic table, namely scandium, yttrium, and the fifteen lanthanides. Although the platinum group of metals are distinct from the rare earth metals, they are still hard to come by due to their global distribution and concentration.

The properties of palladium and other platinum group metals account for their widespread use in electronics, manufacturing, medicine, hydrogen purification, chemical applications and groundwater treatment. Although the new alloy will be difficult to produce commercially, Kitagawa intends to use the production method to develop other alloys for use as alternative rare metals.

It is time to reel China in if it is still possible: Beijing suspended ministerial-level meetings and, according to trading companies in Tokyo, blocked exports of rare earths, vital for high-tech manufacturing in Japan. The latest incident took place well within Japanese territorial waters. Last year's took place near the Senkaku Islands, which Japan controls but China claims and calls the Diaoyu Islands.

We have been discussing increased tensions due to ownership claims over long disputed islands and unrecovered raw material riches below the east and South China Seas for years. China is embroiled in territorial disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei Japan, and India:

China has been making all these ownership claims while warning other Asian countries to stay away. Meanwhile they have supposedly been building their world war machine with "innocent" intentions. China accuses Japan of exaggerating it as a military threat: It is no exaggeration it is called truth and you better be concerned and .China calls weapons modernization drive warnings alarmist "cock-and-bull story.

All this to no avail as China's answer is always that her intentions are innocent "yeah like Hitler's military buildup prior to WW2" and threatening the modern world with withholding rare earth elements needed to drive all our modern weapons and electronic.. China says it has largely shut down its rare earth industry for three months to address pollution problems. By invoking environmental concerns, China could potentially try to circumvent international trade rules that are supposed to prohibit export restrictions of vital materials. China has been imposing tariffs and quotas on its rare earth exports for several years, curtailing global supplies and forcing prices to rise eightfold to forty fold during that period for the various 17 rare earth elements.

China is worried about pollution like a hole in the head gut they better make the most of the game while they can because the world is going around their rare earth monopoly. Japanese researchers say they have discovered vast deposits of rare earth minerals, used in many hi-tech appliances, in the seabed. The geologists estimate that there are about a 100bn tons of the rare elements in the mud of the Pacific Ocean floor. At present, China produces 97% of the world's rare earth metals. Analysts say the Pacific discovery could challenge China's dominance, if recovering the minerals from the seabed proves commercially viable.

The United States is also in the race in an old proven uranium mine in Alaska. Alaska's Billion dollar mountain: Eight mining companies had held claims on Bokan Mountain before McKenzie came, and all had closed. They were looking for uranium, and most cleared out before they ever sold an ounce of ore. Theirs was poor luck and poor timing. Based on a resource assessment performed for McKenzie’s company Ucore by Aurora Geosciences, Bokan may contain mineral deposits worth $6.5 billion. That figure is not for uranium, though, but a group of elements called rare earths. Rare earths are crucial to modern and developing technologies but were little discussed until a temporary embargo in 2010 by China, which produces about 97 percent of the world’s supply, sparked a global prospecting frenzy.

We must all stop playing these games at this point and like it or not "share" if we are to survive into the future. Sadly we know the powers to be are not smart enough to do that. We are already in severe trouble with the condition of the world environmentally and due to power struggles getting ready to erupt in the Middle East and make things horrifically worse in many regards.

Being in a superior position puts one in a unique position of power and that power must be handled gracefully, with humility, responsibly, and not abused. That is something I taught all my sons and America under Bush did a lousy job of handling.

I am a little worried that China too is getting a little too heavy handed and abusive with her new position of power and beginning to take what she wants instead of being content with what she has which is what I constantly lecture has to be the case if we are to have a future. The time when man and the planet could handle war and colonialism is over, period or else!

We are Taiwan's, the Philippines, and Japan's protectors and now Vietnam's. Vietnam is no real threat to China so what is up here? As China flex's their military muscles in the area we are not supposed to worry. Just what are we supposed to think they are going to do with their advanced weaponry, missiles, stealth aircraft, aircraft carriers and the like.

Their threats are going to become more ominous until they cannot be ignored and it is too late. We have been here before. The world was not supposed to worry as Hitler built his arsenal and we know how that turned out. If peace is truly the goal then try something unique and share the wealth. We need peace to succeed as a world into the 21st century not more and never ending war.



James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com

Who's Packing Your Parachute?

In light of all the negative news and danger that has been happening everywhere today I had to share this with you because it is so true and inspirational! These are great thoughts for all of us!

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands.

He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience! One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked !" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "! I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor."

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute? "Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory, he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason.

As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachutes. This is my way of thanking you for your part in packing my parachute.

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com

Vietnam riots over China seas theft and Wider Grievances, while Philippines pressures UN on China complaints

                                     

    

* Behind Vietnam's Anti-China Riots, a Tinderbox of Wider Grievances:  "Some people used the riots as an excuse to act out on grievances, such as workers who had been fired from factories," said Johnny Liao, chief executive of Taiwanese label printing company Daily Full International Printing, who hid in a locked bathroom for seven hours as rioters ransacked his factory in southern Vietnam. "It wasn't just about the oil rig." The events began peacefully in early May, when the activists—largely urban academics, lawyers and writers attached to human-rights groups—began for the first time to plan a joint protest.

 China's rig was a convenient target."We picked the oil rig because it's the common issue that not only all the groups but the whole nation is very concerned [about]," said Vu Dong Ha, chief editor of independent news website Danlambao and one of the organizers. "Also we thought this issue gave us less pressure from the government."

* Philippines pressures UN to fast-track complaint: The Philippines has pressured the United Nations to fast-track a resolution on its complaint over China’s claim of the entire South China Sea, a senior official has said. Manila’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario told Gulf News that the government has asked the UN to also respond to the Philippines’ recent discovery of China’s reclamation activities on five shoals off the contested sea lane, near southwest Philippines.“Since China is not participating in the complaint filed by the Philippines at the UN’s Permanent Court of Arbitration in Hague, the Netherlands, perhaps we could get a quicker resolution from the tribunal,” del Rosario said.

“Because the situation is getting worse every day in the South China Sea. At the same time, Manila’s foreign affairs department is planning to lodge more complaints against China, including for construction and reclamation on five shoals located near Palawan, in south west Philippines because they are within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, within the South China Sea, del Rosario said.

 

China will do anything, now they are to build a school in contested Paracel Islands

China to build school in contested Paracel Islands:  China calls the island Yongxing and has been building up a settlement there for the last two years.The school is expected to serve just 40 children, whose parents all work on the tiny island.

Last month, Chinese and Vietnamese ships clashed over a drilling rig that China has placed near the islands. Beijing claims a U-shaped swathe of the South China Sea that covers areas other South East Asian nations say are their territory.The issue has been rumbling in recent years amid an increasingly assertive stance from China over its claims.

China will not have to square off militarily or so they think, they are building their own island to get around it

A Chinese official said on Friday that China will never send military forces to the scene of an increasingly ugly spat with Vietnam over an oil rig in the South China Sea, and accused Hanoi of trying to force an international lawsuit.
China claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea, but parts of the potentially energy-rich waters are also subject to claims by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. 

China is also involved in a territorial dispute in the East China Sea with Japan.
Scores of Vietnamese and Chinese ships, including coastguard vessels, have squared off around the rig despite a series of collisions after the platform was towed to the area in early May.

China to Build 'Artificial Island' in Disputed Waters to get around island dispute

                                 China May Build 'Artificial Island' in Disputed Waters:  That installation, located in the hotly contested Fiery Cross Reef – which China, Vietnam and the Philippines all claim – is already home to a Chinese observation post which provides logistical support for Chinese military assets in the region. In the article, Li Jie, a naval expert at the Chinese Naval Research Institute explained that the expansion plans could possibly include the construction of an airstrip and port.

If the proposal is approved, such facilities would provide China with a stronger hub from which to project its naval and air strength over other claimants in the region. 

China's State Enterprises Told to Stop Investing in Vietnam

China Confirms No Intention of Responding to Court's Approach or arbitration

                  

 China Rebuffs International Court Sea Dispute Request:  China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei confirmed at a daily press briefing on Wednesday that Beijing had no intention of responding to the court's approach. "We are aware of relevant reports," Mr. Hong said. "We do not accept and will not participate in such arbitration." Mr. Hong's rejection of the proceedings came as no surprise, with China having refused to take part in the arbitration case ever since Manila first launched its legal action in January 2013, and having severely criticized the Philippine government for seeking legal recourse.

The Philippines' complaint against China comes under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, which both countries have ratified. However, China didn't sign up to the treaty's arbitration processes, and has always maintained that the best way to solve territorial disputes is through bilateral dialogue

Vietnam eyes Philippine court case while confronting China for stealing everyone else’s territory

 Vietnam eyes Philippine court case while weighing options on China row:  "We would like to exhaust all diplomatic channels and dialogue with China. At the moment, dialogue is still going on," Dam said, reiterating Hanoi's stance that China's action violated both Vietnamese sovereignty and international law. The spat between Vietnam and China is the worst breakdown in shaky but important ties between the two Communist states since a brief but bloody border war in 1979.

Dam, who was set to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later on Thursday, expressed thanks to Japan and other countries that have criticized China's actions. In March, the Philippines, embroiled in a separate dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea, submitted a case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, challenging China's claims. It was the first time Beijing has been subjected to international legal scrutiny over the waters.

Vietnam, Philippines jointly denounce China's actions!

China seas tensions continue to ratchet up

                                 

                     Vietnam, Philippines Incidents Raise Sea Tensions:  Vietnamese officials said Chinese vessels rammed into Vietnamese coast guard vessels about 10 miles, or 16 kilometers, from a site where Hanoi has sought to prevent a Chinese state-run oil company from deploying a large oil rig in contested waters.

Separately, Philippine police said Wednesday that its maritime group had apprehended a Chinese fishing vessel loaded with hundreds of sea turtles near Half Moon Shoal, a sandbar in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, drawing swift condemnation from Beijing.

*The Philippines has turned to Washington, its longtime defense treaty ally, for   help to modernize its navy and air force, among Asia's weakest. Chinese paramilitary ships took effective control of the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground off the northwestern Philippines, in 2012. Last year, Chinese coast guard ships were deployed to another contested offshore South China Sea territory, the Second Thomas Shoal, where they have been trying to block food supplies and rotation of Filipino marines aboard a grounded Philippine navy ship in the shallow waters of the remote coral outcrops.

*Japan's new military base: The new base "should give Japan the ability to expand surveillance to near the Chinese mainland," said Heigo Sato, a professor at Takushoku University and a former researcher at the Defense Ministry's National Institute for Defense Studies.

"It will allow early warning of missiles and supplement the monitoring of Chinese military movements." China's decision last year to establish an air-defence identification zone in the East China Sea, including the skies above the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islets, further rattled Tokyo.

The U.S. Takes Sides in a Dispute Between China and Japan as world war again begins to shroud the world

  The U.S. Takes Sides in a Dispute Between China and Japan:  For the first time, China will host the Western Pacific Naval Symposium, a meeting every two years of countries that border the Pacific Ocean. The W.P.N.S., as it is known in naval circles, counts among its members the United States, Australia, Chile, Canada and a number of Asian countries, including China and Japan.

 It can be an eye-popping display of war ships, destroyers and guided-missile cruisers. In 2008, when South Korea hosted the symposium, the United States sent the aircraft carrier George Washington, the guided missile cruiser Cowpens and the destroyer John S. McCain to take part. For this year’s fleet review, China, which is hosting the event in Qingdao, invited all the countries in the symposium to take part — except Japan.

Two Aegis ships bound for Japan

 

China ratchets up control over South China sea coming closer to confrontation

                                                

             

China demands removal of Japan’s forces from Spratley Island Group
Philippines drops food to troops after China "blockade":  "We confirmed there was an air drop of food to our troops," Defence Department spokesman Peter Paul Galvez said. He said the air drop was "via airplane," but did not say when it occurred nor give further details. The incident took place at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly island group, which is around 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the western Philippine island of Palawan and which Manila insists is part of its continental shelf.

The shoal is more than 1,000 kilometres from Hainan island, the closest Chinese landmass, but China claims nearly all of the South China Sea based on what it says are historical records. A tiny unit of Filipino marines live on the BRP Sierra Madre, a decrepit, beached former World-War-II US navy transport ship that was transferred to the Philippine navy and run aground on the shoal in the 1990s. China has long demanded the Philippines pull out the vessel and the marines.

China asserts control over vast sea area, angering neighbors, US:  Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines and the United States have criticized China for imposing new access rules for the vast South China Sea. The latest maritime dispute among the neighbors with overlapping claims to islands and resources in the busy East Asian waterways has ratcheted up tensions in the region, coming less than two months after China proclaimed an Air Defense Identification Zone over disputed islands in the East China Sea. 

 

 The revised rules stem from actions taken by authorities on the island of Hainan, the Chinese province closest to the sea where areas are also claimed by Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. The South China Sea and coastal passages from Malaysia to Russia are of vital economic interest to all who ply the shipping lanes used to ferry more than $1.2 trillion in goods annually between the United States and its Far East trading partners.

South Korea expands air defence zone into China's Now what?

  Biden Meets With Chinese President, No Public Mention of ADIZ:  The visit to Beijing comes one day after a visit to U.S. ally Japan, where Biden said he was "deeply concerned" by China's Air Defence Identification Zone in the East China Sea.

The state-controlled China Daily newspaper also warned in an editorial Wednesday that Biden "should not expect any substantial headway if he comes [to China] simply to repeat his government's previous erroneous and one-sided remarks."  After visiting China on Wednesday, Biden will head to South Korea Thursday, which has also been angered by China's declared air defense zone. 

 

South China sea row escalates towards war?

                            

 South China sea row escalates after US B52 defy new Chinese defense Ban:

 South Korea, Japan Send Planes Into China's New Defense Zone 

China sends warplanes to newly declared air zone The vast zone, announced last week, covers territory claimed by China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
  Beijing warned it would take “defensive emergency measures” if aircraft failed to identify themselves properly in the airspace which is about two-thirds the size of Britain.Caroline Kennedy, the new American Ambassador to Japan and the daughter of the late President Kennedy, gave her reaction in her first public address.

“Unilateral actions like those taken by China with the announcement of an East China Sea-Air defence identification zone undermine security and constitute an attempt to change the status quo in the East China Sea. This only serves to increase tension in the region,” she said.  

 

China 'monitored' US bombers in new air zone

 The B-52 planes flew over disputed islands in the East China Sea on Tuesday without announcing themselves, defying new Chinese air defence rules. Japan and the US are strongly opposed to the air zone declared by China.They have accused China of unilaterally attempting to alter the status quo and escalate regional tensions.

The new air zone, announced by China on Saturday, overlaps with an air zone set out by Japan and covers disputed islands that are controlled by Japan.

 U.S. vows to defend Japan if China air zone sparks crisis
 Monday, October 14, 2013

US-Japan talks escalate war preparations against China who is doing the same with Russia against us?

 US-Japan talks escalate war preparations against China: Thursday’s talks took place in the wake of the Obama administration’s decision to postpone an imminent military attack on Syria last month in the face of mass popular opposition, both in the United States and around the world.

The “2 plus 2” meetings make clear that despite the postponement of war with Syria, Washington’s plans for military escalation are proceeding apace. Obama’s “pivot” has encouraged Japan and other countries to adopt a more aggressive stance towards China.
I have been following this every step of the way for 7 or 8 years. People use to tell me forget it, it will never happen,

But it will, it's the next war front. We may largely or in part leave the middle east to embroil itself because every country in Asia wants us to take on China and we may.

Russia is the Bull in the china shop. China and Russia have been holding joint war games for years, just recently with 395 thousand troops. Europe better watch out I fear. There is too much at stake here.

It is not land now that is the issue but the riches below the China seas that are needed to propel one through the 21st century.

 Chinese military hardware hits Russia for joint anti-terror drills:  “We’re glad that both countries have a high level of mutual trust. We’re not competitors, but we’re partners. Trust between the two countries became the unique feature of the Peace Mission,

“We’re pleased that we are conducting the exercises in the military district which hosts 40 percent of Russia’s armed forces.This is a new stage of military cooperation between the Chinese and Russian armies,” the Chinese military said, stressing that strategic cooperation between the Russian and Chinese armies had reached an unprecedented level in the recent years.

US hopes China and Japan can resolve island dispute but no way  as China says all China seas are hers

                                                            
* US hopes China and Japan can resolve island:Ties between the world's second- and third-biggest economies have been strained over the uninhabited islets, controlled by Japan but claimed by both countries. The isles are known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Aircraft and ships from the two countries have played cat-and-mouse in the vicinity of the islands, raising fears of conflict, perhaps sparked by an accident.


Speaking after a tour of the region, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel said the world did not want the spat to get out of hand. Global interest in economic stability, Russel told a news conference in Beijing, was "too strong for the world's second and third-largest economies to remain at odds.
    
 *China warns America: Beijing has warned the United States not to support China’s neighbours’ claims to disputed islands in the East and South China Seas, the government said on Friday.

Sino-Japanese ties have soured dramatically since Tokyo nationalised some of the Senkaku islands, which Beijing claims and calls the Diaoyus, in the East China Sea a year ago. China also claims almost all of the South China Sea including waters close to its neighbours’ coasts, and tensions with the Philippines and Vietnam have intensified in recent years.

 

US opposes coercive China action in island dispute: The United States says it's committed to defending Japan and opposes any coercive action by China to seize territory under Japanese control in the East China Sea. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the U.S. isn't taking a position in the dispute over the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

 

Japan and China have sparred over the uninhabited islands in recent years. Kerry's strong words of support Sunday for America's ally come just a day after he promised new levels of U.S.-Chinese cooperation on a host of problems, most notably North Korea's nuclear program. 

Knowing the coercion has been going on for years and ratcheting up of late is Japan supposed to be heartened by that statement? Or China chastised? Just a month ago: China to open disputed South China Sea islands to tourism: The plans to allow tourists to visit the Paracel Islands before the May Day holiday is the latest stage in Beijing's development of the territory, which has previously angered Vietnam and caused concern in Washington.

Vietnam and China have a longstanding territorial row over the Paracel Islands.Hanoi last month accused a Chinese vessel of firing on one of its fishing boats which had sailed in disputed waters in the area. The plan to allow cruise tours follows rapid development of infrastructure in a new city — Sansha — along with the establishment of an army garrison on one of the Paracels last year.

Inch by inch step by step slowly China's plan in the China sea's turns. Isn't this from inception coercion?

Beijing tells US to 'shut up' over South China Sea tensions

Protests in Vietnam as anger over China's 'bullying' grows: Hands off you Bastard neighbor

Analysis: China unveils oil offensive in South China Sea squabble, outside intervention not welcome

Analysis: China unveils oil offensive in South China Sea squabble: Beijing claims almost all the South China Sea, a body of water believed to hold rich reserves of oil and gas and which stretches from China to Indonesia and from Vietnam to the Philippines. Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia claim parts of it. Any conflict in the sea, one of the world's busiest trade routes, would have global repercussions given the $5 trillion in ship-borne trade carried on its waters each year. "The Chinese government's stance is clearer than ever ... They want to take on and develop this region," said an executive at a global oil major, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The Philippines put two disputed blocks on offer on Tuesday but only received three separate bids for exploration rights, an indication that there was little appetite to go up against China in the South China Sea. "China's view is that the little countries, like Vietnam and the Philippines, are increasingly stealing its resources and it must demonstrate it is serious about upholding its claims," said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

*Ministry of Defense: outside intervention not welcome: A military spokesman on Tuesday warned foreign countries to avoid interfering with territorial disputes between China and its neighbors regarding the South China Sea. On the eve of the 85th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the Chinese government held an unprecedented press conference by inviting five senior officers with the PLA's four headquarters to meet the press. "We oppose any country outside the region intervening in these disputes," Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said on the sidelines of the conference.

"Any intervention by countries outside the region will complicate the problem and even deteriorate the situation," Geng said, calling for bilateral dialogue and negotiations to solve disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea. The spokesman said disputes in the South China Sea mainly revolve around sovereignty and sea delimitation. "China will continue to seek appropriate solutions through bilateral negotiations and consultations with parties directly involved in the disputes," Geng said. Tensions have risen in the South China Sea, where China, Vietnam, the Philippines and other several countries in the region have made overlapping territorial claims over multiple islands.

Now we know why China would not sign the SouthEast China sea accord! They planned on breaking the accord and dramatically ratcheting up tensions by setting up a Government over the disputed Islands and seas so they would have an excuse to intervene militarily. 

*China Approves City Council, Military Base in Disputed Islands: China says it has formed a municipal council for a newly established city in a disputed part of the South China Sea, and has authorized the deployment of a military base in the area. In a report published Sunday, China's official Xinhua news agency says 1,100 residents of several islands known in Chinese as Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha have elected 45 deputies to a municipal people's congress. The islands are part of the new city called Sansha, and the council will be based on an island that China refers to as Yongxing, known in English as Woody Island.

Xinhua also says China's Central Military Commission has approved the formation of a Sansha garrison command responsible for “national defense” and “military operations.” The Chinese government declared the establishment of Sansha last month, saying its role is to administer the disputed Paracel and Spratly archipelagos and surrounding South China Sea waters, which are believed to hold oil and natural gas deposits. The islands are claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

*China dubs tiny island new city in sea claim bid: China's newest city is a tiny and remote island in the South China Sea, barely large enough to host a single airstrip. There is a post office, bank, supermarket and a hospital, but little else. Fresh water comes by freighter on a 13-hour journey from China's southernmost province.Beijing has created the city administration to oversee not only the rugged outpost but hundreds of thousands of square kilometers (miles) of water, aiming to strengthen its control over disputed - and potentially oil-rich - islands.A spokesman for the Philippines Foreign Ministry said Manila did not recognize the city or its jurisdiction. Vietnam said China's actions violated international law.

The city administration is on tiny Yongxing island, 350 kilometers (220 miles) southeast from China's tropical Hainan Island. The Cabinet approved Sansha last month to "consolidate administration" over the Paracel and Spratly island chains and the Macclesfield Bank, a large, completely submerged atoll that boasts rich fishing grounds that is also claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines. Vietnam and China both claim the Paracels, of which Yongxing, little more than half the size of Manhattan's Central Park, is part. The two countries along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim all or parts of the Spratlys.

This just raises the threat of conflict in the South China Sea. China's way of resolving the multi nation South China Sea issue is not just to lay claim to the whole of China Sea's but today token claim to them as being habitated by China therefore allowing China to militarily fight for them.

Highlights: Asean Summit Breaks Down Over South China Sea Disputes, Philippines says China warship is in its territory, a military aircraft spotted six other Chinese ships near the stricken vessel on Saturday. Japan's plan to buy the disputed Tiaoyutai island group provoked a Chinese live ammunition exercise. China will not sign the South China Sea code of conduct. China, Japan Face Off Near Disputed Islands. China, US seek to calm South China Sea tensions. Plus a recap of what led us to this point if need. If something interests you in this very long and convoluted issue just click on the link and read further!

Why won't China sign the South China Sea code of conduct? (+video) The agreement, raised at the Association of South East Asian Nations in Cambodia, would be the 10th covering essentially the same territorial dispute since the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The idea is that it would spell out what ships should do to avoid a clash but it wouldn't actually spell out how to resolve competing claims, according to regional news media.

Now we know why, This is just one more confrontation you can only see ending in war rather than Diplomacy and sharing the wealth!

The long run up to the China sea's conflict and the US and allies verse Russia and China competing naval muscle flexing I mean exercises

Being in a superior position puts one in a unique position of power and that power must be handled gracefully, with humility, responsibly, and not abused. That is something I taught all my sons and America under Bush did a lousy job of handling. I am a little worried that China too is getting a little too heavy handed and abusive with her new position of power and beginning to take what she wants instead of being content with what she has which is what I constantly lecture has to be the case if we are to have a future. The time when man and the planet could handle war and colonialism is over, period or else!

We are Taiwan's, Vietnam's, Australia's, and Japan's protectors. As China flex's their military muscles in the area we are not supposed to worry. Just what are we supposed to think they are going to do with their advanced weaponry, missiles, stealth aircraft, aircraft carriers and the like. Their threats are going to become more ominous until they cannot be ignored and it is too late. We have been here before. The world was not supposed to worry as Hitler built his arsenal and we know how that turned out.

Haven't we all been coerced by China and isn't it working up to now? China will go to war over this but will the US and the Asian allies we swore to protect? Is Russia going to join China in what would in reality be WW3 in an attempt to defeat us in Asia?

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com