Tuesday, January 22, 2008
This is just a quick link to follow -- an "aside." These are links to interesting things that, for one reason or another, I didn't place into a full posting. Click the link to visit the full article. Go to the blog index for a regular listing of posts.
Gordon Chang: The Navy’s Failing China Policy - '...Beijing’s navy and air force are not yet strong enough to enforce its expansive assertions, yet the Chinese are willing to engage in provocative acts nonetheless. The downing of an unarmed Navy reconnaissance plane in April 2001 in international airspace over the South China Sea was followed in September 2002 by aggressive maneuvering against the Bowditch, an unarmed Navy oceanographic vessel in international waters in the Yellow Sea. In October 2006, a Chinese submarine for the first time surfaced in the middle of an American strike group—the Kitty Hawk’s, by the way—which can only be interpreted as a signal to the Navy to clear out of Asian waters. And before the rejection of the Kitty Hawk port call, Beijing refused refuge to two Navy minesweepers seeking to outrun a storm...'
