China's SCS Strategy Thread

Blackstone

Blackstone

Brigadier
Here's a good object lesson China's real enemy is Japan and not the United States, and it will take every opportunity to sabotage friendly Sino-American relations. The SCS is an easy target, because it's a key node for US to maintain primacy and for China to push back.

Several days ago, a Kyodo news published a story claiming Chinese Ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai asked for dismissal of Admiral Harris, head of US Pacific Command, from his post. China soon denounced the story as false and said Kyodo fabricated the story. Given likely US response to such a demand, it's hard to believe China would conduct diplomatic affairs in such a manner. Therefore, Kyodo's story is most likely false.

It shouldn't be surprising lots of Western "journalists" reflexively swallow anti-PRC propaganda whole, without doing much due diligence on validity of the stories. It's the nature of the beast; those people live in kumbaya echo chambers. Problem is they cause trouble for China in Washington, and distract it from paying attention to its real enemy- Japan.

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The Chinese government is denying reports that its ambassador to Washington asked the Trump administration to fire Adm. Harry Harris, the head of U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) and a strong voice inside the U.S. government calling for a tough China policy. This may mark the end of Beijing’s not-so-subtle campaign against Harris, which has been going on for years.

During the presidential transition, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner
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for communication with the help of former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. On May 6, the Japanese newswire Kyodo News’s
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reported that Cui requested Trump get rid of Harris, before last month’s summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago, offering unspecified help to solve the North Korean crisis. “A source close to U.S.-China ties” told Kyodo that the Trump administration likely rejected the request.

Counselor Fang Hong, the spokeswoman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told me there’s no truth to it.

“The report you’re referring to is a sheer fabrication,” she said. “I can speak with authority that Ambassador Cui Tiankai has never ever made such a request to anyone from the U.S. side on any occasion.”

One White House official also told me today that Cui never requested to Kushner that the Trump administration fire Harris. But a Trump transition official who was briefed on the Cui-Kushner meetings told me that Cui did raise the issue during the transition, but no promises were made.

Regardless, Harris’s allies in Congress are ready to take up his cause if the Chinese effort against Harris continues or if the Trump administration tries to throw the admiral overboard. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the Kyodo report was “outrageous” if true.

“I hope the Trump administration will reject such an inappropriate and presumptuous demand with the ridicule it deserves,” he said. “The fact that the Chinese government would make such a request only confirms that Admiral Harris is the right leader for Pacific Command.”

Pacific Command’s chief spokesman Capt. Darryn James told me that the story could be just another attempt by the Chinese government to smear Harris, as it has been doing for a long time.

“I don’t know anything about alleged conversations, but for years there’s been a lot of Chinese propaganda directed at Admiral Harris that we don’t pay much attention to,” said James. “Admiral Harris’s focus remains on protecting America’s interests in his area of responsibility.”

China’s Global Times, which often writes in support of the Chinese government, blamed the story
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in a May 7 op-ed, accusing Japan of making up stories to thwart the warming of U.S.-China relations. The op-ed also claimed that China was fine with Harris being PACOM commander.

“Beijing has become more and more confident about developing ties with a Trump-led US,” it said. “China is able to keep normal interaction with the US Asia-Pacific command led by Harris. We do not count on any senior US official to take a pro-China position and we can cope with any who take a hard stance toward China.”

That’s a big shift from what the Chinese media has been saying about Harris since he became PACOM commander in 2015. Harris has been a strong voice inside the U.S. government for tougher measures to confront all manners of Chinese aggression, including its militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea. It was Harris who famously coined the term
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to describe Beijing’s effort to expand its control in the Western Pacific.

The Chinese government singled out Harris for attacks early on because it recognized his influence, said Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“They realized he was going to be an effective commander who was going to be able to marshal support for a tougher stance vis-a-vis China,” she said. “Harris has been willing to speak truth to power.”

China’s official and unofficial news agencies have been attacking Harris for years, often accusing him of being Japanese, in order to question his motivations. In fact, Harris’s mother was Japanese and his father was a U.S. Navy chief petty officer stationed in Yokosuka, Japan.

“Some may say an overemphasis on the Japanese background about an American general is a bit unkind,” China’s official state media outlet Xinhua
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. “But to understand the American’s sudden upgraded offensive in the South China Sea, it is simply impossible to ignore Admiral Harris’s blood, background, political inclination and values.”

Whether Ambassador Cui made the request or not, Beijing’s long campaign against Harris seems to have backfired. The shift in China’s tone suggests a realization that the more Harris is attacked by Beijing, the safer he may be in his job.

If Trump dumps Harris now, regardless of what Cui did or said, it will look like yet another concession to China that undermines U.S. and regional security in exchange for promises of future help on North Korea that may never come.
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solarz

solarz

Brigadier
Blackstone said:
Here's a good object lesson China's real enemy is Japan and not the United States, and it will take every opportunity to sabotage friendly Sino-American relations. The SCS is an easy target, because it's a key node for US to maintain primacy and for China to push back.

Several days ago, a Kyodo news published a story claiming Chinese Ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai asked for dismissal of Admiral Harris, head of US Pacific Command, from his post. China soon denounced the story as false and said Kyodo fabricated the story. Given likely US response to such a demand, it's hard to believe China would conduct diplomatic affairs in such a manner. Therefore, Kyodo's story is most likely false.

It shouldn't be surprising lots of Western "journalists" reflexively swallow anti-PRC propaganda whole, without doing much due diligence on validity of the stories. It's the nature of the beast; those people live in kumbaya echo chambers. Problem is they cause trouble for China in Washington, and distract it from paying attention to its real enemy- Japan.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
Click to expand...

China should identify all the incompetent US military leaders and ask Trump to fire them all.
 
Blackstone

Blackstone

Brigadier
Janiz said:
If Xinhua wrote that there was no pressure from embassy that must be true...
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You are wrong if you think I take Xinhua or any other news media at face value. I'd put non state-controlled news organizations a notch above state-controlled ones, but both are below cow dung as far as I'm concerned.
 
A

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
mr.bean said:
Crooked Hillary will be back. She's too obsessed with power and losing at the final stretch to Donald Trump like this was devastating. She will run again. we haven't seen the last of Crooked Hillary yet.
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Hillary Clinton is 69 years old already.

I severely doubt that the Democratic establishment will support her in 4 years time, as they really should find a better (and younger) candidate.

Plus Trump hasn't been as much of a disaster as was feared, so the odds are that he will win re-election like his predecessors.

So in 8 years time, she'll be 77 and will really be looking and feeling her age.

Plus one general comment, it does look like China is better at political renewal these days, given its mandatory retirement age for politicians and policy of job rotations (eg. experience in coastal and interior regions, in government and running SOEs, etc)

In comparison, US Senators stay in the same position for decades and don't have the same practical hands-on experience of their Chinese 'counterparts' who have government/SOE experience in a village, then a town, then a county, then a city, then a province, and then in the Central Government.
 
A

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
Richard Santos said:
Would one want a gentle, kindly honest grandmother who is alway scrupulously honest as commander in chief?
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Whilst a man can be admired/respected for being power hungry and tough, that does not apply to women.

There's a study on this, which shows power hungry women are universally disliked.

That is part of the reason why she lost.

Even Margaret Thatcher employed an image consultant to make her more feminine and likable.
 
Hendrik_2000

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
KJ 500 in Hainan So there are 3 airfields in Hainan , Lingshui,Ledong Jialaishi. ,Fortress Hainan is now becoming the tip of the spear for PLAN

Satellite image shows Chinese deployment of new aircraft to South China Sea
By:
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May 12, 2017 (Photo Credit: China's Ministry of National Defense)
MELBOURNE, Australia — China has deployed its latest airborne early warning and control aircraft to an air base on the fringes of the disputed South China Sea, according to exclusive satellite imagery obtained by Defense News.

The photo taken March 24 by commercial satellite imagery company DigitalGlobe shows a pair of Shaanxi KJ-500 turboprop AEW&C aircraft with its distinctive radar dish on the ground at Jialaishi Air Base in the northern part of China’s Hainan island. Two other Y-8 aircraft — an older KJ-200 AEW&C aircraft, and the other possibly a Y-8J or Y-8X maritime patrol aircraft — can be seen alongside the KJ-500s.

This is the first time the KJ-500 has been deployed to Hainan, with China having previously rotationally deployed special mission aircraft detachments to the island. These detachments are drawn from two special-mission aircraft regiments of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN, based in northern China. The detachments are usually made up of a mixture of KJ-200 AEW&C aircraft with Y-8Js and Y-8Xs, and they tend to operate from Lingshui on the southeastern tip of Hainan.

kj-500-airborne-early-warning-aircraft-hainan-china.jpeg

This March 24 image shows a pair of Shaanxi KJ-500 turboprop AEW&C aircraft at Jialaishi Air Base in the northern part of China’s Hainan island.
Photo Credit: DigitalGlobe

However, Lingshui is currently undergoing large-scale construction work to improve its aircraft parking and possibly dispersal facilities, which would have forced the detachment to at least temporarily relocate. The March 24 image is the first time multiple Y-8s and/or Y-9s have been observed at Jialaishi.

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Jialaishi is one of three major PLAN air bases in Hainan, which is located on the northern fringes of the South China Sea and its disputed islands. The three bases are normally home to three regiments of Shenyang J-11B Flanker fighters and a single regiment of Xi'an JH-7 fighter-bombers, from which they have been used on occasion to intercept U.S. military flights operating in nearby international airspace.

The KJ-500 is the latest AEW&C aircraft to be fielded by China and is expected to eventually replace the older KJ-200s currently in service. It is based on the Shaanxi Y-9 turboprop and carries a dorsal radar dish mounting an indigenous phased array radar with three fixed arrays angled at 120 degrees relative to each other for all-round coverage. Smaller radar arrays are carried on the nose and rear fuselage for additional coverage.

A satellite communications dome is mounted on top of the KJ-500’s radar dish along with side-looking electronic intelligence panels on both sides of the fuselage for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. The type entered service with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force in late 2014 or early 2015, with six KJ-500s known to have been delivered as of January 2017, including at least two for the PLAN.

Unverified photos of the PLAN’s KJ-500s have indicated that they are carrying serial numbers belonging to the Hainan-based 9th Naval Air Division, which if true would represent a departure from the previous PLAN practice of assigning AEW&C aircraft to special-mission naval aviation units. It would also suggest that these aircraft would be permanently stationed in Hainan instead of being assigned there on temporary rotations.
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