The American people are not focused on international relations at the moment. This is nothing new; it has been that way since not long after 9-11. Even when US troops were fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the main focus of the American people was not events overseas, but rather on what was happening right here at home. Today, we have just a few thousand troops in Iraq and not many more in Afghanistan. The crazy terrorists of ISIS are busy killing and bombing across the Middle East, but as usual, the average American is not paying much attention. After all, there are more important things to discuss like Tom Brady's punishment in Deflategate or Bruce Jenner's sex change.
There is one very important thing that is happening right now, however, that the American public ignores at its own peril. This is the effort by China to take control of the South China Sea. What is happening is China is laying claim to international waters through with just under half of all world trade travels. Indeed, the Chinese are literally building islands in those waters and putting military installations on the newly-created islands.
It is not all that hard to build an island. If you've ever crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, you traversed a number of man-made islands. Those islands were designed and built to house the start and finish of the tunnels that form part of the structure. In the South China Sea, the Chinese have found underwater coral reefs and dredged up tons and tons of sand and dumped that sand on top of the reef. The result is that new islands have appeared above the surface of the sea. The Chinese effort has also killed all the marine life that had inhabited these coral reefs, but the Chinese are not that big on worrying about the ecology of an area.
Once the Chinese have built an island, they have then put paved runways on them to allow for military aircraft to use the new land as a base. The USA may have huge aircraft carriers from which to launch aircraft at sea, but the Chinese have unsinkable carriers with these islands. It's also a lot less expensive to dredge up sand to build an island than it is to build an aircraft carrier.
Some people say that it really does not matter if the Chinese build these islands. China is peaceful, after all, or so they say. But then they never explain how it is that China has chosen to build and fortify these islands. There are no Chinese installations nearby. Some of these islands are more than 1000 miles from the Chinese mainland. The area is much closer to the Philippines and Indonesia and even Vietnam than it is to China. But the Chinese are the ones to build islands.
With these fortified islands, China will have it in its power to cut off Japan completely from its oil supplies. China will also have the power to crush nearly all trade from South Asia to the USA, Canada and the rest of the Americas. The strategic importance of this area cannot be overstated.
Are the Chinese planning to take control of all navigation in the area? We don't know. Would the Chinese go to war to take control of this area? Again, we don't know. So why are the Chinese building these islands now, NOW?? Unlike the other questions, that is something where we do know the answer. The Chinese believe that the USA will do nothing to stop them while Obama is president. They know that president Obama never seems to take action. Once the islands have been built and the air strips put in place, it will be much harder to get them removed than it would have been to stop the construction in the first place. The Chinese are rushing to get their air bases built while Obama remains in the White House. China believes that Obama will not do anything at all about these air bases. By the time we have a new president, it will be too late to act.
China is changing the facts while it can.
There is one very important thing that is happening right now, however, that the American public ignores at its own peril. This is the effort by China to take control of the South China Sea. What is happening is China is laying claim to international waters through with just under half of all world trade travels. Indeed, the Chinese are literally building islands in those waters and putting military installations on the newly-created islands.
It is not all that hard to build an island. If you've ever crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, you traversed a number of man-made islands. Those islands were designed and built to house the start and finish of the tunnels that form part of the structure. In the South China Sea, the Chinese have found underwater coral reefs and dredged up tons and tons of sand and dumped that sand on top of the reef. The result is that new islands have appeared above the surface of the sea. The Chinese effort has also killed all the marine life that had inhabited these coral reefs, but the Chinese are not that big on worrying about the ecology of an area.
Once the Chinese have built an island, they have then put paved runways on them to allow for military aircraft to use the new land as a base. The USA may have huge aircraft carriers from which to launch aircraft at sea, but the Chinese have unsinkable carriers with these islands. It's also a lot less expensive to dredge up sand to build an island than it is to build an aircraft carrier.
Some people say that it really does not matter if the Chinese build these islands. China is peaceful, after all, or so they say. But then they never explain how it is that China has chosen to build and fortify these islands. There are no Chinese installations nearby. Some of these islands are more than 1000 miles from the Chinese mainland. The area is much closer to the Philippines and Indonesia and even Vietnam than it is to China. But the Chinese are the ones to build islands.
With these fortified islands, China will have it in its power to cut off Japan completely from its oil supplies. China will also have the power to crush nearly all trade from South Asia to the USA, Canada and the rest of the Americas. The strategic importance of this area cannot be overstated.
Are the Chinese planning to take control of all navigation in the area? We don't know. Would the Chinese go to war to take control of this area? Again, we don't know. So why are the Chinese building these islands now, NOW?? Unlike the other questions, that is something where we do know the answer. The Chinese believe that the USA will do nothing to stop them while Obama is president. They know that president Obama never seems to take action. Once the islands have been built and the air strips put in place, it will be much harder to get them removed than it would have been to stop the construction in the first place. The Chinese are rushing to get their air bases built while Obama remains in the White House. China believes that Obama will not do anything at all about these air bases. By the time we have a new president, it will be too late to act.
China is changing the facts while it can.
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