[Sixstrings]

Sigh, just after I posted how responsible China is compared to Russia.

Now they're acting like Putin. I guess the USA has to figure out whether we really can let our international dollar go, and the global order we lead, and just retreat here at home so long as we don't get a great depression out of it..

or..

US has to start responding to these "tests" from various "adversaries."

China Deploys Submarine Near Vietnam Oil Rig, 86 Vessels Now Present

With the additional deployment of a submarine and a missile ship, there are now 86 Chinese vessels accompanying the oil rig's installation in Vietnam's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Local news reports that 3 Chinese military ships are surrounding a Vietnamese marine police vessel this morning and water cannon use continues against Vietnamese ships. We addressed the who, what, where, when and how of China’s HD-981 oil rig foray into Vietnamese waters here but, as we discuss below, the enduring question, as with many of China’s recently provocative actions in the Asia-Pacific, remains why?

Via The Diplomat,

Why Did China Set Up an Oil Rig Within Vietnamese Waters?

Why now and why Vietnam?

The enduring question, as with many of China’s provocative actions in the Asia-Pacific, remains why? The opacity of China’s internal decision-making processes makes it rather difficult to conclusively answer that question, but a good amount of evidence suggests that the oil rig crisis with Vietnam was manufactured to test the mettle of ASEAN states and the United States. It gives Beijing an opportunity to gauge the international response to China asserting its maritime territorial claims.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/china-deploys-submarine-near-vietnam-oil-rig-86-vessels-now-present

In other news, Russia and China talking about getting the dollar dumped:

Russia Holds "De-Dollarization Meeting": China, Iran Willing To Drop USD From Bilateral Trade
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/russia-holds-de-dollarization-meeting-china-iran-willing-drop-usd-bilateral-trade

Love or hate Uncle Sam, fact is that this country has kept peace in the world for a long time now. If we do nothing, there will be regional wars, annexations, a big mess all over the place and that affects us here at home too.

[Sixstrings]

Vietnamese people enraged at China's intrusion into their waters. Mobs torch Chinese factories:

Factories Torched in Anti-China Protest in Vietnam
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/vietnamese-workers-protest-chinese-factories-23691664

Thousands protest in Vietnam over China oil rig
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27403851

[Subjectivist]

In other news, Russia and China talking about getting the dollar dumped:

Russia Holds "De-Dollarization Meeting": China, Iran Willing To Drop USD From Bilateral Trade
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/russia-holds-de-dollarization-meeting-china-iran-willing-drop-usd-bilateral-trade

Love or hate Uncle Sam, fact is that this country has kept peace in the world for a long time now. If we do nothing, there will be regional wars, annexations, a big mess all over the place and that affects us here at home too.

Seriously? I love my country but I am not blind to our faults. Since World War II America has been involved in countless military actions in our own interest. Even the so called NATO actions like the whole Serbia/Yugoslavian break up mess were done to keep allies firmly tied into our global team. Even further back we supplied the UK with satellite imagery and military intelligence during the Falkland war. In Gulf War I and II we bombed the daylights out of Iraq, over a decade ago we invaded Afghanistan, and the list goes on as long as you are honest about it. You might consider it keeping the peace but the civilians in Viet Nam, North Korea, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and so on and so forth think you are an imperialist American who doesn't care a whit for their losses and suffering due to your countries 'Peace Keeping'

[BobInget]

Up to this point just mentioning the 'oil' word in connection with China's disputed 'island' ownership with the Philippines and Vietnam was almost forbidden. Few wanted place too much value on these uninhabited rick outcroppings. If we mentioned all that oil and gas, suddenly folks would place even more value on crude.
China's willingness to go to war instead of sharing the oil is yet another major "tell" of the ongoing
peak-cheap-oil controversy.

China and Vietnam have had serious clashes for at least 200 years. Both nations are still there.
Oh, China is dredging sand to create land around those rocks for what is thought to become an airstrip, military base and oil export terminal(s)

[BobInget]

It just occurred, how many nations would go to war over a flat cloudless desert island, perfect for millions of solar panels, without even that single New Yorker cartoon style coconut palm.

"Yeah man, but dig the crazy beach".

[Plantagenet]

China now claims various islands and associated marine territory owned by Japan, VietNam, South Korea, Taiwan, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.



Obama is just back from a trip to SE Asia where he reassured Japan and others that the US would oppose Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. Of course the Chinese knew all along that Obama really didn't mean it.........


We claim all this water for CHINA!

[Sixstrings]

Obama is just back from a trip to SE Asia where he reassured Japan and others that the US would oppose Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. Of course the Chinese knew all along that Obama really didn't mean it.........

I think since Iraq, Americans have drunk too much anti-American koolaid to the point of forgetting that the rest of the world are not little angels and the world will be so swell if we just sit back.

All these nations that criticized us over Iraq will, in our absence, grab everything they can get away with.

It's the US that has kept world peace. Nobody else could have done it. The UN never had any teeth.

My point in all this is that geopolitical thinking doesn't come naturally to the average voter, but honestly the US has a special position and circumstance in the world. We really can't just sit back like a Britain or Canada. The world will actually fly apart, if we do. And then there's the question of what happens to our economy, if the world becomes China-centric or Russia-centric.

Our leadership first has to consider: (a) why are we still in Asia, (b) do we really need to keep up with keeping order over there and containing China and protecting Japan and South Korea. (c) do we even need allies? I'd say yes, a Japan is someone our treasury sec can get on the phone with and count on them to buy a bunch of bonds in a pinch. US actually does get things in return for being this global cop we have always been.

So if we do need to keep our alliances in Asia, and contain China, then we'll have to respond at some point here. China is progressively testing American response, and like Russia they will push it however far they are able to.

[Plantagenet]

So if we do need to keep our alliances in Asia, and contain China, then we'll have to respond at some point here. China is progressively testing American response, and like Russia they will push it however far they are able to.

Obama is like the cowardly lion before he got courage. He isn't going to do anything substantive about either Russia or China.

The countries around China will have to get used to having China snip off bits of their territory, just like the Ukraine has de facto accepted Russia snipping off the Crimea.


meow!

[Sixstrings]

Obama is like the cowardly lion before he got courage. He isn't going to do anything substantive about either Russia or China.

The countries around China will have to get used to having China snip off bits of their territory, just like the Ukraine has de facto accepted Russia snipping off the Crimea.

You're right.

But O's weakness and disinterest is probably for the best, Plant. We don't really want a cold war lightly. It's for the best to give the Sino-Russo axis lots of rope, and by 2016 we'll know for sure how serious the problem is.

I will say about Obama, though -- he moves slow, but if China pushes past a certain point or Russia does, if we've really got an enemy on our hands, then I do think Obama would be as steadfast as he's been on anti-terrorism.

[ralfy]

China is a main trading partner of the U.S., and has been so long before the present administration. That's probably the main reason why Vietnam trades with both China and the U.S. even today and why the U.S. can barely respond to China in SE Asia.

That is why there is no "we" or "our" in this issue, just the financial elite and government partners from military powers sparring and dealing with each other. "We" pay for the costs.

[Subjectivist]

China is a main trading partner of the U.S., and has been so long before the present administration. That's probably the main reason why Vietnam trades with both China and the U.S. even today and why the U.S. can barely respond to China in SE Asia.

That is why there is no "we" or "our" in this issue, just the financial elite and government partners from military powers sparring and dealing with each other. "We" pay for the costs.

In 1939 Germany's largest trading partner was France, Germany conquered France in 1940. In 1940-1941 Germany's largest trading partner was the USSR. In 1941 Germany invaded the USSR.

Trade status is not a good ndicator of peace between countries being a top priority of those in charge.

[Paulo1]

If China takes on Viet Nam they will lose, eventually. Ask the French or US. These tenacious fighters will never give up and will make Islamic terrorists look like pikers in the long run.

It would be a real bizarro show to see US arming them to fight the Chinese.

Paulo

[Graeme]

At least 21 dead in Vietnam anti-China protests over oil rig

At least 21 people were killed and nearly 100 injured in Vietnam on Thursday during violent protests against China in one of the deadliest confrontations between the two neighbours since 1979.

Crowds set fire to industrial parks and factories, hunted down Chinese workers and attacked police during the riots, which have spread from the south to the central part of the country following the start of the protests on Tuesday.

The violence has been sparked by the dispute concerning China stationing an oil rig in an area of the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam. The two nations have been fighting out a maritime battle over sovereignty and that battle has now seemingly come ashore.

theguardian

[Subjectivist]

If China takes on Viet Nam they will lose, eventually. Ask the French or US. These tenacious fighters will never give up and will make Islamic terrorists look like pikers in the long run.

It would be a real bizarro show to see US arming them to fight the Chinese.

Paulo

Oh I don't know about that, the reason France and the USA lost was they were not willing to do whatever needed to be done wihout worrying about what the res of the world would think. Judging by events in Tibet China does not share that worry.

[Sitting Bull]

China may have overplayed its hand this time; I find it highly unlikely that they anticipated the kind of violent backlash that we're seeing. If reports are true that South Korean and Taiwanese factories are being attacked though, this causes further division among any Asian powers that may seek to contain PRC.

[Sixstrings]

At least 21 dead in Vietnam anti-China protests over oil rig

Anyone know who was killed? Vietnamese, or any Chinese management etc., at the factories?

If Chinese get killed, China takes that seriously. (even though they're the ones with 86 ships spraying water hoses at Vietnamese boats)

[Sixstrings]

Chinese general meets with General Dempsey at the Pentagon. News conference afterward, and the Chinese general says "We do not create trouble but we are not afraid of trouble."

China is upset about the US rebalancing forces toward the Pacific.
China is warning against Vietnam or Japan or anyone else asserting themselves against China in the Pacific ocean, with with these disputed claims and reefs.

Also in the news, US is sending out drones to monitor Chinese activity, in Vietnam and on that reef near the Phillipines.

Fang warned that China would respond to any attempts by Vietnam, Japan or other neighbors to assert their own claims over the disputed islands and reefs.

"We do not create trouble but we are not afraid of trouble," Fang said at a Pentagon news conference after meetings with Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Dempsey appeared to be slightly irritated as he waited to comment while listening to a long-winded response by Fang on the current dispute with Vietnam over offshore oil drilling rights.
http://www.businessinsider.com/dempsey-fang-press-conference-2014-5

[dolanbaker]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27458866

The Chinese government has evacuated more than 3,000 of its nationals from Vietnam following a wave of anti-Chinese riots, Chinese media report.

State-run Xinhua news agency says Beijing is arranging charter flights and ships to help more people to leave.

At least two Chinese nationals have been killed and 100 injured in recent unrest in Vietnam over a Chinese oil rig drilling in disputed waters.

On Saturday the Vietnamese government called for an end to the protests.

[ROCKMAN]

If China pisses off VN too much they have more to lose than a few plant managers:

China remained Vietnam's largest trade partner in 2013 with total turnover reaching $50.21 billion, up 22 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from the Vietnam Customs. Specifically, in 2013, Vietnam spent $36.95 billion for imports from China, up 28.4 percent, while it transported some $13.26 billion worth of goods to China, up 7 percent year-on-year. During the period, imports from China accounted for 28 percent of Vietnam's total import value, while exports to China accounted for 10 percent of total export value, said the customs office. Vietnam's trade deficit with China in 2013 stood at around $23.7 billion in 2013, an increase of 44.5 percent compared to 2012, said the customs office.

[Graeme]

China evacuates Nationals from Vietnam as violence escalates

Chinese media is reporting that 3,000 Chinese Nationals have been evacuated from Viet Nam today because of an an upsurge in anti-China protests following Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in disputed waters.

The announcement was made after Vietnamese social groups called for continuing demonstrations against China. This act follows riots and protests earlier last week in which two Chinese workers died and over 100 more were injured.

Vietnamese officials said on Saturday they had called for an end to demonstrations because "illegal acts" could damage national stability. This past week, dissidents have set fire to 15 foreign-owned factories, including Chinese, Taiwanese and South Korean businesses in several industrial parks.

digitaljournal