[Cid_Yama]

Blah, blah, blah, 6. China has the largest Army in the world. China has the most advance ASCMs in the world. China continues to seed passive array systems throughout the South China Sea and territorial waters. China has the most advanced torpedoes in the world. China has the most advanced hypersonic weapon and reentry systems in the world.

The US no longer has the ability to enforce it's will in China's Pacific sphere of influence.

China LIKES Duterte. You're just wishful thinking, SeaGypsy. Clearly you don't like him and would like to see him dead.

91% of Filipinos like him and trust him, only .2% don't.

[Cid_Yama]

What's really humorous is that the United States rejected and has never ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. We are not among the 166 signatories of the treaty.

Much as we refuse to recognize the ICJ or it's rulings against us.

Yet we attempt to beat China about the head with their ruling.

We are so full of hypocrisy, we should be choking on it.

[Sixstrings]

US Won't Back Down on South China Sea, Navy's Top Officer Says

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson used a visit to the port city of Qingdao on Wednesday to push back against Chinese bluster and deliver a message that the U.S. will continue to oppose China's artificial islands and military buildup in the region.

"This will not change," said Richardson, who visited the Chinese North Sea Fleet headquarters in Qingdao and met with fleet commander Vice Adm. Yuan Yubai, the Navy said.

"The U.S. Navy will continue to conduct routine and lawful operations around the world, including in the South China Sea, in order to protect the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of sea and airspace guaranteed to all," he said.

Richardson appealed to the Chinese to "take advantage of our common culture as sailors" to avoid confrontation, while calling on the government to stop the intimidation of regional allies and settle territorial disputes through negotiation.

"I am supportive of a continued and deepening navy-to-navy relationship, but I will be continuously reassessing my support conditioned on continued safe and professional interactions at sea. In this area, we must judge each other by our deeds and actions, not just by our words," Richardson said.

The five-day trip was Richardson's first to China, and it got off to a rocky start in Beijing on Monday where he was lectured by Adm. Wu Shengli, commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy ...

"The Chinese navy is prepared to react to any infringement of rights or aggression," Wu said, according to official Chinese media, and "efforts to force us to succumb to pressure will only be counterproductive. We will never stop our construction on the Nansha Islands," where the Philippines and other nations also claim rights, Wu said, referring to the Spratly islands.

"The Nansha Islands are China's inherent territory, and our necessary construction on the islands is reasonable, justified and lawful," he said. "Any attempt to force China to give in through flexing military muscles will only have the opposite effect."
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/07/20/us-wont-back-down-on-south-china-sea-navys-top-officer-says.html

John Kerry is headed to Laos and Philippines, next week:

John Kerry to Visit the Philippines to Meet Duterte

Kerry was already set to travel to Laos July 25-26 for a series of regular regional meetings including the ASEAN Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting, the ASEAN-U.S. Ministerial Meeting, and the Lower Mekong Initiative Ministerial Meeting. Those meetings are expected to feature a range of topics, including the regional security architecture, transnational challenges such as maritime security, illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, and the South China Sea. The meetings will be held in Vientiane as Laos is this year’s ASEAN chair.

But on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner announced that Kerry would also be adding a stop in the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, on his Asia travel from July 26-27. During his time in Manila, Toner said, Kerry would meet with Duterte as well as Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay. During these interactions, he said, Kerry would “discuss the full range of our cooperation with the new Filipino administration.”
http://thediplomat.com/2016/07/john-kerry-to-visit-the-philippines-to-meet-duterte/

[AgentR11]

"US won't back down"...

sounds tough, till you understand exactly what it means.

It means USN ships will drive around the SCS; being mocked by PLAN teenagers on the radio. USN will keep driving. Teenagers will keep mocking. And dredgers will keep right on building.

In essence, its a tough, bold, statement, that doesn't mean jack.

[dissident]

"US won't back down"...

sounds tough, till you understand exactly what it means.

It means USN ships will drive around the SCS; being mocked by PLAN teenagers on the radio. USN will keep driving. Teenagers will keep mocking. And dredgers will keep right on building.

In essence, its a tough, bold, statement, that doesn't mean jack.

American posturing is utterly pathetic. They think that buzzing Chinese facilities with some planes will scare the Chinese sh*tless. At the same time America is agitating for a war on Russia. So American deciders actually think they can fight a war against China and Russia at the same time.

That crap-ass American ABM "shield" must have been the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of US decider sanity. The retards actually believe that they are immune to retaliation. This is what happens when leaders drink their own propaganda koolaid. The US is not number one in technology. It is number one in terms of leader insanity and stupidity.

The world is closer to nuclear war than it has ever been.

[gollum]

I'm of the opinion that we're headed straight in to either a huge extrapolated political crisis here or maybe even an outright civil war. I suspect China knowing we're headed down hill fast is going to bide their time in accomplishing whatever goals they have in mind. And frankly even if I'm totally wrong I don't think we have the balls to tangle with another major power anymore, we've become way too fond of enemies that lack any ability to shoot back.

[sparky]

.
Gollum I tend to agree
but the arm industry is the brightest item in the US export market , it NEED crisis to get orders from oversea

[Plantagenet]

I'm keeping an eye on Russia and Ukraine.

Russia has been massing a huge number of tanks at the Ukraine border, and Ukraine just put their armed forces on red alert

ukraine-puts-troops-near-russia-border-combat-alert-tension-moscow-spikes