5/23/15 Asians shall Rule

[ThePaladin]

New Major Asian Cities.

China is building a military base island, quite a ways off shore, and warning US military aircraft to move out of their restricted air space.

The situation in a rather big nutshell:

China is laying claim to part of the South China Sea that is also claimed by several other countries, like Japan and Indonesia. To up the ante, China has taken to building islands, one of which contains an airfield big enough for their largest military aircraft. There's a lot of harrumphing going on by the various countries and Japan is thinking it's time to increase their military to deal with this threat. Meanwhile, IMO, China is basically throwing down the gauntlet and daring the various countries in what I would call "Put up or shut up and this turf will be ours." Our government has also harrumphed, then upped the ante by sending military aircraft to that area.

Also IMO, China's flexing its military muscle with the full knowledge that the few countries that might be able to do something about it are in no position to do anything at the moment. The US and Russia are broke and China holds enough US debt to have the country by its collective short and curlies.

So what's so special about the South China Sea? Well, besides the fact China claims it as part of China and there's a country that really doesn't like to share its turf with anyone, the big draw for all these countries is there's oil beneath that water. Lots of oil...and they all need that oil, particularly China.

I pay attention to that area because there's a lot of political crap going on that could suddenly take a very nasty turn.