Category: China
"[C]ountries in places where the United States has strategic interests -- including the Persian Gulf and the Pacific -- are building 'sophisticated, new technologies to deny our forces access to the global commons of sea, air, space and cyberspace.' Those innocuous words spell trouble. While the U.S. Read more »
"China should build the world's strongest military and move swiftly to topple the United States as the global 'champion,' a senior Chinese PLA officer says in a new book reflecting swelling nationalist ambitions."
"China may be the number-one espionage threat now. 'The Chinese are the biggest problem we have with respect to the level of effort that they’re devoting against us, versus the level of attention we are giving to them,' says Michelle Van Cleave, once America’s top counter-intelligence officer who coordinated the hunt for foreign spies from 2003 to 2006."
"Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defense spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan."
"America's No. 1 creditor holds the ultimate weapon" . . . " The ancient military strategist Sun Tzu said that the best strategy was to render an opponent's army helpless even before the battle began. America may still have the biggest and best military in the world. But many at the Pentagon are starting to realize that, thanks to our growing fiscal irresponsibility, we may be surrendering control of America's destiny to a rival superpower -- and all without a shot being fired."
"For the past year, China has adopted an increasingly muscular position toward the United States, berating American officials for the global economic crisis, stage-managing President Obama’s visit to China in November, refusing to back a tougher climate change agreement in Copenhagen and standing fast against American demands for tough new Security Council sanctions against Iran."
"China has signalled to set up foreign military bases including one in Pakistan, a Chinese government website said. . . . It is clearly aimed at piling up pressure on India and to counter US influence in Pakistan and Afghanistan. . . . A military base in Pakistan will help China keep a check on Uighurs who are fighting for an independent nation in Xinjiang, which borders the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan."
This year, the 27-nation European Union was supposed to come of age as an actor on the world stage, bolstered by the Lisbon Treaty, which streamlines the EU's cumbersome institutions. Instead, Europe is starting to look like the loser in a new geopolitical order dominated by the U.S. and emerging powers led by China. Read more »
"China invented fireworks some 1,000 years ago in hopes of scaring away evil spirits. On Monday, it successfully tested a missile-defense system aimed at scaring away the U.S. from defending the island nation of Taiwan."
“China supplanted the U.S. as the world’s largest auto market after its 2009 vehicle sales jumped 46 percent, ending more than a century of American dominance that started with the Model T Ford . . . In the U.S., sales slumped 21 percent to 10.4 million, the fewest since 1982.” MORE
Already the biggest auto market and steel maker, China edged past Germany in 2009 to become the top exporter, yet another sign of its rapid rise and the spread of economic power from West to East. MORE
