Friday, August 29, 2014

China's "Peace Mission-2014" is going on now.






via Xinhua
The scale of the ongoing "Peace Mission 2014" joint military drill is the largest to date, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.
The exercise is being held from Aug. 24 to 29 at Zhurihe training base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in accordance with the 2014-2015 defense ministry cooperation plan among Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members.
Spokesperson Yang Yujun told a regular news briefing the drill is progressing smoothly, with troop exercises beginning Friday.
Yang said the exercise will play an important role in deterring the "three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism, safeguarding regional peace and stability and improving the military's ability to coordinate fights against terrorism.
The exercise is the fifth multinational drill under the SCO framework. Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan sent armed forces by land and air in early August.
Russia in Ukraine is a European problem (in my opinion).

Russia teamed with China in the Pacific is a US problem (in my opinion).

Time for a little straight talk.  We can't have a true NATO type alliance where countries come to each others defense if attacked by China because the region is still suffering the effects of centuries of rivalries and ethnic hatred.

So be it.

But that means that all these glorious plans of a 1000 ship Navy and partnership missions is just bullshit seeking to pacify policy makers when it comes to spending the necessary funds on defense to keep the Dragon in its cage.  One other thing to consider.  Those two Mistrals that were bought (along with the expertise to produce more) has everyone thinking that they're aimed at European operations...maybe some actions in the Middle East.  I say bullshit.  I'm betting that those ships are aimed at the Pacific.