The above pic is via China Defense Blog (there are many more pics over at their house ). One thing has become apparent. The Chinese have started the war over the disputed islands...not with weapons but construction equipment.
Why is a diplomatic dispute of interest to a defense blog?
Simple. The Chinese are killing two birds with one stone. They gain territory...constructed territory...they have "pickets" out at sea to establish forward aircraft refueling points that can never be sunk plus they have the option of placing powerful radar that can extend "over the horizon" coverage for their forces.
I don't have the coordinates for these man made islands but if they're close enough to the Japanese mainland and/or the radars are powerful enough, then they could be close to having 24/7 coverage of every plane and ship that sorties out of their...to include US aircraft.
This is smart. Real smart. Plus I don't see how it can be credibly disputed.
Ironic considering the Chinese scream bloody murder when other claimants make even minor construction repairs on their claimed assets.
ReplyDeleteImpressive... son's of bitches have momentum as we like to say.
ReplyDeleteSuddenly buying weapons isnt a nations biggest deterrence factor. Now any nation having a dispute will have to bring in their A Game if they want to have even the slightest chance of deterring China.
ReplyDeleteWhat does this A Game mean?
The whole Package actually. One can call it a "Balanced Approach", or an "all out approach". In both cases any opposing nation will have to combine a strong military with equally strong economic indicators, the political will to do the necessary and good technical and industrial expertise.
We have seen the Chinese. They arent holding back. They are using every trick in the book, using every loophole possible, coming up with every type of permutation and combination that gives them an advantage over everyone else. This is where the Economic heft and Industrial capacity and capability comes.
Good use of the word Momentum
ReplyDeleteWhen in momentum, even the smallest of deviations can transform into a nasty crash.The more the momentum, the harder the crash How on earth do we bring about that 1 little deviation in their world that leads to that crash?
We have all see their momentum at building Infrastructure. We have also seen the same infrastructure getting underutilized or non-utilized because of lack of Demand and too much supply. Is that a direction we should look at?
For now they have a momentum, we shall see for how long they can keep it. China economy start to slow down for some time already... but it's slow down or just stabilize.
ReplyDeleteAnd there you have the answer to this!
ReplyDeleteDo as they do.
But that also shows in the end this is about weapons, because they will be needed to defend and deter.
And the Philippines are too damn broke to butt heads with the Chinese. They don't have the equipment, and even if we gave them the damn things, they can't afford to maintain them. Classic case of how corruption can deep six a country.
ReplyDeleteWile corruption certainly plays a part one should not forget it never was a wealthy nation and then there were a few natural disasters...
ReplyDeleteIts not momentum; the word or concept is called SHIH.
ReplyDeleteShih is one of the key terms of the Art of War. Most simply said, shih is the ever-changing configuration of power in one's environment. The skilled general knows shih so well that he/she can use it to achieve effortless victories.
What is so smart about this.
ReplyDeleteIt begs to be leveled by Tomahawks, JASSMs and JSOWs and future hypersonic missiles.
They cant in to aircraft carrier so all they can do is simply tug the dredger to position, insert sucktioning pipe and viola.
What is so smart is that territory is determined by occupancy and area. It's not a military operation, it is the fact that "Chinese are living there, therefore anything 12km around it is Chinese territory.". Unless you can Tomahawk an entire island underwater, and for that you'll need hundreds of Tomahawks.
ReplyDeleteCan you paste up the character for Shih? It sounds very odd.
ReplyDeleteNonsense, the US left it the best off among all the South-East Asian nations when they all got independence, everyone in the 60s wanted to be like the Philippines. Unfortunately, they got too complacent. Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, they were all mean and hungry and that counts for a lot when trying to get ahead.
ReplyDeleteGrand strategy in motion.
ReplyDeletehm I didn't know they once were kinda wealthy, but I would never compare a large nation with a big diverse population to Singapore or Taiwan. Specially since histories also differ vastly.
ReplyDeleteIll have to take a lil looksie at the history of the Philippines though .
America poured huge amounts of reconstruction funds into the Philippines while the British were in war debt, basically that was the reason for the disparity. Unfortunately, their only honest president was killed in an air crash.
ReplyDelete"Why is a diplomatic dispute of interest to a defense blog?"
ReplyDeleteBecause war is diplomacy by other means.
Why don't we just Putin-it and just upgrade Philippine territory ourselves,all the while saying: "There are no U.S construction crews in the South China Sea, only patriotic Filipinos improving their living conditions in a harsh environment"?
ReplyDelete