Idle Chit-Chat

On the People’s Republic Of China’s new Air Defense Identification Zone (which the PRC demands that all aircraft intending to fly through it check in with the Chinese government first), an airspace grab that goes with its grab of the East China Sea below, the Obama administration has had this response.

National security spokesman Patrick Ventrell:

pointed to White House press secretary Jay Carney’s remark that “the US government does not accept or recognize China’s newly declared” defense zone.

State Department spokesman Marie Harf:

[W]e’ve been very clear that we’ve called on China not to implement the ADIZ, and we’ll continue to do so.

JCS Chairman Martin Dempsey:

So it wasn’t the declaration of the ADIZ that actually was destabilizing.  It was their assertion that they would cause all aircraft entering the ADIZ to report regardless of whether they were intending to enter into the sovereign airspace of China. And that is destabilizing.

Vice President Joe Biden:

the US is “deeply concerned.”

And

crisis management mechanisms and effective channels of communication between China and Japan to reduce the risk of escalation.

President Barack Obama:

Not even that much.

PRC President Xi Jinping:

…took on board what the Vice President laid out….

Yeah.  We showed ’em.

A PRC Invasion

The government of The People’s Republic of China wants, in all seriousness, to build a city in the state of New York that is devoted to the purposes of that government.  This city is to be called China City of America, and it’s intended to include family housing, a college with student residences, and offices for representatives of every province in China, among other structures—and we taxpayers would foot the bill for 20% of this $300+ million dollar project (an early number that’s likely to grow, as all such project costs do).

What makes this project…unusual…is that it’s intended to be, permanently, a PRC enclave, a permanent “Little China,” populated, apparently, solely with PRC government and provincial officials and PRC students educated in a PRC-run school.

We’re a great nation because we assimilate immigrants into our nation, our communities, our culture.  The Little China, Little Italy, Little Etc communities in our cities, for all that they start out as separate enclaves, wind up also assimilated.  This “China City of America” is not intended to be a temporary enclave to ease the transition of Chinese immigrants into American culture.  It’s intended to be a province of The People’s Republic of China on American soil.

And it’s fueled in no small part—that remaining 80%, for all that half-million dollar visa fees are intended to be funneled into it—by all those US dollars the PRC controls as a result of all the lending to us it’s done.  If this works, what happens near other of our major cities/economic cities?

A Trip for the Pivot

Vice President Joe Biden is on a trip to Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the People’s Republic of China this week.  What’s the plan?  Is he going to help our allies deal with a newly aggressive PRC and its sea grab for the East and South China Seas?  Or with the PRC’s use of an ADIZ—normally just a warning area regarding aircraft—to seize control of the airspace over the East China Sea, triggered by the PRC’s grab for Japan’s Senkaku Islands in the southern reach of the Sea?

In Japan

Biden will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before focusing on women’s issues with the new US ambassador, Caroline Kennedy.

Because Japan’s post-war human rights record is so dismal, and women’s issues are more important than the threat to our ally’s territorial integrity represented by the PRC’s sea grab.

In the Republic of Korea

The US is trying to complete a major trade agreement by year’s end, but it’s not certain the deadline with be honored.

Issues of market access, environmental protections and intellectual property remain controversial.  It’s also unclear whether Congress will approve the pact without making changes, potentially derailing the deal.

Because the accelerated mutual prosperity is less important than those environmental protections—never minding that that prosperity increase underlies and is necessary for any efforts at dealing with the environment effectively, particularly legitimate environmental concerns, much less any resource waste on anthropogenic climate change claptrap.

In the PRC

Biden [will] hold talks meet with China’s president, Xi Jinping, vice president, Li Yuanchao, and premier, Li Keqiang.

Will he raise the PRC’s human rights record, or their sea grab, which not only threatens Japan, but the Republic of Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and threatens to surround the Republic of China?  Will he remonstrate with them over the PRC’s disdain for the intellectual property of others?  Will he talk about environmental concerns and the PRC’s routine pollution of its atmosphere?

Probably not.

Northern Korea’s Nukes

Northern Korea has begun expanding its missile site at Tonghae, on the northeast coast, as well as its missile site at Sohae, on the northwest coast, in order to enable them to handle larger—longer-range and/or bigger payload—missiles.

Northern Korea also has restarted its plutonium reactor at Yongbyon.  Recall that the only viable product from a plutonium reactor is weapons-grade plutonium.

All of this comes against the backdrop of northern Korea’s oft-repeated claims of being willing to enter into talks about trading disarmament for food aid.

But why should they not resume, along with continuing empty dialogs?  Our administration is well-known to have no heart for anything other than chit-chat and acquiescence.