US propaganda vs. Chinese

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A-Train

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US propaganda vs. Chinese
« on: March 12, 2009, 02:01:51 AM »
Has this "incident" made as big a splash in the Chinese news as it has here in the US?  Of course our news is blaming China for being provocative with the obligatory comments about the future of the Chinese military and the impending threat to the US.

U.S. navy provoked South China Sea incident, China says
By Mark Mcdonald Published: March 10, 2009


HONG KONG: China lashed out Tuesday at the United States, accusing a U.S. Navy ship of violating international law during a tense confrontation near a secret Chinese submarine base.

The Pentagon said five Chinese vessels blocked and surrounded a U.S. surveillance ship, the Impeccable, in international waters on Sunday. One of the ships came within 25 feet, or 8 meters, of the U.S. boat, the Pentagon said.

"The U.S. claims are gravely in contravention of the facts and confuse black and white, and they are totally unacceptable to China," Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a briefing Tuesday in Beijing.

He did not specify what laws the American ship had broken but said the Impeccable had "conducted activities in China's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea without China's permission."

Although the United States and other countries consider most of the South China Sea to be international waters, China claims an economic exclusion zone extending 200 nautical miles, or 230 miles, from its coastlines.

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A U.S. Navy photograph obtained by The New York Times showed a Chinese sailor holding a long pole, and a navy spokesman confirmed that the Chinese had used a grappling hook to try to snag a cable that the Impeccable was using to tow an underwater listening device known as a Surtass array.

"In short, this vessel is used by the military to track submarines," said a report from GlobalSecurity.org, a defense-related Web site, in describing the Impeccable. The report also called the ship "the quietest vessel the government operates, outside of submarines themselves."

"It's not clear what the Chinese intentions were," Captain Jeff Breslau, a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Command, said Tuesday from the command's headquarters in Hawaii. "There have been a few incidents over the past week and a half. But who orchestrated this latest one, and why, we don't know. We haven't seen this level of activity recently."

Breslau characterized the Chinese maneuvers as "dangerous," although he said a hot line linking Admiral Timothy Keating, the head of the Command, with his military counterpart in Beijing was not used.

The captain said the Impeccable had radioed the Chinese vessels using an accepted international frequency. The U.S. ship, which carries no fixed armaments, told the Chinese that it had the right of safe passage in international waters.

"We spoke to them, we didn't warn them," Breslau said. In previous incidents, he added, the Chinese have responded, in English, but in the latest encounter they did not reply.

Keating would not comment Tuesday on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's response, and Breslau said further U.S. reaction would come through the State Department.

"They're working this through diplomatic channels," he said.

Keating, in a briefing last month in Hong Kong, expressed frustration over what he called a continuing lack of transparency on the part of senior military officials in China.

He said Washington remained concerned about Chinese military expansion, especially in the development of area-denial weapons, antisatellite operations and cyberwarfare.

Increasing patrols and wider deployments of Chinese submarines were less worrisome, he said.

"Their submarines," the admiral said, "are not keeping me up at night."

The Impeccable incident came just a week after the two countries resumed high-level talks between their militaries. The discussions, known as mil-to-mil dialogue, was broken off last year by the Chinese over a $6.5 billion U.S. arms deal with Taiwan.

The dispute also comes following a recent visit to China by the U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her stop in Beijing was part of a tour of the Asia-Pacific region, her first overseas trip for President Barack Obama's administration.

Soon after Clinton left China, the State Department angered Beijing with a broad set of criticisms of its human rights record in 2008.

Zhang Jing contributed from Beijing.

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Lotus Eater

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Re: US propaganda vs. Chinese
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2009, 02:24:05 AM »
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/

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A US navy vessel violated international and Chinese laws as it conducted unauthorized activities in China's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea on Sunday, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

etc

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Nolefan

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Re: US propaganda vs. Chinese
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2009, 02:25:09 AM »
I don't really watch local news so I can't say... I knew about the whole incident from google and yahoo but other than that, I can't say anyone I know has even been discussing the whole thing..

alors régressons fatalement, eternellement. Des débutants, avec la peur comme exutoire à l'ignorance et Alzheimer en prof d'histoire de nos enfances!
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Re: US propaganda vs. Chinese
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2009, 05:13:35 AM »
Interesting thing to note, China views all sea within 200 miles of its coast as theirs, where as international law regards any water within 12 miles of the coast as Chinese.

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George

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Re: US propaganda vs. Chinese
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2009, 11:08:20 AM »
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China views all sea within 200 miles of its coast as theirs,

I think Australia has the same idea.....not sure, but!
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Lotus Eater

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Re: US propaganda vs. Chinese
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2009, 12:53:46 PM »
Territorial waters extend for 12 nautical miles, exclusive economic zones extend the 200 nautical miles.  So - the first is ownership, the 2nd is usage.

Re: US propaganda vs. Chinese
« Reply #6 on: March 13, 2009, 10:06:18 AM »
So if the latter is only for usage then a us navy ship was well within its rights to be there as its international waters.

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old34

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Re: US propaganda vs. Chinese
« Reply #7 on: March 13, 2009, 01:40:02 PM »
Unless the navy ship was fishing the waters.

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A U.S. Navy photograph obtained by The New York Times showed a Chinese sailor holding a long pole, and a navy spokesman confirmed that the Chinese had used a grappling hook to try to snag a cable that the Impeccable was using to tow an underwater listening device known as a Surtass array.

Perhaps the Chinese mistook the cable for the rope of a drift net  ahahahahah ahahahahah ahahahahah
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