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| Sri Lanka |
| China plans naval base in Sri Lanka in return for aid and UN support |
| 2009-05-05 |
| On the southern coast of Sri Lanka, ten miles from one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, a vast construction site is engulfing the once sleepy fishing town of Hambantota. This poor community of 21,000 people is about as far as one can get on the island from the fighting between the army and the Tamil Tiger rebels on the northeastern coast. The sudden spurt of construction helps, however, to explain why the army is poised to defeat the Tigers and why Western governments are so powerless to negotiate a ceasefire to help civilians trapped on the front line. This is where China is building a $1 billion port that it plans to use as a refuelling and docking station for its navy, as it patrols the Indian Ocean and protects China’s supplies of Saudi oil. Ever since Sri Lanka agreed to the plan, in March 2007, China has given it all the aid, arms and diplomatic support it needs to defeat the Tigers, without worrying about the West. Even India, Sri Lanka’s long-time ally and the traditionally dominant power in South Asia, has found itself sidelined in the past two years — to its obvious irritation. “China is fishing in troubled waters,” Palaniappan Chidambaram, India’s Home Minister, warned last week. The Chinese say that Hambantota is a purely commercial venture, but many US and Indian military planners regard it as part of a “string of pearls” strategy under which China is also building or upgrading ports at Gwadar in Pakistan, Chittagong in Bangladesh and Sittwe in Burma. China’s aid to Sri Lanka jumped from a few million dollars in 2005 to almost $1 billion last year, replacing Japan as the biggest foreign donor. By comparison, the United States gave $7.4 million last year, and Britain just £1.25 million. |
| Posted by:gromky |
| #9 OOOPSIES. forgot to mention the KMT's claims on the TWO KOREAS. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-05-05 23:08 |
| #8 * PDF POSTER > on improv relations bwtn TAIWAN-CHINA > reminds that TAIWAN's KMT PARTY historically or originally claimed [curr unenforceable]sovereignty = sovereign domain over AP OR ZANGAN [India LOC], PARTS OF BURMA[Myanmar], the WHOLE OF MONGOLIA, PARTS OF RUSS/SOVIET FAR EAST, DAOYU ISLANDS [Japan's SENKAKUS Isles] + OTHER DISPUTED ISLANDS, + ANY AND ALL OCCUPIED TERRITORIES OF THE CCCC = now CPC [mainland Communist China]. * WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC JAPAN: THE POST-WW2 FINAL STATUS OF TAIWAN REMAINS UNRESOLVED BWTN MAINLAND CHINA, JAPAN, AND THE USA. IN 1945 DEFEATED JAPAN SURRENDERED TAIWAN TO THE USA, NOT TO CHIANG KAI-SHEK. INDEPENDENT TAIWAN MAY BE THE ONLY LASTING/WORKABLE SOLUTION FOR ALL NATIONS AND THE TAIWANESE PEOPLE. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-05-05 23:07 |
| #7 See also PAKISTANI DEFENSE FORUMS > SETHUSAMUDRAN: A STRATEGIC ASSET. India desires Naval, Trade passage in GULF/STRAIT OF MANNIR bwtn INDIAN STATE OF TAMIL NADU + SRI LANKA, instead of ships having to traverse the long way around SLanka. PROJECT IS ALSO IMPORTANT FOR INDIA IN ORDER TO OFFSET CHINA'S SPREADING MILPOLECON INFLUENCE IN INDIAN OCEAN. Also on PDF > THE WORLD'S NEW/NEWEST SUPERPOWER [China] + US TO PRESSURE PAKISTAN TO SHIFT TROOPS TO WESTERN BORDERS AND MAKE MASSIVE CONCESSIONS TO INDIA [overland trade route bwtn INDIA-AFGHANISTAN thru PAKLAND]. * OTOH RB today > PAKI wants INDIA to make the first troops move before it does. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-05-05 22:56 |
| #6 John Frickin' Kerry and Senator Sugar and getting ready to squander more billions on those two-faced Pak bastards. They just don't get it, do they? Oh they get it alright, they profit somehow or it won't happen, the fact that we havent yet figured their angle, is what they're counting on. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-05-05 21:27 |
| #5 * SAME > COMPLETE LOSS OF ASIAN/PACIFIC NAVAL PORTS: RUSSIA FEARS MUSLIM, CHINESE TAKEOVER OF MONGOLIA [besides CNETRAL + Russ FE-Siberia] |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-05-05 20:27 |
| #4 ION WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC TAIWAN AND CHINA ASSOCIATION GROUP CLAIMS JAPANESE COAST GUARD PRESENCE IN DISPUTED DAOYU ISLANDS HAD INCREASED TO APPROXI 80 VESSELS. ASSOCIATION PLANS TO CHARTER A FISHING BOAT TO PROCLAIM PAN-CHIN SOVEREIGNTY [indisputable/non-negotiable] OVER THE DAOYUS. Also from WMF > AS THE BRITISH DID IN THE LATE 1980's WITH THE FALKLANDS AGZ ARGENTINA, CHINA CAN SEND ELITE SPECIAL FORCES UNITS TO THE DAOYUS AND OTHER DISPUTED ISLANDS TO PROTECT CHIN'S SOVEREIGNTY CLAIMS. CHINA FOR NOW SHOULD SUPPORT A DIPLOMATIC RESOLUTION AGZ CLAIMS BY OTHER NATIONS [Japan], AND ONLY NEEDS A SOLID MINOR FOOTHOLD IN THE ISLANDS, CHIN DOES NOT NEED TO SEND LARGE MIL/COMBAT FORCES TO DISPUTED ISLANDS JUST YET. * SAME > CHINA MUST INTENSIFY ITS MILITARY-CENTRIC CONSTRUCTION IN ITS WESTERN REGIONS TO HELP DEFEND PAKISTAN AGZ ISLAMIST THREAT [ + TIBET agz INDIA]. IOW, catch the Militants includ Uighurs in-between the PK Army inside PK, + the PLA in West China. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-05-05 20:25 |
| #3 So that's why the Tigers have taken such a beating lately. The government made a deal with the devil. What do you bet the Sri Lankan government asked our government for help before the Chicoms stepped in to fill the void? And while our government loses a strategic square on the global chessboard, John Frickin' Kerry and Senator Sugar and getting ready to squander more billions on those two-faced Pak bastards. They just don't get it, do they? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-05-05 16:35 |
| #2 great, thats the last thing they need, Nepal has already "fallen" to the Chi Comm's with their "so-called" Maoist's, Now Sri Lanka ! India needs to wake up as they are being surrounded, time to get up off the "chosen" Brahmin ass of yours and take charge |
| Posted by: Criger Mussolini9004 2009-05-05 13:59 |
| #1 "United States gave $7.4 million last year" The LTTE probably got more than that. (no sarcasm intended) |
| Posted by: tipover 2009-05-05 10:04 |