Gingrich and Clinton declared PRChina a "Most Favored Nation."
So PRChina went out and bought itself a present:
A Chinese submarine stalked a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific last month and surfaced within firing range of its torpedoes and missiles before being detected, The Washington Times has learned.
That means PRC has pretty damn good cavitation-suppression technology--not to mention really good bearing and gear smarts.
The surprise encounter highlights China's continuing efforts to prepare for a future conflict with the U.S., despite Pentagon efforts to try to boost relations with Beijing's communist-ruled military.
The submarine encounter with the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying warships also is an embarrassment to the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. William J. Fallon, who is engaged in an ambitious military exchange program with China aimed at improving relations between the two nations' militaries.
And it turns out that Admiral Fallon is a disciple of the Jimmuh Carter/Billy Clinton school of dipso-diplomacy:
...military intelligence officials said Adm. Fallon has restricted U.S. intelligence-gathering activities against China, fearing that disclosure of the activities would upset relations with Beijing. The restrictions are hindering efforts to know more about China's military buildup, the officials said.
Pentagon intelligence officials say China's military buildup in recent years has produced large numbers of submarines and surface ships, seeking to control larger portions of international waters in Asia, a move U.S. officials fear could restrict the flow of oil from the Middle East to Asia in the future.
Really? Not that long ago, we were told by the D.C. crowd that 'China doesn't have a Navy.' Maybe all those WalMart dollars are going someplace?
The Pentagon's latest annual report on Chinese military power stated that China is investing heavily in weapons designed "to interdict, at long ranges, aircraft carrier and expeditionary strike groups that might deploy to the western Pacific."
One guess which '...carrier and ...strike groups' those might be.
The son of a friend of ours graduated from Annapolis and took a duty-assignment in the Pacific a few years ago. I'll have to find him and have a conversation, no?
Malkin's contributors from the Submarine Service are not too worried.
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3 comments:
I'm sure that Taiwan will not find the developments amusing. The U.S. has been tepidly supportive of its independence to this point, that if it looked like it would come to blows, Washington would wring its hands and back down.
More-likely, but no less troubling, the ChiComs knew where the Kitty Hawk would be, simply parked that sub there, and waited for the 7th Fleet to show up. It is nigh impossible to detect a diesel-electric moving at bare steerage unless you use active sonar.
China has a sense of history unlike that of the US. They have been building up to take on the west (which they never had any use for other than a place to export stuff to) since the Boxer Rebellion. Look at China's invovlement in the Korean War, their invasion of Tibet, and their probable role in the Vietnam War.
I read that in many provinces the Chinese are now rolling back the 1 child policy, I also see that due to sex selective abortions China has 30+ Million more young men then women. Hmmm I wonder how many of them will become soliders...
The only question now is when will China become the greatest power in their region, which they could easily accomplish by doing some saber rattling in Korea or Tawain.
The US needs a Pacicic version of NATO, with Japan (rearm those guys), South Korea, the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Tawain, etc.
Russia is the big wild-card in all this geopollitically speaking.
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