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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (754231)	11/13/2006 8:16:11 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Oh, yes.....We continue to spend and then borrow on the China credit card while they improve their military capabilities and strengthen their claims to be the military player in the (for now) Western Pacific. Glad we could help them pay for all that modernizing.

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (754231)	11/14/2006 2:35:55 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

U.S. admiral urges closer China ties after sub scare By Mark Bendeich Tue Nov 14, 4:37 AM ET KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A U.S. defense chief called for closer military ties with China and for the two powers to shed "Cold War" thinking on Tuesday as he highlighted a recent naval encounter that could have gone wrong. ADVERTISEMENT The chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Admiral William J. Fallon, was asked to confirm a U.S. newspaper report of an uncomfortably close encounter between U.S. warships and a Chinese submarine in the Pacific last month. Confirming the gist of the Washington Times report, Fallon said the submarine had been detected at close quarters by an aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships. The Washington Times said the submarine had stalked the USS Kitty Hawk and surfaced within range of its torpedoes and missiles in "ocean waters" near the Japanese island of Okinawa. "The characterization of stalking an aircraft carrier is rather sensational and I think it's probably not close to being accurate," Fallon told reporters in Malaysia, where he is attending an annual meeting of Asia-Pacific defense chiefs. But he added: "The fact that you have military units that would operate in close proximity to each other offers the potential for events that would not be what we would like to see -- the potential for miscalculation." "Now it turns out that the aircraft carrier and its escorting ships were out doing some exercises. I am told they were not engaged in anti-submarine exercises, so they were not looking for submarines. But if they had been, and this Chinese submarine happened to come in the middle of this, then this could well have escalated into something that was very unforeseen." Fallon gave no other details of the incident. He has been leading a push for closer ties with the Chinese military, amid regional fears about a defense build-up by Beijing. In August, U.S. ally Japan urged China to disclose more information on its military modernization to ease these concerns. Fallon said China had declined his invitation to attend this week's closed-door meeting of Asia-Pacific defense chiefs, but that Beijing might attend future meetings. "There is a need to have a fundamental understanding," he said, adding that Admiral Gary Roughead, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, was currently visiting China for the first naval exercise between the United States and the People's Liberation Army. "This is the kind of thing that we must encourage and continue so we can move ahead from what I would characterize as kind of Cold War thinking and truly broaden the dialogue." A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday she did not have information on the submarine incident. "China has neither the intention nor the capability for a massive military build-up," Jiang Yu told a regular news conference in Beijing. "We will stick to the path of peaceful development. China is an important force in safeguarding peace in Asia-Pacific and in the world." Fallon also highlighted North Korea's October 9 nuclear test, saying it posed a security threat, and he highlighted missile defense as an increasingly important aspect of regional defense. "Missile defense is something that's important because these capabilities, these weapons are destabilizing in many respects and threatening to people," he said.