"If American politicians feel that the United States can... irresponsibly and randomly damage China's core interests without paying the price, this is a major and huge mistake," said the People's Daily, considered the mouthpiece of China's Communist Party.
But Jean-Pierre Cabestan, political science professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said Beijing had learned lessons from the 2010 break-off in military ties and was unlikely to react as strongly this time.
"They are going to react, to get angry, and the military may take measures to better counter these retrofitted F-16s, but they will not break military ties with the United States like they did before," he told AFP.
As an aside, I'm disappointed that China won't cancel our mil-to-mil relations. No doubt they realized they made a mistake cutting them off the last time because the great advantage they get from them.
But back to the issue at hand--China's table-pounding tantrum that nobody seems to think is plain wrong.
Why can't we be China for a day and call in China's ambassador and berate them for supporting North Korea, which could one day nuke our territory or that of one of our allies?
Why can't we loudly proclaim it is a core interest that Iran not get nukes and demand China stop trading with Iran, arming them, and otherwise helping them?
Why can't we condemn China in no uncertain terms for supporting thug rulers in Burma and Sudan?
Why don't we declare it a core interest that international waters remain international waters and threaten consequences for interfering with freedom of navigation?
Why won't we berate the Chinese for daring to claim Indian territory as a threat to world peace?
Can't we condemn China for backing Zimbabwe's thug rulers?
Shouldn't we get all outraged that Chinese companies were caught supplying Khaddafi as we waged war there?
Can't we loudly threaten China with consequences for cyber-espionage?
Couldn't we be a little louder about human rights within China?
While we are at it, couldn't we tell the Chinese that it would be a major and huge mistake for them to think they can attack a free member of the world community, even if it is not recognized by the UN (seriously, the Palestinians want recognition as a "state" and Taiwan doesn't get it?), and take it over contrary to their wishes?
Really, if we were China for a day with rulers as reasonably enlightened as China's, couldn't we get away with all kinds of loud demands with whatever provocative language we wanted to use--and get away with it?
UPDATE: To be fair, it isn't just China. We are expected to understand any potential foe's grievance from even several centuries ago as justifying their anger or violence. We are not supposed to react to today's attack on us--or tomorrow's attack.
