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Thursday, August 06, 2015

Las Vegas Rules

China issues the invitation to her neighbors to shut up:

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said on Monday the disputed South China Sea should not be discussed at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Yeah, what happens in Sansa stays in Sansa.

UPDATE: So is China trying to be reasonable?
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday that Beijing had halted land reclamation in the South China Sea, and called on countries in the region to speed up talks on how claimant states should conduct themselves in the disputed waters.

No. The Chinese halted the work because they completed the work:

Philippine foreign ministry spokesman Charles Jose said China had stopped reclamation because it had already formed its new islands.

"At the same time, China announced they are moving on to Phase 2, which is construction of facilities on the reclaimed features. The Philippines views these activities as destabilizing," Jose said.

As a typhoon sweeps across Taiwan (killing 6 and cutting power to over 3.6 million people), I have to wonder how China's artificial islands would handle a typhoon that hits them.

Is mother nature the force we have to count on to roll back China's illegal expansion?