The China Thread

[Razgovory]

Seeking to control and actually controlling are two different things.  I may seek to be a genius, but it won't make me one.

[Jacob]

Apparently the Sanlu Milk scandal whistleblower was recently murdered.

[CountDeMoney]

Little shits.

(Reuters) - China has carried out its first successful landing of a fighter jet on its first aircraft carrier, state media said on Sunday, a symbolically significant development as Asian neighbors fret about the world's most populous country's military ambitions.

The home-built J-15 fighter jet took off from and landed on the Liaoning, a reconditioned Soviet-era vessel from Ukraine which only came into service in September this year.

China ushered in a new generation of leaders this month at the 18th Communist Party Congress in Beijing, with outgoing President Hu Jintao making a pointed reference to strengthening China's naval forces, protecting maritime interests and the need to "win local war".

China is embroiled in disputes with the Philippines and Vietnam over South China Sea islands believed to be surrounded by waters rich in natural gas. It has a similar dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea.

It has also warned the United States, with President Barack Obama's "pivot" to Asia, not to get involved.

"We should make active planning for the use of military forces in peacetime, expand and intensify military preparedness, and enhance the capability to accomplish a wide range of military tasks, the most important of which is to win local war in an information age," Hu said.

China has advertised its long-term military ambitions with shows of new hardware, including its first test flight of a stealth fighter jet in early 2011, an elite helicopter unit and the launch of the aircraft carrier.

China is boosting military spending by 11.2 percent this year, bringing official outlays on the People's Liberation Army to 670.3 billion yuan ($100 billion) for 2012, after a 12.7 percent increase last year and a near-unbroken string of double-digit rises across two decades.

Beijing's public budget is widely thought by foreign experts to undercount its real spending on military modernization, which has drawn repeated calls from the United States for China to share more about its intentions.

China's state-run Xinhua news portal said the J-15 - which can carry multi-type anti-ship, air-to-air, and air-to-ground missiles - is comparable to the Russian Su-33 jet and the U.S. F-18. It did not say when the landing on the carrier took place.

[Ed Anger]

Y'all need to look up their new pterodactyl drone.

[CountDeMoney]

I find it endlessly interesting how China's "home-built" shit is always so strikingly similar to Russian home-built shit.

Meh, they'll all splash the same anyway against real aircraft.  TALK TO ME GOOSE

[Ed Anger]

I find it endlessly interesting how China's "home-built" shit is always so strikingly similar to Russian home-built shit.

Meh, they'll all splash the same anyway against real aircraft.  TALK TO ME GOOSE

Or looks American, like the pterodactyl.

http://theaviationist.com/2012/11/20/pterodactyl/#.ULLGcZG9KK0

[CountDeMoney]

As much as I bitch about those godless little yellow fucking bastards ripping us off, I'm confident that they possess the same fucked up QA/QC nonsense in their manufacturing supply chains that they have for everything else those little shits make.

That Pterodactyl is probably filled with sawdust, and covered in lead paint anyway.

[Ed Anger]

The nose is filled with aborted girl fetuses.

[CountDeMoney]

Nah, that's what the under wing pylons are for.  EAGRE ONE FOXFETUS AWAY

Nose cone's got poisoned pet food in it.  For ballast, you know.

[jimmy olsen]

Apparently the Sanlu Milk scandal whistleblower was recently murdered.

Could you give us some more context?

[Syt]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/11/26/heres-the-chinese-passport-map-thats-infuriating-much-of-asia/

Here's the Chinese passport map that's infuriating much of Asia

China's new official passport carries, on its eighth page, a watermark map of China that has set off diplomatic disputes with four neighboring countries. The small map shows a version of China that includes disputed territory claimed by India, a vast stretch of the South China Sea, including islands claimed by several other countries, and the entirety of Taiwan.

The map seems to affront diplomatic protocol around the disputed territory; it risks exacerbating regional fears of Chinese heavy-handedness with its neighbors and their sovereignty. Southeast Asian nations, on guard against China's rising strength and sometimes pushy foreign policy, have been edging away from Beijing in recent years. So this map is probably not going to help.

The offended Asian nations are striking back in their own ways. Vietnamese border officials are refusing to stamp the new passports. India is stamping its own version of the map on visas issued to Chinese citizens. The Taiwanese and Filipino governments have formally complained.

Here is my rough annotation of the passport maps, with the disputed regions highlighted and labeled. To give a sense of scale, Arunachal Pradesh, the disputed region in the middle of the map, is a bit larger than Maine or South Carolina. The South China Sea islands, of which there are many, are all part of China's sweeping claim.

One encouraging sign is that, as far as I can tell, the map does not include the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, which are claimed by China and Japan, and which have become a source of considerable tension and nationalist protests this year.

[garbon]

Who could imagine getting worked up over a few little dashes?

[Razgovory]

It's kind of a vague map.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Wilhelm II is advising the Chinese on foreign policy I guess?

[CountDeMoney]

Who could imagine getting worked up over a few little dashes?

You know how they are over there.  It's all about , whether it's saving it or upholding it.

I'd love the ROC respond in kind with their passport, and put the mainland in it.