DTN News - CHINA SECURE ITS ENERGY/OIL SUPPLY IN AN UNETHICAL MANNER: China Grabs India's Land

DTN News - CHINA SECURE ITS ENERGY/OIL SUPPLY IN AN UNETHICAL MANNER: China Grabs India's Land
*China is eyeing to become Hans empire on Soviet Union era set up by grabbing, annexing, claiming and bullying its neighbors and has territorial disputes with Bhutan, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, India by showing off its newly acquired military might to secure its energy/oil supply in an unethical manner

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith also sourced from Deccan Herald

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 29, 2013: The area along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China has 'shrunk' over a period of time and India has lost 'substantial' land in the last two decades, according to an official report.

At a recent meeting in Leh, attended by officials from the Jammu and Kashmir government, Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the Army, it was agreed that there was difference in the maps of various agencies and that there was lack of proper mapping of the area.

Crossing the line

*Lack of institutional memory in various agencies

* China grabbing Indian land by inches in a slow process

* Chinese threaten the nomadic people in the Dokbug area

* LAC with China has “shrunk” over a period of time *

* Lack of proper mapping of the area

The meeting was chaired by Commissioner (Leh) A K Sahu and attended, among others, by the 14 Corps Brigadier General Staff Brig Sarat Chand and Colonel Inderjit Singh.

While the absence of proper maps was agreed upon, the meeting all the same felt: “However, it is clear and accepted that we are withdrawing from LAC and our area has shrunk over a period of time. This process is very slow but we have lost substantial amount of land in 20-25 years.”

According to the minutes of the meeting, it was also identified that “there is a lack of institutional memory in various agencies as well as clear policy on this issue which in the long run has resulted in loss of Indian territory in favour of China.”

The meeting was called to ensure proper protection to nomads who move with their cattle to the Dokbug area of Nyoma sector during the winter months every year. In December 2008, Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had damaged their tents and threatened them to vacate the land.

“They (Chinese) have threatened the nomadic people, who had been using the Dokbug area (in Ladakh sector) area for grazing for decades, in a way to snatch our land in inches. A Chinese proverb is famous in the world — better do in inches than in yards,” a report filed by former sub divisional magistrate (Nyoma) Tsering Norboo had said.

Complaints

Norboo was deputed by the state government to probe the complaints of incursion of the Chinese Army in the Dokbug area and threats to the local shepherds to leave the land as it belonged to them. 

The area has been used by the shepherds to graze their livestock as the area is warmer compared to other parts of Ladakh.

The SDM contended that it was another attempt by the Chinese to term, and claim, the territory disputed in the same fashion as they had taken Nag Tsang area opposite to Phuktse airfield in 1984, Nakung in 1991 and Lungma-Serding in 1992.

Last year, Chinese troops had entered nearly 1.5 km into the Indian territory on July 31 near Mount Gya, recognised as International border by India and China, and painted boulders and rocks with “China” in red spray paint.

The 22,420 feet Mount Gya, also known as “fair princess of snow” by the Army, is located at the tri-junction of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, and Tibet. Its boundary was marked during the British era and regarded as International border by the two countries.

Before this, Chinese helicopters had violated Indian air space on June 21 along the Line of Actual Control in Chumar region and also dropped some expired food.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith also sourced from Deccan Herald 
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: China-India Border Talks Pivot On Tibet

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: China-India Border Talks Pivot On Tibet

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources  By Namrata Goswami and Jenee Sharon 
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 23, 2013: Throughout the protracted Sino-Indian border dispute, Tibet and its status has always been a predominant influence, whether implicitly or explicitly on the negotiating table. This has both historical and contemporary ramifications. 

India, much to China's chagrin, utilized the Tibet issue as a key point of departure in order to strike a grand bargain with Beijing after China occupied Tibet in 1949. Jawaharlal Nehru was of the firm conviction that China and India could encapsulate a grand cooperation in Tibet based on which India would recognize Tibet as part of China while China would recognize Tibetan autonomy. 

To Nehru, Tibetan autonomy meant safeguarding Tibet's cultural and social uniqueness. It also meant that China would not militarize Tibet with a massive People's Liberation Army (PLA) presence which could pose a security threat to India. 

Propelled by this belief, Nehru recognized Tibet as part of China in 1954. Mao Zedong, however, interpreted Nehru's insistence on Tibetan autonomy as a diabolical plan to turn Tibet into an Indian "protectorate or colony". In the several meetings that he conducted with his Politburo colleagues in the run-up to the 1962 war with India, he argued that the "Indian expansionist" had devious plans to occupy Tibet. 

In an essay titled "The Revolution in Tibet and Nehru's Philosophy", published in The People's Daily on May 6, 1959, at the behest of Mao, Nehru was faulted for his sympathy for the Tibetan people and accused of upholding the Tibetan upper-class structure to the detriment of what the essay termed as "Tibetan serfs". 

Nehru, the essay argued, wanted to turn Tibet into an "Indian colony". By extension, India's "forward policy" activated since November 1961 to establish forward posts in unoccupied territory that China and India each viewed as its own was also interpreted by Mao as an Indian design to create the logistical conditions to occupy Tibet in the long run. 

These differences and a "no-negotiation" posture by India on the border from 1961 onwards in the face of what Nehru interpreted as Chinese aggression on Aksai Chin led to the China-India border war in October 1962 in which India suffered defeat. 

While both countries have come a long way since then, having re-activated diplomatic relations in 1976 and border negotiations since 1981, the border talks were stalled at this stage due to increased Chinese territorial posture in 1985 especially with regard to Tawang. In 1988, a Joint Working Group (JWG) was institutionalized during the visit of Rajiv Gandhi to China. 

At present, there is talk of "progress" on the border issues and statements from high-level officials representing both parties on not letting the border dispute affect the bilateral working relationship. Yet, both China and India remain deeply entrenched in their rigid negotiating positions. 

The border dispute, especially in the eastern side, is becoming financially costly to both parties, particularly as resources are diverted to build up militarily at the border to deter the other while additional political resources are utilized to continue the negotiations in official diplomatic fora. 

India has planned to invest US$100 billion in military modernization in the next decade, with $15 billion already under negotiations for 126 French Rafale Multi Medium Role Combat Aircraft to be deployed in the eastern sector. China has also visibly demonstrated its military presence in Tibet with nearly 300,000 PLA troops and fighter aircraft like the J-10 deployed at the Gonggar airport in Lhasa. Military exercises by both China and India along the eastern frontier have also increased since 2012. 

The territorial dispute has lingered for decades, crippling the bilateral relationship and thus preventing the two countries from working as closely together as could have been possible had the border dispute been resolved. The bottom line: as China and India rise as global powers, now is the time to pursue real conflict resolution on the border dispute. 

The border dispute will only continue to divert resources and time from both countries which could better contribute to enhance China and India on their way to becoming stronger global actors on the world stage. 

Why is the border dispute so intractable and why has it continually resisted resolution in the past 60 years? The answer is threefold - the inflexibility of negotiation positions, the choice of conflict resolution mechanisms utilized, and the mistrust that perpetuates and further prevents progress from being made toward a lasting resolution. 

With regard to flexibility, at present, both parties seemingly remain firmly committed to their territorial claims and these claims are at times strategically utilized as leverage in the negotiations. China maintains its claim to Arunachal Pradesh, which India has administered since the British left India in 1947, while India seeks control of Aksai Chin, which is under Chinese control. 

Despite China's claims, India firmly maintains that Arunachal Pradesh is and will remain Indian territory, while implicitly utilizing the Tibet issue and India's spiritual connection to the Dalai Lama, a great insecurity for China, as leverage. 

The Tibet issue is distinctly intertwined with the greater Sino-Indian border dispute along the borders of Arunachal Pradesh because China maintains that Tibet is an integral part of Chinese sovereign territory and considers Arunachal Pradesh to be "Southern Tibet". 

Recently, a Chinese scholar from Huazhong University, Du Dacai, argued that "solving the problem of our territory of South Tibet [as China refers to Arunachal Pradesh]" should be China's fourth priority territorial unification issue after Taiwan, the Diaoyu (or Senkaku) Islands and the South China sea issue "to realize the Chinese dream and China's unification." 

This conceptualization of "Southern Tibet," whether legitimate in the minds of the Chinese or a negotiation tactic to try to gain control of Arunachal Pradesh from India, links the Tibet issue to the border dispute because if China and India's borders are to be delineated, Tibet's borders with India must also be determined. 

The fact that Tibet's status within China itself is not accepted by many Tibetans and that the Tibetan government-in-exile and Dalai Lama reside in India, threatens China. This also contributes to the intensity of mistrust among both parties and complicates the already complex process of negotiating the disputed borders. 

In order to resolve the dispute through negotiations, both China and India should seek to take another evaluation of their core interests and determine possible areas of flexibility on certain issues. 

The Tibet issue is also incredibly important to both China and India because the Tibetans' struggle for independence affects both countries greatly from a national security standpoint. China views the Tibetans' struggle for independence as a great source of instability because it directly threatens China's domestic social stability and territorial integrity. 

India's spiritual connection to the Dalai Lama and tenuous relationship with the Tibetan government in exile further exacerbates this insecurity. The Indian government has made public statements expressing India's "official" policy of not supporting the Tibetans or the Dalai Lama, such as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's comments that "India will not allow Tibetans to conduct anti-China activities in the country [India]", but India may hesitate to make further statements regarding the status of Tibet while China is pressuring India to do so. Despite these official statements, the Dalai Lama holds spiritual significance in India, thus making China more dubious about India's intentions. 

In this respect, India isn't exactly helping to resolve that tension by refusing to make bolder statements on China's claim to Tibet, and from the Indian perspective, why should it? From a purely bargaining perspective, India retains more leverage to potentially use against China to gain concessions in the border negotiations. The real issue here is that ultimately, this play for leverage further breaks down trust and makes the process of negotiating more difficult. 

Another key issue at play, is that of Tawang, which is in Arunachal Pradesh, closely linked to the Tibet issue and considered to be a holy place for Tibetans. This further complicates the Tibet issue and thus the overall border negotiations because if Tibet is a part of China and Tibetans consider Tawang to be culturally linked to Tibet, then China has an incentive for why it should obtain Arunachal Pradesh from India in the negotiations. 

If Tibetans seek independence from China, this claim becomes less legitimate, but as the Tibetan government-in-exile and Dalai Lama currently reside in India, it again causes insecurity for China. India has likely recognized this concern and in response to China's aggressive posturing towards Arunachal Pradesh, India has increased the civilian and military presence in that area, similar to what China has done in increasing the Han Chinese and PLA presence in Tibet. 

Another key concern on the Tawang issue is whether the next Dalai Lama will come from Tawang, and if so, will that further complicate the Tibet issue and tensions between China and India if China does not approve of the new Dalai Lama? The Dalai Lama will always have spiritual connections with India, even if the current Dalai Lama has renounced former political ties, and given that it is a religious issue, it is not plausible that India would break these spiritual and cultural ties it has historically respected. 

As long as the Tibet issue remains unresolved and the questioning of Chinese legitimacy over Tibet continues, China remains fearful of India's intentions for Tibet, and as long as India does not make those intentions more clear, it will be increasingly more difficult to resolve the ongoing border dispute. 

Although China and India have made progress in developing economic and diplomatic relationships with an attempt to disregard the Tibet issue, the border issue is time and time again raised. The current pace of negotiations has not resulted in progress on the resolution of the border dispute. 

China and India have less to lose and more to gain by rethinking how to resolve this dispute. First off, the mechanisms for resolution should be expanded. On their own, the Special Representative talks set up since 2003 may not be enough to come to a mutually beneficial negotiated solution. 

There are other possibilities for creating a common border mechanism outside of the Special Representative talks to supplement conflict resolution efforts, such as talks on the Track I5 levels. Within the field of conflict resolution, one such conflict resolution method is known as the "Problem-Solving Workshop" (PSW). 

The PSW emerged from the field of social psychology and was pioneered by several scholars and practitioners including Herbert Kelman, John Burton, Benjamin Broome, Ronald Fisher, and Leonard Doob. This method of conflict resolution was designed to bring together influential people who have connections to high-level decision makers but the flexibility to more freely discuss the key issues, various parties' perspectives, and explore creative options for conflict resolution, all the while building trust among the participants. 

In the beginning, this could be conducted as unofficial sessions internally within India and China respectively to explore key issues and perspectives before meeting with their counterparts. Once the participants become comfortable with the process, Indian and Chinese influentials could be brought together to engage in a PSW on the border issue. 

In addition to PSW among influentials, a forum should be created between the think tanks and academic communities (Track II) in China and India to bring together the brightest minds working on these issues. While there are many within both China and India who work on these issues and related ones, there is little sharing or joint work among these individuals and groups together. 

A joint forum, roundtable discussion or partnership among think tanks working on these issues would act as a way in which to collective brainstorm with a problem-solving approach to determine options for resolution of the border dispute. 

At this point in time, it is clear that official negotiations alone may not resolve the border dispute. Additional mechanisms of conflict resolution like the Track II should be sought after, and if deemed appropriate by each party internally, Problem Solving Workshops and partnerships among those working on these issues may provide additional methods in which to unofficially explore options that could be proposed to the negotiators with an aim at resolving the border dispute. 

Dr Namrata Goswami is a senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Washington, DC and research fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi. Jenee Sharon is a research assistant at the USIP. The views expressed in this article are solely that of the authors. 

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Namrata Goswami and Jenee Sharon 
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS

DTN News: Chinese Fighter Jets Train Over Tibet

DTN News: Chinese Fighter Jets Train Over Tibet

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including TibetanReview.net, Aug08, 2010

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - August 11, 2010: J-11 planes, the most modern Chinese jet fighters said to be pirated copies of Russia’s Su-27, have for the first time been shown in training over the Tibetan Plateau recently. While the Chinese media only showed a picture of some of these planes in the air, with a caption referring to the training flight, Strategy Page online Aug 6 said, reporting on it, that China had no combat aircraft stationed in Tibet, saying there were logistical and attitude problems in doing so.

However, it said, J-7s (cloned from older, MiG-21 Russian jets) had been flying in regularly for temporary duty at major commercial airports in Tibet.

The report said the J-11 jets had been appearing in more unexpected places (like the Chinese naval air force), although fewer than 150 had been built since they were introduced in the late 1990s.

1995 China paid $2.5 billion for the right to build 200 Su-27s. Russia was to supply the engines and electronics, with China building the other components according to Russian plans and specifications. But after China built 95 of these aircrafts Russia cancelled the agreement, saying the former was copying Su-27 to build their own aircraft, the J-11.

The report said the main reason for not stationing fighter squadrons in Tibet had probably to do with the high altitude of the area, and the expense of moving large quantities of fuel and other supplies needed to maintain air units. It pointed out that there was only one rail line into Tibet (recently built) and few heavy duty truck roads.

China also has a serious problem in Tibet with altitude sickness among its troops. The report said the Chinese military was spending a lot of time, effort and money trying to solve this problem. It said currently, most of the troops in the Chinese Chengdu Military Region were in the eastern, lowland half. In the western portion (Tibet), they had stationed the 52nd and 53rd Mountain Brigades, and were struggling to keep these 5,000 troops fit for duty.

In case of an emergency, as there was two years ago, the nearby 13th and 14th Group Armies can send troops from their lowland bases, the report said. Over 20 percent of these troops will be hampered by altitude sickness once they reach the highlands, and commanders are trained to deal with that, it added.

It said that given the alertness required of aircraft maintenance personnel, and pilots preparing for flights, plus the logistical problems, the Chinese air force had declared Tibet fit to visit, but not to base aircraft units in. However, because the Chinese air force may one day have to fight in the air space over Tibet, training up there was necessary.

*This article "Chinese Fighter Jets Train Over Tibet - TibetanReview.net, Aug08, 2010" & link to this article....click here. *This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com Disclaimer statement Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information supplied herein, DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. Unless otherwise indicated, opinions expressed herein are those of the author of the page and do not necessarily represent the corporate views of DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News.

DTN News: China TODAY March 11, 2010 ~ Police, Military Crackdown In Tibet On Anniversary

DTN News: China TODAY March 11, 2010 ~ Police, Military Crackdown In Tibet On Anniversary Source: DTN News / AFP (NSI News Source Info) BEIJING, China - March 11, 2010: Chinese security forces have stepped up a crackdown in Tibet's capital Lhasa, two years after protests marking a failed 1959 uprising erupted in deadly violence, the police and reports said Thursday. The "strike hard storm" began earlier this month and is aimed at cracking down on Tibetan independence activities and ordinary crime, a policeman at the city's Niangre precinct told AFP by phone. "I don't know when we will end this campaign, but it could be at the end of March when this matter is over," said the policeman, who refused to identify himself, referring to the sensitive anniversaries. As of March 3, more than 1,500 extra police and security personnel had been deployed, with more than 4,100 rented apartments or homes inspected, according to the Lhasa Evening News. More than 400 people have been rounded up, but only 14 of them have been formally arrested on unspecified charges, the report said. "We must clear our eyes, clench our fists, grip our weapons and firmly prevent and severely strike at every separatist or destructive activity that harms national security and social stability," the Tibet Daily quoted Zhang Yixiong, the region's deputy Communist Party secretary, as saying this week. "Officers and soldiers are working hard to uphold social stability, safeguard socialist law, the basic interests of the people and the unity of the motherland." Police are carrying out identification checks of the city's migrant population as well as increasing routine traffic stops, it said. Residents had told AFP on Wednesday that the number of police patrols had been increased in recent days. An uprising against Chinese rule of the Buddhist Himalayan region erupted on March 10, 1959 but was crushed by China within weeks, forcing the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, to flee into exile. Protests took place on the anniversary of the uprising in 2008, escalating in subsequent days into violent riots across Tibet and neighbouring regions with significant populations of ethnic Tibetans. China has said 21 people were killed by "rioters", while security forces killed only one "insurgent." But the Tibetan government-in-exile says more than 200 people were killed and 1,000 hurt in the unrest and subsequent crackdown in the remote region. Residents said Thursday that Lhasa remained tense due to the heavy police and military presence. "There are armoured vehicles patrolling the streets... the television is always talking about the need to 'maintain stability'," said a retired woman in downtown Lhasa who identified herself as Ceyang. "We don't dare go out at night."

DTN News: White House Defends Delay In President Barack Obama Meeting His Holiness Dalai Lama

DTN News: White House Defends Delay In President Barack Obama Meeting His Holiness Dalai Lama

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON, DC - October 7, 2009: As President Barack Obama faced criticism for putting off a meeting with the Dalai Lama until after his China trip next month, the White House defended the move saying a strong relationship with Beijing helps the Tibetans.

WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 06: The Dalai Lama participates in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on October 6, 2009 in Washington, DC. The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice hosted the ceremony to honor the Dalai Lama as the first recipient of the Lantos Human Rights Prize.

The Dalai Lama and his supporters 'understand a strong relationship-a stronger relationship that we have with China benefits the Tibetan people,' White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday.

Denying as 'simply inaccurate' reports that Obama had postponed the meeting until after his November summit with Chinese leader Hu Jintao to gain favour with China , he said: 'We're concerned about the people in Tibet and we're concerned about the Chinese.'

Asked if the president was not meeting with the Dalai Lama this week because he was worried about irritating Chinese leaders before his visit, Gibbs said: 'There was an agreement to do this (meeting with the Dalai Lama) later in the year, and that's what's going to happen.

'It's important that Tibetans - Tibetan people know that our relationship, our strong relationship with China helps them. So I think this was mutually agreed upon, and it's what's going to happen,' he added.

'Our relationship with China - having a strong relationship and a good dialogue with them allows us to talk to them about the cares and concerns of the Tibetan people,' Gibbs said adding 'I believe we have mentioned human rights in meeting with the Chinese.'

The Obama spokesman said in discussions with the Dalai Lama and his staff it was agreed that a meeting would be had later in the year. ' It's the time in which both parties thought it would be the best time to meet,' he said but could not give a precise date.But even as Obama was strategically avoiding the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader was at the Capitol Tuesday picking up a prize for fighting for human rights.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime China critic, presented him the Lantos Human Rights Prize, named after the late Democrat Representative Tom Lantos, a human rights proponent, who was the only member of Congress to survive the Holocaust. He died of throat cancer last year.

'The Dalai Lama is one of the most highly honoured peacemakers of our time,' Pelosi said expressing the hope that the Chinese government would take up the Dalai Lama's offer of direct engagement and work towards a peaceful resolution of the Tibetan issue.

'For more than 20 years His Holiness has advocated for Tibetan autonomy within the framework of the People's Republic of China. His Holiness has expressed a desire to visit China and to engage directly with Chinese officials,' she said .

'It is our hope that the Chinese government will welcome this opportunity for a peaceful resolution of the issue of Tibet,' Pelosi said.

'The cause of Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world. We must not fail to meet that challenge. In fact, unless we speak out for human rights in China and in Tibet, we lose all moral authority to talk about human rights anywhere in the world,' she said.

China: Strong Government Hand Gradually Softening And Real World Chaos Showing Up

China: Strong Government Hand Gradually Softening And Real World Chaos Showing Up

(NSI News Source Info) March 22, 2009: Officially, the most important issue for the Chinese government is corruption. Each year, the government prosecutes more officials for corruption. It was 2,687 last year. But it wasn't enough, as the number of corrupt officials is over a hundred times that. All countries have corruption, but if there is too much of it, there is inefficient government and more unrest. Most of the 70,000 officially noted public demonstrations and riots each year, are caused by the corruption of local officials. We have to remember that China is a Third World country. Of the 1.3 billion people in China, over a billion of those live in standards of living that are Third World. A very thin layer of China is what Westerners look at when we look at this economic expansion, which has been extraordinary. China depends on exports. It is an extension of the American economy. When the Americans catch cold, China catches pneumonia. And when China catches pneumonia, when exports slow down, people are thrown out of work.

Senior officials know, and publically recognize that the widespread corruption is bad for the economy. Privately, they see corruption as the major threat to continued Communist Party control of the government. At the same time, a majority of the lower level Communist Party officials prosper only because they exploit the people they rule (usually at the town, county or province level).

These officials steal taxes, take bribes and falsify land ownership records. They are very unpopular, and the national government can't prosecute all of them. There are simply too many. Urging them to reform themselves has not worked either. There's also a lot of corruption in the military (always has been, even before the communists took over), but this is seen as less of a threat to the government. In fact, it's more important to keep the military happy, in case there is a major uprising. The recent harassment at sea incident off Hainan is apparently China trying to gauge the resolve of a newly elected U.S. government. The last time there was an incident like this was in early 2001 (when Chinese navy jet fighters harassed a U.S. Navy electronic monitoring aircraft off the Chinese coast.) If the U.S. government folds, the Chinese will keep pushing. But, as happened in 2001, the Americans pushed back, and that was the end of that.

The U.S. responded to the recent Hainan incident by sending a destroyer to escort the U.S. survey ship, and warning China that force would be met with force in international waters (the "economic zone" is considered international waters as far as safe passage and using sensors is concerned, although China interprets international law differently.) China agreed, however, that further confrontations would be avoided. The Taiwanese government is increasing defense spending, including the development of more locally made weapons (like cruise missiles to take out targets on the mainland.) Chinese pressure on the U.S. caused Taiwan's recent request to buy 60 F-16 fighters, to be turned down. Taiwan wants to increase its military capability because its arrangement with the United States requires that Taiwan be strong enough to hold off a Chinese attack long enough for American forces to arrive.

This means keeping control of air bases on the island for up to a week. China is apparently building up its land, air and naval forces to the point where a surprise attack could conquer Taiwan in a few days, if the defending Taiwanese were not ready. China is trying, without much success, to convince North Korean officials to back off its military spending, and devote more attention to economic reforms. But the North Korean Communist Party members are obsessed with how quickly (and sometimes fatally) communist party officials lost power in Eastern Europe in 1989.

The communist party rule in North Korea has been far more brutal than it ever was in China. The North Koreans are more of afraid of, and less trusting in, their own people. China does not want a rebellion in North Korea, because millions of refugees could end up in northern China, and China would have to spend billions of dollars taking care of them, and dealing with the unhappy Chinese population in the area. The Chinese military graduated its first class of Public Affairs Officers. Western forces have had such media professionals for decades, but in China, propaganda/media specialists from the Chinese Communist Party have long handled the media needs of the military. But now the military will increasingly handle its PR itself. March 19, 2009: In an unusual incident, a soldier on guard duty at a Central China army base was shot and killed, and his assault rifle stolen. Another soldier in the area was shot and wounded. The army has to deal with thieves and criminal gangs stealing from bases, but it's rare for there to be a direct attack on soldiers like this.

The area where the attack took place has many ethnic Tibetans, and some of these are suspected of carrying out the attack. March 9, 2009: Chinese police and soldiers are increasingly visible all over Tibet, ready to arrest anyone daring to do anything to recognize the 50th anniversary of a major uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet. The police are particularly intent on catching foreign journalists in Tibet illegally. March 8, 2009: About 140 kilometers off Hainan island, five unarmed Chinese navy ships tried to chase away an unarmed U.S. Navy survey ship (that had deployed sonar equipment). China considers surveying or monitoring within its 360 kilometers "economic zone" to be illegal. This is the Chinese interpretation of the international law that gives it ownership of raw materials on the ocean bottom, and fish in the sea, within the economic zone. But in China, surveying (for maps) can only be done by the government, and non-government surveyors (who are increasingly active) are sought out and prosecuted.