Last week, we noted that Japan and India were allying to protect themselves against China’s regional ambitions.
These developments finally seem to have made it to the “Resolute Desk”, which has responded with another of its classic “strongly worded messages” in regards to China’s intentions to expand its defense zone.
The Obama administration has significantly sharpened its rhetoric about China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea over the last week amid growing pressure from allies in the region for Washington to take a firmer line.In public statements in recent days, senior US officials placed the blame for tensions in the region solely on China and warned that the US could move more forces to the western Pacific if Beijing were to declare a new air defense zone in the South China Sea.
China’s reaction was as expected by those who are versed in the Obama Administration’s foreign policy approaches.
China has accused the United States of undermining peace and development in the Asia-Pacific after a senior U.S. official said concern was mounting over China’s claims in the South China Sea.“These actions are not constructive”, Hong Lei, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a statement issued late on Saturday.
To say that other world leaders are worried would be an understatement. For example, the President of the Philippines is sounding the alarm.
President Benigno S. Aquino III called on Tuesday for nations around the world to do more to support the Philippines in resisting China’s assertive claims to the seas near his country, drawing a comparison to the West’s failure to support Czechoslovakia against Hitler’s demands for Czech land in 1938.Like Czechoslovakia, the Philippines faces demands to surrender territory piecemeal to a much stronger foreign power and needs more robust foreign support for the rule of international law if it is to resist, President Aquino said in a 90-minute interview in the wood-paneled music room of the presidential palace.
Meanwhile, Iran is targeting our the Atlantic Coast with some of their ships.
Sick of the American navy’s ongoing presence in the Persian Gulf, an official with the military of Iran announced this week that they will be sending ships over to be stationed off the coast of the United States….”Like the arrogant powers that are present near our marine borders, we will also have a powerful presence close to American marine borders,” reads a statement from Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyar to the official Islamic Republic News Agency this week. The IRNA adds that Sayyar, the commander of the entire Navy of Iran, will call for “the help of our sailors who follow the concept of the supreme jurisprudence” to send a flotilla towards the Atlantic coast of the United States.
Finally, how about the Egyptian journalists who landed in jail for their alleged connections to terrorist organizations?
U.S. President Barack Obama is calling for the release of three journalists, including a Canadian, who have been imprisoned in Egypt for more than a month.
I suspect these media men will be remaining in jail well into the foreseeable future.
This week’s Canto Talk show featured a detailed discussion of global flash points, including the Ukraine (which Legal Insurrection has also been following). Despite all the platitudes offered during the Olympics, it looks like things are heating up around the world and there is little our current leadership seems able to do stop it.
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