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Meet Fiery Cross Reef, China's Man-Made Military Island Outpost
Last week, we noted the hilarious irony in President Obama’s contention that China was “using its sheer size and muscle to force other countries into subordinate positions.” That of course, is a picture perfect description of US foreign policy and so the statement by the President is effectively an indictment of Washington’s own actions.
Obama’s remarks were made in the context of China’s construction “activities” in the South China Sea where Beijing shares contested waters with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. Essentially, China is building islands atop the Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago, which some believe will be used for military purposes. Here’s NY Times, summarizing:
The construction on Fiery Cross Reef is part of a larger Chinese reclamation project involving scores of dredgers on at least five islands in the South China Sea. China is converting tiny reefs, once barely visible above water, into islands big enough to handle military hardware, personnel and recreation facilities for workers.
Satellite images of the reclamation efforts have been released in steady doses over the last few months, as smaller countries with claims to islands in the area have voiced concern about China’s accelerated construction, and as the United States has stepped up its criticism...
China claims more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, arguing that a “nine-dash line” that it drew around the waterway in the late 1940s conforms to its rights there. No other country recognizes the validity of the nine-dash line, and many fear that China’s reclamation activities are part of a drive to create an inevitability about Chinese ownership.
Now, a series of satellite images have confirmed the construction of a 10,000 foot runway on the reef, which would appear to suggest that China may be planning on landing military aircraft such as fighter jets on the reclaimed islands. Here, in glorious HD, are the visuals accompanied by descriptions via the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative:
Satellite photography has identified three cement plants operating on the island.
China has already constructed in excess of 60 semi-permanent or permanent buildings.
At least 20 structures are visible on the southern side of the island (ZH: including a helipad).
China is building an airstrip on the island. The airstrip is likely large enough to land nearly any Chinese aircraft.
Images taken on April 11 show the runway more than one-third complete.
Beijing is also installing port facilities which may be capable of docking military tankers.
Full interactive report available here from the AMTI
Here’s more color from NY Times on what this may mean from a military and geopolitical perspective:
The runway, which is expected to be about 10,000 feet long — enough to accommodate fighter jets and surveillance aircraft — is a game changer in the competition between the United States and China in the South China Sea, said Peter Dutton, professor of strategic studies at the Naval War College in Rhode Island.
“This is a major strategic event,” Mr. Dutton said. “In order to have sea control, you need to have air control…”
In time, Mr. Dutton said, China is likely to install radar and missiles that could intimidate countries like the Philippines, an American ally, and Vietnam, which also have claims to the Spratlys, as they resupply modest military garrisons in the area.
More broadly, he said, China’s ability to use Fiery Cross Reef as a landing strip for fighter and surveillance aircraft will vastly expand its zone of competition with the United States in the South China Sea…
“We absolutely think it is for military aircraft, but of course an airstrip is an airstrip — anything can land on it if it’s long enough,” said James Hardy, Asia-Pacific editor for Jane’s Defense Weekly...
“The main question is, what else would land there?” he said. “Unless they are planning to turn these into resorts — which seems unlikely, not least given the statement from the Foreign Ministry last week — then military aircraft are the only things that would need to land there.”
And a bit more from Reuters:
Senator John McCain, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, called the Chinese moves "aggressive" and said they showed the need for the Obama administration to act on plans to move more military resources into the economically important Asian region and boost cooperation with Asian countries worried by China.
McCain referred to a U.S. intelligence assessment from February that China's military modernization was designed to counteract U.S. strength and said Washington had a lot of work ahead to maintain its military advantage in the Asia-Pacific.
"When any nation fills in 600 acres of land and builds runways and most likely is putting in other kinds of military capabilities in what is international waters, it is clearly a threat to where the world's economy is going, has gone, and will remain for the foreseeable future," he told a public briefing in Congress.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said the scale of China’s land reclamation and construction was fueling concerns within the region that China intends to militarize its outposts and stressed the importance of freedom of navigation.
"The United States has a strong interest in preservation of peace and security in the SouthChina Sea. We do not believe that large-scale land reclamation with the intent to militarize outposts on disputed land features is consistent with the region’s desire for peace and stability."
* * *
This comes at an interesting time for relations between Beijing and Washington. China’s recent move to evacuate foreign nationals from the embattled Yemeni port city of Aden marked the first time the rising superpower has participated in an international rescue effort. During the same week, state television indicated the country would begin its first patrol by nuclear submarine later this year.
Meanwhile, the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank marks a coup in the post-war economic era, as the multilateral institution will seek to plug holes left by the US-dominated IMF and the Japan-influenced ADB, while simultaneously positioning the yuan to play a more prominent role in what is quickly becoming a new economic world order characterized by the ascendancy of the renminbi and the decline of traditional systems that have supported dollar hegemony such as petrocurrency mercantilism. While it’s unclear exactly how ambitious Beijing hopes to be in terms of turning the Spratlys into a military outpost, China’s bold development efforts underscore the degree to which the country isn’t timid when it comes to advancing its interests in the face of Western admonition.
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most man-made reef outposts since Lehman?
China is building the Morgan SafeHaven Hotel Fortress chain "for the discriminating executive."
@Glass ~ NICE! [+1] <see rest below>
Happened on obamas watch
Look at fucking McCain, freaking out all over again about something that's none of our business. Shoulda called the article Reefer Madness...
"That's no reef, it's a space station."
Just looks like the Chinese are building more infrastructure to me. Nice piece of collateral to add to their new banking system.
With one hell of an inviting beach too!
Senator John McCain, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, called the Chinese moves "aggressive" and said they showed the need for the Obama administration to act on plans to move more military resources into the economically important Asian region and boost cooperation with Asian countries worried by China.
Absolute arrogance. Mind boggling to presume you can just "move military resources onto someone elses land" without their approval. Perhaps no one wants to play in the US sandbox anymore. Ever think of that McStain?
These were among the most biodiverse coral reefs in the world.
So were the ones in the gulf of mexico, not many give fucks about them either. Matter of fact, its been quite sometime, from the looks of things, since anyone really has. Pity.....Earth was nice.
can i just say this is demonstrative of china's reluctance to use agression. It had the option of agitating over various disputed islands around the SCS , but instead its gone 'fuck it, we'll just build our own alternative islands'
if merica was a peacefull nation they would not even give two shits about this stupidity...
mankind is heading straight for the wall at full speed...
They didn't build that...
;-)
And so the march to WWIII continues...
Get ready this one is going to be tough for the US.
Here's the plan if you're interested.
http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com/keytopics/threats.html
We have reports of Chinese, Russian and other foreign military units training and living here in the US. Putin and the Chairman/CEO of the PRC are high millionaires, yet we have this horse and pony show going on...is it real or is it memorex?
Can't sink that Chinese 'on land' aircraft carrier lol.
Get too many people on one side of that island.....it's sure to capsize.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesSRfXqS1Q
Don't care what Russia or China do. They are not US. What we do is what matters to US.
Yeah, those Russians are ready to invade, at least since Y2K I hear this BS peddled by Jones and Skoulsen. Pathetic.
Skousen has some good information on occasion, but it's worth noting he's a Christian fundamentalist who thinks nukes will fly over America and Russia... likely because it fits in with that "End of Days" Revelation shit.
There may be war, or they may simply consolidate economic power and make a big deal out of "averting" the very war they're drumming up. Either way, large-scale nuclear conflict is a virtual impossibility in a world where the Elites want a nice place to live when all is said and done. They haven't spent billions (if not trillions) on slow-kill poisoning us not to have their investment pay off, after all.
Also worth noting that Skousen's dad was CIA...
http://redefininggod.com/2015/02/globalist-agenda-watch-2015-update-15-l...
Deep Politics is just that... fucking deep. Keep your head above water and NEVER outsource your critical thinking, it's a sure-fire way to drown in the sea of (dis)information.
Going smeltin' tonight.
Should take care of that pesky Sacramento smelt problem.
Wrong. If America had of government of constitutional conservatives they would not give two shits about this stupidity.
But America has a government infested with criminal law breaking progressive control freaks dosent it?
Which means DEATH for many innocent people.
Government is the biggest murderer and thief of all time but who cheers for moar government? Progressives do.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/MURDER.HTM
"DEMOCIDE: MURDERBY GOVERNMENT"
The progressive stupid, it burns. Vote for Hillary, she will kill you.
Embrace your progressive suck. YOU VOTED FOR IT.
Grimaldus
I'm sure all of the "fort building" on the reefs is really good for the reefs...where's green peas when ya need "em?
>
Tell that to the Chagossians who were expelled from their islands so that Diego Garcia could be built
"These were among the most biodiverse coral reefs in the world."
Bikini atoll was a nice place at one time too.
Bikini atoll is still nice. In a radioactive ashtray kind of way.
Anyone else find it amusing that if the US tried to do the same, it'd take 40 years for the enviromental impact studies and lawsuits to resolve?
Hank Johnson would also worry about the reef tipping over and capsizing like Guam.
Here's a link for those that don't know him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesSRfXqS1Q
This is the IQ level of your representatives in Congress Folks!
Affirmative action meets cranial inaction.
I still to this day can't determine if that fucking monday was actually being serious or not when he said that.
Thanks for the link.
Is this guy fair dinkum, I think he's high. No one can be that dumb. There's a rumour of a meth shortage in the USSA. Now I know why.
Wee R fukt
They also don't seem to mind the mighty rising sea level of half an inch by the end of the century!!!!!
"Fiery Cross Reef"
How apropos is that?
What hasn't? Oh, sorry. Race relations are much improved.
On Obama's watch the CHINESE military has rescued more AMERICANS from Aden, Yemen, than the US military did from Benghazi, Libya.
rah rah rabble rabble
hey nodebt you gettin this?
USN aircraft carriers are just expensive sinkable targets. This is an unsinkable land-based carrier.
It doesn't move very fast though...
In the Big Picture, it's moving pretty goddamned fast...
Yes but in the age of missiles...
Also, it is fairly isolated. A tactical nuke makes it glow with no civi casualties.
Just what I was going to say, too. Still, it becomes an asset to be accounted for, and it's probably cheaper to build and operate than a carrier.
Now they have to build little destroyer and frigate islands all around it.
Create a large underwater earthquake to generate a tsunami and it just goes away and no one is to blame.
Oh don't worry about that, you won't need to sail to the enemy they will sail to you!!
We have isolated some people ...
More precisely, one billion eight hundred million people ....
Now we urgently need to contain these people using gas, atomic energy, rice.
These people feed on pork and rice, abominable thing!
These people do not respect the territory, are creating a territory, abominable thing!
These insane people need to be held ...
They are not Christians.
They have slanted eyes, they have another color.
They can not do that!
USA!
Unite!
We need to end this shame!
hehe.
Actually, they isolated us as we are fewer (all westerners combined)...
At least Clinton had the huevos to send a carrier group into the Taiwan Strait. Obama's too busy creating terrorists in the Middle East and imagining "right wing extremists" at home to deal with the real danger, China. That China bubble can't pop soon enough.
Francis, don't you have something better to do? Sneaking into a baseball game sounds good. ;-)
It's one of those all inclusive resorts. Sandels for the emerging Chinese middle class.
I think, I can never earn over which I paid by my precedent employer, but I was wrong, world is so large to try their fate.but now I am making $92/hr even more, can easily minimum $1700/week, on the experience everyone must try to do work online, easy way to earn, here's an example what I do... www.globe-report.com
I got the first KFC franchise rights there!
Cool..
But I already have the bottled water distribution rights there. :-)
"I got the first KFC franchise rights there!"
You do know that in China that stands for Kittens Fried Crispy.
I'm thinking Blackwater has already got the contract.
Haliburton.
Any thing, any where.
Blackwater was mainly security and good at it.
Haliburton is logistics.
Blackwater employed many top ex seals, GBs and highly skilled warriors. Do you really think they were hired to guard the cans at base camp?
Maybe I missed it on the Hedge, but a genuine "good news story" on Blackwater the other day:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11534211/Form...
The bases will probably all fall down in the next year.
Decrepit China - http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/07/13/decrepit-four-years-after-hos...
Cheap propaganda. Most picture simply looks like they were taken in winter or fall. The bird nest is still being used. I agree the bmx track is no longer maintained, but really who care??
You Engrish needs more improve Oh 4 year one.
Yeah the baseball stadium looks maintained year 'round.
PLAY BALL!
lolz
FFS ~ It's Friday...
Chill folks... Blaze one up & relax... PEACE!
"Got out of town on a boat goin' to Southern islands
Sailing a reach before a followin' sea
She was makin' for the trades on the outside
And the downhill run to Papeete Bay"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3kImL2gDkI
Drugs are bad, just ask oldwood he'll learn ya!
Drugs? ~ HEMP 4 VICTORY! ~ sucka!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp_for_Victory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p52Epx6lJes
Not if you are planning to take it up the ass anyway. Light up and enjoy!!
@Oldwood ~ This night... I'm blazin'... PEACE my friend!
waking and baking here
Mad skillz!
Still upset they removed the live show video of 'almost cut my hair' from jewtube.
Unsinkable Chinese aircraft carrier.Easier to land and take off from too.
Ominous.
Maybe. Except it can't move.
Submarine-based cruise missiles would flatten whatever the Chinese base there.
I wonder what the Chinese plan is, they never do anything without a plan.
The plan would appear to be projecting power into the South China Sea.
It looks like they are doing so rapidly...
REDS UNDER THE BEDS!!!
Gotta love the no surprise line by.... "Senator John McCain, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, called the Chinese moves "aggressive""
What the fuck else would our good steely warrior call it?
If a little green man from Mars came down and listened real hard, he might conclude that he was dropped on his noggin a couple times in some inhospitable Hilton Hotel somewhere.
Not that I have any thoughts along those lines myself...... Why, he's a paragon of America. In fact I'm surprised he didn't win the election against that other guy. Whatever
He spent years in a pit in Vietnam. Everyone would go nuts. - Putin on Shithead McBlame -
Most of the Facility will be underground and Cruise missles have very little impact on a concrete runway. Versus a carrier.
There is a certain amount of water table in play here.
An LGB-bunker buster was developed from a tank barrel in about 3 weeks during Desert Storm 1 and was tested on a US test range and reached ~100 feet deep (it was too deep to recover it for direct examination).
Corals on atolls rarely produce solid massive limestone bedrock, it is very deep burial compaction that does that. Shallow deposition of coral sands and detritus is unconsolidated and mainly fused by precipitation of calcite over time, and remains highly porous.
There are several weapons designed to do a similar job today on bunkers. The 2,500 lb JSOWs and JASSM/LRASMs were also specifically designed to eliminate bunkers. They have a BROACH warhead to break through into hardened and buried bunkers via punching a long narrow hole in front of the weapon's fall path, then using an initial strong shaped-charge plasma jet penetrator to punch a hole open in solid rock of steel, which allows the weapon to move down the hole inside rock, concrete or steel before exploding.
Thus allowing much more of the energy of the shock wave to fully couple with the surrounding confining materials, thus strongly increasing the confining pressures (above the bombs own normal tamper effect). Which then produces a much larger and deeper hole than normal, and a much stronger elastic shock wave within soil, rock or reo-concrete.
Once the walls are ruptured and cracked, a bunker located there will fill with sea water in minutes to hours and be effectively unrepairable. Same for the fuel and weapon stores. If the weapon store blows ... not much left of the island or facilities. If the fuel store blows not much left of people, vehicles or buildings standing in the open. Resupply options and prospects, very poor.
Chance of being permitted to repair and rebuild - zero.
The only way the Chinese can remain on those island is to totally control the air, surface and sub-surface, for well over 1,000 km in every direction. They don't and can't. They can't even control that within 250 km of Taiwan. So if they go there and want to fight to hold it, those islands can be decommissioned within an hour.
US ocean island bases are not forward based close to a potential enemy for that reason, they can keep them operating and repaired even if they are attacked and degraded.
And not just sub-launched, air, ship and sub-lauched. The cruise missile developments and orders and production at factories is currently cranked up to 11. All are getting much longer range, lower observability, better comms, jam-proofing navigation, integrated autonomy, much better decoys ECM and ECCM, and more advanced seekers and more maneuverable. They are also all becoming multirole missiles, which can hit anything, even aircraft. The same is occurring to all the western SAMs, frenetic development and production. The SAM are also all becoming much longer range and multirole, for attacking ground and surface targets, as well, vastly better sensors, fully fire and forget, unjammable and autonomous. Just over the last month for multirole cruise missiles:
LRASM Anti-Ship Missile Update with Lockheed Martin at Sea-Air-Space 2015 Note that the VLS booster stage can loft the LRASM to over 45,000 feet, above the jet stream, and toss it over 25 nm downrange, thus preserving the JASSM-ERs baseline ~1,000 km range (on top), so a VLS launch imparts no range reduction for the ship launched version, plus the aerodynamic glide-ratio of that airframe from that altitude will provide at least another ~120 to 160 km glide distance, with the engine turned off (approaching tomahawk range). i.e. a JSOW terminal style gravity-powered vertical and also low level wave top glide attack, with a tiny radar signature, and low thermal signature and frontal area, dropping out of high and very cold air into much warmer and thermally much noisier air, during the terminal maneuvers. They may even restart the engine and do a supersonic power dive for 30K feet. It has a BROACH warhead, so it can punch through the upper decks and either detonate just above or else just under the keel.Wwith no bottom the ship will sink. The air defense VLS missiles are also going towards more extended range ESSM quadpacks (especially after 2020 as the Block II active seeker is widely deployed) and less SM class missiles, thus making more room for far more LRASM and ASROC anti-sub weapons, which are also being dusted of, and thus probably a lot less Tomahawks in VLS cells by 2020 to 2025, as LRASM displaces them in the land attack role.
Raytheon's Newest JSOW Variant Enters Operational Testing This C1 version of the JSOW is already in service in Australia on RAAF Superhornets, since 2009. It is by far the most capable version of JSOW for killing ships and island bases, and the USN says the C1 will become the navy's primary air-launched offensive standoff glide-bomb, used to clear an ocean of all enemy ships. It also uses a large BROACH warhead.
Navy League 2015: Boeing developing kit to upgrade Harpoon missiles for extended range They're extending the range of the ship and sub-launched version of Harpoon block II to equal the air-launched SLAM-ER for range - an advance for naval surface engagement standoff range for frigates and lower.
Raytheon, Kongsberg Join Forces on NSM This is most probably going to become a general purpose multirole naval and land attack cruise weapon for internal carriage on the F-35. Australia likewise signed on with Klonsberg last month to joint-develop an unjammable autonomous navigation and precision strike system for the missile, Boeing have just finished joint-development of an unjammable long range moving target JDAM-ER glide bomb for the RAAF to complement the unjammable version of the JSOW C1 glide bomb.
The developments in all forms of western SAMs and Air to Air missiles, coming over the next few years, are equally impressive. The US is clearly not planning to be cutting China any slack, or to make it easy fro them to annex any territory and make it stick.
I expect a conflict to take place, in some form, simply because China is acting in a way that is guaranteeing that one will occur, and has left itself no back-down position, so the conflict will be to remove them by force, which can definitely be done.
That said, last week Moscow agreed to sell China the S400 SAM.
When has any weapon in the US aresenal been tested against a target with similar tech. WW2 ? What is advertized and what happens in battle condition are 2 separate issues. How many bunker buster will it take ? how many double walled storage areas. How far will the missles have to travel ? How many atolls are converted. How many are dummy sites ? The seas are shallow so how far off will the sub have to be ? If the US is firing at China atolls then we are all in big trouble ! This is all about controlling the South China Sea, also extending National Boundaries over the waterways. Choke points etc etc.
"If the US is firing at China atolls then we are all in big trouble!"
Well that's the problem, they are not 'china atolls', they are in international waters claimed by several other much closer states, who can fight to remove them using similar weapons.
And I think you and I both know well that a 2,500 lb precision-guided unjammable standoff weapon landing within meters of its aim point, is going to crack and severely degrade underground structures with little difficulty, and that there are more than enough platforms to launch them, and capable weapons to fire.
It by no means requires submarine launched weapon to make such strikes either, in fact that would be my last choice, for the reason you mentioned, littoral and a sub launching missiles is a rather poor choice for the subs crew.
A more meaningful and disturbing as well as enlightening demonstration of China being hopelessly exposed and pwned by weapons which can be repeatedly delivered, with little chance of removing the threat of them, would be to use mobile ground-launched cruise weapons, given the Islands are situated within range of such mainland based weapons, for several SEA countries.
I would leave the PRC with no doubt that they do not have a future operating in that area sans real settlement in law.
Settlement in law?
International law pretty much died on 9/11, since then US invades and bombs anywhere they feel like, because they have planes and ships.
And even earlier, the international law basis of the entire Vietnam disaster was some frigate captain who estimated somebody could' ve launched a missile at his boat.Possibly.
China and Russia acts on historical scale, waiting patiently as the sick, dying giant finally topples over, hopefully without nary a whimper.
"Settlement in law?"
Yes, that's how countries moderate actions to minimize such wars and cooperate for mutual benefit and interests.
If you think the west doesn't act on a historical scale you better open your eyes and look at where the west is on this planet. Same for the US specifically, just look where it is. No it is not going to go away, that is just your fantasy.
And now look at where China and Russia are. China is still recovering from its first encounter with 'the west', as is much of the rest of world. Russia and China are shut-in house pets in comparison.
Element, while your engineering description of specialised bombs hitting a build-over reef is perfectly right, do you really think that US could enter a conventional war with russia/china alliance and win?
Of course, those artificial islands would be destroyed, tens of thousands of chinese sailors and soldiers would die...then what?
Try to establish air superiority over coastal china?
Yeah, what could go wrong with that...
Why I said a limited conflict within a declared exclusion zone in international waters of the South China Sea.
Those are international waters.
If the Chinese forces don't leave and have no right to unilateral claims in that way and insist on military confrontation, they shouldn't have put themselves in that untenable position. It is a gamble they will lose.
The reality is the Chinese and US were facing a similar or even more dangerous situation in the mid-1950s Taiwan Strait Crisis. Read up on it as that can easily happen again. And yes, at that time Russia bluntly gave a written diplomatic ultimatum letter to the US that it would attack the US with nuclear weapons if a Chinese invasion of Taiwan was resisted by US forces. At which point the US began to execute its nuclear operations plan for nuclear war, and was a couple of days into it, and was in the process of providing nuclear release orders to its deployed forces senior officers, when the Russians realized the US was actually going to do it, so they withdrew their threat and removed their support for China, and China backed-down and called off the invasion of Taiwan.
The thing to take from this is that the US is not prepared to change the boundaries in the Pacific in such ways and will fight to stop it occurring. They have never showed signs of backing down on that, and they are as determined as ever today.
Those poor sea urchins and Pacific smelt ;-)
+1. Where's that Environmental Impact study? ;-)
If I were China, I'd build a few more, and the very next one would be to safeguard the Malacca Straits. Not to be confused with the Greek version: Malaka.
lol...enviromental impact studies are for "mature" nations and cultures who have discovered the dark pool secondary market of legalized regulatory bribery & lobbying.
Now there's a whole new layer of graft, corruption & kickbacks waiting to be exploited in China, instead of K Street we can call it Y Street in China.
Get it, K-Y ;-)
Nice. I live in Malaysia; I could watch the whole thing in real-time.
Where is our HAARP stuff when we need them?
It's busy causing California to whither and burn, at the moment. Call back later.
Still smaller than Hawaii and Guam and Okinawa and Diego Garcia and Guantanamo bay and......
oh a lovely reef! How do we ruin it the best way?
SEND IN ZE CHINAMAN!
This will draw a stern warning from Josh at the Foreignpolicy Action Group - FAG.
Could also get a twitter photoshot from The Apple Dumpling Gang at Foggy Bottom. The ChiComs better not mess with the rug munchers at State or they'll plant the rainbow flag on those reefs.
See see see, this is whatchu get when instead of hearty and hale handshakes, all you do is bow down to potentates and dictators.
Or refusing to arm wrestle Vlad
A little decorum goes a long way.
But oh fucking no.
Alternatively they are probably building casinos - it's what they've done in every other god damn place in SE they can get their hands on.
Or off shore tax haven? Penal colony?
Or the most obvious - they are their very own Midway Islands in the South China Sea.
When they complete the golf course Obama will visit it once a month and I'll add waffles to the menu at my KFC.
"construction... on the reef"
Where’s Bob Barker and the Bunny Huggers now???
Don't be silly.
Obviously a Chinese sightseeing boat on a three-hour tour.
A three-hour tour.
With the slow down in China they have to dump all the build up of steel and concrete somewhere as the stockpiles are getting too large.
Da Plane!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ286Fpq7Fs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIIEOw2m9QM
It's a man-made deepwater port, it ain't like that's never been done before.
Most do it by digging, but China has chosen to build rather than dig.
Smart, I reckon.
Looks like a Black Swan landing site to me.........
I'd build an island too if I thought it could keep Llyod Blankfein out.
The Chinese building an island in the China Sea is aggressive but the U.S. sending Aircraft carriers into the region during peace time is not?
US building bases all over the world is not aggressive. Invading countries is not aggressive. Imposing sanctions is not aggressive. Printing money to support all this non aggression is not aggressive.
F McCain. What a douche bag.
China does not need to build an island for McCain to be a douche bag.
I think you hurt Lindsey's feelings
<Sociopath
<American Hero
If I get one vote for "American Hero," I'll hold my breath until I turn blue.
The progress on this project looks pretty impressive.
Though it may have problems if 'someone' were to let off an undersea tsunami-bomb again.
Is this the same location they were working on about a year ago?
I swear china was 'building a base with runways' somewhere at least a yr ago..
And i read it here.
here
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-07/china-may-build-artificial-isla...
10 months ago.
Just wait until Greenpeace gets wind of the fact that the Chinese are burying live coral reefs.
They'll stop them with their Zodiac inflatables.
I have a funny feeling the Chinese military would have a different way of dealing with Greenpeace than we in the west.
One Missile - No More Protest. Bye Bye GreenPeach!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior
Looks very pristine. Time to China-ize the shit out of that environment.
Well, the Chinese are not watching what the US is doing in Ukraine Idle. They are getting prepared.
I can just see the idiots in Washington putting sanctions on China to stop the construction.
No one should sell them any more copper, steel, cement, etc.. I'm sure everyone'll get behind that idea.
Hey! It's for the coral reefs!
I wonder if Mr. Lee from S. Korea is selling Hot Beef sticks to the workers. I ate a shit load when I was in Korea. Damn good with Soju and Sprite. Never saw a Cow in Korea.A lot of Dog farms though. Weird, huh?
CMOT Dibbler.
I ate some dog in Indonesia once, and every mangy street mongrel within a 5 mile radius could smell it on me. They weren't happy. Normally they will shy away from people, but that night every single one wanted a piece of me. My hosts thought it was hilarious.
go china
I don't see one porta potty. Those Chinese really don't give a shit do they?
It's a clever move, to take something not even a real island, do some work to built it above sea level, then build a military airfield on it. I mean that is clever. And China has an excess of labor, money, cement and steel. Nobody can stop them, it was not an Island, it was shallow reef.
I give China a 10 for vision. McCain is pissing his adult diapers over this one. China is looking for more sites to build.
This is looking like the 1930's, when Japan was active building airfields on tiny Pacific Islands. Putting medium range bombers on them as part of a defense against the US Navy. China knows the USA is bring 75% of it's modern weapons capability to the Pacfic to confront them, so they are just getting ready.
The US has a war to fight on Russia. That will take at least the next 5 years, before they are ready to advance and destroy China.
Maoist China is a zionist, new bolshevik creation. All working according to plan. They are using China to destroy the western world. Or more accurately, used China to.
Its 60 not 75 .
I can't wait for the greenies to turn up. Chinese official, "Nope, we haven't seen them; missing you say. Oh dear!"
Sounds like a new Disney attraction.
The USN uses ships( aircraft carriers) to claim "Temporary Soverign Territory".
The Chinese are using sand to build stationary aircraft carriers, with barges loaded with ordinance. (reverse effect)
The Russians haven't shared their aircraft engine technology with China. Airframes are worthless, without propulsion technology.
China is bluffing, and spending huge capital in monetary and human resources.
I can assure you, those Chinese man made Islands will get blown apart next cyclone season.
What really peaves me, is the absolute destruction of those coral reefs. The Chinese aren't to be trusted.
I admire the chinese for their tenacity.
Did I say I admire the Chinese? Sarchasm?
I didn't know John McCain was still alive.
He is a talking cabbage.
He's still moving and saying shit, but it could be he's a zombie.
It's kind of like Weekend at Bernie's with McCain.
That's a helluva set-up delivery, knock...knock....knock Chinee foo heeya!
Girrigan's Irand.
What else would land there? The question should be how many islands like this China is going to build?
Enough to claim a significant part of the South China sea and the disputed islands as part of their territorial waters by creating a contiguous maritime border. There be oil and gas there. Lots of it.
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Very clever move. Harder to sink than an aircraft carrier
OT, but does anyone know what the story is with the messages that disappeared from a couple days ago and why search only has 48 hours of history displayed?
I'm not sure seek.
Who's these paragons of society?
Australian company The Novita Group Pty Ltd owns the trademark "Skunkworks" in that country. After years of litigation the Australian government department IP Australia confirmed the trademark and awarded it to Novita against Lockheed Martin's objections.[10]
Very similar to what the U.S. did at johnston Atoll. Johnston looks like a huge aircraft carrier. I think Johnston is about 9,000 ft. runway.
I'm all for blowing a small ecosystem<>up for Mankinds virtues. I'm all for blowing "things" up in the name of science.
I'm not for Endless Printing...
I'll respectfully nap, and ponder the Casino opening Sunday.
Sometimes it comes to my mind this is all part of the same game and the puppetiers are one and the same. Just saying.
(For instance: From BBC,
British Broadcasting CorporationMar 22, 2015 - International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde says the IMF is happy to work with the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.)
The IMF is not really happy they have not other option. That's all.
Amazing what you can accomplish with slave labor!
Has a Jonny Quest sort of a look to it.