U.S. military warns of growing China presence in Latin America

[Say_What]

Oops. China has been all over LatAm for more than a year and the muriKans are just noticing, but what's this BULLSHIT about *military* presence??

What f*ck'n MORONS. :argh:

<clips>

U.S. military warns of growing China presence in Latin America

The commander of U.S. forces in Latin America told Congress on Wednesday the United States must carefully watch China's increasing economic and military presence in the region.

"An increasing presence of the People's Republic of China in the region is an emerging dynamic that must not be ignored," U.S. Southern Command Commander Gen Bantz Craddock told a House of Representatives Armed Services Committee hearing. Craddock said China's "growing economic interests, presence and influence in the region are not a threat, but they are clearly components of a condition we should recognize and consider carefully as we form our own objectives, policies and engagement in the region." (Kyodo News)

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=330319

[underpants]

1. Insert you own "they all look alike to me" ~~joke

Not funny

[Kolesar]

2. Did you ever play Risk?

One player weakens himself in a big war with an opponent, then a third player comes in and takes South America. (I would not have know where Urkusk or Kamchatka were were it not for Risk)

[TexasLawyer]

9. Bush as the "Manchurian Candidate"

Chimpy and the neo-cons certainly have weakened America by "strengthening" it. And look who benefits. Not us!

[Say_What]

3. The Oligarchs Daily's article--a bit more in depth

and more about that *military* remark.

<clips>

China is taking advantage of a U.S. influence vacuum in Latin America because of aid cuts, the commander of the Southern Command says

...The Chinese military was reaching out to their Latin American counterparts, Craddock said, especially in the Pacific rim and Andean regions. Chinese defense officials made 20 visits to Latin American and Caribbean nations last year, while nine high-level delegations from Latin America visited China.

...He said that China needed to protect its access to food, energy, raw materials and export markets and this had forced a change in that country's military strategy, to promote ``a power-projection military, capable of securing strategic shipping lanes and protecting its growing economic interests abroad.''


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/11095540.htm

[LynnTheDem]

7. Hey that's AMERICA he's referring to. "a power-projection military,

capable of securing strategic shipping lanes and protecting its growing economic interests abroad.''

[Media_Lies_Daily]

21. Bingo. Thanks to Herr Busch, the sleeping dragon awakens.

[Say_What]

29. Maybe not... here's another article from AlterNet

The US sanctioned LatAm countries who refused to exempt US citizens from the ICC and China simply stepped in to fill a need in those countries. US shoots self in foot, AGAIN.

One might remember that Kissinger is a wanted man in Chile, and TortureBoy and 5-Deferment Dick are wanted for war crimes. Seem I remember that when Bush went to Chile that the Chilean government had to guarantee he would not be arrested. LOL

<clips>

...China was stepping into a void created in part by the U.S. policy to cut military aid to countries that refuse to exempt U.S. citizens from International Criminal Court jurisdiction, he said.

Fearing its soldiers could be vulnerable to politically motivated charges at the ICC, the United States asks ICC signatories to sign agreements not to transfer U.S. citizens to the court without U.S. consent.

Sanctions in the American Servicemembers Protection Act prevent some military training funds from going to countries that will not agree to the exemption.

Craddock said of the 22 nations affected by the sanctions, 11 are in Latin America and the Caribbean: Bolivia, Barbados, Peru, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Brazil, Trinidad, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay and St. Vincent.

In recent years, Beijing has forged broad ties with Latin America, particularly Argentina and Brazil, to ensure access to steel and commodities needed for China's economic expansion.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/NAJL31001.htm

[Say_What]

28. "He said that China needed to protect its access to food, energy..

No. He's talking about CHINA!! Here's the paragraph:

"...He said that China needed to protect its access to food, energy, raw materials and export markets and this had forced a change in that country's military strategy, to promote ``a power-projection military, capable of securing strategic shipping lanes and protecting its growing economic interests abroad.''"

[maggiecleveland]

10. Haven't they been on both ends

of the Panama Canal since '97? I think the Chinese mainlanders are there in a "civilian" capacity.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

20. And that's why China has boosted it's defense budget....

...so that they can start building the kind of navy that will mirror that of our own.

China confirms military boost
<http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/03/03/china.defense.update.reut/>

QUOTE:

"BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China's military budget will rise 12.6 percent this year to 247.7 billion yuan ($29.9 billion), parliament spokesman Jiang Enzhu said Friday.

He said the figure was contained in the budget report to be presented to China's parliament, or National People's Congress (NPC), which opens its annual session on Saturday.

The move potenitally feeds a modernization drive that is sparking concern in rival Taiwan of invasion, and U.S. worries about stability."

[whistle]

4. How about the last 120 years, just like San Francisco....

...as for Chinese communists, they have been walking the back roads of Latin American peasant villages and communities since the 1950's and 1906's with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.

[w4rma]

13. True. but those Chinese communists aren't supported by the Chinese

government. The Chinese communists who care about the lower class are not the same as the Chinese Communist Party members who rule China and perpetrated the Tiananmen Square massacre.

[IndianaGreen]

18. They are not communist in China, they are red capitalists

They have ditched Mao and Marx, and embraced their own autocratic version of the New Deal.

The reality is that China is a rising hyperpower, while America is in serious decline. Fifty years from now, when the USA is a shell of its old self, China will have permanent bases on the Moon, and will be the undisputed hyperpower in the world.

[w4rma]

23. In other words, they practice fascism. No disagreement here. (nt)

[Say_What]

27. Way sooner than that I think. I agree the Banana Empire is falling

quicker than Rome, but remember the Wall? One day it was there and the next day it was down. Even Fidel admits that he didn't see that one coming. I think the same thing is happening here--we're nothing but a cardboard country mortgaged to the hilt with China and Japan and the crazies in DC aren't smart enough to see what's happening in their own hemisphere. They are under the misguided dillusion that they are the only superpower and can do whatever they want. BIG MISTAKE!!

:bounce:

[whistle]

25. You're right, so are the Chinese working class making the rounds

...in Latin America

[Frances]

5. A friend has a relative who works

in the oil industry in Venezuela. According to him there are many Chinese working there as well.

Do you think this is what the general was referring to?

[NNN0LHI]

8. It might?

Our military shadows all American oil investments throughout the world too. It would make sense that China would do the same thing. They are only protecting their national security, and it isn't like they don't have enough troops either.

Don

[IndianaGreen]

19. Chavez's business deals with China is part of the General's subtext

This is part of the xenophobia and hysteria that permeates Washington nowadays.

[LynnTheDem]

6. Excuse me US military, but if yer SPREADING DEMOCRACY then isn't

China's growing presence in Latin America up to China and Latin America?

How would the growing presense of China in Latin America constitute any kind of a threat to America's security? Oh yes that's right..."national security" for America is polispeak for "threat to our greedy devouring of everyone else's natural resources". Just like the "threat" Iraq represented.

Silly me.

[Festivito]

11. Yes! And while CONs sleep, China gains a foothold.

Our negative involvement in Venezuela politics, drug interdiction in Columbia and Bolivia, Bush wrecking Argentina, Kissenger harming Chileans, ... Central Amercia shoved about by Iran-CONtra... The list goes on.

We ASSUME SA will be ours because they cannot reach Europe, and why would they want to reach Africa.

CHINA.

USA is ending.

[w4rma]

14. We do have to be careful here, as China has the potential to start doing

exactly what BushCo has been doing with relation to oil wars.

[chlamor]

24. Big Difference Here

Chavez is doing bilateral deals w/China. Bush co. is doing unilateral coups-invasions etc.

[bemildred]

12. No shit? So what are we doing spreadeagled in Iraq Bozo? nt

[teryang]

15. it is our senseless fiscal, trade and military policies

...that are enabling our economic rivals to make market share inroads.

We are so uncompetitive that we must use naked threats of force and undisguised schemes of sedition to try to hold on.

[Deja Q]

16. Really. U.S. doesn't mind growing Chinese presence;

for it means more sweatshops to make cheap goodiez.

When the US declares bankruptcy, it won't be able to do chapter 7.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

17. Hey, maybe the Busch Junta can prepare "another Pearl Harbor"...

...to deal with the Chinese menace in much the same way as one was prepared for the Japanese in 1941.

Oh, wait...they already used that gambit in 2001.

[Zerex71]

22. I'll tell you what it's about.

It's about we don't want to get our asses kicked when we assassinate Chavez and try to occupy Venezuela to take the oil fields.

[Gloria]

26. So how come Abraham and Cheney are pushing for Westinghouse

to get the contract to build nuke plants in China, knowing that China in the past has been engaged in proliferation?