Trump Nominee's Proposal to Block China From Islands Sets Off Alarms

[highplainsdem]

Source: WSJ

BEIJING—A U.S. blockade of Chinese-built islands in the South China Sea risks triggering a dangerous military confrontation, and would be too costly to sustain long-term, experts warned on Thursday after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state proposed such a move.

The proposal by Rex Tillerson in his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing on Wednesday is likely to have alarmed Chinese leaders as it went well beyond Mr. Trump’s own remarks, as well as the advice from more hawkish elements of the U.S. military, security experts said.

China’s initial response was low key, with a foreign ministry spokesman declining to comment on the former Exxon Mobil Corp. chief executive’s suggestion, while defending Beijing’s actions within what it sees as its sovereign territory.

-snip-

Mr. Tillerson’s remarks “sound very alarming,” said Zhu Feng, an expert on the South China Sea at Nanjing University. “I think he wanted to outline the worst case scenario. The problem is that it could pull both powers into a vicious cycle.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-nominees-proposal-to-block-china-from-islands-sets-off-alarms-1484222650?mod=e2tw

[Feeling the Bern]

1. This is a source of argument with my wife and me. She is totally sold on the CCP propaganda shit

she has been forcefed for years.

[Hortensis]

2. OMG.

[NewJeffCT]

3. so, a naval blockade in the South China Sea

while we "bomb the shit out of ISIS" and who knows what else? Where is the money for all this?

[Javaman]

6. don't worry Herr tRumpinstein will just print more. nt

[christx30]

9. And getting rid of anything

resembling health care for Americans.

[Ford_Prefect]

4. Let's start WWIII without a Clue!

Looks like Putin's pals are ready to start WWIII without even asking Congress.

[mnhtnbb]

5. Now we know why Trump wants all the new Navy ships

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2569782/donald-trump-orders-massive-4billion-investment-in-us-navy-fleet-amid-fears-of-war-with-aggressive-china-and-russia/

[Ligyron]

7. By Gawd, you're right!

[NewJeffCT]

8. $4 billion?

for new ships? That doesn't seem right. That seems like what the Navy might spend each year on maintenance and upkeep of the current fleet? The new Zumwalt destroyer cost somewhere over $1 billion just for one.

[DK504]

10. But he wants to keep the boondoggle

that is the F-35. That's so fiscally responsible.

[vkkv]

11. Drumphuck is a great danger to lives and at the vvery least, our livelyhood.