Chinese military survey ship docks at Sri Lanka port

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Reuters

By Uditha Jayasinghe

COLOMBO, Aug 16 (Reuters) - The Chinese survey vessel Yuan Wang 5 docked on Tuesday at Sri Lanka's Chinese-built port of Hambantota, a port official said, a move likely to stoke concern in neighbouring India about the growing influence of its bigger and more powerful rival.

The movements of the ship have fuelled contention between India and China, two of Sri Lanka's biggest allies in its current economic crisis, as India fears China could use the port, near the main Asia-Europe shipping route, as a military base.

"The vessel will be berthed for three days," the official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media, told Reuters from the southern port.

"The purpose of staying at the port is to stock up on fuel, food and other essentials."

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/chinese-military-survey-ship-docks-sri-lanka-port-2022-08-16/

[oldsoftie]

1. Our consumer dollars at work. nt

[Lulu KC]

2. Good point! n/t

[progree]

3. China's Catastrophic Oil & Gas Problem VIDEO

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017754511
This explains why China is so urgently working on controlling the South China Sea and beyond. Its 39 minutes but is quite manageable timewise if watch it in say three 13 minute segments.

See also:

Russia's Catastrophic Oil & Gas Problem, VIDEO
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216995147

[Alexander Of Assyria]

4. So why of concern? A survey ship? America has hundreds of ships and warplanes docked everywhere!

America IS the world police, how dare anyone else challenge the 800 billion dollar a year police budgets with a budget of their own!

Defund the military, Fund the Police Reformation!

Reuters and AP are the propaganda wing of the Pentagon, the product is fear…tho of what?

[oldsoftie]

5. So you want to follow Trump's wishes & stop helping to police "the world"?

Would you rather partner with China Russia or the US? Because those are your choices. And those are the choices for every country. When the other two have more influence than the US, we're screwed.
If the US goes down the road Donald Trump wanted, then our influence drops & we become more dependent on others. Not a safe place to be; especially with china controlling more & more rare earth minerals.
In the modern world its total insanity for the US to withdraw from its usual role.
"Defund the military" is just another great way to get democrats defeated at the polls.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

6. Defund the military, Refund the Citizens! 800 billion a year is obscene! Most would agree if

most were told and there was ever a real debate…never is.

[oldsoftie]

7. Utterly ridiculous. Do you see what's happening in Ukraine? "Most" would NOT agree

Its totally insane to think we could survive without a military
How powerful would NATO be without the US?
How long would South Korea last without the US?
How log would Taiwan last?
Japan?
ANY of the former Eastern Bloc?
How quickly WE would be in serious trouble with China & Russia controlling world supplies?
We'd be living like it was 1900 again.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

8. Ok, so let's say 400 billion a year is enough to do all that? 400 billion a year for good stuff!

[rockfordfile]

9. We're not doing that

We're not defunding the military. We need to increase our investment into the military. We've got Russia and China threat.

Russia and China would love for us to have little military.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

12. Lol...ever take a look at how much America spends on military, compared to everyone? Shocking!

Military needs more and more money! China! NK! Etc. etc.
Propaganda working its magic for the military.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

15. So you're saying that we're not facing threats from China? The Norks?

Russia I'm not too worried, my experience working with Russian forces, and the Ukrainian debacle, show just what an inept conventional Military they really are.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

17. The only real threat is from the war propaganda!

2000 nuclear warheads means nothing to fear!

[MarineCombatEngineer]

18. You're hilarious.

I gotta hand it to ya, ya do great comedy.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

19. I concede. The giant emoji has defeated me!

[MarineCombatEngineer]

20. Nothing to concede, this is a chat board, for better or worse.

We may disagree on this issue, but I'll bet my pension that we agree on many, many others.

Have a great Thursday.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

21. Oh, and just for the record,

I have no problem with that Chinese Navy ship docking at the Sri Lanka port, they have every right to dock at any port that allows them to, as we do.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

23. Yes, thanks for that! Which really was the beginning of my discourse! Survey ship??

But AP has never met a foreign military it can’t use to play the fear card!

[MarineCombatEngineer]

24. +100. nt

[MarineCombatEngineer]

11. ....

Defund the military, Fund the Police Reformation!

Oh yeah, that's real smart, leave us wide open for our opponents, that's fucking brilliant.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

13. Wide open? Nonsense. American super muscled military could use a diet!

All Americans will benefit from eating the trimmed fat!

[MarineCombatEngineer]

14. Nope.

I vehemently disagree with your nonsensical drivel.

We live in a dangerous world and I would rather have the strongest, best trained, best equipped Military on the planet.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

16. 820 billion a year not enough? How much more and more and more $$ is needed until

Americans stop fearing….what?

[XorXor]

25. Is the US taking issue with this? I don't think I saw that in the article

It says that India has raised some concerns. I believe some of the citizens of Sir Lanka have some concerns given the debt they took on to build that generally useless port that is mostly ignored. And being as how it's not used much, they had little choice by to hand it over to the Chinese with a 99-year lease (who built the port and provided the loans for the port). I'd say this and many other examples of projects playing out similarly in Central Asia and Africa, I think we can put to bed any notion that China is just a benevolent actor that only does good. Which is fine. That's how the world works. I don't think there are any benevolent states out there. It is what it is. I just think that we should be just as critical of Chinese actions as we are of those of the US and other western nations.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

28. Chinese form of kindness is...killing with kindness using infrastructure...preferable to actual

killing preferred by US and the muscle bound militarized West!

The actual poor nations benefitting from all this actual Chinese benevolence, or being enslaved, take your pick, prefer this over that kind of imperialism!

More than one way to spread influence, America is still clinging to the military ways…dead philosophy, being clearly lapped by China!

[Recursion]

10. Not sure where PRC thinks they're going to get fuel and food from...

The island is not exactly swimming in either of them right now

[XorXor]

26. Would serve well as a naval base for the PLAN.

That whole String of Pearls thing discusses the idea behind this. It does seem to be playing out as some have suggested. Which isn't to say that China should or could be stopped from doing it, but it makes sense to identify it for what it is.

[Recursion]

27. I mean, if you look at the ship China isn't even pretending

It's a razed-down frigate with like 8 antenna and dish arrays on it

[rictofen]

22. Essentials such as honey?