China stages military drills in South China Sea

news.yahoo.com...

BEIJING – China says its maritime forces staged three days and nights of exercises in the South China Sea, a disputed, resource-rich region where tensions are rising.

The official People's Daily newspaper said Friday that the drills involved a total of 14 patrol boats, landing craft and submarine hunting boats, along with two military aircraft. It says the exercises were aimed at refining anti-submarine, replenishment and island defense capabilities in dealing with a sudden crisis.

Sudden crisis?

There have been tensions in the South China Sea between Vietnam and China and the Phillippines recently. Just a few days before the Chinese held these drills, Vietnam held their own. I think theres a thread somewhere on here about the Vietnam drills but I cant find it at the moment. Plus, Vietnam and the US are supposed to hold a joint drill in a few weeks I think.

Do I think there will be a war over this? No. I think its just muscle flexing at the moment.

Edit - Heres the thread with the Vietnam drills a few days ago. www.abovetopsecret.com...

Looks like my OP article got updated a few minutes ago. Heres a couple pieces from the updates.

The paper did not say exactly when or where the exercises took place, although a graphic accompanying the story implied they were held near the Spratly Islands, where China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam all maintain garrisons.

The South China Sea is a pretty big area. If they actually held the drills near the Spartly's, it even more looks like they're muscle flexing.

In addition, the military's official Liberation Army Daily newspaper reported that an exercise was held on June 6 in which amphibious vehicles — most likely tanks — were successfully offloaded from ships onto a South China Sea island. No other details were given, and it was unclear whether the exercise was among those the People's Daily reported.

The report of the exercises follows the dispatch Wednesday of one of its largest maritime patrol ships on a first-ever visit to Singapore, a voyage in which it will transit the South China Sea.

Heres a youtube video that covers some of the stuff going on in the area, but it dosent mention the Chinese drills.

Gates already attended a meeting with the folks involved in this next area of turmoil. I have no idea what came of the meeting. He did release a statement about how it's the U.S.'s job to maintain order there.

If the U.S. is involved, you can be damned sure that stuff will eventually hit the fan.

I'm a child of the 50's and 60's. What I remember most from that era was some folks arguing loudly how the U.S. should not be the policemen of the world.

And I agree.