China and her neighbours

China shares a common border with 17 countries and despite losing a lot of territories to them when it was semi colonized by the western powers, it only has problem with one of its neighbours on border issues. China has lost territories to Russia and Mongolia but has agreed to live with the status quo. The only other country that is giving China border problem is India, for wanting to seize the disputed territories cut away from China by the British that ended in a very embarrassing border war in 1962. In a way the humiliating defeat has kept the Indians from having more funny designs over the last 50 years and the border relatively peaceful.

If China is an expansionist country and harbouring bad intentions to covet its neighbour’s territories, China would have no peace with so many countries sharing a common border with her. And many of these are very small and militarily weak countries, like Laos, Bhutan, Nepal and bigger countries like Myanmar, Bangladesh that China could take advantage of. But no, they live in peace with no border claims issue.

And who are the countries that have border issues with China other than India? Japan is well known for stealing Chinese territories and claiming the Diaoyu Islands as Japan’s. Japan did not share a common border with China and is separated by sea. The other countries with border issues with China are like Japan, separated by sea, are Malaysia and the Philippines. And the problem arises from their claims on Chinese islands. Vietnam is also claiming Chinese islands in the South China Sea.

Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Japan are having border problems with China not because of China claiming their land but instead they are claiming China’s territories in the Seas. The accusation of China being an aggressive and expansionist country is therefore an irony, a fabrication. The problem China had with these countries is caused by these countries claiming China’s territories. These countries are the aggressive and expansionist ones, wanting to seize China’s territories, not the other way.

It is a case of robbers calling and yelling thief. They are trying to steal China’s territories but calling China the thief. If they have no designs on China’s islands in the seas, they would have no trouble with China. They are the trouble makers for China. China is the victim of aggression by these pesky small countries, with the US poking them from behind to keep provoking China.

This is another perspective of the South China Sea problems. Ask those neighbours of China if China is expansionist and claiming their lands? Don’t ask India. India is claiming Chinese territories like some Asean countries and Japan.

Singapore will say thank you to Wee Cho Yaw

I read this comment in TRE on my post ‘The equity casino is going to draw its curtain soon’.

new world order:

October 31, 2015 at 1:07 pm  new world order(Quote)

The derivative market is worth a quadrillion dollars of bubble awaiting to burst.

When it burst, it will be the crash of all crashes.

Most of the banks will be affected, and depositor can expect their cash deposit to be used for bailing in the collapsing bank.

Therefore, you people should crash the bank before it crashes

 

The derivative game is like building a house of cards with nothing but air. It is pure shuffling of papers, printing papers as money. What it takes is for a few cards to be pulled out and the whole house of cards will simply collapse and nothing is left. The last American financial crisis did not teach them anything and the bubble is now even bigger, building the banking and financial industry with a fraudulent system is simply idiocy.  The next collapse will bring the banking and financial industry its knee.

The other lesson of too big to fail is still being followed here mindlessly like the Two Child Policy. No one had the guts and wisdom to turn it around when it was over taken by events and the changing economic needs in the island. There was the talk of Singapore could not have too many banks but one or two big banks. The lesson of too big to fail in the USA fell on deaf ears again. It was so fortunate that there was Wee Chow Yaw to resist the intent to cut down the number of local banks to one or two banks.

When the banking industry collapses due to the fictitious and fraudulent derivative trades, yes it is still bringing in big money but unsustainable, just like what is happening to the stock market. The stock market has collapsed if one is willing to see the truth. The denial that it is still healthy and kicking is irresponsible. When the derivative market crashes, all the banks now laughing at the easy profits will go bust, and so will their high net worth customers.

Then we will say thank you to Wee Cho Yaw. Because of him we still have 3 local banks and hopefully at least one or two will still be standing. Those banks still deep in derivative trades should quickly wind up their dabbling in this fraudulent instrument or at least cut down the exposure substantially to minimize the exposure should that day comes. All fraudulent schemes are like Ponzi Schemes, unsustainable and must collapse. It is a matter of when, not how. A scam is a scam.

Hopefully there will still be a UOB and a OCBC left. But they must not join the derivative band wagon and get intoxicated in the easy money. It is better to earn decent money from solid traditional banking than gambling. The banks and financial industry must not be turned into legalized casino with little or no regulations. At least the casinos are very well regulated and the risk minimized. Or at least no gambler is gullible enough to think otherwise punting in a casino. But a banking and finance industry, with deregulations and little regulations and allowing itself to turn into a casino without the strict regulations is creating a false sense of security. Everyone is pretending that it is not a casino in different forms.

The end game will come soon. There are two major risks. A highly risky banking and finance industry dabbling with derivatives and still drugged to think derivatives are the new designer’s drug for the well heeled or sophisticated clients. The other risk is too few local banks, only 3 and if 2 were to go, could even be 3, there will be nothing left.

But the experts would have everyone to believe all is fine.

The crime against the citizens

‘Acturial science graduate Michelle Lew has sent her resume to more than 100 firms since last December, hoping to land a permanent job. But almost a year later, she has not received a single job offer.

“I think it’s because the economy is bad. I’m not sure why. I’m working in an insurance firm as a temp….”’ Quoted from ST dated 2 Nov 15( Acturial should be spelt actuarial).

The difficulties in getting employment by our citizens have gone down to our young graduates. Our very own children are being employed as temp workers while hundreds of thousands of foreigners with silly degrees from silly universities are taking away their jobs. And no one is raising an eye brow, thinking that it is normal. This is a crime against our very own citizens committed by our employers and unproductive foreigner companies allowed to set up business here and to employ their own kind.

I thought after the last GE the govt will change its policies toward more pro citizens. Lim Swee Say is working hard to change the pro foreigner policies of the past to be more pro Singaporean. Hopefully this is the beginning of things getting betterer. He has started to give the breakdowns in employment statistics for citizens and PRs. But from this reported case, many Michelles are still left in the lurch. Our very own children cannot get a normal employment and we are giving hundreds of thousands of jobs to half baked foreigners.

What is happening? No, it is not the economy is bad. It is bad policies. If the economy is bad, why would so many foreigners of average or under average grades at executive and middle management or even senior management be employed and NOT Singaporeans?

Michele and her peers must not be misled to thinking it is the economy. We need to take care of our citizens first. We need to give jobs to our citizens. All the changes in education policies will be hogwash if we do not take our citizens, graduates of our education, seriously and give them jobs. We might as well close down all our universities if we continue to employ foreigners instead of our children.

Go figure why is this the case? You vote for a govt to take care of you, at least to give you good jobs, not temp jobs, not to give jobs to foreigners and say you are not good. Fully employed citizens do not need subsidies.  Is this not a crime against our citizens, our children?

Michele and many of her peers are not lazy, choosy and stupid Singaporeans. They are graduates from our world class universities and willing to work, wanting to work. Who is there to help them, our children?

MOM could simply not approve a few more applications for EPs and there will be plenty of jobs for our citizens. These are not highly skilled and difficult jobs that need special talents.

Ong Chuan Yan, a HR major has sent out applications for more than 6 months. He said, ‘It’s quite stressful because it’s already very competitive and, on top of that, there may be a decision made not to hire anyone.’

South China Sea a win win solution for China and the USA

I wrote this article last week and this morning Today’s frontpage headline flashes this, ‘S China Sea tensions increasing demand for US presence: Pentagon’.  Our local media seem to be very happy to sing the song of the USA. Yes, after raising tensions in the South China Sea, the Americans are drumming up the story that they are needed to bring peace to the region when there was peace before, and some countries are begging them to be here, to increase their military presence in the South China Sea. It is so easily done, to manipulate the silly Asian countries to fight among themselves and to invite the Americans as their guarantor of peace.

Now my article, ‘Was it done by design or things just happened that way, the US provocation in the South China is serving the interests of both the US and China but the silly countries in the region would end up the unthinking and ignorant victims of the power game being played.

What would be the objectives of the US to want to put up a brazen challenge to China by sailing all the way from the land they stole from the Red Indians, across the Pacific Ocean, just to sail a warship outside the 12nm limit of China’s islands? Was it just a show of force to please the Pinoys that big brother is strong and reliable, and it would be better to allow big brother back into Sublc and Clark bases?

The US has bigger concerns. They need to raise tension in the region to make sure they are not driven away. The South Koreans and the Japanese did not want to be semi colonies of the Americans forever. It affects their national pride, to have foreign military bases in their country and to act as if they cannot defend themselves. The Japanese nearly conquered the whole of Asia on their own. They don’t need the Americans to shit, oops, I mean sit in their country like the yakuza and collecting protection money from the Japanese govt. Both Japan and South Korea are getting restless and wanting the Americans out of their countries. Raising tension in the South China Sea would give the Americans the reason to tell these two semi colonies that China is threatening them and they cannot survive without the American troops in their countries.

It would also frighten the shit out of the silly Asean countries. The Americans will tell them, ‘see, the Chinese are expansionist and you need big brother to be around’. And these silly countries will panic and run to America to buy more weapons of war just in case.

The Americans have all to gain and to be patrolling the South China Sea with the consent of the frightened Asean countries like they own the South China Sea. They will become the de facto policeman or gangster in the region, protecting the daft countries with a red herring demon in China. I will post another article on why this is a red herring, China and its neighbours.  The pretentious provocation only cost the Americans some allowances paid to the sailors and burning off some cheap gas.

What about China? China has all the time professed not to militarise the South China Sea. Now with the US provocation, with American warships sailing around their islands, who can tell them not to militarise the islands? They have all the legitimate rights to defend their islands in the face of a military challenge. Now China will conveniently send in all their weapons and turn them into Guam and Gan, military fortresses.  The Americans have given the Chinese the exact excuse to do what they wanted to do but holding back to avoid more accusations from the Asean states.

China must be quietly saying thank you to the Americans for doing them this great favour. Or is this the agreement between Xi Jinping and Obama in Washington during his recent trip? The two super powers putting up a show for all the silly countries in East Asia and South East Asia to see and to panic and to accept a new reality, the militarization of South China Sea and furiously buying more weapons of war from the Americans for a fake security?

The Americans and the Chinese know very well that war between them is beyond comprehension and both would avoid it by all means. Putting up a show to frighten the monkeys and both benefitting from the circus are probably agreed in Washington. The US will get to stay in the region to maintain peace and to ‘balance’ China’s rise while China got to militarise the islands in the South China Sea. And all the silly countries would have to accept American bases and turn themselves into semi American colonies and emptying their pockets to buy more war toys.

What do you think is the truth?

Provoking A Rising Dragon

The American Eagle Fails to Provoke Fight with an Ascending Dragon

By MIKOspace 

Last week and for the very first time, the United States (US) sent one of its most powerful warship, the guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen, to conduct a patrol within 12 nautical miles of a collection of islands disputed by China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Phillippines, Brunei and Malaysia. The US called the mission around the disputed islands in the South China Sea "an assertion of freedom of navigation and as a means to balance power in the region".  Observers noted quickly that the USA herself is not a direct party or a party of interest over the islands per se. 

Officially, the US claimed that its first naval patrol in the area did not target China but was aimed at safeguarding the freedom of navigation on what she considered to be “international” waters. The US warship would conduct its patrol around various man-made features that China, Vietnam and the Philippines have built up in that South China Sea region.  There is however no evidence that maritime navigation or commercial shipping have been affected by the territorial claims by various countries.  As it happened, Chinese navy ships watched puzzlingly at the rather aimless manoeuvres of the US warship which lasted several hours.  It was also unclear what she had accomplished as she sailed away to return to her home port about 4,000km away at Yokosuka Naval Base in Yokosuka, Japan.  

And as the surrounding ASEAN countries watched the political show out of bemused amazement and unfunny concern, it was abundantly clear that the US’ move was designed to harass so as provoke an irritated response from the Chinese, who of course did not take the bait of a rather childish faux pas.  No one thought that the USA had any intention to launch a military clash with China over a region where she has no specific interests at stake.   Perhaps, this warship sideshow was somehow timed and planned to ease the passage for a Defense Spending Bill where the delusion of a “looming and imminent war” with China would provide the much needed boost to the US military industrial complex in the absence of their 2 highly “profitable” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.     

The US was actually warned to stay away from Chinese territorial waters by virtue of the other islands and reefs in the Nansha Islands under her undisputed control. Neither has China broken any international laws in building structures  and land reclamation around 2 of the disputed reefs. Other countries in the dispute have already embarked on various civil constructions before the Chinese.  China's construction work in the area is completely legal and the US would grudgingly acknowledge that.  Never mind US fears that the changing geopolitical situation in the area could be changed following China's island reclamation and that China would gain the advantage for control of all the Nansha Islands and the adjacent seas.  In the event however, no US interest would be affected or harmed.   

From a regional security perspective, ASEAN countries watched with utter disbelief to behold a military superpower like the USA flexing its maritime muscles in such blatant display of irresponsible brinkmanship.  There was nothing to be gained by it and nothing was gained.  And the US also lost tremendous prestige to have her modern warship “retreating” with her flag literally between her propellers.   

Entirely of her own making, the proud American Eagle was thoroughly humiliated and routed by a smarter Ascendent Dragon who refused to play the silly and childish game of “Gotcha”.    

In stark contrast, the US did not display such “righteous” belligerence when her prestige and interests were actually challenged by the Russian Bear in March 2015 when Russia forcibly annexes the Crimea peninsula of Ukraine.  Three US Presidents, who are all alive today – Clinton, Bush and Obama, all reiterated and emphasised US power to safeguard the territorial integrity of Ukraine.  This was in support of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, a political agreement signed with Russia and the United Kingdom in Budapest, Hungary, providing security assurance guarantees for its sovereignty and territorial integrity to then newly formed Ukraine. 

Today, Crimea remained annexed to Russia. No US naval ships challenged the internationally condemned annexation by sailing into Crimean waters, nor did US warplanes fly into Ukraine airspace above Crimea.  Effectively, in spite of the words and promises of three US Presidents, the US had simply abrogated its promises and turned its back on Ukraine.  In March 2015, the American Eagle chose not to confront but to surrender without a fight to the Russian Bear over Ukraine where it had definitive interests as NATO backyard; yet, it chose to provoke but fail to arouse the Chinese Dragon in a region where it has no specific vested interests.  Such is the shameful failure of American Foreign Policy – the absence of clear interests, the ambiguity of her values and the lack of decisive leadership to act and lead where they matter.  

Americans and their leaders apparently have forgotten the words of a former arch-enemy, Japan: "I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve” said by Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, upon learning of Japan’s successful attack that he masterminded on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 killing more than 1,400 Americans and wounding another 1,200.

Beware awaking the Ascendent Dragon and fill her with a terrible resolve.

Related:

Beware Awaking A Rising Dragon

LKY’s Timeless Advice on East Asia

APEC Without Japan