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China's devious move under cover of virus
As outbreaks debilitate the US navy, there are fears China may be using the coronavirus pandemic as cover for asserting control over the South China Sea.
A Vietnamese fishing boat has been rammed and sunk. Military aircraft have landed at its artificial-island fortresses. And large-scale naval exercises has let everyone know China's navy is still pushing the boundaries, hard.
Meanwhile, the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group has retreated from the contested waterway in an unscheduled return to Guam – with hundreds of cases of COVID-19 on board.
China's Peoples Liberation Army knows this presents an opportunity.
"The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly lowered the US Navy's warship deployment capability in the Asia-Pacific region," an article on its official website declares.
The website insists not a single one of its soldiers, sailors or pilots had contracted COVID-19. Instead, the crisis had served to strengthen the combat readiness and resolve of the Chinese military.
That has international affairs analysts worried that even a short-term withdrawal of US and international from the East and South China Seas could give Beijing the opportunity it has been waiting for.
"I think China is exploiting the US Navy's coronavirus challenges to improve its position in the South China Sea by giving the appearance it can and will operate there at will while the US is hamstrung," former Pacific Command Joint Intelligence Centre director Carl Schuster told CNN.
Previously:
(2020-01-09) China Initiates Conflict with Indonesia in the South China Sea
(2019-12-21) Malaysian Top Envoy: China's 'Nine-Dash Line' Claim 'Ridiculous'
(2019-11-22) US Warships Sail in Disputed South China Sea Amid Tensions
(2019-05-14) China Builds New Type 002 Mega Carrier as the Age of Sea Power Wanes
(2018-05-13) China Begins Sea Trials for its First Domestically Developed Aircraft Carrier
(2017-12-24) World's Largest Amphibious Plane in Production Takes Flight in China
(2017-05-25) US Warship Challenges China's Claims in South China Sea
(2017-04-26) China Launches Aircraft Carrier
(2017-03-14) Japan to Send its Biggest Warship to the South China Sea
(2017-01-13) Chinese State Media Boasts About its New Electronic Reconnaissance Ship
(2016-07-14) China's South China Sea Claims Rejected By "Binding" but Unenforceable Tribunal Ruling
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 12 2020, @09:49PM (1 child)
Of course they wouldn't. NYT are fifth-columnist Jews giving aid to their buddies the Chinese. That's the dirty little secret, the Jews and Chinese are working together to subvert America. Fifth-columnist Feinstein and her Chinese "chauffeur," Liddle Adam Schitt, Weinstein, Epstein, Wasserman-schulz and the Awan brothers, the Jew coup.
These times present a challenge to America, but they also present an opportunity: to disentangle America's interests from Chinese and Israeli interests. Then send Bill Gates and George Soros to the Hague, like Slobodan. The only difference is that Slobodan was a hero who fought for his people. Bill Gates and Soros are rootless cosmopolitan pieces of shit with no loyalty to anything other than their own psychopathy and god complexes.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2020, @02:30AM
Every time you sit in front of a keyboard, every time you put pen to paper, every time you open your mouth, you show just how stupid you are. I'm sorry you're retarded and the world scares you, but that's not an excuse for willful stupidity. I heard that large amounts of rat poison can cure early-onset dumbness. You should try that.