You have checked the map of what China claims I hope?  There are areas well over 1000 miles from China's coastline and yet less than 100 miles from somebody else's coastline that China claims.  There is no logic to that.  It's not like they are basing it on a 200 mile limit from a contested island.

What is Canada doing, well we signed onto the law of the sea convention.  If there is a dispute, it should go to the UN which it is, and the wrong doer if found guilty should be punished with sanctions.

The US hasn't signed on because we all know how popular 'submitting' to an outside force would be in US politics.  Would it be hypocritical?  Perhaps, not that that has stopped anybody anytime when looking out for their own best interests.  It could even be "blamed" on US politics, I have the utmost belief in the ability of Americans to pull off the difficult.

Yet this same law will come into play in the near future in the Arctic determining who has the right to drill where.  It probably would be in the US's best interest to sign up to this law.  The US will not be the toughest kid on the block for long, time to start thinking longterm.  The US will need friends in the future, this habit of going it alone is too expensive to keep up.

I'm sorry if I was suggesting it is up to the US to solve everything and pay for everything.  It would be nice however if they were not one of the 19 countries in the world who have not signed up to this.  It would be nice if the court of world opinion could decided if China was right and if the world decided to punish China for  being wrong it would be a great accomplishment if a bully didn't win and no bloodshed occurred.

Or we could sit back and let a bully take and say "........peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds."

Honestly, all things aside, do you think what China is claiming is fair to others?

Some peoples calendars seem to be stuck on 420!

The intertnationally recognized law of the sea would be the version to uphold I would think. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea

Interestingly the US has not signed on to it along with about a dozen and a half countries such as:  Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,  Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela.  Not exactly a list I would be proud to belong to but I digress.



So China has signed onto this law along with all the other countries in the area.  Dontcha think it might be a good idea to force China to accept a law/agreement it signed up to.  Or do you think nations should just be allowed to break the law whenever they can get away with it?

I for one like the rule of law, it seems to lead to less wars.

Not that China IS Germany in 1936 but.....there is the rule of law.  If you let a bully break the law and take by force you are hoping the bully will eventually get enough and stop taking.  It certainly did not work in 1936 and I am not sure letting a bully break the law now will help.

No, I think the rule of international law should be upheld.

It's not the beginning of the end nor is it the end of the beginning.  It' not even the beginning of the beginning really but it is the start of the beginning.  It usually starts with chest puffing and the words "Shut up".  Now that the United States is being told to Shut-Up by China I wonder where the start will lead to? Told by their mouthpiece newspaper but again, no paper in China prints what those in power wish to be printed)





http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19144740

Belief ought to never be the default position when coming across new information, in particular on internet forums.

A rather embarrassing situation for China to be in.  I suspect the captain of the Chinese ship will find his career as a sailor will not progress further.  That tends to happen when you run your ship aground 140 KM inside the territorial waters of another nation. 

The headline is "Philippines urges China to explain stranded frigate"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18842839


A slowly evolving escalation....or not?

?? What is WW II history?

The goal of the US was to conquer what is now Canada.  The goal of Britain was to prevent the US from attaining that goal.  Based on this it seems the party that does not attain their goal would certainly not 'win' while the party that does attain their goal would 'win' more than the party that did not attain their goal.

Now, if you move the goal posts and state that the US goal was to stop the British navy from pressing US sailors into the British navy then you would have a different conclusion.

I grew up in the area where much of the fighting occured.  In fact, later today I am going to a celebration where the local flour mill was the only one left standing in the area after the US burned the rest.  No mills means no support for the local militia and army.

I always wondered if the west likes the idea of a modern China, now dependent on the sea lanes.  30 years ago China had nukes and ICBMs, not many but enough.  They also were pretty much immune to the affects of non-nuclear war with 90% of their population peasants living off the land.  Now, a blockade of energy to China would affect their population and thus their internal politics.

I still think the game is fairly balanced.

Too much artillery means the Germans will lack mobility and lack the ability to project threat further that a stack of tanks provides.   I like air with Germany but be careful you don't make yourself too weak on the ground versus Russia.

Well one time when I was 18 I had broken my leg so I had a cast from my ankle to half way up my thigh.   My buddy was riding me double on his bicycle downhill on Niagara St.  We past a cruiser who pulled a U-turn.  My bud was nimble on the bike and by the time the cruiser had down his 180, my friend road us between Time Square and the canal in the rear parking lot.  We squeezed between two buildings, left the bike in tall grass and the cruiser slowly drove past us, missed us hiding in debris and left us alone.  Not bad on one leg if I do say so myself!  Riding double on a bicycle with a broken leg...not sure why we were so scared of the heat!  Oh yeah, no headlight on the bicycle........

Advantage China so far...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18490549

Thanks for the link, I love articles like that.