Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

In a dramatic move, a Chinese official had a single-page advertisement for Taiwan’s  Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange  taken out of the program at the  20th conference of the European Association of Chinese Studies  (EACS), held at the University of Minho in Portugal on July 22-26. The Chinese official was reportedly Madame Xu Lin, an adviser to China’s State Council and director general of the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, known as “ Hanban . ” Xu’s high-handedness shocked many in and outside of Taiwan,  at a time when cross-strait relations are relatively stable . Swift and harsh  responses from Taiwanese officials  and the public condemned the act and blamed Xu for hurting Taiwanese feelings and harming cross-strait relations. The Minho incident is a blow to  China’s soft power . It not only widens the political and psychological gap between Taiwan and mainland China, but also risks canceling out much of the g

PLA ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Author) By now the statistics of  China’s rise  are well-known. It has the world’s second largest gross domestic product (GDP). It will likely overtake U.S. GDP in the next decade. It is the world’s second largest spender on defense. It aims to build a blue-water navy, including aircraft carriers. It likely already has the missile and drone ability to deny the U.S. Navy the ability to operate inside the “first island chain” (from southern Japan south through Taiwan and the Philippines to the South China Sea) without unacceptable losses. It has the world’s largest population: one in seven persons today is a Chinese national. As Hugh White has  argued , the U.S. has never faced a greater challenger in its history as a world power. The U.S. roughly emerged as a great power in the 1880s. In that time, it has faced four major challengers: German nationalism in WWI, fascism in World War II, communism in the Cold War, and millenarian jihadism in

Chinese Military ( Image Credits- Wikimedia Commons/ United States DOD) The recent Shangri-la meeting in Singapore saw some sharp exchanges between Chinese and other participants. Beijing’s deployment of an oil rig protected by more than 80 naval vessels in the South China Sea four days after President Barack Obama’s “reassurance trip” to China’s East Asian neighbors in April 2014 was widely seen as a deliberate and calculated provocation. Yet China’s move fits a pattern of advancing territorial claims on its periphery through coercion, intimidation, and the threat of force through what may be called “paramilitary operations short of war” (POSOW). China’s drilling rig is also a political statement of Beijing’s resolve and capability to control and exploit the South China Sea and deny it to others – and this message is meant as much for Washington as for Tokyo, Hanoi, Manila, Jakarta, and New Delhi. While exploring oil in the disputed waters, the $1 billion oil rig is supposedly

President Obama in Japan ( Image courtesy- The White House/Chuck Kennedy) President Barack Obama leaves today for a tour of Asia, with stops in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The trip is Obama’s first to Asia since 2012 — a planned visit to Southeast Asia in the fall of 2013  was cancelled due to the government shutdown  in Washington. While Obama will not be visiting China, the trip could have major implications for U.S.-China relations. As former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in his memoir, “On any trip to Asia, even if China isn’t on the itinerary, it is on the agenda.” Beijing will certainly be watching the tour with great interest, trying to gauge U.S. commitment to and intentions for the Asia-Pacific region. During U.S. Secretary of Defense  Chuck Hagel’s recent trip to China,  Chinese officials made it abundantly clear that they pay close attention to comments made to other Asian officials. Before arriving in Beijing, Hagel met with  ASEAN

http://thediplomat.com/2013/11/how-china-plans-to-use-the-su-35/?allpages=yes

http://www.defensenews.com/article/20131111/DEFREG03/311110015?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/11/01/1251738/world-must-oppose-china-maritime-claims-us-congress-leader