China's New Target in the Battle to Control the Pacific | 60 Minutes Australia

July 3, 2022 At its closest point the distance between Australia and the Solomon Islands is just under two thousand kilometres. Being so near is why Canberra is so worried about the deals the small Pacific nation is signing with China. It means the once inconceivable idea of a Chinese military base being built right on our doorstep has become a very real possibility. And now there’s another potential threat that must be considered - Beijing is also cosying up to Papua New Guinea, a country of immense strategic significance. As Tom Steinfort reports, at its closest point PNG is less than five kilometres from us.

Why Australia could face first military threat since World War II | 60 Minutes Australia

Tsunami Hits Hawaii After Canada Earthquake
REUTERS CANADA: HONOLULU (Reuters) - Hawaii was hit by a tsunami on Saturday night prompting the authorities to order at least 100,000 people on the island state to move to higher ground.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the first tsunami wave was three feet high and less forceful than expected. Some forecasts had predicted a wave of up to six feet high.

"The tsunami arrived about when we expected it should," Senior Geophysicist Gerard Fryer told reporters at a news conference, saying: "I was expecting it to be a little bigger."

Other waves were expected.

The tsunami hit with little warning and an alert, issued at short notice due to initial confusion among scientists about the quake's undersea epicenter, caused massive traffic congestion as motorists made a mass exodus from low-lying areas. » | Reporting by Jorene Barut and Suzanne Roig in Honolulu; Writing by Steve Gorman and Tim Gaynor; Editing by Andrew Osborn | Sunday, October 28, 2012

REUTERS CANADA: 7.7 magnitude quake hits Canada's British Columbia: (Reuters) – A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 hit Canada's Pacific coastal province of British Columbia late Saturday, setting off a small tsunami, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, officials said. » | Jeffrey Hodgson | Sunday, October 28, 2012

China Bristles as Obama Woos ASEAN Nations

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama has set a course for confrontation with Beijing, as he described an East Asian summit as the best mechanism for tackling the region's seething row over the South China Sea.

The Chinese government has declared that the long-running dispute should be off-limits at talks to be held on Saturday, which will be attended by Mr Obama, China's Premier Wen Jiabao and 16 other nations including several with claims over the waterway.

But Mr Obama said the gathering, held this year on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, "can be the premier arena for us to be able to work together on a wide range of issues - maritime security or non-proliferation".

The president has irritated China with a drive to enhance the US role as a regional power, positioning Marines in northern Australia and pushing for a potentially transformational trans-Pacific trade pact.

Beijing sees the initiatives as intruding into its own sphere of influence, with the dispute over the South China Sea putting the two major world powers' differences into stark focus.

On Friday, Wen again warned against interference by "external forces" in the wrangle. » | Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Friday, November 18, 2011

My comment:

Obama is playing with fire. Two of the dumbest things he did this week were telling the world that the US is not afraid of China, and then going to Australia and advertising the fact that the US was going to expand its military in the region to protect the Australians from the Chinese. Is there no end to this man's cack-handedness? Is there no end to his naïveté? Is there no end to his lack of understanding?

If the US is truly not afraid of China, it is worrying, because it should be. Meddling in the region which is traditionally China's sphere of influence will lead to no good place. Is Obama trying to set the stage for the third world war, or what?

This is troubling indeed! – © Mark

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US Military Pact Raises Tensions at Summit
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: AAP – The Chinese premier has warned against external interference in a dispute over the South China Sea, fuelled by Australia's new military pact with the US, as world leaders prepare to discuss the issue in Bali.

The meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will widen on Saturday into the East Asia Summit, which also takes in Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and, for the first time, the US and Russia.

But while existing priority areas of finance, education, environment, disaster management and health will feature in discussions, an increasingly tense dispute over sovereign rights in the South China Sea is set to steal much of the focus.

Maritime security is not formally on the summit's agenda, but it is expected to be discussed in a retreat session under what has been called "an exchange of ideas on regional and international issues".

China and four ASEAN countries - Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam - have staked territorial claims over the crucial sea lane, which handles more than a third of the world's seaborne trade and half its traffic in oil and gas.

The expected "exchange of ideas" on the long-running dispute comes after the issue was fuelled this week by the announcement that the US will use Australia as a base for an increased military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, viewed as a hedge against China's growing influence. » | Karlis Salna, AAP South-East Asia Correspondent | Friday, November 18, 2011

SPIEGEL ONLINE: China weist USA in die Schranken: Die USA wollen ihre Präsenz im Pazifik ausbauen, jetzt kommt die Replik aus China. Die Amerikaner müssten die Interessen der Volksrepublik respektieren, verlangt Premierminister Wen mit ungewöhnlich deutlichen Worten - und stellt klar: In Südostasien dürften "fremde Staaten" keinen Einfluss nehmen. ¶ Peking/Washington/Bali - Bis hier und nicht weiter: China reagiert scharf auf denStrategiewechsel der USA im Südchinesischen Meer. Peking respektiere zwar die "berechtigten Interessen" der Amerikaner in Ostasien, hieß es in einer Mitteilung des Außenministeriums. Doch im Gegenzug werde erwartet, dass Washington auch die Interessen Chinas berücksichtige, stellte der Sprecher Liu Weimin klar. » | als/Reuters/dpa | Freitag 18. November 2011

US Will Shift Focus from Middle East to Asia Pacific, Barack Obama Declares
Barack Obama has pledged to expand America's military in the Asia Pacific as a "top priority" as he declared the US intends to shift its focus from the Middle East.

Read the article and comment here | Jonathan Pearlman in Canberra | Thursday, November 17, 2011
My comment:

This declaration sounds like a provocation to China to me. It sounds like sabre-rattling. Further, where is broke America going to get the money from? – © Mark

This comment also appears here.

Verstahltes Wasser fließt ins Meer

Verbunden »

Japan befürchtet radioaktive Verseuchung des Pazifik
REUTERS DEUTSCHLAND: Tokio (Reuters) - Die japanische Regierung befürchtet katastrophale Auswirkungen für den Pazifik, wenn weiterhin radioaktiv verseuchte Substanzen aus dem havarierten AKW Fukushima ins offene Meer strömen.

"Wir müssen die Ausbreitung in den Ozean so bald wie möglich stoppen", sagte Regierungssprecher Yukio Edano. AKW-Betreiber Tepco ließ am Montag Millionen Liter schwach radioaktives Wasser ins Meer ab, um Platz in den Reaktoren zu schaffen. Angesichts der Erdbeben- und Tsunami-Katastrophe sprachen sich in einer Umfrage zwei Drittel der Japaner für die Bildung einer Regierung der nationalen Einheit aus.

"Wenn die gegenwärtige Lage mit der Anreicherung radioaktiver Substanzen über lange Zeit anhält, wird es riesige Auswirkungen auf den Ozean haben", sagte Edano. Die Betreiberfirma Tepco forderte er auf, schnell zu handeln. Diese ließ jedoch erst einmal zehn Millionen Liter schwach radioaktiv belastetes Wasser aus dem AKW ab. Es sei 100 Mal stärker verstrahlt als rechtlich zulässig, teilte das Unternehmen mit. Bei dem Wasser handelt es sich um Kühlwasser, das sich in den Reaktoren angesammelt hat. Es müsse abgelassen werden, um Platz für stärker belastetes Kühlwasser zu schaffen. » | © Reuters | Montag, 04. April 2011

Chinese Muslims Trigger Public Backlash in Palau
THE INDEPENDENT: The tiny Pacific nation of Palau's decision to allow 13 Chinese Muslims from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to resettle there has sparked anger among islanders who fear for the safety of the tranquil tourist haven.

The US government determined last year that the Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, were not enemy combatants and should be released from the US military prison in Cuba. China has objected to their resettlement, calling the men "terrorist suspects" and demanding they be sent home.

The US has said it fears the men would be executed if they were returned to China.

Palau President Johnson Toribiong explained his decision to grant the Uighurs entry as traditional hospitality, but public opinion has appeared overwhelmingly negative. Some complained Friday that the government failed to consult the people.

"I totally disagree" with allowing the Uighurs onto Palau, Natalia Baulis, a 30-year-old mother of two, told The Associated Press by telephone.

"It's good to be humanitarian and all, but still these people ... to me are scary," she said.

The Uighurs (pronounced WEE'-gurs) have been in custody since they were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001.

Fermin Nariang, editor of the Palau newspaper Island Times, said he had been stopped in the streets of the capital, Koror, by residents venting their anger. >>> Associated Press | Friday, June 12, 2009