solarz
Brigadier
True enough, although at this point, the benefits of such a strategy is questionable.
China's SCS Strategy Thread
- Thread starter lilzz
- Start date
True enough, although at this point, the benefits of such a strategy is questionable.
I can't find an appropriate thread to put this in, so this will have to do.
SO CHINA CAN FINANCE INFRA PROJECTS
Zhao backs emergency powers for Duterte
Published February 10, 2017 6:43pm
Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua on Friday expressed support for the granting of emergency powers to President Rodrigo Duterte by Congress.
In a speech at a business forum in Davao City, Zhao said that giving emergency powers to the President is necessary to jumpstart transportation and related infrastructure projects in the Philippines that China wants to finance, given that a Filipino President only gets six years in a term.
"There is as very strong sense of urgency. As you know, infrastructure projects cannot be done overnight. They usually take years to finish, and given the fact that the presidential term is only six years, so we must hurry. We have to get it done within the presidential term. We are quite afraid of taking up projects that go beyond the presidential term because that would mean a lot of challenges and uncertainties," he said.
"I hope President Duterte can get his emergency power as soon as possible. Without the emergency power, I think the big infrastructure projects — the process is going to be very slow, particularly with regard to the rehabilitation or the land issue, so we might be stuck there," he added.
, China promised to provide US$6 billion in soft loans and a US$3 billion credit line through the Bank of China, along with other deals signed by the private sectors.
Zhao also assured that the Chinese-funded projects in the Philippines will not be marred by corruption.
"Both China and the Philippines are quite serious about the transparency, rule-based procedure for all the infrastructure projects we are discussing. We are finalizing the guidelines which will guide us to make sure the projects will be carried out in a transparent and rule-based manner, and will stand the test of time. So in another way, we are trying our best to make sure that these projects are going to be corruption-free," he said. —JST, GMA News
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SO CHINA CAN FINANCE INFRA PROJECTS
Zhao backs emergency powers for Duterte
Published February 10, 2017 6:43pm
Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua on Friday expressed support for the granting of emergency powers to President Rodrigo Duterte by Congress.
In a speech at a business forum in Davao City, Zhao said that giving emergency powers to the President is necessary to jumpstart transportation and related infrastructure projects in the Philippines that China wants to finance, given that a Filipino President only gets six years in a term.
"There is as very strong sense of urgency. As you know, infrastructure projects cannot be done overnight. They usually take years to finish, and given the fact that the presidential term is only six years, so we must hurry. We have to get it done within the presidential term. We are quite afraid of taking up projects that go beyond the presidential term because that would mean a lot of challenges and uncertainties," he said.
"I hope President Duterte can get his emergency power as soon as possible. Without the emergency power, I think the big infrastructure projects — the process is going to be very slow, particularly with regard to the rehabilitation or the land issue, so we might be stuck there," he added.
, China promised to provide US$6 billion in soft loans and a US$3 billion credit line through the Bank of China, along with other deals signed by the private sectors.
Zhao also assured that the Chinese-funded projects in the Philippines will not be marred by corruption.
"Both China and the Philippines are quite serious about the transparency, rule-based procedure for all the infrastructure projects we are discussing. We are finalizing the guidelines which will guide us to make sure the projects will be carried out in a transparent and rule-based manner, and will stand the test of time. So in another way, we are trying our best to make sure that these projects are going to be corruption-free," he said. —JST, GMA News
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supercat
Major
antiterror13
Brigadier
I don't really think matters what he (Trump) says anyway ... just could change anytime
solarz
Brigadier
Exactly! Trump has said a lot of things, but done very little. Judge by actions, not words. Obama also said he wanted to reset relations with Russia when he first came into office.
Blackstone
Brigadier
This is probably opening gambit in Trump's "Art of the Deal." The only scenario I could see where Russia gives Crimea back to Ukraine is if the latter is reincorporated into Greater Russia.
Blackstone
Brigadier
Questions must be asked about why the Navy is planning fresh actions, because the goals aren't clear. Are new actions needed to assert FON rights under international law? I doubt it, because current US FON operations already do that, and more missions wouldn't gain additional rights. Are the actions to reassure friends and allies US can be counted on to protect them from China? That might be one objective, but since the Trump administration backed out of TPP and then tried and failed to use the "One China" policy as a bargaining chip, it's not likely more FONOPs with would assure nervous allies.
The cynic part of me think it's another case of Washington choosing the urgent over the important with more dog and pony shows that give illusion of strong actions, while at the same time increase tensions with Beijing for no appreciable gains. The bottom line is it's bad for long-term US interests in Asia.
supercat
Major
plawolf
Lieutenant General
Those operating costs are largely the same irrespective of whether the carrier is tied up at port or deployed at sea.
Sailors still need to housed, fed and clothed; air crew still need to fly and train etc. USN carriers are all nuclear, so fuel costs for the 'boat' itself doesn't really change.
The biggest cost difference will be fuel costs for the escorts, but that's just small peanuts compared to all the other costs associated with owning the ships. At least as far as the USN is concerned.
For China, long range deployments would cost more per mile, since its ships are all conventionally powered, and they lack foreign bases so all the supplies and fuel need to be carried by replenish ships. But then, it costs a lot of money to run foreign bases.
At the end of the day, to sum up, think of it like this, the USN is like someone who has paid a premium price for an unlimited calls contract, whereas the PLAN is on a (much smaller)pay as you go contract.
The USN has to pay a huge annual fee irresptive of how many calls it makes, whereas the PLAN gets charged a small fee for each call it makes.
As such, it makes sense for the USN to make as many calls as possible, while the PLAN needs to be a lot more rational about whether or not to make a call.
Ultimately, if the PLAN find that they have commitments that require them to make a lot of calls, it might also be worthwhile for them to move to a unlimited calls packaged, which we are starting to see with recent deployments in the Indian Ocean and rumours of nuclear carriers.
But the downside of that is that the navy may be tempted to help create tensions to justify the high frequency of deployments, to justify the huge fixed costs, rather than acccept cost cutting, as we are seeing with the USN to some degree.
Peace and stability are not good for a service with massive costs and no justifiable need for its vast fleets at a time or shrinking defence budgets.