Gwadar: China's Naval Outpost in the Indian Ocean

malaysia did not buy ks-1a yet. this thing is still under negotiation.it has strong
contenders buk-m1-2,aster 30 n hawk-amraam.but the chinese offer really looks nice with tot of fn-6 manpads.about jf-17 there no suggestion becoz with the recent acquisition of su-30mkm n maybee new lift jets plus the recent operating aircraft mig-29n,f-18d n hawk, it would only bring component logistic nigthmare.
but maybe after 10 year

yeah iran will certainly happy if that happen.they will get china as new ally becoz the whole europe is against them.they would to seek economic ally.

I feel quite optimistic Malaysia will get the KS-1A + FN-6 combination. Anyhow, Arab would not pull the plug on China. If they do, that will be barrels of oil with no where to go. Can you imagine how the price will fall on that thing?

yeah i hop so this will stronger mal-china relationship.i agree arab nation will
never sell oil directly to israel until indepence of palestine territory.why arab nation want to stop selling oil to china.they have no problem with china.their relationship with china is improving.even kuwait buy chinese howitzer n egypt
buy k-8.

The idea of Singapore becoming a close ally with China may look ridiculous today, but I was talking about a post China/Taiwan reunification premise. This is still some time off into the future. But when it happens, China will have alot of resources freed up to focus on other things.

And it is indisputable that Singapore is of great strategic importance. As a naval base, it would be the ideal 'pearl.'


After Taiwan, I wouldn't be surprised if China tries to orchestrate an 'orange revolution' in Singapore. By that time China will be one of Singapore's biggest trading partner, if not the biggest.

I can't see Singapore wanting anything to do with unifying with mainland China, they are a prosporous nation, and woule likely be even more frantic at the thought than Hong Kong was.

Concerning the 'pearl' base in South Africa, what kind of diplomatic and military links does China have with South Africa at the moment? I wasn't aware they had much to do with each other.

How Singaporeans will feel in the future will no doubt be influenced by the growing wealth of China. Remember, China will be a much larger economy than America. With that kind of wealth, many companies in singapore would rather have a pro-China government than not. And corporations very much influence western style governments.

As I have been reading more about Singapore, it is a parliamentary republic (with Compulsory voting!- am I reading that right?). Independent since 1965 its biggest export trading partner is already China (when adding Hong Kong) and China is its second biggest import partner (after Malaysia).

The current political party in power is the People's Action Party -whose leader, LEE Hsien Loong, is staunchly pro-british/american.

But the thing with democracies is their corruptibility by powerful media moguls. That is how the 'orange revolution' happened in the Ukraine. Did you really think a student protest in Kiev could've overthrown election results without extensive media coverage?

It wouldn't be hard for any well funded intelligence agency to influence the elections in Singapore. So their current alliance with Britain is more fragile than people think.

It doesn't have to be a political party supporting re-unification with China. It could just be a political party that supports China and would have Singapore side with China amid growing US-Chinese rivalry. Once that happens, China would lease a naval base in one of the most strategic waterways in the world (and it is THE most strategic waterway as far as the nations of China, Japan, and Korea are concerned).

As for South Africa, it overlooks all trade around the southern continent of Africa. It may not be as strategic a waterway as say the Suez canal, but a large amount of commercial vessels do sail around the Cape of Good Hope.

South Africa currently has good relations with both India and China. South Africa has very poor relations with the US, particularly since George Bush took office. They have been very vocal critics of the US invasion of Iraq, America's middle east policy, and of the West in general for not granting more debt relief for poor african nations.

Nelson's Mandela's harsh criticism of George Bush, even after retiring from office, has caused American relations with south Africa -indeed with nearly all of africa- to enter a deep freeze.

I agree wholeheartedly. Cultural affinity plays a bigger role in state actions than cash. If Singaporeans start to realize just how similar their government system is to China and how China has embraced traditional culture again, they will prefer China. Especially if China is able to point out the negative effect of American culture on Asian societies.

Roger604 said:

I agree wholeheartedly. Cultural affinity plays a bigger role in state actions than cash. If Singaporeans start to realize just how similar their government system is to China and how China has embraced traditional culture again, they will prefer China. Especially if China is able to point out the negative effect of American culture on Asian societies.

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I agree here. In addition Singapore may find the geographical situation more favorable being next door. Very good for business. And I'm not so sure Mandela's criticism of Bush caused the deep freeze in relations. South Africa as a whole does not see a beneficial relations with the USA for their own reasons. China does indeed criticize America and vice-versa. And we have a very large trade relationship. Very beneficial to both parties.

The Singaporeans kinda dislike the mainlanders apperantly calling them "rude tourists". There was an article about this wasn't there?

jatt said:

The Singaporeans kinda dislike the mainlanders apperantly calling them "rude tourists". There was an article about this wasn't there?

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Not to be rude but I think we're getting slightly off-topic here.

The discussion is about Gwadar, string of Pearls strategy.

I think China has done something which it should have done in the era of
Cheng-ho. granted china had diplomatic, cultural and trade links with the Middle East in the past however this is the first time it has forged naval military links.

I think the American presence in Afghanistan may be shorter than they or the Indians desire. I always find it rather amusing how Indians talked about their 'cultural' links with Afghanistan. Most true afghans not the mongol horde are pretty anti-indian particularly since they believe India supported the russian occupation.

Anyway Arjun when you say since "when do most countries do things 100% legal" presumably your're suggesting that certain countries will engage in terrorism in Gwadar ?