News from pravda on china

Clintons Cat

From the Russian newsgroup Pravda.

http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/10/10/17674.html

Korea revisited?
1914 Sarejavo?

lets hope this is just scaremongering.
Very little has been reported about chinese reaction to the Afgan Air strikes.


............
By the way there is the start of talk of what is in military circles desribed as "mission creep"
From USATODAY:

"In an indication the United States might want to some day expand the military operation, Washington formally notified the U.N. Security Council on Monday that counterterrorism attacks may be extended beyond Afghanistan."

Hobbes

Smells like BS to me.

Believe it or not China depends on trade with the US just as much as the US does with China.

Clintons Cat

It is interesting that Pravda chose to spin the story though.
I dont believe the Chinese would intervene at such an early stage either,though Tiwan remains a blight on US China relations.
Certainly Russia would be the one to profit most from a further deteriation of US china relations.
Does anyone know how closely tied to Putin,the former head of the KGB pravda is?
Under the soviet regime it was the mouth piece of the state,is it still the case or is it more tied to its soviet roots?
Putin is not a great fan of freedom of speech a number of independant stations have been closed down or placed under the control of people more willing to to the putin line.

Clintons Cat

more on that story here

http://www.debka.com/

the Chinese intelligence service, MSS, handed in to the defense ministry in Beijing their estimation that the United States would go to war to overthrow the Taliban regime, for the sake of which it would sign a pact with Russia. The Chinese leadership viewed this eventuality as the most significant shift in the global balance since the 1962 Chinese-Russian feud, with dangerous implications for China’s world standing and its interests in Central and Southwest Asia.

Hobbes

What it could be that the build up of Chinese soliders at the border would have something to do with the fact that China as of yesterday closed it's borders with Afganistan.

Of course Chinese Military and public aren't too happy with the US (what with the US blowing things up belonging to China and the whole Taiwan thing) so it's unlikely that the Chinese goverment will fully endorse the US.

It is also unlikely they would do anything directly at this time because lets face it.. the US is p!ssed and will hit anything that says boo to them.

Typedef

Debka claims the Russians have ascented to the deployment of "tactical nuclear" weapons ie Neutron Bombs in Tajikistan(spelling).
Wow talk about american paranoia. Look at the state of Kabul after 20 years of war & the Americans think that there is some possibility of a situation arising that nukes could be an option.

Takes MAD to a whole new level, ie US assured that it can level the third world country of Afghanistan. Land of the free ehy?

Clintons Cat

i hope things are clarified soon
in a situation were a sneeze on a subway train is enough to start a panic about germ warfare the last thing the world needs is a few stray cruise missiles landing the wrong side of the chinese boarder or a few chinese troops to wander into the firing line by accident.

Victor

From the debka site:

Putin gave the nod for US forces poised in Central Asia to jump into Afghanistan to be armed with tactical nuclear weapons, such as small neutron bombs, which emit strong radiation, nuclear mines, shells, and other nuclear ammunition suited to commando warfare in mountainous terrain.
In return, Bush assented to Russia deploying tactical nuclear weapons units around Chechnya after Moscow’s ultimatum to the rebels, some of whom are backed by Osama Bin Laden, to surrender, went by without response.

(a) nuclear weapons are sod all use in mountainous terrain (you only get to blow up one ravine, but irradiate a country).
(b) I don't think anyone has neutron weapons from www.fas.org "The U.S. developed and produced three neutron warheads, a fourth was cancelled prior to production. All have been retired and dismantled."
(c) Nuclear mines, have no use in offensive operations - you need to dig a huge pit to put them in first (and I don't think the Americans have / use them) ... then you need your enemy to stand on top of it .... in an adequate concentation to make it worthwhile ...
(d) Why would Bush 'assent' to the Russians moving nuclear weapons within Russia - if he tried to interfere with what the Russians consider (and by silence the rest of the world acknowledges) an 'internal matter', he'd be told 'fook' himself.
(e) who, in their right mind, would really want to move nuclear weapons in the region at the moment, when you could deploy them from a nice secure base out of the region a fly them in as needed
(f) debka seems to have an odd, also x-files / propaganda / nut-case type spin on everything

Hobbes

Pravada have said it's BS.

Bard

Originally posted by Hobbes
What it could be that the build up of Chinese soliders at the border would have something to do with the fact that China as of yesterday closed it's borders with Afganistan.

... not that that's much of a border anyway...

map and more info @ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/af.html

some interesting stats there, actually...

Manach

Did anyone else hear of a report stating that the Russians have commited one of their motorised divisions inside of Afganistan in support of the Northern Alliance. (from The Moscow Times)

yankinlk

Keeping an eye on this one too...

Im over here in the mid-west of USA and heard the same disturbing story on the radio...

Granted it was on a discussion forum program and I was suspicious when the radio spokesman metioned a website as a source of info...but he said something like " this website has given accurate news in the past, however their analysis is sometimes flawed"

They went on to say that the forces, some 10,000 chinese muslims were going across the border not waving the chinese flag but in support of the Taliban movement to help prolong the crisis in Afganistan in order to pull US forces away from Asia-Pacific areas.