The International Herald Leader, a publication under the state’s Xinhua News Agency, published an article on August 17, 2012, pointing to the expansion of U.S. military bases in the Asia Pacific region. The article said, “Over the past decade, the Pentagon has quietly transformed its overseas military bases. Compared to its military fortresses during the Cold War era, the new generation of small-scale bases and garrisons is limited in number, but like water lilies quietly surfacing in the pond, frogs can use them as a springboard to jump for prey in the distance. During its strategic shift to Asia, the Obama administration has been trying to multiply the Pentagon’s ‘water lilies’ throughout the whole region.”
The article mentioned a few hot spots where the “water lilies” will be grown or strengthened: Thailand’s U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield, Vietnam’s Cam Rahn Bay, the Philippines’s Subic Bay and Clark Air Base, Tinian Island in the Northern Mariana Islands, South Korea’s Jeju Island, and Australia’s Cocos Islands and the port of Darwin, as well as small-size military bases in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.
The article concluded that the goal of establishing these mushrooming military bases around Asia and the Pacific is to isolate and contain China.
Source: International Herald Leader, August 17, 2012
http://ihl.cankaoxiaoxi.com/2012/0817/79780.shtml