Geo-Strategic Trend - 210. page

An annual multinational military exercise, with the code name Cobra Gold 2013, opened in Thailand on February 11. Regarding the objectives of the exercise, Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo, Director of the Navy Information Expert Committee, believes that the United States is hoping to cooperatively combat terrorism and to further its control of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by conducting military exercises with Thailand. Yin said, "The more important purpose of the exercise for the United States is to use Thailand to control the ASEAN countries. … (The U.S.) has maintained friendly military cooperation with Thailand. At the same time, it has ensured a strategic military foothold in the ASEAN region. Once an emergent event occurs in the region, it can proceed from Thailand and carry out a large-scale intervention in the entire ASEAN region.” 

On February 8, 2013, Huanqiu (the Chinese edition of Global Times) published an editorial on the possibility of a war between China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands dispute (known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan). According to the article, neither China nor Japan is willing to get involved in a major war, yet both countries want to display their strength and determination, hoping the other will retreat at a critical moment.

“It is almost certain that a full-scale war will not break out between China and Japan. However, no one can estimate to what level it may advance and what damage it may cause once the two countries start to fire at each other. The dispute over the Diaoyu Islands between China and Japan has actually become a contest of wills.”

Source: Huanqiu, February 8, 2013
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2013-02/3630648.html

On February 9, 2013, China Review News republished an article originally from the World Journal (www.worldjournal.com) titled “The PLA Lays Sea Mines Three-dimensionally in Four Approaches; Locking Japan in Is as Easy as Turning over the Palm.” According to the article, with the possible escalation of the confrontation over the Diaoyu Islands (Senkaku Islands in Japan) and Huangyan Island (Scarborough Shoal in the Philippines), the Chinese navy may start sea mine warfare in the East China Sea or the South China Sea.

At the end of January, China Navy (http://navy.81.cn/), a PLA official website, revealed that a submarine detachment from the South China Sea fleet held a drill on placing sea mines to block water passages. Once a war breaks out, the Chinese Navy can lay sea mines quickly and secretly using submarines. The powerful “Sea Mines Field” would be able to surround American and Japanese warships within a certain area. The Chinese Navy will then severely attack American and Japanese warships with multiple anti-ship missiles from a shore base and an air base.

Source: China Review News, February 9, 2013
http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1024/3/4/9/102434990.html?coluid=4&kindid=16&docid=102434990&mdate=0209010718

Thomas Glenn, a Canadian opera singer who won a Grammy Award in 2012 for best Opera recording, sang a Revolutionary Beijing Opera piece at Chinese Central Television’s (CCTV) 2013 Spring Festival Gala.

The Spring Festival Gala, also known as Chun Wan, is one of the government TV network’s flagship programs. It provides a live broadcast every year on the Chinese New Year’s Eve to billions of Chinese people, domestically and overseas, who are celebrating the Lunar New Year at home, most of whom have their TV turned on. The four-plus-hour-long gala, put together after almost a year-long preparation, with the programs carefully selected and heavily censored, served the purpose of propagandizing the ruling regime’s accomplishments over the past year while entertaining the audience.

At CCTV’s official website that hosted the program, a subtitle identified Glenn as a student of the Confucius Institute, a language-teaching facility sponsored and driven by the Chinese government. According to the Confucius Institute’s website, since 2004 it has launched over 300 Confucius Institutes and 500 Confucius Classrooms in five continents. The Revolutionary Opera Piece, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, is one of the eight Revolutionary operas, or model operas, (Chinese: 样板戏; pinyin: yàngbǎnxì) planned and engineered during the Cultural Revolution by Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong’s wife. They are commonly viewed as typical propaganda pieces for the Communist Party.

Source: China Central Television, February 10, 2013
http://chunwan.cctv.com/2013/02/10/VIDE1360474568955538.shtml

On February 6, 2013, Huanqiu (the Chinese edition of Global Times) published an editorial article titled “China Treasures the Sino-DPRK Friendship; North Korea Should Also Cherish It.” Below is a summary of the article:

It is beyond doubt that North Korea is very important to China. However, China must avoid being kidnapped by the DPRK’s nuclear policy. If North Korea insists on conducting a third nuclear test, North Korea will get less assistance from China. However, China probably will not “punish” North Korea in the same way as the U.S., Japan, and the South Koreans. China is not afraid of North Korea, which is an important principle. Some Chinese scholars, however, do have concerns about a breakup of the Sino-DPRK relationship due to China’s participation in international sanctions against North Korea. Without China’s support, North Korea may “survive” but it will certainly not be better off.

Source: Huanqiu, February 6, 2013
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2013-02/3622838.html