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

Xinhua published a commentary following the public statement that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange made on the balcony of Ecuadorean Embassy in London on August 19, 2012. The article started with Assange’s statement that "he did not commit any crime; his suffering from persecution was due solely to his publicizing U.S. government documents on the Internet."

The article commented, “Why do the British police refuse to let go of this political asylum seeker who leaked secret (government documents) on the Internet? Digging deeper, there is actually a mystery here. Assange did not mention the United Kingdom, nor did he mention Sweden in his speech. Instead, he chose to talk at great length about the United States.”

“It appears Assange is clear-minded. He knows it is the enormous pressure from the United States that makes the United Kingdom and Sweden go after him so tenaciously.”

“It seems that (the application of) the so-called human rights and the rule of law varies from ‘person to person’ in countries such as the U.S. and Britain. The so-called ‘freedom of speech’ is not applicable to Assange.”

The article concluded that “Assange’s tragedy is that he has revealed U.S. secrets and exposed the ugly side of the United States. The mighty, powerful United States has always been tyrannous, so how can it swallow such a humiliation? The U.S. government wants to tell the world: Whoever dares to go against the United States, will be punished, even if he runs to the farthest corner of the earth. The United States is determined to declare war against those who dare to uncover the shady façade of the United States, to silence them and ‘disappear’ them. This probably is the root cause for Assange now being trapped in the Ecuadorean Embassy.”

Source: Xinhua, August 20, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2012-08/20/c_112785505.htm

The state media, the International Herald Leader, published a commentary in response to a statement that the U.S. State Department issued on August 3, 2012, regarding the South China Sea. The commentary accused the U.S. of attempting to sow discord in the region. “We are clear that the U.S. statement on the South China Sea sends out two messages: The first is to tell the Philippines and Vietnam that the U.S. is their back up and that they should not be afraid of confronting China; the second is to tell the ASEAN countries that, on the South China Sea issue, the U.S. has publicly come forward to speak out for them and that these countries should not hesitate; they should join together to face China without any fears or concerns about China."

The commentary further stated that the U.S. will very likely issue threats specific to those companies that may be interested in submitting bids to the state’s China National Petroleum Corporation for exploration in the South China Sea.

Source: International Herald Leader, August 17, 2012
http://ihl.cankaoxiaoxi.com/2012/0816/79199.shtml