Capt. James Fanell warns about the rise of China

[mralstoner]

A pretty blunt and scary assessment of Chinese military build-up. I think he was recently sacked/demoted for these comments. Typical moronic Obama response: he thinks all the bad actors of the world are caused by reaction to big-bad-America. He thinks the power of his personality can "unclench" any fist. Ain't working too well with Putin and it won't work with China.

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/4312578

Skip to 18:50 or use the tubechop link above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWhwm4SJxTw#t=1134

[Cyberman]

I wish I'd had a warning of the fall of China.

I dropped a cup.

[Alex K]

I wish I'd had a warning of the fall of China.

I dropped a cup.

But in seriousness, if China, the country, were to fall apart, that would be scary as hell just as well, maybe more so than it growing.

[ManMachine]

Here's a tip, not everyone who isn't a capitalist or free marketer is an enemy.

Relax.

MM

[downbeatplumb]

So we should be worried about a country spending vastly more than it needs to on the military!
Like the USA you mean?

[Fidel_Castronaut]

This is the first time since the cold war that the west has to play with another dominant power.

What I will say about the Chinese however is that their economy is heavily reliant on exports. If the rest of the world suffers, they do too (as evidenced by the past 5 or so years following the credit crunch in the West). But their colonisation of East Africa has been rapid and almost undocumented. Quite scary really!

Also worth nothing that China is a de facto totalitarian dictatorship, so you can't expect it to play by anyone's rules except it's own when it comes to economics. It's a free market up till a point where the Communist party doesn't want it to be, meaning operating there can be difficult (impossible if you're facebook and google!). History tells us that economies that operate under a system that consistently fluctuates doesn't tend to have much longevity, meaning either a rejection of free market economics (no chance of that happening considering the dramatic rise in wealth and borrowing there) or a gradual, slow decline of authoritarianism. Or a big party, I dunno.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Here's what I found at the Navy Times, which is a Gannett publication unaffiliated with the DoD:

The reasons for Fanell's firing remain cloudy, but two sources said the relief stems from alleged mishandling of classified information and fostering a negative command climate.Capt. Darryn James, top spokesman for PACFLT, declined to say whether Fanell's relief was related to his controversial views, citing privacy concerns.

Fanell, 52, declined an interview request for comment through a spokesman.

Controversial captain

Fanell leaped into the public spotlight earlier this year when the press picked up on remarks he made at the U.S. Naval Institute's WEST 2014 conference, saying naval intelligence believed that China was preparing for a possible war with Japan.

"[We believe] the [People's Liberation Army] has been given the new task to be able to conduct a short, sharp war to destroy Japanese forces in the East China Sea following with what can only be expected [as] a seizure of the Senkakus or even southern Ryukyu [islands]," Fanell was quoted as saying.

Fanell has also stated that China is at the center of virtually every maritime territorial dispute in the Asia-Pacific and that the Chinese were engaging in a blatant land-grab of islands that would enhance their exclusive economic rights to fishing and natural resources.

"I do not know how Chinese intentions could be more transparent," he said, adding that when Beijing described its activities as the "protection of maritime rights," this was really "a Chinese euphemism for the coerced seizure of coastal rights of China's neighbors," the Financial Times reported.

Fanell's views have supporters inside naval intelligence, and he has become a high-profile spokesman for a more alarmist view of the rise of China than those espoused by Navy senior leadership, an intelligence source who spoke to Navy Times said. Fanell's articles on China have been published by Hoover Digest, Naval Intelligence Professionals Quarterly and the U. S. Naval Institute's Proceedings.

But his public remarks stirred a major controversy and forced both the Pentagon's top spokesman and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to repudiate his comments.

http://www.navytimes.com/story/military/.../18789539/

I don't think anyone with some knowledge of international relations would dispute his assessments (except, perhaps, about the Ryukyus). But the article indicates other reasons for his relief from office (not demotion). The elapsed time between his statements about China's intentions and his relief would seem to support that.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Indeed. You can't look at China's behaviour the past couple of decades and conclude it's been anything but hostile and expansionary, over land or sea. But yeah, looks like there was something else going on with his relief.

[Anomalocaris]

Here's a tip, not everyone who isn't a capitalist or free marketer is an enemy.

Relax.

MM

The problem is China under the party that still calls itself communist is in many ways more unadulteratedly capitalist and free market than the US. Part of the reason why the US conservatives fears and loaths China is that China, under the name of communism and socialism, is show up US conservatives on values conservatives claim to champion, and in the process giving the world a clear glimse of some of the real faces of the so called values that US conservatives claim to cherish.

[Minimalist]

Ho-hum. Military commanders bitching about sequestration ( it took him all of 53 seconds to get there ) again.

Yep. Give them all the fucking money in the bank and they will take of things just fine.


Heard it all before.