AIIB Gaining Momentum Into 2016

Caption: Chinese President Xi Jinping (front center) poses with the delegates attending the signing ceremony for the Articles of Agreement of the AIIB on June 29, 2015. (WANG ZHAO/AFP/Getty Images)

 

China’s latest economic weapon

Entering 2016, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (aiib) is preparing to take leaps and bounds. The rise of this bank should have the world, and particularly the United States, on high alert. The success of the aiib heralds the dawn of a new era in Asia—one increasingly influenced by China.

China Completes Island Construction, Will Now Build Military Facilities

 

“I’m an amateur student of history and I’m reminded of … how Germany was testing the waters and what the response was by various other European powers… But unfortunately, up to the annexation of the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, the annexation of the entire country of Czechoslovakia, nobody said stop. If somebody said stop to Hitler at that point in time, or to Germany at that time, would we have avoided World War II.”

That piece of revisionist history is brought to you by Benigno Aquino and is excerpted from a speech the Philippine President gave to the Japanese parliament earlier this month. 

US moves closer to reviving bases in Philippines as part of focus on Asia

Pacific Fleet commander in Manila for talks as next phase of American ‘pivot’ towards Asia takes key step of setting up troops agreement

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With the US pressing ahead with its “pivot” to Asia, Admiral Harry Harris is expected to use his first official trip to the Philippines to discuss a deal which would allow United States troops to be rotated around the country in bigger numbers and in more areas.

“Admiral Harris plans to use this opportunity to discuss the strong and enduring relationships between the US and Philippine navies, the implications of the US military’s rebalance to the Pacific, and the importance of naval engagement and co-operation for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” the US embassy in Manila said yesterday.

Philippines boosts military to resist ‘bullies’

Country relations in Asia are getting to the boiling point in regards to China. What we’re seeing within the region is an arms race to protect itself against the communist giant, and it’s not just the Philippines. For example, Japan seems to be silently going nuclear and going on the offensive to protect its disputed territory. Within the next ten years, we could see a situation where all countries within the Asian giant’s reach become strong enough combined that China will have no choice but to go on a ‘charm offensive’ and unite the continent under its political/military/economic umbrella rather than go to war with every neighbor. Having done this, combined with the United States suiciding itself from within and becoming more unreliable as a partner each day, it will have effectively taken out America’s hegemony in the Asia Pacific without having to go to war with it. However, because that nobody has a crystal ball (that works), a war or skirmish in the future shouldn’t be dismissed.

MANILA – Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Tuesday announced a US$1.8-billion (S$2.26b) military upgrade to help defend his country’s maritime territory against “bullies”, amid an ever-worsening dispute with China.

The announcement came on the same day that the Philippines filed a protest with China over the “illegal and provocative” presence of a Chinese warship and two other vessels at a Filipino-claimed shoal in the disputed South China Sea.