Yeesh, more "Dr Evil" inspiration
Some good photos at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/majo...rine-base.html
China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region, it can be disclosed.
Chinese Naval Developments
From the RSIS site in Singapore:
"Confronted with the overwhelming superiority of the US Navy, China has embarked on an asymmetric naval strategy to mitigate American naval power. Relying heavily on submarines, cruise and ballistic missiles and modern fast attack craft, the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is fast developing a powerful sea denial capability."
Full text of the commentary is available at the below link:
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/rsis/publicati...SIS0572008.pdf
His assessment is shared by a China FAO
and a local China scholar -- and that's just two of whom I happen to be aware. With about six years in the Orient to bounce against my two in the ME, I'm pretty well convinced that in the ME, things are never as they seem while in the Orient, they are exactly as they seem.
All an excessively lengthy way of saying I think he's right...:cool:
One of the biggest problems...
is that we (the "West") look at China through Western eyes, and concepts. That's our filter, it what we've grown up with, so it's understandable. Problem is, we miss stuff as a result. Here's a great example of something missed:
Quote:
China's `Underground' Loans Top $1.5 Trillion, Wen Wei Po Says
By Patricia Kuo
Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- So-called ``underground'' lending in China exceeds 10 trillion yuan ($1.5 trillion), the Wen Wei Po newspaper reported, citing lenders and market watchers it didn't identify.
Funding made available by unauthorized lenders including pawn shops and auction firms is thriving as banks tighten credit after a series of interest rate and reserve ratio increases, the Chinese-language newspaper said. Some such loans carry interest rates higher than 5 percent a month, it said.
LInk to the Article
Now, this is "off-the-books" lending that's not part of any official statistics, and in modern Western society, literally has no counterpart (Well, maybe loan sharking). But imagine $1.5 trillion dollars annually worth of loan sharking.:eek:
Or maybe a different, but more realistic comparison. How about the Chinese equivalent of sub-prime real estate mortgages?