China's Emergence as a Superpower (till 2014)

[Ray]

U.S. reopening World War II bases in Pacific

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/...ses_in_pacific

[Dayuhan]

Setting up facilities in uninhabited or barely inhabited islands makes some sense, given the political baggage that has accompanied US bases in places like Okinawa and the Philippines.

[jmm99]

Chuuk,



and Chuuk Lagoon,



home of the Japanese Ghost Fleet,



and part of the larger Federated States of Micronesia.



Regards

Mike

[davidbfpo]

Keeping to the island theme and hat tip to FP Blog story on the evolution of UN peacekeeping contributors for this surprise, with my emphasis:

Today, China has 1,911 peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Sudan, and now Syria. The U.N. force commander in Cyprus is Chinese as well.

Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...elmets_gone#17

[davidbfpo]

A different point if view by Raffaello Pantucci, highlighting:

It is, however, increasingly clear that there is a high level of concern in China about Pakistan. In Xinjiang in particular they seem to have lost patience at Pakistani capacity to contain Uighur extremists travelling to train in Pakistan and then coming back.

It which ends with:

Beijing may be Pakistan’s best friend, but even best friends can eventually lose their patience with each other.

Link:http://raffaellopantucci.com/2012/06...akistan-china/

Given the current state of Pakistan's relations with the USA primarily even a cooling of Sino-Pakistani relations could unsettle strategic thinking, after all as a nation Pakistan needs steady friends and money.

[Fuchs]

Related (East Asia)':

Korea as Number One
Posted By Clyde Prestowitz

http://prestowitz.foreignpolicy.com/..._as_number_one

[Dayuhan]

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/201...#axzz1y5ZrDqyp

China’s capital flight: to US real estate

Excerpt:

Pamela Liebman, chief executive of The Corcoran Group, a residential real estate brokerage company, says the group has seen a “huge” influx of wealthy mainland Chinese shopping for high-end properties in New York since the start of the year.

“It’s extraordinary,” she says. “Five years ago, we never talked about Chinese buyers. We started noticing them 18 months ago but they have only become much more prevalent in the past year.”

Liebman says she saw “hundreds of millions” of dollars in sales last year to Chinese buyers and the pace has intensified since the start of 2012. “The past quarter has been our best quarter ever in terms of sales to Chinese buyers.”

Properties that have been snapped up by China’s rich range from $1m apartments to $20m trophy properties. “Buying groups” – group tours of mainland buyers coming to New York to view properties – have become commonplace, says Liebman.

It's not just NY or the US, either. Chinese buyers are buying high-end real estate all over the world. That suggests that controls on capital movement are (predictably) ineffective, and that wealthy Chinese are not entirely confident about the domestic future... but we shall see.