All Asian Maritime Disputes

Saints aren't worshiped. They're just people who are supposed to be examples for the rest of us.

Then enshrining war criminals is even far worse than what I initially thought. At least bin Laden was not officially convicted.

edited 16th Mar '14 1:58:43 PM by IraTheSquire

Everyone: let's drop the memorials and war criminals issue, alright?

As for China and the plane, they'll try, but they won't get much from it.

edited 16th Mar '14 2:54:23 PM by Quag15

Well, considered that the Chinese are being such paragons of cooperation by accusing everyone who isn't them of hiding information from them, I doubt they'll get far in terms of goodwill. Those amphibious docks they have searching sure seem well outfitted for snatching a Paracel or Spratly too...

In other news, I recently read an article in a local newspaper regarding Japan's "creeping militarism" (doesn't seem like anything out of the usual to me, considering that they're doing regular stuff for Japanese right-wingers). Said article also made some claims about how Japanese entertainment media has taken on a more militarist/nationalist bent as of late. I probably would've taken them seriously if they hadn't used Girls und Panzer as an example. While the press here pretty much runs on New Media Are Evil, this isn't exactly as bad as a shooter where the Chinese player character automatically empties his firearm's magazine into the corpses of dead Japanese soldiers for no other reason than because he can (I've lost the link to the news article on this one, unfortunately).

edited 17th Mar '14 3:03:20 AM by Krieger22

Whoever wrote that article is two years late. Also keep in mind that Chinese shooters players have the exact same reputation as COD players. Don't take them seriously.

edited 17th Mar '14 6:34:30 AM by KnightofNASA

IIRC, China's netizens thought that article was stupid as hell.

" a shooter where the Chinese player character automatically empties his firearm's magazine into the corpses of dead Japanese soldiers"

well that's not really particular. People do things like that no matter the shooter or the game. Screwing with rag dolls is fun

In all honesty, many parts of mainland Chinese news media tends to be deeply xenophobic and nationalist, so stupid articles like that from them are not a surprise. I recall how a few weeks ago when the US Ambassador to China Gary Locke, who is of Chinese descent himself, stepped down, there was a Xinhua article mocking him with terms like "banana" (Chinese person who doesn't speak Chinese) and "guide dog for the blind" (due to his meeting with the blind activist Chen Guangcheng), along with many other childish insults. Chinese readers were not amused, to say the least.

edited 17th Mar '14 9:45:03 AM by Exploder

@ Ira The Squire

Thanks

Again people, we should have SEATO re-organized if something gets ugly in the South China/West Philippine Sea!

How would you re-organize it?

SEATO was widely considered to be ineffective at best, though, so I doubt that it could do much if things go south, unless it's to Summon Bigger Fish (said big fish would almost certainly be the US). If it does and Malaysia joins... I don't know how many layers of tin foil hats most people here will be wearing.

There's also the Five Power Defence Arrangements.

ASEAN does have a chance of being reformed. Although China has a few friends there, including Brunei, Cambodia and Malaysia, the latter two having Chinese military equipment.

Take a page from Front Mission and do a real-life Oceanic Cooperative Union.

Since when was ASEAN dissolved?

ASEAN is still active. SEATO was dissolved on the 30th June 1977.

Tell that to .

@HH

- I didn't say ASEAN was dissolved. I'm saying that if ASEAN wants to reform itself in order to stand up to China, it can be possible.

You could have been a little more specific.

A little off-topic, but I got two questions:

1. What do both "Senkaku" and "Diaoyu" mean in English?

2. Which islands are occupied by Japan, and which islands are occupied by the Chinese?

"Diaoyu" means "fishing". "Senkaku" I think means "Pinnacle", which is, I believe, why the English name for the islands is "the Pinnacle Isles".

Japan owns the lot.

Malaysia is no longer "as friendly" to China as before. Brunei is really just neutral. The only other ASEAN country that can really say that they're neutral is Thailand. Burma, Laos, and Cambodia are definitely in Chinese' pockets. They have been even before they joined ASEAN.

Thanks, and who's that as your avatar?

Aren't Cambodia a constitutional monarchy right now?

My avatar is Darjeeling, from the anime Girls und Panzer. She is a quintessential English Rose, despite being Japanese.

edited 20th Mar '14 6:32:23 AM by Achaemenid

Cambodia is. But they are "friendly" to China, dating back to the post-Khmer Rouge days IIRC.

Thanks, and can I send a PM to you please?

I see, thanks.

I dunno, can you? Sure.