Mood:
blueTopic: peace
#1 of 3SAM's editor has put 2 and 2 together and realised China is a big oil recipient from Iran. The stories from big media AP and Reuters including via front page of the The Australian today show in a real version of West Wing tv series fiction that China is sending a message to the USA to back off Iran because China have the ability to knock out USA military satellites. This is a very serious situation indeed. The USA military satellites presumably deliver weapons guidance, phones, Global Positioning Systems, echeleon spy surveillance, direct visual photography down to a metre or less, and who knows what else they have in those high tech tin cans up there. This space missile demo by China is really playing tough and scary. The following 3 links reference the geopolitical reality:
China, Iran sign biggest oil & gas deal
(CRI) Updated: 2004-10-31 08:51
China's oil giant Sinopec Group has signed a US$70 billion oil and natural gas agreement with Iran, which is China's biggest energy deal with the No. 2 OPEC producer.
Under a memorandum of understanding signed Thursday, Sinopec Group will buy 250 million tons of liquefied natural gas over 30 years from Iran and develop the giant Yadavaran field.
Iran is also committed to export 150,000 barrels per day of crude oil to China for 25 years at market prices after commissioning of the field.
Iran's oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, who is on a two-day visit to Beijing pursuing closer ties, said Iran is China's biggest oil supplier and wants to be its long-term business partner.
Official figures show that China imported 226 million tons of oil in2003, about 13 percent of which coming from Iran.
Beijing expects to secure foreign energy supplies by the deals for its economy, which has turned China into a major oil importer but suffers severe power shortages.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-10/31/content_387140.htm
#2 of 3
U.S. buildup in Persian Gulf, sharper rhetoric take aim at Iran
By Lolita C. Baldor
ASSOCIATED PRESS
12:25 a.m. January 17, 2007
WASHINGTON – Provocative words by President Bush and a fresh American military buildup in the Persian Gulf seem to mark a new focus on Iran that could signal another Cold War or even a deadly confrontation."
"As the USS Stennis aircraft carrier began its journey to the Gulf on Tuesday, top administration officials traveling in the region defended the increased U.S. presence there as the only way to impress on Iran that the four-year slog in Iraq has not made America vulnerable.
Sending a second carrier to the Gulf for the first time since 2003 and positioning a Patriot missile battalion in the region, mark a broader U.S. stand in the Middle East at a time when diplomatic efforts with countries such as Iran and Syria have stalled. ...."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070117-0025-us-iran.html
#3 of 3
China missile strike fuels fear of new arms race
20th January 2007
WESTERN nations fear China has fired the first shot in a post-Cold War arms race in space by destroying without warning one of its own satellites with a ballistic missile. "
The Australian and referencing Reuters and AP
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21088182-601,00.html
Postscript #1
This story re USA military satellites at risk of China missile reach by Greg Sheridan in The Australian at p12 of the weekend edition, which corroborates my comments about high tech tin cans above:
Chinese can hit enemies where it really hurts
* COMMENT Greg Sheridan * January 20, 2007
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21088241-25377,00.html
