首先,THAAD(Terminal High Altitude Area Defense,终端高空战区防御)的确是比韩国(和臺湾)现有的Patriot 3远为强力的反弹道导弹系统,它的威力显现在三方面:1)能拦截射程更远、速度更快的导弹,特别是射程在4000-6000公里范围的IRBM,例如共军的东风-26。北韩也有IRBM,但是当然不是用来威胁近在咫尺的南韩。2)不像Patriot基本是个点防御系统,THAAD能提供大范围的区域防御,衹要2-3个单元就可以保护整个南韩。3)THAAD配备了当今最先进的远程X-Band雷达(AN/TPY-2),对1200公里外的弹道导弹也能做精确的探测,这其实才是关键所在。
Is it possible that S Korea let THADD in so they can join TPP ? Which will also downgrade the impact from PRC's possible threat... Sadly it's also so true nowadays some people/countries manufacture wars to sell weapons
Hard to say for sure, but probably not. The US has enough sway on South Korea as is.
I would not be so concerned with the PCA farce. Please check out the wiki page; basically The University of Phoenix, which rents a room next to the Harvard campus, had just issued a PhD degree to the Philippines. I would just listen to them politely and let them perform to the finish, and then point out to His Excellency the good "Doctor", this is called "Permanent Court of Arbitration" who has an address next to the UN International Court of Justice. (But it is certainly not a real court.)
The real effects are in the propaganda. Don't expect American media to split hair for you. They are just going to congratulate the newly appointed Dr. P.
i felt to completely "kill" an artist (or actress)'s career & her husband's business as punishment from govt ( kill chicken to scare monkey?) is quite an extreme....let the public/the market decide and they will learn the lesson, which is quite enough in my view. All people blogging here are somewhat enjoy the freedom of speech; we/you might have trouble surviving PRC official's censorship in the future if they tighten their controls over media/internet...when you/we have different view points from official ones...Yes Americans might take some extreme measures to attack/destroy the opponents, do we really want to copy them? DPP govt is now copying this in American style (also KMT's old style decades ago) re oppressing freedom of speech...If govts in both sides do the same thing, it will only worsen the divide and resentment towards each other, might not be a good way to go. I also have maybe more depressing view on beating Americans dominating main stream media over the world...English is the most spoken/spreaded language in the world, unless most people in other countries can understand Chinese as well as English, PRC is in a disadvantaged position to win this battle...You are one of not too many Chinese people who can speak/write very well in English...unless as you suggested long ago to buy up some major British newspaper , but then how many people actually nowadays still buy and read NP? and those hired Foreign "soldiers", their hopeful unconditional loyalty to China is doubtful... I feel PRC's official English channel to overseas Chinese (plus fpreigners) can hugely be improved regarding contents, less propaganda and more skilled packaging of intended messages...
They are billionaires and will remain billionaires. I tend to reserve my compassion for people with fewer financial resources.
The standard of free speech applies differently to billionaires exactly because they have the resources to influence a lot more people, regardless of the merits of their arguments.
最近在S1论坛上看一个帖子“南海风云录”,作者是一个研究政治并且坚决反对政治正确的美国人,她把美国国会在2015年对南海问题的一些讨论翻译成中文,并且对各个议员和智库的背景都一一介绍。她个人只对美国海军学院的智库表示赞赏,因为唯独这位海军军事学院的智库Dr. Andrew S. Erickson没有把中国放在美国的敌人的位置上而只是视之为对手。这位智库强调美国应该与中国合作和说服中国领袖不要在南海发动战争,最后还指出美国国内对于南海问题意见不一和暗示国会美国很有可能会在南海有可能的冲突中吃亏。
I was holding back my view flr last few days on this because it might sound too depressing... I personally felt If Trump wins the election, he will not be able to realize most of his promises to his voters anyway...US is not a dictatorship country and there are still many well established regulations/laws to limit the president's abuse of power (or crazy moves?) Most of those promises were just being used to cheat votes from those naive voters and there are too many. He is just like English Tsai, said one thing before the election, do something contradict to herself after being elected. I hope he could, but I don't believe Trump can resist signing up TPP, he will not be able to pull troops back either...U.S. is being tightly controlled by big corporations and those who profit from wars...while Trump is only a clown...he will either join the club or be a puppet...in my own view
Probably, but he is a jerk, and the club may not want him. Hillary is already pretty deep in the club, though.