US trying to boost bases in Asia The United States is actively seeking to boost its military and economic bases in Asia, an American investigative journalist said Monday, as China, the US major rival in the region, is getting stronger both economically and militarily. “The issue is with [US President Barack] Obama’s announced pivot towards Asia, where he shifted US military assets to new bases and old bases in Australia,” Wayne Madsen, investigative journalist and author, told Press TV. Referring to the recent US military moves, Madsen said the US measures are actually threatening China by “re-engaging the US military relationship with the Philippines.” The US has even taken “advantage of a recent catastrophic typhoon in the Philippines” to increase its regional influence, he said. The US, he added, “used that as an excuse to not only send military relief supplies in but to set the stage for a permanent US military presence in the Philippines.” The US has also established new bases in South Korea, in Jeju Island, which is “very strategic,” Madsen said. The US military has also “re- engaged the militarists in Japan that are now seeking a confrontation with China,” he noted. A US congressional panel, which advises lawmakers on the national security implications of the relationship between Washington and Beijing, last week warned that China could possess the largest fleet of modern submarine and combatant ships in the western Pacific by 2020. The commission said that Beijings military modernization is challenging decades of US pre-eminence in Asia. It recommended that Congress should fund shipbuilding and increase the Navys operational presence in the region. The panel also recommended that the US should help allies improve their air and maritime capabilities in the region.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 01:55:34 +0000
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