The PLA in new uniforms. AP PHoto/David Paul Morris
“With money, a dragon. Without money, a worm.” — Chinese aphorism
I rubbed my eyes and saw this in the news. First, look at the attitude:
U.S. Alarmed by Harsh Tone of China’s Military
By MICHAEL WINES | October 11, 2010 | New York Times
BEIJING — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates met his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie, in Vietnam on Monday for the first time since the two militaries suspended talks with each other last winter, calling for the two countries to prevent “mistrust, miscalculations and mistakes.”
His message seemed directed mainly at officers like Lt. Cmdr. Tony Cao of the Chinese Navy.
Days before Mr. Gates arrived in Asia, Commander Cao was aboard a frigate in the Yellow Sea, conducting China’s first war games with the Australian Navy, exercises to which, he noted pointedly, the Americans were not invited.
Nor are they likely to be, he told Australian journalists in slightly bent English, until “the United States stops selling the weapons to Taiwan and stopping spying us with the air or the surface.”
The Pentagon is worried that its increasingly tense relationship with the Chinese military owes itself in part to the rising leaders of Commander Cao’s generation, who, much more than the country’s military elders, view the United States as the enemy.
If that doesn’t give you cause for concern, what follows is even worse. Now look at the action on the ground:
Chinese investment will boost South Texas drilling
from My (for the moment?) San Antonio:
Parts of South Texas already in the midst of a historic drilling boom soon will get a boost from an unlikely source: China. China’s national oil company, CNOOC Ltd., will spend up to $2.2 billion to drill in partnership with Chesapeake Energy Corp. in the Eagle Ford shale, a highly productive oil and gas formation that lies under 11 counties.
[...]
Gordon Meyer, who has leased mineral rights on his 220-acre property and is waiting for drilling to begin, took a more nuanced view than Allen.
“Look, this is a pretty big boom for this country,” Meyer said. “I hate to see the Chinese coming in, but it takes a lot of dollars to drill those wells, several million, so they’ve got to go where they can get the money.”
[...]
Mike Whitwell, 51, who owns a 3,100-acre ranch and leases 11,000 acres near Cotulla where he runs cattle, said he’s waiting for drilling to begin on his property.
He thinks longtime Cotulla residents who are leasing their mineral rights are reaping an unexpected windfall. But recreational landowners are worried about the workers on their land and the damage that might be done to their property, Whitwell said, not to mention making hunting harder.
“It changes a deer hunter’s perspective when you’re used to being out there on like 1,000 acres and not seeing anybody, and now you’re running into 100 people,” he said.
While Fedzilla won’t allow American companies to drill due to over regulation, while it loans money for drilling in Brazil, somehow the Chinese are “investing” right here in Texas. It would seem that take over through a buy out is more socially acceptable than a shoot out, and more lucrative for those who can play the game. He who has energy prospers and prevails. Meanwhile, the poor slubs in the Country Class are being pushed to accept the myth of sustainable green development – as if self-renewing petroleum and shale deposits are not sustainable. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the heaving madness of the current Ruling Class.
And the kicker:
China stakes claim to S. Texas oil, gas
HOUSTON — State-owned Chinese energy giant CNOOC is buying a multibillion-dollar stake in 600,000 acres of South Texas oil and gas fields, potentially testing the political waters for further expansion into U.S. energy reserves.
With the announcement Monday that it would pay up to $2.2 billion for a one-third stake in Chesapeake Energy assets, CNOOC lays claim to a share of properties that eventually could produce up to half a million barrels a day of oil equivalent.
It also might pick up some American know-how about tapping the hard-to-get deposits trapped in dense shale rock formations, analysts said.
Sold out by those who would rule us, and paid to help them do it with “American know-how”? You make the call. Hat tip Beverly.
Related: China’s foreign currency reserves reached a new all-time high of $2.65 trillion. Reserves increased 16.5% year-over-year, and this is likely to put more pressure on China to revalue the yuan. Check out these 15 facts about China that will blow your mind >
