Problems arise when China's "own surrounding waters" is also "owned" by the Phillippines, Vietnam, and other countries. More importantly the disputed territory is an encompassing trade route.

Regardless of Trump's intention, a step towards normalizing and stopping marginalizing Taiwan is a good move for the international community.

Which is still none of the USA's business.

The disputed territory is also regarded by many non-claimant countries as international waters. China's claim of part of the territory was challenged successfully by the Philippines at a UN tribunal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines_v._China).

Still none of the USA's business. The USA is not Earth's landlord.

It's scary because the US Dollar is a bubble. Its value is based on how many countries own it based on the belief its safe. Just like a company's value is a bubble if it just has a lot of speculators in on it. Its value in reality should be pretty garbage because the US pays for its insane deficits with printed money and the Fed was lending at 0% interest rates for a long time, now 0.5% I believe. China is relevant because they are basically the #1 force acting against the US self destructing its own dollar. China doesn't want the US Dollar to get any weaker vs the Yuan cause it would screw up how much business they get exporting to the US. So China buys as much US Dollar as they can to help make it strong vs their own currency. If China said fuck you as a result of Trump doing stuff like this, or more likely if Trump said we're going to try to do this without you cause we don't need no Chinese or Mexican imports to Make America Great Again, it has massive consequences as the US would finally have to face what paying for your entire budget with fake money means instead of having a sugar daddy to make sure they don't inflate too much. Furthermore if China bailed the impact is not just their stake in the US Dollar but the snowball effect of all the other countries seeing US Dollar fall and wanting to get out of it just like when a bubble pops. I don't know if this will happen but it's one of the most plausible ways Trump could fuck up America/the world.

Do you mean that if the territory is international waters, it's neither US nor China's business?

No. I mean it is none of USA's business to declare what is or is not International waters. It's a sea near China and other Asian countries, so let them work it out. Nothing to do with America at all.

It was (and still is) an important shipping route for all countries in the world. You do know that the US has military ties with some of those claimant countries, right? The countries use the US for protection and the US in turn uses the countries to pivot to Asia.

None of that matters.

It matters because China is using its military strength and economic clout to bully other countries into submission.

Oh don't be so melodramatic. China is hardly invading The Philippines. Typical Honkey response.

I was referring to the South China Sea dispute. China is militarizing the sea and building arms on surrounded island.

If these countries let China have her way, China could unilaterally block off almost everything between Vietnam and the Philippines. Can countries trust China to keep the sea route free for shipping and other activities allowed by international convention?

Funny this is mentioned in a 10 page thread where previous to the nghtvsn's post you quoted he only posted 1 time while you did it 12 times. I wonder who's the one that didn't realize the election's over. And you are not even the worst culprit.

Except that's not what happened. This was a scheduled call for MONTHS and it was all stemmed from business interests in Taiwan.

ooo good one price!

What does the number of times someone is posting have to do with how they perceive what has happened?

What I'm saying is that the election is over. Stop rehashing this tired Hillary shtick, because it's done. We're in a whole new ballgame where Trump is, in fact, the president elect. It's not about Hillary Clinton anymore. She's a private citizen now. It's about Trump, and we we should be allowed to judge him accordingly.

Yeah, I don't think Trump realizes people are allowed to criticize him when they feel he's made a poor choice.

Case in boldfaced point: He just nominated Ben Carson as the Secretary of HUD.

What exactly does The Human Ambien know about housing and urban development? Did Trump just nominate him because he's black?

Who is actually going to confirm him?

And anyway, turnabout is fair play. After the Merrick Garland shitshow, Democrats are going to make a mountain out of confirming controversial Cabinet picks.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/t ... ate-232136

That's exactly what happened. His intentions could be business interests in Taiwan, being seen as a strongman by acting tough, or making China pay a higher cost by propping up Taiwan. Whatever the intentions, the call and the acknowledgement of the Taiwanese head of government was a step towards recognizing and normalizing Taiwan as a country, bucking the trend since Nixon and Carter sold out Taiwan.

Not denying that at all -- in fact, I've blogged about that quite a bit.

My main point is to counter the stupid things Trump supporters are claiming about how he has a mandate and how the people wanted him in there. No. No, we didn't, by a large percentage.

But then again, Trump people aren't really known for caring about facts much.

Exactly. I just read something about this.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2016/12/paul_ryan_says_it_doesn_t_matter_when_trump_lies_on_twitter_that_s_garbage.html
The article can be pretty much be summed up by this bit:


It just seems silly that his supporters don't care what he actually says or does, because they just look at the message behind it and how it suits their own thinking. But I guess you have this with supporters of everyone, they take the glass half-full approach to everything involving them.

Also: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/vi ... -as-facts/

His Cabinet nominations get dumber each day outdoing his previous selections. A climate change denier and a WWE exec that bought her way with a position. I fully expect David Duke will be among his top choices in the following days