SYDNEY Tue Nov 26, 2013 3:19am EST
(Reuters) - Australia summoned China's ambassador (click here) to express concern over its imposition of an "Air Defence Identification Zone" over the East China Sea, the foreign minister said on Tuesday, decrying the move as unhelpful in a region beset by tension.
"The timing and the manner of China's announcement are unhelpful in light of current regional tensions, and will not contribute to regional stability," Julie Bishop said in a statement.
"The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade yesterday called in China's ambassador to convey the Australian Government's concerns and to seek an explanation of China's intentions."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the ambassador "fully expounded upon China's considerations and aims in setting up the East China Sea Air Defence Inspection Zone, and expounded upon our position and viewpoints"....
I sincerely doubt Japan, China and the USA have different and varying interests in a small place in the Pacific. There is no commercial interests likely to be developed there and certainly the nations are not interested in beginning a war over this small area of Earth. I mean for real already. I think Ambassadors are good places to start to come to a treaty for vigilance of such a sensitive area where the interests of national security converge.
There are no territorial interests of one nation that supercedes that of another. The only competition might be fishing. So, enough already. The nations involved need to come to terms with surveillance and end this hideous nonsense.
Honestly, boys will be boys.
BEIJING — U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke, (click here) who won plaudits for his low-key style and for cutting visa waiting times for Chinese citizens entering the United States, announced Wednesday that he will step down early next year to rejoin his family in Seattle.
Locke, the first Chinese American to hold the Beijing post, might be best remembered in China for a photograph taken even before he arrived in 2011 that shows him with his young daughter at the Seattle airport, wearing a backpack and trying to pay for coffee with a coupon. The image circulated widely on social media, with many Chinese concluding that Locke, who was also seen flying economy class, was much more down-to-earth and less reliant on publicly funded luxuries than their own officials....
