The US draws a red line for China to handpick next Dalai Lama
AFP Published Sep 19, 2019
The US is hoping to make clear that Beijing would face international opprobrium if it tries to take over the reincarnation process.
A bill recently introduced in the US Congress would call for sanctions on any Chinese official who interferes with Tibetan Buddhist succession practices. (Photo: File | Representational)
Washington: As Tibetans start grappling with the once-unthinkable prospect of the octogenarian Dalai Lama's passing, the United States is looking to lay down a red line against China handpicking his successor.
Through a warning from a senior official and legislation under consideration in Congress, the United States is hoping to make clear in advance that Beijing would face international opprobrium if it tries to take over the reincarnation process.
At 84, the 14th Dalai Lama has slowed his once incessant travel down a notch and earlier this year was hospitalized for a chest infection, although there is no indication he faces serious health issues.
Nonetheless, both Tibetan activists and Beijing are keenly aware that his death will mark a major setback in his push for more autonomy for the Himalayan region, depriving the cause of a Nobel Prize winner whose moral teachings and idiosyncratic humor have made him one of the world's most popular religious leaders.
Dalai Lama "Enlightened"
( Read more...Collapse )LET FREEDOM FLOW DOWN THE LHASA RIVER
MY REFLECTIONS ON THE SIKH IDENTITY-INDIVIDUAL vs GROUP IDENTITY:
I ask my readers to give their attention to the problem of Individual Identity vs Group Identity. I identify the action called 'Compassion' with the Individual Identity and I associate the action called 'Aggression' with the Group Identity.
The Sikhs like all other human beings have to know the dimensions of Individual and Group Identities.
I concede that the Group Identity named 'Tat Khalsa' may give some political advantages to channelize acts of aggression towards other human groupings such as the Hindus. The Tat Khalsa Community gets energized by collectively expressing their hatred and animosity towards individuals that they perceive as their Enemy. I am not surprised to find Christians and Muslims supporting the aggressive stance of the Tat Khalsa for their own political gains. If the political factor is removed, the Sikh Doctrine cannot be energized by the Christain or Muslim Doctrine. The Tat Khalsa may win its battle against the Hindu but will succumb to the collective energy of either Christian or Muslim Group who desire to benefit by encouraging the Group Rivalry between the Sikhs and the Hindus.
SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE-THE KEY TO HUMAN NATURE-INDIVIDUAL vs GROUP IDENTITY: "SARVESHAM SWASTIR BHAVATU"
The Vitruvian Man c. 1492. The painting by Leonardo da Vinci displays the Spirit of Scientific Inquiry about Human Nature.
( Read more...Collapse )THE CITIZENSHIP OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON EARTH
TIBET IS THE KEY FOR BALANCE OF POWER IN ASIA. #TIBETEQUILIBRIUM
In my analysis, it is not “Geometry” but it is “Geography” that Matters to secure the Balance of Power in Asia. I coined the phrase “Tibet Equilibrium,” #TibetEquilibrium to signify the importance of the landmass to achieve Power Equilibrium in Asia.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE
Pentagon steps up efforts to counter China’s rising power
afp.com
Maritime operations, missile tests, landing exercises: the Pentagon has been sharply stepping up its efforts to counter China’s growing military power, seen increasingly as a threat.
A large ship in the water: The US military has been using guided-missile destroyers like this one, the USS John McCain, seen here in a US Navy photo, as it seeks to enforce an international 'freedom of operation' near islands claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea.
© James VAZQUEZ The US military has been using guided-missile destroyers like this one, the USS John McCain, seen here in a US Navy photo, as it seeks to enforce an international ‘freedom of operation’ near islands claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea
On Friday an American warship approached the Paracel Islands, an island chain claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea, to affirm international “freedom of navigation” in the region.
The USS Wayne E. Meyer, a guided-missile destroyer, passed near the islands to contest Beijing’s sweeping claims to the seas around the archipelago, which is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
The Chinese claim would block “innocent passage” by other countries’ ships and is “not permitted by international law,” a US Seventh Fleet spokeswoman, Commander Reann Mommsen, said.
Friday’s was the sixth “freedom of navigation operation” — or FONOPS in naval jargon — this year, a clear acceleration in pace.
There were a total of eight in 2017 and 2018 and only six during the entire Obama presidency.
On Wednesday, the US Marine Corps announced it had conducted exercises on the Japanese islet of Tori Shima, hundreds of miles south of Tokyo, to practice landings on “hostile” shores and the seizure of landing strips.
A man wearing a suit and tie: Ryan McCarthy is seen on September 12, 2019, at his Senate confirmation hearing to become US secretary of the army, the position formerly held by Defense Secretary Mark Esper
© MARK WILSON Ryan McCarthy is seen on September 12, 2019, at his Senate confirmation hearing to become US secretary of the army, the position formerly held by Defense Secretary Mark Esper
The exercises were clearly designed to highlight the ability of the American military to invade a disputed island and establish a supply base for aerial operations.
“This type of raid gives the commanders in the Indo-Pacific region the ability to project power and conduct expeditionary operations in a potentially contested littoral environment,” one of the officers in charge, Commander Anthony Cesaro, said in a statement.
Such a forthright description, coming from a Pentagon hardly known for unguarded talk, reflects the fresh impetus Defense Secretary Mark Esper has given to the US policy of “strategic rivalry” with China and Russia.
Esper, who chose Asia for his first overseas trip only weeks after being sworn in as Pentagon chief, has made clear that the US wants to rapidly deploy new missiles in Asia — possibly within months — to counter China’s rising military power.
– To ‘change the geometry’ –
On Thursday, acting US army secretary Ryan McCarthy, speaking in a Senate confirmation hearing, defended the development of such new missiles.
He said the new medium-range conventional missiles Washington wants to develop — now that the US is no longer constrained by the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which the Trump administration abandoned last year — would “change the geometry within Southeast Asia.”
“If we can get the appropriate partnerships, expeditionary basing rights with partners within the region,” McCarthy said, “we can change the geometry and basically reverse anti-access, area-denial capabilities that have been invested by near-peer competitors” — jargon for pushing back against sovereignty claims by China and Russia.
A large ship in the background: Sailors stand on the deck of the new Chinese guided-missile destroyer Nanchang as Beijing showed off its growing fleet on April 23, 2019, in the sea off eastern China's Shandong province
© Mark Schiefelbein Sailors stand on the deck of the new Chinese guided-missile destroyer Nanchang as Beijing showed off its growing fleet on April 23, 2019, in the sea off eastern China’s Shandong province
Last month the Pentagon chose the Pacific Ocean for its first test of a conventional medium-range missile since the end of the Cold War — effectively driving a nail into the coffin of the INF treaty, which banned the use of land-based missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,400 miles).
And in late August, Washington formally established its Space Command, or Spacecom, a new unified command charged with ensuring US domination in space, where China has been increasingly active.
Beijing rattled US military officials in 2007 when it launched a missile that located and then destroyed a Chinese satellite, in a dramatic demonstration of China’s growing ability to militarize space.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 – REMEMBERING THE CONSONANCE AND THE DISSONANCE IN HUMAN NATURE
BACKSTABBERS OF THE TIBETAN NATION. THE DOOMED PRESIDENCY OF NIXON AND FORD
September 05, 2019. My thoughts on President Radhakrishnan’s Birthday
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- BHAVANA JAGAT
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