Friday, December 31, 2021

Australian nuclear-powered sub | Dec. 31, 2021

 

美军大型侦察机抵近侦查约1200架次 数次逼近中国大陆领海!数读2021年美军在中国周边行动记录 20211230 |
《今日亚洲》CCTV中文国际

Dec 31, 2021
Australia to get the first of its nuclear submarines FIVE YEARS ahead of schedule as America fast-tracks $90billion project in face of rising tensions with China

Dec. 30 - Rising tensions with China have fast-tracked the delivery of the first Australian nuclear submarine under the $90billion deal with the USA and the UK.


​Australia now looks set to launch its first nuclear-powered submarine five years ahead of schedule as the West braces for confrontation with China.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has revealed the UK and US are 'pulling out all the stops' to speed up the massive project.

The controversial deal - which saw Australia abandon its contract with France for a fleet of diesel submarines -  could now see the new subs coming into operation in the first half of the 2030s...     more

Australia warned bid for nuclear subs carries 'enormous' risks

​Dec. 13 - Australia's bid to develop a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines will cost more than US$80 billion and take decades in the "most complex" project the country has ever embarked on, a study released Monday warned.

The report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute -- an influential Canberra-based think tank -- said ownership of the high-tech subs built with US or British know-how would offer a major advantage in deterring aggression from China or elsewhere.

But it will also be a fiendishly difficult task requiring a step-change in Australia's military and industrial capabilities.
It is "probably the largest and most complex endeavour Australia has embarked upon. The challenges, costs and risks will be enormous," the think tank warned.

"It's likely to be at least two decades and tens of billions of dollars in sunk costs before Australia has a useful nuclear-powered military capability."

The project, announced last month, will make Australia the only non-nuclear weapons power to own nuclear-run submarines, which are capable of travelling quickly over long distances carrying long-range missiles and state-of-the-art underwater drones.

Canberra plans to equip them with conventional rather than nuclear weapons. It has yet to decide whether it will buy US or British technology, what class, size and capabilities the subs will have, where they will be built or how radioactive material will be handled.

Even under an optimistic schedule, the first submarines are unlikely to be operational before 2040, according to the report's authors, who include former Australian defence department officials and an expert on nuclear physics...     more



Australia-China relations continued to sour in 2021. What can we expect in 2022?

Dec. 29 - It was another tumultuous year for Australia-China relations in 2021, continuing a trend from 2020.

​The year began with a World Health Organization (WHO)  investigation into the origins of COVID-19, with a delegation sent to Wuhan.

It was something Foreign Minister Marise Payne had called for ahead of other nations, and it made Beijing bristle.

As the year closes out, tensions have taken a sporting turn, with a diplomatic boycott of Beijing's Winter Olympics and speculation swirling around tennis star Peng Shuai.

In between there were other sore points surrounding trade and security: Australia went to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Chinese tariffs on Australian wine, only for China to lodge its own complaint with the WTO days later.

Ministerial contact between the two nations has apparently been severed, and the ongoing trade tussle has impacted not only wine, but also Australian barley, lobster, beef and coal exports.

Australia also ditched its French submarine deal for AUKUS, a nuclear-powered submarine agreement with the United Kingdom and the United States, in a move widely seen as an attempt to counter China's influence in the Indo-Pacific.

A poll this year showed that trust in China sank to a record low in Australia, with more than 60 per cent of those surveyed saying they view Beijing as a security threat rather than an economic partner.

Pichamon Yeophantong — from the UNSW Canberra at Australian Defence Force Academy — described the relationship as being in a "death spiral", while ANU researcher Ye Xue said the downward trajectory from 2020 was a "new normal".

However, Jennifer Hsu, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute, highlighted that the appointment of a new ambassador to Australia might be the best opportunity to hit the restart button on a rocky path...     more

Plate tectonics (from the Late Latintectonicus, from the Ancient Greek: τεκτονικός, lit. 'pertaining to building')[1] is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large of tectonic plates which have been slowly moving since about 3.4 billion years ago.[2] The model builds on the concept of continental drift, an idea developed during the first decades of the 20th century. Plate-tectonics came to be generally accepted by geoscientists after seafloor spreading was validated in the mid to late 1960s.
Earth's lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of a planet (the crust and upper mantle), is broken into seven or eight major plates (depending on how they are defined) and many minor plates. Where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of boundary: convergentdivergent, or transformEarthquakesvolcanic activitymountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along these plate boundaries (or faults). The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 10 cm annually.[3]
Tectonic plates are composed of the oceanic lithosphere and the thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own kind of crust. Along convergent boundaries, the process of subduction, or one plate moving under another, carries the edge of the lower one down into the mantle; the area of material lost is roughly balanced by the formation of new (oceanic) crust along divergent margins by seafloor spreading. In this way, the total geoid surface area of the lithosphere remains constant. This prediction of plate tectonics is also referred to as the conveyor belt principle. Earlier theories, since disproven, proposed gradual shrinking (contraction) or gradual expansion of the globe.[4]

Tectonic plates are able to move because Earth's lithosphere has greater mechanical strength than the underlying asthenosphere. Lateral density variations in the mantle result in convection; that is, the slow creeping motion of Earth's solid mantle. Plate movement is thought to be driven by a combination of the motion of the seafloor away from spreading ridges due to variations in topography (the ridge is a topographic high) and density changes in the crust (density increases as newly-formed crust cools and moves away from the ridge). At subduction zones the relatively cold, dense oceanic crust is "pulled" or sinks down into the mantle over the downward convecting limb of a mantle cell.[5] Another explanation lies in the different forces generated by tidal forces of the Sun and the Moon. The relative importance of each of these factors and their relationship to each other is unclear, and still the subject of much debate.
板块构造论(又稱板块构造假说板块构造学说板块构造学,總稱「板塊漂移」)是为了解释大陆漂移现象而发展出的一种地质学理论。该理论认为,地球岩石圈是由板块拼合而成;现今的全球分为六大板块(1968年法国勒皮雄划分),海洋陆地的位置是不断变化的。根据这种理论,地球内部构造的最外层分为两部分:外层的岩石圈和内层的软流圈。这种理论基于两种独立的地质观测结果:海底擴張大陆漂移

圈可以分為大板塊及小板塊,兩板塊相接觸的部份則可依其相對運動來分為分離板塊邊緣聚合板塊邊緣轉形斷層。在板塊邊緣常會出現地震火山、造運動及海沟。现今每年的相對運動距離約在0至150 mm不等[1]
板塊可以分為海洋板塊及較厚的陸地板塊,兩者都有各自的地殼。在聚合板塊邊緣會有隱沒帶,會將板塊沉降至地幔,使岩石圈質量減少,而分離板塊邊緣因海底擴張形成的新地殼,這種對板塊的預測稱為輸送帶原理。較早期的理論認為地球會漸漸膨脹或是漸漸收縮,也都還有一些人支持[2]

板塊可以移動的原因是因為岩石圈的強度比下方的軟流圈要大,地幔密度的變化造成了地幔對流。一般認為板塊運動是由海底遠離擴張脊的運動(因為地形及地殼的變化,造成地球引力的差異)、阻力及隱沒帶向下的吸力等影響組合而成。另一種解釋則是考慮地球旋轉的受力差異,以及太陽月亮潮汐力。這些因素之間的相對重要性及其關係還不清楚,目前也還有許多爭議。

Friday, December 24, 2021

Philippine Sea| Dec. 24, 2021

 The Philippine Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean east of the Philippine archipelago (hence the name), occupying an estimated surface area of 5 million square kilometers (2×106 sq mi).[1] The Philippine Sea Plate forms the floor of the sea.[2] Its western border is the first island chain to the west, comprising the Ryukyu Islands in the northwest and Taiwan in the west. Its southwestern border comprises the Philippine islands of LuzonCatanduanesSamarLeyte, and Mindanao. Its northern border comprises the Japanese islands of HonshuShikoku and Kyūshū. Its eastern border is the second island chain to the west, comprising the Bonin Islands and Iwo Jima in the northeast, the Mariana Islands (including GuamSaipan, and Tinian) in the due east, and HalmaheraPalauYap and Ulithi (of the Caroline Islands) in the southeast. Its southern border is Indonesia's Morotai Island.[3]


​The sea has a complex and diverse undersea relief.[4] The floor is formed into a structural basin by a series of geologic faults and fracture zones. Island arcs, which are actually extended ridges protruding above the ocean surface due to plate tectonic activity in the area, enclose the Philippine Sea to the north, east and south. The Philippine archipelago, Ryukyu Islands, and the Marianas are examples. Another prominent feature of the Philippine Sea is the presence of deep sea trenches, among them the Philippine Trench and the Mariana Trench, containing the deepest point on the planet.

US and Japanese forces sail in formation in the Philippine Sea during multinational military exercises in 2018. 

US and Japan draw up joint military plan in case of Taiwan emergency – report

US would set up bases from a Japanese island to Taiwan and deploy troops, with Japan providing logistical support, Kyodo reports

Date published on Dec. 24, 2021

Japanese and US armed forces have drawn up a draft plan for a joint operation for a possible Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency has reported, amid increased tensions between the island and China.

​Under the plan, the US marine corps would set up temporary bases on the Nansei island chain stretching from Kyushu – one of the four main islands of Japan – to Taiwan at the initial stage of a Taiwan emergency and would deploy troops, Kyodo said on Thursday, citing unnamed Japanese government sources.


Japanese armed forces would provide logistical support in such areas as ammunition and fuel supplies, it said.

​Japan, a former colonial ruler of Taiwan, and the US would likely reach an agreement to start formulating an official plan at a “2+2” meeting of foreign and defence ministers early next year, the news agency said.

Japanese defence ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own “sacred” territory and in the past two years has stepped up military and diplomatic pressure to assert its sovereignty claims, fuelling anger in Taipei and deep concern in Washington.

Taiwan’s government says it wants peace, but will defend itself if needed.

In October, Japan’s government signalled a more assertive position on China’s aggressive posture towards self-ruled Taiwan, suggesting it would consider options and prepare for “various scenarios”, while reaffirming close US ties.

Earlier this month, former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said Japan and the US could not stand by if China attacked Taiwan.

US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have long said that given the tens of thousands of troops the US has in Japan and its proximity to Taiwan, Japan would likely have to play an important role in any Taiwan emergency.

Japan is host to major US military bases, including on the southern island of Okinawa, a short flight from Taiwan, which would be crucial for any US support during a Chinese attack.

The US, like most countries in the world, recognises China over Taiwan, in line with Beijing’s “one China” policy. But Washington is the island’s biggest arms supplier and ally and is obliged by law to help it defend itself.

As we approach the end of the year in Taiwan, we have a small favour to ask. We’d like to thank you for putting your trust in our journalism this year - and invite you to join the million-plus people in 180 countries who have recently taken the step to support us financially, keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent.

In 2021, this support sustained investigative work into offshore wealth, spyware, sexual harassment, labour abuse, environmental plunder, crony coronavirus contracts, and Big Tech.

The new year, like all new years, will hopefully herald a fresh sense of cautious optimism, and there is certainly much for us to focus on in 2022 - a volley of elections, myriad economic challenges, the next round in the struggle against the pandemic and a World Cup.

With no shareholders or billionaire owner, we can set our own agenda and provide trustworthy journalism that’s free from commercial and political influence, offering a counterweight to the spread of misinformation. When it’s never mattered more, we can investigate and challenge without fear or favour.     more

Related Articles:
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In China’s new age of imperialism, Xi Jinping gives thumbs down to democracy
Simon Tisdall

China will end US dominance – Putin
Beijing is on the cusp of overtaking America as the powerhouse of global trade, the Russian president has argued.

Dec. 24 - Within the next three decades, China will surpass the US in every aspect of its economy, Vladimir Putin said, predicting that America will lose its position of dominance in finance and trade.

​Speaking to journalists at his annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Putin pointed out that “today, China’s economy is already larger than America’s in terms of purchasing power parity.” According to him, “by 2035-2050, it will have surpassed it and China will become the leading economy in the world according to all metrics.”

However, the Russian president continued, the West is working to undermine the world’s most populous nation and strangle its growth. The US-led boycott of the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing purportedly over human rights abuses is an attempt to make sure China “cannot raise its head” above its competitors, he added.


Putin blasted the decision as “unacceptable and erroneous,” and an “attempt to restrain the development of the People’s Republic of China.” Washington announced the decision over concerns for the safety of tennis player Peng Shuai, who disappeared from public for several weeks after accusing former vice premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. The Women’s Tennis Association has suspended all tournaments in the East Asian nation in response.

Earlier this month, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks via video link amid escalating tensions between the two nations and the West. In the wake of the discussions, the Kremlin revealed that the pair had agreed to develop a shared financial system to reduce reliance on US-dominated platforms. The move appears to be a response to a series of warnings that Western nations could push to disconnect Russia from the Brussels-based SWIFT financial system as a form of sanction.

During the press conference on Thursday, Putin said China is his country’s number-one partner, adding that “we have very trusting relations and it helps us build good business ties as well.”
“We are cooperating in the field of security. The Chinese Army is equipped to a significant extent with the world’s most advanced weapons systems. We are even developing certain high-tech weapons together,” the Russian leader added.

Related Articles:
Kremlin reveals new independent Russian-Chinese financial systems

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Geology | Dec. 18, 2021

5 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)




Russia's military build-up: Tensions rising with Ukraine
00:00
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01:38
Russia threatens war unless US abandons eastern NATO allies

​Dec. 17 - Russian President Vladimir Putin will bear the blame for Russian soldiers “coming home in body bags” if he orders a new invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden’s administration said in response to the Kremlin’s latest high-stakes maneuver.

“The Russian people don’t need a war with Ukraine,” a senior administration official told reporters Friday. “They don’t need their sons coming home in body bags. They don’t need another foreign adventure. ... So we hope that President Putin will take this opportunity for diplomacy and will also listen to the needs of his own people.”


That stark warning followed the release of a “draft treaty” proposal from Moscow that Russian officials portray as a resolution to the standoff, which has intensified as Russian forces amass near Ukraine's borders. Yet the Russian document demands not only that NATO promise never to admit Ukraine to the alliance, but it also goes so far as to demand the removal of U.S. and Western European forces from Central and Eastern Europe — a rollback that would amount to a practical breakup of NATO.


“It’s not even valid to consider it,” a Baltic official told the Washington Examiner on condition of anonymity. “If a country wants to leave NATO, then, of course, it’s a sovereign decision by any democratic country. ... It’s not a decision that’s up to Russia”...     more

A Coming Test On Taiwan

​Instead of attacking Taiwan itself, China might target one of its remote outlying possessions.

Dec. 18 - Most discussions about a U.S. security commitment to Taiwan implicitly assume that a military move by the People’s Republic of China would take the form of an offensive against Taiwan itself. Very few experts raise the question of what the United States would do if Beijing launched a more limited action—one against Kinmen (Quemoy) and Matsu, small Taiwanese-controlled islands just a few miles off of China’s coast, or against other more distant islands that Taipei claims. Yet that is a much more likely scenario than a full-scale war to subjugate Taiwan. It would be a bold yet relatively low-risk way for Beijing to test the extent and reliability of Washington’s resolve to defend Taiwan and its interests...     more
Rep. Fallon: US Must Defend Taiwan Against Chinese Aggression

NTD spoke with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) about the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics, China’s aggression toward Taiwan, and the Chinese Communist Party stealing U.S. intellectual property.



​The Yangtze Plate, also called the South China Block or the South China Subplate, comprises the bulk of southern China. It is separated on the east from the Okinawa Plate by a rift that forms the Okinawa Trough which is a back-arc basin, on the south by the Sunda Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate, and on the north and west by the Eurasian Plate. The Longmenshan Fault on the latter border was the site of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.[1]
The Yangtze Plate was formed by the disaggregation of the Rodinia Supercontinent 750 million years ago, in the Neoproterozoic era. South China rifted away from the Gondwana supercontinent in the Silurian. During the formation of the great supercontinent Pangaea, South China was a smaller, separate continent located off the east coast of the supercontinent and drifting northward. In the Triassic the Yangtze Plate collided with the North China Plate, thereby connecting with Pangaea, and formed the Sichuan basin. In the Cenozoic the Yangtze Plate was influenced by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates creating the uplifting of the Longmen Mountains.[2] Its southward motion is accommodated along the Red River fault.


华南板块,也称扬子板块长江板块,是指从秦岭淮河到冲绳海槽这个巨大的稳定地区,是一块位于东亚的板块。在华南板块内部,又细分为扬子克拉通(即扬子陆块、华南地块)、华夏地块(学术界对是否存在华夏古陆有争议,因此有人称之为华南褶皱带),二者分界线为萍乡——绍兴断裂带、江南造山带
华南板块包括中國南部,東面與沖繩板塊沖繩海槽分隔,東北與阿穆尔板块東海黃海交接處相鄰,南面是巽他板塊菲律賓板塊,北面和西面有歐亞大陸板塊汶川大地震位於與後者邊界的龍門山斷層[1]
华南板块形成于罗迪尼亚超大陆750 Ma新元古代的解体。在志留纪,华南板块沿断层从冈瓦纳大陆上滑走。在盘古大陆形成过程中,华南板块是盘古大陆东边一个小而独立的大陆,并向北运动。在三叠纪,华南板块与华北板块相撞,与盘古大陆相连,并形成四川盆地。在新生代,华南板块受到印度板块欧亚板块相撞的影响,发生了四川龙门山的抬升。[2]:1–11它南部的运动沿红河断层相适应。
中英文名称的翻译

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