"Latest Chinese missile to target US carriers: report"

Via The Raw Story, from a Japanese paper:

"China plans to equip its upcoming missiles with infrared technology to give them the ability to hit US warships in Asia, a Japanese newspaper said Wednesday.

The upgrade is part of preparations for a potential conflict over Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory and which has a security pact with the United States, the Sankei Shimbun said."

This reminds me: I'm due for an annual follow-up to the Timeline for the Unfolding Crisis, where I'd prognosticated the following for the 2007 - 2010 period:

"Worldwide, a void will start to be felt by the beginning decline of the US as a superpower. The signal for this won’t be hard to miss: China will “repatriate” Taiwan."

And now that I've got the Timeline out again, another prediction for the current period jumps out at me:

"...there is a high likelihood of a derivatives crisis triggering global bankruptcy in the financial world during this period, probably initiating in the US mortgage industry."

Which came on the back of my just having read this piece in the OC Register:

"The same problems shaking up the subprime market are now emerging in the Alt-A industry....Ramirez said it's "eerie" how the subprime correction appears to be repeating in Alt-A."

....and this weblog entry....

"Where are all of those experts who said the subprime problem was contained, and that it would not spill over to the Alt-A and Prime markets? Where are they as Alt-A lender after Alt-A lender goes belly up or suffers huge profit losses?"

Comments

[Larry]

Why on earth would we want to start a fight with China or vice versa? I'm not denying your predictions, but the whole idea of another fight over an island sounds like mass idiocy to me. Would a "repatriated" Taiwan be any different than it is now? And if so, why would it really make any difference on a global scale? Taiwan is in fact closer, geographically speaking, to China than it is to the U.S. I'm asking a legitimate question. So, let's hear some legitimate answers.

[slomo]

The answer is very simple. It's not about an actual fight (necessarily). It's about an inflection point in the calculus of global power.

In short, China to US: "Yeah? Whachugonna do about it?"