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Sino-US tensions over man-made islands



China said it was “deeply concerned” on Wednesday about a reported U.S. proposal to consider sending naval ships and aircraft toward man-made islands in the South China Sea as tensions escalate between the two nations over the vital waters. The Obama administration has looked on with mounting frustration in recent months as China has undertaken a vast program of land reclamation in the South China Sea, turning rocks and submerged reefs into islands capable of supporting airstrips and military facilities across some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

The fear, expressed by President Obama last month, is that China is using its “muscle” to bully smaller nations into accepting its sovereignty over disputed waters. But a volley of verbal protests from the United States has fallen on deaf ears, and administration officials have been agonizing over how to rein China in without escalating military tensions to dangerous levels, experts say.  May 13  http://wapo.st/1E7wJni






This news comes to us on the eve of a powerful Mars-Saturn opposition.  A chart drawn for the event at the midpoint between Beijing and Washington has the opposition placed on the horizon implying that its energies were going to be significant in Sino-US relationship in the current period. Reinhold Ebertin gives us the following key phrases for the combination which sum up the news perfectly:

Mars-Saturn


Periods of impotence and weakness alternating with periods of brutal or ruthless progress. All will directed activity meets complete resistance. Tests of strength, disputes and separations.

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