SAF Terrex impounded by HK customs

[Celicar]

theres a very big difference between not "moving towards" Vs being seen as "moving against" no?

 

one is prudent at least... the other is foolish at best.. considering what the rest of Asean is doing now.

This is exactly right, it is how we are seen that is all important. If they don't see us as bashing our face in hard enough we have to bash ourselves even harder.

 

No wonder our diplomatic corp and leaders are so clueless. They don't have a talent like you in their midst. You have my vote if you ever run.

[inlinesix]

http://app.scmp.com/scmp/mobile/index.html#/article/2049429/desktop

Edited November 26, 2016 by Davidtch

[Playtime]

According to a report by NanyangPost.com, the ship carrying the SAF armoured vehicle had earlier berthed at Port of Amoy (Hokkien Province), the the Chinese were aware that there are military equipment on board the ship. And the PRC authority later tip-off HK Customs authority to act.

 

http://news.nanyangpost.com/2016/11/26_87.html

I really wonder wtf thought it a good idea to route the shipment through china and hong kong? ?!!

[Spinelli_ck]

According to a Straits Times report, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang also commented on the situation during a routine press briefing on Friday, saying that, “All people and goods entering Hong Kong Special Administrative Region should follow the laws of the SAR.”

 

“I’d like to reiterate that the Chinese government firmly opposes any of the countries that has diplomatic ties with us to have any form of official exchanges with Taiwan, including defence exchanges and cooperation,” he said.

 

China is obviously playing political hardball with SG.

[Freeder]

This time China play big big liao..

Tahan for so long liao after recent lhl rethorics especially TPP....

Confirmed SABOTAGE case or mis cued handling of the shipment...

Anyway, I wish the MINDEF team all the very best to close this case...

One thing confirmed, a committee will be formed to look into this matter

[mersaylee]

Heng gor leh? On leave hah?

 

Recent diplomatic spats are good field test for our next generation of leaders.

 

Hmm...all these came about after the handshake in the middle Kingdom...boardroom kind of strategic stress test?

[Nlatio]

We dont really know what exactly went behind the scene.... if anyone watch the national day rally.... why lhl spend quite a fair bit of time talking about scs??? Usually this type of int'l and heavy stuff he dont touch in the rally.... he will usually touch on si pi f and how miw going to help the lower income etc....

 

Not a matter to diam diam or not cause prc or the americano may be asking Sin... friends, how, what say u??

 

So go left mine field, go right also mine field, so all things considered, domthe least damage one...

 

It is hard to let people perceive that we lean towards china and yet not kena from americano... how u gonna rub the prc lp song song but kept the americano one hanging there to sun tan... and vice versa...

 

So we just say, as a small country, we have to follow rules of the laws. That is our guiding priciple.... though the prc see this as a slap to their face.

[Count-Bracula]

Your COE up, we scrap for you FOC?

 

Tank COE which Cat?

[Nlatio]

This time China play big big liao..

Tahan for so long liao after recent lhl rethorics especially TPP....

Confirmed SABOTAGE case or mis cued handling of the shipment...

Anyway, I wish the MINDEF team all the very best to close this case...

One thing confirmed, a committee will be formed to look into this matter

This may be just prc showing a displeasure.... but as a whole, life will go on after a while. There are more impt things for both country to do then just talk about some military vehicles. Prc also cannot be too hard handed. Imagine other country will say... nbccb.... Sin a good friend with prc also can kena tekan.... next time maybe our turn.

[Count-Bracula]

This time China play big big liao..

Tahan for so long liao after recent lhl rethorics especially TPP....

Confirmed SABOTAGE case or mis cued handling of the shipment...

Anyway, I wish the MINDEF team all the very best to close this case...

One thing confirmed, a committee will be formed to look into this matter

Maybe it is the open window and smoke joke? Jun zi bao chou, si nian wei wan.

[Kusje]

If we purport to follow the law strictly then why do we even train in Taiwan instead of following what we say when we believe in 1 China?

 

And why did we not properly declare the baby tanks? Got something to hide?

[Wishcumstrue]

HAHA!

 

This time dua-diao liao !

 

I was thinking this is just a simple administrative slip up in the transit. But it seems there is more meat behind this. Since HK's foreign relation and security are handled by China, that means SG gov and SAF official will need to visit Beijing, rather than SAR to lim-kopi to "商量商量"

 

 

 

 

[Wishcumstrue]

If it is really true then all the more China cannot be trusted as a country and partner. 

 

Dude...the writing is already on the wall over the last few years..or literally in Global Time editorial exchange with our ambassador to China recently.

 

Basically, that mutual "trust' is no more - and even commoners like us can read and sense the relation is not going well since the passing of LKY.

 

Since SG gov don't get that message,  China will have to stronger signal after  our gov goes around indirectly challenging China's interest from SCS to allowing US P-9 spy planes to be based here.

 

Plus the fact Taiwan has elected a President who continue to refuse to acknowledge 1-China policy, by targeting our made-in-Singapore military asset in transit from an recent ex-Starlight indicated China wants this decade long SG-TW defence agreement to end.

 

China is working on the timeline to unify with Taiwan..and the 1st thing it will do is to remove any foreign troops from a island which Beijing consider as its territory.

[RadX]

Interesting post on counter:

 

 

From fb.

 

I do not understand the political opportunists and the smart alecks trying to skewer Lee Hsien Loong for offending China. The noose was always going to be slowly tightened around him (and us). The writing was on the wall as early as 2004 if you remember the uproar of "hurt feelings" that followed LHL's visit to Taiwan before taking over the reins as PM. Meetings were cancelled overnight and multi-million dollar projects scrapped. An increasingly confident and assertive China was signalling to the post-LKY leadership that new dynamics in the relationship were going to be in place and that it wasn't ready to close one eye about Singapore's cosy relations with Taiwan any longer.

 

If you'd rather have Singapore tiptoe around the dragon, and bow to it each time it claims to be offended, then I'm afraid you're more PAP than the PAP itself. If you'd rather have Singapore quietly trade with China, make money on the side, and suck it up about everything else, then we might as well sign up to be China's third special administrative region.

 

There may be a lot in LHL's policymaking to criticise (don't get me started), but this is not one of them. Look around Southeast Asia today, at all the governments that are warming up to China, and tell me which of their geopolitical strategies you think we should emulate. Malaysia now has a corrupt regime that is now trying to make back its lost billions by selling precious national assets on the cheap to you-know-who. Further up north, you have a military junta that has basically allowed the region's new Big Brother to conduct cross-border kidnappings in their territory. Or maybe you think we should take the lead from that Donald Trump-like madman across the pond who woke up one fine morning and thought it was a good day to cut ties with all his old friends. Just a quick survey of the neighbourhood should give you an appreciation for the bulwark of stability that this little red dot is for the region even in the face of the great changes buffeting our friends around us.

 

The point I want to make is this: It is China's right to throw a hissy fit every time Singapore does something, and it is their right to feel aggrieved that Singapore isn't a "true friend" -- let them. At the end of the day, Singapore cannot capitulate and acquiesce at every turn without seriously damaging, or at the very least, compromising its independent, sovereign status.

 

If Singapore did not bow to the United States back then, why should it bow to China now?

 

And, FFS, can't we -- for once -- grow a pair and stand up for something other than mammon?

[Wishcumstrue]

This may be just prc showing a displeasure.... but as a whole, life will go on after a while. There are more impt things for both country to do then just talk about some military vehicles. Prc also cannot be too hard handed. Imagine other country will say... nbccb.... Sin a good friend with prc also can kena tekan.... next time maybe our turn.

 

I learn lesson today - Never ever go sucking a lame-duck POTUS and then earn the accolade of being named as the anchor of US military presence in Asia.

 

ST (1 Aug 2016) Singapore an anchor for US presence in Asia, says Obama

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapore-an-anchor-for-us-presence-in-asia-says-obama

Singapore is an anchor for the US presence in Asia, said US President Barack Obama, outlining why the country is being given the rare honour this week of an official visit with a state dinner at the White House

 

So proud was our gov that they even re-print wonderful praise in our MFA official site:

https://www.mfa.gov.sg/content/mfa/media_centre/singapore_headlines/2016/201608/headlines_20160801_02.html

[Playtime]

I learn lesson today - Never ever go sucking a lame-duck POTUS and then earn the accolade of being named as the anchor of US military presence in Asia.

 

ST (1 Aug 2016) Singapore an anchor for US presence in Asia, says Obama

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapore-an-anchor-for-us-presence-in-asia-says-obama

Singapore is an anchor for the US presence in Asia, said US President Barack Obama, outlining why the country is being given the rare honour this week of an official visit with a state dinner at the White House

 

So proud was our gov that they even re-print wonderful praise in our MFA official site:

https://www.mfa.gov.sg/content/mfa/media_centre/singapore_headlines/2016/201608/headlines_20160801_02.html

Well. .. is a perfect answer to the wilful blindness of those who talk about not bowing to China. China (and others) sees us as a surrogate for the US long ago already.

While it's to our benefit to generally side with the US, it simply don't make sense to go twitching the dragons nose again and again. . Plain stupidity.

[Wishcumstrue]

I gather this article was posted on HWZ's EDMW forum earlier today...

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/kenneth-tan-not-happy-many-edmwers-who-said-we-should-give-not-offence-china-5511998.html

 

Aside from that, I do not have original link source to this article and let alone who "kenneth tan" is.

Anyway, I do not understand how he concluded with below statement without even citing a single example that China had in any way or form challenged Singapore's independence and sovereignty ?

 

This "Kenneth Tan" seems to ignore  the very fact those +40 years of Ex. Starlight itself is an acknowledgement by Beijing that Singapore was a once a weak new nation that needs a chance to practice its own of self defense need.

 

I know 40 years is a long time...and people naturally will forget that Taiwan situation cannot continue as status quo.

This urgency to resolve Taiwan issue becomes more apparent when Obama switched attention from Iraq/Syria to Asia in 2011 under the 'Pivot to  Asia".

 

Then a series of move over last few years by the US from increased military presence in Australia, Philippines, Japan and lately, pending deployment of THAAD missile in S Korea then the SCS dispute escalation and the PCA tribunal case by Manila.

 

How will China view all these ?

 

Then next thing we hear of P8 and Littoral combat ships being based in Singapore.

 

In the nutshell...this isn't about Singapore's sovereignty being challenged by China , but rather we are paying to price of being a pawn of the US strategic move in Asia Pacific.

 

 

 

 

Interesting post on counter:


From fb.

I do not understand the political opportunists and the smart alecks trying to skewer Lee Hsien Loong for offending China. The noose was always going to be slowly tightened around him (and us). The writing was on the wall as early as 2004 if you remember the uproar of "hurt feelings" that followed LHL's visit to Taiwan before taking over the reins as PM. Meetings were cancelled overnight and multi-million dollar projects scrapped. An increasingly confident and assertive China was signalling to the post-LKY leadership that new dynamics in the relationship were going to be in place and that it wasn't ready to close one eye about Singapore's cosy relations with Taiwan any longer.

If you'd rather have Singapore tiptoe around the dragon, and bow to it each time it claims to be offended, then I'm afraid you're more PAP than the PAP itself. If you'd rather have Singapore quietly trade with China, make money on the side, and suck it up about everything else, then we might as well sign up to be China's third special administrative region.

There may be a lot in LHL's policymaking to criticise (don't get me started), but this is not one of them. Look around Southeast Asia today, at all the governments that are warming up to China, and tell me which of their geopolitical strategies you think we should emulate. Malaysia now has a corrupt regime that is now trying to make back its lost billions by selling precious national assets on the cheap to you-know-who. Further up north, you have a military junta that has basically allowed the region's new Big Brother to conduct cross-border kidnappings in their territory. Or maybe you think we should take the lead from that Donald Trump-like madman across the pond who woke up one fine morning and thought it was a good day to cut ties with all his old friends. Just a quick survey of the neighbourhood should give you an appreciation for the bulwark of stability that this little red dot is for the region even in the face of the great changes buffeting our friends around us.

The point I want to make is this: It is China's right to throw a hissy fit every time Singapore does something, and it is their right to feel aggrieved that Singapore isn't a "true friend" -- let them. At the end of the day, Singapore cannot capitulate and acquiesce at every turn without seriously damaging, or at the very least, compromising its independent, sovereign status.

If Singapore did not bow to the United States back then, why should it bow to China now?

And, FFS, can't we -- for once -- grow a pair and stand up for something other than mammon?

 

[Blueray]

so liddis who have to come out and settle hah ?

 

1. MINDEF

 

2. MFA

 

3. PMO

 

cannot tai chi to shipping company tio boh ?