America, go fuck yourself!

Artificial islands?!? Are they dumping sand on atolls, destroying reefs, in order to attempt to extend Chinese territory farther out to sea, or something? I thought that was against international law, and had been proven to not work (the sand gets washed away eventually). It's definitely terrible for the ecology.

Also, has 'American military, please go away' ever worked even once?!?

*promote

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Monday, June 1st, 2015 1:45pm PDT - promote requested by enoch.

Where exactly are those islands located?

Is that a spy plane? The engine looks like it's on a jumbo jet. (Not to mention they aren't doing a good job of spying if everyone is seeing and communicating with them.)

They're not there to spy. Satellites can do that just better.

As far as I can tell, It's a bit of a chest thumping exercise. China apparently wants to expand their "official" air and sea space into international space through the addition of these islands. The US sends these planes in to test the Chinese reaction and show they won't be intimidated and maybe force China into officially claiming the new space so they can be challenged in an international court.

I guess I was really questioning the title of the post, which calls it a US spy plane.

I'd like to see on a map where these islands are. How far out are the Chinese trying to go? I wouldn't think they could create actual artificial islands far away from land because they wouldn't be anchored to anything (except maybe with a rope).

The islands are closer to Japan than they are to China.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/01/asia/china-defends-island-building/

Oh and here's a more in-depth article that details the events from the video among other things (and explains the laws involved).

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/02/opinions/kraska-china-island-building/index.html

Seems to be pretty much what I said, chest thumping, the US Admiral in charge of the Ops calls them "freedom of navigation operations".

It's a "surveillance plane" which means spying. Spying doesn't need to be stealthy, it just has to be effective. The Russians knew the U2 and SR-71 were there, they just couldn't do anything about it.

Well, at least they said 'please'.

It's interesting---against the United States Navy's 3rd Fleet, Japan's attempts to to use islands to hold a perimeter against the United States in WWII, while certainly causing the issue to be in doubt from time to time, ended up stranding and wasting more resources than not.

Not that we'd ever get to a hot war except through miscalculation and bad judgement---but defending each of those "islands" against a full strike might get tricky.

But this is the internet and I could easily be wrong.

As I understand it, China's biggest fear in the event of a military conflict with the U.S. is a sea blockade. These islands are meant to allow China's navel forces early warning for potential attacks (they are building long-range radar stations on some of the islands) and quick-strike capability in the event of an attempted blockade since the islands are being equipped with port facilities and will likely serve as refueling/rearming stations. They also are an attempt by China to "control" the traffic (both sea and air) moving through the area. They aren't designed to stop a full-scale invasion of the mainland and would likely just be bypassed if something like that ever came to pass.

EDIT: See here for a more detailed explanation about China's overall military strategy.

Hmmm. Well, the old adage is that only a fool in a ship attacks a land fort. A static target, with big, obvious radars and refueling tanks?
Sounds like a missile target to me.
Geez, if a hot war ever breaks out there, it would a screw up of the most massive proportion by both sides.

China now yeah? You fuckers ever thought about not being hostile with someone?

Seriously since the "birth" of your nation have you guys ever NOT had a target?

The USA hiding behind "international law"? Is that a joke? They are not even acknowledging The Hague and even have threatened to invade the Netherlands if they ever brought an US citizen before it.

Maybe they're referring to US International Law? You know, the laws the US makes in regards to other countries.

Wouldnt surprise me.