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Rapid Fire May 21, 2013: Arctic Actors | South American Decision Delaying

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* Why was Xi Jinping quick to chair China’s Central Military Commission (CMC)? Foreign Policy: “Xi, then, has ultimately chosen to defend the Communist Party against internal political threats rather than prepare it to face external military threats. There is little doubt the Communist Party has been sharpening its identity in a post-communist world by defining itself against the West, fanning nationalist fervor, and promising a restoration of China’s ancient grandeur. Xi thus has little choice but to keep pumping enormous resources into a war machine if he is to justify his party’s continuing monopoly on power.” * 3 defense contractors were sentenced to federal prison terms in a corruption case at Naval Air Station North Island in California. They had been found guilty by a jury back in March. The Navy officers who received the bribes were sentenced last year. * French defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told the European Parliament that France is not in favor of including the defense industry in forthcoming EU-USA trade agreement talks. Le Parisien [in French]. * Brazilian defense minister Celso Amorim said the decision for the F-X2 jet competition should come later this year. Rede TV . * Chilean politicians have been […]

* Why was Xi Jinping quick to chair China’s Central Military Commission (CMC)? Foreign Policy:

“Xi, then, has ultimately chosen to defend the Communist Party against internal political threats rather than prepare it to face external military threats. There is little doubt the Communist Party has been sharpening its identity in a post-communist world by defining itself against the West, fanning nationalist fervor, and promising a restoration of China’s ancient grandeur. Xi thus has little choice but to keep pumping enormous resources into a war machine if he is to justify his party’s continuing monopoly on power.”

* 3 defense contractors were sentenced to federal prison terms in a corruption case at Naval Air Station North Island in California. They had been found guilty by a jury back in March. The Navy officers who received the bribes were sentenced last year.

* French defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told the European Parliament that France is not in favor of including the defense industry in forthcoming EU-USA trade agreement talks. Le Parisien [in French].

* Brazilian defense minister Celso Amorim said the decision for the F-X2 jet competition should come later this year. Rede TV .

* Chilean politicians have been talking about reforming the direct income their military receives from copper sales for more than a decade, but despite several laws discussed in congress over the years, this has still not happened. With a presidential election coming in November, the issue will probably be again left for the next government to deal with. The DPA German press agency estimates that, thanks to high copper prices, $4.2B in defense savings have built up in recent years.

* The Spanish government is considering selling hundreds of buildings to mend public finances, including about 20 properties owned by the ministry of defense that could be repurposed as hotels or other civilian use [links in Spanish].

* Admiral Robert Papp, Commandant of the US Coast Guard, presented the USCG’s new Arctic strategy today at the CSIS think tank. Incidentally – or not – China was just granted by the Arctic Council the observer status it had been applying for since 2006.

* The UK’s two Queen Elizabeth Class carriers are ready to fend off an alien invasion, in today’s propaganda video:

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