Korean War: "In barren mountains just a few miles south of their [Chinese] own border, in the winter of 1950 their troops achieved a stunning surprise. The Chinese drove the American interlopers hundreds of miles south before they themselves were pushed back. Eventually a front was stabilised and the situation sank into stalemate. Three years later, the United States was thankful to get out of its unwanted war with China by accepting a compromise peace, along the armistice line which still divides the two Koreas today.
"The issue of Taiwan is a permanent open sore [for China]: the U.S. is absolutely committed to protecting its independence and freedom. * * * When I last visited China, I was struck by how strongly ordinary Chinese feel about Taiwan. They argue that the West’s refusal to acknowledge their sovereignty reflects a wider lack of recognition of their country’s new status in the world.
"Japan’s fears of Chinese-North Korean behaviour are becoming so acute that the country might even abandon decades of eschewing nuclear weapons, to create a deterrent.
"Even if, for obvious economic reasons, China does not want outright war, few military men of any nationality doubt that the Pacific region is now the most plausible place in the world for a great power clash.
Note:
(a) take or have a hand in: "participate, be involved; be actively engaged or remain in practice doing something"
Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Houghton Mifflin, 1997. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/have+a+hand+in
(b) The article states Beijing "blandly den[ied] North Korea’s guilt."
bland (adj): "exhibiting no personal concern or embarrassment : UNPERTURBED <a bland confession of guilt>" www.m-w.com
(c) rump (n):
"1a : the upper rounded part of the hindquarters of a quadruped mammal
* * *
3: a small or inferior remnant or offshoot; especially : a group (as a parliament) carrying on in the name of the original body after the departure or expulsion of a large number of its members"
(d) The article also says, "This sort of violent language was familiar in the era of Mao Tse-tung, but jars painfully on Western susceptibilities in the 21st century."
"Ultra’s latest technology employs multiple 'sonobuoys' which are dropped from a ship or plane and return data from different angles and frequencies to determine whether an object is a submarine, a rock or a whale, Sharma said. Earlier versions couldn’t differentiate between organic and inorganic materials. * * * 'Water is a very good insulator and when a submarine is sitting on the seabed not moving for days it’s very difficult to identify,' he [Ultra Chief Executive Officer Rakesh Sharma] said.
"Other gear is able to detect variations in temperature and salinity that can help hide even nearby vessels, Sharma said.
(3) Michael M Phillips, A Marine's Death by Friendly Fire Haunts Afghanistan Outpost. Wall Street Journal, Nov 19, 2011.
Two consecutive paragraphs:
"Friendly fire caused about 2% of US casualties in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, military historians estimate. In one incident during the 1943 Sicily landings US anticraft gunners shot down or damaged 80 of 144 American troop planes, killing as many as 157, according to an article published by the Army's Combat Studies Institute.
"In 10 years of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the fratricide rate has been much lower, in part because modern warfare includes smaller units making small battlefirld movements. There have been 20 US friendly fire fatalities out of 6,100 total deaths, a rate less than half a percent, according to iCasualties.org.