And thanks for thoughts on the phonetic spellings. I do that because a lot of the readership of CL&P are not China people or Chinese speakers – they are sort of new to the field. And that’s my goal – making these issues more accessible. At some point, someone recommended making the Chinese name easier to pronounce to Chinese names, because let’s face it, pinyin at times is rough (an “X” in a name just confuses my mom). But it is something to consider. And I do appreciate your “smarmy” comment.

As for the arms sales angle, they’ve been saying the same thing for ages, going right back to the eighties, and this is fairly boilerplate stuff. On top of that, Global Times is less of a mouthpiece (China Daily or Xinhua are more often used that way) and more of a propaganda operation, often going further than the official stand point. As an example, it is not the official viewpoint of the Chinese government that the US “knows the inside story on the Russian military, it controls the European and Japanese militaries, looks down upon the Indian military” not least because the Russia is seen as a relatively friendly nation.