... sometimes the Chinese are pretty transparent. Siberian Light updates a nugget from their Weekly News Roundup a couple of weeks ago (Foreign Affairs, 5th bullet) that noted China and Russia had postponed talks on their joint military exercise for 2005. Now SL reports on the reason for the planning delay: -- "According to Kommersant, the actual reason for the delay is that, instead of an anti-terrorist exercise as Russia had envisaged, China is trying to turn the exercise into a mock invasion and occupation of Taiwan."

They have the details here. And don't forget to catch their Weekly News Roundup for this week, here.

Update: Now it's not a stumbling block, and it's legitimate and transparent!

And this from the Moscow.com: "We will hold our first joint command staff exercises with the Chinese army in August or September involving various forces to practice issues involving fighting our common enemy -- international terrorism," he [Russian First Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Belousov] said." Do not be afraid because, ' "This exercise is by no means directed against any third party," he said. '

I suppose both Russia and China have a need to brush up on joint naval and coastal exercises to fight international terrorism lest they be caught unawares by international terrorists sneaking up on them in boats 'cause there's no logical land route to China or Russia for international terrorists, is there. Then again, they ought to be ready if the Philipines calls for their assistance.

Did I mention they must already have coordination training for hilly and mountainous interior security down pat? Wait, it's too hard for terrorists to travel unseen or hide in places that. My bad.