South China Seas

[American Patriot]

China Clarifies Boarding Rules in South China Sea


By JEREMY PAGE

BEIJING—A Chinese official clarified new regulations allowing Chinese police to board foreign ships in parts of the disputed South China Sea that had raised fresh alarm among some of China's neighbors.


The new regulations don't apply to all of the territory that Beijing claims, a Chinese official and expert on the region said Tuesday following expressions of concern about the rules from several countries in the region, already on edge from other scuffles with China.





Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Sansha, a city China set up in July on an island in the disputed Paracel chain.



Several experts on the region had said the rules, which have yet to be published in full, appeared to apply to the 12 nautical mile zone of territorial waters around islands that China claims, although it was unclear how they would be enforced in practice.


However, Wu Shichun, the director of the foreign affairs office of the southern Chinese province of Hainan, who is also president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, gave a narrower interpretation of the regulations in a faxed response to questions. He said their main purpose was to deal with Vietnamese fishing boats operating in the waters near Yongxing island in the Paracels, which China calls the Xisha islands.


The regulations, which take effect on Jan. 1, apply to waters around islands for which China had announced "baselines," Mr. Wu said.


A baseline is the low-water line along the coast from which countries measure their territorial waters, according to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.


He said the rules allowed police to check and expel vessels that entered, or conducted illegal activity, within 12 nautical miles of the islands for which China had announced baselines.


"But for islands whose territorial water baselines have not yet been announced, since there is no way to clearly define the width of their territorial sea, the aforementioned problem does not exist," he said. "The outside world should not overreact to the revision of these rules, or read too much into them, nor should anyone give a one-sided or distorted explanation."
Disputed Seas

Competing territorial claims have led to maritime disputes off the coast of Asia.

View Interactive








China formally announced baselines for its mainland coast and the Paracel Islands—which are also claimed by Vietnam—in 1996, but hasn't yet done so for other islands in the South China Sea, where the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have territorial claims.


Chinese state media reported last week that the new rules, approved by Hainan authorities Nov. 27, allowed local Hainan police to board and search foreign vessels that entered or conducted activity China considers illegal within territorial waters surrounding islands it claims in the South China Sea.


That raised concern in the U.S. and several Asian governments that China had authorized its increasingly well-armed security forces to board foreign vessels anywhere in the South China Sea, a key international shipping route that Beijing claims almost in its entirety.


It was the latest in a string of incidents in the contested and potentially resource-rich waters of the South China Sea


The Philippine and U.S. governments asked China to clarify the regulations last week, while Singapore on Monday expressed concern over the development. India's navy chief, Adm. D.K Joshi, said on Monday his country was prepared to send warships to the area to protect Indian interests if necessary.


Vietnam, which appears to be the country most affected by the new rules, hasn't publicly commented on them.


China has had de facto control of the Paracels since seizing them from South Vietnam in a brief conflict in 1974. Beijing established a new city, called Sansha, with its own military garrison on Yongxing in July to administer the islands and waters that Beijing claims.


China Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Tuesday that the Chinese government was investigating an allegation from the state-run Vietnam Oil & Gas Group on Monday that two Chinese fishing vessels had cut cables of a Vietnamese ship doing seismic oil exploration work in the South China Sea. "To our initial knowledge, the incident took place in the overlapping areas claimed by China and Vietnam. China's fishing boats were engaging in normal fishing activity in that part of the sea," Mr. Hong said.


Asked about the Indian navy chief's comments, Mr. Hong said China opposed unilateral oil and gas development in the South China Sea.


Adm. Joshi said on Monday that ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of India's state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp., 500312.BY +0.97% was operating in three blocks in the South China Sea, and had started production in one of them. The blocks are all near the coast of Vietnam, which granted the concessions to the company.


"In situations where our country's interests are involved—ONGC Videsh, etc., we will be required to go there and we are prepared for that," Adm. Joshi said.
"And are we preparing for it and are we having exercises of that nature, the short answer is yes."


Some of China's neighbors were also angered last month by a map printed in new Chinese passports that appeared to depict as part of Chinese territory waters and islands also claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as two inland areas also claimed by India.


—Kersten Zhang in Beijing and Santanu Choudhury in New Delhi contributed to this article.

[Malsua]

Can you imagine what the world would be like if China was the Superpower like the US? They'd be running over countries and shitting all over everything.

[American Patriot]

U.S. seeks clarification of new China sea laws




BEIJING | Wed Dec 5, 2012 3:40am EST




(Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke said on Wednesday that the United States is seeking clarification on China's recent announcement that its police could board vessels in the disputed South China Sea.


The rules, which China announced last week, are unclear as to their extent and purpose, Locke told Reuters in an interview.


"The U.S. government very much wants clarification of what these rules mean, how they will be interpreted by the Hainan government and marine enforcement agencies and the purpose of these rules," Locke said on the sidelines of an investment forum in Beijing.


"It is really unclear, I think, to most nations," Locke said. "First we need clarification of the extent, the purpose and the reach of these regulations."


China lays claim to almost all of the vast sea, where Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand also claim territories.


The South China Sea, which is criss-crossed by crucial shipping lanes, is rich in gas and oil deposits.

[American Patriot]

Japan scrambles F-15s after China flies over disputed islands

The Chinese plane had already left the islands – known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan – by the time the Japanese F-15s arrived.


By Whitney Eulich, Staff writer / December 13, 2012

• 

In this photo released by Japan Coast Guard 11th Regional Coast Guard, a Chinese airplane flies in Japanese airspace above the islands known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese in southwestern Japan Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012.
Japan Coast Guard 11th Regional Coast Guard/AP







The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition




The territorial standoff between China and Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea further escalated today after a Chinese plane was spotted in what Tokyo considers its airspace.
Though the Chinese plane was not a military aircraft, its presence is the latest provocation in a dispute that has affected economic relations between the two countries and comes just three days before Japanese elections.
The Chinese state maritime agency said that the marine surveillance plane was sent to patrol the disputed islands – known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan – along with four boats, according to China’s Global Times. Japanese boats also patrolling the disputed area were asked to leave immediately, in line with the Chinese government’s stance, the Global Times reports.
RELATED: East Asia's top 5 island disputes

Japan’s defense agency dispatched eight F-15 jets in response, but the Chinese plane had already left the area by the time they arrived, according to the Associated Press. The Japanese government also issued an official complaint, however China responded that it was “carrying out a normal operation,” reports AP.

“I want to stress that these activities are completely normal. The Diaoyu and its affiliated islands are China’s inherent territory since ancient times,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said of the plane. “China requires the Japanese side stop illegal activities in the waters and airspace of the Diaoyu islands.”

Osamu Fujimura, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, called the Chinese move “extremely regrettable.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, an airspace violation could take the dispute to the next level.

International law forbids entering another nation's airspace without permission and gives countries the right to expel unauthorized aircraft with force immediately. In contrast, foreign ships are able sail through a nation's territorial waters as long as it is considered "innocent passage."
The incident also puts further pressure on [Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda], whose ruling Democratic Party of Japan is likely to face a decisive defeat in Sunday's elections, according to various national polls. Shinzo Abe, who's likely to take his job away, has criticized Mr. Noda for his handling of the territorial issues, and called for a confrontational approach focused on the use of "physical power," rather than diplomacy.

Mr. Abe is expected to invest more money into the Japanese coast guard and defense, Reuters reports. The coast guard has gained popularity since the confrontation reignited earlier this year, with the most recent escalation taking place after Japan purchased the islands from a private Japanese investor in September. The move inspired anti-Japanese rallies across China, “with people looting and torching Japanese-owned businesses,” according to The Christian Science Monitor.

The New York Times reports that today’s incident was an “embarrassment for the current administration” in Japan because its radar system failed to register the Chinese plane. The alert came from Japanese ships near the islands.


The Japan Daily Press notes that the coast guard has earned fame from the action surrounding the charged island dispute, “causing a surge in job applications and even inspiring a local box-office hit film.” However, the civilian-staffed guard is “being stressed and tested to its limits.”

[I]n order not to escalate the situation, the government isn’t using the military Self Defense Forces. Instead, it has tasked the Coast Guard, composed of civilians and run by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism. Although somewhat on par with their Chinese counterparts, the Coast Guard is being stretched thin. Its crew, used to shifts of at most two weeks, are on duty without time off for months. They are also forced to skip crucial training, in a time when they are expected to be able to ward off and restrain offenders both on sea and on remote islands. Ships also receive only temporary repairs instead of much-needed overhauls.


… The situation has become a rallying and unifying point of many of the political parties and candidates running for election in a few days, with promises of allocating funds and beefing up the Coast Guard to empower it to respond to situations and emergencies that the pacifist nation hasn’t faced in decades.

Today was the first time both countries have used planes in the dispute. Reuters reports that Japanese analysts are concerned over the use of aircraft.

"This is serious ... intrusion into Japan's airspace is a very important step to erode Japan's effective control over the area," said Kazuya Sakamoto, a professor at Osaka University.
"If China sends a military plane as a next step, that would really make Japan's control precarious."
Toshiyuki Shikata, a Teikyo University professor and a retired general, said the use of aircraft by both sides was significant.
"Something accidental is more likely to happen with planes than with ships," he said.

The uptick in interest in the islands is likely linked to the potential for oil and gas in surrounding waters, but “For most of human history,” The Christian Science Monitor’s China bureau chief Peter Ford wrote this fall, “the five rocky islets in the eye of the current diplomatic storm between China and Japan have sat in remote and irrelevant obscurity, lapped by the tropical waters of the East China Sea.”

Japan bases its claim to the islands, which it calls the Senkaku, on a cabinet decision in January 1895 whereby because there was no trace of anyone else controlling them they were deemed "terra nullius," nobody else's, and Tokyo incorporated them into its territory.
China disputes that claim, pointing to 15th-century accounts of sea voyages by Chinese envoys and a 17th-century map of China's sea defenses, among other documents, to show that "the Diaoyu islands were first discovered, named, and exploited by the Chinese," in the words of a Foreign Ministry statement.

[American Patriot]

U.S. reaffirms Senkaku defense

WASHINGTON (Jiji Press)--The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a legislative amendment to acknowledge Japan's administration of the Senkaku Islands and reaffirm U.S. commitment to defending the territory under the bilateral security treaty.


The Senate unanimously adopted the provisions, which were added to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2013, which begins in October 2012. The legislation is expected to be passed soon.


The United States "acknowledges the administration of Japan over the Senkaku Islands," the amendment says. China lays claim to the East China Sea islands known as Diaoyu in the country.


The amendment also says, "The United States reaffirms its commitment to the government of Japan under Article 5 of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security," which stipulates the country's defense obligations to Japan.


It is unusual for the United States to take a position on a territorial issue between other countries in a law that stipulates the outline of its defense budget.


The newly added provisions also note, "The East China Sea is a vital part of the maritime commons of Asia" and emphasize freedom of navigation is a national interest for the United States.


While maintaining the United States "takes no position on the ultimate sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands," the amendment also says "the unilateral actions of a third party will not affect" its acknowledgement of Japan's administration over the islands.


(Dec. 2, 2012)

[American Patriot]

Tell me, honestly, does ANYONE ever pay any attention to the US Government anywhere any more?

We've threatened Iran, North Korea, even Russia on things and never once took them to task about the things we were threatening them over.

North Korea, launched a missile.

Iran continued making nuclear material to make a bomb.

Russia has been helping Syria, giving them plenty of weapons and not ONCE have we intervened.

So really, who cares what Congress says? They aren't there to tell the rest of the world what to do, they are there to listen to Harry Reid telling the American people "Fuck you Citizens, I'm Harry Reid and *I* decide things...."

[American Patriot]

http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=2&...ember/Friday16

Senkaku Islands - an inherent part of Japanese territory

The Senkaku Islands are a group of islands located southwest of Japan in the East China Sea, forming part of Japan's Nansei Shoto Islands, in the Prefecture of Okinawa.

These Senkaku Islands are an inherent part of the territory of Japan, in light of historical facts and based upon international law, and are under the valid control of the Government of Japan.These Senkaku Islands have lately been under the spotlight, with the Government of China claiming possession of the islands. Regrettably, anti-Japanese protests have occurred in numerous regions in China, resulting in stones and other hazardous objects being thrown at Japanese diplomatic establishments, acts of violence targeting Japanese nationals, as well as arson, destruction and looting of Japanese-affiliated companies. Disappointingly, in the essay of the Government of China published in the 26 October edition of Mmegi, there was no mention of these grave acts of violence committed against the Japanese or any intentions to rectify the situation, which could be considered tantamount to condoning these acts. Under no circumstances should acts of violence be condoned, and differing opinions should be expressed in a calm and peaceful manner.

It is interesting to note, however, that it was only from the 1970s, that the Government of China began to claim these islands as forming part of their territorial integrity. In 1968, the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) conducted an academic survey, which indicated the possibility of the existence of petroleum resources in the East China Sea. It was almost directly afterwards, in 1971, that the authorities of the Government of China first began to make assertions about the territorial sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands.

The Government of China claims that the Senkaku Islands have historically been China's inherent territory, and has often sited historical documents, but in reality there exist historical documents issued or published by China herself which disprove such claims.

For example, there is a description of "the Senkaku Islands, Yaeyama District, Okinawa Prefecture, Empire of Japan" in a letter of appreciation dated May 1920, sent from the then consul of the Republic of China in Nagasaki to the Government of Japan. Furthermore, there are at least two atlases, published in China, dating 1933 and 1958 respectively, which treat the Senkaku Islands as part of Japan.

Regarding how Japan came to have valid control over the Senkaku Islands, the Government of China asserts that Japan forced the Qing government of China to cede the Senkaku Islands according to the Treaty of Shimonoseki in May 1895, following the Sino-Japanese war. In reality, a decade preceding this, in 1885, the Government of Japan began to conduct thorough surveys of the Senkaku Islands, for example through the agencies of Okinawa Prefecture of Japan.

Through these surveys, it was confirmed that the Senkaku Islands had not only been uninhabited, but also showed no trace whatsoever of having been under the control of China. Based on this confirmation, the Government of Japan made a Cabinet Decision on 14 January 1895 to erect a marker on the Islands to formally incorporate the Senkaku Islands into the territory of Japan. Historical records still exist of this Cabinet Decision, and the Treaty of Shimonoseki came only after this Cabinet Decision.

The Government of China claims that the Senkaku Islands were returned to China in accordance with the 'Cairo Declaration' and the 'Potsdam Declaration,' and that Japan is challenging the results of World War II, but this does not hold water, as the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which legally defined Japan's territory after World War II and other relevant treaties, all treated the Senkaku Islands as part of the territory which had already belonged to Japan. Japan renounced territorial sovereignty over Formosa (Taiwan) and the Pescadores ceded by China after the Sino-Japanese War, in accordance with Article 2 (b) of the San Francisco Peace Treaty.

For those readers less familiar with post-WWII East Asian history, following its defeat in 1945, Japan was placed under occupation by the Allied Forces, mainly the United States. With the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan regained independence, but there were some exceptions, for example a part of the Nansei Shoto Islands, which remained under control of the US. Since the United States actually exercised administrative rights over the Senkaku Islands as part of the Nansei Shoto Islands in accordance with Article 3 of the Treaty, it is clear that the Senkaku Islands were not included in 'Formosa and the Pescadores' returned to China. In 1972, these administrative rights were reverted to Japan in 1972 in accordance with the Japan-US Agreement concerning the Ryuku Islands and the Daito Islands.

Property rights of three of the Senkaku Islands (namely, Uotsuri Island, Kitakojima Island, and Minamikojima Island) were recently transferred to the Government of Japan in September 2012. These three islands were previously held by the Government of Japan until 1932, when a private Japanese citizen acquired them from the Government. Thus, this was simply a transfer of property rights within Japan's territory under a legitimate procedure within Japan's domestic legal framework, and thus should not raise any issues with other countries or regions. Moreover, the Government of Japan has consistently retained ownership of Taisho Island, also forming part of the Senkaku Islands. The intent by the Government of Japan in acquiring the three islands is to continue to ensure their peaceful and stable maintenance and management over the long term, while implementing appropriate maritime navigation safety operations around the Senkaku Islands.

Before closing, it must be noted that the Japan-China relationship is highly valued as one of the most important bilateral relationships to Japan. China's constructive role is essential for the stability and prosperity of the Asia Pacific region. Japan does not wish to see this issue adversely affect overall Japan-China relations.

Japan aims to further deepen the mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests with China, and to advance cooperation on regional stability. Japan will strengthen cooperation towards making the East China Sea a "sea of peace, cooperation and friendship" by promoting mutual understanding and trust between the maritime authorities of the two countries through previously arranged bilateral frameworks.
(The Government Of Japan)

[American Patriot]

Armitage: U.S. not neutral on Senkakus

WASHINGTON (Jiji Press)--The United States is not neutral on the issue of the Senkaku Islands due to its responsibilities for their defense under a security treaty with Japan, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has said.

"We're not neutral when our ally is a victim of coercion or aggression or intimidation," Armitage said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, referring to Japan.

Armitage, who together with other former U.S. officials visited Japan and China in October, said his group had to overcome some misunderstandings in Beijing over the fact that the United States has not announced its position on the question of sovereignty of the islands.

"They would say, 'We appreciate your neutrality,' and we [would say], 'We're not neutral. We just haven't declared one way or the other,'" he told the paper.

Welcoming what he sees as recent easing in Sino-Japanese tensions, Armitage said a more permanent solution will have to wait until next year, after the Dec. 16 House of Representatives election in Japan and the completion of China's leadership transition in March.

"From now to then, I think the best we can do is to keep a lid on it and keep people calm and rational," he said.

On Liberal Democratic Party leader Shinzo Abe, tipped to be Japan's next prime minister, Armitage said Abe may not be as much of a right-wing hawk in office as he is sometimes portrayed, according to the daily.

He noted that Abe chose not to visit Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo during his previous term as prime minister.

"Although he came in to the previous prime minister job with a reputation for great conservatism, he actually governed quite pragmatically, and I look forward to that," Armitage said.
(Dec. 3, 2012)

[American Patriot]

Did we post this someplace????


Official: U.S. B-52s flew over China's controversial new air defense zone

By Barbara Starr and Greg Botelho, CNN
updated 11:12 PM EST, Tue November 26, 2013


Japan, China in dispute over claimed space


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Japanese airlines say they will not submit flight plans to China for the zone
• Chinese ambassador: It's "the right of every country to defend its airspace"
• U.S. calls the move an apparent try "to unilaterally change the status quo"
• U.S. official: B-52s don't tell Beijing about flight over China's new air defense zone

(CNN) -- Two U.S. military aircraft flew into China's newly claimed and challenged air defense zone over the East China Sea, a U.S. official said, an action that could inflame tensions between the world powers.


The U.S. Air Force B-52 planes -- which were not armed because they were on a training mission -- set off Monday from Guam and returned there without incident. The mission lasted for several hours, and the aircraft were in China's newly declared air zone for about an hour, according to the U.S. official.


The planes' pilots did not identify themselves upon entering the disputed airspace, as China would have wanted, according to the official.


The official declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation.


The flights came two days after China unilaterally announced the creation of a "Air Defense Identification Zone" over several islands it and Japan have both claimed. The two countries have been sharply at odds over those isles, which are believed to be near large reserves of natural resources.


China's Air Defense Identification Zone



U.S. defies China with B-52 flight
U.S. defies China's newly claimed airspace
Clinton: Diplomacy to end land disputes
Tensions rise over Asian islands



Washington responded negatively to what Secretary of State John Kerry characterized as an "escalatory action (that) will only increase tensions in the region and create risks of an incident." The U.S. government has rallied around its ally Japan, where thousands of its troops are stationed as part of a security treaty.


And specifically regarding China's new air defense zone, the United States has said it won't recognize it -- nor China's call that aircraft entering it identify themselves and file flight plans.


Beijing, though, has dismissed the American position as unjustified and urged Washington to butt out of the territorial dispute.


Chinese defense ministry spokesman Col. Yang Yujun on Sunday called such criticism "completely unreasonable," "irresponsible" and "inappropriate," telling the United States to stop taking sides and not send more "wrong signals" that could lead to a "risky move by Japan."


And China's foreign ministry lodged a formal complaint with U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke asking Washington "to correct its mistakes immediately."


On Tuesday, China's U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi sidestepped a question about American warplanes violating his nation's new air defense zone. At the same time, he defended the zone's creation, calling it a "normal arrangement" that "doesn't really change anything."


"It's natural, it's indeed the right of every country to defend its airspace and also to make sure that its territorial integrity, its sovereignty are safeguarded," Liu said at the United Nations.


Japan's two main commercial airlines said Wednesday that following a request from the Japanese government, they and other members of the Scheduled Airlines Association of Japan will not submit flight plans to Chinese authorities for flights through the zone claimed by Beijing.


The two carriers, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, said the association had concluded that there would be "no impact" on the safety of passengers on board flights through the zone without the submission of flight plans to China.


Long-running dispute over islands
The disagreement centers around what's known as the Senkaku Islands by Japan and the Diaoyu Islands by China, which are close to strategically important shipping lanes and surrounded by waters full of rich marine life.


China says its claim to these islands extends back hundreds of years. Japan, on the other hand, says it saw no trace of Chinese control of the islands in an 1885 survey, so formally recognized them as Japanese sovereign territory in 1895. Japan then sold the islands in 1932 to descendants of the original settlers.


The dispute intensified in the second half of 2012.


Why China's new air zone incensed Japan, U.S.
Protests erupted in China after Japan announced it had bought several of the disputed islands from private Japanese owners. The deal was struck in part to prevent the islands from being bought by the controversial Tokyo governor, Shintaro Ishihara, who had called for donations for a public fund to buy them.


This sale outraged China's government, and groups of its citizens protested violently in several Chinese cities, calling for boycotts of Japanese products and urging the government to give the islands back.


In December 2012, the dispute escalated further when Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese plane was seen near the islands. That situation has recurred repeatedly since, and China's latest announcement makes it likely it will keep happening.


At sea, Chinese ships have frequently entered contested waters despite warnings from the Japanese Coast Guard.


China slams 'inappropriate' U.S. remarks on territorial dispute

How does the new air defense zone factor into these disputes?


This ... appears to be an attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the East China Sea, and thus will raise regional tension...
Jen Psaki, U.S. State Department spokeswoman






Some in Japan, for one, have viewed the Chinese move as provocative, as does the United States.


"This ... appears to be an attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the East China Sea, and thus will raise regional tensions and increase the risk of miscalculation, confrontation and accidents," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday.


A story in China's state-run Xinhua news agency plays down its significance, with naval expert Zhang Junshe insisting "other nations do not need to be alarmed."


He noted that Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam all have their own air defense zones. Given these nations' close proximity to each other, it's inevitable some such zones will overlap, another expert, Chai Lidan, said in the same report.


Psaki said Washington is bothered by China -- or, for that matter, any country -- asking foreign planes entering what it calls its airspace to identify themselves.
"The United States does not apply that procedure to foreign aircraft," she added, "so it certainly is one we don't think others should apply."


Chinese aircraft carrier group on the move


China's military, meanwhile, announced on its website early Wednesday that its navy's sole aircraft carrier was heading toward the South China Sea.


That's where China has had territorial disputes with other Asian nations including the Philippines and Vietnam. At the same time, the East China Sea -- where it recently declared an "air defense zone" causing a stir with Japan and its ally the United States -- is not far away.


The carrier, named Liaoning, set out from a shipyard in eastern China's Qingdao city on Tuesday morning, the military said on its website. China's state-run CCTV also reported the news, showing the carrier -- which was commissioned in September 2012 and first had aircraft leaving and landing on it two months later, according to the U.S. Defense Department -- heading out to sea.


As with U.S. aircraft carriers, it doesn't travel alone: Two guided missile destroyers and two guided missile frigates are accompanying the massive ship as part of its group.
Why?


The Chinese military makes no mention of the dispute with Japan and its ally, the United States. Rather, its website post notes that the carrier group's mission is to conduct scientific experiments and military training.


That said, it is noteworthy that -- in order to get from Qingdao to the South China Sea -- the aircraft carrier group has to first go through the East China Sea.

[Toad]

Seems another thread on this here :

http://www.transasianaxis.com/showth...ht=#post116168

[American Patriot]

Ok. I couldn't find it. Sheesh.

I saw a link about that article a few minutes ago and thought "Am I misremembering this? Did I imagine this a few weeks ago?" etc


It's hell getting old.

[Ryan Ruck]

Back in the non-airliner news...

China Sinking Fishing Vessel Raises Tensions With Vietnam

May 27, 2014

Vietnam and China traded barbs over the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat, their most serious bilateral standoff since 2007 as China asserts its claims in the disputed South China Sea.

“It was rammed by a Chinese boat,” Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said by phone of the Vietnamese vessel, with the crew of 10 rescued after the scrap. The incident occurred after some 40 Chinese fishing vessels encircled a group of Vietnamese boats in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, the government in Hanoi said in a statement on its website.

China said the Vietnamese vessel capsized after it rammed a Chinese fishing boat, having intruded into a “precautionary area” around an oil rig that China has located near islands claimed by both Vietnam and China.

“We once again urge the Vietnamese side to stop immediately all kinds of disruptive and damaging activities and avoid in particular dangerous actions on the sea,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters in Beijing.

China’s 2012 success in assuming control of the Scarborough Shoal, an area previously overseen by the Philippines, highlighted to nations from Vietnam to Japan the potential consequences of the Chinese push to assert claims in neighboring bodies of water. Yesterday’s incident came after Chinese aircraft flew close to Japanese planes on May 24 in disputed airspace in the East China Sea, and days before U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visits Singapore for a regional meeting of defense officials.

"Sending A Message"

“The message China is sending Vietnam is, this area of water is Chinese territory,” Ha Hoang Hop, visiting senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said by phone of the boat sinking. “Yesterday a spokesman for China said Vietnam’s claims are ‘ridiculous.’ They are escalating things at sea and with their language.”

China’s placement of the rig near the contested Paracel Islands sparked violent protests in Vietnam this month and led China to send ships to evacuate workers from the country after three Chinese nationals were killed. It spurred confrontations between coast guard vessels, including the use of water cannons and accusations of boats being rammed. China says the rig is in its territory and that it has long drilled in the area.

Vietnam has “insisted on disturbing the normal operation by the Chinese side and taken dangerous actions on the sea,” Qin said, adding that Vietnamese actions will hurt their own interests. Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry said it lodged a protest with the Chinese Embassy over the sinking.

China’s ‘Lifeline’

China is devoted to promoting peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea through direct negotiation with the countries concerned, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said in Beijing today, according to Xinhua News Agency.

“Being the lifeline for China at sea, the South China Sea is far more important to China than to other countries,” Xinhua cited Liu as saying.

The tensions come as China’s President Xi Jinping expands the country’s naval reach to back its claims in the South China Sea that are based on a “nine-dash line” map, first published in 1947. That map runs hundreds of miles south from China’s Hainan Island to equatorial waters off the coast of Borneo.

China’s dispute with Vietnam was one of the most popular political topics on China’s heavily censored social media platforms today, with users defending China’s actions during the incident over the fishing boat.

“Should we continue to swallow insult and humiliation silently?,” a commenter identified as Trivial Passenger said of Vietnam’s claims. “These are naked abuses and insults.”

Rig Relocated

The first phase of the drilling, which began May 2 off Zhongjian Island in the Xisha Islands, as the Paracels are known in Chinese, has been completed, China Oilfield Services Ltd. (2883), which is conducting the operation, said in a statement today. Exploration has moved to another place and is expected to end in mid-August, according to the statement.

China’s actions violate international law and threaten peace, security and freedom of navigation, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said on May 22 in Manila. Tensions in the South China Sea risk disrupting the flow of goods, Dung said, with the resource-rich waters taking in some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

China and Vietnam fought a border war in 1979, with China having forcibly taken the Paracel Islands from Vietnam five years earlier. In 1988, a Chinese naval attack in the Spratly Islands, which Vietnam also lays claims to, killed 64 Vietnamese border guards as China seized seven atolls. In 2007, Chinese naval patrol vessels fired on a Vietnamese fishing boat, killing one sailor.

China’s Determination

In March 2013, Vietnam’s government lodged a protest after it said a Chinese ship fired on a fishing vessel near the Paracels and caused a cabin fire.

Vietnam’s leaders will probably protest the latest incident, according to Xu Liping, a researcher at the National Institute of International Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

“But from China’s point of view it reflects China’s determination -- that there will be no compromise on the problem of the Xisha islands,” Xu said. “Vietnam will likely counter-attack, stir up domestic opinion or send fishing boats to disturb our drilling platforms. This will continue, but slowly it will get less, when they realize their disturbances have no use,” he said.

Vietnam’s benchmark VN Index (VNINDEX) of shares rose 1.6 percent today. The gauge has retreated about 9 percent from this year’s high on March 24. The dong was steady at 21,145 per dollar as of 3:47 p.m. local time.

Spratly Dispute

Philippine President Benigno Aquino, visiting a military base today on Palawan Island, the jumping-off point to the Spratly Islands, another contested part of the South China Sea, said he may raise Chinese reclamation of a disputed reef with Asean and a United Nations arbitration process already underway.

The situation on the shoals is volatile and the navy needs to upgrade its base in Ulugan Bay on Palawan, according to Philippine Navy chief Vice Admiral Jesus Millan.

“The menace of various threats to territorial integrity are real and present,” he told reporters.

Addressing the actual territorial claims will take a long time, Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said yesterday in an interview.

“What’s achievable is to try and have a code of conduct that tries to work out how the countries, countries’ ships and so on interact with each other, what can be done, what cannot be done, what kind of conduct is acceptable, what kind of conduct is unacceptable,” he said.

Asean has called for progress on the code with China that would seek to preserve freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Talks have made little headway since China agreed in July to start discussions.

[Ryan Ruck]

China Plans Artificial Island In Disputed Spratlys Chain In South China Sea

The move indicates a shift from defence to offence in the East and South China seas

June 8, 2014


Chinese-made structures stand on the Johnson South Reef

China is looking to expand its biggest installation in the Spratly Islands into a fully formed artificial island, complete with airstrip and sea port, to better project its military strength in the South China Sea, a Chinese scholar and a Chinese navy expert have said.

The planned expansion on the disputed Fiery Cross Reef, if approved, would be a further indication of China's change of tack in handling long-running sovereignty disputes from a defensive stance to an offensive one, analysts said. They said it was seen as a step to the declaration of an air defence identification zone.

The Philippines last month protested against China's reclamation activities at nearby Johnson South Reef, site of a 1988 skirmish between the Chinese and Vietnamese navies that was triggered by China's occupation of Fiery Cross Reef.

With recent developments in the South China Sea having again focused the international spotlight on China, the analysts warned reclamation at the Fiery Cross atoll - which China, the Philippines and Vietnam all claim - would further strain Beijing's relations with neighbours.

The proposal to build an artificial island there had been submitted to the central government, said Jin Canrong , a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. The artificial island would be at least double the size of the US military base of Diego Garcia, a remote coral atoll occupying an area of 44 square kilometres in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Jin added.

The reef currently houses Chinese-built facilities including an observation post commissioned by Unesco's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

Li Jie, a naval expert from the Chinese Naval Research Institute, said the expanded island would include the airstrip and port. After the expansion the island would continue to house the observation post and to provide military supplies and assistance, he said.

A retired People's Liberation Army senior colonel, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the construction of a landing strip on Fiery Cross Reef would allow China to better prepare for the establishment of an air defence identification zone over the South China Sea.

Beijing's declaration of such a zone over the East China Sea in December prompted concerns among Southeast Asian countries that a similar arrangement could be imposed in the South China Sea.

Fiery Cross Reef, known as Yongshu in China, Kagitingan in the Philippines and Da Chu Thap in Vietnam, is close to sea lanes and could serve as a strategic naval staging post, said Alexander Neill, a Shangri-La Dialogue senior fellow.

Jin said consideration of whether and how to go ahead with the Fiery Cross Reef proposal would depend on progress on reclamation at Johnson South Reef.

"It's a very complicated oceanic engineering project, so we need to learn from the experience" on Johnson South, Jin said.

Late last month, renditions of a proposed artificial island were circulated among Chinese media. Citing a report posted on the website of the Shanghai-based China Shipbuilding NDRI Engineering, the Global Times said the unidentified artificial island could include a landing strip and a 5,000-tonne berth.

Zhang Jie, an expert on regional security with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China had long been researching island reclamation. Institutes and companies had drafted various designs over the past decade, said Zhang, adding that she had attended deliberation of one proposal years ago.

"We had the ability to build artificial islands years ago, but we had refrained because we didn't want to cause too much controversy," she said.

However, this year had seen a "turning point" in which Beijing appeared to be making more offensive moves in the area, said Zhang, citing the recent deployment of an oil rig to disputed waters near Vietnam.

"Building an artificial island can no doubt provide supplies to ships and oil rigs nearby, but this would also cause very severe negative impacts in the region."

Such moves, she added, would further deepen mistrust among China's neighbours and cause instability in the region.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence in Beijing did not respond to requests for comment.

[Ryan Ruck]

China May Build 'Artificial Island' in Disputed Waters

June 9, 2014

With tensions already high between China and its many South China Sea neighbors, Beijing could further strain relations with news that it is considering developing one of its installations there into an artificial island that could serve as a hub to project its military power.

In a story printed in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post this past weekend, a Professor Jin Canrong of Beijing’s Renmin University was quoted as saying that a proposal had already been submitted to the Chinese central government that would significantly expand an isolated installation in the Spratly Islands.


A view of Johnson South Reef, known to China as Chigua Reef and which the Philippines calls Mabini Reef, in the South China Sea in this handout photograph taken on February 25, 2014 by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and released by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on May 14, 2014. The Philippine foreign ministry on Wednesday accused China of reclaiming land on the disputed reef in the South China Sea and said it appeared to be building an airstrip. Foreign ministry spokesman Charles Jose told Reuters on May 14, 2014 that China had been moving earth and materials to Johnson Reef in the Spratlys Islands over recent weeks and was reclaiming land in violation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, an informal code of conduct for the region.

That installation, located in the hotly contested Fiery Cross Reef – which China, Vietnam and the Philippines all claim – is already home to a Chinese observation post which provides logistical support for Chinese military assets in the region. In the article, Li Jie, a naval expert at the Chinese Naval Research Institute explained that the expansion plans could possibly include the construction of an airstrip and port.

If the proposal is approved, such facilities would provide China with a stronger hub from which to project its naval and air strength over other claimants in the region. In the last year, China has more aggressively pursued its claims in the region, reportedly starting construction of an airfield on an island claimed by the Philippines and most recently moving an oil rig into waters within Vietnam’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

Beijing’s moves infuriated both countries and led to anti-China protests. The demonstrations in Vietnam turned into deadly rioting that forced China to evacuate thousands of their citizens from the country last month.


In this photo taken Feb. 28, 2013 by a surveillance plane, and released Thursday, May 15, 2014, by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, Chinese-made structures stands on the Johnson Reef, called Mabini by the Philippines and Chigua by China, in the Spratly Islands in South China Sea. The Philippines has protested China's reclamation of land in the disputed reef in the South China Sea that can be used to build an airstrip or an offshore military base in the increasingly volatile region, the country's top diplomat and other officials said said Wednesday, May 14, 2014. The white arrow was added by the source.

Both countries have fought back by pulling a variety of levers that have in turn angered Beijing. The Philippines has filed an arbitration case under the United Nations Law of the Sea against Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Seas, while the Vietnamese navy has been butting heads with the Chinese, with reports of hundreds of ship-to-ship collisions occurring in recent weeks.

Worst of all for Beijing perhaps, both countries have cozied up closer to the United States, with military ties between all three countries warming up considerably this year alone.

This past April, during his last Asian tour, President Barack Obama announced a new 10-year defense pact with Manila that would see more U.S. troops operating from Philippine military bases.

[American Patriot]

New Reality in South China Sea

Commentary
South China Sea

A U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft launches a listening device over the Atlantic Test Range. (U.S. Navy)

By Robert Haddick

The close encounter on Aug. 19 between a US Navy P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft and a Chinese Air Force J-11 fighter-bomber over the South China Sea is a reminder of the growing clash of interests between the two great powers.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby accused the Chinese fighter pilot of flying within 20 feet of the P-8 and said his conduct was “not only unprofessional, it’s unsafe and it is certainly not keeping with the kind of military-to-military … relations that we’d like to have with China.”

This is the Chinese J-11 plane accused of “dangerous” operations. — Photographed by the crew of a U.S. P-8A Poseidon. U.S. Navy
Yang Yujun, Kirby’s counterpart at the Chinese Ministry of Defense, rejected Kirby’s description and offered advice on how the US could prevent future such incidents: “[T]he US side should, from a perspective of building new models of major power relations between China and the US and in line with the principle of ‘no conflict, no fighting, mutual respect, cooperation and win-win’, adopt practical measures to reduce and eventually stop its reconnaissance activities against China, so as to create a good environment for the development of bilateral military relations.”
We should assume US policymakers will not follow Yang’s advice any time soon. In that case, we should expect more such incidents as China continues to press its maritime territorial claims in the East and South China seas. US officials will then have to face up to the risks involved with resisting China’s assertions in the two seas.
The standard playbook in the past during such confrontations has been to quickly send reinforcements to US forward bases in the region and order an aircraft carrier strike group or two to sail to the trouble spot. The United States ran this play during the March 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis with a seemingly happy outcome.
But China also learned a lesson from that event: The PLA would build up its missile, aerospace and naval power to dissuade the US from successfully running that play a second time.
China’s subsequent military modernization program, two decades old and still ongoing, has been designed to specifically exploit fundamental weaknesses in the US force structure in the Western Pacific. China’s “access denial” land-attack and anti-ship missile forces, along with its growing submarine fleet, increasingly threaten US forward bases in the region and its surface naval forces, such as its carrier strike groups.
US policymakers who in a future crisis think they could simply rerun the March 1996 Taiwan Strait play might next time find a Chinese counterpart confident in his preparations and ready to escalate. That would come as a shock to US policymakers, who have taken the superiority of their conventional forces for granted.
US policymakers and military planners have become complacent about their operational concepts and the structure of their forces in East Asia. An excessive reliance on short-range tactical aircraft has forced planners to concentrate most of America’s firepower in the region at a few forward bases, all of which are highly vulnerable to Chinese missiles.
Although the US Navy has invested heavily in weapons and technology to defend its aircraft carriers and other surface ships, cheap yet smart supersonic anti-ship missiles delivered from a variety of platforms in saturation, multi-axis attacks, threaten to overwhelm ship defenses.
Pentagon planners are attempting to match China’s growing military power by deploying even more ships and aircraft at the already-crowded and vulnerable forward bases. But that will only heighten instability as it gives both sides the incentive to strike first during a crisis under the logic of “use it or lose it.”
Instead, the Pentagon needs to rebalance its investments toward longer range, stealthy and less vulnerable platforms and payloads. These should include greater reliance on the next-generation bomber based outside the theater instead of short-range aircraft; a much larger fleet of submarines instead of vulnerable surface ships; and a rethink of continuing compliance with the archaic 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, which prohibits the US from taking the cheapest path to counterbalancing China’s growing missile power.
But it will take more than new hardware to manage an open-ended peacetime security competition in Asia-Pacific. The United States and its allies need to marshal the full range of diplomatic, political, economic, conventional and unconventional military tools into a comprehensive strategy to influence Chinese behavior in ways that protect the interests of all countries in the region. The Asia-Pacific’s long run of stability and prosperity can continue, but it will require a better strategy from the US and its partners. ■
_______



Robert Haddick is a former US Marine Corps officer and a research contractor at US Special Operations Command. He is the author of “Fire on the Water: China, American, and the Future of the Pacific.”
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[American Patriot]

A friend of mine seems to think he located the missing plane.

Commonwealth of New Island and Missing MH370

Posted on 2014/10/08 by Jim Lantern
THE LANTERN JOURNAL
Editorial Article by Jim Lantern
12:00 p.m. CT Wednesday 8 October 2014
It is known…

• MH370 captain plotted route to southern Indian Ocean on home simulator – The Telegraph (UK) – Sunday 22 June 2014.

Excerpts…

• The pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane which disappeared in March with 239 people on board had plotted a flight path to a remote island far into the southern Indian Ocean where the search is now focused, investigators have discovered.
• Sources close to the investigation confirmed to The Telegraph on Sunday that a deleted flight path had been recovered from Capt Zaharie’s simulator which had been used to practice landing an aircraft on a small runway on an unnamed island in the far southern Indian Ocean.

Fox News on TV reported the recovered deleted file on the pilot’s flight simulator, shows his plan to go to a remote unnamed or unidentified island in the Southern Indian Ocean, and that he had been practicing the landing of a Boeing 777 on a very short runway!

I completed a search of the South Indian Ocean for all islands, no matter how small, and checked their locations for possible destinations.
There’s no visible island where the searchers are now focused for the new October 2014 search, and previous search areas – northwest, west, and southwest of Australia.

I found the island.

It is very close to the location of the final satellite “handshake” signal from MH370.

There is an island at that location!It is the most elaborate work of fiction I’ve ever seen!

Did MH370 pilot Zaharie Shah believe it to be a real island? Did he hijack MH370 to go there? Was he the victim of s scam? Did MH370 run out of fuel where he expected there to be a landing runway on an island big enough for a Bowing 777 to land at? Finding no island there, and out of fuel, did MH370 then crash into the ocean there?
I’m not claiming Lee Mothes is a scam artist. I’m stating it appears he could be a scam artist. Maybe he hasn’t made it clear that the island is an elaborate work of fiction. Maybe his intention is not to scam anyone.
Wikipedia previously had “The Commonwealth of New Island” listed as a real island. Then the existence of the island was challenged. Evidence against it resulted in the Wikipedia listing being deleted. What remains is the deletion discussion page…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped..._of_New_Island
If it is a scam, then here is the scam! Here is the website of the still active scam! It appears to be real, but it is all faked…
http://www.newisland.net/p/about-new-island.html
More at…
http://newislandproducts.blogspot.com/
Amazing detail put into the creation of a fictional island.
Excerpt of how to pay him…

• E-mail Lee Mothes to arrange payment via Pay Pal or send a check in US funds (made out to “Lee Mothes”) to:
• The Commonwealth of New Island, 425 Dixon Street, Kaukauna, WI 54130 USA

More at…
http://www.newisland.net/2009/10/how-to-get-there.html
Excerpts…

• New Island can be reached by taking passage aboard a Rudyard Line steamer.
• The SS Charles Ames and the SS New Ireland each leave once a week from the Port of Fremantle, Western Australia. The Ames leaves every Sunday noon from Fremantle and docks at Victoria Harbor the following Tuesday at about 3 pm. The Ireland leaves every Thursday at noon, and arrives at the Putney Main Dock the following Saturday evening. Fremantle (next-door to Perth) can be easily reached by air from all points worldwide. You may call the Rudyard shipping Line Office in Fremantle for reservations…some day you’ll get through; or you can contact me.
• Scheduled airline service via Aeroflot from Moscow and Kiev was available until 1992 when the Soviets pulled out of New Island, taking the airport facilities with them. The runways at the old airport at Vernon (outside Putney) are now maintained for emergency landings only. New Island’s Ministry of Trade is willing to hear proposals to start up scheduled passenger air service to and from Australia, Asia, Africa or beyond.

There is one other possibility, which is less likely, but I found something that hints at it.
Maybe the island is real. The scam artist found out about it, and began selling land there. Problem is, its existence has been kept secret. It is the top secret location of a U.S. military base, where nuclear weapons were tested long ago, and now the island is used as a top secret nuclear weapons base. The U.S. government ordered the Wikipedia listing be deleted. Further, that the scam listing is still listed, could mean the scam story was created by the U.S. government as a means to explain the former Wikipedia listing. If so, then possibly the U.S. military shot down MH370 as it approached the top secret island.
The owner of the fictional island: Lee Mothes, appears to be a real person…
http://www.oceansanddreams.com/Biography.htm
Excerpts…

• Beaches, waves, and the ocean’s energy have never ceased to fascinate and enchant this artist. While growing up on the California coast, Lee spent most of his childhood on the beach, and soon began drawing beaches and waves (and imagined tsunamis and other disasters) while in grade school. He later studied art in four West Coast art programs before earning a BS Degree in Art in 1980.
• After moving to Wisconsin in 1986, the irony of being away from the ocean compelled him to spend a lot more time painting it. Lee found that he can “be there” by painting and drawing imaginary places inspired by California and Oregon’s natural coasts.
• In the mid-1990s his imagination expanded to a 12,600-square-mile imaginary island-nation set in the Indian Ocean, that he calls the Commonwealth of New Island. Lee soon began augmenting paintings of island landscapes with road maps, a history and cultural overview, coinage, stamps, a flag, and the platting and selling of building sites to anyone who would like to own a piece of this imaginary world.
• Lee currently lives and works in Wisconsin and spends part of his time on coastlines observing and capturing the energy he loves.

His LinkedIn account http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lee-mothes/11/509/431
Maybe something was lost in translation. Zaharie Shah might not have understood the island is fictional, and believed he was buying real land.
Again, I must note, that maybe Lee Mothes didn’t intend for it to be a scam, but failed to make it clear that owners are buying fictional property.
Here is the mysterious individual who created the Wikipedia article and complained about its deletion…
“You Guys are all crazy, Wikipedia is place for knowledge, this is knowledge that is interesting to the public, that’s why I posted here, I am very mad at all of you.–Gimelthedog (talk) 00:50, 14 September 2010 (UTC)”


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Gimelthedog
“This user enjoys creating Fictional Lands.”
“This user is interested in maps and mapmaking.”
“This user is Jewish.”
“This user is of Levite Jewish ancestry.”


“Gimel the dog” http://www.scribd.com/doc/90723922/1-LBRP

• Apr 23, 2012 – … POMEGRANATES THE PATHS 73 Now :l GimeI is the letter given to this Path. and when pronounced ~~:lGimel. The Dog is sacred to Gimel.

Gimel – Wikipedia article.

• Therein specifically http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimel#Arabic_.C7.A7.C4.ABm

Also via Wikipedia about Gimel…

• Yom Gimel, or simply Gimel, a day of sick leave in the Israel Defense Forces.
• Plan Gimel (Plan C), a general military plan worked out by the Zionist paramilitary organization Haganah in 1946, before Plan Dalet.

“Promised Land” – Wikipedia article.


All very interesting.


If “The Commonwealth of New Island” was not the destination of MH370, then it’s location is a bizarre coincidence.
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Categories:

[American Patriot]

China May Gain Control of South China Sea, U.S. Navy Says

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by David Tweed

8:26 PM MDT
April 16, 2015 Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Mischief Reef

DigitalGlobe imagery from 16 March 2015 shows significant construction and dredging underway at Mischief Reef. Source: Photo DigitalGlobe via Getty Images

China’s island building program in the South China Sea may result in it gaining control of some of the world’s most important waterways, the U.S.’s most senior military commander for Asia said.
“If this activity continues at pace, is that it -- those would give them de facto control” of the maritime territory they claim, Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, told the U.S. Senate. Locklear said China could install long-range detection radars, base warships and warplanes on the islands, potentially giving it the ability to enforce an air defense identification zone.
Satellite photos this month showed images of Chinese dredgers at work at Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, a feature also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan. President Barack Obama said April 10 that the U.S. is concerned that China is using its “muscle and power” to dominate smaller countries in the region.
Locklear said the pace of China’s building program was “astonishing” and added that the islands would improve China’s ability to locate a maritime security force in the waters that would be larger than the combined coast guards of the Southeast Asian countries.
China claims about four-fifths of the South China Sea, home to some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, under a so-called nine-dash line drawn on a 1940s map. Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also claim territory in the waters.
Minimum Defense

China says it has a right to carry out construction work on its sovereign territory in the South China Sea.
“It certainly complicates the security environment,” said Locklear. Efforts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to work with China to develop a code of conduct in the South China Sea haven’t “produced very much at all.”
Locklear said the U.S. has reinvigorated its alliance with the Philippines and is looking at helping its government improve its minimum defense.
To help improve security in the region, the U.S. had also developed partnerships with nations that it wouldn’t have considered possible over the past two decades, he said, citing Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Locklear said the increasing number and technical sophistication of the submarines in the Indo-Pacific was changing the dynamic of how the U.S. navy operates in the area. He estimated that of the 300 submarines in the world that aren’t U.S. vessels, 200 are in the Indo-Pacific, which he said was the “most militarized part of the world.”
Locklear said Asian nations are building their submarine capabilities because they understand the vessels afford them the ability to deny access to enemies, as well as their value as a deterrent.
Conflict with China isn’t inevitable, he said.
“A China with a military that would come forward as a net provider of security, rather than a net user of security would be beneficial to not only the region, but would be beneficial to us,” he said.

[Ryan Ruck]

Images Show Rapid Chinese Progress On New South China Sea Airstrip[/b]

April 17, 2015

Recent satellite images published on Thursday show China has made rapid progress in building an airstrip suitable for military use in contested territory in the South China Sea's Spratly Islands and may be planning another, moves that have been greeted with concern in the United States and Asia.

IHS Jane's Defense Weekly said March 23 images from Airbus Defence and Space showed work on the runway on reclaimed parts of Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago, which China contests with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

It said images from earlier in March showed reclamation work on Subu Reef in the Spratlys creating landmasses that, if joined together, could create space for another 3,000-meter airstrip.

The report said other images suggested China was working to extend another airstrip to that length in the Paracel Islands further north in the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, a vital shipping route through which $5 trillion of trade passes every year.

The report comes a day after the U.S. military commander for Asia, Admiral Samuel Locklear, said China, which claims most of the South China Sea, could eventually deploy radar and missile systems on outposts it is building that could be used to enforce an exclusion zone should it move to declare one.

Senator John McCain, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, called the Chinese moves "aggressive" and said they showed the need for the Obama administration to act on plans to move more military resources into the economically important Asian region and boost cooperation with Asian countries worried by China.

McCain referred to a U.S. intelligence assessment from February that China's military modernization was designed to counteract U.S. strength and said Washington had a lot of work ahead to maintain its military advantage in the Asia-Pacific.

"When any nation fills in 600 acres of land and builds runways and most likely is putting in other kinds of military capabilities in what is international waters, it is clearly a threat to where the world's economy is going, has gone, and will remain for the foreseeable future," he told a public briefing in Congress.

U.S. WARNS AGAINST MILITARIZATION

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said the scale of China’s land reclamation and construction was fueling concerns within the region that China intends to militarize its outposts and stressed the importance of freedom of navigation.

"The United States has a strong interest in preservation of peace and security in the South China Sea. We do not believe that large-scale land reclamation with the intent to militarize outposts on disputed land features is consistent with the region’s desire for peace and stability."

The issue was discussed in a meeting in Washington between U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Japanese and South Korean counterparts.

Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki told reporters afterwards that China had a duty to address regional concerns, while his Korean counterpart, Cho Tae-yong, stressed the importance of stability in the South China Sea for trading nations like his.

The United States warned last week against militarization of contested territory in Asia, and President Barack Obama accused China of using its "sheer size and muscle" to push around smaller nations, after Beijing sketched out plans to use the Spratlys for military defense as well as to provide civilian services that would benefit other countries.

IHS Jane's said images of Fiery Cross Reef showed a paved section of runway 505 meters by 53 meters on the northeastern side of the reef, which China began turning into an island with extensive dredging last year.

IHS Jane's said its photos showed further dredging work on the southwestern side of the island and floating cranes consolidating a harbor.

Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said satellite photographs from April 11 showed the runway about one-third complete, with a projected total length at 3,110 meters, large enough for heavy military transport planes and fighters.

CSIS said the reclamation work could help China press its territorial claims, many of which are more than 1,000 miles from its shores, by allowing it to sustain long-distance sea and air patrols.

However, its artificial islands were too small and vulnerable, both to weather and wartime targeting, to support major forward deployment of military forces, it said.

CHINA DEFENDS ITS MOVES

At a seminar in Washington on Thursday, China's ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, said it was "natural" that its reclamation work would include military defense facilities.

He said there "should be no illusion that anyone could impose on China a unilateral status quo" or "repeatedly violate China's sovereignty without consequences."

In an apparent reference to U.S. air activity, Cui added that the U.N. Convention on Law of the Sea, to which the United States is not a signatory, did not give anyone the right to "conduct intensive and close-range reconnaissance in other countries' exclusive economic zone."

[Ryan Ruck]

Chinese Diplomat Outlines Limits To Freedom Of Navigation

August 12, 2015

China respects freedom of navigation in the disputed South China Sea but will not allow any foreign government to invoke that right so its military ships and planes can intrude in Beijing's territory, the Chinese ambassador said.

Ambassador Zhao Jianhua said late Tuesday that Chinese forces warned a U.S. Navy P-8A not to intrude when the warplane approached a Chinese-occupied area in the South China Sea's disputed Spratly Islands in May. A CNN reporter who was on board the plane, which had taken off from the Philippines, reported the incident then.

"We just gave them warnings, be careful, not to intrude," Zhao told reporters on the sidelines of a diplomatic event in Manila.

Washington, however, does not recognize any territorial claim by any country in the South China Sea, a policy that collides with the position of China, which claims virtually the entire sea.

When asked why China shooed away the U.S. Navy plane when it has pledged to respect freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, Zhao outlined the limits in China's view.

"Freedom of navigation does not mean to allow other countries to intrude into the airspace or the sea which is sovereign. No country will allow that," Zhao said. "We say freedom of navigation must be observed in accordance with international law. No freedom of navigation for warships and airplanes."

Zhao also repeated an earlier pronouncement by Beijing that China's use of land reclamation to create new islands at a number of disputed Spratly reefs has ended. China, he said, would now start constructing facilities to support freedom of navigation, search and rescue efforts when accidents occur, and scientific research.

"When we say we're going to stop reclamation, we mean it," Zhao said.

He acknowledged that "necessary defense facilities" would also be constructed.

The U.S. and its allies, including the Philippines, have asked China to stop the massive island construction, saying it has increased tensions in an increasingly militarized area and threatened regional stability. They say the Chinese construction work violates a 2002 regional pact signed by Beijing which urges rival claimants not to undertake new construction or take any step that would worsen tensions.

Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said last month in Manila that Washington does not recognize any of the territorial claims and its position won't change even if disputed areas are reinforced by construction work.

"We recognize those claims as being contested and the contested nature of those claims is unchanged despite the reclamation efforts of any country, any country, not just China," Swift said.

Territorial disputes involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei have flared on and off for years, creating fears that the South China Sea could spark Asia's next major armed conflict. Tensions rose again last year when China began the island building on at least seven reefs in the Spratlys.

Zhao also said China does not know the source of a long pipeline kept afloat by plastic floatation devices with Chinese markings that was recently found by Filipino fishermen near the coast of the northwestern Philippines.

There has been speculation that the pipeline may have been used in China's island-making and dredging work and then drifted away for unclear reasons, posing a hazard to passing ships. Philippine coast guard officials say they have not ascertained who owned the pipeline.

"Even the people there cannot tell so it's not sure where it came from," Zhao said.

[Ryan Ruck]

China Sends Missiles To Contested South China Sea Island: Fox News

February 16, 2016

The Chinese military has deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system to one of its contested islands in the South China Sea, Fox News reported on Tuesday, citing civilian satellite imagery.

The images, from ImageSat International, show two batteries of eight surface-to-air missile launchers as well as a radar system on Woody Island, part of the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea, according to Fox News.

Woody Island is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

Bill Urban, a Pentagon spokesman, said: "While I cannot comment on matters related to intelligence, we do watch these matters very closely."

The report comes as U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations concluded a summit in California.

At a news conference following the summit, Obama said he and the Southeast Asian leaders discussed the need to ease tensions in the South China Sea, and they agreed that any territorial disputes there should be resolved peacefully and through legal means.

A U.S. Navy destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracel chain last month in a move the Pentagon said was aimed at countering efforts by China, Vietnam and Taiwan to limit freedom of navigation. China condemned the U.S. action as provocative.

The missiles arrived at Woody Island over the past week, Fox News said. According to the images, a beach on the island was empty on Feb. 3, but the missiles were visible by Feb. 14, it reported.

A U.S. official confirmed the accuracy of the photos, Fox News said.

The official said the imagery viewed appears to show the HQ-9 air defense system, which has a range of 125 miles (200 km) and would pose a threat to any airplanes, civilian or military, flying close by, according to Fox News.

Over the weekend, The Diplomat magazine reported that China was building a helicopter base at Duncan Island in the Paracel chain.

A State Department spokeswoman responded to the Diplomat report by calling on all claimants to the islands to halt construction and militarization of outposts.