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Asian Alliance Against China (A3C); time to bolt in and confront the bully
Topic Started: Sat May 3, 2014 8:15 pm (195 Views)
Flipzi
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Asian NATO

With China's growing arrogance and muscle, smaller nations should bind together and confront the bully in all fronts, especially the economic front.

In fact, the whole of ASEAN can become one solid block that can surpass China's market as what we have been emphasizing before.

It is even a lot safer investment destination than China since China loves to steal technology and then create their own and outsell the ones that have invested in China and provided technology transfer.

Russian top of the line jets have been copied by China and is now exporting these copycats to other nations.

China today is the most notorious character in a string of cases involving the dumping of products that resulted to the destruction of the local factories in those affected countries.

The Asian NATO can use this economic front to punish or tame China through the imposition of higher tariffs while enhancing "free trade" among member-nations. Trade embargo will also be a part of this strategy.

Aside from the economic front is the military aspect. The combined power of Asian NATO will be more than enough to confront China, with the United States leading the fight.

Let's read this interesting article about Asian NATO;


Should China Welcome an Asian NATO?

If China is truly concerned about a remilitarized Japan, it should embrace an Asian NATO.

By Zachary Keck
April 30, 2014

Earlier this month, I discussed the possibility that Asian nations might form a collective security mechanism if the threat from China continues to grow. As I noted then, and has been confirmed since, most observers believe that a NATO-like organization isn’t possible in Asia due to existing divisions within the region and a general desire not to alienate China, who is the top trading partner for much of the region.

While I concurred that a collective security mechanism is not in the cards for Asia at present, I argued in the original piece that it can’t be ruled out in the long-term. What I failed to mention previously is that in some ways China should welcome an Asian NATO.

One of the reasons that I believe a NATO-like security alliance could eventually take root in Asia is that the general conditions that led to NATO’s formation are falling into place in the Pacific. NATO’s first Secretary General, Lord Ismay, famously described the new organization’s purpose as “to keep the Russians out [of Western Europe], the Americans in, and the Germans down.” An Asian NATO’s purpose would be “to keep the Chinese out, the Americans in, and the Japanese down.”

If China’s economic rise continues, and its military capabilities grow accordingly, there will be increasing apprehension on the part of China’s neighbors to keep it out of their territories and internal affairs. Indeed, in just the last few years we have seen growing concern as China has become more capable of enforcing its expansive claims to the South and East China Seas. We have also seen Beijing’s willingness to meddle in other countries’ internal affairs on issues of great importance to it, such as the fate of Tibetans in South Asia.

Given China’s massive size relative to its neighbors in Eastern Asia, the best chance for the latter to keep the former out is by keeping America involved in the region. The United States is truly blessed by being surrounded on both sides by two massive moats. Although this complicates America’s ability to project power in Asia and Europe, it also gives it the option of retreating behind its borders. Just as European nations didn’t have this option when faced with the Soviet threat, Asian nations today don’t have that option with China today.

As such, Europe then and Asia now need the U.S. more than vice-versa. This asymmetric dependency made Europe permanently concerned that the U.S. would withdraw behind its borders, leaving it defenseless in the face of the Soviet juggernaut. At the same time, Brussels was periodically concerned that America’s commitments in other parts of the world would leave it insufficiently invested in Europe.

These same dynamics are now playing out in Asia, and have grown particularly intense in recent weeks. As Asia and China have continued to rise in recent decades, the region has been perplexed by American foreign policy’s continued obsession with Europe and the Middle East. This created concern among some, and hope among others, that the U.S. wouldn’t join the Asia Century. The much criticized rollout of the Asia Pivot was in no small part geared towards ending this doubt in the region.

Nonetheless, the region has watched the U.S. continue to be tied down by unforeseen events occurring in the Arab world and Eastern Europe. Moreover, U.S. allies in Asia have been concerned that America’s seeming lack of resolve in Syria and Ukraine is a good indicator of the level of resolve they can expect from the U.S. on China. Although the Obama administration has been quick to try to counter this narrative, there would be no better antidote to it than a more formal, multilateral security arrangement.

Nonetheless, China is not in favor of being kept out of the South and East China Seas, nor is it a fan of America being kept involved the disputes. It is the third goal of NATO according to Lord Ismay—namely, to keep Germany down—which China might welcome.

Although sometimes forgotten today, one of the main reasons the U.S. agreed to form NATO was because it realized that rearming West Germany would be crucial to limiting the burden Washington would have to shoulder in defending Western Europe. At the same time, there was little appetite among European powers for the rearmament of a country that had precipitated two massive conflicts in three decades. Thus, the crux of the issue was how one could rearm West Germany so it could share in the collective self-defense of Western Europe, without allowing it to return to its militaristic past. NATO and its integrated command structure was the solution the wise men of the early Cold War years devised.

The U.S. did not face a similar dilemma in Asia during the Cold War for the simple reason that the Soviet Union and Maoist China’s ability to dominate Eastern Asia was not comparable to Moscow’s ability to overrun Western Europe. Thus, the U.S. did not need a rearmed Japan to help it defend Eastern Asia to the same degree that it needed West Germany to help defend Europe.

China’s extraordinary growth is now changing this situation. If China can avoid a prolonged economic slowdown, Japan will almost certainly have to take a role in Asia’s defense that is comparable if not larger than the role of West Germany in Cold War Europe. In recognition of this and the deterioration of its security environment, Japan is already starting to strengthen its military capabilities and remove some of the restrictions in its post-WWII constitution. Most notably, Shinzo Abe is seeking to get domestic approval for Japan’s right to engage in collective self-defense.

The U.S. has rightly welcomed this move by the Abe administration. On the other hand, it has greatly unnerved China, who has repeatedly claimed that Tokyo is becoming remilitarized. South Korea, which is roughly comparable to France in post-WWII Europe, has expressed similar concerns about Japan. More generally, on a number of occasions China has also warned that U.S. bilateral commitments to regional allies like Japan and the Philippines are emboldening those states in their dealings towards China.

I remain skeptical of China’s concerns. Although Chinese leaders’ warnings about a remilitarized Japan are probably not entirely insincere, I believe that China is exploiting historical concerns about Tokyo to distract from its own clear efforts to gradually change the regional status quo.

China would adamantly deny this charge, and perhaps rightly so. Fortunately, a collective security arrangement in Asia would give China a chance to prove that its concerns are genuine. An integrated multilateral security arrangement would be the best defense against a remilitarized Japan just as it socialized Germany in Europe. Moreover, compared to the current U.S.-led hub-and-spokes alliance system in Asia, a multilateral security arrangement would better hedge against Japan or the Philippines being unduly emboldened in their dealings with China.

Thus, if China truly believes that a remilitarized Japan is the greatest threat to regional peace, it should welcome an Asian NATO with open arms.

http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/should-china-welcome-an-asian-nato/
Edited by Flipzi, Sat May 3, 2014 8:32 pm.
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Anti-China Alliance

Where Did All China’s Asian Friends Go?

A coalition forms in Asia against Chinese aggression

By Joshua Philipp, Epoch Times | May 2, 2014Last Updated: May 2, 2014 12:25 pm

Until recently, Japan was a country where national law forbade it from using war as a way to settle international disputes. The Philippines was on the U.S. piracy list. Indonesia was a neutral country. And no U.S. president had visited Malaysia in 48 years.

All of this has now changed, as President Barack Obama wrapped up his visit to Asia—Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and South Korea. A coalition of Asian countries is now forming under the U.S. military’s new focus on Asia, and with it new economic agreements, a rekindling of foreign relations, and the unraveling of tensions, which have historically divided the region.

China is not part of this coalition, however. This is due to the fact that through growing aggression, China has of late made itself the enemy of nearly all its neighboring countries. In the last year, the actions of the last communist empire have unraveled the image Chinese authorities have been trying to build for decades.

“What happened is China abandoned its ‘peaceful rise,’” said Edward Luttwak, an author who has served as a consultant for several U.S. government entities, including the Secretary of Defense, State Department, and the National Security Council.

China’s “peaceful rise” was the line party planners once used when touting the communist regime’s approach to foreign policy. It was based on the idea that China has its way of doing things internally—such as its human rights abuses—but these elements of aggression would not extend beyond its own borders.

China dropped this approach, however, when it began flexing its muscles over territorial claims in the East and South China seas, where many countries have overlapping claims to islands, islets, and reefs.

“This China,” said Luttwak, referring to China’s new aggressive approach for territorial claims, “is a China that brings into existence an anti-China alliance.”

Asia’s Pivot
Three island chains have become an international focus. In the East China Sea, there are the Senkaku Islands, which are grouped with Japan’s Ryukyu Island chain. In the South China Sea, there are the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands.

All countries whose shores border the islands lay claim to at least some of them. China, meanwhile, lays claim to all of them.

Tensions came to a boiling point in November 2013 when China announced an Air Defense Identification Zone over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. It followed this with new “fishing regulations” in the South China Sea in January.

Chinese leaders said they would defend the air defense zone militarily, and the fishing area with new laws. The surrounding nations, as well as the United States, said they would not recognize either. Tensions grew. Chinese ships have nearly rammed fishing boats and military ships of other nations. Chinese jets track and follow aircraft in the region.

In the end, what China created was an environment of tension—an environment where other countries were meant to fear China, and to abandon their territorial claims according to China’s demands.

The effect, however, turned out to be the opposite.

Luttwak said the current situation differs from similar tensions during the Cold War when the Soviets were threatening Europe. At the time, many U.S. allies in Europe were still recovering from war, Germany was unable to have an army, and the United States was by and large the only country able to challenge Soviet power.

The conflicts today with China are very different.

“In the Pacific you have countries that outnumber China, have more gross domestic product than China, and arguably more technology than China,” Luttwak said. “Combined, India and Japan are greater than China.”

He added that China’s power is fading even more now that its economic growth is slowing—and especially now that China has provoked its neighbors to militarize and form an alliance to counter its actions.

The U.S. presence in the region only adds to this countering force.

Riding a Tiger
Rather than back down, China is instead beating its drums more loudly.

While Obama was visiting other nations in Asia, Japan announced it will build a radar station on Yonaguni Island just east of Taiwan. China quickly shot back, saying it would hold patrols, military drills, and other activities near Japan’s new station.

According to June Teufel Dreyer, a former senior Far East specialist at the Library of Congress who served as Asia policy adviser to the chief of Naval Operations, many countries in the region find themselves in a complicated situation.

“Obama has taken the right steps to assure these countries,” she said, while noting that China will likely test the U.S. resolve to act.

“I think this will escalate further,” Dreyer said.

“I think what China is trying to do is provoke Japan to do something like firing a shot, and that will give them the excuse they need to move forward,” she said. “They’re going to say the Japanese side did this thing, and we are compelled to take counteraction.”

China is also in a complicated spot: If it backs down it loses face in front of the world, and if it keeps pushing, other nations will continue pushing back.

With the United States in particular, China has unintentionally helped it strengthen its relations and alliances in Asia in ways it would likely not have otherwise.

Only two years ago, Japan was ready to kick the U.S. military out of Okinawa. The Japanese view of U.S. military presence quickly changed when China announced its air defense zone and started threatening Japan, saying the United States would not defend it in war over the Senkaku Islands.

China’s claims forced the United States to clarify its defense relationship with Japan, and during Obama’s recent visit to Asia, he said directly that the U.S. commitment to defend Japan is “absolute.”

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/652869-where-did-all-chinas-asian-friends-go/?photo=2
Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan
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Tokyo may work with Hanoi, Manila on China territorial spats

Staff Reporter 2014-05-12 12:32 (GMT+8)

Japan may be making moves towards an alliance with Vietnam and Philippines to resist China's increasingly aggressive stance in territorial disputes, reports Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao.

Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has said that Tokyo is willing to engage in dialogue with Beijing with no conditions. Last week, Yu Zhengsheng, one of China's top leaders, responded to the remarks, telling a group of Japanese legislators from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party that the dialogue would only be held after Japan recognizes China's sovereignty over the disputed Diaoyu islands (Senkaku to Japan, Diaoyutai to Taiwan) and when Abe stops visiting the controversial war-linked Yasukuni Shrine.

Media reports in Japan said Yu threw cold water with his words and reported that the country's government has decided to strengthen cooperation with Vietnam, while also conducting extensive talks with the Philippines, two countries which have territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. Meanwhile, Japan's foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, has said that territorial disputes between Beijng and Hanoi Sea are due to China's unilateral provocative maritime activities. China should state the basis of its actions to Vietnam and to the international community, the minister said.

Vietnamese authorities said three of its nationals were injured by Chinese water cannon after a clash between their respective coast guard vessels in disputed waters on Friday. It brings the total number of people injured during their recent conflict to nine, Ming Pao said.

Tensions between the two countries have intensified since May 2 after Vietnam attempted to halt China's drilling operations in waters to the south of Zhongjian (Triton) island in the Paracels, or Xisha islands in Chinese. Both countries accused the other of ramming their boats, with China also utilizing water cannon, the paper said.

Meanwhile, China is also engaged in a standoff with the Philippines after the country detained eleven Chinese fishermen for poaching sea turtles last week in the area of the disputed Spratly islands, also in the South China Sea. The fishermen face charges for violating animal protection laws and they could face at least 20 years in prison if found guilty. Philippine officials said the fishermen will remain in custody until prosecutors decide whether to press charges, though photos released by Philippine authorities show that a number of the captured sea turtles died and were kept in inhumane conditions.

China has demanded that its nationals be released, citing GPS coordinates that suggest the fishermen were still in Chinese territorial waters.

Source: http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?cid=1101&MainCatID=11&id=20140512000059
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PH, Vietnam urged to unite vs China over sea dispute; protest set

By Julliane Love de Jesus and Coleen Aira Barnachea
INQUIRER.net
7:06 pm | Wednesday, May 14th, 2014

MANILA, Philippines – As the dispute escalates between China and its neighbor countries, including Vietnam and the Philippines, over the South China Sea, cause-oriented groups will take to the streets this Friday to protest China’s aggression.

US Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG), Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience Empowerment (VOICE), Di Ka Pasisiil Movement, Filipinos Unite, and Akbayan-Youth urged Filipinos to join Vietnamese nationals in a protest against China’s territorial intrusion.

Since China deployed a deep-water drilling rig in the disputed South China Sea, protests erupted in Vietnam.

“It is with great urgency that I ask the Filipinos to join Vietnamese community here in the Philippines in expressing our anger and disgust at this very, very Hitlerian impetus of China,” Loida Nicolas-Lewis, USP4GG chair, told reporters in a press briefing Wednesday.

Lewis likened China to the oppressive Nazi party led by the German dictator Adolf Hitler for its “hegemony and imperialistic tendencies.”

“We remember in World War 2, Hitler says, ‘this is my last territorial demand. Austria is mine,” she said, noting that China’s aggression was similar to Hitler’s action that started the global war.

“The reason why are holding this rally is to shame China. That’s why we have very, very strong words here because everybody knows what Hitler did to Europe,” she added.

Roilo Golez, former lawmaker and Di Ka Pasisiil Movement leader, said the Filipinos should also be alarmed with China’s aggressive stance against Vietnam.

“If they’re going to succeed in threatening Vietnam, their next step, I’m sure, it’s going to be in our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ),” Golez said.

Hoi Trinh, VOICE founder, expressed in a statement that they were one with the Philippines against China’s defiance of the United National Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

“We object in the strongest possible terms, (especially) China’s deployment last week of deep sea oil rig known as HD-981 within Vietnam’s continental shelf,” Trinh said.

For the part of Filipinos Unite, group of Filipino-Americans in New York, member Knowa Lazarus said Southeast Asia was both the “home” of the Philippines and Vietnam, not of China.

“We have to draw the line and let people know that we will stand and fight for what we believe in,” Lazarus said.

Despite the criticisms against the recently-signed Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca), Ted Laguatan, USP4GG lawyer, stressed that the Philippines needed the US.

“Our national security demands that we should have help from ‎a superpower like US because we are facing a superpower like China. We do need Edca,” Laguatan said.

The groups will hold the demonstration in front of the Chinese Consulate at 330 Sen. Gen. Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati City.

An estimated 500 participants will be present to support the protest.

Read more: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/104372/ph-vietnam-urged-to-unite-vs-china-over-sea-dispute-protest-set#ixzz31l1lpvLo
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

YES, INDEED. THIS IS A GOOD START. IT WILL BE HARDER FOR CHINA TO BULLY AROUND. COUPLE THAT WITH ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AND FAVORING THE U.S. ACTIONS MORE
Edited by Flipzi, Wed May 14, 2014 10:07 pm.
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PH pleased by Vietnam’s plan to challenge China

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines is heartened by Vietnam’s plan to challenge China’s sovereignty claims over the South China Sea.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said this was proof the Philippines’ advocacy for the peaceful settlement of maritime disputes was “gaining credence and support.”

“If it comes to pass that another country other than the Philippines brings that issue to the tribunal, then it broadens the base for those that believe and adhere to the rule of law and to the concept of peaceful settlement of disputes,” Coloma said in an interview.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung had said that his country was considering legal action against China.

Two Vietnamese diplomats had said that Hanoi might file its own appeal and join Manila’s legal challenge against Beijing.

Vietnam has tangled with China over the latter’s deployment of an oil platform in waters within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, a move that sparked riots against Chinese nationals across Vietnam.

China claims 90 percent of the 1.35-million square mile South China Sea, while the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan claim parts of it.

The Philippines filed on March 30 a memorandum, also called a memorial, in the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (Itlos), asking it to rule on Beijing’s claims over most of the South China Sea.

It asserted that the Chinese stance was illegal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), and that it interfered with the Philippines’ sovereign rights to its continental shelf and the part of the South China Sea within its exclusive economic zone, which it calls the West Philippine Sea.

Itlos ordered the Philippines to submit the memorandum after the latter filed a case against China in January 2013.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/105092/ph-pleased-by-vietnams-plan-to-challenge-china
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Japan PM supports Southeast Asia efforts on freedom of sea, air

By MASAYUKI KITANO, ReutersMay 30, 2014 10:22pm

SINGAPORE - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday that Tokyo would offer its "utmost support" to Southeast Asian countries, several locked in maritime disputes with China, in efforts to defend their seas and airspace.

China claims almost the entire West Philippine Sea, rejecting rival claims to parts of it from Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei in one of Asia's most intractable disputes and a possible flashpoint.

It also has a separate maritime dispute with Japan over islands in the East Sea.

Abe, in his keynote address on Friday at the Shangri-La Dialogue for security officials and experts from Asia, also stressed the need for countries to respect international law - often code for criticizing China's assertive military stance.

"Japan will offer its utmost support for the efforts of the countries of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) as they work to ensure the security of the seas and the skies, and thoroughly maintain freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight," Abe told the forum.

Abe's address, the first to the forum by a Japanese leader, coincides with his controversial push to ease restrictions of the post-war, pacifist constitution that have kept its military from fighting overseas since World War Two.

"Japan intends to play an even greater and more proactive role than it has until now in making peace in Asia and the world something more certain," said Abe, 59, who took office in 2012 for a rare second term.

Despite memories of Japan's harsh wartime occupation of much of Southeast Asia, several countries in the region may view the message favorably because of China's increasing assertiveness.

Sino-Japanese ties, however, have been chilled by the row over the East China Sea isles and the legacy of Japan's wartime aggression. Chinese delegates to the forum were expected to argue Japan, not China, poses a threat to regional security.

Earlier this month, China parked a huge oil rig in waters that are also claimed by Vietnam, and scores of ships from the two countries have been squaring off in its vicinity. On Tuesday, a Vietnamese fishing boat sank, prompting Hanoi and Beijing to trade barbs over who was to blame.

China has also angered the Philippines with reclamation work on a disputed island and by building what appears to be an airstrip.

Loosening the limits

While the Philippines and Hanoi have strongly criticized Beijing, other countries such as Malaysia remain wary of angering China because of deep economic ties.

"My government strongly supports the efforts by the Philippines calling for a resolution to the dispute in the South China Sea that is truly consistent with these three principles," Abe said. "We likewise support Vietnam in its efforts to resolve issues through dialogue."

Abe also called for the early creation of a maritime code of conduct between ASEAN and China as well as the implementation of a 2007 agreement to set up a Sino-Japanese mechanism to avoid unintended clashes between ships and planes.

Japanese and Chinese vessels and aircraft have been playing cat-and-mouse near the disputed isles in the East China Sea, raising fears of an accident that could spark a military clash.

Just this month, Beijing and Tokyo accused each other's air forces of risky behavior, with Japan saying Chinese aircraft had come within a few dozen meters of its military planes.

Abe stressed that Japan's alliance with close security ally the United States was the cornerstone of stability in the region, but also said Tokyo sought closer partnerships with Asian countries including Australia, India and ASEAN.

Abe, who has made no secret of his desire to loosen the limits of Japan's pacifist constitution on the military, also promoted his plan to reinterpret the charter's pacifist Article 9 to enable Japan to exercise its right of collective self-defense, or militarily aiding a friendly country under attack.

"We are in an era in which it is no longer possible for any one nation to secure its own peace only by itself," he said. "It is precisely because Japan is a country that depends a great deal on the peace and stability of the international community that Japan wishes to work even more proactively for world peace." — Reuters

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/363467/news/world/japan-pm-supports-southeast-asia-efforts-on-freedom-of-sea-air
Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan
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