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China's Bullying in The West Philippine Sea; news and updates
Topic Started: Mon Dec 9, 2013 3:32 pm (1,122 Views)
Flipzi
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China's Claim to the Spratly's Is Invalid
http://w11.zetaboards.com/NDSFP/topic/9151714/

Chinese Scholars Call For The Elimination Of Baseless Claim Of U-Shaped Line
http://w11.zetaboards.com/NDSFP/topic/10183853/

Vietnam-China conflict
http://w11.zetaboards.com/NDSFP/topic/10250581/

Japan-China conflict
http://w11.zetaboards.com/NDSFP/topic/9420747/

Paracel Islands conflict
http://w11.zetaboards.com/NDSFP/topic/10248690/

Chinese poachers caught in Hasa Hasa reef
http://w11.zetaboards.com/NDSFP/topic/10252741/

China's bullying in Ayungin Shoal
http://w11.zetaboards.com/NDSFP/topic/9351697/

China's invasion of Panatag shoal
http://w11.zetaboards.com/NDSFP/topic/9347650/

Edited by Flipzi, Fri May 16, 2014 10:47 pm.
Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan
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China pulls out of UN process over territorial dispute with Philippines

Move underscores China's tough geopolitical stance in region
• Territorial claims continue to dominate visit by Joe Biden

China is taking the highly unusual step of refusing to participate in a United Nations arbitration process over a territorial conflict with the Philippines, one of five countries challenging Beijing’s claims of ownership over the oil-rich South China Sea.

The legal dispute underscores the tough geopolitical approach China is adopting in the Pacific region. It has adopted an aggressive approach toward neighbours over a 2,000-mile stretch that also includes the East China Sea, over which it recently declared the air defence identification zone that has inflamed tensions with Japan and South Korea.

China sent its only aircraft carrier to the disputed waters off the coast of the Philippines for the first time last week, in a move Manila said raised tensions. China’s military said the carrier Liaoning will conduct drills in the area, accompanied by two destroyers and two frigates.

Dealing with the fallout over China’s territorial claims has become the dominant issue for the US vice-president, Joe Biden, who is currently touring the Asia Pacific region.

Biden arrived in South Korea on Thursday after high-level bilateral meetings in China and Japan that were dominated by the issue of the air defence zone.

The Philippines will submit its formal case to the UN arbitration tribunal of judges, which has agreed to hear the case at The Hague, in March. A preview of their arguments were outlined this week in Washington by Paul Reichler, an expert attorney at Foley Hoag LLP hired by Manila to handle the case.

He said China’s blank refusal to participate in the tribunal process, a move it revealed to the Philippines by way of diplomatic letter in February, marked the first time a state had ever refused to take part in an inter-state arbitration under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Under the convention, the panel of senior international judges is still required to issue a ruling in the case, despite China’s non-cooperation, although Reichler conceded there were no way of enforcing any ruling.

But he added: “There is a price to be paid for branding yourself an international outlaw – a state that does not comply with the rules.” China declined an opportunity to comment on the case.

The dispute concerns China’s declaration of the so-called nine-dash line, which claims jurisdiction over nearly all of the mineral-rich South China Sea, overlapping with large segments of territory claimed by the Philippines as well as of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

In parts, China’s declared jurisdiction, which enables it to exploit lucrative fishing waters and potential oil and gas reserves, stretch more than 800 miles from its mainland coast. It also comes to within 30 miles of the coast of the Philippines.

Under the convention, states have a right to an exclusive economic zone and continental shelf within 200 miles of their coast. Disputes over the South China Sea are not unlike those over the Japanese-administered Senkaku islands – referred to as the Diaoyu islands in China – which are dominating Biden’s visits to Japan, China and South Korea this week.

Although the ad-hoc tribunal formed to deal with the case cannot rule on the sovereignty of the islands claimed by both China and the Philippines, it can provide rulings about the nature of rock formations, with implications for any territorial claims under the convention. Some of the disputed territories are barely visible at high tide, while others are fully submerged even at low tide.

In a bid to strengthen its claims, China has constructed concrete installations on some underwater formations, complete with basketballs and helipads. “A state cannot transform an underwater feature into an island by building on top of it,” Reichler said at a seminar organised by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In simple terms, the judges will in part be asked to determine when a rock can be defined as an island. If a rock protruding from the sea cannot sustain human life or economic activity, for example, the associated rights in surrounding waters are, under the convention, dramatically reduced, regardless of which state claims ownership.

Reichler also showed one slideshow of an island that, at high-tide, consisted of rocks that only just protruded out of the water. “It is barely big enough to support the Filipino flag,” he said.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/06/china-territorial-dispute-philippines

shared by: Philippine Navy 2020


China's pulling out of the arbitration proceeding is a CONFIRMATION THAT CHINA'S OCCUPATION OF THE MISCHIEF AND SCARBOROUGH IS ILLEGAL AND BASELESS as it contradicts the UNCLOS and other reasons.

The only reason why China is there is because of the fact that China can bully us. Nothing more.
Edited by Flipzi, Tue Dec 10, 2013 10:58 pm.
Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan
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China, despite military rise, is still three decades behind the United States

Congressman Golez' commentary on the article by Rodger Baker, Stratfor Vice President of Asia Pacific Analysis, "Evaluating China's Military Rise" 17 January 2014:

"While it is true that China may have the capability to ward off the US Navy with their still untested but presumed to be potent hyper missiles, the US Navy and allies don’t need to penetrate the hyper missiles’ kill zones to paralyze China.

All that is needed is for the alliance to interdict, blockade and quarantine China’s SLOCs in the East and South China Sea and Malacca Strait; that would kill China’s economy in a few months without a shot fired.

China is now dependent on imports for 60% of their oil and gas requirements.

China’s jugulars are exposed and vulnerable."

By Roilo Golez
18 January 2014

To read full post: http://defenders-philippine-sovereignty.blogspot.com/2014/01/china-despite-military-rise-is-still.html
Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan
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DND: China harassing Philippines, not vice versa

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is not the one escalating tensions over the contested sea even as President Benigno Aquino III likened China with Nazi Germany, the Department of National Defense (DND) said.

"Based on previous occurrences, it is clear that the Philippines has been the object of harassment," DND said.

"The Philippines is not only serving its national interests, but also serving the region’s as well, including all states which have a stake in freedom of navigation and clear territorial rights as defined under the principles of UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)," DND said.

"We believe that the Philippines' defense and military establishments have exercised maximum restraint with respect to the situation in the West Philippine Sea," DND said.

DND also defended Aquino's comparison of China's position with that of Adolf Hitler's Germany prior to World War II.

"We must understand the statement of President Benigno S. Aquino III in light of the Philippine government’s call to the international community to oppose aggressive acts as they contravene established international conventions," DND said.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/02/11/1289151/dnd-china-harassing-philippines-not-vice-versa
Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan
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China sends fighter jets to guard illegal oil rig in Vietnam’s waters

TUOI TRE
UPDATED : 05/11/2014 17:58 GMT + 7

China has dispatched fighter jets to join the group of vessels tasked with guarding oil rig HD 981 illegally planted in Vietnam’s waters, infringing the Southeast Asian country’s sea and airspace sovereignty, Colonel Ngo Ngoc Thu, Vice Commander and Chief of Staff of Vietnam's Coast Guard, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday.

On Saturday and Sunday mornings, the Vietnamese Coast Guard discovered two groups of Chinese military aircraft flying above Vietnamese ships, which have been trying to prevent the oil rig from illicitly drilling in Vietnamese waters, at a height of 800 to 1000 meters, according to Thu.

Among them were a team of fighter jets and a Chinese military aircraft bearing number 9401 flying over Vietnamese ship CSB 8003, the vice commander said.

On Saturday, the Chinese expanded the radius of the protecting zone for the drilling platform to 10-15 nautical miles from the previous 5-7 nautical miles on Thursday, with civilian and law enforcement vessels deployed for the protection operations, he added.

These vessels are assigned to stop all Vietnamese ships from approaching the oil rig by blocking the ships and firing large-capacity water cannons at the Vietnamese watercrafts, the official elaborated.

So far, China has used three military vessels including missile guardian ships to block Vietnamese Coast Guard ships from accessing the drilling rig that has illegitimately operated in Vietnamese waters in the East Vietnam Sea since early this month.

The Vietnamese Coast Guard has continued to use loudspeakers to protest the Chinese acts and request China to remove the oil rig and their escort vessels from Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, Vice Commander Thu said.

The view of the Coast Guard is to restrain in order not to escalate the already tense situation, he said, further explaining that all this is to limit confrontations and avoid causing damage to the Vietnamese ships as well as casualties for the Vietnamese side.

Colonel Thu also conveyed gratitude to Vietnamese people – both at home and abroad – and international friends who have shared and expressed admiration for the courage and determination of the Vietnamese Coast Guard in protecting national sovereignty.

China has illegitimately operated the oil rig in a location of 15°29’58’’ North latitude and 111°12’06’’ East longitude in Vietnamese waters in the East Vietnam Sea since May 1, and deployed as many as 80 vessels including warships to guard the drilling platform.

This location is completely within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, about 119 nautical miles (221 km) from Ly Son Island off the central Vietnamese province of Quang Ngai and 18 nautical miles south of Tri Ton Island of Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago, according to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Le Hai Binh.

Many of the Chinese vessels intentionally crashed into Vietnamese ships when they were requested by the Vietnamese side to leave the waters, the Vietnamese Coast Guard announced at an international press conference in Hanoi on May 7.

To date, nine Vietnamese fisheries surveillance officers have been injured in such attacks by the Chinese ships.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said at a Southeast Asian summit in Myanmar on Sunday that China is threatening peace, stability, and freedom of navigation by illegally deploying the oil rig to Vietnam’s waters.

“This extremely dangerous action has been directly endangering peace, stability, security, and marine safety in the East Vietnam Sea,” the premier asserted.

The Vietnamese prime minister also called for Southeast Asian nations, countries around the world, and international individuals and organizations to continue protesting China’s acts as well as supporting Vietnam’s legal stance in relation to the current developments in the East Vietnam Sea.
Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan
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Tensions may prompt China to make ultimatum on 9-dash line

Want China Times
Staff Reporter 2014-05-12 15:18 (GMT+8)

Escalating tensions in the South China Sea could push Beijing to to make drastic decisions about its territorial claims in the region, reports Duowei News, an outlet run by overseas Chinese.

China's government has been feeling the pressure following two recent incidents in the South China Sea concerning Vietnam and the Philippines, less than a fortnight after a high-profile visit by US president Barack Obama to the region in which he called for strengthened ties with Asian allies.

On May 4, Chinese and Vietnamese naval ships engaged in a tense standoff near a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters off the Paracel islands, which China calls Xisha, with both sides accusing the other of ramming their boats. Then on May 10, the Philippines announced that it had imprisoned 11 Chinese fishermen since May 6 after they were caught with endangered sea turtles near the waters of the disputed Spratly islands.

The US State Council described China's actions in the Vietnam incident as "provocative and unhelpful," while Daniel Russel, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, said Washington was concerned about "dangerous conduct and intimidation by vessels" in the disputed area during a visit to Vietnam.

"It's fair to say both Vietnam and China have rights to claim sovereignty over the Paracels," Russel told reporters in Hanoi, adding that it is not for the US to say "which position is stronger" but within its rights to "call all parties to address the dispute in a peaceful way."

Russel's comments come as the US and the Philippines are conducting their annual joint naval exercises in the South China Sea. The US also recently reiterated its support of Japan over China in the Diaoyutai islands (Senkaku to Japan, Diaoyu to China) dispute in the East China Sea.

Even though the US continues to be tied up by the troubling crisis in Ukraine, recent developments indicate that its focus remains on the Asia-Pacific, says Duowei, adding that the increasing US presence in the region is clearly irking China.

Beijing has already begun taking defensive measures in the East China Sea, including inviting Russia to conduct joint naval drills near the Diaoyutai and declaring an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) that includes the islands last November. In the South China Sea, on the other hand, Duowei speculates that China could decide to do something about its controversial "nine-dash line."

The nine-dotted line was originally an 11-dash line published on a map by the Kuomintang (Nationalist) government of the Republic of China in 1947 to assert its claims in the South China Sea, and even after its revision to nine dashes has been used by China to show the maximum extent of its claim. The contested area sits on a vast amount of natural resources including minerals and oil and contains both the disputed Paracels and the Spratlys.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia have all officially protested over the use of the line. The US has also ramped up its questions over the line's validity in the last couple of years while supporting Vietnam and the Philippines in their calls for the dispute to be resolved under international law.

Right now vessels from any country can pass through the maritime region without informing Chinese authorities, but there are growing concerns that China may declare that the line has been turned into an unbroken line to officially mark the region as its national territory.

Given how aggressive China has been in territorial disputes in the region and with the added pressure from the US, Beijing will soon need to make a decision on how hard it will defend the nine-dotted line, says Duowei, warning however that it could be end up being a decision that the US will not be happy to see and one that countries in the South China Sea will not be able to accept.

Source: http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20140512000067&cid=1101
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Pentagon Press Conference Turns Into Heated Debate Between Top Generals From US And China

RICHARD SISK, MILITARY.COM
MAY 15, 2014, 6:52 PM

A top Chinese general Thursday strongly defended Beijing's territorial claims over disputed islands in the South and East China Seas and charged that the U.S. rebalance of forces to the Pacific was encouraging unrest in the region.

Gen. Fang Fenghui, chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, said "the rebalancing strategy of the U.S. has stirred up some of the problems which make the South China Sea and the East China Sea not so calm as before."

Fang warned that China would respond to any attempts by Vietnam, Japan or other neighbors to assert their own claims over the disputed islands and reefs.

"We do not create trouble but we are not afraid of trouble," Fang said at a Pentagon news conference after meetings with Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Dempsey appeared to be slightly irritated as he waited to comment while listening to a long-winded response by Fang on the current dispute with Vietnam over offshore oil drilling rights.

"Thank you for giving me the time to formulate my answer," Dempsey told Fang.

When his turn finally came, Dempsey dismissed Fang's objections to the so-called "Pacific pivot" and said the U.S. was committed to the policy.

"We'll go because we can and should, and we'll go because we have to," Dempsey said of the rebalance. Dempsey also told Fang "We will respond to threats."

However, Dempsey mostly stuck to his long-held position that the U.S. must build better military-to-military relations with China to avoid miscalculations that could lead to conflict in the region.

Fang came to the Pentagon after meeting at Naval Base San Diego with Adm. Samuel Locklear, head of the Pacific Command. Dempsey met with Fang, China's No. 3 military leader, last year in China and was returning the favor by inviting him to Washington.

At the opening of the news conference, Dempsey noted that China's claims in the South China Sea could be seen as "provocative," the same term used in recent days by the State Department.

Fang responded at length, blaming Vietnam for the current dispute over China's movement of a $1 billion oil rig into territorial waters claimed by Hanoi. The action by China triggered widespread protests in Vietnam in which foreign factories were set ablaze and a Chinese national allegedly was killed.

Fang charged that other nations he did not name had drilled for oil in the same region but complaints only surfaced when China sought to do the same.

"We believe the ones provoking those issues in the South China Sea are not China," Fang said in an apparent rebuff to Dempsey. "When China does drill, we instantly become a threat."

Vietnam officials have charged that Chinese ships have rammed Vietnamese Coast Guard vessels attempting to patrol near the oil rig, but Fang said the Vietnamese ships were attempting to interrupt the drilling.

"That is something that we cannot accept," Fang said. "We will make sure that this well will be successfully drilled," he said.

Fang also made China's case in a separate dispute over disputed reefs and shoals with the Philippines, and accused Japan of reverting to World War II militarism in asserting its claims to disputed uninhabited islands called the Senkaku by Japan and the Diaoyu by China.

Fang said the Japanese claims were also encouraged by the U.S. rebalance of forces. "This is something that we can never agree (upon)," Fang said.

Despite their disagreements, both Dempsey and Fang noted that China next month for the first time will send ships to participate in the annual Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises off Hawaii.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at richard.sisk@monster.com

http://www.businessinsider.com/dempsey-fang-press-conference-2014-5

MORE: China's Bullying in The West Philippine Sea
http://w11.zetaboards.com/NDSFP/topic/9802884/

http://www.businessinsider.com/dempsey-fang-press-conference-2014-5
Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan
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Global Times’ forced war could be good

Sun, May 18, 2014, 8:00 PM PHT
manilatimes.net

CHINA’s state-owned newspaper Global Times’ has exhorted its readers–and Chinese officials–to punish the Philippines and Vietnam with a “forced war.” That could be good for us Filipinos.

Yesterday, the Global Times editorial said, “The South China Sea disputes should be settled in a peaceful manner, but that doesn’t mean China can’t resort to non-peaceful measures in the face of provocation from Vietnam and the Philippines…. Many people believe that a forced war would convince some countries of China’s sincerely peaceful intentions.”

Global Times describes itself as an institution “under the People’s Daily.” That newspaper is the largest in terms of circulation in the whole world, with up to four million copies distributed daily. The UNESCO, the United Nations body that is tasked to protect and encourage the development of human culture and civilization throughout the globe, describes the People’s Daily as “one of the 10 most authoritative and most influential newspapers of the world.” Of course, it has to be authoritative and influential. Isn’t it owned and published by the government of the People’s Republic of China? Isn’t it known that when the highest leaders of China want to give government people a hint that a major decision is about to be announced they use the People’s Daily—and its subsidiary newspapers like Global Times?

Tensions escalated last week when Chinese ships entered Vietnamese waters and set up an oil rig in a part of the sea within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Vietnam immediately sent ships to the area and ramming incidents took place.

Vietnam raised an international howl. The Philippines issued statements supportive of Vietnam and critical of China.

China has actually taken over parts of the Philippines and has built permanent structures on shoals and reefs belonging to us. The Chinese are now building an airstrip there.

Vietnam and the Philippines have been drawn closer as allies against China, their bigger, rich and militarily powerful neighbor.

At the 24th Asean Summit hosted by Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam sought at least moral support from the 10-country association to include remarks about China’s bad behavior and words of sympathy for the victims. Vietnam and the Philippines were disappointed.

Filipinos joined Vietnamese friends in organizing a rally at the Chinese Embassy protesting China’s actions.

In Vietnam, deadly riots erupted against China and Chinese establishments and factories.


US official gives China a most serious warning

The latest situation at the oil rig, according to a 6-hour old report at this writing by Agence France-Presse’s Carol Huang, is that “an AFP photographer who was taken by Vietnamese authorities to the scene of the maritime standoff saw dozens of Chinese ships, including naval vessels, facing off against Vietnamese ships near the controversial oil rig. Whenever Chinese vessels approached, the Vietnamese ships broadcast messages saying: ‘We are warning you — you are entering Vietnamese sea waters, violating our exclusive economic zone and the law of the sea.’ At one point, what appeared to be a Chinese surveillance plane flew overhead.”

In a Reuters report from Washington, DC, a top US official (who requested anonymity) voiced the most serious American words about China’s aggressive behavior so far. He said, “China’s activities are straining the US-China relationship because it raises questions about our ability to partner together in Asia or even bilaterally.” Earlier, on Thursday, at a meeting with a top Chinese general visiting the White House,
US Vice President Joe Biden “underscored the United States’ serious concern about China’s unilateral actions in waters disputed with Vietnam.”

China’s foreign ministry spokesman attacked Biden’s reported statement. And the Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, Gen. Fang Fenghui, said China would not back down from operating the oil rig. He said the territory was “passed down by our ancestors into the hands of our generation. We cannot afford to lose an inch.”

He obviously does not recognize the legal rights of other countries established by international conventions and the law of the sea. He also does not seem to know that the South China/West Philippine Sea is our—the Southeast Asians’—maritime heartland since time immemorial, many centuries before the isolationist people and officials of the Celestial Empire ventured into the seas.

So General Fang will sic the PLA navy and air force on us Filipinos and Vietnamese.

And Global Times has just provided “proof” that the Chinese people like the idea of killing Vietnamese and Filipinos.


Last line of the Pambansang Awit

A “forced” war suggested by Global Times could actually be good for us Filipinos. We who are so wishy-washy about our love of country, about caring for each other, about standing up to the bully China.

Maybe having People’s Liberation Army soldiers kill some of our people–as they did 30,000 Vietnamese when the PLA crossed the Vietnamese border on Feb. 17, 1979 and waged a war of invasion for two weeks–will make us as good as we were during the Japanese Occupation.

Maybe it will again make us take to heart the last line of our National Anthem: “Ang mamatay ng dahil sa iyo.”

http://www.manilatimes.net/global-times-forced-war-could-be-good/97389/
Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan
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The Last Empire Expands

Victor Robert Lee in China and the World

The world’s last remaining empire is expanding. More than fifty years after the European, Japanese, and American colonial powers largely abandoned their holds on far-flung territories, and more than twenty years after the Soviet collapse, one colonial power remains: China. To its portfolio of Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, Beijing has now added the near-entirety of the South China Sea. Why? Because it can. How? By simply announcing it.

The U.S. and the nations bordering the South China Sea are simply too hobbled or militarily weak to stand up to China’s bald territory grab.

The Obama administration appears, in public at least, not to hear the announcement, continuing to refer instead to amorphous needs for freedom of navigation and codes of conduct. But here is the crystalline statement by China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in early September: “China has sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and the adjacent waters.”

If that isn’t clear enough, an earlier statement by China’s state news agency Xinhua in July was more precise; a newly announced Chinese prefecture called Sansha, the Chinese name for one of the Paracel Islands, will administer “2 million square kilometers of water” in addition to the hundreds of islets and shoals within the sea. That adds up to an expanse almost equal to the Mediterranean.

It is no longer possible to pretend that this annexation is something nuanced or limited, especially in light of China’s recent printing of passports that include a map showing the South China Sea as belonging to China, and the recent announcement by the foreign affairs office of China’s Hainan Province that Chinese ships would be allowed to search and deny transit to foreign vessels if they were engaged in any “illegal activities” within the 12-nautical-mile zone surrounding any of the hundreds of islands claimed by China.

How could the “peaceful rise” of an inwardly focused China possibly lead to strident hegemony over other territories? For decades, Western Sinologists and China’s communist party leaders have framed the middle kingdom as a self-centered entity, never on the hunt for foreign properties. If you lived in Boston or Berkeley, the argument was more credible than if you lived in Lhasa, Kashgar or Hohhot (or Vietnam in 1979, when Chinese forces invaded). Beijing’s latest imperial move will bury the illusion of a self-occupied benevolence.

The Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army Navy have been biding their time for this moment. The South China Sea has long been a backwater of unresolved borders, disputed exclusive economic zones, and competing claims on fishing and petroleum rights. In addition to China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Brunei all have long-standing overlapping claims. Why is it not still a sleepy backwater?

Two reasons: The muscling-up of China’s navy, and America’s epic military diversion to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Despite its history of having a mostly ground-based military with marine capabilities limited to its shores, over the past twenty years China has built a major naval force with “blue water” reach, anchored by substantial submarine bases at Ningbo, Qingdao (which U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited in September) and Sanya, the latter two bases having underground sub facilities. The assortment of submarines is complemented by 13 destroyers and 65 frigates, as well as precision-guided ballistic and cruise missiles that the U.S. worries could disable its aircraft carriers and bases in the region. Measured against these advanced weapons, China’s recently launched relic of a small aircraft carrier, the Varyag (renamed Liaoning), is nothing more than a photo-op.

China’s newly expressed territorial ambitions find support beyond the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, extending well into the national psyche. The CEO of China’s state-controlled oil company Cnooc announced in August, vis-à-vis the South China Sea, that “deep-water [oil] rigs are our mobile national territory and a strategic weapon.”

In recent weeks the South China Sea story has been overshadowed by heated frictions between China and Japan regarding the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. In this dispute China has a claim of ambiguous validity that can be used to harness long-standing anti-Japan and nationalist sentiment, to the benefit of a Chinese Communist Party that must legitimize itself. This tussle provides two other benefits to Beijing—it keeps attention off the South China Sea grab, and provides a robust warning to Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines of the consequences of resisting.

What a difference a decade makes.

China’s neighboring countries on the South China Sea have sailed through the past decade with inadequate defense preparations, lulled by the dissipating notion of a U.S. security umbrella.

The Philippine government’s announcement in August that it is negotiating with Italy to acquire two used Maestrale-class anti-sub cruisers, possibly a year from now, illustrates the feebleness of its maritime position. Two decommissioned coastguard cutters—stripped of weapons—that have been recently transferred from the U.S. to the Philippine navy are Manila’s most advanced ships.

The Scorpène-class submarine sighted at dock by this observer in September at Malaysia’s Sabah naval base still requires French naval personnel to operate properly, according to a well-informed individual in Malaysia. (The country received its first two submarines in 2009-2010, a procurement that is now the subject of a corruption investigation in France.) One of the submarines was deemed unable to submerge by the country’s defense minister shortly after its delivery; the government now claims it can dive.

Belatedly, Vietnam has begun a serious naval rebuilding, deploying in 2011 its first two Gepard-class light frigates. More significantly, in 2009 Vietnam ordered six Russian-built kilo-class submarines, the first of which was launched for initial sea trials four months ago at St. Petersburg. With their stealth capabilities, extended combat range, and weapons for land and sea strikes, these subs will markedly complicate Beijing’s regional naval posture. But deliveries of the vessels are not likely to be completed before 2016, which is all the more reason for an assertive Beijing to make its South China Sea move now.

The nations in the neighborhood are obviously weak compared to Beijing’s forces, so what about the historical protector and stabilizer, the United States? Its draining wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a decade-long vacuum in East Asia. Beijing has likely calibrated its latest imperial move to occur just prior to the U.S. military’s final extraction from Afghanistan, after which the U.S. will theoretically have more capabilities to deploy elsewhere.

Now the U.S. is urgently trying to fill in the vacuum with a loudly broadcast “pivot” that so far is more talk than substance. Will it be sufficient to deter Beijing from taking a bite out of mineral-rich Mongolia on its northern border, or colonizing rickety Myanmar to the south, with its hydroelectric potential and Indian Ocean access? These questions are open for consideration only because of the self-injurious actions of the world’s current superpower over the past ten years.

An overused phrase of officials in the administration that launched the U.S. into the bog of Iraq was “Weakness is provocative.” With painful irony, it is the debilitating lost decade in Iraq and Afghanistan that enabled Beijing’s recent nimble territory grab. It is time to see the Beijing Empire for what it is: a hegemon that has been emboldened by America’s folly and is expanding.

Victor Robert Lee is the author of the debut spy novel Performance Anomalies, released by Perimeter Six Press in January 2013.

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Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan
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Beijing violating code of conduct in South China Sea – Aquino

By MANUEL MOGATO, ReutersMay 19, 2014 6:27pm

President Benigno Aquino III accused China on Monday of violating a 12-year-old informal code of conduct in the South China Sea with land reclamation work in a disputed shoal.

China has stepped up activity to assert its claim to most of the energy-rich South China Sea.

But Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims over parts of the sea through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne goods pass every year.

China's activity has in particular raised alarm in the Philippines and in Vietnam, where a dispute over an offshore drilling rig sparked deadly anti-Chinese riots last week.

China and the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed an agreement in 2002 to refrain from occupying uninhabited reefs and shoals in the sea, and from building new structures that would complicate disputes.

"In our view, what they are doing there now is in violation of what we had agreed in the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea," Aquino told reporters.

"The problem is this code is not binding, not enforceable, so we need to come up with a formal code of conduct to resolve the dispute and prevent any potential conflict."

Last week, the Philippine Foreign Affairs Department released surveillance photographs of China's reclamation work in Johnson South Reef or Mabini Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands. China appears to be building an airstrip, its first in the Spratlys.

Peter Paul Galvez, a Philippine Defense Department spokesman, said the military noticed the reclamation work early this year. A Chinese airstrip in the area could pose a serious threat to security and stability in the region, he said.

China has rejected the Philippine protest over its work on the reef saying it is its territory so China has the right to develop it.

Elsewhere in the South China Sea, Vietnamese and Chinese vessels are squaring off in disputed waters where China wants to place the oil rig.

China and ASEAN, which includes the Philippines and Vietnam, have been negotiating a formal code of conduct but some ASEAN states are getting impatient with the slow pace of progress.

Aquino said Vietnam and the Philippines were pushing for the code of conduct to be concluded quickly.

He said officials were "finalizing" the details when asked if he will bring up the issue of China's land reclamation in Johnson Reef during the World Economic Forum in Manila this week.

"Nag-usap rin kami noon...informally doon sa ASEAN sa Nay Pyi Taw sa Myanmar," the President said.

"Pare-pareho tayo ng sitwasyon nito, pinipilit natin yung isulong yung tinatawag na ASEAN centrality; inaabisuhan natin yung ating mga brother nations sa ASEAN na itong nangyayari at nagtatanong tayo ano pang gagawin natin collectively dahil kailangan united yung ASEAN at kailangan sang-ayon lahat ng grupo," he added.

Under the DOC that China signed with ASEAN member-states in 2002, "parties undertake to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability including, among others, refraining from action of inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features and to handle their differences in a constructive manner." – Reuters with a report from Kimberly Jane Tan/ VS/ NB, GMA News

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/361694/news/nation/beijing-violating-code-of-conduct-in-south-china-sea-aquino
Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan
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