Scuffle in the South China Sea #59

A long document on the Chinese response to the South China Sea ruling.

China's path forward is very unclear at this point to the rest of the world.  They may expand their claims.

However, the Chinese Ambassador to the US blasted ruling and laid out China's position.  China vowed a decisive response to the 'provocations' by other countries.

Chinese civilian airliners have begun landing at two of the reclaimed reefs. 

China and Taiwan are likely to increase patrols in the South China Sea.  Remember!  Taiwan has the same claims as China.  The difference is the ability to enforce them.

Taiwan is sending ships down to the South China Sea now.

A fourth Type 052D destroyer has joined China's South Seas fleet.

The Chinese flew H-6K bombers over Scarborough Shoal.

China protested an Australian comment on freedom of navigation acts in the South China Sea.

Some pertinent questions are asked about what the next US President will face in the South China Sea.

The US is pushing diplomacy, quietly, to keep the South China Sea from boiling up.

US & Chinese admirals are meeting to try to help with the situation.

A defense analyst POV on the Manila win over Beijing in the South China Sea arbitration.  

Manila celebrates. 

The Philippines will send an envoy to China to negotiate.

However, could the victory be hollow?

ASEAN will keep quiet over the ruling it seems.

Indonesia will now press its own claims with fishermen in a reflection of China's Little Blue Men.

Vietnam protested the Chinese actions after the ruling and China is seen as just going to defy the ruling.  

China has called on Vietnam to help keep the peace in the disputed waterways..

Silence by the EU about the decision is seen as due to internal divisions.

Scuffle in the South China Sea #52

China is apparently willing to pay the price for defying the international community in the South China Sea.

China has started shadowing US Navy ships.

China will be launching passenger cruises through the South China Sea.

The US Third Fleet is expanding its roles based in part due to increased Chinese aggression.

US Navy fighters have arrived in Philippines for drills.

Two US aircraft carrier battlegroups are exercising in the South China Sea near the Philippines.  The admiral in command of the groups used to fly together in A-6 attack planes.  Chinese warships are shadowing the US carriers.

B-52s are also involved in the exercise apparently.

Should the US Coast Guard patrol the South China Sea?

Here's one take on how to step up US presence and activities in the South China Sea.

The US ought to prepare for China's reaction to the UN ruling because the ruling itself might make the situation worse..

Vietnam lost an Su-30 in the South China Sea. China has sent naval ships to help in the search.  The body of the pilot has been recovered.

Here's more on the US lifting its arms embargo.

Boeing is pretty cool to the ending of the arms embargo for Vietnam.

Indonesia's navy has started major drills in the South China Sea.

Indonesian ships fired on Chinese fishermen.  Indonesia vows to stand firm on its claimed corner of the South China Sea.

ASEAN was released and retracted an anti China statement over the South China Sea. Chinese pressure is seen as the root cause for the retraction.

Scuffle in the South China Sea #25

China has stationed surface to air missiles on some of the artificial islands in the South China Sea.  And it has been confirmed by DOD.  And followed up.  Taiwan has also confirmed.  The missiles are HQ-9s.

China claims its entirely legal to base the missiles on its territory.

China also claims its had the facilities in place on the islands in place for years.

China has already hosted commercial flights, artillery and fighter jets on the islands.

Obama apparently will not get a joint statement at ASEAN about Chinese activities in the South China Sea.

Kerry says there will be very serious talks between the US and China over the South China Sea.

Scuffle in the South China Sea #1

The South China Sea is starting to become a flashpoint.  Well, it actually has been for some time, but the US has started to assert itself more and more as the Chinese start laying out the physical basis for their claims.  Namely, they are building islands through dredging up sand atop of reefs in the area.

It should be noted China pretty much claims the entirety of the South China Sea save to the 12 mile limits for the countries surrounding.  This is far past any reasonable - from the other countries and American POV - for China's territorial waters.  To have 'some' basis in international law for their claims, China has been building those artificial islands and placing personnel.  The theory being the Chinese new islands get the 12 mile limit and then the 200 mile economic exclusive zone.

As I said above, the other nations surrounding the South China Sea dispute China's claim, but lack the real ability to dispute their actions.  The US does have that ability and had already started to do so.

Previously, the US flew an antisubmarine patrol plane near the disputed islands.  They brought along a CNN reporter team so as to show how the Chinese responded.

The last 24 hours, the US sent a Burke class destroyer within 12 miles of one of the island bases.  The US made it clear it was considering this for a while and announced its intent yesterday.  The USS Lassen did, in fact, sail within those 12 miles.

Chinese warships threatened the USS Lassen.

China's foreign minister even summoned the US ambassador.

The Chinese reiterated their anger and apparently have named the artificial islands the Nanshan Islands.  I think Fiery Cross Reef sounds better though not that it matters.

We shall see what happens.

Oh!  As part of their agreement on behavior in the South China Sea, the Americans and Chinese have agreed to NOT flip each other off or point at each other with the middle finger.  o.O

However, in a meta comment, the Scuffle posts will follow in the vein of the Ukraine War Update and Russia's Most Syrian Adventure posts.  It will probably NOT be posted as often.  This is a slow fuse rather than an explosion.  However, it's something folks ought to be paying attention to.

Tensions in the South China Sea

TENSION in the South China Sea has now reached the point where references to tension have become an issue. “Someone has been exaggerating or even playing up the so-called tension in the South China Sea,” Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, said on August 9th. By “someone”, of course, he meant America. He was speaking in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, where the ten foreign ministers of ASEAN, the Association of South-East Asian Nations, were holding their annual meeting. So when they agreed on a communiqué referring to “increased tensions” in the sea, many scored it as a diplomatic victory for the United States.

American officials saw the inclusion of the phrase as a sign that ASEAN’s members were readier to present a united front against Chinese aggression towards rival claimants to territory in the sea. China’s “nine-dashed line”, its vague cartographic claim to most of the sea, encroaches on the claims of four ASEAN members. A State Department official cheered the group’s movement away from “diversionary issues” and “happy talk”. It was reasonable to conclude, he said, that “the Chinese are feeling the heat”. Reasonable, perhaps, but almost certainly inaccurate. If China is alarmed about the mounting regional antagonism stoked by its behaviour in the South China Sea, it is certainly not letting on.

link.

China Outlines Vision for Asia

While tensions in the South China Sea have gone from bad to worse, with riots in Vietnam targeting Chinese businesses and a range of ASEAN states exploring ways to counter Chinese actions, Xi’s Wednesday speech at the Shanghai Conference on Interaction and Conference Building in Asia (CICA) seemed to take place in a different world. Rather than focusing on conflict, he spoke about China’s role in building a “peaceful, stable and cooperative new Asia.” Xi’s speech called for the construction of a new regional security architecture based on the organization, which China will chair for the next two years.

While recognizing the existence of U.S. interests in Asia, and its right to a role in the region, Xi made it clear that the United States’ current role is far too large. He called upon Asian states to settle their problems “among locals,” dismissed alliances as threatening to regional security and sought to put CICA, an organization which includes Russia and Iran but not the United States, at the center of regional security issues­.

link.

ASEAN Dances Around Confronting China

THE ten-member Association of South-East Asian Nations is proud of how it does things. “The ASEAN way” favours consensus over confrontation, conviviality over candour and process over substance. It is credited with keeping the peace in what was once a strife-torn region. And co-operation within ASEAN not only enhances its economic coherence and attractiveness to outsiders, but also gives it a diplomatic clout its individual members could never attain. Yet as its leaders met on May 10th and 11th for a summit in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, ASEAN’s achievements seemed under threat on all fronts.

The meeting was overshadowed by a confrontation in the South China Sea between Vietnam, an ASEAN member, and China.

link.