Konflikti Kiinan merellä

[ctg]

Relations between the world’s two largest economies look to be entering a new phase of turbulence after the US punctured Chinese celebrations of the anniversary of Hong Kong’s return by unveiling sanctions against a Chinese bank linked to North Korea and a major arms sale to Taiwan .

The US state department on Thursday gave the green light to a total of $1.4bn in arms sales to Taiwan, a self-governing island which China considers its own territory.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...on-over-washington-arms-taiwan-sanctions-bank

https://amti.csis.org/chinas-big-three-near-completion/#jp-carousel-21236

 

[Torrakko]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40476521

Kiinan ulkoministeriön lausunto. Ihan pokkana väittäävät, että "freedom of navigation" on veruke jonka turvin USA tunkee nenille.

Under the pretext of "navigation freedom", the US side once again sent a military vessel into China's territorial waters off the Xisha Islands without China's approval. Its behavior has violated the Chinese law and relevant international law, infringed upon China's sovereignty, disrupted peace, security and order of the relevant waters and put in jeopardy the facilities and personnel on the Chinese islands, and thus constitutes a serious political and military provocation. The Chinese side is dissatisfied with and opposed to the relevant behavior of the US side.

 

[ctg]

As prominent Australian security analyst Hugh White points out, the fundamental question is: "What, if anything, is the US willing to do strategically to prevent China from controlling (the South China Sea)?"

Professor White clearly thinks there is no strategy or if there is one, it is not fully formed and not working. He argues: "If our aim is strategic, rather than legal (that is, if our aim is to use the SCS situation as an opportunity to push back against China's increasingly overt challenge to the US-led order in Asia), then we have to take actions which clearly demonstrate to everyone - in Beijing and elsewhere - that America (and its allies) are willing to risk a serious confrontation that would damage other areas of cooperation with China and could well escalate into a conflict in order to resist China's provocative actions."

He argues further that this is urgently needed "because China has been winning strategically in the SCS precisely because Washington has not been willing to take such risks hitherto. China has therefore been able to show that US resolve is weaker than China's, thus undermining US credibility and leadership, and (in a zero-sum game) bolstering China".

So what are these goals and what might a strategy and tactics to reach them look like?

http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/south-china-sea-america-needs-a-better-strategy

 

[ctg]

China’s first aircraft carrier emerged from the mist in the waters south of Hong Kong on Friday morning as a four-warship flotilla gave a potent demonstration of Beijing’s might.

The carrier, christened the Liaoning after the north-eastern Chinese province, sailed past half a dozen hulking container ships as it entered Hong Kong waters at about 7.30am.

The ship’s maiden visit to Hong Kong came less than a week after the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, toured the city, warning the former British colony must not become a launchpad for challenges to Beijing’s authority.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ning-sails-into-hong-kong-show-of-naval-power

 

[aj77]

Tuo komentosillan roikkuminen laidan yli on outo juttu. Toisella laidalla roikkuu kiitotie. Länsimaissa oli alunperin ongelma rakentaa torni toiselle laidalle painon vuoksi, mutta se ratkaistiin sitte . Maallikon silmiin näyttää oudolta molemminpuolin yli menevät rakennelmat, etenkin kun juuri tuli katsottua dokumentti Usan nykyisten kaltaisten tukialualusten rakentamisen haasteista alussa.

 

[Patu]

Tuo komentosillan roikkuminen laidan yli on outo juttu.

Eihän tuo eroa mitenkään esim. Nimitz-luokasta?

 

[aj77]

Eihän tuo eroa mitenkään esim. Nimitz-luokasta?

No ei eroakkaan näemmä.

 

[ctg]

Kaksi yhdysvaltalaista B-1B Lancer pommikonetta lensi torstaina Etelä-Kiinan merellä yli alueen, jonka Kiina katsoo kuuluvan itselleen. Yhdysvallat on toistuvasti kiistänyt nämä aluevaatimukset.

Pommikoneet nousivat ilmaan Tyynellämerellä sijaitsevasta Guamin sotilastukikohdasta ja suorittivat yhteisharjoituksen japanilaisten hävittäjien kanssa Itä-Kiinan merellä ennen kuin jatkoivat kiistelylle Etelä-Kiinan merelle.

Yhdysvaltojen ilmavoimien mukaan operaatio osoitti, että yhdysvaltalaiset koneet lentävät kaikialla, missä kansainvälinen laki sen sallii.

Virallisessa lausunnossaan ilmavoimat korosti Japanin kanssa tehtävien yhteisharjoitusten merkitystä Tyynenmeren alueen tasapainon säilyttämisessä.

– Tämä osoittaa selvästi kykymme toteuttaa saumattomia operaatioita kaikkien liittolaistenmme kanssa, sanoi majuri Ryan Simpson.

Kiristää välejä ennen neuvotteluita

Lento-operaatio tapahtui juuri ennen Yhdysvaltojen presidentin Donald Trumpin ja Kiinan presidentin Xi Jinpingin tapaamista G20-huippukokouksessa Hampurissa. Suurvaltojen johtajien odotetaan keskustelevan Saksassa muun muassa siitä, miten vastata Pohjois-Korean alkuviikosta suorittamaan ohjuskokeeseen.

Epäselvää on, miten lento-operaatio voi mahdollisesti vaikuttaa näihin neuvotteluihin.

Kiinan puolustusministeri Chang Wanquan sanoi lyhyessä lausunnossaan, että maan asevoimat seuraavat tarkasti Kiinan lähialueilla tapahtuvia sotilastoimia.

– Kiinan asevoimat puolustavat maan itsemäärämisoikeutta ja turvallisuutta sekä alueellista rauhaa ja tasapainoa, Wanguan kommentoi.

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-9712341

 

[ctg]

On May 1, China instituted its annual moratorium on commercial fishing in the waters Beijing claims in the Yellow/Bohai Seas, East China Sea, and South China Sea above the 12th parallel (including Scarborough Shoal, the Paracel Islands, and the Gulf of Tonkin, but not the Spratly Islands or the southern reaches of the nine-dash line). The ban applies to both Chinese and foreign fishing, including in disputed waters. China has enforced a unilateral ban each year since 1995, though in previous years the start dates were different for each region, making the overall bans slightly shorter. This year the moratorium will end on August 1 in the East China Sea, August 16 in the South China Sea, and September 1 in the Bohai and Yellow Seas.

https://amti.csis.org/fishing-troubled-waters/

 

[ctg]

On June 15, 1991, an otherwise unremarkable mountain in the Philippines blew its top. And with that massive eruption, Mount Pinatubo became an unlikely actor that profoundly shaped today’s South China Sea power contest.

Right in the line of fire of the volcanic eruption, just 9 miles (14.5 km) away, was Clark Air Base, then the most populated overseas US military installation in the world. Also nearby, about 20 miles distant, was the Subic Bay Naval Base.

Together, these sprawling bases, with a combined population exceeding 30,000, had allowed the US to project power in the region. Just by their presence, they made would-be bullies think twice before getting too aggressive. Both bases suffered major damage from the eruption, and by the end of the following year, the US had abandoned them. Ever since, China has slowly been filling the power vacuum that withdrawal created in the South China Sea.

https://qz.com/1007792/chinas-biggest-ally-in-the-south-china-sea-a-volcano-in-the-philippines/

For the first time in a hundred years, there were no Americans at any base in the Philippines… The island republic… was now essentially defenseless… Overnight, the western Pacific had become a vacuum. One that the Chinese military was only too ready to fill.

...

Beijing is playing the long game in the South China Sea. It knows that flareups die down, that media attention is a fickle thing liable to blow away upon the sea breeze, and that you have to be ready to push forward when an unforeseen opening presents itself. Like that time, a quarter century ago, when a Philippine volcano unexpectedly gave it a hand.

 

[ctg]

Manila appears to be testing its relationship with Beijing as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte considers resuming energy exploration in the tension-laden South China Sea.


Oil and gas drilling in the Reed Bank, located in the international waterway, has been suspended since 2014. That came after Manila launched an international arbitration case against Beijing over the latter's territorial expansion in the South China Sea — an issue that has sparked numerous Philippine protests against the mainland and weighed on bilateral ties.

But activity in the Reed Bank could recommence before year-end, Ismael Ocampo, a director at the Philippines' Department of Energy's Resource Development Bureau, said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. An underwater mountain off the Philippine coast, the feature is believed to hold significant oil and gas deposits.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/14/phil...uming-energy-drilling-in-south-china-sea.html

What is the point of no return for the Philippines in its maritime dispute with China in the South China Sea?

With the about-face policy of Duterte administration a year after the country’s victory in the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), the point of no return for the Philippines will range from the environmental degradation and militarization in the South China Sea to China’s exhaustion of all economic benefits, according to experts.

University of the Philippines (UP) professor Jay Batongbacal said on Wednesday, the Philippines has been moving towards an irreversible situation concerning the environment and China’s militarization in the South China Sea.

“For the environment, the point of no return is the collapse of the natural resources particularly the coral reefs and fishes. There is data indicating that we are approaching this point in the South China Sea,” Batongbacal said at a forum organized by the ADR Institute led by former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario to mark the first anniversary of the Philippine victory in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

Batongbacal, the director of the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Seas, said that “with respect to militarization, we are rapidly reaching that point.”

“I think the only thing left for the island [building of China] is the activation of the defenses and the basing of actual assets,” he said.

Batongbacal said “jurisdiction will follow after those two.”

http://www.thejakartapost.com/seasi...-of-no-return-in-sea-dispute-with-china-.html

China has called on Southeast Asian nations not to let "suspicions" threaten their growing relationship, saying disputes surrounding the South China Sea have been manipulated by a few countries to "poison" and "undermine" their role in the region.

Speaking at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum in Jakarta on Friday, China was keen to stress its growing economic ties with the region, which last year boasted a trade relationship worth $US452 billion ($A584 billion).

"China has been ASEAN's biggest trading partner for eight consecutive years," said China's, ambassador to ASEAN, Xu Bu.

But while trade is improving, he said their "strategic mutual trust is being threatened by suspicions and misconceptions".

In a copy of the speech later circulated and differing from the one delivered, it stated the issue of the hotly contested waters in the South China Sea had, in recent years, been "manipulated by a few countries to poison the atmosphere of co-operation in the region and undermine China-ASEAN relations".

China is not a member of ASEAN but has been criticised for flexing its muscle at the forum, particularly around statements regarding the trading route and the country's reclamation of reefs and militarisation of islands in the waters.

In a security meeting in Singapore in June, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull pointed to rising anxiety in the region on China's activities - a view echoed by US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, who said they pointed to a "disregard for international law" and "contempt for other nation's interests".

In a veiled reference to these disputes, the executive director of the ASEAN Study Centre at the University of Indonesia, Dr Edy Prasetyono, said it was important countries in the region not just focus on the growing trade relationship with China.

"The economic relationship is not enough," he said.

"ASEAN and China need to explore ways to find approaches and solutions to some geopolitical and geo-strategic issues. I think this is our very difficult, very hard homework in the future."

http://www.news.com.au/world/breaki...s/news-story/d24197034aec2c9aef6269e6a2929406

 

[ctg]

Southeast Asia's largest economy is defending its maritime rights within the disputed South China Sea in a perceived act against Chinese encroachment.

Indonesia has long maintained an exclusive economic zone in waters claimed by Beijing, but unlike many of its neighbors, it's never been a player in the long-simmering conflict that's weighed on intra-Asian relations. China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all assert sovereign rights over parts of the South China Sea, which is rich in resources and boasts key maritime routes.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/18/indonesia-increases-maritime-defense-in-south-china-sea.html

So, will Duterte maintain his China strategy? My answer is: It is highly possible for Duterte to continue his current China policy until the end of his term in 2022.

The Philippines' economic center of gravity is Manila and surrounding areas, where the middle class is large and the US is influential. Big families from the region are always pro-US and the Aquino family is a typical representative of them. Former President Benigno Aquino III pursued a pro-US and anti-China policy, even though it was not conducive to the maximization of national interests. Duterte gained public support due to a reputation for being incorruptible, support for his fight against narcotics, and his efforts to improve people's livelihood through social security regulation. One characteristic of the political ecology in the Philippines is family politics. Politicians without the support of big families have to rely on a good public reputation. The southern region of the country, where Duterte accumulated political capital, suffers from economic backwardness, a drug epidemic, and religious extremism. Additionally, murders of local people during the US colonial period have a deep impression on people living in the region. Under this background, Duterte changed the Philippines' pro-US foreign policy after he took power last year.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1057112.shtml

 

[ctg]

Laitan tänne koska olen puhunut kuinka tämä on hyvä asia alueen maille. Mutta Kiina menee ja tekee tämän yksin.

China has a clear plan to provide sea launches for commercial payloads to be carried by Long March rockets, according to an aerospace official.

Tang Yagang, vice head of the aerospace division of the No.1 institute of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC), said that the technology is not difficult and a sea launch platform can be built based on modifying 10,000-tonne freighters.

China will use solid carrier rockets which rely less on launch facilities and feature mature technology, Tang said, adding that key technology for the carrier rockets will be tested at sea this year and the service is expected to be available for international users in 2018.

At that time, Long March launch vehicles will be able to send satellites weighing 500 kilograms to a 500-kilometer-high sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of zero to ten degrees, Tang said.

Countries in the equator region have growing needs for launching near-equatorial and low-inclination satellites, said Fu Zhiheng, deputy general manager of China Great Wall Industry Corporation, affiliated to the CASTC.

"The closer to the equator we launch a satellite, the less carrying capacity it will lose, and the lower the cost will be," Fu said, adding that space powers are competing to develop near-equatorial sea launches.

Currently, Long March carrier rockets have provided 60 commercial launches for domestic and international users, Fu said.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/China_develops_sea_launches_to_boost_space_commerce_999.html

 

[ctg]

The head of the U.S. and Chinese navies talked about future naval engagements and North Korean issues but not South China Sea issues or freedom of navigation operations during a Thursday video teleconference.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson and People’s Liberation Army Navy commander Vice Adm. Shen Jinlong spent an hour holding a “friendly, frank and pleasant” conversation, a U.S. official told USNI News.

“The leaders discussed bilateral naval engagements as well as recent missile tests by North Korea,” read a statement from the U.S. Navy. “During the hour long call, Richardson stressed the importance of regional maritime security and the need for China and the U.S. to work together to address the provocative and unacceptable military behavior by North Korea.”

One of the roles of the U.S. Navy’s forward deployed forces is to maintain a ballistic missile defense capability near North Korea to protect U.S. allies from hostile ballistic missiles. It’s unclear if BMD capabilities came up in the conversation.

The pair talked also talked about future bilateral naval engagements like port visits and exercises. While the U.S. views China as a potential adversary, military to military relationships between the two navies have been good over the last several years.

https://news.usni.org/2017/07/20/he...-talk-north-korea-bilateral-naval-engagements

 

[ctg]

Kiinan asevoimien kasvava toiminta herättää huolta ja ärtymystä Taiwanissa. Kiina pitää yhä Taiwania osana Kiinaa, eikä ole sulkenut pois mahdollisuutta ottaa saarivaltiota väkisin hallintaansa.

– Kiinan armeija ei ole koskaan luopunut ajatuksesta ratkaista Taiwanin kysymystä sotilaallisesti. Me uskomme rauhaan, emmekä provosoi sotaa, mutta emme peräänny uhkailun edessä, sanoi Taiwanin puolustusministeriön tiedottaja Cheng Chung-chi tiistaina tiedotustilaisuudessa..

Kiinan armeija on Taiwanin puolustusministeriön mukaan lentänyt viime päivinä useita kertoja hävittäjillä ja tiedustelukoneilla Taiwanin tuntumassa.

Kiina ei ole kertonut viime päivien lentojen syytä, mutta Kiinan ilmavoimat ilmoitti aiemmin tässä kuussa, että sen koneet ovat tehneet lukuisia pitkiä harjoituslentoja merelle, myös lähelle Taiwania ja Japania.

Kiina on kasvattanut sotilaallista läsnäoloa lähialueillaan. Myös Yhdysvaltain puolustusministeriö kertoi eilen, että amerikkalainen tiedustelukone oli joutunut muuttamaan reittiään kahden kiinalaishävittäjän ahdisteltua sitä Etelä-Kiinan merellä.

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-9739553

Yhdysvaltain mukaan sen signaalitiedustelukone on joutunut tekemään väistöliikkeen välttyäkseen mahdolliselta yhteentörmäykseltä kiinalaishävittäjän kanssa Korean niemimaalla sunnuntaina.

Kahden aseistetun J-10-hävittäjän kerrotaan tulleen tunnistamaan laivastolle kuuluvaa EP-3-signaalitiedustelukonetta kansainvälisessä ilmatilassa Itä-Kiinan meren ja Keltaisenmeren väliselllä alueella. Tapahtumapaikan kerrotaan olevan noin 150 kilometrin päässä rannikolla sijatsevasta Quingdaon kaupungista.

Pentagonin edustaja Jeff Davis kertoo, että kiinalaishävittäjät lähestyivät amerikkalaiskonetta nopeasti takaa päin, hidastivat ja vetivät koneen lentokorkeutta ylöspäin. Davisin mukaan toimenpide oli vaarallinen ja sen seurauksena tiedustelukoneen ohjaaja joutui tekemään väistöliikkeen.

– Tämä poikkeaa tavallisesta turvallisesta toiminnasta, jota näemme Kiinan asevoimilta. Kansainvälisessä ilmatilassa tunnistuslentoja tapahtuu usein ja valtaosa niistä suoritetaan turvallisesti. Nyt kyseessä oli poikkeus, eikä sääntö.

Laivaston mukaan tiedustelukone oli alueella rutiiniluontoisella lennolla

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-9739199

 

[ctg]

Word has it that China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy has staged a breakthrough in submarine propulsion. At any rate, that’s the word from marine engineer Rear Adm. Ma Weiming, a specialist in electromagnetic systems.

Adm. Ma recently reported on state-run CCTV that shipwrights are installing shaftless rim-driven pumpjets in China’s “next-generation nuclear submarines,” meaning attack or ballistic-missile boats. Ma crowed that Chinese engineers are “now way ahead of the United States, which has also been developing similar technology.”

If Adm. Ma is playing it straight — rather than hyping promising but yet-to-be-proven gadgetry — then the PLA Navy is poised to overcome a technological and tactical defect that has plagued it since its founding. American submariners long lampooned Soviet and Chinese nuclear boats for being noisy and easy to detect.

http://warisboring.com/chinese-subs-are-a-deadly-serious-threat/

To all appearances, it envisions employing the South China Sea as an offshore “bastion” for SSBNs, much as the Soviet Navy of yesteryear made semi-enclosed waters into protected bastions for its missile boats. Undersea deterrence, then, probably numbers among the motives impelling the PLA to transform rocks and atolls into fortified outposts, acquaint itself with underwater hydrography, and so forth.

China’s Type 094 SSBNs or their pumpjet-equipped descendants could slip out of the sub base on Hainan Island, descend into South China Sea waters, lose themselves in the depths and dare rival navies to come into China’s “near seas” — expanses that fall under the shadow of land-based PLA missiles and aircraft — to hunt them.

Or if Chinese Communist Party leaders feel comfortable granting SSBN skippers the liberty to venture outside the near seas (though that’s a lot of atomic firepower to entrust to a naval officer whose loyalties might prove suspect), the Luzon Strait affords a convenient entryway to the western Pacific. Within the strait lies the Bashi Channel, a deep underwater thoroughfare into the Pacific.

The Indian Navy has taken notice of PLA Navy forays into India’s home region, and grasps the implications of high-tech Chinese SSNs cruising the Indian Ocean. Indeed, some Indian mariners deem such a presence a red line for competition between the two navies.

It can be no accident, then, that there’s an anti-submarine flair to this summer’s Malabar exercises among the Indian Navy, U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

All three navies dispatched aircraft carriers for maneuvers for the first time. The Japanese flattop JS Izumo is a euphemistically dubbed “helicopter destroyer” optimized for hunting submarines. What hostile subs may lurk in the Bay of Bengal, where the exercises are underway, apart from China’s? Hider-finder competition, it seems, has come to the Indian Ocean.

Does new engineering technology herald an age of Chinese maritime supremacy? Of course not. Carl von Clausewitz portrays martial strife as constant struggle between “wrestlers” striving to “throw” each other for strategic gain. That goes for acoustic one-upmanship as well.

One contender innovates; the other resolves to outdo it. It appears, consequently, that more equal undersea competition lies in store.

To prepare for it, U.S. Navy submariners must learn to think of PLA Navy subs not as prey to be devoured by American predators but as worthy foes, capable of some sub hunting of their own. The silent service must adjust to the new, old reality of peer competition beneath the waves.

The game’s afoot.

 

[ctg]

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Foreign Ministry has urged a halt to oil drilling in a disputed part of the South China Sea, where Spanish oil company Repsol had been operating in cooperation with Vietnam.

Drilling began in mid-June in Vietnam's Block 136/3, which is licensed to Vietnam's state oil firm, Spain's Repsol and Mubadala Development Co of the United Arab Emirates.

The block lies inside the U-shaped 'nine-dash line' that marks the vast area that China claims in the sea and overlaps what it says are its own oil concessions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China had indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, which China calls the Nansha islands, and jurisdiction over the relevant waters and seabed.

"China urges the relevant party to cease the relevant unilateral infringing activities and with practical actions safeguard the hard-earned positive situation in the South China Sea," Lu said at a regular briefing, when asked if China had pressured Vietnam or the Spanish company to stop drilling.

He did not elaborate.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-china-vietnam-idUSKBN1AA13I

China is testing large-scale deployment of underwater drones in the South China Sea with real-time data transmission technology, a breakthrough that could help reveal and track the location of foreign submarines.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/poli...g-speeding-underwater-drone-tests-south-china

Miksi? Koska kiinan SSBN kalusto partioi tuolla alueella.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday said he supported the idea of joint energy ventures with the Philippines in the South China Sea, warning that unilateral action could cause problems and damage both sides.

Wang, on a two-day visit to Manila, made the remarks after President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday a partner had been found to develop oil fields and exploration and exploitation would restart this year.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1058052.shtml

 

[ctg]

Boris Johnson has committed the UK’s two brand new aircraft carriers to freedom of navigation exercises in the fiercely-contested waters of the South China Sea.

In a pointed remarks aimed squarely at China - whose island-building and militarisation in the sea has unnerved western powers - the Foreign Secretary said that when the ships are in service they would be sent to the Asia-Pacific region as one of their first assignments.

“One of the first things we will do with the two new colossal aircraft carriers that we have just built is send them on a freedom of navigation operation to this area,” Johnson said in Sydney on Thursday, “to vindicate our belief in the rules-based international system and in the freedom of navigation through those waterways which are absolutely vital for world trade.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...t-carriers-to-test-beijing-in-south-china-sea

Got no planes Mister Johnson, what they're going to do if the shooting starts?

 

[ctg]

The Chinese government has called on Southeast Asian countries to prevent non-Asian countries from intervening in the resolution of territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Manila last week to discuss the framework for a code of conduct in the South China Sea between and among ASEAN nations. China has claimed ownership of a large part of the South China Sea despite the Hague’s Arbitration Court having denied its sovereign claim.

Wang announced through an Chinese-English interpreter that “external players do not want to see stability in the region. Thus, we need to stand together and say 'no' to them.”

Telling his country that he is not ready for war with China, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last week that the Philippines and China will start joint oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea. Many of his advisers believe this is the best option for easing diplomatic tensions between the two Asian neighbors.

Wang welcomed the development for the joint exploration of the South China Sea and said the partnership will involve much consultation so that “we could come up with a common goal or agreement.”

However, Wang also warned that while China is open to the idea of joint exploration, they are against “unilateral development” conducted by other claimant countries in the South China Sea.

“If one party goes unilateral development and the other party takes the same action, that might lead to tensions and the end result nobody will be able to develop the resources,” Wang was quoted saying by Asian journalists.

Wang said that whenever there are disputed claims over sovereignty, maritime rights and interests, joint development is the best option.

https://maritime-executive.com/article/china-woos-asean-to-resolve-disputed-sea-without-outsiders

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson vowed to send two new aircraft carriers, the first operational in 2020, to the South China Sea to back “the rules-based international system, and the freedom of navigation through those waterways which are absolutely vital for world trade.”

Chinese newspaper Global Times commented that “London has been instigated by the US and its Asia-Pacific allies” and that “Australia lobbied really hard during Johnson’s visit”.

Australia, it said, “has become one of the countries outside the region that has gotten tough with China over the South China Sea, and has even acted hysterically against China regarding the issue”. But “the good news is that although Canberra barks hard, it has never really undermined China’s strength”.

Global Times described the US as a police officer, Australia as its assistant and Britain as an accomplice. “In the face of China’s determination to defend its national interests, they are either paper tigers or a paper cat like Australia,” was a metaphor the paper used previously.

It said: “Brexit is weakening Britain’s influence, and it appears that the country needs to do something to assert its sense of identity. If it goes too far, however, it will get itself into trouble.” The newspaper said the US and its allies had responded in a “brutal and arrogant” manner to China’s construction of artificial islands and military bases in the South China Sea, and that the freedom of navigation being pursued by them was “posing a real threat to China’s security”.

Henan University economics lecturer Li Yang wrote in Global Times that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had spoken “inappropriately” in urging that the border dispute between India and China “be resolved peacefully between the claimant countries”. This, he said, “reflects Australian politicians’ ignorance about the event”, since there was no such dispute: “Indian troops crossed into China’s Doklam region illegally and refused to withdraw.”

Mr Li said Beijing was “well aware’’ Australia was “steering a course of free-riding China’s development bonus while aligning with like-minded countries to demonstrate muscularity, but this hedge strategy might end with Australia missing enormous business opportunities generated by (the) Belt and Road (Initiative).”

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...a/news-story/44e3c4d414c28e38d9bdffa31b3285e7

 

[ctg]

U.S. leaders must lay the diplomatic groundwork for long-term solutions — or risk falling into conflict, World War I style.

A war between the United States and China, should one occur, is less likely to start like World War II, with a belligerent invading other sovereign nations, and more likely like World War I, when a regional incident involving an allied third party triggered a descent into global catastrophe. The most likely scenario — tensions surrounding North Korea and the South China Sea notwithstanding — is a conflict between China and Japan.

http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/201...-deserves-more-attention/140067/?oref=d-river

What can global leaders do to avoid this scenario? Singer says the leaders of Japan, China, and the United States must become better aware of potential flashpoints and how they might get out of hand through various escalation scenarios. In particular, he says, civilian leaders do not adequately understand the complexity of the defense side and the likelihood of a crisis in the East China Sea. Because of this, Singer advises all three governments to be more open about their “red lines”: first, decide for themselves what adversary actions would drive them to declare war, and second, make this crystal clear to each others’ leaders. He also recommends that Japan and the United States improve deterrence through defense spending and better cooperation between the U.S. military and the Japanese self-defense force.

Thomas Berger, a Boston University international-relations professor who specializes in East Asia, divides potential solutions into “management” and “reconciliation.” Berger notes that China wants to “win without fighting” — to force Japan to give up the Senkakus without going to war. But if Japan continues to assert its sovereignty, and if the United States refuses to abandon its ally on this issue, Berger argues that in the short term Washington must pursue a strategy of managing the situation. “To do this, it must signal through military exercises and defense investments that it is committed to its alliance with Japan, thus deterring China from invading the Senkaku Islands,” he says.

In the long term, Berger argues, China and Japan should work together to defuse the situation in a policy of “reconciliation.” They might, for example, reach an agreement that divides the resources in the waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands, while leaving the issue of sovereignty untouched. Another potential solution is a “ritualized system” in which China softens its rhetoric and shrinks its military presence in the area, while still asserting its sovereignty by routinely sending ships into the disputed waters. Finally, Berger suggests that Chinese leaders might publicly “shelve” the Senkaku Islands issue, as Deng Xiaoping did in 1978, effectively recognizing the intractability of the dispute and focusing on other matters in the Sino-Japanese relationship. He says the “ball is in China’s court” for reconciliation with Japan.