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[KymJP2K]

Jos katsot ketjun alkuun siellä on useita erittäin hyviä karttoja aiheesta.

Missä? Ensimmäiset 20 sivua katseltu eikä siellä ole kuin kaasukenttien ja laivaväylien kartat. Yksi sotakartta jenkkien island hoppingista.

 

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Sivulla 7 oli useampi kartta mikä osoitti erimaiden vaatimukset ja ohessa oli myös keskustelua niitä rajavaatimuksista. Yritin auttaa, sain päälle vittuilua. Ehkä olisi parempi laittaa sut ignoren alle.

 

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https://amti.csis.org/maritime-claims-map

https://amti.csis.org/chinese-power-projection

https://amti.csis.org/scs-features-map/

 

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Competition for oil and gas resources has repeatedly triggered standoffs between claimants in the South China Sea in recent years, especially between China, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The last serious attempt to cooperate on this front was the trilateral Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking of 2005 to 2008, which was allowed to expire amid political controversy and questions about its constitutionality in the Philippines. Since late 2016, the Philippine and Chinese governments have been discussing joint development of hydrocarbons at Reed Bank, but there has been little apparent progress despite optimistic official pronouncements. Independent experts and prominent jurists in the Philippines have said any such scheme would likely be unconstitutional based on the strict provisions in the country’s charter demanding that the government protect the nation’s rights to offshore resources.

https://amti.csis.org/a-blueprint-for-cooperation-on-oil-and-gas-production-in-the-south-china-sea/

 

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CSIS’s expert working group on the South China Sea, which was launched in mid-2017, brings together prominent experts on maritime law, international relations, and the marine environment. The members seek consensus on realistic, actionable steps that claimant states and interested parties could take to boost cooperation and manage tensions at sea. The group meets regularly to tackle issues that it considers necessary for the successful management of the South China Sea disputes and produces blueprints for a path forward on each. Through this iterative process, the group hopes to produce a robust model for managing the disputes that would be both legally and politically feasible—in effect, a blueprint for an eventual code of conduct.

The working group is chaired by AMTI director Gregory Poling and includes a diverse set of experts from claimant states and interested countries, including the United States. All members take part in their personal capacities, not as representatives of their home institutions. They are invited to join the group based on their subject matter expertise and ability to reach creative compromises with other members. The group’s membership will continue to expand as it tackles additional topics necessary for the management of the South China Sea disputes.

https://amti.csis.org/coc-blueprint-fisheries-environment/

https://amti.csis.org/a-blueprint-for-cooperation-on-oil-and-gas-production-in-the-south-china-sea/

 

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China’s military has expanded its bomber operations in recent years while “likely training for strikes” against the United States and its allies, a Pentagon report released on Thursday has said.

The assessment was contained in an annual report that highlighted China’s efforts to increase its global influence, with defence spending that the Pentagon estimates exceeded $190bn in 2017.

“Over the last three years, the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] has rapidly expanded its overwater bomber operating areas, gaining experience in critical maritime regions and likely training for strikes against US and allied targets,” the report said, noting how China is pushing its operations out into the Pacific.

In August 2017, six Chinese H-6K bombers flew through the Miyako Strait in the south-west of the Japanese islands, and then for the first time turned north to fly east of Okinawa, where 47,000 US troops are based.

The report comes as China and the United States plan to hold trade talks, offering hope they might resolve an escalating tariff conflict that threatens to degenerate into an all-out trade war.

The report said that while the PLA had continued to extend operations, it was not clear what message Beijing was seeking to send by carrying out the flights “beyond a demonstration of improved capabilities”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...a-military-likely-training-strikes-us-targets

 

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El Salvador and Taiwan have severed official ties, with the central American country switching its diplomatic allegiance to China.

Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, said on Monday that Taipei had terminated bilateral ties with El Salvador and was recalling all staff from the country.

According to Wu, El Salvador had been asking Taiwan to provide an “astronomical sum” in financial aid for a port project that Wu said would leave both countries in debt. Meanwhile, Taiwan had received reports that El Salvador was considering establishing ties with Beijing in exchange for investment and aid.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...d-as-el-salvador-switches-allegiance-to-china

 

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Kiinalaisten porauslautta.

Despite a recent easing of Sino-Japanese tensions, Beijing continues exploration and production of sensitive oil and gas resources in the East China Sea over Tokyo’s objections. Most recently, China deployed an unidentified jack-up rig—a common type of mobile offshore drilling unit—to waters at the northern end of its chain of oil and gas platforms in the area. Those platforms tap oil and gas basins that straddle the median line between the two countries, which Japan provisionally claims as the boundary between its continental shelf and that of China (for more background on the dispute, see our earlier post, below). Satellite images show the newly-deployed jack-up rig presumably engaged in exploratory drilling since at least June 25, though not in earlier imagery from April 15.

https://amti.csis.org/busy-summer-beijings-rigs/

Under President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines is seen by many as China’s newest best friend. After all, the Philippine leader has demolished the country’s years-long role as the vortex of resistance against China’s maritime assertiveness in the South China Sea, while simultaneously downgrading security cooperation with the United States—its treaty ally.

In an abrupt break from his predecessor Benigno Aquino’s policy, Duterte has effectively “set aside” the Philippines’ landmark arbitration award against China in the South China in pursuit of warmer ties with Beijing. Unlike any Philippine leader in history, he has lavished China with praise, openly expressing his “love” for Xi Jinping, described them as the Philippines’ “protector”, and brazenly called on smaller countries to be “meek” and “humble” in exchange for China’s “mercy”.

Duterte does not speak for all of the Philippines, however, and behind his bluster, alternative centers of powers have been contesting, altering and frustrating the push for a pro-China foreign policy. In particular, the Philippine defense establishment has managed to preserve the foundations of its full-spectrum military cooperation with Washington, while continuing to monitor and oppose China’s creeping presence across Philippine-claimed waters.

https://amti.csis.org/duterte-philippines-contested-foreign-policy/

Mainstream media outlets as well as prominent opinion-makers have consistently underscored China’s threat to Philippine interests in the area, while cautioning against large-scale Chinese investments amid concerns over a possible “debt trap”. To Duterte’s disappointment, China has yet to make a single big-ticket Chinese infrastructure investment in the Philippines.

Leading surveys also show 73 percent of Filipinos want the president to assert the Philippines’ sovereign rights against China based on the 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling, while almost 9 out of 10 want him to retake control of Chinese-occupied islands in the South China Sea like Scarborough Shoal and Mischief Reef.

Public perceptions of China remain largely negative, with Chinese harassment of Filipino fishermen in the Scarborough Shoal, among other examples, serving as a regular source of grievance and animosity among the general public.

Most crucial, however, is the resistance by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which has underscored its “constitutional duties” to protect the country’s sovereign rights and territorial integrity in the South China Sea, openly called on the government to take a tougher stance on the disputes, and, in some instances, has leaked information about Chinese threats to Philippine sovereignty to the media and members of the opposition in order to publicize them.

 

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Critics assail Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte for his failure to assert the 2016 arbitral ruling and protect his country’s sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea (WPS). His government is also criticized for engaging in a blame game with the past administration, instead of squarely facing the issue. However, his rhetoric and actions suggest that he appreciates the arbitral award more as a means rather than an end. The limitations and openings created by the ruling shape the emerging contours of Duterte’s sea game. By setting aside the direct and confrontational route of pressuring China to comply with the award, he has created room to negotiate a way toward achieving positive results for both countries. The administration’s ongoing emphasis on resource access discussions may indicate where his immediate priorities lie.

https://amti.csis.org/dutertes-sea-game/

 

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Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the arrest of another senator critical of his administration, revoking a seven-year-old amnesty granted to rebel-turned-senator Antonio Trillanes.

Duterte ordered the military and the police to apprehend Trillanes so that the former navy officer could face trial for leading two failed coups in 2003 and 2007 against the presidency of Gloria Arroyo, an ally of Duterte who was recently installed as speaker of the house of representatives.

Trillanes is the second senator the Duterte administration has ordered arrested. Leila De Lima, a vocal critic of Duterte’s bloody campaign against illegal drugs, has been detained for 18 months over allegations of conspiring to trade illegal drugs.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...o-duterte-orders-arrest-of-another-key-critic

The proclamation triggered a stand off between the military and the Senate leadership, who refused to allow an arrest to be made in the Senate, where Trillanes had camped overnight.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines, a national organisation of lawyers, also protested Duterte’s proclamation. “Not even the Supreme Court has the power to modify a judgment that has become final and executory,” said IBP national president Abdiel Dan Fajardo.

“I call on the military and the police to not follow illegal orders. You are not the private armies of Duterte. Do not stain the integrity of the military and police before the Filipino people by acting as pawns to a dictator,” said lawmaker Gary Alejano, also a former navy officer who joined Trillanes in the coups in 2003 and 2007.

Jos filippiineillä käy vallankaappaus lähiaikoina niin mitä tekee Kiina saarihankkeillaan?

 

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Last week’s New York Times offered a breathless take on China’s Navy, noting that its two-carrier fleet is now larger than the United States’ and poised to project power globally. This naval prowess, plus a new generation of accurate land-based anti-ship missiles, create a robust anti-access/area denial capability, which, the Times suggests, means China may “prevail” in a fight with the United States off its coast.

The United States and its Asian allies are “only beginning to digest” the implications of this shift in the “balance of power,” according to the article. That worry fits with Washington’s emergent conventional wisdom, as delivered with varying degrees of explicitness in think tank reports, congressional hearings, and years of reporting. The idea is that China’s military gains undermine the deterrence essential to the U.S. alliance structure in East Asia, which is what ostensibly keeps its peace. China may attack a U.S. ally, gambling that a successful missile attack on a U.S. carrier or destroyer would cause a U.S. military withdrawal, or the United States might effectively abandon its allies to avoid such an attack. It follows that, to maintain stability in Asia, the United States needs to do something radical and expensive—maybe invest more heavily in submarines and long-range strike options, throw money at theater ballistic missile defense, or more.

But the conventional wisdom is unduly alarmist.

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/09/china-hype/150996/?oref=d-topstory

 

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China has expressed anger after a British Royal Navy warship sailed close to islands claimed by China in the South China Sea late last month, saying Britain was engaged in “provocation” and that it had lodged a strong complaint.

The HMS Albion, a 22,000 ton amphibious warship carrying a contingent of Royal Marines, passed by the Paracel Islands in recent days, two sources, who were familiar with the matter but who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.

The Albion was on its way to Ho Chi Minh City, where it docked on Monday following a deployment in and around Japan.

One of the sources said Beijing dispatched a frigate and two helicopters to challenge the British vessel, but both sides remained calm during the encounter.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ship-sailing-through-disputed-south-china-sea

 

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A $1.2bn Chinese-built “luxury city” is being built in Cambodia, accelerating what critics concerned about Beijing’s influence in the south-east Asian country call the region’s “Chinafication”.

Chinese developer Tianjin Union Development Group (UDG) says Tourism Vacation Town will feature high-end hotels, offices and theme parks on 1,200 hectares of land in Cambodia’s southwestern Koh Kong province. Details are scant, but building work is expected to begin next year.

The company has already started work on another $3.8bn resort in the same province, named Dara Sakor. In 2008 UDG was given a 99-year lease for land in Koh Kong to build Dara Sakor, which is expected to feature a port as well as attractions such as casinos. Many villagers have allegedly been displaced by the project, with some launching protests against what they said were unlawful “land grabs”.

Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen sees Chinese investment as vital for his country’s development, and such issues have not deterred him from embracing Beijing. With Hun’s ties with the European Union and many western countries fraying following his controversial election win in July, branded undemocratic by critics, he has welcomed both political and financial support from China.

In 2017 China invested $1.7bn in Cambodia, with president Xi Jinping giving money to Hun’s military as well as encouraging Chinese businesses to invest in the country. Critics say Chinese businesses moving into Cambodia, which has a modest GDP of $20bn, have pushed out many locals and decimated their culture in areas such as Sihanoukville, near Koh Kong.

The Centre for Advanced Defence Studies, a US thinktank, warned of Beijing’s “ulterior motives” behind Cambodian investment beyond the “win-win” economic benefits it claims. In a report released in April the authors suggested that by gaining more access to ports in Cambodia, Beijing could get greater access to maritime trade routes and support for territory claims in disputed areas.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ina-to-build-12bn-holiday-hotspot-in-cambodia

 

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Wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sipping an iced tea, Ongerung Kambes Kesolei sits at a veranda bar overlooking a hotel pool, under fans that slowly push humid air around on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

But the calm of the scene is deceptive, for Kesolei is explaining that his small island home of Palau – a dot on the map in the north-west corner of the Pacific with a population of just over 20,000 people – has attracted the ire of one of the world’s most powerful nations and is now at the centre of a geo-political bunfight.

“They [China] want to weaken Tsai Ing-wen [the Taiwanese president] and that’s where Palau comes into play,” said Kesolei, the editor of one of Palau’s two newspapers.

Palau is one of just 17 countries that has refused to give up diplomatic relations with Taiwan and switch allegiance to China.

Palau, which was under US administration until its independence in 1994, struck up diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1999 after a few years of what Kesolei calls “wooing” from both Beijing and Taipei. The almost 20-year friendship has been strong, with Kesolei saying “every Palauan has a story” of interaction with Taiwan, whether travelling there for a holiday, education or medical treatment.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-...iny-island-defying-the-worlds-biggest-country

 

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Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has faced a rare pushback from institutions and the military over orders to arrest a key critic who has been hiding out in the country’s senate building for almost two weeks in order to avoid arrest.

Antonio Trillanes, who remains cooped up in Manila for an 11th day, welcomed actions by the senate leadership, the military, and the courts which he said “forced Duterte to stand down” and wait for the courts to decide the legality of his arrest orders.

“Duterte overreached and miscalculated. He wanted to push the boundaries of his executive power but the brazenness of the manner in which he did it, forced the institutions to push back. Duterte was forced to stand down, at least, at the moment,” Trillanes said on Friday.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...rom-military-and-courts-over-arrest-of-critic

 

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https://www.janes.com/article/83269/china-quietly-increasing-warship-numbers

"Analysis of commercial satellite imagery indicates that the number of warships launched and commissioned in China in 2018 is significantly greater than has been officially confirmed."

 

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A Chinese warship sailed within yards of an American destroyer – forcing it to change course – in an “unsafe and unprofessional” encounter as the US vessel was in contested waters in the South China Sea, according to a US official.


The USS Decatur guided-missile destroyer was conducting what the military calls a “freedom of navigation operation” on Sunday, when it passed within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson reefs in the remote Spratly Islands.


China’s defence ministry said on Tuesday that a Chinese naval ship had been sent to warn the US vessel to leave, saying it was resolutely opposed to an operation that it called a threat to its sovereignty.


The foreign ministry in Beijing said in a separate statement it strongly urged the United States to stop such “provocative” actions.


The 12-mile distance is commonly accepted as constituting the territorial waters of a landmass.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...erican-destroyer-uss-decatur-unsafe-encounter

 

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How nervous should the West be about China?

The vast nation is pouring money into Africa, taking over reefs in the disputed South China Sea, and engaging in a trade war with the US, raising Western concerns that a more assertive China could alter the power balance on the world stage.

BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson has been reporting from China for 30 years. He returns to find fashion shoots, a driverless bus, and growing authoritarianism, as he explores whether China is a friend, foe or rival of Western countries.

Video linkin alla https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world...on-how-worried-should-the-west-be-about-china

 

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Kiinalta kyllä löytyy ruosteista kalastualusta jolla runnoa USA:n laivaston aluksia jos tarve vaatii.

 

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