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China says Trump wants 'regional hegemony' in South China Sea

CCP Dictator-Tyrants in Beijing had been laughing at Trump too.

Heads up the whole world is. 300 million to pick from and this was the best your system could deliver ..... really ?

Your electoral system is a joke that serves a tiny wealthy elite
 
Heads up the whole world is. 300 million to pick from and this was the best your system could deliver ..... really ?

Your electoral system is a joke that serves a tiny wealthy elite


Democracy is like sex, that it's good even when it might be bad. You'd know more so continue posting plse thx.

China has had 5000 years of totalitarian or authoritarian rule. There isn't a democratic bone in the body politic of China. A few minor tissues and no more than that.

The CCP Dynasty of Dictator-Tyrants in business suits are the contemporary manifestation of the whole five millennia. China has nothing to offer but their chains. Censoring and punishing chains. It is estimated that since year 2000 CCP has swiped $5 Trillion in corruption, fraud, swindles, legalised ponzi schemes and the like.

Welcome to your Future Shock world and the menace known as the CCP and its PRC of sheeple. USA will survive the presidency of Donald Trump just as the Chinese people will survive the failure of the Chinese Communist Party and its new dynasty of nasty and massively corrupt emperors in business suits.

Chinese elites aggressively refuse to change themselves or their historical ideology of absolute and arbitrary rule, i.e., dictatorship. They have only contempt and a powerful detestation of this recent thingy in the world called democracy. So someone that naturally stands in their way is going to have to change 'em instead. Terminate that autocratic and wrong headed arrogance and its concomitant willful ignorance. Won't be easy, won't be quick, won't be pleasant. But changed they will be and for the good, once and for all (basically).

China itself and its people will continue of course. They are survivalists by their nature, same as the rest of us are. Once they are dragged kicking and screaming into the modern and future world of reality, and leave behind their Old Word of the Delusional Central Kingdom, they'll have rough going but they'll be fine. Same as everyone else.

You know of course the Chinese insist their genes did not originate in Africa. Only they among all humanity have uniquely Chinese genes that occurred spontaneously in China. That's what they believe. As if they had arrived in pods propelled by the stars in the heavens. Ask any one of the billion crackpot racists there, cause sooner or later they'll tell you about it. Then again, however, why say something to you that you'd already know...
 
CCP Dictator-Tyrants in Beijing will test Potus Trump early on, same as they did concerning GW Bush and Barack Obama.

CCP will play the Chinese well known and predictable without firing a shot grand strategy China has used through the ages. The Chinese very well known and anticipated mindset.

There definitely will be a challenge. A challenge over Taiwan is too great a risk to CCP, so while some challenge of Trump's actions and words concerning Taiwan is possible, it is not likely. More likely is a challenge at sea, and in the South China Sea...


Beijing’s broader South China Sea strategy includes advancing disputed claims where it can, delaying resolution of issues it cannot yet settle in its favor, and coercing potential opponents while limiting escalation. Beijing’s longstanding opposition to key principles of international air-and-sea-related law and its growing assertiveness in the South China Sea make it view ‘unapproved’ American activities there as contravening vital interests. To implement that strategy with as little American resistance as possible, and thereby further its unresolved land feature and maritime sovereignty claims without escalating to major power war, it is employing not one but three major sea forces.

China’s Maritime Militia is its Third Sea Force of “blue hulls,” after its Navy of “gray hulls” and Coast Guard of “white hulls.” Increasingly, these forces operate together, with blue hulls operating forward and white and gray hulls backstopping them. Collectively, these are “gray zone” operations: conducted to alter the status quo, and employing coercion as necessary, but without resorting to war.


Passing a Chinese Maritime 'Trump Test' | The National Interest


CCP challenged Bush 77 days into his presidency with the P-3 Orion surveillance plane issue. A PLA Air Force pilot hit the P-3 while buzzing it, crashed and died in the SCS. The damaged Orion had to crash land on the CCP's Hainan Island. CCP did a lot of hollering and flapping of their arms, then released the crew but not the plane. GW toned down his CCP rhetoric from that point forward and Potus Bush became more cooperative about admitting CCP to the World Trade Organisation.

CCP challenged Barack Obama 44 days into his presidency. USN intelligence gathering ships Impeccable and Victorious in two separate SCS and East Sea incidents were surrounded and obstructed by CCP fishing boats backed up by CCP Coast Guard boats. Potus Obama and SecDef Robert Gates clarified things by powerfully hosing the fishermen right out of their small boats and into the sea, then ramming through boats and debris meant to obstruct or slow their forward movement. End of.

CCP got the message and it has laid back since in the East Sea against Japan, and until only recently in the SCS where it's been proceeding cautiously and in mini-steps as everyone knows. CCP continues to respect Potus Obama's no-go zone of the Scarborough Shoal off Manila, which has been the CCP key objective throughout.

CCP's blue hull highly paid civilian militia are considered their "little blue men" of the water, same as Putin's "little green men" of Crimea and of East Ukraine are the clandestine operatives on the land of Eurasia. CCP Dictator-Tyrants have much more to lose in the contest against the USA in the SCS, so Washington will have to demonstrate more will in any incident(s) than CCP has of its willfulness.

CCP as with USSR probes constantly over anything great or small, and Washington knows it. Trump's savvy and learned China-Taiwan advisers know it. Expect CCP to get a good smack in the face in any feeble challenge it attempts.
 
Gunboat diplomacy CCP Dictators in Beijing style...


Scarborough Shoal a looming flashpoint in South China Sea


When the Philippine captain, Juanito Rebios, arrived in late November, Rebios, 41, recalled that an inflatable carrying seven Chinese clad in black uniforms approached his boat. One of them, holding a gun, instructed him in English to leave the area, saying it was a final warning.

“It was really terrible," Rebios said.

Scarborough Shoal lies within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines.

In July, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, based in The Hague, denied China’s claim over the South China Sea. As for Scarborough Shoal, the court said that China is infringing on the Philippines’ traditional fishing rights there.

China has refused to accept the court ruling.

In September, 10 Chinese ships were spotted around Scarborough Shoal. Some of them appeared to be dredging boats, raising concern that China may start to reclaim the area.

“If (other countries) do nothing, China will construct a military base in Scarborough Shoal. But if the United States takes a strong stance against China, it will be us who are involved in the dispute between the United States and China,” said Rebios.

Scarborough Shoal a looming flashpoint in South China Sea?The Asahi Shimbun


Potus Obama made clear to Xi Jinping the Scarborough Shoal off Manila of the no-go zone of the SCS. It is the only place in the SCS CCP Dictators in Beijing have not gone. Yet it would complete a CCP Dictators takeover of the Sea. So the Shoal is indeed the flashpoint of the controversy.

One should expect a Potus Trump to carry the policy forward, or to up the ante if anything.
 
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Nobody's expecting any fireworks in the South China Sea but we can expect the two navies' aircraft carrier groups to be operating simultaneously in the Sea. It's never happened before because they've always operated separately, at different times and areas of the SCS.

And it's no coincidence the Vinson Carrier Strike Force 1 will be arriving by January 20th off the coast of the CCP China in the SCS and near Taiwan, Philippines, and the CCP island province of Hainan which is the base of the PLA Navy South Fleet.


US, Chinese carriers may prowl same waters in January

A confrontation between US and Chinese aircraft carriers may be brewing in the South China Sea


By Keoni Everington, Taiwan News

2017/01/05

Taipei (Taiwan News) -- The Nimitz-class supercarrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) Carrier Strike Force 1 is steaming toward the South China Sea where China's aircraft carrier the CV-16 Liaoning is currently performing exercises. (N = Nuclear Powered: CVN vs CV)

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USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Force 1 USN photo

The Carrier Strike Force includes the Carrier Air Wing 2, the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Lake Champlain (CG-57), the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Wayne E Meyer (DDG-108) and will be joined at Pacific Command Center, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the escort destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112). Submarines always accompany a Carrier Strike Force but no information or mention of it is ever given (1-3 attack and fast attack subs).

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A carrier-borne Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark fighter takes off with full afterburner FROM CHINA'S first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, in an undated photo released Nov. 25. [Xinhua photo]


Meanwhile, China's sole extant aircraft carrier, the CV-16 Liaoning, a recently refurbished Soviet-built vessel, sailed through international waters east of Taiwan on Dec. 26 to conduct exercises in the South China Sea. The Liaoning is expected pass through the Taiwan Strait on its way back to its home port in Qingdao, thus completing its first circumnavigation of Taiwan some time before the Chinese New Year, which falls on Jan. 28 this year.

Neither side is officially stating precisely when their respective carriers will be present in the South China Sea, but the two rival carrier groups could be simultaneously patrolling the region at the time of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.

US, Chinese carriers may prowl same waters in January | Taiwan News
 
Huh. How about that. I cudda sworn that China was the country building islands and installing missile systems on 'em in the South China Sea, ramming the fishing boats of other nations in international waters, and generally and steadfastly ignoring International Law. Who knew we're the bad guys there?
 
Huh. How about that. I cudda sworn that China was the country building islands and installing missile systems on 'em in the South China Sea, ramming the fishing boats of other nations in international waters, and generally and steadfastly ignoring International Law. Who knew we're the bad guys there?

the chinese are completely amoral and I dont think they see it as good or bad

Its simply who has the power and how is that power to be applied

If we are the chinese will push us around

And they consider it a weakness when we do not apply our power against them
 
Huh. How about that. I cudda sworn that China was the country building islands and installing missile systems on 'em in the South China Sea, ramming the fishing boats of other nations in international waters, and generally and steadfastly ignoring International Law. Who knew we're the bad guys there?


For the record and as my posts make clear, we are the good guyz and CCP Dictator-Tyrants in Beijing are the bad guyz.

Kindly do try to keep up plse thx.
 
For the record and as my posts make clear, we are the good guyz and CCP Dictator-Tyrants in Beijing are the bad guyz.

Kindly do try to keep up plse thx.

I was responding to the OP, and not your post. Not sure why you would assume I was responding to you.
 
It's posted above that CCP Dictator-Tyrants in Beijing will test the new Potus Donald Trump early in his fledging presidency. It may however have already happened, back in December.

Recall first however CCP Dictators tested the new Potus GW Bush 77 dayze into his office when a PLA Air Force fighter buzzing a USN P8 Orion recon/spy plane hit it in international airspace over the South China Sea. The inept CCP pilot died in the Sea and the Orion crash landed on Hainan island. The crew were released three weeks later after the Beijing Boyz jumped up and down hollering an flapping their arms to their own satisfaction.

Potus Obama was tested 44 days in, when each of two USN intelligence gathering ships in the East Sea were in separate events surrounded by CCP militia in fishing boats. The then SecDef Robert Gates had the ships hose the militia out of their boats into the Sea and the USN vessels sailed through the broken up and scattered CCP boats. End of.

A lot of analysts believe Trump may have already been tested and that he passed with aplomb. It was in mid-December, before Trump took office when the PLA Navy swiped the undersea drone in the process of being recovered by a civilian ship under contract to the USN. While Potus Obama demanded the return of the drone, Trump told CCP that if wanted it that much they could keep it. We got plenty of 'em and they're all in service.

CCP was flustered by Trump and caught off balance by the you can keep it offer. They quickly returned it and also immediately cut the bitching about the drone checking out PLA Navy subs and their regular routes between Taiwan and the Philippines.

CCP may yet have some bigger test in mind than the drone snatching, but probably not. For one thing, CCP Dictators responded to the Potus-Elect Trump while ignoring still Potus Obama. Another reason to believe it was the Big Trump Test by the Boyz is that the drone incident was small enough so that the Boyz would not have to risk something over Taiwan, which Trump has been upending the Boyz over.


Another very sound reason to believe is that the USS Carl Vinson Aircraft Carrier and its Strike Force 1 arrived in the South China Sea January 20th. Given it's all bigger than a drone or a single aircraft or ship, CCP Boyz likely realize making bigger challenges in such a context might not be a good idea.
 
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Philippine SecDef Delfin Lorenzana has announced the Pentagon has the go-ahead to construct several bases on the main Luzon island as agreed before President Duterte Harry was elected in June.

Duterte has signed off on the construction authorization which was agreed early last year in the Enhanced Defense Co-operation Agreement with Washington. Duterte had said in September the deal by his predecessor Benigno Aquino III was off.

U.S. presence in the Phils is popular where the South China Sea is the West Philippine Sea....


Poll: 84% of Philippines Supports Challenging China in South China Sea, Contra Duterte


A poll released Friday shows that over four in five Philippine nationals support confronting China over their colonization of Philippine territory in the South China Sea, just as the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte announced it would honor an agreement to expand America’s military footprint in the country.



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The polling firm Pulse Asia found 84 percent of respondents supported the government acting to “uphold its rights in the disputed waters” of the South China Sea, which include territories in the Spratly and Paracel Island chain and the Scarborough Shoal. Three percent of those polled said they do not agree with the government calling for China to respect its loss at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, which found the Philippines’s claims to be legitimate and dismissed China’s.

The poll also found that Filipinos trust the United States above all other foreign countries, despite President Duterte’s repeated calls for a rift with the United States and closer ties to China and Russia. 76 percent of those polled said they trust the United States more than any other country. Second-most trusted on the list was China’s most prominent regional rival, Japan. 70 percent of those polled said they trusted Japan.


84% of Philippines Supports Confronting China in South China Sea


SecDef Lorenzana is a major-general in the Phils Army who returned to Manila to join the Duterte administration after 14 years in the Phils Embassy in Washington as the president's personal representative to the United States. Duterte had unsuccessfully offered Lorenzano ambassador to Washington to try to keep him out of the Phils.

Dirty Duterte, who was mayor of Davao City in southern Mindanao 22 years, seems to be learning you can't fight City Hall when City Hall is Washington DC.
 
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The past July the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on the International Law of the Sea ruled in a three-year case brought by the Philippines that the CCP China Boyz in Beijing were in a 100% violation of the UNCLOS in the South China Sea.

PCA ruled CCP's historically based claims of possession rely on a proliferation of maps made by Chinese only, and in myth and legend, assertions of territoriality that are arbitrary, capricious and unilateral, and which exclude a mutuality among neighboring peoples...and more.

CCP Dictators in Beijing, which had signed the UNCLOS in 1996 completely rejected the Tribunal's authority and its ruling. Despite the UNCLOS being legally binding in disputes, CCP Tyrants in Beijing said the ruling had no effect on its historically rooted claims. In other words, screw the law signed by 94 countries.


Which brings us to China and Australia with the South China Sea between 'em. Indeed, the address to the Australian parliament in 2003 by the then CCP President Hu Jintao has recently drawn new attention since the PCA ruling and Beijing's total flaming of it. This is the part from Hu that has now caught the eye of Oz...

Back in the 1420s, the expeditionary fleets of China's Ming Dynasty reached Australian shores. For centuries, the Chinese sailed across vast seas and settled down in what they called Southern Land, or today's Australia. They brought Chinese culture to this land and lived harmoniously with the local people, contributing their proud share to Australia's economy, society and its thriving pluralistic culture.


So I quote an Aussie, John Fitzgerald who is director of the Asia-Pacific Program for Social Investment and Philanthropy at Swinburne University of Technology. A bit of Dr. Fitzgerald's incisive and analytical piece published originally at the Oz website Inside Story, insidestory.org.au is republished here from the Australian Financial Times which among other publications have been impressed profoundly by its ramifications....


If we concede that China's primary test of maritime sovereignty is a historical claim to seas once traversed by its own fleets, then it would be prudent to ask whether President Hu's speech to the Australian Parliament could one day support a historical claim to sovereignty over Australian territory. Could there come a time when Beijing will claim Australian territorial waters as it now claims the South China Sea?

In this light, China's actions in the South China Sea should concern all Australians. President Hu's historical claim to continuous Chinese contact with the Australian continent over a period of six centuries, initiated by the Chinese state and carrying prior naming rights to what we now call Australia, is all but identical to the historical claim that Beijing is mounting in support of its territorial and military expansion in the South China Sea.

In each case, the claim asserts that state expeditionary forces sailed a particular sea long before anyone else, made contact with local peoples, named their lands, and maintained continuous contact for centuries thereafter, presumably until European colonial powers intervened to "contain" China. In an order where historical claims trump commonly agreed norms and rules, failure to challenge President Hu's claims at the bench of history could place Australian territorial sovereignty at risk.

Donald Trump: beware what you unleash in China | afr.com



Dr. Fitzgerald wants the Australian parliament to reject and refute the statements made by the CCP Dictator of Beijing in his address to it. The reason is that the Hu CCP statement is myth, legend at best, fantasy, overbearing, imperious, over-reach, aggressive, pernicious, malignant. Among other telling reasons.
 
CCP Boyz in Beijing have suddenly backed off trying to pressure and otherwise bully Australia into a strategic capitulation to Beijing and against its long time ally Washington.

CCP Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Australia the past week dropped the threatening and berating CCP rhetoric against Australia supporting a rules based order in the South China Sea. Wang instead and for the first time by Beijing acknowledged that Australia is firmly allied with the United States and with its regional neighbors.

As reported by The Age in Oz concerning the press conference by Wang and Oz Foreign Minister Julie Bishop...


Mr Wang abandoned his standard lecture critiquing the ANZUS alliance as "a relic of the Cold War".

Strikingly, he said at their joint press conference that Australia "can continue to be an ally of the US, at the same time be a comprehensive strategic partner for China".

This is an explicit rejection of the notion that Australia has to choose. It was the first time he has conceded this point, in public or in private.


Julie Bishop dismisses Donald Trump's threat to tear up free trade agreement



On the specific issue of CCP and its ever increasing militarization of the South China Sea, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop...

did reveal that she had discussed the issue with the new U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, adding, “We discussed the importance of maintaining adherence to the international rules based order, under which many nations, including China and other countries in our region, have been able to grow and prosper.”

The sober discussion between Bishop and Tillerson would be a great relief to the Australian government, which would have been seriously unnerved by Trump’s aggressive posture toward Turnbull. While there is an impetus to try and talk up the relationship of Australia and China after the phone call between Turnbull and Trump, in terms of a security and strategic relationship Australia remains firmly tied to the United States as the state most capable of providing regional security, despite its increasing friendliness and economic dependence on China.


Where Do Australia-China Ties Go in the Trump Era?


So all's well that ends well. No this isn't the end of everything but I just wanted to make a note of the obvious and its progressions.
 
South China Sea: US aircraft carrier strike group begins patrols


USS Carl Vinson CVN 70 asserts its position in the international sea lanes of the South China Sea, February 19. The 3rd Fleet battleship Vinson commands USN Carrier Strike Group 1 of Naval Air Wing 17, the battle cruisers USS Bunker Hill and USS Lake Champlain, the several ships of USN Destroyer Squadron 1 and 1-3 always unidentified attack submarines.

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China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday warned Washington against challenging its sovereignty in the South China Sea. China wrapped up its own naval exercises in the South China Sea on Friday. War games involving its own aircraft carrier have unnerved neighbours with which it has long-running territorial disputes.

Beijing “firmly opposes any country’s attempt to undermine China’s sovereignty and security in the name of the freedom of navigation and overflight,” spokesman Geng Shuang told journalists Wednesday, responding to reports that the Vinson was headed to the South China Sea. “We also urge the US to refrain from challenging China’s sovereignty and security,” he said.

The Vinson has deployed to the South China Sea 16 times in its 35-year history, the US Navy said


Nocookies | The Australian



The sovereignty of the CCP Dictators in Beijing seems to encompass all of the Yellow Sea, the East Sea, the South Sea, and on down to include Australia. So think the Boyz. They're in for a hard earned hard lesson.
 
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Foreign ministers of the ten countries of the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations that border the South China Sea stated a rare unanimity against CCP Dictators in Beijing installing missiles and weapons system on its artificial islands in the SCS.

Asean has been divided 8-2 against CCP actions in the SCS, with Cambodia and Laos consistently supporting Beijing. Now however, the Asean ministers are reflecting the confidence Washington will take a stronger line against CCP Tyrants in the SCS.

The ministers meeting in the Phillipines also of course called on both Washington and Beijing to agree a diplomatic solution. The ten Asean nations in the 50 year old grouping are this year's group chairman country Philippines, and Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam...



ASEAN unsettled by China weapon systems, tension in South China Sea



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Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers link arms during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Retreat in Boracay, central Philippines February 21, 2017. Malacanang Photo/Handout via Reuters


Southeast Asian countries see China's installation of weapons systems in the South China Sea as "very unsettling" and have urged dialogue to stop an escalation of "recent developments", the Philippines foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Referring to China's manmade islands in the Spratly archipelago, Perfecto Yasay (pictured center above in white) said ASEAN countries had "noticed, very unsettlingly, that China has installed weapons systems in these facilities that they have established, and [Asean foreign ministers] have expressed strong concern about this. The ASEAN members have been unanimous in their expression of concern about what they see as a militarization of the region," Yasay told reporters after a ministers' retreat on the Philippine island of Boracay.

With the Philippines chairing the bloc this year, Yasay's comments signal a rare, firm position by a grouping that often struggles to achieve consensus, due to its contrasting opinions on how to respond to China's assertiveness.


ASEAN unsettled by China weapon systems, tension in South China Sea | Reuters




China finishing South China Sea buildings that could house missiles - U.S. officials


By REUTERS | WASHINGTON

Building the concrete structures with retractable roofs on Subi, Mischief and Fiery Cross reefs, part of the Spratly Islands chain where China already has built military-length airstrips, could be considered a military escalation, the U.S. officials said in recent days, speaking on condition of anonymity.


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A satellite image shows what CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative says appears to be anti-aircraft guns and what are likely to be close-in weapons systems (CIWS) on the artificial island Subi Reef in the South China Sea in this image released on Dec. 13, 2016. Image-CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative



"It is not like the Chinese to build anything in the South China Sea just to build it, and these structures resemble others that house SAM batteries, so the logical conclusion is that's what they are for," said a U.S. intelligence official, referring to surface-to-air missiles. A Pentagon spokesman said the United States remained committed to "non-militarization in the South China Sea" and urged all claimants to take actions consistent with international law.

Greg Poling, a South China Sea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in a December report that China apparently had installed weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, on all seven of the islands it has built in the South China Sea. The officials said the new structures were likely to house surface-to-air missiles that would expand China's air defense umbrella over the islands. They did not give a time line on when they believed China would deploy missiles on the islands.

"It certainly raises the tension," Poling said. "The Chinese have gotten good at these steady increases in their capabilities."

Exclusive: China finishing South China Sea buildings that could house missiles - U.S. officials | Reuters


It's commonly called salami slicing and also cabbage gardening to piece by piece build these artificial islands and then the installations. No one should be surprised therefore to see a butcher knife be applied to the whole of it.
 
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China On Edge as U.S. Aircraft Carrier Exercises in South China Sea


Exercises ordered by US Defense Secretary James Mattis, concerned that lack of regular US naval and air maneuvers has undermined regional stability.

The carrier operations put Beijing on notice that the new president likely will continue US policy in seeking to bolster regional allies that have become increasingly alarmed at China’s assertiveness in the region.



vinson-south-china-sea.jpg

An US Navy photo released on 19 February 2017 shows an unarmed nuclear capable US B-1B Lancer supersonic bomber aircraft assigned to Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, in a flyover welcome to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and its Strike Group of cruisers, destroyers and submarines as they transit the Philippine Sea on 14 Februray 2017 to begin patrols of the international shipping lanes of the South China Sea. Photo: EPA/Mass Communication Specialist Ku / US NAVY



Harry Sa, a research analyst with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies’ US programme, said that while US patrols in the area are indeed ‘routine’, this recent expedition has garnered more attention than usual.

“There is a clear signal being sent to the region here. The first signal is to China, that despite all the political instability at home, the United States will not back down and is still a presence. The second signal is to the allies and partners of the United States [that] the US hopes to calm the fears of its friends in the region.”


How ?routine? are the new US patrols in the South China Sea?


CCP Dictators in Beijing keep hollering it's their sea, the whole of it. Over on this side it's still true possession is nine-tenths of the law. CCP have no UNLOS rights of sea claims to artificial islands. USN will continue to patrol inside of a 12 mile area of the artificial islands of the SCS.

Nobody from California to India to include Japan, S Korea, Asean support the CCP Dictators in Beijing on this. No one.
 
CCP Dictator-Tyrants in Beijing can plan for the best but they might do better to expect the worst.

After Australia and Indonesia begin joint patrols we can expect other countries of the region to join in the counter actions to CCP aggressions in militarizing the Sea.


Indonesia seeks joint patrols with Australia in South China Sea



Indonesian President Joko Widodo will discuss the prospect of joint patrols with Australia in the South China Sea when he meets his counterpart Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the weekend. Widodo told The Australian newspaper he would like to see joint patrols with Australia, but only if did not further inflame tensions with China, Reuters reports.

Defence Minister Marise Payne told Fairfax Media ministers had agreed to explore options to increase maritime cooperation. "This could include coordinated activities in the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea consistent with Australia's policy of exercising rights of freedom of navigation in accordance with international law and our support for regional security," she said.



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A flotilla of Australian Navy battleships in formation outside Sydney Harbor November, 24, 2016. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said joint naval patrols with Indonesia in the South China Sea would demonstrate Australia’s support for ‘peace and stability in the region’ © Reuters


"Australia and Indonesia are very aligned in terms of our approach to the disputes over land and islands and other structures in the South China Sea," Ms Bishop said. "We are not claimant states, we do not take sides. We call for the rules-based order to be supported so there can be peace and stability in the South China Sea," she said last week.

Melda Kamil Ariadno, an international law expert from the University of Indonesia, said a joint patrol would strengthen the security of the South China Sea as an international navigation route. "The area cannot be claimed one-sidedly as belonging only to one country," she said. "China should see that there is nothing China can do except immediately discuss the Code of Conduct (on the South China Sea) as soon as possible."

But the idea has prompted a warning from former Australian Defence Force chief Sir Angus Houston, who said we should avoid supporting any move to blockade Beijing’s controversial artificial island fortresses being build throughout the strategic Asian waterway
. (emphasis added)

Indonesia seeks joint patrols with Australia in South China Sea

Australia and Indonesia consider joint patrols in South China Sea


Blockade....
 
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Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana upstaged his President Rodrigo Duterte by leading a delegation of cabinet officers on a visit to the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group underway in the South China Sea.

Lorenzana is a major-general in the Phils Army who had spent the previous 14 years in Washington as the president's personal representative to the United States. Duterte had offered Lorenzana ambassador in Washington but Lorenzana declined in favor of returning to the Phils to take charge of the armed forces.


Top Philippine officials fly to US carrier in disputed sea

The Philippines' defence secretary yesterday visited a United States aircraft carrier patrolling the South China Sea, hailing the "strong relationship" with Washington despite President Rodrigo Duterte's pivot away from Manila's traditional ally.


AAm2Qci.img

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana



Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said he and other top officials in Mr Duterte's administration had a "very interesting and informative" visit to the aircraft carrier. "We have a strong relationship with the US on account of our mutual defence treaty," he added, referring to the cornerstone 1951 agreement.

Secretary Lorenzana, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II accompanied U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson

The aircraft carrier is the flagship of the U.S. Third Fleet's Carrier Strike Group 1. The Philippine officials led by Sec. Lorenzana also met with Rear Admiral James Kilby, commander of Carrier Strike Group 1 and discussed the importance of free access to international waters for all nations.

The visit shows continuing top-level engagements between Philippine officials with the US military.


WATCH: PH Cabinet secretaries visit US aircraft carrier | ABS-CBN News





Manila warns Beijing over provocation

Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr said any Chinese construction in Scarborough Shoal would be "a very serious, provocative act" that would undermine the Philippine claim to the rich fishing area.

"If they would do that, that will really be a game-changer," Yasay replied when asked in a news conference.

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Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay speaks in Washington recently.



"There seems to have been a threat before or a perception that they were going to build, in fact, there were intelligence reports coming from the Americans that they were poised to send dredging vessels precisely to convert this ... shoal into an artificial island," Yasay said, but he added he did not expect China would take such a provocative step. "Now we are happy and assured of the fact they will not do so," he said.


Manila warns Beijing over provocation | MENAFN.COM


If CCP begins to build on Scarborough Shoal in the Philippine EEZ 120 miles from Manila the USN will blockade the shoal. CCP Dictators in Beijing are clear about this. So we can expect no action at Scarborough by the CCP, same as before.

An U.S. naval and air blockade of Scarborough would isolate any CCP personnel and ships already at the shoal until they left it. And a U.S. blockade of the shoal would prevent CCP ships from accessing it to build. Make no mistake the Scarborough Shoal has been Washington's South China Sea redline since CCP seized control of the Shoal in a double-dealing lie in 2012.
 
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After the word "coup" started circulating in confidential documents widely published in the Philippines Dirty Duterte has mellowed considerably towards its historical ally and partner the United States. One can say at this point that the USA-Philippines alliance is sound and functioning more normally....


Analyst: Duterte has softened stance toward US


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CSIS Southeast Asia Program Senior Adviser Ernest Bower said that the partnership between the Philippines and the United States remains strong despite having a rough start during the Duterte administration. BY-ND/US Embassy New Zealand


MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte may have had a rough start with the United States but this changed when US President Donald Trump took office, an analyst said.

Ernest Bower, a senior adviser at influential Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the security cooperation between the Philippines and the US remains strong and foundational.

"I have seen that he's (Duterte) moderated his language towards the United States and we've gotten signals even this week that the Philippines and the United States are security partners," Bower told members of the press at the closing reception of a US-ASEAN conference in Makati City. Bower noted that the alliance is important to both countries and that it remains strong.

"I don't think we're gonna go backwards on US-Philippine cooperation. I think that was a rough start and I think I detect President Duterte has taken an opportunity to do a bit of a reset after President Trump was elected," Bower said.

Analyst: Duterte has softened stance toward US | Headlines, News, The Philippine Star | philstar.com


Asean is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations currently in its 50th year. Its ten member states that share the South China Sea are strongly opposed to CCP aggressions in the SCS to include CCP island building and placing weapons on the islands.

Asean is advocating CCP Dictator-Tyrants sign and observe the Asean proposed Code of Conduct of the Parties in the South China Sea, which stipulates cooperation and the mutual development in respect of the differing issues of territory and resources such as fishing and energy fields under the sea.

The member states of Asean are: Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia. The annually rotating chairmanship of Asean is held this year by the Philippines.
 
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