Monday, August 22, 2016
Recent developments surrounding the South China Sea dispute
BEIJING (AP) — A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential gas and oil reserves:
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a weekly look at the latest key developments in the South China Sea, home to several territorial conflicts that have raised tensions in the region.
DUTERTE TAKES LOW-KEY APPROACH TO DISPUTE WITH CHINA
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said last week that he would not raise maritime disputes with China at a meeting of Southeast Asian nations in Laos next month, preferring to talk quietly with Chinese officials.
"I will only bring the issue when we are together face to face," he told reporters. "Because if you quarrel with them now and you claim sovereignty, make noise here and there, they might not just even want to talk."
Duterte has been lukewarm in his support for the international arbitration case filed by his predecessor and has said he was adopting "a softer approach" to resolving the disputes.
He said last week that his special envoy to China, former President Fidel Ramos, is paving the way for possible talks with China.
"Let us create an environment where we can sit down, talk directly, and that is the time when I would say, we proceed from here," he said.
Ramos flew to Hong Kong earlier this month to meet the Chinese legislature's foreign affairs chief, Fu Ying, and a leading government-backed scholar on the dispute, and they agreed on the need to reduce tensions through talks.
China welcomed him to visit Beijing for discussions, but the tribunal ruling was not directly discussed, Ramos told reporters. He gave no indication of when any talks might be held.
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PHILIPPINES RECEIVES COAST GUARD SHIP FROM JAPAN
The Philippine coast guard took possession last week of the first of nine multi-role response vessels being provided by Japan in an effort to boost a chronic shortage of maritime assets amid Manila's territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea.
The 44-meter (144-foot) BRP Tubbataha was formally received at the port in the capital, Manila, after having left Japan on Aug. 11 with a dozen officers and sailors on board. The ships are being built by the Japan Marine United Corporation's Yokohama shipyard.
Alongside the U.S. military's heightened emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region, Japan has been upping its presence in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, partly to counter China's growing footprint. Aside from their close geographic proximity, the Philippines and Japan are both U.S. treaty partners who are locked in maritime territorial claims with Beijing.
The Philippines challenged the validity of China's claims and aggressive actions in the South China Sea after Chinese government ships took control of disputed Scarborough Shoal following a tense standoff in 2012. China, meanwhile, claims sovereignty over a string of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea controlled by Japan and has lately stepped-up coast guard activities in the area.
Closer cooperation between Japan and the Philippines is sure to anger China, which suffered from Japanese invasion in World War II and warns constantly of a resurgence of militaristic sentiments within Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's conservative government.
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CHINA, ASEAN AGREE ON RULES GOVERNING SEA ENCOUNTERS
Senior officials from China and Southeast Asian Nations met in northern China last week to agree on rules governing unexpected encounters at sea in hopes of avoiding conflicts.
Representatives from Beijing and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations discussed implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea signed in 2002.
That agreement was intended to promote "peace, stability and mutual trust in the South China Sea," but has been largely shoved aside by China's decision to assert its own claim to virtually the entire strategic water body.
Despite that, all parties say they want to avoid hostile encounters that could spark a larger conflict. The agreed on Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea had already been adopted by several, but not all ASEAN countries, at a meeting in China in 2014.
"The code itself is technical, but applying the code has political significance. It is politically important to prevent potential risks on South China Sea," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told attendees at the meeting in the city of Manzhouli in northern China's Inner Mongolia region.
China and ASEAN are still discussing a South China Sea Code of Conduct that would more explicitly define rights and obligations among countries with overlapping territorial claims in the crucial water body.
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CHINA HOLDS LIVE-FIRING EXERCISES IN GULF OF TONKIN
China's coast guard launched live-firing exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, the latest in a series of military drills that come amid a renewed focus on the multinational dispute over maritime claims in the South China Sea.
The Maritime Safety Administration said ships and boats were barred from the area, called the Beibu Gulf by China, from Monday to Wednesday. The gulf lies between China's southern island province of Hainan and the northeastern coast of Vietnam
China's navy and air force have held a series of drills in surrounding waters since an international arbitration panel in The Hague issued a ruling last month invalidating Beijing's claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, where six governments in all claim territory.
China angrily rejected the ruling and said it would begin flying regular air patrols over the strategic waterway while continuing to develop airstrips, harbors and other infrastructure of military value on man-made islands it controls in the disputed Spratly group.
China also plans joint naval exercises with Russia in the South China Sea next month in a move criticized by the U.S. as harming regional stability.Tuesday, August 9, 2016
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Philippine Groups Oppose Marcos Burial at Heroes' Cemetery
A Philippine historical commission, former human rights victims and left-wing groups are opposing President Rodrigo Duterte's approval of a plan to bury late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a heroes' cemetery, reigniting a politically divisive and emotional debate. A coalition of groups opposed to the plan said Tuesday that Marcos was a plunderer who ordered the torture and deaths of thousands of his critics. Duterte gave the go-ahead Sunday for the burial, which is expected next month. He said Marcos, who was ousted in a 1986 "people power" revolt, is qualified to be buried at the military-run cemetery as a former soldier and president. The National Historical Commission of the Philippines, meanwhile, ...
Monday, August 8, 2016
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In a sign of unity, North and South Korean gymnasts snap friendly selfie
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US Navy visits China, Ramos leaves for South China Sea talks
BEIJING (AP) — A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential gas and oil reserves:
___
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a weekly look at the latest key developments in the South China Sea, home to several territorial conflicts that have raised tensions in the region.
___
US NAVY VISITS QINGDAO IN FIRST PORT CALL SINCE ARBITRATION PANEL'S RULING
A U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer arrived in the northern Chinese port of Qingdao on Monday in the first visit by an American warship to the country since Beijing responded angrily to an arbitration panel's ruling that its expansive South China Sea maritime claims had no basis in law.
Arriving in the home port of China's northern fleet, the USS Benfold held a signal exercise with the Chinese navy. Cmdr. Justin L. Harts said the visit aimed to "build relationships" with counterparts from China, but referred questions on tensions in the South China Sea to Pacific Command in Hawaii.
China rejected last month's ruling by the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration in a case initiated by the Philippines and has criticized the U.S. as encouraging Manila's actions.
Last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the U.S., Japan and Australia were "fanning the flames" of regional tensions after they released a joint statement urging China not to construct military outposts or reclaim land in the disputed waters.
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EX-PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT FLIES TO HONG KONG AHEAD OF FORMAL TALKS WITH CHINA
Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos flew to Hong Kong on Monday for talks aimed at rekindling ties with China that have been strained by long-seething disputes in the South China Sea.
Ramos said in a news conference at Manila's airport that he would act as an "ice breaker" and the warmer relations he wanted to forge could engender formal talks between China and the Philippines.
President Rodrigo Duterte has designated Ramos as a special envoy to pave the way for negotiations with Beijing after an international arbitration tribunal invalidated China's expansive territorial claims in a case put forward by the Philippines.
"I am just the ice breaker, as they say, to rekindle, to warm up, again, our good, friendly, neighborly relations with China and that's all that I have to do," Ramos said.
Ramos, now 88, was president when China seized the disputed Mischief Reef in 1995, sparking protests from the Philippines. Amid the rift, then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin paid a visit to Manila in 1996 and in a memorable moment, both leaders danced and sang Western songs, including Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" while on a Manila Bay cruise, helping ease tensions.
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CHINA SAYS ITS MILITARY AIRCRAFT CONDUCTED SOUTH CHINA SEA PATROLS
China's air force said Saturday it had conducted a combat air patrol over disputed areas of the South China Sea to improve its fighting ability.
The air force didn't say when the exercises took place, but after the July 12 arbitration ruling, the air force had said such patrols would be "a regular practice."
Air force spokesman Senior Col. Shen Jinke said in an online statement that bombers and fighters, early warning aircraft and reconnaissance planes patrolled the airspace around the Spratly Islands, Scarborough Shoal and surrounding areas.
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MARINE ARHAEOLOGIST REPORTS CHINESE COAST GUARD HARASSMENT
An Australian amateur marine archaeologist says the Chinese coast guard harassed him and his team while they were diving to a shipwreck off Borneo.
Farmer Hans Berekoven told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that while the Chinese ship did not directly intervene, it clearly was trying to make them leave.
"They were trying to push us out. When we arrived there and started diving, they would up-anchor and sort of circle around us, sometimes really close. It was a sort of gentle intimidation," Berekoven said.
The report said the location was the Luconia Breakers, a cluster of shoals and a tiny island about 84 nautical miles (135 kilometers) north of Borneo that lies inside Malaysia's exclusive economic zone. China also claims the area within its nine-dash maritime border that the Hague arbitration panel ruled invalid.
Berekoven also said the Chinese ship was causing major damage to the coral reef near where it was anchored.
"She's got a massive anchor chain. Every time the wind changes or the current changes that big anchor chain is just making a hell of a mess of that reef," he said.
Other reports of harassment appear to show China's determination to monopolize marine archaeology in the South China Sea, which is littered with the wrecks of ships of all nationalities. China has used archaeological finds to support its claim to have mapped and named the sea's features from ancient times and therefore to have a historical right to sovereignty.
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Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed from Manila, Philippines.
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