Blackstone
Brigadier
Vietnam should be careful not to restart their island building project, because it opens the door for China to resume theirs.
PLAN SCS Bases/Islands/Vessels (Not a Strategy Page)
- Thread starter lilzz
- Start date
antiterror13
Brigadier
Why did it happen? why it didn't happen to Chinese reclamations ? bad quality ? or bad luck ?
plawolf
Lieutenant General
Speed and scope of the works.
The primary reason China built her islands so quickly was to get them up to sustainable scale before typhoon season started.
antiterror13
Brigadier
ok, so planning and execution issues. 0.03 km2 is 3 ha .. quite large .. 3x football fields
I think its a combination of bad luck and lack of speed.
Lankian Cay managed by the Philippines was devastated by a typhoon.
Lankiam Cay (: Panata, literally "oath"; : 杨信沙洲; : Yangxin Shazhou; : đá An Nhơn) is the smallest of the . It has an area of 0.44 hectares (1.1 acres) (4,400 sq. m), and is located about 7 nautical miles (13 km; 8.1 mi) eastnortheast of Philippine-occupied , just west of the north of .
The island is administered by the Philippines as part of , and is the seventh largest of the Philippine-occupied islands. It is also claimed by the , the (Taiwan), and .
At one time the island had a surface area of more than 5 hectares, but strong waves brought by a strong typhoon washed out the sandy surface (beach) of the island leaving behind the foundation that can be seen at low tide. It has a wide lagoon.
So while typhoon can devastate the Spratly's, its rare to do so, and occurred to a feature which was originally 5 hectares. Note Vietnam's reclamation was 3 hectares.
The other thing is that China puts sea walls as a standard, although its possible for a small reclamation to be destroyed before the sea walls are put up.
Lankian Cay managed by the Philippines was devastated by a typhoon.
Lankiam Cay (: Panata, literally "oath"; : 杨信沙洲; : Yangxin Shazhou; : đá An Nhơn) is the smallest of the . It has an area of 0.44 hectares (1.1 acres) (4,400 sq. m), and is located about 7 nautical miles (13 km; 8.1 mi) eastnortheast of Philippine-occupied , just west of the north of .
The island is administered by the Philippines as part of , and is the seventh largest of the Philippine-occupied islands. It is also claimed by the , the (Taiwan), and .
At one time the island had a surface area of more than 5 hectares, but strong waves brought by a strong typhoon washed out the sandy surface (beach) of the island leaving behind the foundation that can be seen at low tide. It has a wide lagoon.
So while typhoon can devastate the Spratly's, its rare to do so, and occurred to a feature which was originally 5 hectares. Note Vietnam's reclamation was 3 hectares.
The other thing is that China puts sea walls as a standard, although its possible for a small reclamation to be destroyed before the sea walls are put up.
Anyone got an idea on how big Mischief Reef is now. Last I had was 5.58 square km from the Asian maritime index at July last year. I thought Mischief Reef and possible Subi were the only ones still being reclaimed at the moment as the Chinese had finished with everything else.
27-Jan-2016
Mr Ma will visit Taiwanese personnel on the island ahead of Lunar New Year
Outgoing Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou is to visit a disputed island in the South China Sea on Thursday.
Taiwan claims the island - which it calls Taiping but is also known as Itu Aba - in the Spratly archipelago, a chain also claimed by China and other neighbours.
Mr Ma, who is seen to be friendly towards China, has less than four months left in his presidency.
Incoming president Tsai Ing-wen will not send a representative on the trip.
China claims most of the South China Sea, including the Spratly Islands. It also sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually be reunited with the mainland.
Some or all of the Spratly Islands and their surrounding waters are also claimed by Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
"The Taiping Island is an inherent part of the Republic of China's territory," said Charles Chen, spokesman of the presidential office, using the official name for Taiwan.
He said the purpose of the trip was to visit Taiwanese personnel based there, ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Mr Ma will address reporters at a press conference after his trip, he added.
The spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office which handles cross-straits relations, said in response that China had an "undisputable authority" over islands in the South China Sea.
"Protecting the rights of the country and keeping its territory whole, protecting the rights of the Chinese, are the shared responsibilities and duties of China and Taiwan," said Ma Xiaoguang.
Taiwan has been building up a presence on Itu Aba/Taiping, constructing a lighthouse and upgrading a port. The largest natural island in the Spratly chain, it also has its own airstrip and a hospital.
It is now the fourth biggest island overall in chain, after China's land reclamation activities on Mischief Reef, Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef, said Taiwan's coastguard last year.
About 180 people live on the island which saw its last presidential visit in 2008, most of them coastguard personnel.
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Note: If they taken into consideration the Paracel Islands Group, Taiping Island (46 ha) is not the fourth largest island in the SCS.
In Paracel Island Group:-
Yongxing Island = 210 ha
Triton Island = 120 ha
Lincoln Island = 160 ha.
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Now comes the US' response ....,
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World | Wed Jan 27, 2016 7:17am GMT
TAIPEI | BY J.R. WU
Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou gives a speech at a party congress in Taipei, Taiwan, July 19, 2015.
Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou's planned trip to the Taiwanese-held island of Itu Aba in the disputed South Sea is "extremely unhelpful" and won't do anything to resolve disputes over the waterway, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.
Ma's office earlier announced that the president, who steps down in May, would fly to Itu Aba on Thursday to offer Chinese New Year wishes to residents on the island, mainly Taiwanese coastguard personnel and environmental scholars.
But Ma's one-day visit to Itu Aba, known as Taiping in Taiwan, comes amid growing international concern over rising tensions in the waterway and quickly drew the ire of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
"We are disappointed that President Ma Ying-jeou plans to travel to Taiping Island," AIT spokeswoman Sonia Urbom said in an email to Reuters.
"Such an action is extremely unhelpful and does not contribute to the peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea."
The United States wanted Taiwan and all claimants to lower tensions, rather than taking actions that could raise them, Urbom added.
On a visit to Beijing on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington and Beijing needed to find a way to ease tensions in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion (3 trillion pounds) in ship-borne trade passes every year.
Both Taiwan and China claim most of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei also have competing claims.
NEW PORT AND LIGHTHOUSE
Itu Aba lies in the Spratly archipelago, where China's rapid construction of seven man-made islands has drawn alarm across parts of Asia and been heavily criticised by Washington.
Taiwan has just finished a $100 million port upgrade and built a new lighthouse on Itu Aba, which has its own airstrip, a hospital and fresh water.
Ma's visit follows elections won by the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Ma's office said it had asked DPP leader Tsai Ing-wen to send a representative, but the party said it had no plans to do so.
Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, said he expected the Philippines and Vietnam to lodge a strong protest, likely seeing the visit as a violation of their claimed sovereignty over Itu Aba.
"But I do think it is unlikely they would stage a similar visit involving a senior political figure going to one of their own occupied islands ... that would risk inflaming relations with China and neither want to go that far," Storey said.
Asked to comment on Ma's planned visit, the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office reiterated that China and Taiwan had a common duty to protect Chinese sovereignty in the waterway.
"Safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as safeguarding the overall interests of the Chinese nation is the common responsibility and obligation of compatriots across the straits," spokesman Ma Xiaoguang told reporters in Beijing.
CHINA UNFAZED
The claims of both China and Taiwan are based on maps from the late 1940s belonging to the Nationalists, when they ruled all of China. The Nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949 after being defeated in a civil war with China's Communists.
Beijing deems Taiwan a wayward province to be retaken by force if necessary.
But it has appeared unfazed by Taiwan's upgrading work on Itu Aba. Military strategists say that is because Itu Aba could fall into China's hands should it ever take over Taiwan.
Dustin Wang, a long-time Taiwanese scholar on the South China Sea who has visited Itu Aba, said one of Ma's goals was to highlight the island's civilian uses.
"Ma will demonstrate that facilities on the island, like the hospital, provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief," he said.
Itu Aba was now the fourth largest island in the Spratlys after China's land reclamation work on Mischief Reef, Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef, Taiwan's coastguard said in October.
The island supports around 180 people, about 150 of them coastguard personnel who have had oversight of the 46-hectare (114-acre) island since 2000.
(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing, in Singapore and Greg Torode in Hong Kong; Writing by ; Editing by )
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World | Wed Jan 27, 2016 7:17am GMT
TAIPEI | BY J.R. WU
Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou gives a speech at a party congress in Taipei, Taiwan, July 19, 2015.
Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou's planned trip to the Taiwanese-held island of Itu Aba in the disputed South Sea is "extremely unhelpful" and won't do anything to resolve disputes over the waterway, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.
Ma's office earlier announced that the president, who steps down in May, would fly to Itu Aba on Thursday to offer Chinese New Year wishes to residents on the island, mainly Taiwanese coastguard personnel and environmental scholars.
But Ma's one-day visit to Itu Aba, known as Taiping in Taiwan, comes amid growing international concern over rising tensions in the waterway and quickly drew the ire of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
"We are disappointed that President Ma Ying-jeou plans to travel to Taiping Island," AIT spokeswoman Sonia Urbom said in an email to Reuters.
"Such an action is extremely unhelpful and does not contribute to the peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea."
The United States wanted Taiwan and all claimants to lower tensions, rather than taking actions that could raise them, Urbom added.
On a visit to Beijing on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington and Beijing needed to find a way to ease tensions in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion (3 trillion pounds) in ship-borne trade passes every year.
Both Taiwan and China claim most of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei also have competing claims.
NEW PORT AND LIGHTHOUSE
Itu Aba lies in the Spratly archipelago, where China's rapid construction of seven man-made islands has drawn alarm across parts of Asia and been heavily criticised by Washington.
Taiwan has just finished a $100 million port upgrade and built a new lighthouse on Itu Aba, which has its own airstrip, a hospital and fresh water.
Ma's visit follows elections won by the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Ma's office said it had asked DPP leader Tsai Ing-wen to send a representative, but the party said it had no plans to do so.
Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, said he expected the Philippines and Vietnam to lodge a strong protest, likely seeing the visit as a violation of their claimed sovereignty over Itu Aba.
"But I do think it is unlikely they would stage a similar visit involving a senior political figure going to one of their own occupied islands ... that would risk inflaming relations with China and neither want to go that far," Storey said.
Asked to comment on Ma's planned visit, the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office reiterated that China and Taiwan had a common duty to protect Chinese sovereignty in the waterway.
"Safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as safeguarding the overall interests of the Chinese nation is the common responsibility and obligation of compatriots across the straits," spokesman Ma Xiaoguang told reporters in Beijing.
CHINA UNFAZED
The claims of both China and Taiwan are based on maps from the late 1940s belonging to the Nationalists, when they ruled all of China. The Nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949 after being defeated in a civil war with China's Communists.
Beijing deems Taiwan a wayward province to be retaken by force if necessary.
But it has appeared unfazed by Taiwan's upgrading work on Itu Aba. Military strategists say that is because Itu Aba could fall into China's hands should it ever take over Taiwan.
Dustin Wang, a long-time Taiwanese scholar on the South China Sea who has visited Itu Aba, said one of Ma's goals was to highlight the island's civilian uses.
"Ma will demonstrate that facilities on the island, like the hospital, provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief," he said.
Itu Aba was now the fourth largest island in the Spratlys after China's land reclamation work on Mischief Reef, Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef, Taiwan's coastguard said in October.
The island supports around 180 people, about 150 of them coastguard personnel who have had oversight of the 46-hectare (114-acre) island since 2000.
(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing, in Singapore and Greg Torode in Hong Kong; Writing by ; Editing by )
This is downright Biased to say the least, helping Philippines and Vietnam to stake their claims yet try to rebuff Taiwan's claim and hence China's claim.
Blackstone
Brigadier
Agreed. Obama administration is trying to have it both ways; carry water for Vietnam and Philippines while claiming neutrality in territorial disputes. Problem is, everyone could see the leaky bucket Washington is using to carry water, least of all China and Taiwan Province.