South China Sea Strategies for other nations (Not China)

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US to rotate more aircraft, troops through Philippines
MANILA, Philippines — The U.S. is deploying nine aircraft and hundreds of U.S. troops and special operators to at least seven bases in the Philippines as part of a new, regular presence there, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced Thursday.

The first dispatch of forces, totaling about 275 people, will be pulled from the roughly 5,000 U.S. troops now in the Philippines as part of the bilateral Balikatan annual exercise, which ends Friday.

Additionally, the Defense Department announced that the U.S. and Philippines have twice conducted joint patrols in the disputed South China Sea, once in March and once in April, and said it plans to continue regular joint patrols in the future.

The 275 servicemembers will remain in the Philippines through the end of the month, but are expected to be replaced by follow-on personnel.

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Up to 75 Marines will be assigned to Camp Aguinaldo in greater Manila, headquarters of the Philippine armed forces, where they “will support increased operations in the region and will enhance our combined [command and control] capabilities,” according to the fact sheet.

The rotating forces also will include 200 airmen who will operate out of Clark Air Base, a former U.S. Air Force installation about 60 miles north of Manila on the main Philippine island of Luzon.

The U.S. based about 20,000 personnel at Clark prior to the base’s closure in 1991, after it suffered catastrophic damage from Mount Pinatubo’s eruption. Then in 1992, the U.S. Navy left Subic Bay — once among the largest overseas U.S. bases — after the Philippines rejected a new lease.

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The 200 U.S. airmen will deploy from various bases in the Pacific to support five A-10C Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base, in South Korea; three HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters from the 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base, Japan; and a MC-130H Combat Talon II special operations aircraft.

Defense officials would not specify where the Talon was based. The Talon specializes in delivering and extracting special operators into contested areas and has a suite of sensors that can be used to support rescue and humanitarian missions.

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“For the Philippines, we expect the U.S. Forces to help us in our maritime awareness,” Philippines Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said. “With the presence here it will deter uncalled for action by the Chinese.

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U.S. Stationing Warplanes in Philippines Amid South China Sea Tensions
MANILA—The U.S. will start stationing warplanes in the Philippines this week as the vanguard of a major deployment to the Southeast Asian country as Washington and its allies mount a coordinated response to Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea.

The U.S. and the Philippines began joint patrols of the South China Sea last month, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday on a visit to the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally that is among the five governments whose territorial claims overlap with China’s in those waters.

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“In the South China Sea, China’s actions…are causing anxiety and raising regional tensions,” Mr. Carter told reporters at the Philippines’ presidential palace, where he met President Benigno Aquino III. The U.S. deployment is designed “to tamp down tensions here” and wouldn’t provoke a showdown with Beijing, he said.

China’s Defense Ministry strenuously objected, saying the latest U.S.-Philippines military cooperation would exacerbate tensions. It said the joint-patrol plan “promotes the militarization of the region” and called the strengthened military alliance and joint exercises “the embodiment of Cold War thinking and not conducive to peace and stability in the South China Sea.”

The U.S. and the Philippines have been holding 10 days of joint drills that end Friday. Mr. Carter said five American A-10 Thunderbolt ground-attack jets, three H-60G Pavehawk helicopters and one MC-130H Combat Talon special forces infiltration aircraft will remain behind at Clark Air Base north of Manila along with 200 crew members.

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Since the start of the U.S. “pivot” to Asia early in the Obama administration, the Pentagon has moved to beef up its presence in the region to counter China’s rising military power, including with additional personnel, ships and aircraft. U.S. officials have said that by 2020, 60% of the Navy’s ships and aircraft will be deployed to the Pacific, up from about half before the rebalance.

“We’re sending our most advanced warfighting platforms to the region, including multi-mission ballistic missile defense-capable ships, submarines, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft,” a Navy spokesman said.

The Air Force has deployed three B-2 Spirit bombers this spring with plans to integrate with other nations’ air operations in the region. “This deployment will ensure bomber crews maintain a high state of readiness and crew proficiency and will provide opportunities to integrate capabilities with key regional partners,” an Air Force official said.

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The U.S. last year resumed performing what it termed freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea to challenge China’s claims. But those patrols won’t count for much if the U.S. fails to prevent China from fortifying Scarborough Shoal, said Gregory Poling of the Center for International and Strategic Studies, a U.S. think tank.

In recent days, the Obama administration has faced calls from Sen. John McCain (R., Az.) and others to offer explicit guarantees to defend the Philippines in the face of Chinese assertiveness.

“The pressure is building up from the Senate and within the Pentagon towards an explicit American guarantee that Scarborough Shoal falls within the Philippine-U.S. mutual defense treaty, thus providing a pretext for a more robust American pushback,” said Richard Javad Heydarian, a regional-security specialist at Manila’s De La Salle University.

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confusion said:

State Department spokesperson Mark Toner's response to reporter questions about reports of the Philippines restarting construction on Thitu Island - it's interesting that some reporters are asking tough questions, but don't follow that up when they write articles:

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confusion said:

US-Philippines joint patrols, some troop stationing plans; stationing the A-10s at Clark is clearly aimed at Scarborough Shoal.

Also love this last line: “The pressure is building up from the Senate and within the Pentagon towards an explicit American guarantee that Scarborough Shoal falls within the Philippine-U.S. mutual defense treaty, thus providing a pretext for a more robust American pushback,”

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SamuraiBlue said:

The problem with PRC's claim is that no rock or reef can independently be claimed sovereignty soil because no reef or rock can sustain human occupation therefore administration is not possible without entering another nation's EEZ first making the rock or reef a part of the nation's that claims EEZ surrounding the rock or reef.

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confusion said:

State Department spokesperson Mark Toner's response to reporter questions about reports of the Philippines restarting construction on Thitu Island - it's interesting that some reporters are asking tough questions, but don't follow that up when they write articles:

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SamuraiBlue said:

The problem with PRC's claim is that no rock or reef can independently be claimed sovereignty soil because no reef or rock can sustain human occupation therefore administration is not possible without entering another nation's EEZ first making the rock or reef a part of the nation's that claims EEZ surrounding the rock or reef.

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confusion said:

US-Philippines joint patrols, some troop stationing plans; stationing the A-10s at Clark is clearly aimed at Scarborough Shoal.

Also love this last line: “The pressure is building up from the Senate and within the Pentagon towards an explicit American guarantee that Scarborough Shoal falls within the Philippine-U.S. mutual defense treaty, thus providing a pretext for a more robust American pushback,”

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confusion said:

US-Philippines joint patrols, some troop stationing plans; stationing the A-10s at Clark is clearly aimed at Scarborough Shoal.

Also love this last line: “The pressure is building up from the Senate and within the Pentagon towards an explicit American guarantee that Scarborough Shoal falls within the Philippine-U.S. mutual defense treaty, thus providing a pretext for a more robust American pushback,”

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PanAsian said:

Except Taiping island can obviously sustain human occupation.

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SamuraiBlue said:

Which has nothing to do with the Philippines and is presently being administered by Taiwan from the end of WW2 when Japan forfeited administration to comply with the SF Peace treaty.
One island does not cover all the disputes in the region.

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The South China Sea:
Assessing U.S. Policy and Options
for the Future
Michael McDevitt
November 2014

Japan claimed and occupied all of the features in the South China Sea from
1939 onward and placed them under the jurisdiction of the governor general
of Taiwan. It renounced these claims in the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty;
however, unfortunately, the renunciation documents did not also entail
devolution or the reversion of territory to any previous owner or claimant.

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The presidential bet says leaving the issue of ownership behind can lead to a better deal with China if there is no progress with the international case being pursued by the Philippine/

Rodrigo Duterte, the front-runner of the presidential race, said that if the case drags on too long, say for 3 years, or if China refuses to abide by the decision, the practical next step is to “make deals.”

“If the negotiation is not being done, or it is in still waters until now, maybe 3 years from now, I have to talk. You know, you have a problem, you have to make deals,” he said in Cainta on Tuesday, April 12.

One way to begin the process of bilateral talks, or one-on-one negotiations with China, he said, is to leave behind the discussion of who owns the disputed areas of the West Philippine Sea.

“We will not insist on the ownership for the simple reason that we cannot enforce our desire to own,” said Duterte on Thursday, April 15.

The Mindanaoan presidential bet has previously said he is

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of the area with China, even saying that if the Philippines cannot put up the capital to conduct the exploration, he would be happy if

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for the country instead.

'Won't surrender' West PH Sea

But Duterte also insists he will not relinquish the Philippines’ sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea.

“I have told you before, that piece of water there is ours. Dapat maintindihan ng China ‘yan (China should understand that). I will never, ever surrender sovereignty over that area,” he said in Cainta.

Is not insisting on ownership of the West Philippine Sea not tantamount to giving up sovereign rights?

At this point, his running mate Alan Peter Cayetano stepped in to explain that there is no contradiction.

“There’s no conflict. You have joint exploration without giving up sovereignty. It’s like you told your neighbor, ‘let’s not talk about who owns that but let’s split the profits.’ There are legal formulas around the world recognized by the US, accepting that,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.

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“We will wait for America. They’re always conducting joint exercises here. I will not commit Filipino soldiers,” said Duterte.

Cayetano explained, “If we win the arbitration case, the Mutual Defense Treaty kicks in. Right now, the US is saying they will stand by us but it’s not categorical that the territory is ours. If we win, we can now tell US, [China] is invading us so they can now step in.”

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But what appears to be a non-negotiable for Duterte is his refusal to go to war with China.

“If there will be a war, the battleground would be the Philippines. The first to be hit would be Palawan. I am not ready for that,” he said.

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