South China Sea Strategies for other nations (Not China)

confusion said:

More illegal fishing by Vietnamese fishermen, this time around Pratas Islands.

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A U.S. guided missile destroyer came within 12 nautical miles of a contested Chinese artificial island in the Spratly Island chain in the South China Sea on Tuesday, U.S. officials told USNI News on Tuesday morning.

USS William P. Lawrence (DDG-110) conducted a freedom of navigation operation past the Chinese installation on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Island chain, according to a U.S. Defense Department statement.

The FON op was conducted to, “challenge excessive maritime claims by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam which were seeking to restrict navigation rights in the South China Sea. This operation challenged attempts by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam to restrict navigation rights around the features they claim, specifically that these three claimants purport to require prior permission or notification of transits through the territorial sea, contrary to international law,” Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban told USNI News.
“These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all States are entitled to exercise. No claimants were notified prior to the transit, which is consistent with our normal process and international law.”

Chinese officials were quick to condemn Lawrence’s passage past the installation built on reclaimed land on Fiery Cross. The Chinese have built a 10,000-foot runway on the island that could easily accommodate military aircraft.

“This action by the U.S. side threatened China’s sovereignty and security interests, endangered the staff and facilities on the reef, and damaged regional peace and stability,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang told reporters on Tuesday.

The operation is the third U.S. South China Sea FON op conducted past a Chinese held South China Sea installations since the U.S. resumed conducting regular freedom of navigation operations in the region October.

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in the Paracel Island chain near Vietnam. In late October, USS Lassen (DDG-84) conducted a FON op past the

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.

The U.S. presence in the South China Sea has been higher in recent weeks. The John C. Stennis carrier strike group (CSG) – to which William Lawrence is attached – has quietly been operating in the South China Sea. Additionally, U.S. Air Force A-10 Warthogs operating from the Philippines have conducted maritime patrols near the disputed Scarborough Shoal — claimed by both China and the Philippines.

The following is the May 10, 2016 statement from the Pentagon on the FON op.

The Department of Defense conducted a routine freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea on the morning of May 10 (evening of May 9 in the U.S.), specifically in the vicinity of Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands, to uphold the rights and freedoms of all States under international law and to challenge excessive maritime claims of some claimants in the South China Sea.

During this operation, USS William P. Lawrence (DDG-110) exercised the right of innocent passage while transiting inside 12 nautical miles of Fiery Cross Reef, a high-tide feature that is occupied by China, but also claimed by the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. This operation challenged attempts by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam to restrict navigation rights around the features they claim, specifically that these three claimants purport to require prior permission or notification of transits through the territorial sea, contrary to international law. Because the Philippines’ maritime claims in relation to South China Sea features do not purport to restrict the exercise of navigation rights and freedoms under the Law of the Sea by the United States and others, they were not challenged during this operation.

These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all States are entitled to exercise. No claimants were notified prior to the transit, which is consistent with our normal process and international law.

This operation demonstrates, as President Obama has stated, that the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows. That is true in the South China Sea as in other places around the globe.

Since 1979, the U.S. Freedom of Navigation program has demonstrated non-acquiescence to excessive maritime claims by coastal States all around the world. The program includes both consultations and representations by U.S. diplomats and operational activities by U.S. military forces.

This operation did not challenge territorial claims to land features. The United States takes no position on competing territorial sovereignty claims among the parties to naturally formed land features in the South China Sea.

The United States does, however, take a strong position on protecting and upholding the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all countries and that all maritime claims must comply with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention.

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A Taiwanese group has intervened in the Philippines’ international court case against Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea, pressing Taipei’s position that Taiwan is entitled to a swathe of the disputed waterway as an economic zone.

The unusual submission has emerged just as judges at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague are poised to rule on the Philippines’ landmark case, brought under the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The move could delay the judges’ ruling, now expected within two months, and potentially complicates worsening territorial disputes across the vital trade route.

Last month, the judges allowed written evidence from the government-linked Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law, even though Taiwan is neither a member of the United Nations, nor a signatory to UNCLOS, legal and diplomatic sources said.

As well as reviewing several hundred pages of evidence from Taiwan, the judges have also sought further information from Manila and Beijing, legal sources said.

Manila is challenging the legality of China’s claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, in part by arguing that no reefs, atolls or islets in the Spratly archipelago can legally be considered islands, and therefore cannot bestow rights to an 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone.

Taiwan’s single holding of Itu Aba is the biggest feature in the Spratlys and the one some analysts believe has the strongest claim to island status and an economic zone. The Spratlys are also claimed by Beijing, Vietnam and Malaysia while Brunei claims nearby waters.

Taiwanese officials have bristled at Philippines’ earlier evidence that Itu Aba is a “rock” that cannot support natural human habitation, so has no claims on either island-status, or an EEZ.

Citing various government reports and statements as evidence, the society’s submission to the court states “it is clear that Taiping Island [Itu Aba] is an island which can sustain human habitation and economic life of its own under....UNCLOS.”

The Taiwanese move comes amid rising tensions, with Beijing and Washington accusing each other of militarising the area as Beijing builds facilities on its recent reef reclamations and the US increases patrols, exercises and overflights.

Reiterating Beijing’s non-acceptance of the case, China’s Foreign Ministry said the Philippines was using the case to negate China’s territorial sovereignty.

“Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait all have a responsibility to jointly protect the ancestral property of the Chinese people,” the ministry said.

While the society is technically operating as a private body, it has close ties to Taipei, including President Ma Ying-jeou, who once headed the institution and remains on the board.

Ma staged a high-profile visit to Itu Aba in late January – one of several events orchestrated by Taiwan to push its claimed status as an island.

A spokesman for Ma said the submission was not made on behalf of the Taiwan government, but its findings were consistent with Taipei’s official stance.

While the society’s arguments might aid China’s position, Beijing is likely to be wary of any move by the judges to bolster Taiwan’s standing in the international community, analysts said.

Chinese officials have repeatedly challenged the court’s jurisdiction and the rights of the Philippines to bring the case, refusing to participate.

Beijing has ignored invitations from the court to provide its own submission, but the judges have taken into account Chinese public statements, according to court releases.

Taiwan, regarded by Beijing as a breakaway province, was not invited to participate in any way. Vietnam has provided a submission in support of Philippines’ arguments that the court has jurisdiction.

Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, said it was significant the judges’ had consented to review Taiwan’s arguments.

“It demonstrates that the judges are striving to be impartial, and that they have been at pains to take into account the views of all the concerned parties, even China, which has refused to participate, and Taiwan, which isn’t a member of the UN,” he said.

While China wouldn’t like the court giving Taiwan “international space”, on this issue “Beijing may decide to look the other way”, he said.

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MANILA/DAVAO, PHILIPPINES – Rodrigo Duterte said Monday that if he becomes Philippine president he would call for multilateral talks to resolve disputes over the South China Sea, which should include the United States and Japan as well as rival claimants.

Duterte also said China should respect the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the waters off its coast and, instead of facing off, the two countries could work together in exploiting offshore oil and gas as joint-venture partners.

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Deino said:

Was this already posted ??? If YES, then I'm sorry ... if not, then it's an interesting read !

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But this is not an activity limited to the South China Sea. Japan lays claim to an uninhabited atoll called Okinotori-shima, about 1700km south of Tokyo, again well outside anything remotely approaching Japanese territorial waters. The Japanese government has spent billions of dollars creating an artificial concrete “island”, about 1.5 metres above sea level, on which it has created a research station. The surrounding area is of considerable economic and military significance, which provides a clear insight into Japanese motives.

The merits or otherwise of Japan’s claim are outside the scope of this article. The significance is that Japan’s activities, identical in nature to the activities of China in the South China Sea, have attracted no adverse comment from either Australia or the United States.

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The second rhetorical element fostered by the United States and Australia is that China’s activities threaten “freedom of navigation” in waters that carry at least $5 trillion worth of world trade each year.

It is correct that the South China Sea is an important waterway for international shipping trade, but there are at least three major elements to that which are largely ignored by the western media in making inflated claims about potential threats to freedom of navigation.

The first is that, contrary to the claims made by Australia’s 2015 Defence White Paper, only about 20% of Australia’s trade with Asia passes through the South China Sea, and most of that is heading to and from China. Most of the Asia bound maritime traffic in fact passes to the east of Singapore and the Philippines.

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The promotion of those partnerships has not been aided by outside interference. In October 2008 for example, Taiwan announced that it intended to co-operate with the PRC to develop oil and gas reserves in both the East China and the South China Seas. The United States used its influence in Taipei to kill that initiative.

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If the western rhetoric is patently false and self-serving, what then are the real motives for increased military activity by the United States and its allies, including Australia, in the South China Sea?

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Well, here’s a bit of important news. Air Force magazine drops that the U.S. Air Force A-10 Warthogs recently deployed to the Philippines

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their mission there after flying just four missions over international waters and carrying out two dozen training missions. During a visit to the Philippines in April, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that the Warthogs would hang around for a little while after exercising with Philippine forces. The mag also reports that the Air Force is planning follow up the hogs’ visit with the arrival of an “advanced fighter jet,” which may just be the

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. Washington recently reached a basing agreement for U.S. forces as the island nation grows wary of Chinese territorial claims in its backyard.

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HANOI • Vietnam hosts a defense symposium this week attended by top American arms manufacturers, ahead of a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama and as Washington weighs whether to lift an arms embargo on its former enemy.

Secrecy has surrounded the event staged by the communist country and attended by firms including Boeing and Lockheed Martin. It coincides with the biggest arms buildup in the country since the Vietnam War.

There has been no mention in state-controlled media and defense reporters are not covering the forum. Efforts by Reuters to gain permission to attend have been unsuccessful and Vietnam's defense ministry could not be reached for comment.

Vietnam has accelerated efforts to build a military deterrent and is the world's eighth largest weapons importer, as neighbor China intensifies its push to fortify South China Sea islands it has either occupied or built from scratch.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think-tank, which tracks defense trade over five-year periods, Vietnam's total arms imports during 2011-2015 represented a 699 percent jump from 2006-2010.

The Hanoi symposium comes amid debate within the U.S. administration over whether to respond to Vietnam's longstanding request to remove an arms embargo that is one of the last major vestiges of the Vietnam War era.

Washington eased the embargo in late 2014, but has said any decision to lift it completely would hinge on the extent to which Vietnam has demonstrated progress in improving its human rights record. Its top envoy in that field, Tom Malinowski, was in Hanoi earlier this week.

Vietnam has been in talks with Western and U.S. arms manufacturers for several years now to boost its fleets of fighter jets, helicopters and maritime patrol aircraft, although Russia, its traditional supplier, maintains a dominant position.

Industry sources say Hanoi is keen on U.S. weapons yet wary of the threat of a future embargo even if the current one ends. The countries do have a common concern in China, however, whose assertiveness in the South China Sea has alarmed Washington.

Obama is due to start his Vietnam visit on May 22, the first by a U.S. president in a decade, underlining the rapidly warming relationship between the countries at a time of testy ties and growing mistrust between Hanoi and Beijing, which have competing claims to the Paracel and Spratly islands.

MODERNIZATION NEEDS
A spokesman for Lockheed Martin confirmed the company was attending the Hanoi event.

Boeing is also attending, although the firm made it clear it was not in contravention of the embargo.

"I would like to point out that any defense-related sales to Vietnam will follow development of U.S. government policy on Vietnam," a spokesman said.

"We believe Boeing has capabilities in mobility and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance platforms that may meet Vietnam's modernisation needs."

Those needs have included the purchase of six modern Kilo-class submarines from Russia equipped with Klub cruise missiles, Russian-built S-300 surface-to-air missile batteries, and from Israel, Galil assault rifles and AD-STAR 2888 radars.

Its navy is making Tarantul-class corvettes, known as Molniyas, modeled on Russian designs and equipped with 16 missiles with a range of 130 km (80 miles).

Though the communist parties that run China and Vietnam officially have brotherly ties, experts say Beijing's brinkmanship has forced Vietnam to recalibrate its defense strategy.

A report in the defense ministry's People's Army Newspaper Online in March quoted the vice defense minister, Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, as saying Vietnam's relationship with the United States lacked defense industry cooperation, and Hanoi wanted Washington "to provide modern, suitable and adaptable technology."

Its outreach so far has been weighted towards Russia, India and Israel in procurements, but analysts say it is unlikely to seek formal military alliances and would stick to its foreign policy of not relying on a single power.

It has, however, mulled joint exercises with another South China Sea claimant at odds with China, the Philippines, and has received recent visits by Singaporean and Japanese warships at its new international port at Cam Ranh Bay, a strategic deepwater base that is home to its submarines.

Tim Huxley, a regional security expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore, said Vietnam's interest in getting the arms embargo lifted was not only about access to U.S. technology, but boosting its bargaining power.

"It reflects concern about what's happening in the South China Sea and its need to restructure and re-arm, with a greater emphasis on greater naval and air capability," he said.

"It wants to widen options available and have more choices in the international market place in terms of range of technology and its negotiating position."

Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi.

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The Municipality of Kalayaan, the local government administering Spratly Group of Islands in West Philippine Sea, has a new mayor in person of Choy del Mundo. Del Mundo (142 votes) won the three-way fight against incumbent Mayor Eugenio Bito-Onon (59) and Rodrigo Jaca (28), all independent candidates.

The seat of local government of Kalayaan is in Pag-asa Island.

It is also worth noting that President-elect Rodrigo Duterte got the most votes in the said municipality with 71 votes, followed by Grace Poe with 69, Mar Roxas with 41, Jojo Binay with 17, and Miriam Santiago with 7.

Though the official counting of votes for the presidential and vice presidential positions is yet to start, probably a day or two after the Congress resumes session on May 23, two of Duterte’s major rivals Grace Poe and Mar Roxas have accepted defeat.

Voting in the Municipality of Kalayaan in the contested West Philippine Sea finished early last May 9, according to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC)-Palawan.

Shortly before 3:00 p.m., polls in the island town concluded with 237 registered voters casting their ballots out of a total of 335. This was despite two vote counting machine (VCM) units malfunctioning shortly before noontime.

Elections in the town is always expected to end early as it only has one voting precinct.

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(The Philippine Star) | Updated May 11, 2016 - 12:00am

Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon Jr. said he is now preparing to turn over the reins of the island town to winner Roberto del Mundo of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA). Philstar.com/File

MANILA, Philippines – By a margin of 83 votes, two-term Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon Jr. of the municipality of Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) in the Spratlys lost his bid for re-election in a three-cornered fight in the May 9 elections.

“I lost to my opponent by a wide margin,” Bito-onon, a candidate of the ruling Liberal Party, told The STAR by telephone.

He said he is now preparing to turn over the reins of the island town to winner Roberto del Mundo of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

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