South China/West Philippine Sea

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

http://news.yahoo.com/china-says-japan-39-39-hype-39-air-022304706--sector.html

 

 

China says Japan's 'hype' on air defence zone spreads tension

http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg 17 hours ago BEIJING (Reuters) - China does not feel threatened by countries in Southeast Asia and is optimistic about the situation in the disputed South China Sea, the Foreign Ministry said, warning Japan not to "spread rumors" it plans a new air defense identification zone. China alarmed Japan, South Korea and the United States last year when it announced an air defense identification zone for the East China Sea, covering a group of uninhabited islands at the center of a bitter ownership spat between China and Japan.

 

Last week, Japanese newspaper the Asahi Shimbun said China was considering setting up a similar zone - where foreign aircraft are supposed to report their movements to China - in the South China Sea, prompting the U.S. State Department to warn against such a move.

 

In a statement released late on Saturday, China's Foreign Ministry implied there was no need for such a zone in the South China Sea, where China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan all have competing claims.

 

"Generally speaking, China does not feel there is an air security threat from ASEAN countries," the ministry said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

 

"China feels optimistic about relations with countries surrounding the South China Sea and the general situation in the South China Sea," the ministry said, adding it believed prospects for ties with ASEAN were "bright".

 

While the ministry said China had a right to set up air defense identification zones which nobody should criticize, it criticized Japan for attempting to distract attention from Japan's own military plans.

 

"Right wing forces in Japan have again been hyping up so-called plans that China will shortly set up an air defense identification zone in the South China Sea, which is purely to try and distract international attention, to cover up their conspiracy to ... expand their military," the ministry said.

 

"We warn these forces not to delude people with rumors for their own selfish interests and play up tensions, and hope the relevant party talks and acts cautiously," it added.

 

Ties have been strained by a recent visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a controversial shrine for war dead, China's East China Sea air defense zone and the long-running dispute over a string of islets both countries claim, known as the Diaoyu in Chinese and the Senkaku in Japanese.

 

China, which is swiftly ramping up military spending, has regularly dispatched patrols to the East China Sea since it established the defense zone.

 

China has repeatedly denied Japanese accusations of being a threat to peace, saying it is Japan which is the threat, warning that Tokyo is trying to rearm and has failed to learn the lessons from its brutal behavior during World War Two.

 

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

 

 

 

[maxiev]

May be of some interest to those reading this thread...

 

http://news.yahoo.com/us-vows-defend-japan-against-china-185432324.html

 

US vows to defend Japan against China

 

 

By Shaun Tandon

February 7, 2014 3:31 PM

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry ® and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida walk after their private bilateral meeting on Feburary 7, 2014 at the US Department of State in Washington

 

Washington (AFP) - Secretary of State John Kerry vowed Friday that the United States would defend Japan against attack including over islands claimed by China as tensions boil between the Asian powers.

 

Kerry, who said he would visit China next week, met in Washington with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and reaffirmed the 1960 treaty that commits the United States to protect its ally.

 

"That includes with respect to the South China Sea," he said, before correcting himself to say the East China Sea, where China and Japan have conflicting claims.

 

Fears of conflict rose in November when China imposed an Air Defense Identification Zone over much of the East China Sea.

 

Beijing says it now requires notification from planes crossing a group of islands administered by Tokyo, known in Japanese as the Senkaku and in Chinese as Diaoyu.

 

"The United States neither recognizes nor accepts China's declared East China Sea ADIZ and the United States has no intention of changing how we conduct operations in the region," Kerry said.

 

 

The United States and its allies are increasingly concerned China will take similar action in the South China Sea, where the Philippines in particular has voiced worries about Beijing's maritime claims.

 

Kishida, for his part, extended an invitation for President Barack Obama to make a state visit to Japan.

 

Diplomats say Obama is likely to visit Japan on an April tour of Asia, although Kerry is not expected to stop in Tokyo on his upcoming trip.

 

Kishida was visiting Washington after a rare open disagreement between the two allies.

 

The United States voiced disappointment in December when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, known for his conservative views, paid a pilgrimage to the Yasukuni shrine which honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead including convicted war criminals from World War II.

 

Abe's visit outraged China and also fellow US ally South Korea. Both countries frequently accuse Japan of insufficient remorse for its aggression a century ago.

 

Kishida told Kerry that Japan valued its relationship with South Korea despite their "difficult issues," saying the two democracies needed to work together in the face of nuclear-armed North Korea.

 

"Going forward, we will make tenacious efforts in order to build a cooperative relationship with the Republic of Korea from a broad perspective," Kishida said.

 

Kishida also highlighted progress under Abe in relocating the Futenma air base within the island of Okinawa -- an issue that has cast a pall for years over defense ties between the two countries.

 

Kerry, in turn, praised Japan for addressing another longtime sore point by ratifying the Hague convention that sets procedures for the return of children abducted by one parent across international boundaries.

 

Kerry's latest trip to Asia comes as critics charge that his focus in his year in office on the Middle East has left US allies in Asia in want of a more robust presence by Washington.

 

Kerry said he was committed to the goal set in President Barack Obama's first term of putting a greater US focus on Asia, and said the strategy was impossible without "ironclad guarantees" between the United States and Japan.

[maxiev]

http://news.yahoo.com/philippines-says-china-fired-water-cannon-disputed-shoal-073936481.html

 

Philippines says China fired water cannon at disputed shoal

 

Manila (AFP) - The Philippines' military chief on Monday accused China's coast guard of firing water cannons at Filipino fishermen for the first time to drive them away from a disputed sea shoal.

 

General Emmanuel Bautista said Chinese vessels fired cannon on January 27 near Scarborough Shoal -- the subject of a bitter territorial row in the strategically important South China Sea.

 

"The Chinese coast guard tried to drive away Filipino fishing vessels to the extent of using water cannon," Bautista told a forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

 

He did not say if anyone was hurt and added that China continues to maintain an armed coast guard and other vessels at the shoal.

 

Chinese embassy spokesmen could not be contacted for comment.

 

Scarborough Shoal lies 220 kilometres (135 miles) off the main Philippine island of Luzon. It is about 650 kilometres from Hainan island, the nearest major Chinese land mass.

 

In April 2012, the Philippines and China had a tense standoff which ended with the former retreating from the shoal -- a rich fishing area.

 

China has occupied the shoal as part of its claim to most of the South China Sea including waters near the coasts of its neighbours.

 

The Philippines, along with Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also have competing claims to parts of the sea, and the rivalries have been a source of tension for decades.

 

The South China Sea is one of the world's most important waterways as it is home to vital shipping lanes and is believed to sit atop lucrative deposits of natural resources.

 

Last year, Manila asked a United Nations arbitration tribunal to rule on the validity of China's claim to most of the sea, but Beijing has refused to be part of the process.

 

"We continue to give primacy to its (the dispute's) peaceful resolution principally through international arbitration," Bautista said.

 

"All our actions are in support to that. We remain hopeful that the issue can be resolved peacefully and result in peace and stability in the region."

 

He added too that "our resolve to perform our mandate as protectors of the people and the state and of our national territory" had not been weakened.

 

"We will continue to perform that mandate with whatever we've got," he said, adding that the country was in the first phase of modernising its poorly-equipped armed forces.

[Larry]

we should hire somali pirates to just wreck sh1t with the chinese while they're there

[Bugatti Veyron]

we should hire somali pirates to just wreck sh1t with the chinese while they're there

[tk421]

we should hire somali pirates to just wreck sh1t with the chinese while they're there

 

What for? We have the Abu Sayyaf right here...

[Larry]

What for? We have the Abu Sayyaf right here...

 

AS is a land based species bro

 

or amphibian at best.

[boibastos]

we should hire somali pirates to just wreck sh1t with the chinese while they're there

 

Somali pirates are two bit amateurs. You want to send a strong message that we really mean business by sending our politicians instead.

 

C'mon guys. Don't make us call "sexy" and "pogi".

Edited February 27, 2014 by boibastos

[Larry]

those bitches can't fight worth a lick.

[Ryuji_tanaka]

those bitches can't fight worth a lick.

two words: human shields

note: iam using the word human very very loosely.

 

 

[maxiev]

two words: human shields

note: iam using the word human very very loosely.

How about target practice.

[Bugatti Veyron]

two words: human shields

note: iam using the word human very very loosely.

Perhaps "inhuman" shields is a more appropriate term.....

[Bugatti Veyron]

http://news.yahoo.com/philippines-protests-china-stopping-troop-resupply-081642697.html

 

 

 

 

Philippines protests China stopping troop resupply

 

By OLIVER TEVES 5 hours ago

 

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Chinese coast guard prevented delivery of supplies to Filipino soldiers guarding a disputed shoal in the South China Sea and an envoy rejected a Philippine protest over the interference, officials said Tuesday.Chinese ships prevented two Filipino civilian vessels hired by the Philippine navy from reaching Second Thomas Shoal on Sunday, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The shoal is called Ayungin Shoal by Manila and Ren'ai Reef by the Chinese.

 

"Ayungin Shoal is part of the continental shelf of the Philippines and therefore, the Philippines is entitled to exercise sovereignty rights and jurisdiction in the area without the permission of other states," the statement said.

 

China's actions "constitute a clear and urgent threat to the rights and interests of the Philippines" under the Law of the Sea, it added.

 

Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said the resupply was a routine activity that hasn't been interrupted by the Chinese in the past.

 

"For 15 years we have conducted regular resupply missions and personnel rotation without interference from China," he said.

 

He said the Chinese ships used digital signs, sirens and megaphones in ordering the Filipino vessels to leave. The Filipinos returned to Palawan, the nearest Philippine province east of the Shoal.

 

China's charge d'affaires was summoned and handed the protest note. Hernandez said that as in the past, Beijing rejected the protest.

 

Less than a month ago, Manila also protested a Chinese water cannon attack on Filipino fisherman near another disputed shoal. No one was injured in the Jan. 27 incident at the Scarborough Shoal off the country's main island of Luzon in the north.

 

The Filipino troops awaiting fresh supplies are stationed on a decrepit military hospital ship that ran aground in 1999 on the shallow coral outcrop of the Second Thomas Shoal. The rusty ship has since become the symbol of the country's sovereignty over the area.

 

China has been demanding the removal of the ship, claiming that the area is part of Chinese territory.

 

Department of National Defense spokesman Peter Paul Galvez said "the Chinese coast guard ships blocked our two vessels which were en route to Ayungin to reprovision" the troops. He did not give other details.

 

The Chinese did not block Philippine marines and supplies to the station last June, a month after the deployment of Chinese ships to the area that also prompted diplomatic protests from Manila.

 

China's official Xinhua news agency on Monday quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang as saying that the two Philippine ships were loaded with construction materials and were driven away by Chinese coast guard vessels as they approached the shoal.

 

"China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters including the Ren'ai Reef," Qin said.

 

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea. Nansha is the Chinese name for the Spratlys, a chain of resource-rich islands, islets and reefs claimed partly or wholly by China, Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

 

 

 

[sonnyt111]

http://news.yahoo.com/philippines-rejects-chinese-demand-remove-ship-111738256.html

 

 

Philippines rejects Chinese demand to remove ship

http://l.yimg.com/os/152/2012/04/21/image001-png_162613.png By TERESA CEROJANO 8 hours ago 0 shares MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines on Friday rejected a Chinese demand that it remove a grounded navy ship from a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, saying the vessel is a permanent government outpost.

 

China's coast guard prevented two Philippine civilian vessels from delivering supplies to the rusting ship at Second Thomas Shoal on Sunday, escalating tensions in the area. The Philippines and the U.S. have called Beijing's action provocative. The shoal is called Ayungin in the Philippines and Ren'ai Reef in China.

 

The ship "was placed in Ayungin Shoal in 1999 to serve as a permanent Philippine government installation in response to China's illegal occupation of Mischief Reef in 1995," Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said in a statement Friday. Mischief Reef is another Philippine-claimed outcropping in the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea.

 

"The Philippines reiterates that Ayungin Shoal is part of its continental shelf over which the Philippines has sovereign rights and jurisdiction," Hernandez said.

 

Philippine officials have previously said the military hospital ship ran aground in 1999 on the shallow coral reef and could not be removed because of a lack of funds and capability. Friday's statement was the first acknowledgement that the ship was deliberately sent to the shoal as a government outpost.

 

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea, resource-rich waters where other neighboring nations also have claims.

 

On Thursday, a Philippine security official said the navy would send supplies on other vessels to the soldiers stationed on the grounded ship because the men were running short of food and water. The official, who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media, did not say when the supplies would be dispatched.

 

He said a small navy plane had dropped several days' worth of drinking water to the troops.

 

"It's not that we're trying to court China's ire," he said. "We do not want to starve our people to death."

 

 

 

[lomex32]

Everyone place your bets on the table