News Report: Not All See China’s Great Power Diplomacy as Huge Success

Chinese President Xi Jinping

William Ide

BEIJING — Analysts say China’s foreign policy achievements are likely to be a key focus next month when the Communist Party hosts a crucial once-in-five-year leadership meeting. But don’t expect China’s leaders to say much about the challenges and setbacks they’ve faced since Xi Jinping came to power, even though a growing number of some scholars here are doing just that.

Since Xi began assuming leadership in China in 2012, the world’s second largest economy has been rapidly expanding its global footprint and influence. Beijing is engaging and seeking to play a more prominent role in international affairs, while laying out its own initiatives, such as the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank and the near trillion-dollar trade program, the Belt and Road.

Xi has visited nearly 30 countries, five continents and championed what some here call “Great Power Diplomacy." He has also been advocating what he calls the “China Solution,” Beijing’s proposals and answers to the world’s toughest problems.

The foreign policy focus is so important that some analysts say China’s need to play a more central role in global affairs is likely to be added to the communist party’s constitution during the meeting, along with other changes.

State media recently released a six-party series ahead of the 19th Party Congress on “Great Power Diplomacy.” Advocates of that idea, argue that as a rising great power, China should do what it feels is right anytime and whenever it wishes.

News Story: 5 years after nationalizing Senkakus, Japan still looking for solutions with China

As the Japanese and Chinese governments both show signs of working to repair relations, the territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands remains a delicate issue as Japan marked the fifth year since its nationalization of the islets in Okinawa Prefecture.

"There is no doubt both historically and under international law that the Senkaku Islands are a part of Japan's territory," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga at a press conference held on the fifth anniversary of the nationalization of the islands on Sept. 11. Of the Chinese government ships that repeatedly sail into Japanese waters around the islands in protest, Suga said, "The repeated incursion into our territorial waters is truly regrettable. We would like to handle the situation firmly and calmly."

After Japan nationalized the Senkakus, incursions into the waters around the Senkaku Islands by China Coast Guard ships became regular, and in November 2013, the Chinese government designated an air defense identification zone as guidelines for scrambling fighter jets in the East China Sea that included the airspace above the islands. Since then, Chinese government ships -- remodeled naval vessels -- also began appearing in the waters nearby, and in June 2016, the Chinese military sailed a naval ship into the contiguous zone near the Senkaku Islands for the first time.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Story: China poised to achieve air supremacy over 'first island chain'

Click Image to Enlarge

MANILA, Philippines — China has demonstrated its ability to gain air supremacy over areas of the "first island chain" as it continues its military buildup in the region, according to a report from Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND).

The "first island chain" covers major archipelagos on the East Asian continental coast including the northern Philippines, the Kuril Islands, the Japanese archipelago, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan and Borneo.

Focus Taiwan News Channel reported that Chinese bombers and fighter jets have been crossing the "first island chain" regularly, challenging US military presence in the Asia Pacific region.

Beijing has been conducting far-sea training and using its operational aircraft carrier to gradually increase its ability to take over the Taiwan Strait, the Taiwanese MND reported.

To strengthen its preparedness against Taiwan, the Chinese People's Liberation Army had been holding land drills to seize Taiwan's offshore islands, the report said.

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Report: Chinese Jets Intercepted US Military Plane Over E. China Sea

A Chinese Air Force J-10 Fighter Aircraft (File Photo)

Two Chinese fighter jets intercepted an American surveillance aircraft over the East China Sea, U.S. officials said Monday. The incident happened over the weekend.

Two U.S. military officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that one of the Chinese J-10 fighter jets flew directly in front of the U.S. Navy EP-3, forcing the American aircraft to take "evasive action" to avoid a collision. One of the Chinese jets was armed.

The American reconnaissance plane was conducting normal operations over international waters 80 nautical miles from the Chinese city of Qingdao when the incident occurred.

Such incidents are becoming increasingly common around China's coastline. In May, Chinese fighter jets intercepted a U.S. plane designed to detect radiation as it flew over international waters.

This story first appeared on Voice of America & is reposted here with permission.

News Story: "No-fly zone in South China Sea" a fabrication

BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The deployment of armaments on southern China's Hainan Island is within the country's sovereign right and the so-called no-fly zone is entirely fabricated by Japanese media, according to a spokesperson with the Ministry of National Defense Thursday.

Ren Guoqiang made the remarks in response to a question on a Japanese report that "China is apparently beginning to build a no-fly zone in the South China Sea," for the deployment of a HQ-9 surface-to-air missile air defense system on Hainan Island.

"I was surprised at the large scale of the fabrication," Ren said.

Read the full story at Xinhua

Think Tank: Sea, air, land and space updates (23'May-2017)

Zoe Glasson, Sophie Qin, Madeleine Nyst and Patrick Kennedy

Sea State

At last week’s International Maritime Security Conference in Singapore, Rear Admiral Lai Chung Han, Singapore’s Navy chief, announced a number of initiatives designed to promote regional submarine operational safety, including a US$7.1m upgrade to the RSN’s submarine rescue ship. The MV Swift Rescue is the only ship in Southeast Asia with the capability to conduct ‘collective rescue and transfer of distressed submariners while under pressure’. Singapore’s Defence Ministry has warned submarine proliferation would increase the risk of ‘miscalculations at sea’—it said the number of submarines in the western Pacific is projected to rise from 200 to 250 within eight years, with China alone set to grow its fleet from 62 to 78 by 2020.

Fancy building the US Navy of 2046? An app developed by CSIS lets you try your hand at just that! Integrating Navy budget data and accounting for key factors such as unit acquisition cost, capacity constraints and current procurement and inventory plans, the app aims to be an ‘interpretable analytic model of the Navy’s force structure’. And it’s pretty user-friendly: simply ‘slide’ your way to a 355-ship navy by using the controls to add or subtract everything from aircraft carriers to support vessels.

News Story: Carpio launches e-book challenging China's sea claims

By Jim Gomez

MANILA, Philippines — Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio launched a book on Thursday that questions China's historic claims to most of the South China Sea and said he will distribute it online to try to overcome China's censorship and reach its people.

Carpio said his e-book can be downloaded for free in English now and will be made available online later in Mandarin, Vietnamese, Bahasa, Japanese and Spanish to help more people understand the basis of the Philippines' stand against China's territorial claims.

Carpio said public opinion, including in China, can help pressure Beijing to comply with an arbitration ruling last year that invalidated China's historic claims based on a 1982 maritime treaty. Carpio helped prepare the arbitration case, which the Philippines largely won.

China has dismissed the ruling and continued to develop seven artificial islands in the South China Sea's Spratly archipelago. China's construction of the islands on disputed reefs has alarmed rival claimants and the United States.

"This book in its printed form can never be distributed in China. It will be banned," Carpio said at the launch of his book in Manila late Thursday. "The only way this e-book can reach the Chinese people is in electronic format through the internet."

"I believe that like all other people of the world, the Chinese people are inherently good but their government has drilled into their minds that they own the South China Sea since 2000 years ago. This is, of course, utterly false and the world will never accept this," he said.

Chinese Embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.

Read the full story at PhilStar

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PacificSentinel: Just in case the link vanishes from the above story I've placed it below.

Ebook: The South China Sea Dispute: Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea

News Report: Beijing Warns US Over B-1 Bomber Flying Over East China Sea

ADIZ's across the East China Sea

China’s People’s Liberation Army is not warmly embracing a US Air Force B-1 Bomber flying through international airspace over the East China Sea.

The PLA put the US on notice Wednesday after issuing a warning to the Pentagon for sending a military aircraft over the disputed East China Sea, a pair of US officials told Fox News. The East China Sea is bordered by Shanghai to the west, South Korea to the North, and Japan to the east. A US military official confirmed the presence of the B-1 near South Korea while corroborating the report that Chinese officials let the US Air Force know that Beijing was not pleased with the mission.

Two B-1s were supposed to embark on a patrol mission in the wake of North Korea’s most recent ballistic missile launch, which reportedly failed. Only one took off, since the other needed to undergo maintenance work, Fox reports. The US and South Korea have been conducting annual military drills, dubbed Foal Eagle, which could have been the reason for the B-1’s trip, as opposed to patrolling North Korea’s missile preparations.

News Story: Philippines prepares protest vs China over Panatag

By Edu Punay

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is preparing to formally protest China’s plan to install a radar station at Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in violation of a ruling by a United Nations-backed international tribunal declaring the shoal a common fishing ground outside any country’s jurisdiction.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the administration’s planned course of action was in accordance with Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio’s suggestion that a strong formal protest against Beijing be filed with the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague.

“I think so, there will be (a protest to be filed). Medyo malakas-lakas ang ifa-file (A stronger one will be filed),” Aguirre said when asked about the issue in a chance interview.

Aguirre’s statement came on the heels of President Duterte’s voicing helplessness against China’s continued buildup of its forces in waters within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

But Aguirre assured the public that Duterte is committed to protect and defend the nation’s sovereignty despite the latter’s pronouncement that he could not stop China from building a structure at the shoal. “Definitely, he will not let go of (Panatag shoal),” Aguirre stressed.

“As a matter of fact, we are strengthening the relationship with the US,” Aguirre pointed out, indicating a potential shift from Duterte’s earlier declaration of separation from the US and a pivot to China.

The filing of a protest was among the five-point strategy suggested by Carpio for dealing with China’s reported plan to set up facilities at Panatag shoal.

The SC justice has also suggested sending Philippine Navy vessels to the shoal.

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Story: Will THAAD Deployment Roil Or Calm Troubled Pacific?

By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.

WASHINGTON: The deployment of improved US missile defenses to Korea, THAAD, comes at a time of growing disorder across the region.

There is one constant in this equation but three major unknowns. The constant is theTHAAD system itself, whose capabilities — almost six times the maximum range of current Patriot missile defenses and roughly five times the maximum altitude — will definitely improve the defenses of South Korea against missile attack. The variables are:

• South Korea has impeached its right-wing president. The leading candidate to replace her is a dove who’s questioned the THAAD deployment and urged outreach to North Korea. Will Seoul go wobbly?
• China has aggressively rattled sabers in the East and South China Seas — including deploying missile defenses on disputed islets — but often with counterproductive results, driving alarmed neighbors towards the US. Will Beijing relent?
• North Korea has gone beyond engaging in internationally condemned missile launches and nuclear tests into James Bond villainy, recruiting young women to kill its boy dictator’s exiled half-brother with nerve gas. Is Pyongyang going nuts?

Read the full story at Breaking Defense

News Story: US Ships, Planes Challenge 22 Countries’ Claims — Not Just China’s

Image: Flickr User - Greg Bishop

By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.

WASHINGTON: In 2016, the Defense Department flew aircraft or steamed ships through territories claimed by Albania, Brazil, Italy, Japan, Malta, and, well, China, according to the Pentagon’s annual report released today. So should Beijing be relieved it was not the sole focus of American Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) or should it feel slighted that it wasn’t our sole focus? Of course, China’s Pacific pushiness does get pride of place, with the most extensive single entry — but the 22-nation list also includes US allies and neutral powers like tiny Malta.

Indeed, to quote the accompanying press release, the Pentagon strives — sometimes to absurd extremes — to be “comprehensive (and) even-handed… challenging excessive maritime claims based on principle rather than identity of the coastal State asserting the claim.” (Ironically, the US has not ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which codified in a treaty the longstanding principle of freedom of navigation. The right was first expounded in western law in 1609 by the estimable Hugo Grotius of Holland).

We have the challenge to Italy, which the US believes improperly “claimed historic bay status for the Gulf of Taranto.” Malta, for its part, improperly required “prior consent or prior notification” for foreign warships to enter its waters, which is one of the most common offenses in the report, committed in some form by 14 of the 22 countries. Japan is guilty of another common sin (committed by seven of 22), “extensive straight baselines” — that is, Tokyo claimed jurisdiction over large, squared-off areas of the ocean, rather than the irregularly curving boundaries that result from properly measuring distances off the nearest point of land.

All told, 13 of the 22 countries challenged were in East Asia or South Asia, a region of growing economies, rising nationalism, and complex island territories. Just four were in Europe, two in the Persian Gulf (Iran and Oman), two in the Americas (Brazil and Venezuela), and one in North Africa (Tunisia).

Read the full story at Breaking Defense

News Story: Japan scrambling more fighters in response to China activities

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's Defense Ministry has doubled the number of fighter jets scrambled in each response to foreign airplanes approaching its airspace on the back of China's intensifying military activities around the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, government sources said Saturday.

Japan's Air Self-Defense Force began scrambling four fighter jets since last year in each case of potential airspace violation by foreign aircraft, they said.

The ASDF previously sent two jets in each scramble since it began such missions in 1958.

The number of scrambles by Japan and China has been surging in areas near the Japan-controlled, China-claimed Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture where the two countries' air defense identification zones overlap.

The two countries have yet to establish a communication mechanism to avoid any accidental aerial or maritime clash.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Report: Japan to Play Larger Military Role in Alliance With US

Japan will assume a larger military role in the US-Japanese alliance, US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a joint statement on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — "[T]he United States will strengthen its presence in the region, and Japan will assume larger roles and responsibilities in the alliance," the statement said. "The United States and Japan will continue to implement and expand defense cooperation as laid out in the 2015 US-Japan defense guidelines."

Abe and Trump also agreed in the statement that the US-Japan Security Treaty covered the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea islands, known in China as the Daioyu Islands.

"The two leaders affirmed that Article 5 of the US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security covers the Senkaku Islands. They oppose any unilateral action that seeks to undermine Japan's administration of these islands," the joint statement said.

News Report: Administration’s South China Sea Comments Set to Cause Friction with Beijing - Panel

By: John Grady

The Trump Administration’s early comments on the South China Sea and Taiwan could “cause a lot of friction” between China and the United States, but other factors – including upcoming Communist Party Congress elections in China – will likely keep relations between Beijing and Washington stable in the early part of 2017.

“China wants to have a good relationship with the United States” this year because of an expected reshuffling of a number of party and government officeholders, Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia and director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Wednesday at a CSIS event on regional maritime issues. Despite that potential for shakeup, President Xi Jinping is expected to again be chosen as party secretary.

Zack Cooper, CSIS fellow, agreed that China’s behavior would be stable but “the question we don’t know the answer to is how assertive” the Trump Administration may be in its first year in office when it comes to the South and East China seas.

In the South China Sea, Cooper said the administration needed to be clear on “what are we trying to do” with continued freedom of navigation operations by the artificial island, and wondered “are they in some way a response to land reclamation?”

News Story: US Sec. nominee unveils ‘dangerous’ plan over fake islands in SCS

A potentially ‘dangerous’ confrontation with Beijing on Wednesday has been announced by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, saying China should be denied access to islands it has built in the contested South China Sea.

According to The Diplomat Magazine, Trump’s Nominee Rex Tillerson’s ‘dangerous idea’ for the South China Sea was proposed during a confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

When asked if he supports a more aggressive stance toward China, he said: “We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops and, second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed.”

China’s building of islands and putting military assets on those islands was “akin to Russia’s taking Crimea” from Ukraine, he added.

Read the full story at Tankler

South China Sea Claims (Click Image to Enlarge)

News Report: Japan Scrambles Jet Fighters Amid Flight of Chinese Aircraft Over Korean Strait

Chinese H-6 Bomber

Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces were scrambled in response to Chinese Air Force aircraft flying over the Korean Strait near the islands of Tsushima and Kyushu, local media reported on Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Six Xian H-6 jet bombers flew across the strait from the East China Sea in the direction of the Sea of ​​Japan, then made a U-turn and flew in the opposite direction. Shaanxi Y-8 and Shaanxi Y-9 transport aircraft were also registered in the region, NHK TV channel reported, citing the Japanese Defense Ministry.

Representatives of the ministry said that the Chinese planes did not violate Japanese airspace.

Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing are intensifying after China announced the establishment of an air defense zone over the East China Sea in November 2013, which spreads to the disputed Senkaku islands.

Earlier in the month, Japanese aircraft were scrambled, when six Chinese planes were flying over the Miyako Strait near Okinawa. The two countries exchanged accusations and criticism over the incident.

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.

News Report: Japan Spots Chinese Aircraft Carrier Passage in East China Sea - Reports

Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force caught sight of the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning passage in the East China sea for the first time, local media reported on Sunday, citing the Defense Ministry officials.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — According to the NHK broadcaster, the vessel was accompanied by seven other ships, including three missile destroyers and a supply ship. 

Japan's Defense Ministry was reportedly aware of the passage.

On Saturday, the Chinese Defense Ministry said that its Liaoning aircraft carrier was participating in the military drills in the Yellow Sea for the second time this week.

Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing are intensifying after China announced the installation of an air defense zone over the East China Sea in November 2013, which spreads to the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. 

Earlier in the month, Japanese aircraft were scrambled, when six Chinese planes were flying over the Miyako Strait near Okinawa. The two countries exchanged accusations and criticism over the incident.

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.

News Report: China Ponders ADIZ in Disputed Sea

Ralph Jennings

TAIPEI — A Chinese state institution warned this week that Beijing is ready to set up an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the contested South China Sea, giving it the authority to screen foreign aircraft. But analysts say any enforcement would anger other countries without deterring traffic.

That measure would follow a series of steps to control the movement of foreign ships in the same sea, underlining China's intent to hold its vast maritime claims after a world court tribunal ruled in July that it lacked a legal argument.

China calls 95 percent of the sea its own and its militarization of tiny islets since 2010 has angered officials from Jakarta to Washington. Beijing reportedly toyed with the idea of an ADIZ in July after the court verdict.

“More likely if they do decide to progress toward this, it would be kind of a patchwork approach in which military exercises have closure areas, and that would be the sort of trial point to extend the geographic scope of those or the duration of those from there rather than go for an all-out ADIZ,” said Euan Graham, international security director for the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney.

News Report: Japan Scrambles Jet Fighters Amid Flight of Chinese Aircraft Near Okinawa

China's (Red) & Japan's (Blue) overlapping ADIZ's

The fighters of Japan's Air Self-Defense Forces (JASDF) have raised to the sky on Saturday after the Chinese Air Force aircraft were spotted near the Japanese island of Okinawa, local media reported Saturday.

TOKYO (Sputnik) – According to the Kyodo news agency, citing the Defense Ministry officials, four Chinese Xian H-6 jet bombers flew over the Miyako Strait, south to Okinawa, in the direction of the East China Sea. In parallel, two Chinese Su-30s were registered, initially heading in the opposite direction, but near the Miyako Strait aircraft made a turn and also headed toward the East China Sea.

The Japanese authorities said that the Chinese planes did not violate the Japanese airspace. No other particular information was immediately available. 

In November 2013, China declared the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East Chins Sea, which provides for certain air traffic restrictions. 

In late September, JASDF jets flew on to intercept eight Chinese military aircraft flying between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako Island. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said then that it was the first time that Chinese military aircraft flew over the area.

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.

News Story: Int’l conference on East Sea issue wraps up

A Sept-2015 Satellite image of China's Artificial Island built on
Fiery Cross Reef (File Photo)

Nha Trang (VNA) – The eighth International Conference on the East Sea, themed “Cooperation for Regional Security and Development”, wrapped up in Nha Trang city, the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa on November 15, stressing the need to promote ASEAN’s central role in managing disputes in the East Sea.

Through the course of seven sessions with 28 presentations and nearly 200 opinions, delegates joined heated discussions on regional and global context, recent happenings in the East Sea, legal, economic, political security and historic aspects in the East Sea dispute and prospects of dispute settlement and management in the region.

Commenting on the origin of the East Sea dispute, many participating scholars said it began decades ago, saying that the nine-dash line claimed by China is to initially define sovereignty over islands without resorting to any legal and scientific grounds.

About the recent developments in the East Sea, they shared view that China is likely to reach consensus with several Southeast Asian countries to soften disputes, but on field, it has still maintained, or even enhanced its presence and control in the area, including the Scarborough Shoal and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago.

The construction and installation of equipment for military purpose and surveillance in Da Chu Thap (Fiery Cross Reef), Vanh Khan (Mischief Reef) and Subi reef have not been slowed down, proving that China does not change its long-term goal of gaining full control over the East Sea, which is also an important cause of regional tension.

Read the full story at VietnamPlus