Thread: China 'building runway in disputed South China Sea island'

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

NO DISCUSSIONS ALLOWED!

Friendly discussion is always enjoyable with you. keep it coming.

My apologies, I must admit the Jamaican Observer is not one of my go-to sites.

Originally Posted by OhOh

My apologies, I must admit the Jamaican Observer is not one of my go-to sites.

You really are rather poorly educated, aren't you?

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP)

Oh sorry, silly me, I should explain.

It stands for "Agence France-Presse", a very well known international news agency, being both the oldest and the third largest. Lots of small news papers and websites subscribe to their service.

There you go, you learned something today, isn't that marvellous?

Why nobody tries to copy the Chinese style?

Philippines: Verifying Reports on New Chinese Facility in Disputed Spratlys

The Philippines said Thursday it was verifying reports that China had set up a “maritime rescue center” in the disputed Spratly chain in the South China Sea.


But if the reports proved true, the Philippine government would likely do nothing because the facility at Fiery Cross Reef could help people in distress at sea, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said. He also dismissed fears that a Chinese rescue center could affect contending Filipino claims in the waters around the Spratly Islands.


“It’s a distress center, meaning it could help to those who are in need in that region,” Panelo told reporters. “Personally, I don’t think establishing a distress center is bad.”


Still, he said the government would leave it to Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin to study the issue and decide whether the Philippines would file a formal protest.


“We will give them the benefit of the doubt,” Panelo said of the Chinese.


“And this is also the country that promised us then that they will allow our fishermen and not stop them from fishing in their territory or what they claimed to be their territory – and they did, they are not disturbing them. So let’s see. Let’s not jump into conclusions,” he added.


Earlier this week, China’s Ministry of Transport opened what it called a “maritime rescue center” on Fiery Cross Reef, according to the state-run Xinhua news service.


The Philippines calls the region Kagitingan Reef, where the Chinese have continued to fortify and expand installations in moves that have defied an agreement with all territorial claimants that there would be no structures built in those areas.


The reef, called Yongshu by the Chinese, lies in the Spratlys, a chain of potentially-rich reefs and atolls claimed by both China and the Philippines. Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam are also claimants in the sea region, which is known as the West Philippine Sea to Filipinos.




The overlapping claims have long been an irritant in relations between countries in the region. Last year, China agreed to a draft that would eventually serve as a basis for a legally binding code for actions in the sea region.


That code would spell out legal parameters of what each claimant state could do in a bid to avoid the disputes from spiraling out of control. Some countries want the code to be binding and subject to ratification by signatory states.


In 2016, an international arbitration court in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines, and threw out China’s expansive claims to the region, which it says it owns almost in its entirety based on historical grounds. Beijing snubbed the ruling, which the international community welcomed as a win for the Philippines.


Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, however, acted swiftly and moved to appease China by saying he would not seek to impose the ruling. He also changed the country’s foreign policy towards China and Russia, and away from the United States, which has continued to challenge Beijing over the region by mounting freedom of navigation and overflights.


But China recently said that it had installed navigation equipment in its maritime center in Fiery Cross. Filipino intelligence officials said that the reef was also the site of an airbase, with a long runway that could accommodate long aircraft, including bombers.


On Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio, the most prominent official speaking out against China, said Manila should promptly complain to Beijing about the new facility in the Spratlys. He said the foreign office should quickly file a diplomatic protest over it.


“That’s an exercise of administration and we should contest that because under our law that’s Philippine territory,” Carpio said.


“If a foreign country will say ‘we will use this as a rescue center,’ which they should not do without our approval because that’s ours, so we should protest,” he said.


Inaction would mean that Manila was waiving its rights to the area, he warned.


“We should be wary of that because that’s an exercise of sovereignty or sovereign rights,” Carpio stressed.

https://www.benarnews.org/english/ne...019133403.html

Originally Posted by misskit

The Philippines said Thursday it was verifying reports that China had set up a “maritime rescue center” in the disputed Spratly chain in the South China Sea.

They are lucky to get such rescuers to help...

Originally Posted by misskit

But if the reports proved true, the Philippine government would likely do nothing because they're trousering lots of chinky backhanders

FTFY.

^Safety for all "ships in peril on the sea", only ameristan believes pirate infested seas are a good thing.

Originally Posted by OhOh

^Safety for all "ships in peril on the sea", only ameristan believes pirate infested seas are a good thing.

You think Chinastan is there to fight pirates?

Maybe you watched that chinky action film and thought it was a documentary eh?

Anwar Tells Southeast Asian Nations to Defend Territory against China

Malaysian leader Anwar Ibrahim said Southeast Asian nations have to defend their territory amid Beijing’s aggressive moves to expand shoals into artificial islands and build military facilities in the South China Sea.


Anwar, who is widely expected to take over eventually from Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, made his statement during an open forum near the U.S. capital on Sunday, the same day that Washington drew Beijing’s ire for sending two warships near the disputed Spratly Islands.


“On the South China Sea, we have taken a position that we will defend our territory,” Anwar, 71, said in reply to a question that followed his speech at the International Institute of Islamic Thought, a nonprofit based in Herndon, Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington.


“The best option is to work with other small countries in ASEAN to defend our security position, particularly because we cannot expect the United States – given situation now – to be more positive with regard to the region,” Anwar said, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.


Shortly after the American navy sailed the guided-missile destroyers USS Spruance and USS Preble within 12 nautical miles of the Spratlys on Sunday night, China accused the United States of trespassing in its territorial waters, warning that it had deployed missiles “capable of targeting medium and large ships.”


“The U.S. action violated the Chinese laws and international laws, infringed China’s sovereignty, damaged regional peace, security, and order,” Lu Kang, the spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Beijing. “China will take necessary actions to protect state sovereignty.”


China’s warning came as officials from the two nations were in Beijing for a new round of trade talks scheduled for this week.


The U.S. Navy said the destroyers sailed as part of “freedom of navigation operation.” In January, the destroyer USS McCampbell also sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Islands.


Cmdr. Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. 7th Fleet, was quoted by CNN as saying that Sunday’s operation was carried out “to challenge excessive maritime claims and preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law.”


The Spratly Islands, a chain of potentially mineral-rich islands and atolls in the South China Sea, are claimed in whole or in part by China, Taiwan and the Southeast Asian countries of Brunei, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.

It is considered a flashpoint in the region. The claimants have agreed to desist from any actions that would complicate the matter, although China has been expanding and militarizing islands it occupies.

Beijing claims nearly the whole of the South China Sea, insisting that it has indisputable sovereignty over the region.



Keep negotiating with China, Anwar says


During his remarks in Virginia on Sunday, Anwar also defended the Mahathir government’s decision last month to keep negotiating with Beijing over controversial China-backed projects.


“With China, we have to continue to engage because it’s a very strong neighbor, powerful neighbor but strong economy,” he said. “For our survival, we need investments, trade with the Chinese.”


However, Anwar said, Malaysia must renegotiate contracts “when the economy does not allow us to go through these huge mega projects because of exorbitant price increase.”


“If we fail, we cancel because the country can ill afford,” he said, underscoring the government’s right to junk agreements that were signed under “questionable or dubious” circumstances.


Anwar did not specifically mention the controversial U.S. $20 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), a 688-km (430-mile) railway project to connect the western and eastern coasts of the Malaysian peninsula.


In January, Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the Malaysian Cabinet had decided to adopt a statement from Mahathir that Kuala Lumpur would still keep negotiating the ECRL deal with Beijing.


ECRL, the centerpiece of China’s infrastructure push in Malaysia, was to be financed in large part by the Export-Import Bank of China. The project is a Malaysian component of China’s massive One Belt, One Road (OBOR) international infrastructure expansion program.


“In my experience in the government in the past, we would always say we will honor all our commitments, but when we have reasons, compelling case that the agreement signed is dubious, or through bribery, et cetera, then we can always question,” Anwar said.


After he returned to power as a result of a stunning electoral triumph last May, Mahathir has issued statements implying that several China-backed projects approved by his predecessor, Najib Razak, would be placed on the back burner.


Anwar, a twice-jailed 70-year-old former deputy prime minister, received a royal full-pardon after the May general election led to a landslide victory for the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope), an upstart coalition of political parties that he led together with Mahathir.


During the open forum, Anwar also defended Mahathir’s decision in October last year to free 11 ethnic Uyghur Muslims, allowing them to leave for Turkey. Mahathir, defying Beijing’s request that they be repatriated, said the refugees had not broken laws in his country.


“This engagement with the Chinese should not bar us from raising questions or issues which affect not only the interest of the country but justice for any community,” Anwar said.


Anwar made the statement a day after Turkey denounced Beijing's controversial mass “re-education” camps in China's western region of Xinjiang, calling them a “great shame for humanity.”


Turkey, in a strongly-worded statement issued by its foreign ministry spokesman, said thousands had been subjected to torture and brainwashing in the Chinese camps.


Chinese state-run media has strongly refuted some of Turkey’s claims, saying they “violated the facts.”






https://www.benarnews.org/english/ne...019172941.html

During the open forum, Anwar also defended Mahathir’s decision in October last year to free 11 ethnic Uyghur Muslims, allowing them to leave for Turkey. Mahathir, defying Beijing’s request that they be repatriated, said the refugees had not broken laws in his country.

“This engagement with the Chinese should not bar us from raising questions or issues which affect not only the interest of the country but justice for any community,” Anwar said.

Anwar made the statement a day after Turkey denounced Beijing's controversial mass “re-education” camps in China's western region of Xinjiang, calling them a “great shame for humanity.”

Yeah, fuck you Chinastan.

Chinastan in one of those rare moments of honesty...

^Named that jpeg yourself, harry.?

It's in English you retarded fucking chimp.

What I am suggesting to you 'arry is that the Chinese form takes precedence. The figures aren't exactly clear/legible, but the English version does not match a translation of the Chinese form. There may of course be multiple Chinese characters which can be translated into the English.

My lack of knowledge of Chinese writing, simplified or traditional , prevents me from being 100% sure though. Unlike many academics here who read, write and understand the nuances of Chinese/English words.

Allegedly the Chinese characters are, 开拓 (kaituo) which is/can be, translated into English as "Open Up".

?Exploitation.? Awkward translation faux pas spotted at China-Africa friendship event ? Shanghaiist

We all knew this already without being told, OhOh.

The point is that it's an amusing faux pas which has shown up the truth behind their mendacious language.

Originally Posted by OhOh

What I am suggesting to you 'arry is that the Chinese form takes precedence. The figures aren't exactly clear/legible, but the English version does not match a translation of the Chinese form. There may of course be multiple Chinese characters which can be translated into the English.

My lack of knowledge of Chinese writing, simplified or traditional , prevents me from being 100% sure though. Unlike many academics here who read, write and understand the nuances of Chinese/English words.

Allegedly the Chinese characters are, 开拓 (kaituo) which is/can be, translated into English as "Open Up".

?Exploitation.? Awkward translation faux pas spotted at China-Africa friendship event ? Shanghaiist

You retarded fucking chimp.

It's quite obviously a Freudian slip.

The chinkies should just shut up. Go and sail some ships off the US coast if you think it's that important.

US warships just sailed through the Taiwan Strait again, ignoring China's repeated warnings

Two US Navy warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Monday, sending a message to Beijing, which has warned the US to "tread lightly" in the closely-watched waterway.


The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem and the replenishment oiler USNS Cesar Chavez navigated a "routine" Taiwan Strait transit Monday, Pacific Fleet told Business Insider in an emailed statement.

"The ships' transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The US Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows," PACFLEET said.

The two US Navy vessels that passed through the Taiwan Strait were apparently shadowed by People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships.

The passage is the fouth since October and the fifth since the US Navy restarted the practice of sending surface combatants through the strait last July.

The Taiwan Strait is an international waterway of roughly 80 miles that separates the democratic island from the communist mainland, and China regularly bristles when US Navy vessels sail through. When a US destroyer and a fleet oiler transited the strait in January, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the passage "provocative behavior," accusing the US of "threatening the safety" of those nearby.

Beijing considers Taiwan, a self-ruled autonomous territory, to be a renegade province, and it firmly opposes US military support for the island, be that arms sales, protection assurances, or even just the US military operating in the area. China fears that US actions will embolden pro-independence forces in Taiwan, who want to declare it a sovereign state rather than a part of China.

China has repeatedly urged the US to keep its distance from Taiwan, but the US Navy has continued its "routine" trips through the strait. "We see the Taiwan Strait as another (stretch of) international waters, so that's why we do the transits," Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said in January.

The rhetoric used by the US Navy to characterize the Taiwan Strait transits is almost identical to that used to describe US freedom-of-navigation operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea.
The US Navy has already conducted two FONOPs this year, angering Beijing both times.

https://www.businessinsider.com/taiw....com&r=US&IR=T

Ex-Philippine Officials File Complaint over China’s Control of South China Sea

Two former Philippine officials have brought a complaint against China to the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing Chinese President Xi Jinping of implementing a systematic plan to control the South China Sea and endangering local fishermen.


The complaint, filed last week by former Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario and ex-ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and made available to the media on Thursday, includes a 17-page outline of how Xi and other Chinese officials allegedly committed crimes against humanity by seeking to control the mineral-rich sea region.


Along with Xi, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jinhua were named in the complaint.


Del Rosario and Morales said they filed the complaint on behalf of thousands of Filipino fishermen “persecuted and injured’’ by China’s “aggressive occupation” of South China Sea islands, pointing to the construction of military installations they claimed were destructive to marine life.


“This has seriously undermined the food and energy security of the coastal states in the South China Sea, including the Philippines,” they said in the complaint, a copy of which was received by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.


“Though widely publicized, these atrocious actions of Chinese officials in the South China Sea and within Philippine territory remain unpunished, and it is only the ICC that can exact accountability on behalf of Filipinos and the international community, respecting the rule of law,’’ they stressed.


It was not clear if the case would prosper, considering that the Philippines withdrew from the court amid an investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly drug war. China is not a signatory to The Hague-based body.


Speaking to reporters in Manila, Duterte said the former officials had the right to file the complaint.


“The Philippines is a democratic country and anybody can bring a suit against anybody. But whether or not it would prosper or whether or not we have the jurisdiction, that’s something else,” Duterte said. “They think they have a good case and I would say that the ICC has no jurisdiction over this country and China.”



Situation is ‘unique and relevant’


The complaint urged the court to “initiate a preliminary examination” and appraise itself of “Chinese crimes committed not only against the Filipino people but also against people of other nations, which crimes are already known to the international community.”


It stressed that in pushing for China’s alleged systematic plan to take over the mineral-rich sea region Xi “committed crimes within the jurisdiction of the court which involve massive, near permanent and devastating environmental damage across nations.”


“The situation presented is both unique and relevant in that it presents one of the most massive, near permanent and devastating destruction of the environment in humanity’s history, which has not only adversely affected and injured myriad groups of vulnerable fishermen, but present and future generations of people across nations,’’ the complaint said.


Spokesmen for the Chinese Embassy in Manila were not immediately available for comment.


News of the ICC case came as Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin was winding down a visit to Beijing where he met with his counterpart, Wang Yi. The two had a “friendly, candid and in-depth discussion” on a range of issues including “political-security cooperation,” according to the Philippine foreign ministry.


Both ministers reaffirmed their respective countries’ shared commitment to sustaining the positive momentum of relations on the basis of mutual respect and sincerity, according to a Philippine statement.


China claims most of the mineral-rich South China Sea, including areas that reach the shores of its smaller neighbors. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims to the region.


In 2012, the Chinese seized the Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground within the 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines, after a two-month standoff with the Philippine Navy.


In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines over China, saying there was no legal basis for Beijing to claim historical rights in the sea region.


Beijing rejected the ruling and launched a building spree in territories it controls in the sea.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/chi...019161756.html

Originally Posted by misskit

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines over China, saying there was no legal basis for Beijing to claim historical rights in the sea region.


Beijing rejected the ruling and launched a building spree in territories it controls in the sea

The "Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague", legally, had no jurisdiction. By their own rules.

Originally Posted by OhOh

The "Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague", legally, had no jurisdiction. By their own rules.

The chinkies wouldn't give a fuck if it did. Unless it ruled in their favour, in which case it would be a different story either way.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

The chinkies wouldn't give a fuck if it did. Unless it ruled in their favour, in which case it would be a different story either way.

The Chinese told them up front they would not participate in any charade. As such the courts own rules, requiring both parties to agree to any arbitration made it illegitimate.

Probable discussed and fully explained previously years ago here on TD.

But it is MK and her RFA fairy tales sites.