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  1. #1176

  2. #1177
    Thailand Expat russellsimpson's Avatar
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    ^ Oh no, that will quite suffice.

    Good work.

    I hadn't intended to sound critical. Sheesh.

  3. #1178
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    Quote Originally Posted by russellsimpson View Post
    I hadn't intended to sound critical.
    You better be careful...

  4. #1179
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    And if once the Chinese warships will incurs into some Canadian backwaters, I think it will be surely more than only 55 senators alerted...

  5. #1180
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    National Security Adviser: Filipinos Exempt from Beijing’s Fishing Ban


    The Philippine Coast Guard drove away Chinese militia ships from a Manila-claimed reef in the South China Sea in late April, the national security adviser said, while declaring that Filipino fishermen are exempt from Beijing’s annual fishing ban in the disputed waterway and other seas.


    The coast guard’s BRP Cabra, backed by other ships, shooed away seven Chinese ships from Sabina Shoal on April 27, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said. The reef is 130 nautical miles west of Puerto Princesa in Palawan province, within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).


    “The crew of the BRP Cabra issued challenges to the offending vessels, but elicited no response from the CMM,” Esperon said in a statement released late Tuesday night, referring to the “Chinese Maritime Militia.”


    “After around 20 minutes however, the CMM vessels dispersed and left the shoal after being challenged by BRP Cabra,” he said, describing the Chinese ships as having initially formed a “stationary linear formation.”


    On Wednesday, the coast guard released footage and photos of the confrontation at Sabina Shoal.


    Esperon, who also serves as chairman of the country’s National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS), also rejected China’s annual fishing ban. It began on May 1 and runs through Aug. 16 in parts of the sea that include waters inside Manila’s EEZ.


    The West Philippine Sea is Manila’s designation for territory it claims in the South China Sea.


    “This fishing ban does not apply to our fishermen and the NTF-WPS opposes China’s imposition of the same over the areas within the territory and jurisdiction of the Philippines,” Esperon said.


    “The NTF-WPS reiterates that our fisherfolk are encouraged to go out and fish in our waters in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.


    The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment on Esperon’s statements.


    Beijing’s annual fishing ban began Saturday in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea and portions of the South China Sea.


    Involving more than 100,000 Chinese fishing boats and nearly 1 million Chinese fishermen, Beijing imposes the annual ban to preserve marine fisheries, Chinese state-run media has said.


    Although the ban expressly covers only Chinese fishermen, Beijing’s law enforcement agencies including its coast guard “would target major violation cases and severely clamp down on organized marine fishery crimes,” it said.


    In recent years, Filipino and Vietnamese fishermen have been forced to observe Beijing’s fishing ban in the South China Sea, despite their protests, because of the presence of Chinese government ships.


    Largely forced out of their traditional fishing grounds, Filipino fishermen have claimed a decline of as much as 80 percent in their catch since the Chinese took control of certain parts of the South China Sea.


    The Vietnam Fisheries Society (VFS) expressed its opposition to China’s fishing ban – echoing the criticism made by the Vietnamese government last week that it was a violation of Vietnamese sovereignty and international law.


    The VFS said that the ban could cause clashes between Vietnam’s law enforcement forces and fishermen and China’s coastguard, and impede the usual fishing activities of Vietnamese fishermen on their traditional fishing grounds.


    “We demand that China end this fishing ban in the East Sea/South China Sea, including in the waters under Vietnam’s sovereignty,” the VFS said in a document submitted to the Vietnamese government on Tuesday.


    The VFS represents Vietnamese fishermen, aquaculture producers, fisheries processors and organizations providing services in fisheries sector.

    Hundreds of Chinese ships spotted


    Prior to the April 27 incident at Sabina Shoal, the NTF-WPS had reported spotting an estimated 240 Chinese ships throughout the West Philippine Sea. It later updated that figure to 160.


    In March, Manila reported a “swarming” of what it called Chinese militia ships at Whitsun Reef, also within the Philippine EEZ.


    The Whitsun incident triggered a diplomatic spat between Manila and Beijing, which dismissed the accusation as an “unnecessary irritation,” and insisted the area was Chinese territory.


    The Philippine government has been filing daily protests since April over what it says has been a constant presence of Chinese fishing boats backed by its maritime militia in its territories.


    “The Philippines is not deterred from defending our national interest, patrimony and our dignity as a people with all that we have,” Esperon said on Tuesday.


    Law enforcement patrols are to continue in Philippine-claimed areas in the South China Sea, Esperon said, as he reiterated a call to China and other claimant nations to “comply with their international obligations.”


    The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam have competing claims to portions of the South China Sea, while China claims virtually all of it. Although Indonesia does not consider itself a party to the dispute, China has claims that overlap with Indonesia’s EEZ in the South China Sea.


    A July 2016 international arbitral award declared the Philippines’ claim to its EEZ in the South China Sea valid over China’s sweeping claim.


    This year, Beijing’s passage of a law allowing the Chinese Coast Guard to fire at ships it perceives to be intruding in Chinese-claimed territory raised the stakes.


    Beijing maintains a coast guard presence around the Scarborough Shoal even though it is 118 nautical miles west of the Philippine island of Luzon, within Manila’s EEZ.


    Recent Philippine patrols reported spotting three China Coast Guard ships around the shoal.


    On Monday, the Filipino food security advocacy group Tugon Kabuhayan said the Philippines stood to lose as much as 7.2 million kg (15.87 million pounds) of fish for every month that Chinese ships force Filipinos out of their fishing grounds in the South China Sea.


    The fishermen’s advocacy group Pamalakaya petitioned the United Nations on April 30 to nullify Beijing’s coast guard law, investigate the environmental damage Chinese ships have caused in the South China Sea, and to “demilitarize” the strategic and resource-rich waterway.

    National Security Adviser: Filipinos Exempt from Beijing’s Fishing Ban — BenarNews

  6. #1181
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Manila claims nearly 300 Chinese militia vessels have swarmed Philippines-held island

    The Philippines taskforce for the South China Sea has reported incursions into its maritime territory by 287 Chinese militia vessels, one week after President Rodrigo Duterte questioned an international ruling in Manila’s favor.
    In a statement on Wednesday, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF WPS) said that the Chinese vessels had been spotted on May 9 by a maritime patrol.


    “This incident, along with continued illegal incursions of foreign vessels sighted near Philippines-held islands, has been submitted to relevant agencies for possible diplomatic actions,” the task force said.


    The statement said that the Chinese vessels were scattered across reefs and islands in the Philippines-claimed municipality of Kalayaan, off the Palawan archipelago.


    The NTF WPS also said that there were 34 Chinese vessels at the Juan Felipe (Whitsun) Reef, an area of serious contention between the states this year when a Chinese fishing flotilla moored in the bow-shaped reef for weeks, citing inclement weather. The Philippines Coast Guard said there were some 200 vessels involved.

    Wednesday’s statement reiterated Manila’s claim to the reef, stating that it falls inside the country’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).


    The NTF WPS also accused Chinese vessels of breaching Beijing’s own seasonal fishing ban in the region after sighting them harvesting shells inside the lagoon of Bajo de Masinloc, more commonly known as Scarborough Shoal.


    The group’s report comes a week after Duterte suggested that a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which ruled in favor of Manila over Beijing on disputed maritime territory, was just a “piece of paper” that he could throw out. The comment was made during an address by the president in which he pushed back on critics calling for him to be tougher on Beijing.


    Islands and reefs in the South China Sea are hotly contested by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Brunei.


    Manila claims nearly 300 Chinese militia vessels have swarmed Philippines-held islands in latest incursion — RT World News

  7. #1182
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    ‘Our friendship will end here’: Duterte defies Beijing, says he won’t withdraw vessels from disputed waters



    The president of the Philippines has vowed not to withdrawal his country’s ships from waters contested by China as a long-running dispute between the two nations over sovereignty of South China Sea territory heats up.
    Speaking in a televised address aired on Friday, President Rodrigo Duterte said he would not heed Chinese demands and would continue to push for sovereignty over islands and reefs in the South China Sea.


    “We have a stand here and I want to state it here and now again that our ships there... we will not move an inch backward,” Duterte said, adding “I will not withdraw. Even if you kill me. Our friendship will end here.”


    In April, China demanded the Philippines remove its vessels from the contested waters and called on Manila to “stop actions complicating the situation and escalating disputes.”


    On Friday, Duterte said he respected China’s position, but said he didn’t want trouble or to go to war.


    The president has been widely criticized for his close relationship with Beijing but has maintained Manila’s claims to islands and reefs in the South China Sea, announcing in April that he would send naval vessels to the area.

    On Wednesday, the Philippines taskforce for the South China Sea reported incursions into its maritime territory by 287 Chinese militia vessels. This year, Manila has frequently called on Beijing to remove its vessels in accordance with a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which threw out China’s claims to the territory and the islands within it.


    Last week, Duterte caused a stir when he suggested that the ruling didn’t mean anything, and that it was just a “piece of paper” that he could throw out.


    Islands and reefs in the South China Sea are not only contested by China and the Philippines. Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Brunei also lay claim to overlapping areas of the potentially resource rich sea.


    ‘Our friendship will end here’: Duterte defies Beijing, says he won’t withdraw vessels from disputed waters — RT World News

  8. #1183
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Looks like Duterte wants a bigger cake tin.

  9. #1184
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    China says US 'creating risks' with South China Sea warship sail-bys


    China on Thursday branded the United States an "out-and-out security risk creator" in the South China Sea, after an American warship sailed through waters near the disputed Paracel Islands.


    Tensions in maritime waters claimed by both China and many of its neighbours have ratcheted up recently, with Beijing staging live-fire drills and sending hundreds of fishing vessels to a reef claimed by the Philippines.


    China's military said the USS Curtis Wilbur, a guided missile destroyer, was warned and driven away from the contested waters near the islands, which are claimed by China.


    US actions "increase regional security risks, which easily causes misunderstandings, misjudgements and unforeseen maritime incidents", People's Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command spokesman Colonel Tian Junli said in a notice posted on social media.


    "This is unprofessional and irresponsible, and fully demonstrates that the US is an out-and-out 'South China Sea security risk creator'."


    Beijing on Wednesday had chastised Washington for sailing the USS Curtis Wilbur through the Taiwan Strait earlier this week.


    The US Seventh Fleet described it as a "routine" transit.


    The United States frequently conducts what it calls "Freedom of Navigation Operations" in the flashpoint waterway.


    The South China Sea and its various islands are claimed by multiple countries including China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines. It is home to some of the world's most resource-rich waterways.

    China says US 'creating risks' with South China Sea warship sail-bys

  10. #1185
    Thailand Expat russellsimpson's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    US actions "increase regional security risks, which easily causes misunderstandings, misjudgements and unforeseen maritime incidents", People's Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command spokesman Colonel Tian Junli said in a notice posted on social media.
    Doesn't this seem strange that a regional military commander is allowed to comment on foreign policy and, what is more difficcult to comprehend, on social media?

    Seems strange to me.



    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    The United States frequently conducts what it calls "Freedom of Navigation Operations"

  11. #1186
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    ^ Doesn’t seem strange to me. I thought it was the Colonel’s job.

    Do you think this article is in error?

  12. #1187
    Thailand Expat russellsimpson's Avatar
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    Of course I don't have an issue and always appreciate that you have taken on your job vuluntarily.

    How many times have to heard an American general as such making a statement on social media reflecting a nations foreign policy?

    Not damn often I think?

    It's hardly in my character to be critical of anything.
    A true diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a manner that you will be asking for directions.

  13. #1188
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    US think tank sees ‘dramatic’ rise in PH patrols in West Philippine Sea


    MANILA, Philippines—Philippine sovereign patrols in the West Philippine Sea increased dramatically after more than 200 China vessels swarmed Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef last March.


    American think-tank Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, confirmed that the Philippines escalated its presence in the West Philippine Sea as Beijing continued to trash calls for the withdrawal of China ships from Philippine waters.


    The Philippines bolstered its patrols in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) shortly after China assembled hundreds of militia vessels at Julian Felipe Reef, which is also inside Philippine EEZ.


    The China vessels dispersed after the Philippines filed a series of diplomatic protests but refused to leave Philippine waters and just moved to other areas of the West Philippine Sea.


    AMTI said it viewed the Philippines’ increased presence as a signal that Manila was determined to assert its rights over the West Philippine Sea. The think tank, however, said the Philippine naval force deployed to the area could not maintain constant presence unlike China which had kept a near-permanent presence, through its coast guard and militia, in Philippine waters.


    The Philippines has drawn greater attention and international condemnation of China’s territory-grabbing campaign, through its militia vessels, after the amassing of China ships at Julian Felipe Reef had been publicized, according to AMTI.

    From March 1 to May 25, 2021, AMTI said it monitored 13 Philippine law enforcement or military vessels making at least 57 trips around the Spratly Islands and Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, a geographical feature in the West Philippine Sea which had already been controlled by China.


    AMTI said the number of Philippine patrols was a “substantial increase” from the previous 10 months, or from May 2020 to February 2021, when just 3 Philippine vessels were tracked making a total of only 7 trips to the West Philippine Sea.


    AMTI said it observed, through ship trackers and satellite images, that the Philippines did not only raise the frequency of its patrols but also their locations.


    Before March 2021, according to AMTI, Philippine government vessels were almost exclusively sailing directly to and from Thitu Island, the Philippines’ largest outpost in the Kalayaan Island Group, which now hosts a Philippine municipality.


    As patrols increased, the Philippines also deployed its government assets more frequently to Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, where the Philippine Navy maintains a presence through BRP Sierra Madre, a tank landing ship deliberately grounded there in 1999, and also Julian Felipe Reef, Sabina Shoal and Panatag Shoal.


    Increased Philippine patrols also led to encounters with China coast guard and militia vessels, AMTI said.


    Last May 19, the Philippines sent four vessels—BRP Gabriela Silang, BRP Sindangan, BRP Habagat and MCS 3005—to Panatag Shoal, which had been stolen and now occupied by China.


    “On that occasion, the Philippine vessels sailed directly to within 10 nautical miles of the shoal—inside its contested territorial sea—where they were met by the CCG 3301 and 3102,” AMTI said in its report, referring to China coast guard ships.


    “The former began trailing the MCS 3005 as it circled around one side of Scarborough and the latter pursued the Habagat closely on the other before peeling off toward the larger Gabriela Silang,” AMTI said.


    But AMTI said it observed that Philippine government vessels were “almost always outsized and outgunned by their Chinese counterparts.”


    “A limited number of PCG (Philippine Coast Guard) and BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources) vessels have the endurance to travel safely to the Spratlys and Scarborough,” it said.


    “These few Philippine ships have embarked on staggered tours across the South China Sea every couple of weeks since March, spending only one or two days at contested features before moving on,” it added.


    China ships, meanwhile, stay in Philippine waters for weeks at a time and usually leave once replacements arrive, AMTI said. It added that despite the Philippines’ increased presence and a barrage of diplomatic protests, China showed no sign of leaving the Philippines’ EEZ anytime soon.

    US think tank sees ‘dramatic’ rise in PH patrols in West Philippine Sea | Global News

  14. #1189
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Analysts: Philippine Leader’s Inconsistent Policy on South China Sea Hurts Manila


    Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s mixed messages and “wild swings” in policy-making on the thorny South China Sea issue have cost Manila opportunities to make headway over its territorial claims in the waterway during his five years in power, analysts say.


    But Duterte, 76, who is due to leave office next year because the Philippine constitution limits the presidency to a single term, has been mostly consistent in one regard, they say: Since entering the Malacańang Palace in June 2016, the president has brushed off calls for a more aggressive strategy against Beijing’s expansionism in the disputed sea by arguing that the Philippines could not risk going to war with the Asian superpower.


    “Clearly, his handling of foreign policy is very personalistic and he thinks by being personally friendly and extolling personal friendships, he will be able to influence China’s behavior,” said Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at the University of the Philippines.


    “It doesn’t work that way, of course, because we’ve seen how despite five years of this style, China has not actually eased up on its activities in the West Philippine Sea, and it only gives China an advantage because the mixed messaging plays into China’s narratives,” Batongbacal told BenarNews.


    Manila refers to its claimed portions of the South China Sea as the West Philippine Sea.


    Duterte’s near-constant refrain since taking office that he “cannot go to war with China” started in 2016, the same year that a United Nations-backed tribunal invalidated Beijing’s claims to most of the sea. The ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague supported Manila’s sovereign rights to its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea.


    As president, Duterte’s relatively friendly rapport with China has marked a turnaround from his predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, whose hardline stance antagonized Beijing, especially when his administration took the South China Sea dispute to the arbitration court and won.


    Although the arbitral award came with no policing powers to force Beijing into compliance, Duterte could have capitalized on it to shore up international support and advance Manila’s interests, according to observers.


    In a televised address on May 5, Duterte described the arbitral ruling as “just a piece of paper” that he would “throw in the wastebasket.”


    Yet, it was only last September that the Philippine president, during a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, came out with what appeared at the time to be a fundamental policy shift on the 2016 arbitral ruling.


    “The award is now part of international law, beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish, or abandon,” Duterte told the world body, referring to the outcome of the case brought by the previous Philippine administration to The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration.


    “We firmly reject attempts to undermine it,” he said then in his most forceful public comments on record to date about the ruling.


    Despite the ruling, Duterte, who once said that he “simply loves Xi Jinping,” has failed to restore Filipino fishermen’s full access to their traditional fishing grounds such as Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly Islands.


    Chinese government and fishing ships have restricted Filipinos’ access to those waters, causing as much as an 80 percent decline in their fishing haul, according to a Philippine fishermen’s organization.


    Meanwhile, Sino-Philippine plans to jointly drill the seabed for oil and natural gas are at a standstill. When the two countries signed an oil and gas exploration memorandum during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2018, anti-China protesters took to the streets of Metropolitan Manila, accusing Duterte of “selling out the Philippines to China.”


    “I think the current administration was not able to protect our national interest here,” Rommel Jude Ong, a retired Philippine Navy admiral now affiliated with the Ateneo School of Government in Manila, told BenarNews.


    Duterte’s stance “doesn’t look good from the point of view of us as a nation-state. It’s as if we’ve given up and succumbed to a sense of defeatism,” Ong said. “In other words, defeatism became a policy in this administration.”


    On May 17, 2021, Duterte imposed a gag order on members of his cabinet, telling them to stop making public statements on the maritime dispute and saying that only he and the presidential spokesman could publicly comment on the issue, after his foreign secretary had aimed profanity-laced comments at Beijing about Chinese ships intruding in the Philippine EEZ.


    In an effort to dispel public criticism over his South China Sea efforts, Duterte invited veteran politician and ex-Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile to his nationally broadcast weekly cabinet meeting on May 17.


    That night, Enrile told the president to ignore his critics and that time would show the public that Duterte did right on the territorial issue.


    “Our approach there should be friendly, not hard and aggressive,” Enrile told Duterte.

    No unified voice


    Tensions between the Philippines and China took a new turn in late March, when a task force led by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. reported the presence of more than 200 suspected Chinese militia ships at Whitsun Reef within the Philippine EEZ.


    The report caused a diplomatic storm between Manila and Beijing, which denied that the ships were manned by militia and insisted the waters were within Chinese territory.


    In April, the Department of Foreign Affairs began filing daily diplomatic protests over Beijing’s refusal to move the ships from those waters.


    Early that month, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana demanded that the Chinese ships leave at once. He said the Chinese ambassador, Huang Xilian, had “a lot of explaining to do” for the incident.


    Later, Teodoro Locsin Jr., the foreign secretary, summoned Huang on April 13 over the ships’ “illegal lingering presence” in Philippine waters.


    Also in April, the Chinese foreign ministry reiterated Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea.


    “China enjoys sovereignty over the Nansha islands including Zhongye [Pag-asa] Island and Zhongsha islands including Huangyan Island [Scarborough Shoal] and their adjacent waters and exercises jurisdiction in relevant waters,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on April 26.


    “We urge the relevant side to respect China’s sovereignty and rights and interests, and stop actions complicating the situation and escalating disputes.”


    On May 11, Philippine presidential spokesman Harry Roque offered conciliatory remarks to Beijing, saying that critics were “making a big deal” about the Chinese ships. He claimed, erroneously, that Whitsun Reef lay beyond the Philippine EEZ.


    When observers pointed to the apparent contradictions between Roque’s statement and those of the two secretaries, Lorenzana insisted that his comments reflected the president’s position. Locsin, for his part, had to apologize for an expletive-laden tweet directed at China over the issue of the Chinese ships massed in the EEZ.


    As Duterte’s cabinet toned down the rhetoric on China following his gag order, Manila’s coast guard and fisheries bureau launched maritime exercises and patrols at Scarborough Shoal and the Spratlys. Previously, the navy ordered more ships to patrol waters where the Chinese ships were spotted.


    This marked a change in Duterte’s policy, because he had previously ordered the navy and the coast guard to refrain from patrolling waters where run-ins with Chinese ships could cause friction. He had also earlier ruled out joint maritime patrols with strategic allies.


    The West Philippine Sea patrols are a welcome development, Batongbacal said, but while noting “lost opportunities” during Duterte’s term.


    “It will not make up for the loss of credibility that we have suffered because of the wild swings in policy and it will not make up for the resources we lost in the last five years,” Batongbacal said.


    Regional opportunity missed


    Under Duterte, Manila has also missed an opportunity to unify the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) around the arbitral award, according to observers. Four of the ASEAN’s 10 member states – Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam – have claims in the South China Sea.


    Indonesia, another ASEAN member, does not regard itself as a party to maritime disputes in the sea, but Beijing claims historic rights to parts of the waterway that overlap Jakarta’s EEZ.


    Analysts said the governments could have banded together and used Manila’s arbitral award to strengthen demands that Beijing respect their claims under international maritime law. The ASEAN members would have benefitted from a more stable environment in the South China Sea, where more than $5 trillion in global trade passes through yearly.


    Instead, when the Philippines held the bloc’s rotating chairmanship in 2017, Duterte pushed for gentler wording toward China in that year’s collective statement from ASEAN, despite protests from the Vietnamese delegation.


    Whether it was deliberate or not, the more recent moves by Lorenzana and Locsin have somehow forced Duterte’s administration to toughen its stance against Beijing, especially because the public approved of what the secretaries did.


    “If this is sustained, at best it can return the Philippines to its proper policy path of seeking and exercising its rights under international law,” Batongbacal said. “The fact that it’s all being done only now makes it a lot harder for the Philippines to do so.”

    Inconsistent, unfocused


    In June 2019, Duterte said he had forged an agreement with Xi to allow Chinese boats to fish in the waters of Reed Bank in the Philippine EEZ, in exchange for Beijing allowing Filipinos to fish at Scarborough Shoal.


    At the time, Filipinos were in an uproar after a Chinese ship rammed a Philippine fishing boat anchored at Reed Bank, marooning the 22-man crew who were rescued by Vietnamese fishermen.


    Last month, Roque denied that a fishing deal existed between Manila and Beijing. He made the statement in the face of public outrage over the suspected Chinese militia ships spotted at Whitsun Reef and other Philippine-claimed areas in the South China Sea.


    Roque has not responded to BenarNews requests for comment.


    The territorial dispute was far down the list of Filipinos’ immediate concerns even before the COVID-19 pandemic left people here preoccupied with health safety and economic survival concerns.


    “Our basic problem is that the West Philippine Sea is not a bread-and-butter issue to the general public,” Ong told BenarNews. “But the West Philippine Sea has the potential to be a plus factor in our economy, if properly defended and protected, and if development projects come in properly.”


    “Your tactics on the ground depend on the higher strategy. If the strategic direction is flawed or problematic, then that would just cascade down to the tactical level – problematic,” he said. “So what’s the strategic direction here? There’s nothing written, unlike in other countries that have it on white paper, for a specified term or administration. Ours is just verbalized.”


    Although some documents at the cabinet level “more or less” articulate Duterte’s policies on the South China Sea, Ong said, they likely did not result from any exhaustive consultations with experts or other officials.


    “It’s all based on internal discussion within the palace probably, and there was no attempt at consensus … basically we just got surprised there were pronouncements in the media. It appeared as though policies were written during open press conferences,” Ong said.


    Visiting Forces Agreement


    Duterte, in the meantime, has a decision to make that could have far-reaching consequences on the Philippines’ security: the fate of the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States.


    After ordering the pact repealed in February 2020 and setting off a six-month countdown for removing American troops from Philippine soil, Duterte extended the VFA until mid-2021, amid reports of an increased Chinese presence in the South China Sea.


    Duterte has dangled the defense pact before the new Biden administration, demanding more U.S. donations of defense hardware and, more recently, COVID-19 vaccines from his country’s longtime ally and former colonizer.


    Repealing the VFA would be in Beijing’s interests because it would deprive Washington of a strategic foothold in the Indo-Pacific, analysts and observers said. In addition, it would leave Manila vulnerable to foreign aggression.


    Manila’s 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty with Washington ensures that its ally would come to its defense should it be attacked by a foreign aggressor in the Pacific, including the South China Sea. This, analysts say, is Manila’s ace card to deter any overt aggression from Beijing.


    The VFA allows the U.S. military rotational access to Philippine territory, including to preposition troops and assets. Scrapping it would hamper any activation of the MDT.


    “Without the VFA, any assistance from the U.S. based on the MDT will have to come from somewhere else, maybe Guam or Japan, and that’s several days away,” Batongbacal said.


    In 2019, then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that the Mutual Defense Treaty covered the South China Sea.


    It was an assurance long sought by Manila, and which previous administrations had failed to exact from Washington.


    Duterte’s supporters have cited such instances as evidence that his seemingly wayward hand in foreign policy belies a calculated, calibrated strategy – that there is a “method to his madness,” so to speak.


    Ong and Batongbacal doubt it.


    “It doesn’t have to be in such a way that I will communicate defeatism directed to an internal audience. There are ways of doing statecraft in such a way that does not demoralize the general public,” Ong said.


    Conflicting statements have come from members of Duterte’s cabinet and from Duterte himself.


    “All this is after the fact, when there was already confusion. That’s why I do not believe that it is a careful, calibrated and calculated policy,” Batongbacal told BenarNews.


    “To me, it appears to be more improvised.”


    Analysts: Philippine Leader’s Inconsistent Policy on South China Sea Hurts Manila — BenarNews

  15. #1190
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    ASEAN & China Agree To Resolve South China Sea Disputes Peacefully

    The defence minister’s meeting between ASEAN and China has come to an agreement that they will forge ahead to help resolve disputes in the South China Sea peacefully.


    Defence Ministry spokesman Kongcheep Tantrawanich said yesterday Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon represented the Defence Minister at the meeting between Asean and China, which was held via video conference to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their relations.


    Lt Gen Tantrawanich said China’s Defence Minister, Wei Fenghe, said in the meeting that China will help tackle territorial disputes in the South China Sea while maintaining peace with other claimant nations to secure integrity in the region.


    He also said Gen Fenghe told the meeting that ASEAN has been a great ally to China in strengthening ties among peoples while China itself will help foster economic and security cooperation. It will also help the region fight against the spread of COVID-19.


    The South China Sea is considered one of the busiest waterways in the world and is a significant gateway for trade and merchant shipping. The South China Sea disputes are maritime and island claims between different sovereign states in the region.


    The countries party to these disputes are China, Brunei, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia and are geopolitically located in the Indo-Pacific region.


    Lt Gen Tantrawanich said ASEAN member countries have praised China for strengthening international cooperation in the region and thanked China for delivering medical equipment and vaccines to help control the spread of COVID-19.


    He said Gen Wongsuwon said the meeting mainly discussed solving the infection surge and COVID-19 impact through sustainable trade and investment promotion.


    ASEAN & China Agree To Resolve South China Sea Disputes Peacefully | Chiang Mai News - Daily News Stories From Chiang Mai & Thailand

  16. #1191
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    China says it 'drove away' U.S. warship on anniversary of tribunal ruling


    BEIJING, July 12 (Reuters) - China's military said it "drove away" a U.S. warship that illegally entered Chinese waters near the Paracel Islands on Monday, the anniversary of an international court ruling that held Beijing had no claim over the South China Sea.


    The USS Benfold entered the waters without China's approval, seriously violating its sovereignty and undermining the stability of the South China Sea, the southern theater command of the People's Liberation Army said.


    "We urge the United States to immediately stop such provocative actions," it said in a statement.


    On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled that China had no historic title over the South China Sea, a ruling that Beijing said it would ignore.


    The Benfold asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the vicinity of the Paracel Islands consistent with international law, the U.S. Navy said in a statement.


    The islands are claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, which require either permission or advance notification before a military vessel passes through.


    "Under international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention, the ships of all states, including their warships, enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea," the U.S. Navy added.


    'INNOCENT PASSAGE'


    "By engaging in innocent passage without giving prior notification to or asking permission from any of the claimants, the United States challenged these unlawful restrictions imposed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam."


    Hundreds of other islands, reefs and atolls in the resource-rich waterway are contested by Brunei, China, Malaysia and the Philippines. China claims rights to resources within its so-called nine-dash line, or most of the region.


    "By conducting this operation, the United States demonstrated that these waters are beyond what China can lawfully claim as its territorial sea, and that China's claimed straight baselines around the Paracel Islands are inconsistent with international law," the U.S. Navy said.


    In its 2016 ruling, the Hague court also said China had interfered with traditional Philippine fishing rights at Scarborough Shoal and breached the country's sovereign rights by exploring for oil and gas near the Reed Bank.


    Freedom of the seas was an "enduring" interest of all nations, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday.


    "Nowhere is the rules-based maritime order under greater threat than in the South China Sea," Blinken said in a statement.


    "The People's Republic of China continues to coerce and intimidate Southeast Asian coastal states, threatening freedom of navigation in this critical global throughway."


    China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Monday at a regular briefing that the United States was harming peace and stability in the region.


    In the Philippines, more than 100 activists gathered outside a building housing the Chinese consulate to press Beijing to respect the arbitral ruling and allow Filipinos to freely fish in the South China Sea.


    The crowd marched with a Philippine flag and banners reading: "China get out of the West Philippine Sea" and "China out of our waters."


    Manila refers to the part of the South China Sea that it claims as the West Philippine Sea.


    "Since our tribunal ruling victory, there were no changes. There's still the presence of the Chinese Coast Guard, the Chinese militia...in the West Philippine Sea," said Fernando Hicap, head of a federation of small fisherfolk groups.


    UPDATE 4-China says it 'drove away' U.S. warship on anniversary of tribunal ruling

  17. #1192
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Monday at a regular briefing that the United States was harming peace and stability in the region.
    Says the chinkies who keep invading other peoples waters and nicking their fish, the fucking thieving parasites.

  18. #1193
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Philippines Warns Against Efforts to ‘Erase’ Landmark Ruling on South China Sea


    The Philippines marked the fifth anniversary Monday of a landmark arbitral ruling that went against China’s expansive South China Sea claims, by warning that Manila rejected any attempt to “erase” the verdict, while Beijing dismissed it as a “piece of waste paper.”


    Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken marked the anniversary by saying the two Asian nations were bound under international maritime law to comply with the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.


    Washington would invoke its mutual defense commitments should Philippine forces be attacked in the contested waterway, he warned. America’s top diplomat issued the statement on the same day that a U.S. warship conducted a freedom of navigation mission in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands.


    In Manila, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said President Rodrigo Duterte had previously stated that the ruling was part of international law.


    “The award is final. We firmly reject attempts to undermine; nay, even erase it from international law, history and our collective memories,” Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said in a statement.


    Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the Philippines was seeking a peaceful solution to maritime disputes.


    “On this anniversary, we once again urge all interested parties to heed the call for a rules-based international order and refrain from acts that may exacerbate this tense situation in the area,” he said in a statement. “Consistent with Philippine national policy, we shall continue to seek all avenues to achieve a peaceful and friendly management of all standing maritime disputes.”


    In 2013, the government of then-President the late Benigno Aquino III sued Beijing before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague over Chinese claims in the South China Sea that encroached upon most of Manila’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The case marked the first time any nation had challenged China over its maritime sovereignty.


    On July 12, 2016, the court ruled in Manila’s favor, declaring its sovereign rights to an EEZ as valid over Beijing’s historical claim as demarcated by the so-called Nine-Dash Line on official Chinese maritime maps.


    In Beijing on Monday, the Chinese foreign ministry maintained its stance on the South China Sea.


    “The award of the arbitration is illegal, null and void. It is nothing more than a piece of waste paper,” ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a daily press conference, as he challenged U.S. military efforts in the maritime region.


    The United States has conducted drills that “illegally intruded into China’s territorial waters,” he said. “Since the beginning of this year, the U.S. side conducted close-in reconnaissance for nearly 2,000 times and over 20 large-scale military drills on the sea. The U.S. allegation of ‘freedom of navigation’ in the South China Sea threatened is simply untenable.”


    China’s People’s Liberation Army reported on social media that it sent ships and planes to “warn them and send them away” on Monday after the USS Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer, entered Chinese-claimed waters near the Paracels, according to media reports.


    China claims nearly all of the South China Sea as its own, but five other Asian governments – Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam – have territorial claims. While Indonesia does not regard itself as a party to the South China Sea dispute, Beijing claims historic rights to parts of the sea overlapping Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone.


    One of those countries, Vietnam, said on Monday that it wanted all sides involved to respect and fully implement the legal obligations in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), cooperate and actively contribute in preserving peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

    The PRC’s statement about this mission is false,” the U.S. Navy said in a statement on its website, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “The United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as USS Benfold did here. Nothing PRC says otherwise will deter us.”


    In his statement, Blinken said freedom of the sea was an enduring interest of all nations.


    “Nowhere is the rules-based maritime order under greater threat than in the South China Sea. The People’s Republic of China continues to coerce and intimidate Southeast Asian coastal states, threatening freedom of navigation in this critical global throughway,” he said.


    “We also reaffirm that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.”


    Meanwhile in Metro Manila, dozens of members of the fishermen’s group Pamalakaya joined activists in protesting outside the Chinese’ consulate to demand that Chinese ships leave the Philippines’ EEZ and other disputed waters.


    “Five years after our momentous arbitral victory, China continues to trample on our fishing rights in our traditional fishing grounds,” Fernando Hicap, the group’s leader, told reporters.


    “These are Filipino fishers standing up against China and upholding our rights in the West Philippine Sea,” Hicap said.


    The West Philippine Sea is how Manila refers to its EEZ and territories it claims in the South China Sea.


    “Likewise, this is a defiance against President Duterte who has completely turned his back on our national sovereignty and the Filipino people. Our own government’s cowardice and submission to China will not stop us from asserting what is rightfully ours.”


    He said fishermen have been losing millions of pesos every year to the destruction of coral reef by Chinese reclamation and illegal poaching within the country’s territory.


    In a report released Monday on water quality in the Spratly Islands, U.S.-based Simularity said satellite imagery had verified that hundreds of ships anchored there were dumping raw sewage on the reefs they are occupying, “leading to a cascade of reef damage that can take decades to recover.”


    Such damage directly affects fish stocks in the South China Sea, said Similarity, a private geospatial imaging analysis firm.


    “This is a catastrophe of epic proportions and we are close to the point of no return,” the report said.

    Philippines Warns Against Efforts to ‘Erase’ Landmark Ruling on South China Sea — BenarNews

  19. #1194
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Chinky bastards at it again.

  20. #1195
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Philippines Hails US Resolve to Defend Manila’s South China Sea Claims


    The Philippines on Wednesday hailed Washington’s commitment to help defend Manila’s South China Sea claims, while it denied assertions by local fishermen that Chinese boats were preventing them from fishing in Philippine waters five years after a landmark court ruling.


    A July 2016 verdict by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines and against China over Beijing’s expansive claims in the contested waterway.


    “[W]e welcome the United States’ open support for the 2016 Arbitral Award,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said after he and his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met virtually together with America’s top diplomat.


    “It is binding international law and the most authoritative application of UNCLOS on the maritime entitlements of features in the South China Sea. As such, it contributes to the rules-based order in ASEAN and benefits all the countries that use the vital artery that is the South China Sea,” he said in a statement, referring to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.


    Wednesday’s talks marked the first bilateral meeting with ASEAN at the foreign ministerial level for U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Biden administration.


    “The Secretary underscored the United States’ rejection of the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China’s] unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea and reiterated that the United States stands with Southeast Asian claimants in the face of PRC coercion,” State Department Spokesman Ned Price said in a readout afterward.


    China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, including waters within the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam – which are all ASEAN members – and Taiwan.


    On Monday, the fifth anniversary of the arbitral court’s ruling, China’s foreign ministry dismissed it as “nothing more than a piece of waste paper.”


    That same day, Blinken came out with a statement to say that Washington, under the 70-year-old Mutual Defense Treaty with Manila, would help defend its longtime Southeast Asian ally if the Philippines came under attack in the South China Sea.

    Meanwhile, Filipino fishermen are alleging that the Rodrigo Duterte administration has not helped them to assert their rights to fish in and around Scarborough Shoal, a reef located in a prime fishing ground in the waterway.


    The shoal was part of a territorial dispute that led a previous Philippine administration to lodge an unprecedented lawsuit before the court in 2013 that challenged China’s vast claims to the sea region. Both Manila and Beijing claim the reef as their own. Scarborough Shoal is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).


    On Wednesday, Philippine presidential spokesman Harry Roque rejected allegations by fishermen who say that Chinese coast-guard ships have been harassing or preventing Filipino fishing boats from venturing near Scarborough Shoal. China seized the reef in 2012, which led to the Philippines filing the lawsuit the next year.


    On July 12, 2016, the arbitration court ruled in Manila’s favor, declaring its sovereign rights to the EEZ as valid over Beijing’s historical claims.


    Roque on Wednesday invited the mayor of Masinloc, a northern Philippine fishing town that faces the South China Sea, to attend his video-call with reporters to back his claim that Filipino fishermen have not been blocked from accessing waters around the shoal.


    “This is what the leadership there says, and even the boat operators – they are not prevented from fishing in Scarborough, because that is part of the decision of the tribunal,” Roque told reporters.


    “So, I really do not know what they are saying that fishermen are being stopped.”


    Neither the Philippine Coast Guard nor Masinloc officials knew of any fishermen who had been harassed by Chinese ships, Roque said.


    “Do not worry, when it comes to Scarborough, I don’t think that the Chinese will dare meddle with the likes of Mayor Senyang Lim,” he said, using Masinloc mayor Arsenia Lim’s nickname.


    Lim alleged that recent international media reports that Chinese ships were harassing or hindering Filipino fishing boats were old stories. She said fishermen had told her their catch from Scarborough Shoal’s waters had been bountiful.


    “We hope that they will stop discrediting us, and the national government is also supporting our fishermen,” Lim told reporters.


    “If you go to Masinloc, you will see that they are not being bothered or being stopped.”


    ‘Our national sovereignty’


    BenarNews was among international media outlets that visited Masinloc and talked to the fishermen in the days leading up to the fifth anniversary of the international arbitral ruling.


    In spite of the verdict, Scarborough Shoal has remained inaccessible to Filipino fishermen since 2012, they said.


    President Duterte’s government “has completely turned its back on our national sovereignty,” Pamalakaya, a fishermen’s group, told BenarNews in response to Roque’s statement.


    On Wednesday, a BBC News producer sent Roque a text message as the government spokesman was holding the press briefing, and told him that they were recently with fishermen from Masinloc who were blocked from entering the shoal.


    BenarNews also sent Roque a message asking him if the Chinese were still in the area.


    He replied: “They have ships there, I believe.”


    The fishermen were scathing about Roque, who had represented them in his earlier career as a lawyer.


    “Our own government’s cowardice and submission to China will not stop us from asserting what is rightfully ours,” Pamalakaya head Fernando Hicap told BenarNews.


    “We no longer expect help from the current administration of Duterte. We will fight for our right to fish in our territory.”


    Philippines Hails US Resolve to Defend Manila’s South China Sea Claims — BenarNews

  21. #1196
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Egads that will get the chinkies whinging for sure.

  22. #1197
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    A July 2016 verdict by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines and against China over Beijing’s expansive claims in the contested waterway.
    The court had/has no jurisdiction to, "rule in favor or issue any "verdict".

    PERMANENT COURT OF ARBITRATION

    ARBITRATION RULES 2012 Effective December 17, 2012

    "Section I.

    Introductory rules Scope of application*

    Article 1


    4. The involvement of at least one State, State-controlled entity, or intergovernmental organization as a party to the dispute is not necessary for jurisdiction where all the parties have agreed to settle a dispute under these Rules. However, where the Secretary-General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration determines that no State, State-controlled entity, or intergovernmental organization is a party to the dispute, the Secretary-General may decide to limit the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s role in the proceedings to the function of the Secretary-General as appointing authority, with the role of the International Bureau under these Rules to be assumed by the arbitral tribunal."

    https://docs.pca-cpa.org/2015/11/PCA...Rules-2012.pdf


    China did not:

    "agree to settle a dispute under these Rules."

    The comment:

    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    “nothing more than a piece of waste paper.”
    is accurate.

    As for relying on "Washington" to deliver

    on yet another "promise" and go to war with China:

    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    That same day, Blinken came out with a statement to say that Washington, under the 70-year-old Mutual Defense Treaty with Manila, would help defend its longtime Southeast Asian ally if the Philippines came under attack in the South China Sea.
    "help defend"

    "the Philipines"


    That boat has sailed, attacked and sunk some time ago.
    A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.

  23. #1198
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    ^ Whatever you say, ghost boy.

  24. #1199
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    That boat has sailed, attacked and sunk some time ago.
    Woohoo!

    You sunk the Philippines!

    You must be so proud.

    You utterly pathetic wanker.

  25. #1200
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    The chinkies cherry pick what they like and hoohoo happily sucks the Mr. Shithole cock in support.

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