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  1. #976
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    China: "We demand that historic maps be honoured"

    The world: "We demand that historic maps be honoured"


  2. #977
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  3. #978
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    The world: "We demand that historic maps be honoured"
    The Europeans French, Portuguese and English left after signing agreements with xxx. Some have been reacquired by Chinese military and presumably have signed "surrender" agreements to back them up.

    WIKI states Mongolia is a sovereign country today:

    Timeline of Mongolian history - Wikipedia

  4. #979
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    WIKI states Mongolia is a sovereign country today:
    You're simply too thick to comprehend. China wants to play by these rules - coolio, let's apply them.


  5. #980
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    We demand that historic maps be honoured
    Your allegations are as usual fake ,

    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    WIKI states Mongolia is a sovereign country today:
    Do go on.

  6. #981
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    HooHoo is now having conversations with his multiple personalities.


    China 'building runway in disputed South China Sea island'-untitled-jpg

  7. #982
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    China: "We demand that historic maps be honoured"
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Your allegations are as usual fake ,
    Yet here you are showing a map on which China bases its claims



    You really are a China-bot with limited intelligence . . .


    Oh, and:
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    All of which assign the area to China.
    Nope, more lies by you


    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    HooHoo is now having conversations with his multiple personalities.
    He's turning out to be of the chico variety

  8. #983
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Nope, more lies by you
    Which lies are you referring too?

    Is it this post?:

    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    So that is one "piece of paper". The WWII Japanese surrender agreement is another "piece of paper", the Cairo Agreement is another "piece of paper", the Potsdam Agreement is another "piece of paper" .......
    Clarity is useful to legitimise ones allegations.
    Last edited by OhOh; 06-07-2020 at 05:13 PM.

  9. #984
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    I hope the world is waking up to China at last. I used to give the Chinese the benefit of the doubt, but their aggression and expansionist policies should be checked, they are getting out of control.

    Time for democracies to threaten them with pariah status or worse if they do not pull their head in.

    Waning superpower against rising superpower usually ends in war.

  10. #985
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Yet here you are showing a map on which China bases its claims
    You previous map Included Tibet, your second one does not.

    I, have not "shown a map", you have posted two.

    I pointed out that your first map did not match your allegations.

    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    China: "We demand that historic maps be honoured"

    The world: "We demand that historic maps be honoured
    I suspect you were trying to imply Tibet was under Chinese rule. It may have been a mistake, people do make them occasionally.

    Man up and admit your fake allegation.
    A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.

  11. #986
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    I, have not "shown a map", you have posted two.
    As usual, you are a liar. This is what you and China have in common, aside from you being from China . . . lies, lies and more lies. Blatant lies. Easily refutable lies.

    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Dere me, I was under the impression that this map has been the subject of many articles in the worlds press for a number of years.





    As usual, you are a liar. This is what you and China have in common, aside from you being from China . . . lies, lies and more lies. Blatant lies. Easily refutable lies.

  12. #987
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    My mistake, I did post the map in your post #986 (China 'building runway in disputed South China Sea island')

  13. #988
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    My mistake,

  14. #989
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    China’s Coast Guard Shows Up at Vanguard Bank Again

    Less than a week after China sent a survey ship into Vietnamese waters, vessel-tracking software shows that the China Coast Guard has shown up at Vanguard Bank, a known flashpoint between Vietnam and China.


    The Coast Guard ship came within 30 nautical miles of a Vietnamese oil rig, and its arrival may be related to energy exploration Vietnam is planning to undertake in the area. Its presence risks a repeat of a prolonged standoff between the two Asian powers that played out in this disputed southern section of the South China Sea in the second half of last year.


    The China Coast Guard (CCG) ship 5402 left the port of Sanya in China’s Hainan province on July 1. It stopped at Subi Reef, one of China’s largest artificial islands in the Spratly Islands, on July 2. It subsequently sailed north of Vanguard Bank, within 200 nautical miles of Vietnam’s coast, on July 4, and is patrolling right on top of the bank, which is a completely submerged feature.


    Andrew Scobell, a senior political scientist for the U.S.-based RAND Corp. and a professor at Marine Corps University, said this was likely another episode in China’s long-running campaign to pressure other claimants in the South China Sea, without risking full-blown conflict.


    “Many Chinese Coast Guard vessels are a lot bigger than many of the ships in most Southeast Asian navies. They’re pretty damn intimidating, they do ram fishing boats, and they act like naval vessels,” he said in an interview.


    “This is all about, from a Chinese perspective, promoting their interests in the South China Sea, strengthening their claims, using all instruments of national power, and at the same time avoiding escalation,” he said.


    The Vanguard Bank is disputed between Vietnam and China, and lies off Vietnam’s southern coast. In July 2019, a CCG contingent accompanied a Chinese survey ship operating within Vietnam’s waters around the submerged feature, causing diplomatic outcry and a tense, months-long standoff between the Vietnamese and Chinese coast guards.


    Prior to this new CCG deployment at Vanguard Bank, China sent a survey ship, the Hai Yang Di Zhi 4, into Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone on June 30 – in a spot roughly 165 nautical miles northeast of where the CCG 5402 is now. That incursion prompted a response by the USS Gabrielle Giffords, and a Vietnamese Coast Guard ship. The U.S. Navy published a photo of both ships near the Hai Yang Di Zhi 4 on July 1. The U.S. and Vietnamese presence may have deterred the Chinese ship from commencing any survey within Vietnamese waters, as the Hai Yang Di Zhi 4 departed and is back in its home port in China’s Guangdong province as of July 4.


    But by sending the CCG ship into Vanguard Bank, China appears to be signaling its intent to keep challenging Vietnam’s control of the area. Although it is completely underwater, Vietnam has erected some outposts on top of Vanguard Bank, which lies within its continental shelf and exclusive economic zone.


    China, however, claims it has “historic rights” to this and most other areas in the South China Sea, roughly demarcated by its so-called “nine-dash line” – a position unsupported under international law.


    Vessel tracking software shows the 5402 on Monday came within less than 30 nautical miles of an oil rig Vietnam operates in the area as part of its energy exploration efforts. It is patrolling near block 06.01, a Vietnamese oil exploration block licensed to Russian oil company Rosneft. Vietnam’s planned exploration in that block prompted the standoff last year.


    Vietnam’s government has yet to comment publicly on the presence of the 5402. Last week it criticized a Chinese military exercise farther north near the Paracel Islands, which it also disputes with China, and stated survey ships from other countries needed to seek permission before operating in Vietnamese waters – a reaction to the Hai Yang Di Zhi 4 incident.


    China has maintained that any energy exploration in the South China Sea must be done with Chinese partners, and not any other international companies. China has brought this position into so-called Code of Conduct (CoC) negotiations between it and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which Vietnam chairs.


    The CoC is meant to govern behavior in the South China Sea between its claimants, and both China and ASEAN agreed to resume negotiations on July 2. However, provocative behavior from China has thrown the viability of those negotiations into doubt.


    China’s sweeping territorial claims overlap with those of ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.


    “They’re using provocations, pressure, strong-arm tactics, but then at the same time the Chinese are also offering carrots and appearing reasonable in publicly seeking a negotiated solution,” Scobell said, referring to the CoC. “It’s all part of a comprehensive approach to advancing China’s interests in the South China Sea.”

    China’s Coast Guard Shows Up at Vanguard Bank Again

  15. #990
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    China, however, claims it has “historic rights” to this and most other areas in the South China Sea, roughly demarcated by its so-called “nine-dash line” – a position unsupported under international law.
    Historic rights my arse.

    They just want to steal it, thieving chinky bastards.

  16. #991
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Australia, Japan, US Take Tough Joint Stance on South China Sea

    Australia, Japan, and the United States have taken a verbal swipe at China’s conduct in the South China Sea, decrying what they called “dangerous or coercive” use of Coast Guard ships and maritime militia and efforts to disrupt oil exploration.


    The allied nations issued the joint statement after their defense ministers met in Washington on Tuesday to discuss security in the Indo-Pacific region as they step up cooperation in the face of China. On Wednesday, Japan’s navy drilled in the South China Sea with two U.S. aircraft carriers.


    Australian Minister for Defense Linda Reynolds, Japanese Minister of Defense Kono Taro and U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper primarily discussed the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but also underlined the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific.


    The ministers “expressed serious concern about recent incidents, including the continued militarization of disputed features, dangerous or coercive use of coast guard vessels and ‘maritime militia,’ and efforts to disrupt other countries’ resource exploitation activities,” the joint statement said.


    Although the statement did not explicitly mention China, it follows a sequence of Chinese actions that have unnerved its neighbors. Those actions include the recent deployment of survey ships into Malaysian and Vietnamese waters, widely viewed as an attempt to pressure those nations out of exploring for oil with international partners.


    A China Coast Guard ship is at Vanguard Bank in the Spratly Islands off Vietnam, the scene of a prolonged standoff last year between China and Vietnam over similar issues.


    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added his own criticism on Wednesday – drawing a link between tensions at many of China’s contested land and maritime borders. That includes a dispute at a mountain frontier where Chinese and Indian troops were engaged in hand-to-hand fighting last month.


    “From the mountain ranges of the Himalayas to the waters of Vietnam’s Exclusive Zone, to the Senkaku Islands, and beyond, Beijing has a pattern of instigating territorial disputes. The world shouldn’t allow this bullying to take place, nor should it permit it to continue,” Pompeo said at a press conference in Washington.


    China was quick to respond to the allies’ joint statement of Tuesday, insisting that the South China Sea – which Beijing claims largely for itself – is stable. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, however, alluded to U.S. military deployments in the region as a threat to that stability.


    “Out of selfish motives, certain non-regional countries frequently hype up matters related to the East China Sea and the South China Sea, and even send advanced military vessels and aircraft in a massive scale to the relevant waters in a bid to promote militarization and threaten peace and stability in the region,” Zhao told a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday. “China firmly opposes that.”


    The current round of military posturing began when China conducted a naval exercise in the South China Sea’s disputed Paracel Islands last week, prompting diplomatic outcry from Vietnam, the United States and the Philippines. The U.S. subsequently began its dual aircraft carrier drill within sight of the Paracels over the weekend.


    Although the U.S., Australia and Japan are not South China Sea claimants, they appear to be taking a firmer stance and are making greater effort to show presence in the region.


    On Wednesday, Japan’s navy practiced alongside the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz, according to a release by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. It is the first time the U.S. has deployed two aircraft carriers at once in the South China Sea in at least four years.


    In their statement Tuesday, the three defense ministers called for a “peaceful resolution of disputes” in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).


    China bases its sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea on “historic rights” to its waters and land features – a position that has never been supported by UNCLOS and was struck down in a key 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in a case brought by the Philippines against China.


    “With regard to the South China Sea, the ministers reinforced strong opposition to the use of force or coercion to alter the status quo, and reaffirmed the importance of upholding freedom of navigation and overflight,” the defense ministers’ statement read.


    The emphasis on overflight closely mirrors a statement made by the chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a summit in late June, and echoes ASEAN’s concerns over speculation that China may unilaterally establish an Air Defense Identification Zone over the South China Sea, restricting commercial air travel in the region.


    Australia, for its part, unveiled a new defense strategy on July 1 explicitly citing China’s so-called “grey-zone activities” in the South China Sea – a reference to China’s aggressive use of paramilitary fishing fleets and its coastguard against vessels of other nations – as a focus for its military planning.


    Australia is conducting a military exercise with Brunei, an oft-overlooked South China Sea claimant state. Dubbed “Exercise Penguin,” the drills involve the two nations’ navies and air forces and runs until July 14. Australia sent an advanced maritime surveillance aircraft in advance of the drills.

    Australia, Japan, US Take Tough Joint Stance on South China Sea

  17. #992
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    The Sultanate of Brunei, on the island of Borneo has produced a map that dates back to three days earlier the Chinese map claiming territory far from its shores. This Bruneian map details annexation of territory going back thousands of years.

    In the interest of fair play and logic China has accepted this map and will cede all territories claimed to the Sultanate.


  18. #993
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Absolutely. The Peoples Republic of Brunei demands its rights!

  19. #994
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Absolutely. The Peoples Republic of Brunei demands its rights!
    No doubt, no doubt.

    Its historic name is the 'Nine Squiggles Line' . . . translated from Aramaic, not the Galilean dialect, rather the much older Sino-Afro-Asiatic sub-group. Easily verifiable as Jesus spoke it fluently

  20. #995
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Risk of Conflict between US, China Rising in South China Sea, Analysts Say

    The risk of the United States and China stumbling into conflict in the South China Sea is rising as their military exercises intensify and other nations adopt a more muscular presence in this key regional hotspot, analysts said.


    An increasingly assertive China has been sending survey ships in waters where other claimant states want to explore for oil, and has repeatedly deployed Coast Guard and paramilitary fishing ships alongside them. On top of it all, China held naval drills in early July near the Paracel Islands that drew protests from Vietnam and the Philippines.


    If Beijing’s show of force was intended to test Washington’s resolve, it appears to have backfired.


    The U.S. and its allies are pushing back. For the first time in years, the U.S. has in the past week sent two aircraft carriers into the South China Sea on an exercise that was within sight of China’s own drill in the Paracels. Those carrier strike groups exercised with the navy of Japan, and both Japan and Australia have unveiled new defense strategies in recent weeks that highlight concerns over China.


    The rival military maneuvers at sea are echoed on the diplomatic stage. This week, U.S, Japan and Australia defense officials denounced the “continued militarization of disputed features,” the “coercive use of coast guard vessels and maritime militia,” and the disruption of other countries’ right to resources. That drew a stiff response from China, which accused “non-regional countries” of threatening stability.


    Notwithstanding the growing strains in the U.S.-China relationship – Hong Kong, the sanctioning of Chinese officials over atrocities in Xinjiang, or trade disputes – RAND Corp. analyst Andrew Scobell said both the U.S. and China tend to presume the risk of conflict in the South China Sea is unlikely – and that presents a danger in itself.


    “It worries me because that gives both sides a sense that they can do things without worrying about the potential for escalation,” said Scobell, who is also professor at Marine Corps University.


    Olli Pekka Suorsa, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, shared concern over the growing potential for an unintended conflict breaking out.


    “With both China and the United States deploying significant numbers of ships and military aircraft in close proximity with one another, the risk of collision is an ever-present danger,” Suorsa said. “And with tensions running as high as they are today, an accident or miscalculation is never far away.”


    Fear of accident


    The analysts interviewed said the most likely spark for fighting in the South China Sea is an accident.


    Scobell harked back to the EP-3 incident in 2001, when a U.S. intelligence-gathering plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet in mid-air over the Paracels, causing the death of a Chinese pilot and forcing the U.S. plane to land at China’s Hainan province, where its crew was detained.


    That incident was defused successfully, but Scobell thinks any situation now would be more volatile and there would be more pressure on both the U.S. and China to act hastily.


    As the U.S. patrols the skies and sea more frequently and China continues its paramilitary activity, the chance of ships colliding or trying to force one another to back down increases, analysts said. In the event of a crisis, there are hotlines between China and the United States, but Scobell said this direct line of communication is imperfect, slow and frequently frozen.


    “What gets U.S. officials frustrated is that we have this hotline or you have someone’s phone number, you’ve exchanged business cards, you’ve built a relationship and then in a crisis the American decision maker picks up the phone to call his Chinese point of contact and nobody answers. That’s what often happens,” Scobell said.


    He said this is because the difference in culture. Chinese military officials do not want to be responsible for responding to Americans during a crisis.


    “From the perspective of a Chinese military commander, any initiative or modest deviation from one’s orders is not rewarded, you’re really worried about being slapped down for stepping out of line,” he said.


    That has big implications for how a Chinese naval officer would respond to an accident at sea involving a U.S. ship. Whereas the U.S. Navy has a culture where officers and captains have significant flexibility in how they execute their orders, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has far less.


    “When you have rigid orders, and circumstances change, and you feel like you cannot deviate from those orders, that is where the danger is,” Scobell said.


    Containing risk


    The South China Sea is viewed as a hotspot for good reason. In addition to the plethora of tiny land features disputed by six governments, the waters are heavily fished and a potential source of undersea oil and gas.


    The region is crisscrossed by shipping routes crucial for world trade, hence the concern paid to it by outside countries.


    “If allowed to proceed unchecked,” said Hunter Stires, a fellow at the U.S. Naval War College, “China’s maritime insurgency will lead to a closed, Sinocentric and unfree sea, one where avaricious coastal states can fence off and lay claim to ocean areas nowhere near them to keep the ships and mariners of other countries out.”


    The last major shooting match in the South China Sea was in 1988 when China and Vietnam clashed over Johnson South Reef in the Spratlys, which left 64 Vietnamese dead and China in control of the feature.


    Historically, nations have managed to contain the risk of conflict. In April, a Vietnamese fishing boat was rammed and sunk by the Chinese Coast Guard. In February, China was accused of training a radar gun on a Philippine Navy ship, which prompted Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., to file a diplomatic protest.


    Neither incident escalated, and for good reason, according to Dr. Huong Le Thu, a senior analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.


    “It is in no one’s interests, neither China nor anyone in Southeast Asia, to escalate incidents into military confrontation,” she said.


    But with no discernable progress in resolving the myriad territorial disputes in the South China Sea, few observers are optimistic about nations reaching a durable solution to protect against conflict.


    The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has aspired for nearly two decades to negotiate with China a binding Code of Conduct, or CoC, which would mitigate the risk of accidents at sea. ASEAN members Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, and Indonesia all have claims to the South China Sea or borders that conflict with China’s claims.


    Late last month, the bloc reiterated their desire to complete those negotiations.


    But Dr. Le Thu said that it was “wrong to hang on to the hope” that the CoC would make the South China Sea safer.


    “The same week when the senior ministers’ meeting between China and ASEAN reassured about each other’s good intentions and cooperation toward the CoC, China also sent ships into Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and kept harassing other Southeast Asians,” she said.

    Taking sides


    Some Southeast Asian nations which lack the capacity to stand up to China believe stepping up cooperation with the U.S. is the best way to safeguard their interests, according to Mohamad Mizan Aslam, a geopolitical strategy expert at the Universiti Malaysia Perlis.


    Scobell said one of the most remarkable regional developments this year has been the Philippines backtracking on plans to dial back its military ties with the U.S., its treaty ally.


    “Beijing was starting to believe it had lured Manila away from Washington,” he said.


    Manila shelved its sudden abrogation of a visiting forces agreement with Washington on June 1 and is taking a stronger line against China’s actions in the South China Sea.


    Still, ASEAN countries remain wary about too much of a U.S. military presence in the South China Sea where there is the potential to be dragged into a U.S.-China conflict.


    Dr. Le Thu said countries in the region “would be more comfortable with the U.S. that has a strategy and longer-term plan to manage the tensions rather than fueling it for its own benefit.”


    ASEAN nations traditionally are loathe to pick sides. Suorsa said the more the Sino-U.S rivalry intensifies, the more pressure both Washington and Beijing are likely to exert over smaller powers to choose between them.


    “High-level officials’ insistence that the U.S. will not force smaller powers to pick sides is also losing credibility,” Suorsa said.


    The perception that the South China Sea has become a venue for that great power rivalry was echoed by a retired Vietnamese general this week.


    Senior Lt. Gen. Vo Tien Trung, a former member of the Communist Party Central Committee, warned that the recent military drills by China and the U.S. have “created instability and a tense situation.”


    “Such actions of the two countries’ militaries create the risk of a military clash leading to instability in the South China Sea region,” he told state-run Dan Viet newspaper. “So we ask both sides to exercise utmost restraint.”

    Risk of Conflict between US, China Rising in South China Sea, Analysts Say

  21. #996
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
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    ...the risk of conflict makes an eye-catching headline, but I doubt any such confrontation will take place...the Chinese may be trying out a bit of brinkmanship, but they'll retreat to propaganda blasts in the face of an aircraft carrier group...much to ASEAN's relief, I imagine...
    Majestically enthroned amid the vulgar herd

  22. #997

  23. #998
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    I've been on the Bonhomme Richard, it is fucking enormous.

    It has a shopping mall inside that puts many land based ones to shame.

    I expect the chinky one is yet another knock-off.

  24. #999
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    U.S. rejects China’s claims in South China Sea, adding to tensions

    WASHINGTON, The United States on Monday rejected China’s disputed claims to offshore resources in most of the South China Sea, a move that Beijing criticised as inciting tensions in the region and which highlighted an increasingly testy relationship.


    China has offered no coherent legal basis for its ambitions in the South China Sea and for years has been using intimidation against other Southeast Asian coastal states, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.


    “We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them,” said Pompeo, a prominent China hawk within the Trump administration.


    The United States has long opposed China’s expansive territorial claims on the South China Sea, sending warships regularly through the strategic waterway to demonstrate freedom of navigation there. Monday’s comments reflect a harsher tone.


    “The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire,” Pompeo said.


    The Chinese embassy in Washington said the accusation is “completely unjustified.”


    “Under the pretext of preserving stability, (the U.S.) is flexing muscles, stirring up tension and inciting confrontation in the region,” it said.


    Analysts said it would be key to see whether others adopt the U.S. stance and what, if anything, Washington might do to reinforce its position and prevent Beijing from creating “facts on the water” to buttress its claims.


    “The U.S. is trying to drive a wedge between China and its Southeast Asian neighbours,” said Zhu Feng, executive director of China Center for Collaborative Studies of the South China Sea at Nanjing University.


    The U.S. statement supports a ruling four years ago under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that invalidated most of China’s claims for maritime rights in the South China Sea.


    Philippines Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said claims in the region should be resolved according to the Convention. “Our position here is we will pursue our national interest and resolving the South China Sea will have to be in accordance with the law,” he said.


    Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry’s welcomed the U.S. statement, and called for Taiwan’s inclusion in a multilateral dispute mechanism. “Our country opposes any attempt by a claimant state to use intimidation, coercion, or force to resolve disputes in the South China Sea,” spokeswoman Joanne Ou told reporters.


    SWEEPING CLAIMS


    The relationship between the United States and China has grown increasingly tense over the past six months over Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, its tightened grip on Hong Kong and its crackdown on China’s Uighur Muslim community.


    “After reading this statement, I’m less optimistic about China and the U.S. being able to prevent accidents on the South China Sea from escalating into armed conflict,” said Wu Shicun, head of China Institute of South China Sea Studies.


    China claims 90% of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also lay claim to parts of it, through which about $3 trillion of trade passes each year. Beijing has built bases atop atolls in the region but says its intentions are peaceful.


    Beijing routinely outlines the scope of its claims with reference to the so-called nine-dash line that encompasses about nine-tenths of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer South China Sea on Chinese maps.


    “This is basically the first time we have called it illegitimate,” said Chris Johnson, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It’s fine to put out a statement, but what you going to do about it?”

    U.S. rejects China’s claims in South China Sea, adding to tensions – Thai PBS World

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    Oil Firm Withdraws from Vietnamese Field, as Beijing Puts Squeeze on Hanoi

    Vietnam has cancelled its contract with an oil rig originally meant to begin exploring at an oil field near Vanguard Bank, off Vietnam’s southeastern coast, the owner of the rig has confirmed.


    The cancellation comes as Beijing exerts pressure on Southeast Asian nations that want to exploit resources in the South China with international partners.


    In the latest exhibition of that pressure, a China Coast Guard vessel is patrolling near another Vietnamese oil rig already in the area. It is being monitored by several Vietnamese coastguard ships, in what has the makings of another maritime standoff between the two powers.


    The Noble Clyde Boudreaux, an oil rig contracted by Vietnam to drill in the contentious oil block 06-01, had its contract with Vietnam canceled according to a fleet status report uploaded to the Noble Corporation’s website. Its parent company received an undisclosed sum as compensation.


    The Clyde Boudreaux had been sitting idle in the Vietnamese port at Vung Tau for more than two months. It was previously scheduled to start working at the beginning of June. Its updated status says it will commence work on a new, unspecified contract with Vietnam in mid-July.


    “Previously disclosed contract in Vietnam has been cancelled. Contract includes a termination payment,” the status report says.


    Vietnam has frequently come under pressure from China to cease oil exploration off its southern coast, in waters China unlawfully claims on the basis of “historic rights.”


    China maintains that any resource exploration in the South China Sea must be done with Chinese partners, and not international companies, and has had some success in making Vietnam back down from joint exploration even in waters within Vietnam’s jurisdiction.


    Spanish company Repsol gave up its shares in three Vietnamese oil blocks on June 12, three years after its original contract with Vietnam was canceled due to Chinese pressure.


    There is no stated reason for the cancellation of the Clyde Boudreaux’s contract. But it comes at a time when China has stepped up its intrusions into Vietnamese waters, sending a survey vessel within 200 nautical miles of Vietnam’s coast on June 17 and more recently sending the China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel 5402 to the Vanguard Bank, a submerged feature in the Spratly chain of rocks and reefs in the southern part of the South China Sea.


    China and Vietnam were engaged in a months-long standoff at the bank last year.


    Vessel tracking data shows the 5402 remained at Vanguard Bank as of Monday morning, and several vessels with Vietnam’s Fisheries Resources Surveillance, a maritime law enforcement agency analogous to a coastguard, were surrounding it.


    The 5402 appears to be making passes by an oil rig currently operated by Russian energy company Rosneft. The Lan Tay platform has been working in block 06.01 since 2018, and on July 6 a ship similar to the 5402 was visible in satellite imagery passing within 21 nautical miles of it.


    Malaysia has come under similar pressure from China this year. Between mid-April and mid-May, a Chinese survey vessel and escort ships spent a month operating in the vicinity of a Malaysian-contracted drillship inside Malaysian exclusive economic zone, until the drillship departed.


    On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a tough statement declaring as illegal sweeping Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea that stretch far from its own mainland.


    “The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire,” Pompeo said. “America stands with our Southeast Asian allies and partners in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources, consistent with their rights and obligations under international law.”

    Oil Firm Withdraws from Vietnamese Field, as Beijing Puts Squeeze on Hanoi

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