14/04/2020
- Vietnamese ships spent months last year shadowing the Haiyang Dizhi 8 as it surveyed the resource-rich waters within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone
- Its return follows charges laid by the US that China is ‘exploiting the distraction’ and vulnerability caused by the pandemic
The Haiyang Dizhi 8 at sea. Photo: Weibo
A Chinese ship
embroiled in a stand-off with Vietnamese vessels last year
has returned to waters near Vietnam as the United States accused
China
of pushing its presence in the
South China Sea while other claimants are pre-occupied with the coronavirus.
Vietnamese vessels last year spent months shadowing the Chinese Haiyang Dizhi 8 survey vessel in resource-rich waters that are a potential global flashpoint as the
challenges China’s sweeping maritime claims.
China and Vietnam ‘likely to clash again’ as they build maritime militias
On Tuesday, the ship, which is used for offshore seismic surveys, appeared again 158km off
Vietnam’s coast, within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), flanked by at least one Chinese coastguard vessel, according to data from Marine Traffic, a website that tracks shipping.
At least three Vietnamese vessels were moving with the Chinese ship, according to data issued by the Marine Traffic site.
The presence of the Haiyang Dizhi 8 in Vietnam’s EEZ comes towards the scheduled end of a 15-day nationwide lockdown in Vietnam aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
It also follows
, an act that drew a protest from Vietnam and accusations that China had violated its sovereignty and threatened the lives of its fishermen.
“We call on the PRC to remain focused on supporting international efforts to combat the global pandemic, and to stop exploiting the distraction or vulnerability of other states to expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea,” the US State Department said in a statement, referring to China.
Vietnam pulls DreamWorks’ ‘Abominable’ over South China Sea map
, which also has disputed claims in the South China Sea, has raised its concerns too.
On Saturday, the Global Times, published by the official People’s Daily newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, said Vietnam had used the fishing boat incident to distract from its “ineptitude” in handling the coronavirus.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Helped by a mass quarantine and aggressive contact-tracing, Vietnam has recorded 265 cases of the novel coronavirus and no deaths. Nearly 122,000 coronavirus tests have been carried out in Vietnam.
Coronavirus: what’s behind Vietnam’s containment success?
China and Vietnam have for years been at loggerheads over the potentially energy-rich waters, called the East Sea by Vietnam.
China’s U-shaped “nine-dash line” on its maps marks a vast expanse of the waters that it claims, including large parts of Vietnam’s continental shelf where it has awarded oil concessions.
and Brunei claim some of the waters that China claims to the south.
During the stand-off last year, at least one Chinese coastguard vessel spent weeks in waters close to an oil rig in a Vietnamese oil block, operated by Russia’s Rosneft, while the Haihyang Dizhi 8 conducted suspected oil exploration surveys in large expanses of Vietnam’s EEZ.
“The deployment of the vessel is Beijing’s move to once again baselessly assert its sovereignty in the South China Sea,” said Ha Hoang Hop, at the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
“China is using the coronavirus distraction to increase its assertiveness in the South China Sea, at a time when the US and Europe are struggling to cope with the new coronavirus.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in Aircraft carrier, amid, awarded, ‘exploiting the distraction’, “Abominable”, Beijing’s, Brunei, caused, charges, Chinese, coastguard vessal, Communist Party, concessions, containment, Continental Shelf, coronavirus, Coronavirus pandemic, Da Nang, disputed waters, distraction, DreamWorks, Europe, follows, Global Times, last year, Malaysia, maps, marks, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, months, newspaper, off, Oil, oil block, operated, pandemic, People’s Daily, PRC, pre-occupied, resource-rich, return, returns, Rosneft, Russia’s, shadowing, Singapore, South China Sea, spent, success, survey ship, surveyed, Uncategorized, US, vast expanse, Vietnam, Vietnam’s, Vietnamese ships, vulnerability, waters |
Leave a Comment »
22/03/2020
- Move will help air force with patrols and combat-readiness near Taiwan and in the East and South China seas, according to observers
- Markings including national flag and service insignia will also be standardised under new guidelines
Chinese military aircraft will get “low observable” coatings and standardised markings. Photo: Xinhua
Chinese military aircraft are to be painted with “low observable” coatings and standardised markings under new guidelines, a move observers say will assist with operations near Taiwan and in the East and South China seas.
The guidelines require markings including the national flag and service insignia to be gradually standardised on both active and future warplanes, the official PLA Daily newspaper said earlier this month.
The move comes two years after the Chinese navy started experimenting with its J-16 strike fighter, using a dark grey low-visibility coating instead of blue-grey, and replacing its service insignia with a new design, according to military magazine Ordnance Industry Science Technology.
Some of the navy’s only active aircraft carrier-based fighter jets, the J-15s, have also been given new coatings and markings, according to the People’s Liberation Army’s official website.
PLA Daily said the move aimed to give Chinese warplanes a combat advantage as they “will be less likely to be detected by both the naked eye and military radar”. It said the new guidelines would be gradually implemented this year.
Some of the aircraft carrier-based J-15 fighter jets already have the new coatings. Photo: AFP
Macau-based military observer Antony Wong Dong said the move would help the air force improve patrols and combat-readiness as it carried out more drills near the Taiwan Strait and in the East and South China seas.
China’s air force and navy have sent warplanes including Su-35 fighter jets, H-6K strategic bombers and advanced KJ-2000 airborne early warning aircraft to conduct “encirclement” drills around Taiwan since 2018, as Beijing applies pressure on the self-ruled island that it sees as part of its territory. But none of the aircraft seen in photographs of the exercises had low-visibility coatings or standardised markings, as used on the navy’s J-16s and J-15s.
US spy plane pilots use China’s satellite navigation system as backup
“Aircraft used by the PLA Air Force have different coatings and markings because they are still in a transitional period,” Wong said. “Its counterparts like Taiwan have learned from Western countries like the United States to standardise coatings and markings and designs [since the 1990s].”
Beijing insists that Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949, remains part of China and they will eventually be reunited – by force if necessary.
The PLA also regularly sends aircraft to monitor freedom of navigation operations by the US Navy in the
South China Sea. Beijing has territorial disputes in the resource-rich waterway with countries including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
A military insider in Beijing said the US move to send hundreds of its new-generation F-35 stealth fighter jets to South Korea and Japan had also pushed the PLA to upgrade the coatings on its aircraft.
“These coatings are a highly technical area, and China puts a tremendous amount of resources into research on this every year,” said the insider, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. “The coating that’s used on
China’s first stealth fighter jet, the J-20, is more advanced than they used on the Lockheed Martin F-22s, but it’s not yet at the level of the F-35s.”
Hong Kong-based military expert Song Zhongping said military aircraft used to have a bright red national flag and service insignia that made them more detectable on radar systems, or even with the naked eye.
“The red they used is striking, but it’s not in line with the ‘low observable’ requirement for all fighter jets,” said Song, who is a military commentator for Phoenix Television.
“All fighter jets must have stealth and low-visibility capabilities, and the coatings and markings on them are part of how they can do this and meet requirements for combat.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in Beijing, Brunei, Chinese, Chinese navy, Chinese warplanes, coatings, detect, East China Sea, F-35 stealth fighter jets, H-6K strategic bombers, harder, J-16 strike fighter, Japan, KJ-2000 airborne early warning aircraft, Lockheed Martin F-22s,, Malaysia, national flag, Ordnance Industry Science Technology, Philippines, PLA Air Force, PLA Daily, service insignia, South China Sea, South Korea, Su-35 fighter jets,, Taiwan, Taiwan Strait, Uncategorized, United States, Vietnam |
Leave a Comment »
27/12/2019
- A push to connect Pacific nations highlights a submarine struggle for dominance over the world’s technology infrastructure
- The ambitions of Chinese tech giants like Huawei, which have laid thousands of kilometres of cable, are of increasing concern to Washington
The ambitions of Chinese tech giants like Huawei, which have laid thousands of kilometres of cable, are of increasing concern to Washington. Photo: Reuters
I
n the contest between the
US and China for dominance over the world’s technology
infrastructure, the latest battle is taking place under the Pacific Ocean.
While the US has been upping the pressure on its allies not to include equipment made by Chinese telecom giants like Huawei and ZTE in their 5G systems, Chinese companies have gained a foothold in some of the world’s most essential communications infrastructure – undersea internet cables.
Smart telecom cables: climate change hope or submarine spying tech?
Almost all global data communications flow through cables under the ocean – just one per cent travels by satellite – and Chinese companies have quietly been eroding US, European and Japanese dominance over the backbone of the internet, the undersea cable market. Now, they have trained their sights on connecting one of the most virtually remote parts of the globe, the
Pacific Island countries.
Of the 378 cables currently operating worldwide, 23 are under the Pacific. But many of these cables run right by Pacific Island nations on their paths between hubs in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Singapore.
An electric submarine cable and optical fibre. File photo
Despite the volume of data flowing under the Pacific Ocean, just half a million of the 11 million people living in Pacific Island countries and Papua New Guinea – less than five per cent – have access to a wired internet connection and only 1.5 million to a mobile connection, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Asia Pacific (UNESCAP), compared with 53 per cent of people in Thailand and 60 per cent in the Philippines.
More than US$4 billion worth of cables are to come into service by 2021, continuing a trend in which US$2 billion worth of cables have come online every year since 2016, and six of these cables will connect Pacific Island countries.
The push to connect Pacific Island nations to the latest generation of internet infrastructure has received extra scrutiny from the US and its allies like
Australia
over the involvement of Chinese tech companies.
Choose Beijing over Taipei, Solomon Islands task force recommends
While the US has moved to block Huawei from supplying equipment to its allies’ 5G networks, experts say Chinese tech companies could contest the US, EU and
long-standing dominance over global data traffic through investments in subsea cables.
Chinese tech giants like Huawei have entire divisions devoted to undersea connectivity that have laid thousands of kilometres of cable, and Chinese state telecommunication companies such as China Unicom have access to many of the existing trans-Pacific cables.
But a panel led by the US Department of Justice has held up a nearly complete trans-Pacific cable project over concerns about its Chinese investor, Beijing-based Dr Peng Telecom & Media Group.
The project, the Pacific Light Cable Network, could be the first cable rejected by the panel on the grounds of national security – despite being backed by American tech giants
Google and
Facebook – setting a precedent for a tougher US stance on Chinese involvement in subsea cables.
Chinese tech giants like Huawei have entire divisions devoted to undersea connectivity that have laid thousands of kilometres of cable. Photo: AP
Craige Sloots, director of sales at Southern Cross Cable Network, which operates the largest existing sets of trans-Pacific cables, said for any new cable, regulators were likely to scrutinise the ownership of the companies involved and the maker of the project’s equipment.
These two factors, said Sloots, “pragmatically limit some of the providers you can use if you want to connect through the US”.
Experts say that Hong Kong, where the stalled Pacific Light Cable would land, was previously considered a more secure shore landing point than mainland China. But people close to the project say the recent unrest in the city has made this distinction less relevant, according to The Wall Street Journal.
If these nations want to be part of the international economy, they need reliable communications: Bruce Howe, University of Hawaii
Similar concerns caused a proposed Huawei-backed cable linking Vanuatu with Papua New Guinea to be called off last year after Australia stepped in to fund its own cable instead.
Just months after the government-owned Solomon Islands Submarine Cable Company agreed to the project with Huawei in mid-2017, Canberra put up US$67 million to connect Sydney with the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea with cables laid under the Coral Sea by Nokia’s Alcatel Submarine Networks.
Simon Fletcher, CEO of Vanuatu company Interchange, which had been planning another cable in the neighbourhood connecting Vanuatu with the Solomon Islands, said the Coral Sea project undercut the viability for small private businesses to operate in the fledgling market, where services had historically been provided by international organisations like development banks. His company’s cable has been on pause since the announcement of the Coral Sea project, though Fletcher said it would go forward next year.
US-China battle for dominance extends across Pacific, above and below the sea
22 Jul 2019
VIRTUALLY REMOTE
For years, as Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore became global hubs of high-speed internet data traffic, the cables criss-crossing the ocean floor passed by just off the shores of Pacific Island countries en route between hubs on either side of the ocean.
Tiziana Bonapace, director of UNESCAP’s information technology and disaster risk-reduction division, said the Pacific Islands remain one of the most disconnected areas in the world, where “a vast proportion of the population has no access to the internet”.
Over the past five years, international organisations like UNESCAP, the Asia Development Bank and the World Bank have been pushing for better connectivity in the region. The World Bank’s Pacific Regional Connectivity Programme has invested more than US$90 million into broadband infrastructure for Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Samoa and Tuvalu.
Internet cables in the Pacific Ocean.
But the business case had never been good, said Bonapace.
“A cable has to travel thousands of kilometres just to connect a population smaller than one of Asia’s megacities,” she said. “As everything we do is somehow connected to the internet, the prospects for the Pacific to become virtually more remote are even higher.”
Even nations which are connected have tenuous infrastructure. In January, Tonga experienced a total internet blackout for two weeks after damage to its single cable. Most parts of the world were linked by multiple cables to prevent this type of outage, said Bruce Howe, professor of ocean and resources engineering at University of Hawaii.
“If these nations want to be part of the international economy, they need reliable communications,” Howe said.
Is Chinese support for Pacific nations shaping their stance on West Papua?
26 Aug 2019
DRAWING NEW LINES
In Papua New Guinea, where mobile internet currently reaches less than a third of the population, a partnership between local telecoms company GoPNG and the Export-Import Bank of China funded the new Huawei-built Kumul Domestic cable system, which came online this year.
The Southern Cross Next system, owned by Spark, Verizon, Singtel Optus and Telstra – the same group of shareholders which operates the massive 30,500km (19,000 mile) set of twin cables connecting the US with Australia and New Zealand known as Southern Cross – is planned to come online in 2022, and will connect directly to Fiji, Samoa, Kiribati and Tokelau.
Chinese telecoms company China Unicom counts the existing Southern Cross cables among its network capabilities – meaning it is likely to have access to the cable through a leasing agreement with one of the other companies that uses the cable, according to Canberra think tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).
An undersea fibre optic cable. Photo: AFP
China Unicom and China Telecom also list the Asia America Gateway Cable System as one of their network capabilities, according to ASPI. The 20,000km (12,400-mile) cable came online in 2009 and connects the US, Guam, Hong Kong, Brunei, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.
It is owned by a consortium of carriers including AT&T, Telekom Malaysia, Telstra and Spark.
A cable backed by Google and the Australian Academic and Research Network connecting Japan and Australia through Guam is to come online early next year.
China: the real reason Australia’s pumping cash into the Pacific?
28 Jul 2018
WHAT’S NEXT
Natasha Beschorner, senior digital development specialist at the World Bank, said that while there were challenges ahead in terms of broadband access and affordability, increased connectivity was starting to bring new opportunities to the Pacific.
“Digital technologies can contribute to economic diversification, income generation and service delivery in the Pacific,” Beschorner said. “E-commerce and financial technologies are emerging and governments are considering how to roll out selected services online.”
Experts say the industry has recently seen a switch from cables being mostly funded by telecommunication carriers to being funded by content providers, like Google and Facebook. Members of the private cable industry say content companies can afford to invest in cable infrastructure to ensure the supply chain for their customers, but that the competition puts the squeeze on the research-and-development budgets of other types of companies.
Sloots at Southern Cross predicted that the nations which connected directly to the massive next-generation cable – Samoa, Kiribati and Tokelau – would be able to function as connecting points for intra-Pacific cables.
“There’s a blossoming effect in capability once certain islands are connected,” Sloots said.
There is also the push to locate an exchange point within the Pacific so that internet data no longer has to travel to a hub in Tokyo or Los Angeles and back to Pacific nations when processing – a move that could ultimately lower the cost of broadband internet service for consumers in the Pacific.
Perhaps the most effective outcome could be for Pacific nations to cut the cord and receive their internet by satellite.
The Asian Development Bank has agreed to give a US$50 million loan to Singapore’s Kacific Broadband Satellites International to provide up to two billion people across the Asia-Pacific region with affordable satellite-based internet.
The project is to be launched into orbit by SpaceX next week and aims to begin providing service by early next year.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Alcatel Submarine Networks, Asia America Gateway Cable System, Asia Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Australia, Australian Academic and Research Network, Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Beijing, broadband internet service, Brunei, cables, Canberra, China Telecom, China Unicom, Dr Peng Telecom & Media Group, Export-Import Bank of China, Facebook, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Google, GoPNG, Guam, Hong Kong, Huawei, Internet, Japan, Kiribati, Kumul Domestic cable system, Los Angeles, Malaysia, new battleground, New Zealand, Nokia, Pacific island countries, Pacific Light Cable Network, Pacific Regional Connectivity Programme, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Singapore, Singtel Optus, Solomon Islands, Solomon Islands Submarine Cable Company, Southern Cross Cable Network, Southern Cross Next system, SpaceX, Spark, Taipei, Telekom Malaysia, Telstra, Thailand, the Coral Sea, the Philippines, The Wall Street Journal, think tank, Tokelau, Tokyo, Tonga, Uncategorized, undersea, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Asia Pacific (UNESCAP), University of Hawaii, US, US-China tech war, Vanuatu, Vanuatu company Interchange, Verizon, Vietnam, Washington, West Papua, World Bank, ZTE |
Leave a Comment »
08/12/2019
Participants learn about the construction of Shanghai West Bund in Shanghai, east China, Dec. 7, 2019, before attending the upcoming 2019 South-South Human Rights Forum. (Photo by Wang Xiang/Xinhua)
SHANGHAI, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) — Officials and scholars from more than 70 Asian, African and Latin American developing countries, as well as the United Nations, visited Shanghai on Saturday before attending the upcoming 2019 South-South Human Rights Forum.
The forum, hosted by the State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be held in Beijing from Dec. 10 to 11.
According to the Beijing Declaration issued at the first South-South Human Rights Forum held in Beijing in 2017, participants agreed that the right to subsistence and the right to development were the primary basic human rights.
During the one-day trip in Shanghai, the officials and scholars, from countries including Laos, Brunei, South Africa, Mexico and Mauritius, visited the city’s financial district and the World Expo Museum, snapped pictures of local residents’ life scenes on the bank of the Huangpu River, and investigated the progress of waste sorting in ordinary residential streets. They were impressed by the prosperous and orderly development of the mega city.
“I think China is becoming more open and confident about human rights. The changes I saw here are examples of the great improvements in the Chinese people’s rights to subsistence and development,” said Davina Sigauta Rasch, director of Corporate Service of the Ombudsman Office in Samoa, who studied international economics and trade from 2009 to 2013 at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
She said that compared with 10 years ago, China has made significant progress in the emerging fields such as high-speed railways and mobile payments, which directly improved people’s lives. China is not only developing itself, but also helping other developing countries, she said.
Her idea was echoed by Lionel Vairon, CEO of CEC Consulting in Luxembourg and also a senior research member of the Charhar Institute, a private think tank in China.
Over the past 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, great achievements which have attracted worldwide attention have been made, he said, adding that the international community should not ignore China’s progress in human rights out of ideological misunderstanding and prejudice.
“In the future, global governance must make a choice between the policy of strong-power hegemony and the path of a community with a shared future for humanity. And the latter is the wisdom China has contributed to the world,” he said.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in attending, before, Brunei, Chengdu, forum, Human rights, Laos, Mauritius, Mexico, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, participants, Samoa, Shanghai, sichuan province, South Africa, South-South, State Council Information Office, Uncategorized, visit, World Expo Museum |
Leave a Comment »
08/11/2019
- Chan is accused of supporting Beijing’s so-called nine-dash line, which is its historical justification for its territorial claims in the resource-rich sea
- Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei all have competing claims in the waterway that overlap with China’s
Film star Jackie Chan. Photo: Reuters
Martial arts film star
Jackie Chan’s planned visit to
Vietnam for a charity has been cancelled following an online backlash related to Beijing’s expansive claims in the disputed
South China Sea.
The Hong Kong-born actor was set to visit Hanoi on November 10 to support Operation Smile, a charity that gives free surgery to children with facial disfigurements.
Jackie Chan says he wants to make films in Saudi Arabia
But the plans were scrapped after thousands of angry Facebook users flooded the charity’s official page when his visit was announced last week.
Some of their comments claimed Chan had spoken in support of China’s so-called nine-dash line – its historical justification for its territorial claims in the resource-rich sea.
A map showing claimant countries’ exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea.
However, Chan has not explicitly expressed public support for the controversial maritime assertion.
Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei all have competing claims in the waterway that overlap with China’s – long a source of tension in the region.
Issuing a mea culpa on Friday for failing “to predict the reaction” of the Vietnamese public, the charity asserted that their work is “non-political”.
“We are very sorry … Operation Smile will not organise any activities with [Chan’s] involvement” in Vietnam, they said.
A Chinese coastguard ship sails by a Vietnamese vessel off the coast of Vietnam in 2014. Photo: Reuters
Vietnam is one of Beijing’s most vocal critics over the flashpoint South China Sea issue.
The foreign ministry on Thursday repeated its usual proclamation on the sea, citing the country’s “full legal basis and true evidence to affirm Vietnam’s sovereignty”, deputy spokesperson Ngo Toan Thang said.
Chan has in the past been accused of siding with China over Hong Kong’s democracy protests after calling the unrest in his hometown “sad and depressing”.
The comment sparked ire in Hong Kong but was warmly received by many in China where he has a massive fan base.
Abominable has been criticised for a scene showing the nine-dash line. Photo: DreamWorks
Earlier this month
Hanoi pulled the DreamWorks film Abominable from theatres over a scene featuring a map showing the nine-dash line.
Beijing claims most the South China Sea through the vague delineation, which is based on maps from the 1940s as the then-Republic of China snapped up islands from Japanese control.
Posted in Actor, angry, “Abominable”, “nine-dash line”, backlash, Beijing’s, born, Brunei, cancels, charity visit, children, claimant, claimed, coastguard ship, complaints, countries, exclusive economic zones, Facebook, facial disfigurements, film star, films, free surgery, global fishing route, Hanoi, historical justification, Hong Kong, islands, Japanese control, Malaysia, man-made, martial arts, mea culpa, military installations, Operation Smile, Philippines, plans, Republic of China, resource-rich sea, Saudi Arabia, scrapped, snapped up, South China Sea, survey ship, Taiwan, territorial claims, Uncategorized, users, Vietnam, Vietnamese vessel, waters |
Leave a Comment »
25/10/2019
- Haiyang Dizhi 8 in waters close to Macau as of 4pm Friday, MarineTraffic reports
- Vessel’s work in disputed waters ‘now complete’, foreign ministry says
The Haiyang Dizhi 8 was close to Macau as of Friday afternoon, according to the MarineTraffic maritime information service. Photo: Weibo
The Chinese survey ship that has been at the centre of a stand-off with Vietnam in the
was back in waters close to home on Friday afternoon, according to an online platform that provides information about maritime activity.
As of 4pm, the Haiyang Dizhi 8 (Marine Geology 8), which had been operating close to Vanguard Bank – a disputed reef in the Spratly Island chain claimed by both Beijing and Hanoi – was located just off Macau, the MarineTraffic service said.
China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that the vessel had finished the work it had started “in Chinese-controlled waters in early July”.
“According to our understanding the work is now complete,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing, without elaborating.
The Japanese oil rig, Hakuryu 5, is reported to have completed its drilling mission near Vanguard Bank earlier this week. Photo: Japan Drilling Co
While in the Vanguard Reef area, the
Haiyang Dizhi 8, escorted by heavily armed coastguard vessels, made multiple passes by an oil block operated by Russian energy company Rosneft.
Observers say the presence of the Chinese vessels in the region is part of Beijing’s efforts to prevent Hanoi from partnering with international energy firms to explore energy reserves in the disputed waterway. The latest activity triggered a months-long stand-off between the two countries.
The departure of the Haiyang Dizhi 8 came amid reports that the Japanese oil rig, Hakuryu 5, owned by Tokyo-based Japan Drilling Company and employed by Rosneft, had earlier this week completed a drilling mission it started in May near Vanguard Bank.
China’s Defence Minister Wei Fenghe told a regional security conference that the South China Sea was an inalienable part of China’s territory. Photo: AP
Although China and Vietnam have said they are looking for a diplomatic solution to prevent confrontations, neither has shown any signs of backing down and tensions have continued to rise.
On Monday, China’s Defence Minister Wei Fenghe told military and defence officials attending a regional security conference in Beijing that the South China Sea was an inalienable part of China’s territory.
“We will not allow even an inch of territory that our ancestors have left to us to be taken away,” he said in his opening speech at the Xiangshan Forum.
Also on Monday, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told lawmakers at the National Assembly that Hanoi would never give any territorial concessions.
“The situation in the South China Sea has become increasingly complicated,” he said. “Our party and state have consistently stated that what belongs to our independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, we will never give up.”
Last week, Hanoi pulled DreamWorks’ animated film Abominable from theatres over a scene featuring a map that shows Beijing’s self-declared “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea. China uses the U-shaped line to claim sovereignty over more than 80 per cent of the resource-rich waterway, parts of which are also claimed by Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei.
Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said that the withdrawal of the Haiyang Dizhi might only be “temporary”.
“China has made its point about drilling activities within the nine-dash line and expects Vietnam to suspend further exploration and production activities,” he said. “[But] of course Vietnam won’t.”
China, Malaysia seek to resolve South China Sea disputes with dialogue mechanism
Zhang Mingliang, a specialist in Southeast Asian affairs at Jinan University in the south China city of Guangzhou, said that the Chinese ship’s withdrawal was unlikely to have had anything to do with the comments made by Vietnam.
“I think the main reason is that it had finished its work,” he said. “But the withdrawal could also be seen as an attempt to ease the [China’s] tensions with the US.”
The significance for relations between Beijing and Hanoi was minimal, he said, as the two nations were engaged in one of the world’s most complicated territorial disputes.
“The impact on Sino-Vietnam relations will be limited because there have been too many disputes like this one,” he said.
Source: SCMP
Posted in animated film, “Abominable”, “nine-dash line”, back home, Beijing, Brunei, China's territory, Chinese, Chinese Defence Minister, confrontations, diplomatic solution, disputed waters, DreamWorks, drilling activities, drilling mission, energy company, Foreign Ministry, Guangzhou, Haiyang Dizhi 8, Hakuryu 5, Hanoi, heavily armed, inalienable part, involved, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Japanese oil rig, Jinan University, lawmakers, Macau, Malaysia, map, Marine Geology 8, MarineTraffic, National Assembly of Vietnam, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, now complete, Philippines, regional security conference, Rosneft, Russian, Singapore, Sino-Vietnam relations, South China Sea, Southeast Asian affairs, sovereignty, Spratly Island, stand-off, survey ship, territorial concessions, theatres, U-shaped line, Uncategorized, Vanguard Bank, Vessel, Vietnam, Vietnamese Prime Minister, waters, Wei Fenghe, Xiangshan forum |
Leave a Comment »
15/10/2019
HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnamese President and Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong has called for restraint in the disputed South China Sea amid a tense months-long standoff between Chinese and Vietnamese ships, state media reported on Tuesday.
China claims almost all the energy-rich waters but neighbours Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
Tension escalated when Beijing dispatched a research ship to conduct an energy survey in waters controlled by Vietnam in July.
“On the subject of foreign policy, including the East Sea issue, the General Secretary stressed the importance of maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, and resolutely fighting to protect Vietnam’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the state-run Voice of Vietnam (VOV) said on its website.
The South China Sea is known as the East Sea in Vietnam.
Vietnam has good relations with China but should “never compromise” on its sovereignty and territorial integrity, VOV quoted Trong as saying.
The Chinese vessel, the Haiyang Dizhi 8, was continuing its survey in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone late on Tuesday, under escort from at least three Chinese ships, according to data from Marine Traffic, a website that tracks vessel movements.
Vietnam’s foreign ministry has repeatedly accused the vessel and its escorts of violating its sovereignty and has demanded that China remove its ships from the area.
On Sunday, Vietnam pulled DreamWorks’ animated film “Abominable” from cinemas over a scene featuring a map which shows China’s unilaterally declared “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea.
The U-shaped line is used on Chinese maps to illustrate its claims, including large swathes of Vietnam’s continental shelf, where it has awarded oil concessions.
In August, police broke up a brief protest outside the Chinese embassy in Hanoi over the survey vessel.
Trong has made more public appearances in recent weeks after suffering from an unspecified illness..
The 75-year-old has presided over a widespread crackdown on corruption in the Southeast Asian country that has seen several high-ranking ministers and politicians, including one Politburo member, sent to prison on charges ranging from embezzlement to economic mismanagement.
Source: Reuters
Posted in amid, “Abominable”, “nine-dash line”, Beijing, Brunei, China alert, Chinese embassy, Chinese ships, communist party chief, Continental Shelf, DreamWorks, East Sea, Exclusive economic zone, exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Foreign Ministry, Haiyang Dizhi 8, Hanoi, Malaysia, Marine Traffic, maritime tensions, Nguyen Phu Trong, oil concessions, Philippines, restraint, South China Sea, sovereignty, survey, Taiwan, Uncategorized, urges, Vietnam, Vietnamese President, Vietnamese ships, Voice of Vietnam (VOV) |
Leave a Comment »
12/09/2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – China and Malaysia have agreed to set up a joint dialogue mechanism for the disputed South China Sea, the Chinese government’s top diplomat said on Thursday after meeting Malaysia’s foreign minister.
Recent Chinese naval deployments in the strategic waterway, through which more than $3.4 trillion worth of goods are transported annually, have reignited tension with Vietnam and the Philippines. Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have competing claims in the South China Sea.
Malaysia had been critical of China’s South China Sea position, but has not been excessively outspoken recently, especially after China pumped in billions of dollars into infrastructure projects under its Belt and Road Initiative.
Malaysia regularly tracked Chinese naval and coastguard vessels entering Malaysia’s territorial waters, but China respects Malaysia and had “not done anything that caused us trouble, so far”, Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu told Reuters last month.
Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi told a news conference with Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah that this year, tensions in the South China Sea had dropped.
Littoral states and China were committed to continue appropriately handling the South China Sea issue and jointly safeguard peace and stability there, said Wang, who is the Chinese government’s top diplomat.
“To this end, our two sides have agreed to set up a bilateral consultation mechanism for maritime issues, a new platform for dialogue and cooperation for both sides,” he said.
Abdullah, who referred to Wang as “my brother”, said the mechanism would be led by the two countries’ foreign ministries.
“Our officers will be discussing the details, but I think this is one important outcome of the meeting today and also the 45 years of our diplomatic relations,” he said.
China is debt-heavy Malaysia’s biggest trade partner and the countries have close cultural ties too.
In July, China and Malaysia resumed construction on a train project in northern Malaysia, which is part of China’s Belt and Road plan, after a year-long suspension and following a rare agreement to cut its cost by nearly a third, to about $11 billion.
Source: Reuters
Posted in Belt and Road Initiative, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), belt and road plan, Brunei, China alert, coastguard vessels, defence minister, dialogue, infrastructure projects, Littoral states, Malaysia, Malaysian Foreign Minister, mechanism, Mohamad Sabu, naval deployments, naval vessels, Philippines, Reuters, Saifuddin Abdullah, set up, South China Sea, State Councillor Wang Yi, strategic waterway, Taiwan, Uncategorized, Vietnam |
Leave a Comment »
06/09/2019
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Bruneian Princess Hajah Masna in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2019. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) — Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Bruneian Princess Hajah Masna here on Thursday.
Wang said China and Brunei have been understanding, respecting and supporting each other, setting an example for the peaceful coexistence between large and small countries.
Calling the two countries important partners in the building of the Belt and Road, Wang said China supports Brunei’s economic diversification strategy and is willing to work with Brunei in promoting joint ocean development and cooperation in the East ASEAN Growth Area.
Masna said as the next year had been designated as the Year of Tourism Between Brunei and China, the Bruneian side will grasp the opportunity to expand people-to-people exchange and promote the development of the strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in Brunei, Bruneian Princess, China alert, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, East ASEAN Growth Area, Hajah Masna, Uncategorized, Year of Tourism |
Leave a Comment »
31/07/2019
- China suggests good progress made in Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership talks after marathon 10-day negotiations in Zhengzhou
- Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has opted to skip the upcoming high-level meetings, adding fuel to rumours that the country could be removed
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has overtaken the US to become China’s second-largest trading partner in the first half of 2019. Photo: AP
China has claimed “positive progress” towards finalising the world’s largest free-trade agreement by the end of 2019 after hosting 10 days of talks, but insiders have suggested there was “never a chance” of concluding the deal in Zhengzhou.
The 27th round of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations closed on Wednesday in the central Chinese city.
working level conference brought over 700 negotiators from all 16 member countries to Henan province, with China keen to push through a deal which has proven extremely difficult to close.
If finalised, the agreement, which involves the 10 Asean nations, as well as China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and India, would cover around one-third of the global gross domestic product, about 40 per cent of world trade and almost half the world’s population.
“This round of talks has made positive progress in various fields,” said assistant minister of commerce Li Chenggang, adding that all parties had reaffirmed the goal of concluding the deal this year. “China will work together with the RCEP countries to proactively push forward the negotiation, strive to resolve the remaining issues as soon as possible, and to end the negotiations as soon as possible.”
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi (fifth left) poses with foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries during the ASEAN-China Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok. Photo: AFP
China is keen to complete a deal which would offer it a buffer against the United States in Asia, and which would allow it to champion its free trade position, while the US pursues protectionist trade policy.
The RCEP talks took place as Chinese and American trade negotiators resumed face-to-face discussions in Shanghai, which also ended on Wednesday, although there was little sign of similar progress.
As the rivalry between Beijing and Washington has intensified and bilateral trade waned, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) overtook the US to become China’s second-largest trading partner in the first half of 2019. From January to June, the trade volume between China and the 10-member bloc reached US$291.85 billion, up by 4.2 per cent from a year ago, according to government data.
The Asean bloc is made up of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos.
China will work together with the RCEP countries to proactively push forward the negotiation, strive to resolve the remaining issues as soon as possible, and to end the negotiations as soon as possible. Li Chenggang
RCEP talks will now move to a higher level ministerial meeting in Beijing on Friday and Saturday, but trade experts have warned that if material progress is not made, it is likely that the RCEP talks will continue into 2020, prolonging a saga which has already dragged on longer than many expected. It is the first time China has hosted the ministerial level talks.
But complicating matters is the fact that India’s Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal, will not attend the ministerial level talks, with an Indian government official saying that he has to participate in an extended parliamentary session.
India is widely viewed as the biggest roadblock to concluding RCEP, the first negotiations for which were held in May 2013 in Brunei. Delhi has allegedly opposed opening its domestic markets to tariff-free goods and services, particularly from China, and has also had issues with the rules of origin chapter of RCEP.
China is understood to be “egging on” other members to move forward without India, but this could be politically explosive, particularly for smaller Asean nations, a source familiar with talks said.
Deborah Elms, executive director of the Asian Trade Centre, a Singapore-based lobby group, said that after the last round of negotiations in Melbourne between June 22 to July 3 – which she attended – there was “frustration” at India’s reluctance to move forward.
She suggested that in India’s absence, ministers in China could decide to move forward through a “pathfinder” agreement, which would remove India, but also potentially Australia and New Zealand.
India’s Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal, will not attend the ministerial level talks this week in Beijing. Photo: Bloomberg
This “Asean-plus three” deal would be designed to encourage India to come on board, Elms said, but would surely not go down well in Australia and New Zealand, which have been two of the agreement’s biggest supporters.
New Zealand has had objections to the investor protections sections of RCEP, and both countries have historically been pushing for a more comprehensive deal than many members are comfortable with, since both already have free trade agreements with many of the other member nations.
However, their exclusion would be due to “an unfortunate geographical problem, which is if you’re going to kick out India, there has always been an Asean-plus three concept to start with”. Therefore it is easier to exclude Australia and New Zealand, rather than India alone, which would politically difficult.
A source close to the negotiating teams described the prospect of being cut out of the deal at this late stage as a “frustrating rumour”, adding that “as far as I know [it] has no real basis other than a scare tactic against India”.
There was “never a chance of concluding [the deal during] this round, but good progress is being made is what I understand. The key issues remain India and China”, said the source, who wished to remain anonymous.
Replacing bilateral cooperation with regional collaborations is a means of resolving the disputesTong Jiadong
However, Tong Jiadong, a professor of international trade at the Nankai University of Tianjin, said Washington’s refusal to recognise India as a developing country at the World Trade Organisation could nudge the world’s second most populous nation closer to signing RCEP.
“That might push India to the RCEP, accelerating the pace of RCEP,” Tong said, adding that ongoing trade tensions between Japan and South Korea could also be soothed by RCEP’s passage.
“Replacing bilateral cooperation with regional collaborations is a means of resolving the disputes between the two countries,” Tong said.
Although the plan was first proposed by the Southeast Asian countries, China has been playing an increasingly active role, first as a response to the now defunct US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and more recently as a means of containing the impact of the trade war.
China’s vice-commerce Minister, Wang Shouwen, told delegates last week that RCEP was “the most important free trade deal in East Asia”. He called on all participants to “take full advantage of the good momentum and accelerating progress at the moment” to conclude a deal by the end of the year.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Asean nations, ASEAN-China Ministerial Meeting, Asia, Asian Trade Centre, Australia, Bangkok, Beijing, biggest roadblock, Brunei, Cambodia, China alert, claims, Delhi, Henan province, India alert, Indian Commerce Minister, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Melbourne, Myanmar, Nankai University of Tianjin, New Zealand, Philippines, Piyush Goyal, progress, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), remains, rivalry, Shanghai, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, towards, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Uncategorized, United States, Vietnam, Washington, World Trade Organisation (WTO), world’s biggest trade deal, Zhengzhou |
Leave a Comment »
South China Sea News@SCS_news
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 