Hong Lei, Spokesman, Chinese Foreign Ministry, said, "We have seen the reports and will closely watch the development of the situation.
China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. China opposes any move that could impair China’s sovereignty. We hope the country concerned will adhere to the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and not take any action that could complicate the issue."
The Philippines is reportedly planning to build up infrastructure on Zhongye Island this year. The projects include the construction of a world-class airport, capable of housing larger aircraft.
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7/1/13
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China ships, helicopters patrol S. China Sea....
ReplyDeleteA fleet of China’s marine surveillance ships and helicopters is now patrolling in the South China Sea. The regular patrol mission is expected to take about half a month, covering 2,000 nautical miles.
The fleet consists of three surveillance ships, the Haixun 21, Haixun 31 and Haixun 166. They have sailed from South China’s Hainan Province, and will travel through the waters of Sansha city, Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha Islands. Helicopters are also being deployed to keep watch on illegal marine activities and carry out rescue efforts if needed.
The patrol is aimed at strengthening China’s maritime law enforcement capacity in the South China Sea. ......http://english.cntv.cn/program/newshour/20130303/102662.shtml
3/3/13
Η Κίνα έχει προωθήσει πολεμικά πλοία προς τα επίμαχα νησιά....
ReplyDeleteΟμάδα κινεζικών πλοίων της ακτοφυλακής άρχισε 9ήμερη περιπολία στα ύδατα του Αρχιπελάγους Xisha (Νησιά Πάρασελ) στη Θάλασσα της Νότιας Κίνας, ανακοίνωσε σήμερα Παρασκευή η κρατική Ωκεανογραφική Διοίκησης της Κίνας.
Στην παλιά διαμάχη της Κίνας με πολλές χώρες της περιοχής σχετικά με την εθνικότητα της επικράτειας του αρχιπελάγους, εμπλέκονται επίσης το Βιετνάμ, η Μαλαισία, οι Φιλιππίνες και η Ταϊβάν.
http://greek.ruvr.ru/2013_03_08/107388523/
8/3/13
China to open disputed Paracel Islands for tourists....
ReplyDeleteChina plans to open up to tourists disputed Paracel Islands in South China Sea by the end of April, state media reports. The move may inflame a long-running territorial row with neighboring states.
Holidaymakers will be able to get the Paracels on cruise ships, one of which – a vessel of 47,000 tons that can accommodate 1,965 passengers – is ready to sail, Xinhua writes.
Details of tour routes will be released later, according to Tan Li - Hainan Province’s executive vice governor. But people will be able to land on the islands for sightseeing ahead of Labor Day celebrated on May 1, the official said.
Tourists will eat and sleep on their cruise ships. The largest of the Paracels – 2-sq-km Woody (or Yongxing) Island – has only one hotel with 56 rooms, Xinhua reports. Besides that, there is no fresh water and all supplies are delivered from the continent.
"Prices will be relatively high due to the high costs of tourism infrastructure construction," Huang Huaru, general manager of a tourism agency in Hainan, told the agency.
In July last year, China established a city of Sansha on the Yongxing Island to oversee its territorial claims. The city has a population of over 400 people, and basic facilities, including a bank, a library, a hospital and a supermarket. According to Tan, local authorities plan to improve the infrastructure and build more ports and sanitation facilities.
The Paracels - made up of about 40 islets, outcrops and reefs – are claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan. Since a brief 1974 war with Vietnam, the group of islands has been occupied by China and is currently under the administration of Hainan Province.
In March this year, Vietnam accused China of firing on one of its fishing boats near the Paracels and setting the cabin alight. Beijing admitted that the navy fired flares at the vessel in the disputed waters, but denied that it caught fire as a result of the confrontation, AP reported.
http://rt.com/news/china-tourism-paracel-islands-462/
7/4/13
China media warns Philippines of 'counterstrike' in South China Sea...
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - China's state media warned on Saturday that a "counterstrike" against the Philippines was inevitable if it continues to provoke Beijing in the South China Sea, potentially Asia's biggest military troublespot.
The warning comes as ministers from both countries attend an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Brunei, starting Saturday, which hopes to reach a legally binding code of conduct to manage maritime conduct in disputed areas.
At stake are potentially massive offshore oil reserves. The seas also lie on shipping lanes and fishing grounds.
Both China and the Philippines have been locked in a decades-old territorial squabble over the South China Sea, with tensions flaring after the Philippines moved new soldiers and supplies last week to a disputed coral reef, prompting Beijing to condemn Manila's "illegal occupation".
The overseas edition of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, said in a front-page commentary that the Philippines had committed "seven sins" in the South China Sea.
These include the "illegal occupation" of the Spratly Islands, inviting foreign capital to engage in oil and gas development in the disputed waters and promoting the "internationalization" of the waters, said the commentary.
The Philippines has called on the United States to act as a "patron", while ASEAN has become an "accomplice," said the commentary, which does not amount to official policy but can reflect the government's thinking.....http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/29/us-china-philippines-idUSBRE95S01Y20130629?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
28/6/13
Philippines acquiring French vessel for South China Sea...
ReplyDeleteThe Philippines said Saturday it is purchasing a surplus French Navy vessel to boost its forces in the South China Sea where it has an ongoing territorial dispute with China.
The 26-year-old "La Tapageuse" vessel is likely to be the first of several French ships that will be acquired by the Philippine coastguard as it contends with increasingly assertive Chinese forces.
The 54.8-metre (180-foot) patrol ship will cost six million euros ($7.97 million) and is due to arrive in the country by April next year, a coastguard statement said.
The ship, which is armed with two cannon and two machine-guns, was inspected before acquisition and is good for 20 more years of service, the coastguard said.
"This French vessel is multi-functional and it would be a major contribution to our fleet, particularly in our search and rescue operations," coastguard chief Rear Admiral Rodolfo Isorena was quoted as saying in the statement.
The Philippines is also "finalising" with the French government the purchase of four brand-new 24-metre and one 82-metre multipurpose vessels, Isorena said.
These new ships would arrive in the first quarter of 2015, the statement added, without specifying their cost.
Isorena also recalled that the Philippine coastguard was already set to acquire 10 multi-role patrol boats under an aid programme with Japan.
The announcement came as a second-hand US Hamilton-class cutter acquired by the Philippine Navy sailed into the country's waters, where it will also help in patrolling the South China Sea.
Tensions have risen in recent years over China's claims to almost all of the South China Sea, even up to the coast of its neighbours like the Philippines.
These tensions have worsened since Chinese government vessels seized the Scarborough Shoal, a South China Sea outcrop just 230 kilometres (140 miles) east of the main Philippine island of Luzon, last year.
The Philippines has also complained about the presence of Chinese navy vessels near the Manila-controlled Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/philippines-acquiring/764196.html
3/8/13
Manila accuses China of sea violation, Beijing says wants peace...
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - The Philippines accused China on Tuesday of violating an informal code of conduct in the South China Sea by planning new structures on a disputed shoal, as China's premier told Southeast Asian leaders Beijing was serious about peace.
Friction over the South China Sea, one of the world's most important waterways, has surged as China uses its growing naval might to assert its vast claims over the oil- and gas-rich sea more forcefully, raising fears of a military clash.
Four of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Vietnam and the Philippines, have overlapping claims with China.
China and the Philippines accuse each other of violating the Declaration of Conduct (DoC), a non-binding confidence-building agreement on maritime conduct signed by China and ASEAN in 2002.
Philippines Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin told a congressional budget hearing in Manila that China had violated the DoC by getting ready to build new structures on the disputed Scarborough Shoal.
"We have ... sighted concrete blocks inside the shoal which are a prelude to construction," Gazmin said, displaying air surveillance photos of the rocks.
He said the photos were taken on Saturday, describing them as a worrying pattern of construction that would be similar to the building of a garrison on Mischief Reef in the late 1990s.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he had "no information" about Gazmin's accusations.
Regional security scholar Ian Storey said that if Gazmin was correct, it would mark the biggest violation yet of the 2002 declaration.
"If China starts building at Scarborough, then it is an occupation and, I believe, the most egregious violation yet of the 2002 declaration," said Storey, who is based at Singapore's Institute of South East Asian Studies.
"It is a very significant development indeed and one that will certainly add to tensions."
Speaking at a China-ASEAN trade fair in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said his country was serious about wanting a peaceful resolution to the South China Sea disputes, though signaled it was in no rush to sign a long-mooted accord to replace the DoC.
After years of resisting efforts by ASEAN to start talks on an agreement on maritime rules governing behavior in the region, the so-called Code of Conduct, China has said it would host talks between senior officials this month.
Li said China had always advocated talks on the South China Sea on the basis of "respecting historical reality and international law".
"The Chinese government is willing and ready to assume a policy of seeking an appropriate resolution through friendly consultations," Li told the audience, which included Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
China would "proceed systematically and soundly push forward talks on the Code of Conduct for the South China Sea", Li said without elaborating in comments aired live on state television.
He also repeated that talks on the dispute should only be carried out between the parties directly concerned, Beijing's standard line which rejects the involvement of outside parties such as the United States or multilateral forums.
Washington has not taken sides, but Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated in Brunei in July the U.S. strategic interest in freedom of navigation through the busy sea and its desire to see a Code of Conduct signed quickly.
Critics say China is intent on cementing its claims over the sea through its superior and growing naval might, and has little interest in rushing to agree to the Code of Conduct.
(Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee in BEIJING and Greg Torode in Hong Kong; Editing by Nick Macfie)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/03/us-china-seas-idUSBRE98207G20130903?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
3/9/13
China refutes US criticism on South China Sea fishing rules....
ReplyDeleteChina has rejected US criticism of China's new fishing rules in the South China Sea. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying says according to international laws, universal practice and domestic laws, the Chinese government bears the right and obligation to manage the biological and non-biological resources on the islands and reefs and in the waters in question.
"For the last 30 years, China’s relevant laws and regulations have been implemented normally, without causing any tension. The provincial fishing regulation has been implemented for years. If someone asserts that the technical amendments to it will pose a threat to regional peace and stability, it’s due to either a lack of common sense or an ulterior motive." Hua said.
The amended regulation on the country’s fishing law adopted by China’s Hainan Province took effect on January 1st. Foreigners and foreign fishing vessels must get approval from the central government to enter waters under its jurisdiction. On Thursday, the US called the new regulation a provocative and potentially dangerous act.
Hua Chunying says China has always been a firm power in safeguarding peace and stability in the region. She urged the US to play a positive role in protecting stability in the region and avoid sending the wrong signal.
http://english.cntv.cn/program/newsupdate/20140111/102242.shtml
11/1/14
Philippine, US troops begin naval exercises ....
ReplyDeleteNaval exercises involving around 4, 700 Filipino and US troops kicked off on Monday in the western Philippine province of Palawan.
The 12-day training exercise, dubbed as the Philippine Amphibious Landing Exercise (PHIBLEX), was formally opened at the headquarters of the Naval Forces West at Naval Station Apolinario Jalandoon in Puerto Princesa City.
Captain Reyson Talingdan, spokesman of the 3rd Marine Brigade, said two field training activities -- amphibious assault vehicle training and boat operations -- will be held at the Sulu Sea side of Palawan from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2.
"This site was identified as a good area for field training. ( The activities) are for training purposes only," said Talingdan.
He said the two sides will also hold table top exercise or Command Post Exercises in Puerto Princesa. Talingdan did not say the scenario in the command post exercise although the US Embassy said this has something to do with territorial defense.
In an earlier statement, the US Embassy said the command post exercise "will increase the Armed Forces of the Philippines' capability to conduct planning and effective execution of bilateral maritime security and territorial defense operations."
"The field training exercises will provide the Philippine and U. S. Marine units multiple opportunities to continue to improve their skills while sharing best practices and enhancing an already high level of cohesion," it added.
Talingdan said, however, that the training activities in Puerto Princesa city have nothing to do with the territorial dispute involving the Philippines, China, China's Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam over Nansha Islands in South China Sea.
The Philippine Navy said other activities under PHIBLEX will be held in the northern Philippine provinces of Zambales, Pampanga and Cavite.
The Americans brought two ships for the exercise -- the USS Peleliu, an amphibious assault ship and USS Germantown, an amphibious dock landing ship. The ships arrived in Subic last Saturday.
PHIBLEX, one of the high-profile military exercises conducted by the US and Philippines under the Mutual Defense Treaty and Visiting Forces Agreement, will run through Oct. 10.
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/884141.shtml
29/9/14