End Times and Current Events

General Category => Current Events => Topic started by: Mark on December 27, 2012, 06:48:15 pm



Title: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on December 27, 2012, 06:48:15 pm
War Between Japan And China In The Next Year

Chinese planes flew near Japanese airspace Monday to assert its claims to Japan's Senkaku islands (China calls them the Diaoyu islands).

The move came just as Japan announced its new prime minister.

Hugh White, a professor at Australian National University and a former Australian defense official, believes this is the latest sign the two countries are heading to war.

And the U.S. will be dragged in.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, White says we are now witnessing the types of conditions that have historically led to war — despite conflict being in no one's interest.

THIS is how wars usually start: with a steadily escalating stand-off over something intrinsically worthless. So don't be too surprised if the US and Japan go to war with China next year over the uninhabited rocks that Japan calls the Senkakus and China calls the Diaoyu islands. And don't assume the war would be contained and short.

...

It seems almost laughably unthinkable that the world's three richest countries - two of them nuclear-armed - would go to war over something so trivial. But that is to confuse what starts a war with what causes it.

The conflict is really about China challenging the U.S. in the Pacific, White says. President Obama has vowed a Pentagon "pivot to Asia," itself a response to China's growing strength.

Claiming the Senkaku islands, a series of small outcroppings in the East China Sea, is China's way of testing America's new posture, White says.

And it's this kind of tit-for-tat that inevitably causes someone to open fire.

The risk is that, without a clear circuit-breaker, the escalation will continue until at some point shots are exchanged, and a spiral to war begins that no one can stop. Neither side could win such a war, and it would be devastating not just for them but for the rest of us.

No one wants this, but the crisis will not stop by itself.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-japan-senkaku-diaoyu-war-2012-12#ixzz2GIrGJTrw


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on December 27, 2012, 06:51:26 pm
some how i just dont see this happening, but if it does your going to see N Korea move against S Korea and a then conflicts will just rage out of control all over the planet.  :o


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Christian40 on December 28, 2012, 12:17:05 am
North Korea is pretty dangerous, but who is going to support N Korea? If China did then they will have to contend with S Korea, Japan and the US to support this hostile neighbour, and China has nothing to gain, i think a WW3 option is much more likely in the Middle East, however North Korea's government is pretty deluded.


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Kilika on December 28, 2012, 06:01:08 am
What China has now that they haven't had for decades is cash. Lots of cash to pay for fueling and feeding a very large army.

But a fight break out over those islands? Nah, too much risk for such a small prize.

I see this as the same as North and South Korea, the ever-present bickering between cousins.

Talk of such things in the business world to me comes across as nothing but market manipulation.


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on December 31, 2012, 07:27:39 am
China 'adds destroyers to marine surveillance fleet'

China has transferred two destroyers and nine other ex-navy vessels to its maritime surveillance fleet, reports said Monday, as it moves to beef up its position in bitter territorial rows with Japan and other neighbours.

Beijing renovated the ships and transferred them to surveillance operations to "alleviate the insufficiency of vessels used to protect maritime interests", said a report on Tencent, one of China's major news portals.

China is embroiled in a maritime dispute with Japan that has seen tensions between the two Asian giants, the world's second- and third-largest economies, at times reach fever pitch.

It is also engaged in a simmering row with its southern neighbours over its claim to vast swathes of the South China Sea.

Beijing has been sending maritime patrol vessels into waters around the East China Sea islands -- which it claims as the Diaoyu and which Japan controls and calls the Senkaku -- since Tokyo nationalised the chain in September.

China is apparently seeking to prove it can come and go in the area at will and on Monday three of Beijing's ships were spotted in the waters around the islands, according to Japan's coastguard, in the latest perceived incursion.

Two of Beijing's newly-refurbished vessels are destroyers, with one each to operate in the East and South China Seas, with the others including tugs, icebreakers and survey ships, according to the Tencent report.

The destroyers, the Nanjing and Nanning, numbered 131 and 162 respectively, each had a displacement of 3,250 tonnes and had a top speed of 32 knots, according to sinodefence.com, an independent UK-based website.

It said that during their time in the navy they were equipped with 130mm guns with a range of 29 kilometres, anti-ship missiles and other weapons.

The Nanjing went into service in 1977 and the Nanning in 1979. Both retired this year from the Chinese navy, previous domestic media reports said.

It was not clear whether it was the first time the maritime surveillance fleet has acquired destroyers, or when the transfers took place.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment when asked about the destroyers at its regular briefing on Monday.

Officials at the Ministry of Defence and headquarters of the China Marine Surveillance were not immediately available to comment when contacted by AFP.

The transfer report was first published in the International Herald Leader, a Chinese-language newspaper linked to Beijing's official news agency Xinhua, and the author said the operation had been given significantly more capacity.

"The maritime surveillance team's power has been greatly strengthened and its capacity to execute missions sharply improved, providing a fundamental guarantee for completing the currently arduous task to protect maritime interests," wrote Yu Zhirong, of the government's Research Centre for Chinese Marine Development.

Since 2000 the maritime surveillance fleet, which is tasked with "protecting China's interests and executing law enforcement missions", has also received a total of 13 new vessels, the report said.

Daily patrols have been stepped up from six vessels before the disputes heated up to "more than 10" Yu said, adding authorities planned to build another 36 surveillance ships by 2015.

A Chinese plane overflew the islands in the East China Sea earlier this month, in what Japan said was the first time Beijing had breached its airspace since at least 1958. Tokyo scrambled fighter jets in response.

Yu added in the report: "I believe Chinese maritime surveillance authorities will build and buy many ships and planes in the future with strong capabilities and advanced equipment."

http://www.france24.com/en/20121231-china-adds-destroyers-marine-surveillance-fleet


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on December 31, 2012, 07:29:18 am
up next? Japans Gundam

(http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/gundam.jpg)


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Kilika on December 31, 2012, 08:18:21 am
 :D You know the Japanese are just itching to build one.


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on December 31, 2012, 08:30:03 am
:D You know the Japanese are just itching to build one.

that would be awesome!!!


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Kilika on December 31, 2012, 08:50:06 am
Well, me being a computer/tech geek of sorts, I have to admit I've had thoughts of what it would be like to build a massive robot. Maybe not awesome, but it would be kind of neat to see it done. The advances in technology and robots has been amazing the last several years. The big holdup has been processor speeds. Too slow to manage the data processing it takes just to make a biped walk on it's own. That's a TON of data to process believe it or not just for walking and balancing on two legs.

Now the chip speeds are getting there, and small enough. Keep in mind that electronics basically doubles every 18-20 months (Moore's Law). So that means new chips today will be twice as fast in a couple years. You calculate the geometric progression of that and you got some massive leaps in technology in a relatively short time.


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 05, 2013, 11:48:41 am
Japan Scrambles Fighter Jets To Head Off Chinese Planes

January 5, 2013

Japan scrambled fighter jets on Saturday to head off a Chinese state-owned plane that flew near islands at the centre of a dispute between Tokyo and Beijing, a Japanese Defense Ministry spokesman said.

The Japanese jets were mobilised after a Chinese maritime aircraft ventured some 120 kilometres (74 miles) north of the Senkaku islands, which China calls the Diaoyus, at around 12:00 pm (0300 GMT), the spokesman said.

The Chinese Y-12 twin-turboprop later left the zone without entering Japanese airspace over the islands, he added.

It was the first time Japanese fighter jets had been scrambled this year to counter Chinese aircraft approaching the islands, the spokesman said.

Full article here

http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-scrambles-fighter-jets-to-head-off-chinese-planes-2013-1


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 09, 2013, 03:34:10 am

Japan and China step up drone race as tension builds over disputed islands

Both countries claim drones will be used for surveillance, but experts warn of future skirmishes in region's airspace




Drones have taken centre stage in an escalating arms race between China and Japan as they struggle to assert their dominance over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

China is rapidly expanding its nascent drone programme, while Japan has begun preparations to purchase an advanced model from the US. Both sides claim the drones will be used for surveillance, but experts warn the possibility of future drone skirmishes in the region's airspace is "very high".

Tensions over the islands – called the Diaoyu by China and the Senkaku by Japan – have ratcheted up in past weeks. Chinese surveillance planes flew near the islands four times in the second half of December, according to Chinese state media, but were chased away each time by Japanese F-15 fighter jets. Neither side has shown any signs of backing down.

Japan's new conservative administration of Shinzo Abe has placed a priority on countering the perceived Chinese threat to the Senkakus since it won a landslide victory in last month's general election. Soon after becoming prime minister, Abe ordered a review of Japan's 2011-16 mid-term defence programme, apparently to speed up the acquisition of between one and three US drones.

Under Abe, a nationalist who wants a bigger international role for the armed forces, Japan is expected to increase defence spending for the first time in 11 years in 2013. The extra cash will be used to increase the number of military personnel and upgrade equipment. The country's deputy foreign minister, Akitaka Saiki, summoned the Chinese ambassador to Japan on Tuesday to discuss recent "incursions" of Chinese ships into the disputed territory.

China appears unbowed. "Japan has continued to ignore our warnings that their vessels and aircraft have infringed our sovereignty," top-level marine surveillance official Sun Shuxian said in an interview posted to the State Oceanic Administration's website, according to Reuters. "This behaviour may result in the further escalation of the situation at sea and has prompted China to pay great attention and vigilance."

China announced late last month that the People's Liberation Army was preparing to test-fly a domestically developed drone, which analysts say is likely a clone of the US's carrier-based X-47B. "Key attack technologies will be tested," reported the state-owned China Daily, without disclosing further details.

Andrei Chang, editor-in-chief of the Canadian-based Kanwa Defence Review, said China might be attempting to develop drones that can perform reconnaissance missions as far away as Guam, where the US is building a military presence as part of its "Asia Pivot" strategy.

China unveiled eight new models in November at an annual air show on the southern coastal city Zhuhai, photographs of which appeared prominently in the state-owned press. Yet the images may better indicate China's ambitions than its abilities, according to Chang: "We've seen these planes on the ground only — if they work or not, that's difficult to explain."

Japanese media reports said the defence ministry hopes to introduce Global Hawk unmanned aircraft near the disputed islands by 2015 at the earliest in an attempt to counter Beijing's increasingly assertive naval activity in the area.

Chinese surveillance vessels have made repeated intrusions into Japanese waters since the government in Tokyo in effect nationalised the Senkakus in the summer, sparking riots in Chinese cities and damaging trade ties between Asia's two biggest economies.

The need for Japan to improve its surveillance capability was underlined late last year when Japanese radar failed to pick up a low-flying Chinese aircraft as it flew over the islands.

The Kyodo news agency quoted an unnamed defence ministry official as saying the drones would be used "to counter China's growing assertiveness at sea, especially when it comes to the Senkaku islands".

China's defence budget has exploded over the past decade, from about £12.4bn in 2002 to almost £75bn in 2011, and its military spending could surpass the US's by 2035. The country's first aircraft carrier, a refurbished Soviet model called the Liaoning, completed its first sea trials in August.

A 2012 report by the Pentagon acknowledged long-standing rumours that China was developing a new generation of stealth drones, called Anjian, or Dark Sword, whose capabilities could surpass those of the US's fleet.

China's state media reported in October that the country would build 11 drone bases along the coastline by 2015. "Over disputed islands, such as the Diaoyu Islands, we do not lag behind in terms of the number of patrol vessels or the frequency of patrolling," said Senior Colonel Du Wenlong, according to China Radio International. "The problem lies in our surveillance capabilities."

China's military is notoriously opaque, and analysts' understanding of its drone programme is limited. "They certainly get a lot of mileage out of the fact that nobody knows what the hell they're up to, and they'd take great care to protect that image," said Ron Huisken, an expert on east Asian security at Australian National University.

He said the likelihood of a skirmish between Chinese and Japanese drones in coming years was "very high".

US drones have also attracted the interest of the South Korean government as it seeks to beef up its ability to monitor North Korea, after last month's successful launch of a rocket that many believe was a cover for a ballistic-missile test.

The US's Global Hawk is piloted remotely by a crew of three and can fly continuously for up to 30 hours at a maximum height of about 60,000 ft. It has no attack capability.

The US deployed the advanced reconnaissance drone to monitor damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami on Japan's north-east coast.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/08/china-japan-drone-race


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 12, 2013, 06:49:11 am
China Warns Citizens To 'Prepare For The Worst' As It Sends Fighters To East China Sea

After repeatedly flying surveillance aircraft into disputed airspace with Japan, and Tokyo scrambling F-15s in response, China's now sending fighters of its own on "routine flights" into the East China Sea.

China Daily:

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday that Chinese military planes were on"routine flights" in relevant airspace over the East China Sea. Spokesman Hong Lei made the remarks at a press briefing in response to media reports that Japan sent fighter jets to head off a number of Chinese military planes spotted in Japan's "air defense identification zone" over the East China Sea on Thursday.

"China firmly opposes Japan's moves to gratuitously escalate the situation and create tensions," Hong said.

The area north of the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands, known as the Diaoyus in China, is reportedly home to billions in oil and gas deposits claimed both by Japan and China.

Responding to China's fighter deployment, Japan is considering permitting its F-15 pilots to fire tracer bullets, as warning shots, against Chinese planes. China's state-run Global Times calls this, "a step closer to war," warning a military clash is "more likely" while its people need to prepare "for the worst."

The Chinese jets could be flying from air base Shuimen, built east of the islands in Fujian Province. Satellite imagery of the base first came to light in 2009, but experts believe it reached completion late last year.

The Taipei Times reported in May 2012 that satellite images showed J-10 combat aircraft, Su-30 fighters, and various unmanned drones arriving at the base.
 
In addition to aircraft experts believe Russian made S-300 long-range surface-to-air missiles ring the airbase, providing some of the best missile protection in the world. The S-300 is comparable to the U.S. made Patriot missile recently sent to Turkey for its first line of missile defense against Syria.
The Shuimen airbase compliment's China's East Fleet that maintains 35 ships in the region, including its newest warship the Type 054, seven submarines, and eight additional landing craft.

Among the subs are four Kilo-class diesel-electric Russian made submarines capable of the most advanced underwater warfare.

All of this located just 236 miles from the contested islands, which have been in dispute between Japan and China for some time. Han-Yi Shaw writes an interesting history of the dispute under Nick Kristof's On the Ground, for those interested in more background.

While the U.S. takes no official position on who owns the Islands, it would be expected to honor its U.S.-Japan security treaty signed in 1960.

Though it's a formal agreement to aid Japan if it comes under attack, there are few who believe the U.S. would risk a full-blown war with China over a few uninhabited islands, regardless of how much oil and gas lay beneath them.

That may, or may not be, a reassuring thought as it doesn't look like the situation will de-escalate any time soon — and China has immense assets almost within the area itself — looking very well-equipped to enter an actual fight.

http://www.businessinsider.com/china-fighter-jet-flights-diaoyu-senkaku-islands-2013-1#ixzz2HhwKzyxR


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 19, 2013, 06:31:08 am
As Dispute Over Islands Escalates, Japan and China Send Fighter Jets to the Scene

The action in the skies over the East China Sea started simply enough.

Last week, the Chinese government sent a civilian surveillance plane, a twin propeller aircraft, to fly near the uninhabited islands at the heart of a growing feud between China and Japan. Tokyo, in response, ordered F-15 fighter jets to take a look at what it considered Chinese meddling. The Chinese then sent their own fighters.

It was the first time that supersonic Chinese and Japanese military fighters were in the air together since the dispute over the islands erupted last year, significantly increasing the risk of a mistake that could lead to armed conflict at a time when both countries, despite their mutual economic interests, are going through a period of heightened nationalism that recalls their longstanding regional rivalry.

The escalation comes amid a blast of belligerent discourse in China and as the Obama administration has delayed a visit to Washington requested by Shinzo Abe, the new prime minister of Japan, the United States’ main ally in Asia. After the rebuff, Mr. Abe announced that he would embark on a tour of Southeast Asia intended to counter China’s influence in the region. On Friday, as Mr. Abe cut short his trip to return to Tokyo to deal with the hostage crisis in Algeria, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Washington that Mr. Abe would meet with President Obama in the second half of February.

For Japan and China, what began as a seemingly minor dispute is quickly turning into a gathering storm, military analysts and Western diplomatic officials warn, as each country appears determined to force the other to give ground.

“What is really driving things is raw nationalism and fragmented political systems, both on the Japanese and even more so the Chinese sides, that is preventing smart people from making rational decisions,” said Thomas Berger, an associate professor of international relations at Boston University. “No Chinese or Japanese leader wants or can afford to be accused of selling out their country.”

The backdrop for the dispute is the changing military and economic dynamic in the region. In Japan, which rose from utter defeat in World War II to become a prosperous global economic power, many experts talk of a nation preparing for an “elegant” decline. But Mr. Abe has made clear that he does not subscribe to that idea and hopes to stake out a tough posture on the islands as a way of engineering a Japanese comeback.

In contrast, Beijing brims with confidence, reveling in the belief that the 21st century belongs to China — with the return of the islands the Chinese call the Diaoyu and the Japanese refer to as the Senkaku as a starting point.

rest: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/19/world/asia/china-japan-island-dispute-escalates-to-air.html?_r=0


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 23, 2013, 10:48:43 am
Philippines Challenges China Maritime Claims at UN Tribunal


The Philippines plans to challenge China’s maritime claims before a United Nations-endorsed tribunal, a move that may raise tensions as the two nations vie for oil, gas and fish resources in contested waters.

“The Philippines has exhausted almost all political and diplomatic avenues for a peaceful negotiated settlement of its maritime dispute with China,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters in Manila yesterday. “To this day, a solution is elusive. We hope the arbitral proceedings shall bring this dispute to a durable solution.”

The Philippines is challenging China’s “nine-dash” map of the sea, first published in 1947, that extends hundreds of miles south from China’s Hainan Island to the equatorial waters off the coast of Borneo. China claims “indisputable sovereignty” over more than 100 small islands, atolls and reefs that form the Paracel and Spratly Islands.

China’s assertiveness in disputed waters has raised tensions throughout Asia and generated concern among U.S. officials over access to the South China Sea, where its navy has patrolled since World War II. Vietnam and the Philippines reject China’s map of the waters as a basis for joint development of oil and gas.

rest: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-01-23/philippines-challenges-china-maritime-claims-at-un-tribunal


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 25, 2013, 10:30:37 am
Chinese Envoy: Japan Dispute Can Be 'Controlled'

A top Chinese diplomat says he thinks Beijing's dispute with Japan over islands claimed by both countries can be "controlled" soon.

Ambassador Liu Zhenmin, China's envoy to the U.N. in Geneva, said Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos that his country hopes the new Japanese government will "take the right measures to overcome the difficulty in relations with China and bring relations back on track."

Tensions have soared since the Japanese government bought the uninhabited islands, known in Chinese as the Diaoyu islands and in Japanese as the Senkaku islands, from their private Japanese owners in September.

Liu also says negotiations are also under way to resolve overlapping claims in the South China Sea by six governments, including China.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/chinese-envoy-japan-dispute-controlled-18311330


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 25, 2013, 10:39:43 am
In related news, as i see China using this as a diversion...

North Korea threatens war with South over U.N. sanctions

North Korea threatened to attack rival South Korea if Seoul joined a new round of tightened U.N. sanctions, as Washington unveiled more of its own economic restrictions following Pyongyang's rocket launch last month.


rest: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/25/us-korea-north-idUSBRE90O0AJ20130125


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on February 02, 2013, 07:14:23 am
North Korea threatens US over response to rocket launches

North Korea is threatening to retaliate for what it calls U.S. double standards over recent rocket launches by Pyongyang and U.S. ally Seoul.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman did not elaborate on what that might entail in his comments Saturday to the official Korean Central News Agency. But Pyongyang has recently threatened to conduct its third nuclear test in response to what it calls U.S. hostility.

Washington says Seoul's rocket launch Wednesday had no military intent while Pyongyang's in December was a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed new sanctions on Pyongyang for its launch. Pyongyang says it should be allowed to launch satellites for peaceful purposes.

Both Koreas say their satellites are working properly. U.S. experts say Pyongyang's satellite is apparently malfunctioning.

Pyongyang's state television made no mention of the South Korean launch Wednesday, but about an hour after liftoff it showed archive footage of North Koreans cheering the North's three-stage rocket from last month. Images from the launch frequently appear in North Korean propaganda.

The satellite launched by Seoul is designed to analyze weather data, measure radiation in space, gauge distances on earth and test how effectively South Korean-made devices installed on the satellite operate in space. South Korean officials said it will help them develop more sophisticated satellites in the future.

South Korea did need outside help to launch the satellite: The rocket's first stage was designed and built by Russian experts. North Korea built its rocket almost entirely on its own, South Korean military experts said earlier this month after analyzing debris retrieved from the Yellow Sea in December.

Kim Seung-jo, South Korea's chief space official, told reporters that his country should be able to independently produce a rocket capable of putting a satellite into orbit by as early as 2018.

Spending on science and technology is expected to increase under South Korea's incoming President Park Geun-hye, who takes office next month. She pledged during her campaign to increase such spending to 5 percent of South Korea's GDP by the end of her five-year term.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/02/north-korea-threatens-us-over-rocket-launches/#ixzz2JkO68BCr


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on February 02, 2013, 07:18:20 am
Japan PM Vows to Protect Disputed Islands from China

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to defend disputed islands from incursions by China, after a series of confrontations at sea.

Speaking Saturday to Japan's Self-Defense Forces stationed on the southern island of Okinawa, Abe said he would defend Japan's land, sea and air at all costs.  He was apparently referring to remote islands controlled by Japan but claimed by China, called Senkaku by Tokyo and Daioyu by Beijing.  China has regularly sent surveillance ships into waters near the islands, raising tensions in both countries.

In national politics, Abe met later Saturday with Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima.  The two failed to reach an agreement on the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station on the island.

The governor repeated demands by the local population that the base be moved off the island.  It is located in a heavily populated area of Ginowan, and  residents complain of the noise made by jets and the safety of people living around the facility.  Abe told Nakaima that Futenma would be moved to a less-populated coastal area, but remain on Okinawa as called for in an agreement reached with the United States in 2006.

http://www.voanews.com/content/japan-pm-vows-to-protect-disputed-islands-from-china/1595783.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on February 06, 2013, 04:48:00 pm
One of these days, even the shortest fuse could light up the whole enchalada.

Mark_3:26  And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end.


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on February 07, 2013, 01:09:42 pm
Two Russian fighter jets breach Japan airspace: Tokyo

Two Russian fighter jets violated Japanese airspace on Thursday, as Tokyo scrambled jets to chase off the planes, the defence ministry said.

The Russian planes were detected off the coast of northernmost Hokkaido island for just over a minute, shortly after Japan's new prime minister said he wants to find a "mutually acceptable solution" to a decades-old territorial row with Russia and sign a long-delayed peace treaty with Moscow

http://www.france24.com/en/20130207-two-russian-fighter-jets-breach-japan-airspace-tokyo


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on February 11, 2013, 06:39:43 pm
found on steve quayle's site, so take with a huge gran of salt

JUST-IN: Credible Chinese MSM Source reports Troop Mobilization – Prepping for Japan War – Troops Active For Several Days In Fujian And Zhejiang – Hostilities Between China And Japan May Be About To Take A Major Turn For The Worse!!

GOOGLE TRANSLATE:

[NTDTV February 8, 2013 News] the continental network transmission, Fujian and Zhejiang troops for several days active.

Plus before the news that Chinese warships radar has repeatedly aimed at the Japanese ships and planes, therefore, the media have speculated that China may “prepare for war” Diaoyu Islands .

According to friends broke the news: February 3, Nan’an, Fujian Highway 308, artillery units practical exercise for several days.

February 3 to 6, Fujian, Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Huzhou, a large troop movements, and nearly 100 vehicles of various types of military vehicles, armored vehicles, artillery filled the entire road, endless, Xiamen even the scene of a traffic jam 10 kilometers.

In addition, on February 3 in Shiyan, Hubei, a large number of tanks, wheeled military base from Shiyan room counties is delivered to the coastal areas.

Many local residents of the tense situation of some concern.

Prior to this allegation, January 15 and 30, the Chinese navy guided missile frigate, twice the fire control radar lock frigates and ship-borne helicopters of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, is also considered to enter a combat state.

According to mainland media quoted the “People’s Daily” front-page article claiming that China will not change in point of view on the issue of the Diaoyu Islands , and have to prepare to win the war.

The international media alleged that China has purchased from Russia 239 engine, used in the manufacture of the H-6K.

Combat covering the Diaoyu Islands, in this model, the engine can also be used to manufacture transported -20 transport aircraft purchased.

If the engine assembled, will greatly enhance China’s military power.

Integrated these signs and reports, people have come to a startling conclusion: Day might want to go to war.

According to military experts, the Sino-Japanese war in the Diaoyu Islands, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, is the most important logistical base.

If the war to expand, at any time, will spread to the provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang. The NTDTV reporter Zhang Tianyu, Li Zhi Far roundup

http://www.ntdtv.com/xtr/gb/2013/02/08/atext845253.html

Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/just-in-credible-chinese-msm-source-reports-troop-mobilization-prepping-for-japan-war-troops-active-for-several-days-in-fujian-and-zhejiang-hostilities-between-china-and-japan-may-be-about-to-t/#vpPukelpryhYFi7H.99


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Kilika on February 12, 2013, 04:44:21 am
Something isn't right with this. Not sure what it is, but all this bluster over an island? They've been arguing over that land for years now. Truth be told, China could crush Japan, and it wouldn't take long to do it. Makes me think about military tactics and how a military will do one thing (called a "feint") to disguise how they are doing something else.

I just don't feel what is being presented is what is really going on.


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on March 09, 2013, 09:57:50 pm
China Says It Won’t Forsake North Korea, Despite Support for U.N. Sanctions

 China’s foreign minister said Saturday that Beijing would not abandon North Korea, reiterating China’s longstanding position that dialogue, not sanctions, is the best way to persuade the North to abandon its nuclear weapons.

 At a news conference during the National People’s Congress, the foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, suggested that Chinese support for tougher United Nations sanctions against North Korea should not be interpreted as a basic change in China’s attitude.

“We always believe that sanctions are not the end of the Security Council actions, nor are sanctions the fundamental way to resolve the relevant issues,” said Mr. Yang, who addressed foreign policy questions from Chinese and foreign reporters.

But the careful remarks masked the unparalleled plain-spoken discussions among China’s officials and analysts about the value of supporting North Korea even as it continues to develop nuclear weapons and unleashes new threats to attack the United States and South Korea.

In the aftermath of North Korea’s third nuclear test in February, China last week joined the United States to push for tougher United Nations sanctions against the North. Although it remained to be seen whether China would actually enforce the sanctions, its decision to support them also raised the possibility that it might take even bolder steps against its recalcitrant ally.

The clearest sign of China’s exasperation with North Korea came Thursday at a side session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory group to the government that was open to the news media.

Delegates to the conference, according to a senior Communist Party official, Qiu Yuanping, talked about whether to “keep or dump” North Korea and debated whether China, as a major power, should “fight or talk” with the North.

In the annals of Communist Party decorum, Ms. Qiu’s description of the spirited debate was quite extraordinary. She made the remarks in the presence of reporters at a session titled “Friendship with Foreign Countries” that was attended by several Chinese ambassadors who were visiting Beijing from their posts abroad.

As deputy director of the Communist Party’s Central Foreign Affairs Office, a secretive body that gives foreign policy advice to top leaders, Ms. Qiu usually opts for discretion. The admission by a senior Communist Party official that North Korea is a nettlesome neighbor is especially striking because China conducts its relations with North Korea chiefly through the comradely auspices of the party, rather than the Foreign Ministry.

Just days before Ms. Qiu’s remarks, a prominent Communist Party analyst, Deng Yuwen, a deputy editor of Study Times, the journal of the Central Party School of the Communist Party, wrote that China should “give up” on North Korea.

Writing in The Financial Times late last month, Mr. Deng asked what would happen if the United States launched a pre-emptive attack on North Korea: “Would China not be obliged to help North Korea based on our ‘alliance.’ Would that not be drawing fire upon ourselves?”

Moreover, Mr. Deng wrote, there was no hope that North Korea would overhaul its economy and become a normal country, a path urged in the past several years by the Chinese government. Even if the North’s new ruler, Kim Jong-un, wanted reform, the entrenched ruling elite “would absolutely not allow him to do so,” because they know change would result in the overthrow of the government, Mr. Deng said.

Mr. Deng’s analysis was widely read, in part, because he has a habit of expressing provocative views that meld into the mainstream. Last year, he wrote an article that appeared in the online version of Caijing, a business magazine, that said failures had outweighed achievements in the decade-long rule of President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. After the article appeared, the era of Mr. Hu and Mr. Wen was often referred to as the “lost decade.”

For all the concern about North Korea since the nuclear test in mid-February, there have been no concrete signs that China plans to take any action against the North beyond the United Nations sanctions.

Traders in Jilin Province, which abuts North Korea in northeastern China, said there was not a noticeable slowdown of goods passing across the border. It is possible that there will be a crackdown on smugglers, but that has not happened yet, said an official in the Yanbian Prefecture in Jilin Province, where much of the smuggling takes place.

It is doubtful that China will reinforce the United Nations sanctions by imposing penalties of its own, said Cai Jian, the deputy director of the Center for Korean Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

The biggest element of China’s trade with North Korea is the export of oil that keeps the North Korean military going and its creaky industrial base more or less functioning. “Oil will not be cut,” Mr. Cai said. Chinese companies buy North Korean coal and iron ore, a trade that the Chinese government has encouraged and that helps North Korea by generating hard currency. Those imports are unlikely to be curbed.

The extent to which China will enforce the new United Nations sanctions remains unclear, an expert on the North Korean economy, Marcus Noland of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, wrote in a blog post. There are plenty of loopholes for China to exploit if it wanted to, he noted.

The new restrictions against the North, including efforts to block the opening of North Korean banks abroad if they support weapons purchases, are limited by a “credible information” clause, Mr. Noland wrote, which allows a government to say that it lacks the information needed to assess the situation or apply the sanctions.

The support of the sanctions at the United Nations are a fine balancing act by China, said Jia Qingguo, the associate dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University.

China backed the new sanctions in the hope that they would be sufficient to encourage North Korea to return to the negotiating table to discuss denuclearization, but not so harsh that they would cause the North’s collapse.

If that were to occur, American troops stationed in South Korea could move north and help unite the Korean Peninsula under an American umbrella, the last thing China would want, Mr. Jia said.

For now, China’s position on North Korea will remain the same. “If China’s policy changes, it would be because of a North Korean provocative act,” he said, “like another nuclear test, closer to China’s borders.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/world/asia/china-says-it-will-not-abandon-north-korea.html?_r=0


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on March 10, 2013, 07:01:00 am
China To Japan: Hand Over The Senkakus Or Your Economy Gets It

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Saturday that "Japan needs to face up to reality, and take real steps to correct its mistakes... so as to prevent a further escalation," with regard the demand that Japan reverse its nationalization of the small islet chain of the Senkakus. In some of the strongest rhetoric yet, The Japan Times reports that the Chinese minister said Japan's 'single-handed' actions so far have "caused great damage to China-Japan relations and undermined stability in the region," and urged Tokyo to "make concrete efforts" to prevent fraught bilateral ties from spiraling out of control. As the reigns of control in China continue to be handed over (with Yang expected to become state Councillor for foreign affairs), we suspect the situation is far from resolved - especially with Shinzo Abe fighting a war on another front (that China is likely not pleased with either).

CNY-JPY exchange rate has devalued 28% in the last 6 months with the Yuan at its strongest against the Yen in 5 years...

Via The Japan Times,

    China on Saturday demanded that Japan reverse its nationalization of the Senkakus and address the sovereignty dispute through negotiations, urging Tokyo to “make concrete efforts” to prevent fraught bilateral ties from spiralling out of control.
     
    Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the sharp deterioration in Sino-Japanese relations was “single-handedly” caused by Japan’s purchase last September of three of the main Senkaku islets, and accused Tokyo of “illegally” seizing and occupying what he termed Chinese territory. The islet group in the East China Sea is administered by Japan but has been claimed by China since the 1970s.
     
    “The Chinese side believes that Japan needs to face up to reality, take real steps to correct its mistakes and work with us to handle and resolve relevant issues through dialogue and consultations, so as to prevent a further escalation of the situation and stop it getting out of control,” Yang said on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing.
     
    Speaking at a news conference, Yang denounced Japan’s Sept. 11 purchase of the Senkaku islets of Uotsuri, Kitakojima and Minamikojima from a Saitama businessman, which effectively nationalized the entire chain, saying the move has “caused great damage to China-Japan relations and undermined stability in the region.”


    While censuring Japan for its acquisition of the islets, Yang said that developing “long-term, sound and steady (bilateral) relations” serves “the fundamental interests” of both countries and their people. “The Chinese side is ready to continue to develop a strategic relationship of mutual benefit with Japan,” he said.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-09/china-japan-hand-over-senkakus-or-your-economy-gets-it


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on March 21, 2013, 12:01:56 pm
Japan and US start talks on military plans in case of conflict over disputed islands, Japanese media says - @Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/21/us-china-japan-usa-idUSBRE92K0TM20130321?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=286409

 Japan and the United States have started talks on military plans in case of armed conflict over a group of East China Sea Islets claimed by Tokyo and Beijing, Japanese media said on Thursday, prompting China to complain of "outside pressure."

The Pentagon confirmed talks were being held on Thursday and Friday between Shigeru Iwasaki, head of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces' joint staff, and Samuel Locklear, commander of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific, but said they were meant to discuss "the overall security environment in the Asia-Pacific region."

"As a matter of policy, we do not discuss our military planning efforts," Pentagon spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Catherine Wilkinson said.

Kyodo news agency said the two leaders were expected to agree that the allies will accelerate the drafting of the plans when they meet in Hawaii on Thursday and Friday. They will also likely review several scenarios including one under which Japanese and U.S. armed forces conduct joint operations in case China invades the islands, Kyodo said.

The Nikkei business daily carried a similar report on Wednesday.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, however, said the talks "are not held as military planning efforts."

The dispute in recent months had escalated to the point where both sides scrambled fighter jets while patrol ships shadow each other, raising fears that an unintended collision or other incident could lead to a broader clash.

"China is extremely concerned by these reports ... The Chinese government has the determination and ability to maintain the nation's territorial sovereignty," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.

"No outside pressure will affect the resolve and determination of the Chinese government and people to maintain territorial sovereignty."

The rocky, uninhabited islets, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are located near rich fishing grounds and potentially huge oil and gas reserves.

Senior U.S. officials including State Secretary John Kerry have said in recent months that the islands are covered by the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.

Asked about the media reports, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo and Washington had been in close cooperation on security matters, but declined to comment on what will likely be discussed at the meeting.

China is also in disputes with several Southeast Asian countries over parts of the South China Sea also potentially rich in natural resources.



Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on April 23, 2013, 08:01:30 am
Japan PM Abe warns China of force over islands landing

Japan would respond with force if any attempt is made to land on disputed islands, PM Shinzo Abe has warned.

His comments came as eight Chinese government ships sailed near East China Sea islands that both nations claim.

A flotilla of 10 fishing boats carrying Japanese activists was also reported to be in the area, as well as the Japanese coastguard.

Mr Abe was speaking in parliament hours after dozens of lawmakers visited a controversial war-linked shrine.

A total of 168 lawmakers paid their respects at the Yasukuni Shrine, which commemorates Japan's war dead, including war criminals, in a move likely to anger regional neighbours who say the shrine is a reminder of Japan's military past.

'Deal strongly'
 
The warning from the Japanese prime minister was the most explicit to China since Mr Abe took power in December, the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from Tokyo.

Asked in parliament what he would do if Chinese ships tried to land on the disputed islands, Mr Abe said they would be expelled by force.

"Since it has become the Abe government, we have made sure that if there is an instance where there is an intrusion into our territory or it seems that there could be landing on the islands then we will deal will it strongly," he said.

The warning came as eight Chinese ships sailed around the islands - called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

The Japanese coast guard said it was the highest number of Chinese boats in the area since Tokyo nationalised part of the island chain in September 2012.

China said its ships had been monitoring Japanese vessels. The State Oceanic Administration issued a statement saying three of its ships had "found" several Japanese ships around the islands and "immediately ordered another five ships in the East China Sea to meet the three ships".

Ten Japanese boats carrying around 80 activists arrived in the area early on Tuesday, Reuters news agency reported, monitored by Japanese Coast Guard vessels. Public broadcaster NHK said the boats were carrying "regional lawmakers and members of the foreign media".

Japan's top government spokesman said the "intrusion into territorial waters" was "extremely regrettable". Japan also summoned the Chinese ambassador to protest, reports said.

The territorial row has been rumbling for years but was reignited last year when Japan bought three of the islands from their private Japanese owner.

China claims the island chain, which is controlled by Japan. Taiwan also claims the islands, which offer rich fishing grounds and lie in a strategically important area.

The dispute has led to serious diplomatic tension between China and Japan, most recently in January when Japan said a Chinese frigate locked weapons-controlling radar on one of its navy ships near the islands - something China disputes.

China said its ships had been monitoring Japanese vessels. The State Oceanic Administration issued a statement saying three of its ships had "found" several Japanese ships around the islands and "immediately ordered another five ships in the East China Sea to meet the three ships".

Ten Japanese boats carrying around 80 activists arrived in the area early on Tuesday, Reuters news agency reported, monitored by Japanese Coast Guard vessels. Public broadcaster NHK said the boats were carrying "regional lawmakers and members of the foreign media".

Japan's top government spokesman said the "intrusion into territorial waters" was "extremely regrettable". Japan also summoned the Chinese ambassador to protest, reports said.

The territorial row has been rumbling for years but was reignited last year when Japan bought three of the islands from their private Japanese owner.

China claims the island chain, which is controlled by Japan. Taiwan also claims the islands, which offer rich fishing grounds and lie in a strategically important area.

The dispute has led to serious diplomatic tension between China and Japan, most recently in January when Japan said a Chinese frigate locked weapons-controlling radar on one of its navy ships near the islands - something China disputes.

Two cabinet ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, visited the shrine on Sunday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not visit but made a ritual offering.

South Korea subsequently cancelled a proposed visit by its foreign minister, while China lodged "solemn representations" in response to the ministers' visit.

"Only when Japan faces up to its aggressive past can it embrace the future and develop friendly relations with its Asian neighbours," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday.

But Japanese lawmaker Hidehisa Otsujji said it was "natural" for "lawmakers to worship at a shrine for people who died for the nation".

"Every nation does this. I don't understand why we get a backlash," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22260140


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on April 25, 2013, 06:18:28 am
1,000 Japanese Officers To Participate In "Island Recapture" Drill In California

More than six months since the Japanese nationalistic escalation over the disputed island chain (that shall not be named) in the East China Sea sent Sino-Japanese foreign relations to a level not seen since a particular territorial dispute over Manchuria, tensions just hit a fever pitch overnight, when an armada of eight Chinese ships entered what Japan claimed were its territorial waters.

China's version of the story is that the vessels were there to monitor the activity of a flotilla of boats reportedly carrying members of a Japanese nationalist group (in what it too, naturally, views as its territorial waters). This was the most Chinese ships to enter Japanese waters near the Senkakus since the Japanese government purchased three of them from what it considers their owner last September and effectively nationalized the chain, a move China has quite vocally disputed and which has led to violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China, as well as a wide-ranging boycott of numerous Japanese exports.

Japan promptly followed protocol and summoned the Chinese ambassador and lodged a protest over the maritime activity.

“It is extremely regrettable and unacceptable that Chinese state ships continue to engage in intrusion,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. “We are protesting strictly through our diplomatic channels.”

The intrusion came after around 10 fishing boats carrying members of a conservative political group called Ganbare Nippon left Ishigaki Island in Okinawa and headed toward the Senkakus on Monday night. Things just escalated from there when running in four formations, the eight Chinese ships monitored the Japanese ships from different angles, China said in a statement.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to “expel by force” any Chinese landing on the islets.

“We would take decisive action against any attempt to enter territorial waters and to land,” Abe told the Diet in response to questions from lawmakers. “We would never allow” a landing.

“It would be natural for us to expel by force (the Chinese) if they were to make a landing,” he said.

Obviously, when we first read this latest incarnation of tiny David provoking a massive Goliath, we couldn't help but smile. Yet it turns out that Japan is indeed hell bent on pushing China to the limit, and then some, in this parading around with its best friend: the United States.

Moments ago Kyodo reported that Japan's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that "about 1,000 officers of the nation's Self-Defense Forces will participate in a U.S. drill to be held in California in June involving recapturing control of an isolated island."

Did we mention the drill would be held in California?

It is quite clear what said "recaptured island" is supposed to represent. It is even clearer what the US backing and sponsorship of such a drill on US soil is supposed to telegraph to China, so we won't go into any details.

It will be the first time for SDF personnel to participate in such a drill on the U.S. mainland.
 
Japan's participation could trigger a backlash from China as the Defense Ministry has been strengthening its capability to protect isolated islands amid soured ties with China over territorial issues surrounding the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, experts on defense issues said.
Actually China does not need to to twitch even the smallest military muscle: all it has to do is engage in a perfectly peaceful trade blockade of Japan: halt all exports to the tiny (by comparison) and irradiated nation, while boycotting all imports from Tokyo, which in better days amounted to 20% of all external trade. By doing so, China assures two things: the imminent collapse of Abenomics as even a 1,000,000 Nikkei225 will do nothing at all to prevent the country from entering an energy shortage shock, even as the local manufacturing sector implodes under its own weight, losing a core export market, and be forced to dump products on local soil in the process unleashing hyperdeflation.

In other words, if China wants, it can terminate Abe's career in months. And since the entire fate of the "developed world's" banking system is now in the hands of the BOJ and the successful conclusion of its reflation experiment, China just may just have been given the perfect opportunity to take down the (G-)7 birds with one stone.

The only question is whether Beijing feels it is ready and is willing to now finally truly challenge the Western reserve currency hegemony. Or wait some more.

Either way, it is only a matter of time now.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-23/1000-japanese-officers-participate-island-recapture-drill


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on April 28, 2013, 05:30:38 am
40-plus Chinese warplanes involved in Diaoyutais standoff: report

Tokyo, April 27 (CNA) China dispatched over 40 warplanes to join eight surveillance vessels in trying to prevent a flotilla of Japanese nationalists from landing on the disputed Diaoyutai Islands on April 23, according to a Japanese media report.

Previous foreign reports had only mentioned that the simultaneous presence of eight Chinese maritime surveillance vessels in the region were the most since tensions over the uninhabited island chain escalated last September.

The Japanese business daily Sankei Shimbun reported Saturday that more than 40 Chinese jet fighters flew close to the Diaoyutais on April 23 when the Chinese government vessels were playing cat-and-mouse with a 10-ship Japanese flotilla in the 12-nautical-mile zone off the islet chain in the East China Sea.

The Japanese government saw China's deployment of such a large fleet of jet fighters to the region as an attempt at intimidation, the Sankei Shimbun said.

Citing unidentified senior Japanese officials, the daily said most of the Chinese warplanes were new Su-27 and Su-30 jet fighters.

The Chinese fighters took turns flying close to the Diaoyutai Islands, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and Diaoyu Islands in China, while the Chinese surveillance vessels continued their standoff with the Japanese nationalist flotilla and coast guard patrol ships, the paper said.

Japanese officials were quoted as saying that the Chinese warplanes were apparently monitoring the Japan Coast Guard's actions and conveying updated information about the deployment of Japan's warships and P3C anti-submarine aircraft in the region to China's surveillance ships.

The Sankei Shimbun said the eight Chinese vessels entered the Diaoyutai waters on the morning of April 23 and did not leave what Japan claims as its territorial waters until 7:30 p.m. that day.

One of the Chinese ships even sailed in waters just one kilometer off the northwestern tip of the Diaoyutais, the paper said.

Located some 100 nautical miles northeast of Taiwan, the Diaoyutais have been under Japan's administrative control since 1972, but are also claimed by Taiwan and China.

The long simmering tensions over the islets came to a head last September when Japan nationalized three islets in the island cluster in an attempt to reinforce its sovereignty claim.

In the past, China had only sent J-10 jet fighters to the Diaoyutai region, but the deployment of fourth-generation Su-27s and Su-30s to the region for the first time in the April 23 operations upped the stakes, the Sankei Shimbun said.

According to the paper, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force has about 300 fourth-generation jet fighters such as F-15s and F-2s, while China has over 560 highly advanced fighters in service.

The paper quoted a senior Japanese official as saying that the Japan Air Self-Defense Force may be unable to cope with China's attempts at intimidation if the Chinese Air Force continues to use tactics similar to those seen on April 23.

As the Diaoyutais are located far closer to Taiwan than to China or Japan, some Taiwanese political analysts said the presence of Chinese government ships and warplanes in the region could also pose new challenges to Taiwan's security.

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aall/201304270019.aspx


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on June 30, 2013, 06:06:59 am
Chinese military in S.China Sea 'threatens peace'

The Philippines said that an increasing Chinese military and paramilitary presence in the disputed South China Sea was a threat to regional peace. Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario made the statement in a press release issued at a regional security forum attended by his counterparts from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China.   

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hRZk2Z3-midc8OORrQL-nSEX5xTA?docId=CNG.5be293b391852f15f222331589bbd148.581


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on July 29, 2013, 08:33:02 am
China's coastguard confronts Japanese ships near disputed islands

China says its ships 'sternly declared' sovereignty over the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China


China says ships from its newly formed coastguard confronted Japanese patrol vessels on Friday in waters surrounding East China Sea islands claimed by both sides.

The State Oceanic Administration that oversees the service says four of its ships "sternly declared" China's sovereignty over the islands called Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China, and demanded they leave the area. The uninhabited archipelago is controlled by Tokyo but also claimed by Beijing.

It was not clear if any action resulted from the Chinese declaration. Such sovereignty declarations are usually made by hailing Japanese boats by radio and loudspeaker, as well as flashing shipboard signs.

Ships from Chinese civilian agencies have maintained a steady presence in the area since tensions spiked in September following Japan's purchase of some of the islands from their private owners.

Those vessels are being replaced by ships from the coastguard, which was formally inaugurated on Monday and merges the resources of four former agencies. China says the move was intended to boost its ability to enforce its maritime claims, upping the stakes in an increasingly tense competition for marine territory and resources in waters off its eastern and south-eastern coasts.

Chinese coastguard ships have also been spotted this week at Mischief Reef off the western Philippine coast, according to a confidential Philippine government report obtained by the Associated Press. China occupied the vast reef in 1995, sparking protests from rival claimant Manila.

China says virtually the entire South China Sea and its islands belong to it, a claim based on alleged historical precedents that are strongly contested by the Philippines, Vietnam and others.

While Beijing has mainly used civilian agencies to patrol its claims, the new coastguard gives it greater latitude to do so by centralising operations in a single body. The body is nominally under civilian control, but closely co-ordinates with the increasingly formidable Chinese navy, which recently added an aircraft carrier to its fleet.

Coastguard ships are mainly repurposed naval or commercial vessels and are equipped with light armaments such as machine guns and deck cannons, unlike in the past when most of China's patrol craft had no weaponry.

Japan has already expressed renewed unease about China's military and maritime activity near the disputed islands, and on Friday released a defence paper calling for an increase in its surveillance capability, possibly including the use of drones capable of wide-range, high-altitude monitoring around the clock.

The paper also proposed creating a marine force to defend the disputed East China Sea islands.

Japan scrambled jets on Wednesday to keep watch on a Chinese Y-8 early warning plane flying over international waters between Japan's southern Okinawa island and an outer island relatively close to the disputed area in the East China Sea.

The Chinese Defence Ministry issued a statement defending the right of its aircraft to operate in the area.

Around the same time the Chinese fighter jet was sighted, Japan's coastguard reported the appearance of the four coastguard vessels near the disputed islands.

Japan's coastguard said the four Chinese craft were seen early on Wednesday just outside Japanese territorial waters.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/26/china-coastguard-confronts-japan-disputed-islands


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on August 08, 2013, 09:26:49 am
Japan Protests After Chinese Ships Linger in Disputed Waters

The Japanese Foreign Ministry lodged a protest with China’s top diplomat in Japan on Thursday after three Chinese paramilitary ships stayed in waters around disputed islands for the longest period of time since a fight over the area heated up last year, the ministry said.

The three vessels, identified as belonging to China’s newly created Coast Guard, entered the waters off the islands in the East China Sea on Wednesday and remained for more than 28 hours, Japan’s Coast Guard said. They were later joined by a fourth Chinese ship before all of the vessels left around noon on Thursday.

While such incursions into Japanese-administered waters have recently been taking place on almost a daily basis, Chinese ships usually stay only a few hours before leaving. During that time, they are tailed by Japanese Coast Guard ships in a high-seas game of cat and mouse.

The length of the most recent incursion brought expressions of concern in Tokyo, where the Foreign Ministry said Junichi Ihara, head of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, summoned the acting Chinese ambassador to Japan, Han Zhiqiang, to lodge a formal protest.

“We have expressed our anger to the Chinese side,” Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said. “Attempts to change the status quo with implied threats of force are not permitted by the international community.”

The group of uninhabited islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, are administered by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan. Since September, Chinese ships have made regular visits into the waters as part of what analysts call a long-term strategy of wearing down Japan’s will to keep enforcing its claims.

The dispute, which has lasted decades, flared up last year after the Japanese government bought three of the five islands from their private owner. The move prompted outrage from Beijing, which saw it as an effort by Japan to solidify control over the islands. The Japanese government said it was acting to pre-empt the purchase of the islands by the nationalist former mayor of Tokyo, who wanted to build a lighthouse and take other more provocative steps to assert Japanese control.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/09/world/asia/japan-protests-after-chinese-ships-linger-in-disputed-waters.html?_r=0


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on August 08, 2013, 09:28:02 am
New Japanese Helicopter Carrier Draws China Warning to Asia

China said Asian neighbors must be alert to Japan’s defense buildup after it unveiled a vessel capable of carrying 14 helicopters, the largest Japanese military ship produced since World War II.

“Japan should reflect on its history, adhere to self-defense and respect its promise to follow the road of peaceful development,” China’s Defense Ministry said in a faxed statement today, referring to the pacifist constitution Japan adopted after losing the war.

Yesterday’s unveiling of the 19,500-ton Izumo reflects Japan’s push to bolster its maritime forces as it faces off with China over East China Sea islands that both claim. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to boost defense spending for the first time in 11 years coincides with China’s own defense budget expansion of 10.7 percent this year.

The Izumo is a “symbol of Japan’s strong wish to return to its time as a military power,” China’s state-owned Global Times newspaper said in a commentary today. Japan already has two helicopter carriers.

In the statement, China’s Defense Ministry urged Japan to stick to self-defense. China’s projected 2013 defense budget is the equivalent of $121 billion, more than twice Japan’s 2013 defense budget of 4.68 trillion yen ($51.7 billion).

The English-language China Daily newspaper said in an editorial today that Abe has adopted a “militaristic approach to building national pride.” The editorial said the Izumo was “provocatively named after” a World War II ship involved in the invasion of China.

Maritime Power

China’s President Xi Jinping vowed last month to turn China into a maritime power. The country commissioned its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, last year.

The Izumo is the biggest military vessel Japan has produced since the war, Defense Ministry spokesman Atsushi Sakurai said today. The 1941-commissioned Yamato, which displaced 72,000 tons fully loaded, was the largest battleship ever built at the time along with its sister ship Musashi, according to the U.S. Navy.

The largest warships today are the the U.S. Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, which displace 97,000 tons fully loaded, according to the Navy.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-07/japan-s-latest-helicopter-carrier-draws-chinese-warning-to-asia.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on August 08, 2013, 09:31:35 am
US, Philippines to Open Troops Talks

Philippine officials say they will soon begin negotiations with the United States on a larger American military presence to help deter what they say is increasing Chinese aggression in Philippine-claimed waters in the South China Sea.
 
In a letter to Philippine congressional leaders, the secretaries of national defense and foreign affairs said that allowing American troops to have an "increased rotational presence" will help the country attain a "minimum credible defense" to guard its territory while it struggles to modernize its own military, one of Asia's weakest.
 
A larger American presence would also mean more resources and training for responding to disasters in a nation often battered by typhoons and earthquakes, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said in their letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.
 
"The Philippines will shortly enter into consultations and negotiations with the United States on a possible framework agreement that would implement our agreed policy of increased rotational presence," Gazmin and del Rosario said.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ap-newsbreak-us-philippines-open-troops-talks-19901267


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Kilika on August 08, 2013, 01:03:59 pm
 ::) Oh, so NOW they want the US back!

They spent years complaining they wanted the US military out of the Philippines, and they basically got it eventually. It was winding down when I was in the Navy back in the 80's.

And now they are crying the big bad communist Chinese are at their door. Whatever.


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on August 27, 2013, 06:33:54 am
China says no Japan meeting at G-20

China on Tuesday ruled out a meeting between the Chinese and Japanese leaders at next month's Group of 20 summit in Russia, citing a festering territorial dispute and provocations by Tokyo.
 
Japan's failure to "broaden its mindset, face historical facts and take concrete actions to remove obstacles" make a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe impossible, Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
 
"Under such circumstances how can we arrange the kind of bilateral meeting as wanted by the Japanese side?" Li said.
 
Tokyo has repeatedly called for dialogue to resolve the dispute, but has made no solid proposal for a Xi-Abe meeting on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg summit.
 
The dispute over the uninhabited East China Sea islands escalated sharply last September after Japan's government bought them from their private Japanese owners.
 
Violent anti-Japanese protests broke out in China, and Beijing sent patrol ships to the area to assert its claim that they are Chinese territory.
 
Li was quoted as saying that there is currently no possibility of resolving the dispute and repeating China's accusation that Japan is entirely to blame for the impasse.
 
The tiny islands located north of Taiwan are called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. They are also claimed by Taiwan.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_JAPAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on September 03, 2013, 08:35:20 am
PHL shows photos of Chinese construction at Panatag Shoal

The Philippines accused China on Tuesday of laying concrete blocks on a small group of reefs and rocky outcrops within its territory, the latest escalation in a hostile maritime dispute.

Defense spokesman Peter Galvez released to the media an aerial photograph of what he said were about 30 blocks on Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.

"It's unfortunate that they keep on doing activities that do not contribute to our pursuit of regional peace," Galvez told reporters.

Fishermen from Zambales have complained of being prevented by Chinese government ships from fishing in the shoal, a rich fishing ground as well as refuge during storms.

 

 
An aerial photo taken recently from a Philippine military aircraft reveals at least 30 concrete blocks in the disputed Panatag Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. Philippine defense officials believe the blocks are likely to be used as foundation supports for Chinese offshore structures, the latest escalation in a hostile maritime dispute. DND photo
Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin briefed members of the House of Representatives about the latest issue on Tuesday, telling them the concrete blocks were a "prelude to construction," according to Galvez.

"We do not want to preempt the information but it has to go through channels yet, meron... silang panibagong violations,” Gazmin told reporters Monday afternoon.

Galvez said the photograph was taken from a Philippine Navy plane on Saturday, and three Chinese Coast Guard vessels were also observed there.

Asked what is the purpose of the blocks, Galvez said: “It's hard to speculate yung what it can be used for, pero syempre these are concrete blocks that can be (used) as parang foundation to something.”
 

 When asked if a diplomatic protest will be filed, Galvez said the matter has been forwarded to the Department of Foreign Affairs for appropriate action.
 
Occupation of Panatag shoal

AFP could not immediately verify the photograph. When asked for comment, Chinese embassy spokesman Hua Zhang told AFP by email: "I will look into it."

The contested shoal is about 220 kilometers off the main Philippine island of Luzon, within the country's internationally recognized exclusive economic zone. The outcrop is about 650 kilometers from Hainan island, the nearest major Chinese land mass.

China claims most of the South China Sea, including waters close to the coasts of the Philippines and other neighbors.

The Philippines and Vietnam have in recent years repeatedly accused China of becoming more aggressive in staking its claims to the disputed waters, which are believed to sit atop vast gas and oil reserves.

The Philippines says China has effectively occupied Panatag shoal, home to rich fishing grounds, since last year by stationing vessels there and banning Filipino fishermen.

Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have competing claims to parts of the South China Sea, and the rivalries have been a source of tension for decades.

Diplomatic relations between the Philippines and China, in particular, have become increasingly tense in recent years.

The Philippines angered China in January this year by asking a United Nations tribunal to rule on the validity of the Chinese claims to most of the South China Sea.

China rejects international arbitration, preferring to deal with the issue on a bilateral basis while maintaining it has sole territorial rights.

Legislator Walden Bello, who attended Gazmin's briefing on Tuesday, told AFP Filipino politicians were concerned China could be laying the foundations for a military garrison on Scarborough Shoal.

He said the tactics were similar to when Chinese took control of Philippine-claimed Mischief Reef in 1995.

"We're worried that this could be the start of the same process of erecting concrete structures and asserting de facto ownership like they also did at Panganiban Reef," Bello said, referring to Mischief Reef by its Filipino name.

Canceled trip

In 2002, China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations adopted a non-binding "declaration of conduct" for the South China Sea to discourage hostile acts.

All sides agreed then not to use threats or force to assert claims.

They also pledged in the declaration to refrain from inhabiting uninhabited islands or other features in the South China Sea, and to "exercise self-restraint" in conducting activities that would escalate disputes.

But China has since refused to turn it into a legally binding "code of conduct".

In another related issue, the Philippine foreign ministry said President Benigno Aquino called off a planned trip to China for a trade fair this week after Chinese authorities imposed conditions on the trip.

Ministry spokesman Raul Hernandez did not disclose the conditions, saying Chinese foreign ministry officials had "advised" the Philippines not to make them public, but signalled they were centred firmly on the territorial row.

"The president stood firm in the defence of the country's national interest," Hernandez said.

Sources at the DFA who asked not to be named told GMA News Online that the Chinese government relayed the message that it will only receive Aquino if the Philippines withdraws the case it filed against China before an international tribunal, and pulls out its grounded vessel and stationed troops in Ayungin Shoal. — with reports from Agence France-Presse and Amita Legaspi/YA/HS, GMA News

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/324838/news/nation/phl-shows-photos-of-chinese-construction-at-panatag-shoal


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on September 09, 2013, 05:28:41 am
Japan scrambles jets for drone near disputed islands

 (AFP) – 1 hour ago 

TOKYO — Japan scrambled fighter jets Monday after an unidentified drone flew near Tokyo-controlled islands at the centre of a bitter dispute with China, a defence ministry spokesman said.

It was the first reported incident of its kind.

Japan's Air Self-Defence Force sent an unspecified number of jets to the area, the official said.

The drones did not enter Japanese airspace, the official said.

A second Japanese defence ministry official said the nationality of the drone was not clear, but added that it came from the northwest and and was last seen flying back in that direction.

China does have drones but when asked about the incident, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: "I am not aware of the situation."

On Sunday, Japan scrambled fighter jets against two Chinese bombers that flew from the East China Sea into the Pacific, through a gap between islands in the Okinawa chain, the defence ministry said.

And two weeks ago, fighters were dispatched to head off a Chinese government plane flying towards the Senkaku islands, which Beijing calls the Diaoyus and claims as its own.

A Y-12 propeller plane flew about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from airspace around the islands on August 26, before heading back towards China after Japan's military planes became airborne.

In December, a similar plane from China's State Oceanic Administration breached airspace over the disputed islands, prompting the launch of Japanese F-15s.

It was the first known incursion by a Chinese plane into Japanese airspace, the government said at the time.

Friday's reports came as four Chinese coastguard ships sailed in the so-called contiguous zone that surrounds territorial waters around the islands.

It was the latest in a series of such sorties by Chinese government ships since Tokyo nationalised three islands in the chain last September, reigniting a long-simmering dispute.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jtUMFAQObEKUeshI944IR6PUliIQ?docId=CNG.eb0e8535dec77693989d4f7787adc33a.41&hl=en


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on September 27, 2013, 09:49:10 am
Japan PM: China vessels still intruding in Japanese waters, but door remains open to dialogue

Japan’s prime minister says Chinese government vessels are still intruding into Japanese territorial waters around contested islands, but he says the door to dialogue with Beijing is always open.

The Asian powers’ conflicting claims to the remote islands, called Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China, have badly strained relations. China says it, too, is ready to talk, but only if Japan formally acknowledges disputed sovereignty.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday that Japan would make no concession on sovereignty.

But he said Japan does not intend to escalate the issue, and both nations have responsibility to maintain regional peace.

Abe told reporters: “The door to dialogue is always open, and I really hope that the Chinese side will take a similar attitude and have the same mindset.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/japan-pm-china-vessels-still-intruding-in-japanese-waters-but-door-remains-open-to-dialogue/2013/09/27/d7287e16-2778-11e3-9372-92606241ae9c_story.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on October 27, 2013, 11:23:26 am
Japan PM warns China on use of force

Japan is ready to counter China if it resorts to force in the pursuit of its geopolitical interests, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in an interview published Saturday.

"I've realized that Japan is expected to exert leadership not just on the economic front, but also in the field of security in the Asia-Pacific," Abe told the Wall Street Journal, speaking after a series of summits this month with regional leaders.

He said Japan had become too inward-looking over the past 15 years, but as it regains economic strength "we'd like to contribute more to making the world a better place."

The Journal said he made clear one way Japan would "contribute" would be countering China in Asia.

"There are concerns that China is attempting to change the status quo by force, rather than by rule of law. But if China opts to take that path, then it won't be able to emerge peacefully," Abe said.

"So it shouldn't take that path, and many nations expect Japan to strongly express that view. And they hope that as a result, China will take responsible action in the international community."

For more than a year, relations between Beijing and Tokyo have been chilled by a territorial dispute in the East China Sea where China claims a small, uninhabited archipelago administered by Japan under the name of Senkaku. Beijing calls it Diaoyu.

One of Abe's first decisions as prime minister has been to increase Japan's defense budget for the first time in 11 years.

Tokyo also plans to hold a large air and sea exercise in November to strengthen the island's defenses, and as a display of might intended for the Chinese.

http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/1-front-top-news/141838-japan-pm-warns-china-on-use-of-force.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on October 27, 2013, 03:14:28 pm
Japan's PM warns China on use of force as jets scrambled

Japan's leader warned China on Sunday against forcibly changing the regional balance of power, as reports said Tokyo had scrambled fighter jets in response to Chinese military aircraft flying near Okinawa.

Verbal skirmishing between Asia's two biggest economies, who dispute ownership of an island chain, escalated as Beijing warned Tokyo that any hostile action in the skies against Chinese drones would be construed as an "act of war".

"We will express our intention as a state not to tolerate a change in the status quo by force. We must conduct all sorts of activities such as surveillance and intelligence for that purpose," Abe said in an address to the military.

"The security environment surrounding Japan is becoming increasingly severe. This is the reality," he said. "You will have to completely rid yourselves of the conventional notion that just the existence of a defence force could act as a deterrent."

Abe presided over an inspection of the military at which a US amphibious assault vehicle was displayed for the first time, an apparent sign of Japan's intention to strengthen its ability to protect remote islands.

The defence ministry plans to create a special amphibious unit to protect the southern islands and retake them in case of an invasion.

"There are concerns that China is attempting to change the status quo by force, rather than by rule of law," Abe earlier told the Wall Street Journal in an interview following a series of summits this month with regional leaders.

"But if China opts to take that path, then it won't be able to emerge peacefully," he said in the interview published Saturday.

"So it shouldn't take that path, and many nations expect Japan to strongly express that view. And they hope that as a result, China will take responsible action in the international community," Abe added.

On Sunday Jiji Press and Kyodo News reported that Japan had deployed jets for two days running in response to four Chinese military aircraft flying over international waters near the Okinawa island chain.

Two Y8 early-warning aircraft and two H6 bombers flew from the East China Sea to the Pacific Ocean and back again but did not violate Japan's airspace, the reports said.

The Japanese defence ministry was not immediately available for confirmation.

Japan's military is on increased alert as Tokyo and Beijing pursue a war of words over the disputed islands in the East China Sea that lie between Okinawa and Taiwan.

On Saturday China responded angrily after a report said Japan had drafted plans to shoot down foreign drones that encroach on its airspace if warnings to leave are ignored.

Tokyo drew up the proposals after a Chinese military drone entered Japan's air defence identification zone near the disputed islands in the East China Sea last month, Kyodo said.

"We would advise relevant parties not to underestimate the Chinese military's staunch resolve to safeguard China's national territorial sovereignty," China's defence ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said in comments posted on the ministry's website.

"If Japan takes enforcement measures such as shooting down aircraft, as it says it will, that would constitute a serious provocation, an act of war of sorts, and we would have to take firm countermeasures, and all consequences would be the responsibility of the side that caused the provocation."

Tokyo and Beijing both claim the small uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. Japan administers them and calls them the Senkakus. China refers to the islands as the Diaoyus.

One of Abe's first decisions as prime minister was to increase the defence budget for the first time in 11 years.

Tokyo also plans to hold a major air and sea exercise next month to bolster its ability to protect its remote islands.

In the Wall Street Journal interview, Abe said Japan had become too inward-looking over the past 15 years, but as it regains economic strength "we'd like to contribute more to making the world a better place".

The Journal said he made it clear that one way Japan would "contribute" would be countering China in Asia.

http://news.yahoo.com/japans-pm-warns-china-force-jets-scrambled-064532644.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Kilika on October 28, 2013, 04:35:09 am
Them going back and forth over those silly islands is getting really old, just like the North and South Korea thing, and is now taking up valuable news space, in my opinion.


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on October 29, 2013, 06:18:17 am
Japan minister: China threatens peace in islands row

Japan's defence minister says China's behaviour over disputed East China Sea islands is jeopardising peace.

Itsunori Onodera's comments came amid heightened tensions between the two countries over islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

Rhetoric has risen in recent days, with Japan reporting increased activity from China in the area.

Last week, Japan scrambled fighter jets three times after Chinese military aircraft flew near Japanese airspace.

The two countries have argued for decades over the islands, which Japan controls. They are also claimed by Taiwan.

In 2012, the Japanese government bought three of the islands from their private Japanese owner, a move which sparked a new row and protests in Chinese cities.

Since then, Chinese ships have been sailing in and out of what Japan says are its territorial waters, prompting fears of a clash.

'Hyping up'

Mr Onodera told reporters in Tokyo he believed "the intrusions by China in the territorial waters around the Senkaku islands fall in the 'grey zone' [between] peacetime and an emergency situation".

On Monday four Chinese ships entered waters around the islands. The move came after Japan scrambled fighters three days in a row after Chinese aircraft flew over international waters near Japan's southern island of Okinawa.

Over the weekend, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan should be more assertive in countering China in Asia.

He also, reports said, last week approved defence plans that envisaged using air force planes to shoot down unmanned aircraft in Japanese airspace.

Last month, an unmanned drone flew close to the islands. The drone appeared to return to Chinese airspace, reports say.

In response, China's Defence Ministry said any attempt by Japan to shoot down Chinese aircraft "would constitute a serious provocation, an act of war of sorts".

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday that Japan should "stop hyping up the external threat theory and elaborate to the international community the true intent of [its] military build-up".

The chain of disputed islands lies east of the Chinese mainland and south-west of Japan's Okinawa island. They are close to strategically important shipping lanes and offer rich fishing grounds.

(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50005000/gif/_50005270_chunxiao_gas_464x386v2.gif)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24709148


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on October 31, 2013, 04:09:39 am
Following Japan's scrambling of fighter jets for the 3rd day in a row, China has revealed that its first fleet of nuclear submarines has started sea patrols, in the latest sign of its military’s growing confidence which has raised concerns in the region. As The FT reports, Xinhua, China's official news agency, released photographs of what appeared to be Xia-class vessels – China’s first generation of nuclear-armed submarines, which are several decades old – saying they were being “declassified” for the first time, adding with supremely colorful language that, the subs would "gallop to the depths of the ocean, serving as mysterious forces igniting the sound of thunder in the deep sea", and be an "assassin’s mace that would make adversaries tremble".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1g_N6WsrRk


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Christian40 on October 31, 2013, 04:39:05 am
Quote
The two countries have argued for decades over the islands, which Japan controls. They are also claimed by Taiwan.

They just love a good argument lets keep arguing for another few decades.

Quote
China has revealed that its first fleet of nuclear submarines has started sea patrols, in the latest sign of its military’s growing confidence which has raised concerns in the region

oh dear the argument is getting overheated.


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Kilika on October 31, 2013, 05:29:53 am
Quote
oh dear the argument is getting overheated.

 ;)

You know, the way they bicker and argue and take pop shots at each other, and other countries doing the same ting, it reminds me of two dogs nipping at each other, but in the end they both are still dogs and will stick together as such.

The governments of the world are a kennel of rabid dogs running wild. And when they find something to eat, the fight over scraps begins.

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." Jeremiah 13:23 (KJB)


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on November 01, 2013, 05:45:08 am
Japan, Russia cosy up as China dispute simmers

Tokyo will play host to the foreign and defence ministers of Russia from Friday, the latest stage of a burgeoning relationship that represents a rare neighbourly entente for Japan.

Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu will meet their Japanese counterparts Fumio Kishida and Itsunori Onodera in Tokyo in a so-called "2+2", something that Japan has only ever done before with the United States and Australia.

The visit comes after four separate summit talks between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin over the past six months, an unusual frequency for such high-level exchanges.

In their one-on-one meeting Friday, Lavrov and Kishida are expected to discuss a decades-old territorial row that has prevented the two countries ever signing a peace treaty after World War II.

The following day, the 2+2 will touch on ways to strengthen security co-operation, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

The meeting "is expected to have an indirect, but positive impact on future talks towards a peace treaty, by building trust between the countries," the official said.

Despite an important commercial relationship, which includes a growing trade in fossil fuels, Tokyo and Moscow remain at odds over the sovereignty of islands north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

The islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories, but Russia administers as the Southern Kurils, were occupied by Soviet troops in the dying days of World War II.

The small Japanese population was evicted and the USSR peopled the archipelago as part of a drive to consolidate control over its wild east. They remain under-developed, but harbour rich fishing reserves.

"We've seen President Putin's enthusiasm towards improving ties with Japan, but it doesn't necessarily mean that Russia is ready to make a compromise on the territorial issue," the official said.

Relatively warm relations with Russia stand in marked contrast with Japan's ties to China and South Korea.

Tokyo is embroiled in a bitter dispute with Beijing over the ownership of a chain of islands in the East China Sea which is largely being played out by cat and mouse games between coastguards from both sides and occasional invective.

The row took a sharp turn for the worse last week when Beijing said Tokyo's reported plan to shoot down drones encroaching on its airspace would be "an act of war".

Japan parried with accusations that China was endangering peace in the region.

A pair of sparsely populated islets that sit between Japan and the Korean peninsula are the focus of a separate squabble between Tokyo and Seoul.

While the disputes are nominally territorial, they are fanned by unresolved historical differences and growing nationalism.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Japan_Russia_cosy_up_as_China_dispute_simmers_999.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on November 01, 2013, 06:46:26 am
Japan to start large-scale war games exercise

An estimated 34,000 Self-Defence Force troops, accompanied by destroyers and F-2 fighter jets, are scheduled to take part in the large-scale exercise, which will run until November 18. Drills will take place on air, sea and land, with exercises including live firing and amphibious landings and trial scenarios enacting how troops can best defend an island under attack. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/10419438/Japan-to-start-large-scale-war-games-exercise.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on November 01, 2013, 06:49:10 am
Japan rejects Chinese protests over sea drills, denies interference

Japan on Friday denied interfering with Chinese military exercises in the western Pacific after Beijing lodged a formal diplomatic protest, saying China's objections were unacceptable and it had acted in line with international law. 

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-rejects-chinese-protests-over-sea-drills-denies-031941767.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on November 23, 2013, 06:46:30 am
China establishes 'air-defence zone' over East China Sea

China's Defence Ministry said aircraft entering the zone must obey its rules or face "emergency defensive measures". The islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are a source of rising tension between the countries. Japan lodged a strong protest over what it said was an "escalation".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25062525?print=true


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on November 24, 2013, 06:00:27 am
Hagel: U.S. 'deeply concerned' with China air defense map

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said Saturday the United States is “deeply concerned” over China’s move to establish an air defense zone over a string of disputed islands in the East China Sea.
 
“We view this development as a destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region,” Hagel said in a statement. “This unilateral action increases the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations.”

The Associated Press reports that the Chinese Defense Ministry issued a map showing the new East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone, which encompasses what the Chinese call the Diaoyu islands. The move is seen as an aggressive step against Japan, which bought what it calls the Senkaku islands from private owners in 2012. The islands are uninhabited, but are believed to rest near large underwater oil reserves. Taiwan also claims possession of the islands.
 
Hagel said the map will have no effect on how the United States conducts military operations in the area, and that concerns are being conveyed to China “through diplomatic and military channels.” Hagel also said the United States believes that the Senkaku islands are included as part of Japan in the U.S. Japan Mutual Defense Treaty.

In a separate statement, Secretary of State John Kerry urged China to exercise restraint with foreign aircraft that don't identify themelves inside the air defense zone.
 
"Escalatory action will only increase tensions in the region and create risks of an incident," Kerry said. "Freedom of overflight and other internationally lawful uses of sea and airspace are essential to prosperity, stability, and security in the Pacific."

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/11/hagel-us-deeply-concerned-with-china-air-defense-map-178217.html?hp=r3


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on November 26, 2013, 01:06:46 pm
U.S. flies two warplanes over East China Sea, ignoring new Chinese air defense zone

The U.S. military has flown two warplanes over the East China Sea on a training exercise, the Pentagon announced Tuesday, blatantly ignoring a recent edict from China that it must be informed in advance of any such flights over the region.

The two unarmed aircraft flew Monday evening, Eastern time, over a small island chain that China and Japan both claim as their territory, said Lt. Col. Tom Crosson, a Pentagon spokesman. He said the U.S. military did not provide any notice to Beijing and described the mission as “uneventful,” saying that there was “no contact, no reaction from China.”

On Saturday, China issued an edict imposing an “air defense identification zone” over part of the East China Sea and the uninhabited islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyo in China. The Chinese Defense Ministry warned that any noncommercial aircraft entering the zone would need to submit flight plans in advance or else face the possibility of “defensive emergency measures.”

Japan and the United States immediately protested the move. The Pentagon, which frequently conducts naval and air exercises in the East China Sea, said it had no intention of bowing to China’s demands, calling them “a destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region.”

Crosson declined to identify what kind of U.S. military aircraft carried out the mission on Monday but said the planes came from a base on Guam, the U.S. territory in the Pacific. Another U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the operation, said the aircraft were both long-range B-52 bombers.

Numerous countries, including the United States and Japan, have air defense identification zones of their own. The zones are established to help countries track or monitor aircraft nearing their territories, but in this case, the zones of Japan and China overlap.

Security experts worry that China’s new zone could increase the likelihood of a mishap that sparks a wider armed conflict, drawing in the United States, which is treaty-bound to protect Japan.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-flies-two-warplanes-over-east-china-sea-ignoring-new-chinese-air-defense-zone/2013/11/26/0510eee2-56bf-11e3-835d-e7173847c7cc_story.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on November 27, 2013, 01:57:06 pm
U.S. affirms support for Japan in islands dispute with China


The United States pledged support for ally Japan on Wednesday in a growing dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea and senior U.S. administration officials accused Beijing of behavior that had unsettled its neighbors.
 
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel assured his Japanese counterpart in a phone call that the two nations' defense pact covers the small islands where China established a new airspace defense zone last week and commended Tokyo "for exercising appropriate restraint," a Pentagon spokesman said.

China's declaration raised the stakes in a territorial standoff between Beijing and Tokyo over the area, which includes the tiny uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

The United States defied China's demand that airplanes flying near the islands identify themselves to Chinese authorities, flying two unarmed B-52 bombers over the islands on Tuesday without informing Beijing.

It was a sharp reminder to China that the United States still maintains a large military presence in the region despite concerns among U.S. allies that President Barack Obama's "pivot to Asia" strategy has borne little fruit.

In a previously announced trip, Vice President Joe Biden will visit China, Japan and South Korea next week. He will seek to ease tensions heightened by China's declaration, senior administration officials said.

Washington does not take a position on the sovereignty of the islands but recognizes that Tokyo has administrative control over them and the United States is therefore bound to defend Japan in the event of an armed conflict.

Some experts say the Chinese move was aimed at eroding Tokyo's claim to administrative control over the area.

China's defense ministry said it had monitored the U.S. bombers on Tuesday. A Pentagon spokesman said the planes had not been observed or contacted by Chinese aircraft.

'FRICTION AND UNCERTAINTY'

In a conference calls with reporters, senior U.S. administration officials said China's declaration raised serious concerns about its intentions.

"It causes friction and uncertainty, it constitutes a unilateral change to the status quo in the region, a region that's already fraught. And it increases the risk of miscalculation and accidents," one of the officials said.

China's declaration of a defense zone affects not only Japan but aircraft from other countries throughout the world that routinely fly over the area, the official said.

Biden will raise the issue of the defense zone directly with policy makers in Beijing, the official said. "It also allows the vice president to make the broader point that there's an emerging pattern of behavior that is unsettling to China's own neighbors."

The official said it raised questions about "how China operates in international space and how China deals with areas of disagreement with its neighbors."

The Pentagon signaled that more military flights into the defense zone claimed by China can be expected.

Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told Reuters: "We'll continue to conduct operations in the region, as we have" in the past. He declined to offer details on timing.

The U.S. State Department said it was still trying to determine whether the new defense zone rules applied to civil and commercial aircraft and it told U.S. airlines to take steps to operate safely over the East China Sea.

In addition to the U.S. B-52 flights on Tuesday, flights of Japan's main airline similarly ignored Chinese authorities while flying through the zone.

Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings said they had stopped giving flight plans and other information to Chinese authorities following a request from the Japanese government.

Both said they had not experienced any problems when passing through the zone. Japan's aviation industry association said it had concluded there was no threat to passenger safety by ignoring the Chinese demands, JAL said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/27/us-usa-china-idUSBRE9AQ0T920131127


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on November 28, 2013, 08:35:34 am
Japan and South Korea defy China air zone rules

Japan and South Korea have both flown planes unannounced through China's newly-declared air defence zone, officials from both nations say. Japanese aircraft had conducted routine "surveillance activity" over the East China Sea zone, the top government spokesman said. South Korea had also conducted a flight, its defence ministry said.   

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25133957


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on November 28, 2013, 12:03:03 pm
China sends warplanes to newly declared air zone

China has sent warplanes to its newly declared air defence zone in the East China Sea, state media reports.

The vast zone, announced last week, covers territory claimed by China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

China has said all planes transiting the zone must file flight plans and identify themselves, or face "defensive emergency measures".

But Japan, South Korea and the US have all since flown military aircraft through the area.

The new dispute in an already tense region has raised concerns it could escalate into an unplanned military incident.

China's state news agency Xinhua quoted air force spokesman Col Shen Jinke as saying several fighter jets and an early warning aircraft had been deployed to carry out routine patrols as "a defensive measure and in line with international common practices".

He said the country's air force would remain on high alert and would take measures to deal with all air threats to protect national security.

In Xinhua's Chinese language version of the article, the colonel said the aircraft would "strengthen the monitoring of targets in the air defence zone and do their duty".

'Destabilising'

The controversial air defence identification zone (ADIZ) includes islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, which are claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan.

Japan controls the islands, which have been the focus of a bitter and long-running dispute between Japan and China.

The zone also covers a submerged rock that South Korea says forms part of its territory.

China says the establishment of the zone was "completely justified and legitimate", but it has been widely condemned.

America, which called the move a "destabilising attempt to alter the status quo in the region", flew two unarmed B-52 bombers through the zone unannounced on Tuesday.

South Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said on Wednesday that it had made "already tricky regional situations even more difficult to deal with".

Seoul said one of its military planes also entered the zone on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Japan said its aircraft had conducted routine "surveillance activity" over the East China Sea zone, but did not specify when.

"Even since China has created this airspace defence zone, we have continued our surveillance activities as before in the East China Sea, including in the zone," said Japan's top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga.

"We are not going to change this [activity] out of consideration to China," he added.

South Korea and China held talks on the zone on Thursday, but failed to reach any agreement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25144465


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on December 03, 2013, 05:37:23 am
U.S. deploys submarine-hunting jets to disputed air defence zone over East China Sea as tensions in volatile region mount
 China claims sovereignty over Japanese controlled islands
 U.S. Navy sends first of six advanced anti-ship aircraft to Japan
 Fears mount tensions could spark unplanned military incident


America has deployed the first of six state-of-the-art submarine-hunting jets to the East China Sea as tensions between Japan and China over a group of disputed islands mounts.


China last month established an air defense zone covering islands controlled by Japan and claimed by Beijing - sparking fears that it could lead to an unplanned military incident.
 
Now the U.S. Navy is sending P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft which will strengthen America's ability to hunt submarines and other vessels in seas close to China.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2516723/U-S-deploys-submarine-hunting-jets-disputed-air-defence-zone-East-China-Sea-tensions-volatile-region-mount.html#ixzz2mPXVNkHn


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on December 04, 2013, 07:06:42 am
China Threatens Japan Ahead of Biden Trip

China military threatens action against Japan, escalates rhetoric on air defense zone on eve of Biden visit


China’s military ratcheted up tensions on Tuesday over its disputed East China Sea air defense zone by threatening military action against Japan and saying it would enforce new aircraft controls.
 
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yangsheng accused Japan in a statement of “making trouble” and he warned Chinese military aircraft would enforce the newly imposed air defense identification zone, or ADIZ.
 
“Japan’s actions have seriously harmed China’s legitimate rights and security interests, and undermined the peace and stability in East Asia,” Geng said through the official Xinhua news agency. “China has to take necessary reactions.”
 
Geng listed a series of actions by Japan he said had increased tensions, including Tokyo’s frequent dispatch of ships and aircraft to areas near the disputed Senkaku islands, threats to shoot down Chinese drones, and overall escalation of regional tensions.
 
Without mentioning the United States, Geng also said other countries must “correct wrong remarks and wrongdoings,” he said.
 
“Other parties should not be incited, or send wrong signals to make a very few countries go further on the wrong track, which will follow the same old disastrous road and undermine regional and world peace,” Geng said, insisting that China adheres to peaceful development and defensive policies.
 
The comments were the most forceful by a Chinese government spokesman since Beijing unilaterally declared the ADIZ that overlaps Japan’s air defense zone and covers the Senkakus, which China calls Diaoyu.
 
On Capitol Hill, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said the latest tensions highlight the administration’s “confusing and inconsistent messages” to Japan, a key ally.
 
The administration for months before China’s imposition of the air zone had said it was neutral in maritime disputes. It then belatedly backed Japan, invoking defense commitments under the U.S.-Japan defense treaty.
 
“In an obvious attempt to placate China, the United States is sacrificing the assurance to our allies in the region that we are a reliable and steadfast security partner,” Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.) said in a statement to the Free Beacon.
 
Inhofe noted that 2012 marked the 60th anniversary of the U.S.-Japan defense treaty.
 
“The belated invocation of our treaty obligation clearly falls well short of an appropriate response to this latest provocation by China that would be consistent with the spirit and intent of the treaty,” Inhofe said. “Unfortunately, this follows a pattern of fumbled reactions by the Obama administration in other regions of the world, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.”
 
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon also called the Chinese air zone “bullying” by China that risks a military miscalculation.
 
“I am glad to see that China’s blatantly aggressive actions aren’t affecting how the U.S. military conducts operations in the region, and I’m pleased to hear that U.S. military flight operations are continuing as planned,” McKeon said in a statement.
 
“It’s important the United States stand with its long-time treaty ally, Japan, against this kind of international bullying,” McKeon said. “I encourage Vice President Biden to call on Beijing to retract this antagonist claim during his visit there later this week.”
 
In Tokyo, Vice President Joe Biden took a noticeably milder tone on the dispute with China than Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Biden will be in China on Wednesday, December 4, and Thursday, December 5.
 
At a press conference with Biden, Abe said the United States and Japan should “should not tolerate the attempt by China to change status quo unilaterally by force.”
 
Biden, in his remarks, said the U.S. is “deeply concerned” about a potential conflict caused by the sudden imposition of the air defense zone.
 
“This action has raised regional tensions and increased the risk of accidents and miscalculation,” he said.
 
“If you’ll forgive a personal reference, my father had an expression. He said, the only conflict that is worse than one that is intended is one that is unintended. The prospect for miscalculation mistake is too high,” Biden said.
 
Contrary to Japanese press reports, the two leaders did not issue a statement calling for China to roll back the destabilizing air zone.
 
Earlier, a senior Obama administration official briefing reporters on the Biden-Abe talks said the ADIZ imposition by China was “a provocative action, an uncoordinated action at a time when tensions were already running high.”
 
“And that this is not the kind of thing that contributes to greater peace and security in Northeast Asia or in the Asia Pacific region,” the official said.
 
There also are concerns China will further increase tensions by announcing another air defense zone over the disputed South China Sea. Chinese government spokesman in recent days have not ruled out an ADIZ over that area, where Vietnam, Philippines, and other states are challenging China’s maritime claims over most of the sea.
 
At the Chinese Foreign Ministry, spokesman Hong Lei also called on Japan to “correct mistakes” on the air zone.
 
Asked about U.S. government calls for the air zone to be rescinded, Hong said China would not back down. “The establishment of the East China Sea ADIZ falls within China’s sovereignty and is a necessary measure for the Chinese side to exercise its justifiable right of self-defense,” he said.
 
U.S. officials who briefed reporters in Tokyo also sought to backtrack on reports that the administration has urged U.S. airlines to recognize the Chinese ADIZ by issuing pre-flight plans to the Chinese. The New York Times said the administration urged airlines to follow the rules, a move that appeared to undercut Japan’s position that its airlines should not submit pre-flight plans for paths over the East China Sea.
 
One administration official said the Federal Aviation Administration did not direct airlines to follow Chinese flight rules but simply issued a guidance reiterating the long-standing practice that they respond to foreign notices to airmen.
 
Chinese propaganda organs uniformly published reports playing down the fact that the ADIZ is an effort by China to expand its power further from its coasts.
 
Instead, state media and official spokesman sought to portray as a means of improving air safety or protecting Chinese airspace.
 
China’s Communist Party-affiliated newspaper Global Times, a booster of Chinese militarism, continued its recent inflammatory rhetoric on the East China Sea dispute
 
“The U.S.’s stance of feigning fairness while actually backing one side between China and Japan seems established, but if Biden’s tricks in Japan go too far, this will seriously affect the atmosphere of his next visit to China,” the newspaper said in an editorial.
 
“The confidence of Chinese society is declining on whether the U.S. and Japan really have no intention to provoke a war in the western Pacific.”
 
Earlier on Nov. 27 Global Times warned that “maybe an imminent conflict will be waged between China and Japan.”
 
“We should carry out timely countermeasures without hesitation against Japan when it challenges China’s newly-declared ADIZ,” the newspaper said. “If Tokyo flies its aircraft over the zone, we will be bound to send our plane to its ADIZ.”
 
“If the trend continues, there will likely be frictions and confrontations and even tension in the air like in the Cold War era between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. It is therefore an urgent task for China to further train its air force to make full preparation for potential conflicts.”
 
Meanwhile, in a sign that China is preparing to use the air defense zone for commercial benefit, China announced recently that it is creating a Deep Sea Base at the northern port of Qingdao that will be used to advance undersea gas and oil exploitation.
 
The base will support China’s deep-sea oil and gas exploration through pier operations, equipment repair and maintenance, diver training, scientific research, and other functions for prospecting for undersea resources.
 
The disputed Senkakus are said to have vast undersea gas and oil deposits that both China and Japan are seeking to exploit but that so far have not tried to develop.
 
Former State Department official John Tkacik said Biden stopped well short of condemning China’s imposition of the air zone and instead offered the more diplomatic “deeply concerned” formulation.
 
“Japan is an ally, and China is at best, and adversary, and it is bad policy to attempt ‘neutrality’ when trying to reassure an ally,” Tkacik said in an email.
 
“The United States administered Okinawa including the Senkaku Islands for 27 years from 1945 to 1972 under the terms of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and the United States returned Okinawa and the Senkakus to Japan under the terms of a formal treaty in 1972. So, it is disingenuous for the U.S. to claim that it has no position on Japan’s sovereignty in the Senkakus.”
 
Other states in the region also have voiced worries over China’s East China Sea controls.
 
Philippines Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said the Chinese air zone threatens freedom of flight.
 
“China’s East Asia Sea ADIZ transforms the entire air zone into its domestic airspace, infringes on the right to freedom of flight in international airspace and compromises the safety of civil aviation and national security of affected states,” state-run Philippine News Agency quoted Hernandez as saying.
 
The South Korean government said its airlines would not provide flight plans to China, as Beijing is demanding.
 
“The flight path from Korea to Southeast Asia passes through the air defense identification zone announced by China, but we have told civilian airlines not to provide their flight plans to China just as they have done in the past,” an official at the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport said Dec. 2.
 
“This route is approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and air defense identification zones have no standing in international law. It is our position that China cannot take any coercive action against civilian aircraft,” the official said, according to Hankyoreh Online.
 
Military sources in Taiwan said China’s next move in the East China Sea will be to challenge the middle line dividing China and Taiwan along the 100-mile wide Taiwan Strait.
 
The newspaper Tzu-yu Shih-pao quoted a high-ranking general Nov.  24 as saying China will press Taiwan to permit civilian flights to cross the middle line.

http://freebeacon.com/china-threatens-japan-ahead-of-biden-trip/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Kilika on December 04, 2013, 11:54:01 am
I'm just curious, but what is a country the size of China, both land mass and population, doing laying claim to some small islands that a much smaller less populated country claims? And the big bad Communist bully threatens to get physical with Japan?

The Chinese have lost their marbles. ::)


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on December 05, 2013, 12:31:54 pm
Obama just dont like any of our allies...

Team Obama Changes Course, Appears to Accept China Air Defense Zone

Top Obama administration and Pentagon officials signaled a willingness to temporarily accept China's new, controversial air defense identification zone on Wednesday. Those officials expressed disapproval for the way in which the Asian power has flexed its muscles, and cautioned China not to implement the zone. But they also carved out wiggle room in which the United States and China ultimately could find common ground on the issue, indicating that they may be willing to live with the zone for now -- as long as China backs off its demand that all aircraft traveling through it check in first.
 
"It wasn't the declaration of the ADIZ that actually was destabilizing," said Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, America's highest-ranking military officer. "It was their assertion that they would cause all aircraft entering the ADIZ to report regardless of whether they were intending to enter into the sovereign airspace of China. And that is destabilizing."
 
That's a change from just a few days ago, when U.S. Vice President Joe Biden demanded that China take back its declaration of the zone. And it's another demonstration that China's recent decisions have forced the United States to tread carefully. On Wednesday, Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing for more than five hours, according to a senior administration official. In brief public remarks midway through the marathon session, Biden didn't mention the air defense zone at all.
 
Japan, a vital American ally, has expressed fury over the Chinese move and ordered its commercial airliners not to provide information about their flight paths to the Chinese military. By contrast, the United States made a point of flying a pair of B-52s through it last week, but seems to have accepted that China will keep the zone in place indefinitely. U.S. officials have shifted their focus instead on preventing a potential military clash between Japan and China.
 
In meetings in Beijing on Wednesday, Biden laid out the U.S. position in detail, reiterating that the United States does not recognize the new zone and has deep concerns about it, a senior administration official said. Biden told Xi that the United States wants China to take steps to lower tensions in the region, avoid enforcement actions that could lead to crisis, and to establish communication with Japan and other countries in the region to avoid altercations, the administration official added. Privately, Biden did not call for the air defense identification zone it to be rolled back -- something administration officials had done Monday while Biden was visiting Japan. Instead, the vice president asked the Chinese leader to be careful about how his country operated the zone going forward.
 
"He indicated to Xi that we are looking to China to take steps as we move forward to lower tensions, to avoid enforcement actions that could lead to crisis, and to establish channels of communication with Japan, but also with their other neighbors to avoid the risk of mistake, miscalculation, accident or escalation," the official told reporters in Beijing.
 
Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman, said Wednesday that the United States does not recognize the zone and China "should not implement it." Administration officials said Biden's message reflects the White House's growing concerns that China's establishment of the air defense identification zone risks sparking a regional crisis. In the long term, the officials said, the United States wants China to eliminate the air defense entirely. With China already patrolling the zone with fighter jets, the officials said the White House was focused on preventing the growing tensions between Japan and China from getting worse. That includes temporary measures like pushing the two countries to establish a hotline designed to ensure that a miscommunication doesn't lead a clash between the two countries.
 
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, took a measured approach. They said the major issue isn't the creation of the zone itself, but the way China has handled it and the country's demand that aircraft entering the zone share their flight plans.
 
"It's not that the ADIZ itself is new or unique," Hagel said. "Our biggest concern is how it was done so unilaterally and so immediately without any consultation, or international consultation. That's not a wise course of action to take for any country."
 
Dempsey expanded on that, saying that the ADIZ the Chinese established isn't their sovereign airspace, but international airspace adjacent to it. The international norm for such an area, Dempsey said, is for aircraft to check in with the country declaring an ADIZ only if it intends to enter sovereign airspace afterward. Many other countries, including the United States, also have ADIZ areas established.
 
The remarks open the possibility that if China backs off its demand that all aircraft in the ADIZ share their flight plans, the United States could lighten up on China establishing a zone. That's unlikely to please Japan, however.
 
Hagel indirectly addressed that Wednesday. Despite calling China's rollout of the air-defense zone unwise, he also stressed the United States' growing relationship with the Chinese military. He advocated for the preservation of security and free shipping lanes for all players in the region, and sent a message to other U.S. allies in the region -- including Japan.
 
"It's important for China, Japan, South Korea, all the nations in this area to stay calm and responsible," he said. "These are combustible issues."
 
http://killerapps.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/12/04/team_obama_changes_course_appears_to_accept_china_air_defense_zone


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on December 05, 2013, 01:29:52 pm
Nope, he sure doesn't - come to think of it, don't think Clinton had nearly this much hatred for our allies.

They're all puppets, yes, but just saying.


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on December 17, 2013, 06:14:25 am
Japan new security plan focuses on island dispute

Japan's Cabinet on Tuesday adopted a national security strategy and revised defense plans that increase defense spending 5 percent over the next five years and call for a larger role in maintaining international stability amid China's rise.

The program for 2014-2019 includes acquisition of surveillance drones, anti-missile destroyers and other equipment as Japan's defense priority shifts from its northern reaches to the East China Sea, where Tokyo and Beijing are embroiled in a territorial spat over some uninhabited islands.
 
The revised defense plans are based on the new national security strategy that reflects Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's drive to raise the profile of Japan's military and for the country to play a bigger international role.
 
Experts say the strategy and the defense plans are in line with power shift that has been continuing for several years. But Japan's neighbors — and some Japanese citizens — worry that the guidelines push the country away from its pacifist constitution.
 
The guidelines say China's growing maritime and military presence in the East China Sea, its lack of transparency and "high-handed" approach — including its recent imposition of an air defense zone in the area — pose potential risks that could trigger problems. Late last month, China said all aircraft entering a vast zone over the East China Seat must identify themselves and follow Chinese instructions , although the U.S., Japan and South Korea have ignored those demands.
 
Abe said the national security strategy shows Japan's diplomatic and security policy to people in and outside Japan "with clarity and transparency."
 
Under the plan, Japan is shifting its troop deployment from the north to remote islands in southwestern Japan, and creates its first "amphibious" unit similar to the U.S. Marines, as part of ground defense forces, to respond quickly in case of foreign invasion on those islands. Japan plans to deploy early warning system, submarines and anti-missile defense system to step up intelligence in the area.
 
During the five-year period through March 2019, Japan plans to buy three drones, likely a Global Hawk, as well as 17 Ospreys and two Aegis-class destroyers. The purchases would cost 24.7 trillion yen ($247 billion), up 5 percent from the previous plan.
 
The defense plan says Japan should "demonstrate its commitment to defense and its high capability," upgrade equipment, increase troop activity and step up defense capability in both quality and quantity to raise deterrence levels amid an increasingly harsh regional security environment.
 
http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2013/12/16/japan-new-security-plan-focuses-on-island-disputes


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on December 17, 2013, 07:22:29 am
US Pledges $40 Million in Military Aid to Philippines

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has announced $40 million in new military aid to the Philippines, a longtime U.S. ally involved in a territorial dispute with China.
 
Kerry made the announcement Tuesday in Manila, where he is meeting with Philippines Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and President Benigno Aquino.
 
http://www.voanews.com/content/us-pledges-40-million-in-military-aid-to-philippines/1811876.html


Japan Boosts Military Spending Amid Dispute with China

Japan has announced a large defense build-up and national security strategy aimed at countering China's increasingly assertive claims on disputed territory. The plan calls for increased air and maritime capabilities and comes just weeks after Beijing alarmed the region by unilaterally expanding its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea.
 
Japan's Cabinet on Tuesday released details of its first defense spending increase in years, along with a national security plan designed with Chinese aggression in mind.
 
The five-year budget earmarks more than $230 billion for fighter jets, combat and amphibious vehicles, as well as surveillance drones and early warning aircraft.
 
The national security strategy is Japan's first since it formed a U.S.-style National Security Council to streamline defense policy.
 
http://www.voanews.com/content/amid-dispute-with-china-japan-boosts-military-spending/1811812.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on December 18, 2013, 08:24:05 am
Big-Spending China Unhappy With Japanese Military Expansion Plans

China responded with expected frostiness to Japan’s announcement Tuesday of a new security strategy that includes a five percent increase in military spending over the next five years, although its own military spending dwarfs that of its neighbor and rival.
 
With an eye on an increasingly tense territorial dispute with China and threats from North Korea, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet approved a plan that includes the purchase of additional Aegis-equipped anti-missile destroyers, submarines, fighter jets and other aircraft.
 
The new strategy entails a total of $240 billion in military spending over the next five years.
 
In contrast, China last March announced a 10.7 percent increase in its military budget, to $114 billion – for one year alone.
 
The Department of Defense says that from 2003 to 2012, China’s military budget grew by an average of 9.7 percent per year in inflation-adjusted terms.
 
Those figures apply only to its disclosed budget: The Pentagon believes China’s actual military spending is considerably higher than the amount it declares, estimating in 2012 for example that while Beijing announced a budget of $106.7 billion its real military-related expenditure that year fell somewhere between $135 billion and $215 billion.
 
In its most recent annual report to Congress on China’s military power, the Pentagon once again pointed to “poor accounting transparency” and the fact China’s announced budget does not include some major categories of expenditure, such as the procurement of foreign weapons.
 
In its new strategy, Japan raised this as a concern, saying that “China has been rapidly advancing its military capabilities in a wide range of areas through its continued increase in its military budget without sufficient transparency.”
 
In an assessment of the regional security situation, the document said China was trying to change the status quo in the South and East China Seas “by coercion,” in ways that were incompatible with international law.
 
It pointed in particular to China’s expanded activity in the seas and airspace around a chain of islands controlled by Japan since the late 19th century but claimed by China, and its declaration last month of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over a large area including the contested territory.
 
Looking beyond China, the document described North Korea as a “grave destabilizing factor” in the region, and said that its “nuclear and missile development, coupled with its provocative rhetoric and behavior, poses a serious and imminent threat to Japan’s security.”
 
The strategy, which incorporates a recently-established U.S.-style National Security Council, sees Tokyo move closer towards transforming its “Self-Defense Forces” into a fully-fledged military.
 
Abe and several of his conservative predecessors have long had a goal of shifting the country away from the pacifism enshrined in its post-World War II constitution and towards a more assertive regional security role. The new document calls it a policy of  “proactive contribution to peace.”
 
Beijing criticized the plan, alluding to Imperial Japan’s expansionist aggression in the first half of the 20th century.
 
“Given all the negative moves taken by Japan on historical issues, Asian countries and the international community, including China, cannot but pay high attention and stay on high alert,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a briefing.
 
“We urge the Japanese side to earnestly face up to and seriously reflect upon history, follow the trend of the times featuring peace, development and win-win cooperation, respect the just and reasonable security concerns of countries in this region and pursue the path of peaceful development.”
 
China’s official Xinhua news agency in a commentary scoffed at the “proactive contribution to peace” phrase, saying it was designed to “conceal Japan’s wild ambition of becoming a military power.”
 
The state-run China Daily published an editorial accusing Abe of “steering his country along a dangerous path.”
 
“[The new strategy] spells a radical break with Japan’s post-World War II tradition of keeping a distance from international conflicts and trying to build peace through nonmilitary means, which has earned Japan the trust of the international community,” it said. “Pacifism is one of postwar Japan’s central values many Japanese have accepted.”
 
Secretary of State John Kerry said Japan’s new strategy was a long-planned move, and not “anything that anybody should get particularly upset about.”
 
“Our belief is that with respect to the participation in the overall challenges of this region, Japan has an ability to play an increasingly more modern and engaged role,” he said during a visit to the Philippines.
 
“It seems to me that we’re only talking about constructive efforts within internationally accepted frameworks, and for peaceful and appropriate purposes.”
 
China’s conduct in the East and South China Seas, including the ADIZ, featured during Kerry’s visit to Manila and his previous stop in Vietnam.
 
China has territorial and maritime disputes with those two countries and several others in the region, and while U.S. policy is not to take sides in individual disputes, it has criticized Chinese actions seen as threatening freedom of navigation and the rule of law in international waters.
 
“The U.S. is hardly qualified to be a peacekeeper in the South China Sea,” an op-ed writer wrote in the Chinese Communist Party-affiliated Global Times on Wednesday. “In fact, it is more like a troublemaker.”

 - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/big-spending-china-unhappy-japanese-military-expansion-plans#sthash.xhATZ0so.dpuf


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year And The Korean Beguilement
Post by: Mark on January 04, 2014, 06:07:03 am
Military Tensions Between US, China And Japan Sharply Rising

Perhaps it is possible — and how nice it would be to believe this — that war between the greatest nations on earth has been abolished.
 
The cost and the threat of nuclear escalation is so horrendous that reason argues that nothing remotely resembling the 20th century’s vast global clashes can ever happen again.

(http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/china-japan-united-states-world-war-3-III-tensions-rise-nuclear-war-02.jpg)

Assuredly, there can be no more Dunkirks or D-Days, because no Western nation — even the United States — can deploy a mass army.
 
If conflict does come, it will be waged with the high-tech weapons of our own time: warplanes manned and unmanned, missiles, cyber-attack weapons and the many instruments of destruction guided from space satellites.
 
But this would not make a great power conflict any less catastrophic.
 
And this is why a shiver will have run through the leaderships of Asia and of the Western powers this week when China’s ambassador to London argued that Japan risks ‘a serious threat to global peace’ by ‘rekindling’ the bellicose attitude that hastened the expansion of World War II into a global conflict.
 
He even compared Japan today to Lord Voldemort, the arch villain in the Harry Potter novels.
 
This comes just a few weeks after China — with absolutely no warning — declared hundreds of thousands of square miles of airspace above the East China Sea as its own Air Defence Zone.
 
This includes the eight tiny uninhabited pimples, called the Senkaku Islands by Japan and Diaoyu by China. Taiwan also has a claim to the islands — nationalised by Japan from private sellers in 2012, much to the anger of China.
 
The United States responded to this bitter dispute between Tokyo and Beijing by dispatching two USAAF B-52s bombers to overfly the islands, emphasising its commitment to the right of free navigation.
 
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, declared gravely that China had started ‘a whole new game’. His government threatened to shoot down any Chinese drones that appeared over the Senkakus. Beijing responded that this would be an act of war.

Nobody, including the Chinese, wants armed conflict. Indeed, an analyst for the International Institute Of Strategic Studies has said that China ‘aims to push rather than break limits’.
 
Yet the tensions between Tokyo, Washington and Beijing have been increasing for years.
 
For the moment, China, the U.S. and Japan still maintain courtesies between governments. Most crucially, Beijing holds trillions of dollars of U.S. debt.
 
But many of history’s wars have been triggered by miscalculations while nations have been testing each other’s strengths.
 
Indeed, there is a profound fear in Washington, in Tokyo, and maybe also in Beijing, that one day something unspeakably ghastly could happen by mistake.
 
Remember that in 1914 before the outbreak of World War I, Britain and Germany were each other’s largest trading partners. Professor Peter Dutton, of the U.S. Naval War College, has warned of the growing tensions, saying: ‘China’s challenge to existing maritime norms is creating hairline fractures in the global order.’
 
This comment followed an authoritative Washington defence guru who said that, whatever short-term bother terror groups such as Al Qaeda might cause, ‘in the middle-long term, there will only be one main concern of the U.S. armed forces, and that is China. China is reshaping the military order in Asia, and is doing so at our expense’.
 
China has an ever-growing fleet of missile-armed warships — thought to number around 80, as well as nearly 300 amphibious assault ships — including fast-attack craft specifically designed as ‘carrier-killers’, to engage the U.S. Navy’s behemoths.
 
In response, the huge U.S. Andersen air force base on the Pacific Ocean island of Guam has become host to a £10 billion reinforcement programme.
 
As a result, its hangars now hold B-2 and B-52 bombers, air-to-surface and cruise missiles, Global Hawk drones,  F-15 and F-22 fighters, the latter just a 20-minute flight from the Taiwan Strait.
 
Amitai Etzioni, professor of international relations at George Washington University, declares bleakly: ‘There are increasing signs that the United States and China are on a collision course.’
 
What is not disputed is that China is determined to assert its new status as a major regional power, while the U.S. is equally bent upon deterring or deflecting Chinese expansionism, and especially aggressiveness.
 
This was the reason behind President Obama’s 2010 decision to rebalance American strategic assets towards  the Pacific.
 
The American case is as readily made as was the British one, for resisting quite similar German posturing before 1914. Washington’s attitude is: ‘We and our allies are democracies, while China is an autocracy which denies respect for human rights or international law.’
 
I believe that unless the Washington administration makes plain its determination to support any country (such as Japan) that is threatened with aggression by Beijing, China will go ahead and impose its ruthless will upon the entire Pacific region.
 
As for the contrary view from Beijing itself, China’s leaders cherish a profound grievance about the Tokyo government’s persistent refusal to confront the reality of Japan’s mid-20th century war crimes in Asia.
 
For the Tokyo government asserts that the time has passed for any Japanese apologies or even discussion of its historical record.
 
An example of this defiance is the  military museum that is situated next door to Tokyo’s Yasakuni shrine, where so many Japanese war criminals’ ashes lie and to which many Japanese politicians visit to pay homage.
 
I have been to the place myself, and find it as repugnant as do the Chinese. Which is why they found such offence a few days ago when the Japanese premier arrived there to pay his respects. (Its choice of exhibits is intended to prove that during the middle of the last century, Japan entered China — where at least 15 million people fell victim to its occupation — and other Asian countries in order to ‘protect’ them from European exploitation.) In the same vein, Japan describes its half-century occupation of Korea as a ‘partnership’.

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=15930


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 08, 2014, 06:25:58 am
What would a U.S.-China war look like?

War-gaming an extremely unlikely conflict


Imagine this: In the early morning, a barrage of more than 1,000 Chinese ballistic and cruise missiles bombard Taiwanese civilian and military targets.
 
As the U.S. Air Force stationed in Okinawa prepares to rush to the aid of its sworn ally, Chinese cyber attacks wreak havoc on America's air defense and targeting systems. A second volley of ballistic missiles detonates in space, destroying critical military satellites, while a third rains down on the base, damaging jets and leaving runways unusable.
 
Meanwhile, a U.S. carrier strike group led by the USS George Washington has launched from Japan and is steaming towards the Taiwan Strait. Without the advanced warning and additional data supplied by satellites, the group's missile defense systems are at a disadvantage against the Chinese "carrier killer" missiles that are streaking towards them. Defense systems do their best, but a few missiles still hit their mark, leaving the USS George Washington's flight deck unusable. America's awesome air and sea power has been sidelined.
 
While far from a complete picture, this hypothetical scenario is the U.S. military's worst nightmare. Now, of course, despite recent shows of force over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands and the occasional blustery threat to Taiwan, war will almost certainly not break out between the U.S. and China. But it is this scenario's potential to be realized that helps keep war at bay.
 
To be clear: The United States military remains the world's most fearsome fighting force, unbeatable on a one-on-one basis. Yet it would find a protracted war that could end in nuclear Armageddon too costly. China is keenly aware of that fact. So rather than orienting itself towards a total war it cannot win, China's military strategy serves a smaller, but shrewder purpose — pushing the United States out of China's backyard.
 
Reclaiming Chinese pride
 
Provocations over Taiwan and the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands are not about the land itself per se, but rather a matter of national pride. Still fuming over its embarrassment in the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, when President Bill Clinton made an overwhelming display of American power with the deployment of two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, the Chinese government has sought to showcase its growing stature by taking control of the Pacific, a region long dominated by the U.S. Navy.
 
China's actions, especially of late, are a strong message to the United States that it wants to usurp America as the regional power, Hugh White, a professor of strategic studies at Australian National University, told Bloomberg. "They're saying to America that we're so serious about this that we're prepared to take the risks of being provocative, in order to persuade you to take seriously that we want to change the order."
 
To back up their actions, Chinese strategists have developed a large arsenal of conventional asymmetric weapon systems specifically designed to blunt American might, in effect creating a powerful deterrent that is forcing the U.S. military to walk softly in a region it once ruled supreme.
 
A2/AD
 
Aimed at preventing American forces from using their technological superiority to strike the heart of China, the Chinese military has pursued an anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy. At its most basic, A2/AD is a layered defense strategy that incorporates land, sea, air, cyber, and space attacks to counter America's military advantages.
 
Rather than forcing an outright defeat, the strategy utilizes repeated waves of assaults using cyber attacks, anti-satellite weapons, ballistic missiles, stealth submarines, and other weapons to slow U.S. forces as they draw nearer the Chinese coast.
 
In a successful scenario, each successive wave of attacks would whittle down a superior force's advantage so by the time they reach their goal they have suffered too many casualties or are too spent to launch a significant offensive.
 
A key element of China's defenses is its growing stockpile of ballistic and cruise missiles that have enough range to blanket much of Asia. Most troubling is its DF-21D "carrier killer" missile, which has an estimated range of 2,700 km and is specially designed to target the U.S. military's greatest form of force projection — the aircraft carrier.
 
Additionally, China possesses a growing number of war planes, and is notably developing the fifth-generation J-20 and J-31 stealth fighter jets. At the same time, China has procured at least 12 stealthy diesel-electric Kilo-class subs from Russia, while the U.S. military has shifted its focus away from Cold War skills, like submarine hunting.
 
Countering A2/AD
 
In the theoretical war against China, the arms race is already on. As China develops asymmetrical weapons to minimize American advantages, the Pentagon is also at work on technologies to overcome those counter-technologies.
 
"Part of what keeps the probability of war so small is that the U.S. and Taiwan have taken steps to make sure it would be painful for China," David Shlapak, a senior international policy analyst at the Rand Corporation, told Popular Mechanics in 2010.
 
In reality, many of the weapons systems under development will never see actual combat, but the hypothetical arms race is critical as researchers on both sides seek to tip the scales in their favor and change the calculus for military strategists.
 
According to Admiral Patrick Walsh, the commander of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet until last year, there is no reason to fear China's military buildup as long as U.S. capabilities keep pace.
 
"When we look at these sorts of developments, such as the ASBM [anti-ship ballistic missile], they are technological developments that we respect, but do not necessarily fear," Admiral Walsh told Popular Mechanics. "The key element in any sort of deterrent strategy is to make it clear to those who would use a given piece of technology that we have the means to counter it, and to maintain a technological edge."
 
Even with the U.S. military's technological advantages, China's explosive military growth has guaranteed that even a small conflict with the United States would prove deadlier than anything the nation has witnessed in decades — which is exactly why it won't happen.

http://theweek.com/article/index/254400/what-would-a-us-china-war-look-like


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 09, 2014, 08:20:30 am
War’s darkening shadows: Japan girds for a showdown with China

The shadows of war hang more menacingly over Northeast Asia at the opening of a brave new year than they have at any time since, well, since the last time the region was edging into armed conflict.
 
That might be since the Korean mini-crisis of nearly a year ago when North Korea was emitting a torrent of threats. Or it could be since the sinking of the Cheonan or any number of standoffs since the Korean War.

Only this time the shadows are lengthening for reasons that don’t have a lot to do with North or South Korea. The latest cause for hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing was Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision, in full knowledge of the sentiments of Koreans and Chinese, to visit the Yasukuni Shrine memorializing Japan’s millions of war dead.
 
The visit was incontrovertible evidence of Abe’s inbred nationalist zeal, for which he has more support among his own people than foreigners might realize. Japanese to whom I have spoken ask why foreign powers have the right to condemn a visit to a Japanese memorial. They say foreign criticism amounts to interference in Japan’s internal affairs and any Japanese can go to the shrine any time.
 
Then the question is why the Yasukuni Shrine memorializes 14 Japanese who were tried as Class A war criminals after World War II and why should the shrine also honor several hundred others who were also war criminals?
 
It’s possible to claim, as journalist Henry Scott-Stokes does in a recent book, that many of these people were no more criminals than those who ran the war for the other side. They were victims of victors’ justice, according to this reasoning, but who outside Japan buys that argument?
 
The sense of crisis deepens, moreover, as the Chinese persist in flying reconnaissance aircraft near the cluster of islands in the East China Sea known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. While Chinese fishing boats dart in and out of waters around the islands, chances of an outbreak of war seem all too realistic. Given that fear, Abe’s Yasukuni Shrine visit was a reminder not only of the millions who died fighting for Japan but of those who would die in renewed conflict against historic enemies.
 
Under these circumstances, it was no coincidence that the governor of the southernmost Japanese prefecture of Okinawa agreed on construction of a U.S. marine air station on the day that Abe visited the shrine. The U.S. is committed to moving thousands of Marines from Okinawa to Guam and elsewhere, but foes of the large U.S. marine and air force presence on Okinawa are sure to turn up the pressure while dredging begins in earnest for the base extending into the sea off the village of Henoko.
 
Inexorable moves toward confrontation in the East China Sea go along with Abe’s decision to thumb his nose at outcries from China, Japan’s huge competitor for regional domination, and South Korea, which should be Japan’s friend and ally in common cause against North Korea. The visit to the shrine provides one more reason for leaders of South Korea not to want to cooperate with Japan.
 
Counting on a groundswell of conservatism, nationalism and ethnocentrism, Abe is courting populist Japanese sentiment. The Japanese say the islands are part of Okinawa prefecture and are gearing up to defend them against any challenge from Beijing, which includes them in its newly declared Air Defense Identification Zone.
 
Against this background, a U.S. Marine air station on Okinawa’s northeast coast makes more sense than ever to Japanese and American strategists. Japanese and Americans argue that the base won’t add to U.S. forces on Okinawa but rather will replace the Marine air station at Futenma in the urban sprawl north of the Okinawa capital of Naha,
 
Abe’s foray to the shrine, however, puts the U.S. in an extremely delicate position diplomatically. The State Department expression of ”disappointment” with the Yasukuni gambit was a weasel-worded attempt to mollify South Korea while wagging a remonstrative finger at Japan.
 
In fact, the U.S. can do not much to rein in Abe’s ambitions while worrying about China’s support of North Korea. Kim Jong-Un emits conflicting signals as to whether he’s going to get more aggressive or try to appear more conciliatory while purging friends and allies of the ill-fated Jang Song-Thaek.
 
Carefully, Abe might appear to be veering toward moves to revise the Japanese constitution, imposed during the post-war U.S. occupation, and do away with Article Nine, which forbids Japan from waging war overseas.
 
Abe, however, needs U.S. forces in the region if the quarreling over the Senkakus/Diaoyu turns into a shooting war and the U.S. is called upon to make good on its promise to stand by the U.S.-Japan security treaty.

http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/01/02/wars-darkening-shadows-japan-girds-for-a-showdown-with-china/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 13, 2014, 11:14:34 am
China Set to Seize South China Sea Island by Force
Beijing claims island “illegally occupied” by the Philippines


Reports out of Chinese state media indicate that Beijing is set to invade an island in the South China Sea “illegally occupied” by US ally the Philippines, stoking concerns that the tension filled region could explode.

The article originally appeared at qianzhan.com under the headline, ‘Sudden major move of Chinese troops this year to recover Zhongye Island by force’, and was translated by the China Daily Mail.
 

Relying on US support, the Philippines is so arrogant as to announce in the New Year that it will increase its navy and air force deployment at Zhongye Island, a Chinese island that it has illegally occupied for years.
 
It will be an intolerable insult to China
 
According to experts, the Chinese navy has drawn a detailed combat plan to seize the island and the battle will be restricted within the South China Sea.
 
The report goes on to state that the “battle” will not include a Chinese invasion of Filipino territories, although the Philippines will undoubtedly view Beijing’s attack on Zhongye Island as precisely that since it has been occupied by Filipino troops for over 40 years.
 
“Of course, claims that “battle will be restricted” are nothing but taunting and should China launch an offensive here, we suspect the already dry and brittle tinder box in the South (and East) China Sea could rapidly escalate,” reports Zero Hedge.
 
The report arrives hot on the heels of Japan’s announcement that it will “nationalize” around 280 islands in the disputed region, the latest shot across the bow in a tit-for-tat build up that experts have warned heralds the beginning of a new cold war.
 
China’s latest act of aggression arrives after months of military posturing and bellicose rhetoric.
 
In October, China sent a surveillance ship to Hawaiian waters for the very first time in an unprecedented move which was described as a provocative retaliation to the U.S. naval presence in the East China Sea.
 
A lengthy editorial which appeared in Chinese state media last month explained how the Chinese military’s current reformation process was part of a move by President Xi Jinping to prepare the People’s Liberation Army for war in response to US aggression in the Asia Pacific, developments which have prompted “major changes” in China’s national security situation.
 
Strident rhetoric about Beijing’s ability to attack US military bases in the Western Pacific, as well as the release of a map showing the locations of major U.S. cities and how they would be impacted by a nuclear strike launched from the PLA’s strategic submarine force also turned heads.
 
Following discussion in state media about plans to to turn the moon into a Star Wars-style “death star” from which the PLA could launch missiles against any target on Earth, a display to promote China’s Jade Rabbit Moon rover also included a background photograph of a mushroom cloud over Europe.

http://www.infowars.com/china-set-to-seize-south-china-sea-island-by-force/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 14, 2014, 02:01:28 pm
Japan holds military drill as S. China Sea islands dispute widens

Japanese paratroopers recaptured an island from an enemy in a wargame as its Defense Minister vowed to defend a disputed East China Sea territory. China’s ships sailed near the contested islets as Beijing reportedly expanded its air defense zone.
 
Tokyo’s military on Sunday held a military drill dubbed “Island Defense,” in which the country’s elite airborne troops simulated the retaking of a remote island from an enemy nation.
 
The plot for the annual drill, which took place at an exercise field east of Tokyo, stayed the same for the second year in a row as the dispute over the group of tiny islets in the East China Sea, claimed by China, Taiwan and Japan, showed no signs of resolution.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, who was overseeing the drills, vowed to protect the territory around the islands, which Japan considers to be its own.
 
“We can never overlook China’s repeated entries into our territorial waters. In addition to diplomatic efforts, we will cooperate with the Coast Guard to securely defend our territory and waters around the Senkaku islands,” Onodera said.
 
The islands, which are known as Diaoyu in China and as Senkaku in Japan, have again found themselves in the middle of regional tension less than two weeks into the New Year. Three Chinese patrol ships briefly entered the disputed waters early Sunday, the first time since controversial fishing rules approved by China’s southern Hainan province took effect January 1.
 
The fishing rules require foreign fishing vessels to obtain approval before entering the disputed waters in the South China Sea, as the local government maintains they are under its jurisdiction.

Both the boats’ venture and the reminder of the unilaterally imposed fishing law sparked angry official reactions from Japan and its ally the United States.
 
“Setting something like this unilaterally, as if you are treating them as your own territorial waters, and imposing certain restrictions on fishing boats, is not something that is internationally tolerated,” Onodera said, claiming that China is “threatening the existing international order.”
 
Washington earlier branded the fishing rules “provocative and potentially dangerous,” prompting a rebuttal from the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday.
 
Patrol ships from China and Japan have often shadowed each other in the disputed area, since Tokyo moved to nationalize its control over three of the islands, with the state buying them from a Japanese family for 2 billion yen in September 2012.

Beijing considered the move to be a breach of its territorial sovereignty, as it holds that the islands were returned to China in 1945, half a century after their annexation by Japan in an earlier Sino-Japanese War.
 
After World War II, the US took control of the islets, until the US Senate voted to return them to Tokyo in 1972. The decision followed a discovery of potential oil and gas reserves in the vicinity of the islands by a UN commission in 1969. Both Chinese and Taiwanese governments also declared their ownership of the territories in 1972.
 
Tensions over what are believed to be resource-rich territories have soared in recent months, particularly after China announced the creation of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) covering a large swathe of the East China Sea, including the disputed isles.
 
Both Japan and its ally the US strongly condemned the creation of the Chinese air defense zone, which was announced in November, ostensibly sending their ships, jets and bombers to pass through the territory. China also scrambled its fighter jets to shadow the military aircraft passing through the area and kept patrolling the nearby waters.
 
A report Sunday by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper, however, suggested that Beijing was serious on taking a hard-line stance over the disputed territories, expanding its defense zone even farther toward Japan.
 
In response to an inquiry from the Japanese newspaper, China’s Defense Ministry confirmed the eastern tip of the zone is just 130 kilometers from the Japanese island of Kyushu. This makes it as close to Japan as Tokyo’s own declared air defense zone is to China. The report suggests the n

http://breakingdeception.com/news/japan-holds-military-drill-s-china-sea-islands-dispute-widens/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 14, 2014, 02:02:34 pm
China warns ‘firm response’ if Japan attacks its ships

Beijing says if Tokyo takes provocative action on Senkaku islands issue, China will make firm response


Beijing: Tension between China and Japan over the disputed islands in the East China Sea escalated as Beijing on Monday warned of “firm response” if Tokyo resorted to any provocative action against Chinese ships patrolling there.
 
“We urge Japan not to look down on Chinese government determination and resolve in defending China’s territorial sovereignty,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing. Hua was responding to questions on Japanese defence ministry’s reported remarks to use force against Chinese patrolling ships.
 
“If Japan takes further provocative action on the islands issue China will make firm response and Japanese side should be responsible for all the consequences arising there from,” Hua said.
 
Official media here quoted Japanese defence minister Itsunori Onodera as telling the media on Sunday that “We can never overlook repeated incursions into territorial waters.”
 
China and Japan are at loggerheads over the islands called Senkakus by Japan and Diaoyus by China, located in the East China Sea. The area, which till 2012 was controlled by Japan is believed to be rich with minerals and oil.
 
China accuses Japan of violating an earlier understanding not to nationalize the islands overlooking Beijing’s claims. China claims that islands as its inherent territory. Tensions escalated between the two countries after Shinzo Abe took over as Prime Minister last year and made efforts to modernize the self defence force, changing its pacifist nature adopted since the Japanese defeat in Second World War.
 
“How Japan stole the Diaoyu islands from China is very clear,” Hua said adding that Japan’s erroneous position and action on the islands issue is an attempt to deny the outcome of the Second World War and challenge the post war world order. “Japan’s attempts no way change the fact that Diaoyu islands belongs to China,” she said.
 
“The more some Japanese people deny and evade history more difficult it will be for them to get rid of the judgement of the history and the heavier historical burden on their shoulders,” she said.
 
Hua also attacked Japan for criticising its new fishing law in Hainan province, imposing restrictions on fishing by nationals other than Chinese in the South China Sea. “Relevant people before making remarks should do basic research. At least they should read Chinese laws and regulations,” Hua said. “We hope people will see through the nature of Japan’s purposes and stay on high alert,” she said. China claims all most all of South China Sea as its own which is strongly contested by Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/jwCVvChAd3L7krj0VuDA1O/China-warns-firm-response-if-Japan-attacks-its-ships.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 23, 2014, 06:25:01 am
Japan tells world to stand up to China or face consequences

Japan on Wednesday told the world it must stand up to an increasingly assertive China or risk a regional conflict with catastrophic economic consequences.

In a landmark speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued what amounted to an appeal for international support in a potentially explosive dispute with its superpower neighbour over islands in the East China Sea.

"We must restrain military expansion in Asia ... which otherwise could go unchecked," Abe told the annual meeting of global business and political leaders, which Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is due to attend on Friday.

"If peace and stability were shaken in Asia, the knock-on effect for the entire world would be enormous," Abe added.

"The dividend of growth in Asia must not be wasted on military expansion."

Although Abe did not explicitly mention China, his speech had been flagged up in advance by Japanese officials as an alarm call to an influential audience over what Tokyo sees as bullying by Beijing.

The dispute over the uninhabited but potentially mineral-rich islands is being played out against a backdrop of Japanese fears that China is seeking to exert control over lifeline shipping lanes around its vast coastline and that the United States' commitment to guarantee Japan's security is waning.

Tensions over the islands, which Japan calls Senkaku and China refers to as the Diaoyus, have come perilously close to boiling over into armed clashes on several occasions in recent years.

They resurfaced last month when Abe visited the Yasukuni shrine, a memorial to Japan's war dead which is controversial because a handful of convicted war criminals are among those commemorated.

China and South Korea seized on the visit as fresh evidence of Japan's perceived failure to sincerely repent for its 20th-century record of military aggression, and the visit has also been criticised as unhelpful by Britain and the United States.

Asked about the visit here, Abe said his "praying for the souls of the departed" should be regarded as "something quite natural for a leader of any country in the world" while emphasising he had no intention of hurting Chinese or Korean feelings.

Much of Abe's speech was given over to a review of the progress of "Abenomics", his bid to end two decades of deflation which he said was on the verge of bearing fruit.

Describing Asia as a region of limitless potential and the engine driving world economic growth, Abe urged China to join a revitalised Japan in creating systems to prevent disputes from destroying their mutual prosperity.

"Trust, not tension, is crucial for peace and prosperity in Asia, and in the rest of the world," he said. "This can only be achieved through dialogue and the rule of law, and not through force or coercion."

Japan wants China to agree to share details of its military spending, help set up a mechanism for managing crises and establish channels of communication between the two countries' armed forces.

Abe's was the most significant speech on the first full day of a gathering which is expected to be dominated for the rest of the week by the volatile but potentially pivotal moment for the Middle East.

Syrian peace talks opened in another Swiss town, Montreux, on Wednesday; Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Davos on a mission to further his country's emergence from international isolation and both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State John Kerry are expected later in the week.

In a telling symbol of the Davos forum's ability to bring even the bitterest of foes to close proximity, the official jets of Israel and Iran were parked side by side at the Zurich airport on Wednesday.

The forum opened against a background of mounting optimism about the prospects for the global economy this year, although that was tempered by concern over the impact of the widening gulf between rich and poor.

Also emerging in conversations are fears of more monetary tightening in the United States that would hit emerging countries by triggering a wave of capital repatriation to the advanced economies.

India's Finance Minister P. Chidambaram played down such fears and predicted that the world's largest democracy would grow by six percent in the 2014-15 financial and gradually return to its potential expansion rate of eight percent.

"Fiscal consolidation has taken place, there's more foreign direct investment flowing into India," he told AFP.

The outlook depicted for Europe by some participants was not so positive, however.

Christophe de Margerie, head of French energy giant Total, said the Old Continent was still struggling to break free from stagnant growth and address an unemployment problem that has become chronic amongst youth.

"Don't take it as being provocative, (but) I think Europe should be reclassified as an emerging country," De Margerie said.

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-appeals-world-restrain-39-military-expansion-39-173227774.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CYvGuBSIDkAdwXQtDMD


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on January 23, 2014, 06:26:51 am
Japan-China tensions take center-stage with Abe in Davos Reuters
http://news.yahoo.com/japan-pm-abe-urges-military-restraint-asia-swipe-172300974--business.html

The Dangerous China Japan Face-Off The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304149404579322313632737716.html?ru=yahoo?mod=yahoo_itp

Japan urges 'hotline' with China, plays down shrine visit Reuters
http://news.yahoo.com/japan-urges-39-hotline-39-china-plays-down-153605125.html

China takes propaganda war with Japan to United Nations Reuters
http://news.yahoo.com/china-takes-propaganda-war-japan-united-nations-190023712.html

Davos to focus on global economy, conflicts Associated Press
http://news.yahoo.com/davos-focus-global-economy-conflicts-105714120.html



Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on February 06, 2014, 05:37:02 am
US presses Beijing on South China Sea claims

The United States on Wednesday urged Beijing to clarify or adjust its claims in the South China Sea, calling for a peaceful solution to one of Asia’s growing flashpoints. With tensions already high over Beijing’s imposition of an air zone above islands administered by Japan in the East China Sea, fears are growing of a fresh showdown in a separate row in the South China Sea where the Philippines is especially concerned.   

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other-world/us-presses-beijing-on-south-china-sea-claims-1.1287301


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on February 24, 2014, 12:29:21 pm
Chinese Military Trains for Short War With Japan

China has been training its military for a “short sharp war” with Japan, according to Capt. James Fannell, deputy chief of staff intelligence and information operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

“[We] concluded that the PLA has been given the new task to be able to conduct a short sharp war to destroy Japanese forces in the East China Sea following with what can only be expected a seizure of the Senkakus or even a southern Ryukyu [island],” Fannell said, according to the U.S. Naval Institute.

Fannell spoke during the West 2014 conference on Feb. 13 in San Diego. The analysis he relayed is based partly on what was seen in China’s “Mission Action 2013” trainings in October 2013.

At the time, other military analysts had also concluded China was training to take the disputed Senkaku Islands from Japan. Chinese authorities released images of the trainings—which had a particular focus on island invasion and warfare.

The trainings were particularly large, which was to be expected since they were part of China’s trans-MAC mobile campaign. The Chinese military is divided into various Military Area Commands (MACs), and the trainings were supposed to demonstrate them working on a common campaign.
Focus on Attacking Islands

The trainings ended up turning heads, however, since what China demonstrated its military cooperating on was a massive island assault.

Around the same time the trainings were being held, also in October 2013, China and Japan were locked in a growing war of words over the disputed Senkaku Islands.

China was frequently teasing Japanese forces by having its ships and planes cross into Japanese territory around the islands. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe then gave orders to the Japanese military in late October to shoot down any foreign drones that ignore warnings to leave Japanese airspace.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng responded soon after, saying such a move “would be a severe provocation to China and an act of war, and China will take resolute measures to strike back.”

Soon after, on Nov. 23, 2013, Chinese authorities announced without warning an air defense zone in the East China Sea, which swallowed up the disputed Senkaku Islands.

The “Air Defense Identification Zone,” which is not being recognized by the United States or its allies, was accompanied by military threats from China against any who enter the zone and do not cooperate with Chinese authorities.

The Senkaku Islands, called the Diaoyu Islands by China, have been owned by Japan since 1895. After World War II, the United States took control of the islands—along with the full Ryukyu island chain—yet returned them to Japan in 1972. They later came under private ownership, but Japan purchased them in April 2012.
Pattern of Behavior

The Senkaku Islands are just a few of those claimed by China. It has similar conflicts with nearly all its neighbors in the South China Sea.

Fannell said China’s interests in the South China Sea are a growing concern. He referenced an unnamed senior U.S. government official saying China’s pattern of behavior “reflects an incremental effort by China to assert control of the area contained in the so-called 9-dash line despite the objections of its neighbors, and despite the lack of any explanation or apparent basis under international law.”

The approach by Chinese authorities to assert control over disputed territory has been particularly underhanded.

In addition to its formation of the air-defense zone in the East China Sea, China formed a fishing zone in the South China Sea to deny access to other countries.

Chinese authorities have also been using so-called military drills to occupy territory or stir up tensions with its neighbors. They often call the drills a form of “protection of maritime rights,” which Fannell said is a “Chinese euphemism for coerce seizure of coastal rights of China’s neighbors.”

He noted that during one of China’s military drills in the East China Sea, “Japan said that a Chinese warship locked its fire-controlled radar onto a Japanese warship.”

“China denied it for a month, but then admitted that it occurred, but said that it was not in danger since the range between the two ships was too close for a weapons system,” he said.

The Chinese coast guard has also been going around disputed waters “playing the role of antagonist, harassing China’s neighbors while PLA Navy ships, their protectors, [make] port calls throughout the region promising friendship and cooperation.”

Fannell added, “Seriously, you just can’t make this stuff up.”

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/518572-chinese-military-trains-for-short-war-with-japan/print.php


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on March 03, 2014, 12:52:54 pm
China Fields New Intermediate-Range Nuclear Missile
DF-26C deployment confirmed


U.S. intelligence agencies recently confirmed China’s development of a new intermediate-range nuclear missile (IRBM) called the Dongfeng-26C (DF-26C), U.S. officials said.

The new missile is estimated to have a range of at least 2,200 miles—enough for Chinese military forces to conduct attacks on U.S. military facilities in Guam, a major hub for the Pentagon’s shift of U.S. forces to Asia Pacific.

As part of the force posture changes, several thousand Marines now based in Okinawa will be moved to Guam as part of the Asia pivot.

In April, the Pentagon announced it is deploying one of its newest anti-missile systems, the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) to Guam because of growing missile threats to the U.S. island, located in the South Pacific some 1,600 miles southeast of Japan and 4,000 miles from Hawaii.

And on Feb. 10, the Navy announced the deployment of a fourth nuclear attack submarine to Guam, the USS Topeka.

Chinese military officials said the Topeka deployment is part of the Pentagon’s Air Sea Battle Concept and posed a threat to China.

Disclosure of the new Chinese IRBM follows the announcement this week by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that the U.S. military is sharply reducing its military forces.

“How can [U.S. policymakers] possibly justify such reductions in defense spending when American forces as far away as Guam, Korea, and Okinawa are targeted by these nuclear missiles,” said one official familiar with reports of the DF-26C.

It was the first official confirmation of China’s new IRBM, which officials believe is part of the People’s Liberation Army military buildup aimed at controlling the Asia Pacific waters and preventing the U.S. military entry to the two island chains along China’s coasts.

The first island chain extends from Japan’s southern Ryuku Islands southward and east of the Philippines and covers the entire South China Sea. The second island chain stretches more than a thousand miles into the Pacific in an arc from Japan westward and south to western New Guinea.

Few details could be learned about the new missile and a Pentagon spokesman declined to comment, citing a policy of not commenting on intelligence matters.

The missile is said to be on a road-mobile chassis and to use solid fuel. The fuel and mobility allow the missile to be hidden in underground facilities and fired on short notice, making it very difficult to counter in a conflict.

The DF-26C is expected to be mentioned in the Pentagon’s forthcoming annual report on China’s military power, which is due to Congress next month.

Adm. Cecil Haney, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, told a congressional hearing this week that missile and other nuclear threats from China and Russia continue to grow.

“The current security environment is more complex, dynamic, and uncertain than at any time in recent history,” Haney said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Advances of significant nation state and non-state military capabilities continue across all air, sea, land, and space domains—as well as in cyberspace. This trend has the potential to adversely impact strategic stability.”

Russia and China in particular “are investing in long-term and wide-ranging military modernization programs to include extensive modernization of their strategic capabilities,” Haney said. “Nuclear weapons ambitions and the proliferation of weapon and nuclear technologies continue, increasing risk that countries will resort to nuclear coercion in regional crises or nuclear use in future conflicts.”

Richard Fisher, a China military affairs specialist, said Chinese reports have discussed a DF-26 missile as a medium-range or intermediate-range system. Medium-range is considered between 621 miles and 1,864 miles. Intermediate-range is between 1,864 and 3,418 miles

Online reports of three new types of medium- and intermediate-range missiles have said the weapons could be multi-role systems capable of firing nuclear or conventional warheads, along with maneuvering anti-ship and hypersonic warheads, Fisher said.

According to Fisher, two likely transporter erector launchers (TEL) for the new missiles were displayed last year on Chinese websites. They include two versions from missile TEL manufacturing companies called Sanjiang and Taian.

Three years ago, the state-run Global Times reported that the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. (CASIC) was working on a new 2,400-mile range missile that would be deployed by 2015.

That Chinese manufacturer also produced the DF-21 missile, prompting speculation that the DF-26C is a follow-up version of that system.

“China is developing and will soon deploy new longer-range theater missiles as part of its anti-access, area denial strategies, to be part of a combined force of new long-range bombers armed with supersonic anti-ship missiles, plus space weapons and larger numbers of submarines,” Fisher said in an email.

These forces are being deployed to push U.S. forces out of the first island chain and to have the capability to reach the second chain, including Guam, he said.

“China also consistently refuses to consider formal dialogue about its future nuclear forces or to consider any near term limits on them,” Fisher said. “China is giving Washington and its Asian allies no other choice but to pursue an ‘armed peace’ in Asia.”

According to Fisher, the Chinese missile buildup has forced the Navy to redesign its first aircraft carrier-based unmanned combat vehicle into a larger and longer aircraft.

The new Chinese long-range missiles also highlight the urgent need for a new U.S. long-range bomber to replace an aging fleet of strategic bombers.

To counter the Chinese threats, the United States should field its force of anti-ship ballistic missiles on submarines to match Chinese capabilities and deter China from using its naval power against U.S. allies such as Japan and the Philippines, Fisher said.

Russian officials have cited China’s intermediate-range missiles as one reason Moscow is seeking to jettison the U.S.-Russia Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which bans medium and intermediate ballistic and cruise missiles.

U.S. officials have said Russia is violating the INF treaty with a new cruise missile and testing its long-range missiles to INF ranges.

“It is time to retire the INF treaty because the United States now requires this class of missiles in order to deter China,” Fisher said.

“The bottom line: We are in an arms race with China and if America falters, so will our strategic position in Asia, which will surely increase the chances of conflict, nuclear proliferation and even nuclear war.”

The Pentagon’s latest report on China’s military forces, published last year, said the PLA is investing in “a series of advanced short- and medium-range conventional ballistic missiles, land-attack and anti-ship cruise missiles, counter-space weapons, and military cyberspace capabilities.”

The weapons “appear designed to enable anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) missions, what PLA strategists refer to as ‘counter-intervention operations,’” the report said.

The Washington Free Beacon first reported on March 7, 2012, that the Chinese military had revealed online photos of a new intermediate-range nuclear missile.

The new missile is believed by U.S. officials to be the DF-26C.

China’s military frequently uses the Internet to reveal the first photos of new weapons systems.

Analysts said the missile TEL shown in the photo is smaller in size than China’s DF-31 intercontinental missile and larger than the DF-21 missile.

http://freebeacon.com/china-fields-new-intermediate-range-nuclear-missile/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on March 25, 2014, 01:59:20 pm
Pacific Cmdr.: U.S. lacks ability to conduct successful amphibious assaults

The head of U.S. Pacific Command believes America does not possess the capacity to conduct amphibious assaults in the wake of a crisis, as it did during World War II.

Adm. Samuel Locklear III, commander of U.S. Pacific Command gave his assessment of the deficiency in readiness on Tuesday, Stars and Stripesreported.

“We have had a good return of our Marines back to the Asia-Pacific, particularly as the activities in the Middle East wind down in Afghanistan. … But the reality is, is that to get Marines around effectively, they require all types of lift. They require the big amphibious ships, but they also require connectors (meaning landing craft and other amphibious vehicles). The lift is the enabler that makes that happen, so we wouldn’t be able to [successfully carry out a contested amphibious assault without additional resources],” Adm. Locklear said, Stars and Stripes reported.

The admiral’s comments come only weeks after Capt. James Fannell, the chief of intelligence of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said that he believes China is training for war with Japan.

“[We] concluded that the PLA has been given the new task to be able to conduct a short sharp war to destroy Japanese forces in the East China Sea following with what can only be expected a seizure of the Senkakus or even a southern Ryukyu [islands] — as some of their academics say,” the captain said in February after witnessing “massive” Chinese military exercises in the Pacific.

During the congressional hearing on Tuesday, Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of U.N. and U.S. forces in Korea, also questioned whether U.S. forces would be able to quickly counter a sudden large-scale offensive by North Korea, Stars and Stripes reported.

“I am concerned about the readiness of the follow-on forces in our theater,” Gen. Scaparrotti said. “Given the indications and warnings and the nature of this theater and the threat that we face, I rely on rapid and ready forces to flow into the peninsula in crisis.”

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/25/pacific-commander-us-lacks-resources-conduct-succe/#ixzz2x0De582i


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on March 28, 2014, 05:55:25 am
Pentagon: China’s ‘Three Warfares’ Seek to Drive US From Asia

March 27, 2014 – China is battling the United States in three non-military areas in hopes of driving U.S. troops out of Asia and tightening its grip on the seas near its coasts, says a Pentagon study.

The “Three Warfares” described in the report are on psychological, media, and legal fronts, the Washington Free Beacon reports. The report was developed for the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, which examines issues related to future warfare scenarios.

“The Three Warfares is a dynamic three-dimensional war-fighting process that constitutes war by other means,” Cambridge University professor Stefan Halper, who directed the study, told the Free Beacon. “It is China’s weapon of choice in the South China Sea.”

Halper was among eight China experts who contributed to the 566-page, unclassified report. Others included Michael Pillsbury, who served at the Pentagon during the Reagan administration, the Free Beacon reports.

Though the Pentagon’s report was completed in May 2013, news of it comes on the heels of moves announced last month by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to slash the size of the U.S. military to its smallest levels since before World War II and to scrap a class of Air Force attack jets.

Hagel’s efforts would cut military spending to meet government austerity objectives resulting from President Barack Obama’s promise to end U.S. involvement in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The reductions would leave the military capable of defeating any enemy but too small for long foreign occupations, news reports said, and would involve greater risk if U.S. forces were asked to carry out two large-scale military actions at the same time.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon said China’s Three Warfares are broadly guided by the idea that modern technology has rendered nuclear weapons unusable — and conventional conflict too problematic — to achieve political objectives.

Beijing wants to acquire resources, influence, and territory and to project national will, the Free Beacon reports.

“China’s Three Warfares [are] designed to counter U.S. power projection,” the report says. “The United States is one of four key audiences targeted by the campaign, as part of China’s broader military strategy of ‘anti-access/area denial’ in the South China Sea.”

The assessment warns that the U.S. government and its military lack effective tools for countering these warfare methods — and that military academies lack instruction on  Chinese use of such unconventional warfare techniques.

It called for a White House office to develop efforts to better understand the Chinese threat and coordinate countermeasures to its techniques, the Free Beacon reports.

Further, the Three Warfares seek to reduce the image of U.S. power and readiness in Asia among such critical allies as Japan and South Korea, and to assure China’s ability to navigate its nearby seas freely by attempting to set terms for allowing U.S. access to the region, the Free Beacon reports.

More specifically, the use of psychological, media, and legal attacks by China seeks to raise “doubts about the legitimacy of the U.S. presence,” the report says.

The assessment cites several disputes in which China employed the Three Warfares strategy, the Free Beacon reports. They include encounters between U.S. and Chinese warships; the crisis over the 2001 mid-air collision between a U.S. EP-3E surveillance plane and a Chinese jet; and China’s increasing combativeness in several maritime disputes in the South China and East China seas.

“If the Three Warfares is not a ‘game changer,’ it certainly has the capacity to modify the game in substantial ways,” the report says.

http://breakingdeception.com/pentagon-chinas-three-warfares-seek-drive-us-asia/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 05, 2014, 05:49:41 am
Japan orders military to strike any new North Korea missile launches

Japan has ordered a destroyer in the Sea of Japan to strike any ballistic missiles that may be launched by North Korea in the coming weeks after Pyongyang fired a Rodong medium-range missile over the sea, a government source said on Saturday.

 Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera issued the order on Thursday, but did not make it public in order to avoid putting a chill on renewed talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang, the first in more than a year, local media reported earlier.

"The defense minister made the order from April 3rd through to the 25th to prepare for any additional missile launches," the source said.

Onodera, the source said, did not deploy Patriot missile batteries that would be the last line of defense against incoming warheads.

Media reports said the North Korean-Japanese talks in Beijing this week broke no new ground, but ended with an agreement for further meetings.

The firing of the Rodong coincided with a meeting in The Hague between U.S. President Barack Obama and the leaders of South Korea and Japan and followed a series of short-range rocket launches.

The launch appeared to be a show of defiance by North Korea.

The missile fell into the sea after flying 650 km (400 miles), short of a maximum range thought to be some 1,300 km.

Japanese Aegis destroyers in the Sea of Japan are equipped with advanced radar equipment able to track multiple targets and carry missiles designed to take out targets at the edge of space.

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-orders-military-strike-north-korea-missile-launches-035401914--sector.html;_ylt=AwrBJSCofj9TaTQAkX_QtDMD


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 08, 2014, 09:50:39 am
U.S. defense chief gets earful as China visit exposes tension

Tensions between China and the United States were on full display on Tuesday as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel faced questions in Beijing about America's position in bitter territorial disputes with regional U.S. allies.

Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan, standing side-by-side with Hagel, called on the United States to restrain ally Japan and chided another U.S. ally, the Philippines.

Then, Hagel was sharply questioned by Chinese officers at the National Defense University. One of them told Hagel he was concerned that the United States was stirring up trouble in the East and South China Sea because it feared someday "China will be too big a challenge for the United States to cope with."

"Therefore you are using such issues ... to make trouble to hamper (China's) development," the officer said.

Hagel assured the audience that America had no interest in trying to "contain China" and that it took no position in such disputes. But he also cautioned repeatedly during the day that the United States would stand by its allies.

"We have mutual self defense treaties with each of those two countries," Hagel said, referring to Japan and the Philippines. "And we are fully committed to those treaty obligations."

The questioning came just a day after Hagel toured China's sole aircraft carrier, in a rare opening by Beijing to a potent symbol of its military ambitions. Chinese Defense Minister Chang called Hagel, the top civilian at the Pentagon, the first foreign military official to be allowed on board the Liaoning.

Chang and Hagel spoke positively about improving military ties and announced steps to deepen them further. But the effort could do little to mask long-standing tension over of a range of issues, from cyber spying and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan to China's military buildup itself.

Beyond developing an aircraft carrier program, China's People's Liberation Army is building submarines, surface ships and anti-ship ballistic missiles, and has tested emerging technology aimed at destroying missiles in mid-air.

That expansion carries risks as Chinese forces come into greater contact with U.S. forces the Pacific, Hagel said.

"As the PLA modernizes its capabilities and expands its presence in Asia and beyond, American and Chinese forces will be drawn into closer proximity - which increases the risk of an incident, an accident, or a miscalculation," Hagel said in a speech at the National Defense University.

"But this reality also presents new opportunities for cooperation."

The risks of a mishap were highlighted in December when the American guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens had to take evasive action in the South China Sea to avoid hitting a Chinese warship operating in support of the Liaoning.

China's military modernization has also been accompanied by a more assertive posture in its territorial disputes.

China claims 90 percent of the 3.5 million sq km (1.35 million sq mile) South China Sea, where the Philippines, along with other countries, stake claims. China has a separate dispute with Japan in the East China Sea over uninhabited islets that are administered by Japan.

Chang asked the United States to "keep (Japan) within bounds and not to be permissive and supportive", and railed against the government of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who Hagel met in Tokyo last weekend.

"It is Japan who is being provocative against China," Chang told a news conference after talks with Hagel.

"If you come to the conclusion that China is going to resort to force against Japan, that is wrong ... we will not take the initiative to stir up troubles."

Chang called the Philippines a nation "disguising itself as a victim" and renewed its opposition to Manila's pursuit of international arbitration in its territorial dispute.

Hagel, who met the defense minister from the Philippines last week, said he raised U.S. concerns in Beijing over the tension in the South and East China Sea.

He cautioned that no countries should resort to "intimidation, coercion, or aggression to advance their claims."

The U.S. State Department has accused China's coastguard of harassment of Philippine vessels and called an attempt to block a Philippine resupply mission to the Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed atoll, provocative and destabilizing.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA370N020140408?feedType=RSS&irpc=932


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 21, 2014, 05:35:30 am
China seizes Japanese cargo ship over pre-war debt

China's seizure of a Japanese cargo ship over a pre-war debt could hit business ties, Japan's top government spokesman has warned.

Shanghai Maritime Court said it had seized the Baosteel Emotion, owned by Mitsui OSK Lines, on Saturday.

It said the seizure related to unpaid compensation for two Chinese ships leased in 1936.

The Chinese ships were later used by the Japanese army and sank at sea, Japan's Kyodo news agency said.

"The Japanese government considers the sudden seizure of this company's ship extremely regrettable," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Monday.

"This is likely to have, in general, a detrimental effect on Japanese businesses working in China."
Shrine row

The owners of the shipping company, identified by Kyodo as Zhongwei Shipping, sought compensation after World War Two and the case was reopened at a Shanghai court in 1988, China's Global Times said.

The court ruled in 2007 that Mitsui had to pay 190 million yuan ($30.5m, £18m) as compensation for the two ships leased to Daido, a firm later part of Mitsui, Global Times and Kyodo said.

Mitsui appealed against the decision, but it was upheld in 2012, Kyodo said.

Kyodo said this appeared to be the first time that a Japanese company asset had been confiscated as war-linked compensation.

The seizure comes with ties between Tokyo and Beijing severely strained amid rows over East China Sea islands that both claim and rumbling historical issues.

Earlier this year, a court in China for the first time accepted a case filed by Chinese citizens seeking compensation from Japanese firms over forced labour during World War Two.

Japan has always held that the issue of war-related compensation was settled by a 1972 agreement between the two sides when ties were normalised.

But now for the first time, a Chinese court has ignored that agreement - and the Chinese government appears to be giving full support, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo.

It is another sign of just how low relations between China and Japan have sunk, our correspondent adds.

On Monday, meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine to mark the spring festival.

Yasukuni is where the souls of Japan's war dead are enshrined, including war criminals - and it is seen by regional neighbours as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

China filed a protest with Japan on Saturday after a Japanese minister visited the shrine.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27068466


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 21, 2014, 10:47:28 am
Japan expands army footprint for first time in 40 years, risks angering China

Japan began its first military expansion at the western end of its island chain in more than 40 years on Saturday, breaking ground on a radar station on a tropical island off Taiwan.

The move risks angering China, locked in a dispute with Japan over nearby islands which they both claim.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, who attended a ceremony on Yonaguni island to mark the start of construction, suggested the military presence could be enlarged to other islands in the seas southwest of Japan's main islands.

"This is the first deployment since the U.S. returned Okinawa (1972) and calls for us to be more on guard are growing," Onodera told reporters. "I want to build an operation able to properly defend islands that are part of Japan's territory."

The military radar station on Yonaguni, part of a longstanding plan to improve defense and surveillance, gives Japan a lookout just 150 km (93 miles) from the Japanese-held islands claimed by China.

Building the base could extend Japanese monitoring to the Chinese mainland and track Chinese ships and aircraft circling the disputed crags, called the Senkaku by Japan and the Diaoyu by China.

CHINA THREAT

The 30 sq km (11 sq mile) Yonanguni is home to 1,500 people and known for strong rice liquor, cattle, sugar cane and scuba diving. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to put troops there shows Japan's concerns about the vulnerability of its thousands of islands and the perceived threat from China.

The new base "should give Japan the ability to expand surveillance to near the Chinese mainland," said Heigo Sato, a professor at Takushoku University and a former researcher at the Defense Ministry's National Institute for Defense Studies.

"It will allow early warning of missiles and supplement the monitoring of Chinese military movements."

Japan does not specify an exact enemy when discussing its defense strategy but it makes no secret it perceives China generally as a threat as it becomes an Asian power that could one day rival Japan's ally in the region, the United States.

Japan, in its National Defense Programme Guidelines issued in December, expressed "great concern" over China's military buildup and "attempts to change the status quo by coercion" in the sea and air.

China's decision last year to establish an air-defence identification zone in the East China Sea, including the skies above the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islets, further rattled Tokyo.

Japanese and Chinese navy and coastguard ships have played cat-and-mouse around the uninhabited islands since Japan nationalized the territory in 2012. Japanese warplanes scrambled against Chinese planes a record 415 times in the year through to March, the Defence Ministry said last week.

Tapping concern about China, Abe raised military spending last fiscal year for the first time in 11 years to help bolster Japan's capability to fight for islands with a new marine unit, more longer-range aircraft, amphibious assault vehicles and helicopter carriers. Japan's thousands of islands give it nearly 30,000 km (18,600 miles) of coastline to defend.

MIXED FEELINGS

Onodera's groundbreaking ceremony on Yonaguni took place s four days before President Barack Obama lands in Tokyo for a summit with Abe, the first state visit by a U.S. president in 18 years.

The United States, which under its security pact with Tokyo has pledged to defend Japanese territory, has warned China about taking any action over the disputed islets, but has not formally recognized Japan's claim of sovereignty over the territory.

Many of the islanders on nearby Yonaguni are looking forward to hosting the radar base and the 100 troops who will man it because of the economic boost it will bring.

Others on the island, however, fear becoming a target should Japan end up in a fight.

"Opinion is split down the middle," Tetsuo Funamichi, the head of the Japan Agricultural Association's local branch, told Reuters. "It's good for the economy if they come, but some people worry that we could be attacked in an emergency."

Onodera was also greeted on Saturday by about 50 protesters who tried to block him from entering the construction site.

"Becoming a target is frightening, they won't talk to us about it, we haven't discussed it," a protestor, who declined to be identified said.

Takenori Komine, who works in an island government office, said it was a risk worth taking if it meant reviving an outpost of Japan that has been in decline since a brief postwar boom.

At that time, U.S.-occupied Yonaguni's proximity to Taiwan made it an entry point into Japan for smuggled food and clothing from Hong Kong. Since the end of World War Two, the island's population has withered by some 90 percent. Average income of about $22,500 a year is a fifth below the national average.

"We are hopeful that the arrival of the young troops will bolster local consumption," Komine said.

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-expands-army-footprint-first-time-40-years-115916042--sector.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 23, 2014, 06:53:09 am
China Challenges Obama’s Asia Pivot With Rapid Military Buildup

President Barack Obama’s trip to Asia this week will be dominated by a country he’s not even visiting: China.

Each of the four nations on the president’s itinerary is involved in territorial disputes with an increasingly assertive China. And years of military spending gains have boosted the capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army faster than many defense analysts expected, casting a shadow over relations between China and its neighbors and sparking doubts about long-term prospects for the U.S. presence in the Pacific.

“There are growing concerns about what China is up to in the maritime space,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “There’s a widely held view in the region that the U.S.-China relationship is tipping toward being much more confrontational.”

Obama arrives today in Japan, the start of a weeklong journey that also will take him to South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. On display throughout will be the challenge of managing the uneasy relationship with China, the U.S.’s No. 2 trading partner and an emerging rival for global influence.

For almost three years, Obama has sought to reorient U.S. foreign policy toward the Asia-Pacific region after more than a decade consumed by war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Though the president says the change isn’t aimed at containing China -- Sino-U.S. trade last year topped $562 billion, a 38 percent jump from five years earlier -- administration officials recently toughened their response to China’s muscular foreign policy.
‘Aggressive Growth’

Danny Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, in February labeled China’s claim to almost all of the South China Sea, hundreds of miles from its shoreline, as “inconsistent with international law.”

Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, told an Australian audience on April 9: “I am concerned by the aggressive growth of the Chinese military, their lack of transparency, and a pattern of increasingly assertive behavior in the region.”

The statements signaled mounting U.S. alarm following China’s establishment in November of an “air defense identification zone” in the East China Sea, which overlapped with Japanese and South Korean airspace.

China’s growing strength in recent years has spawned a welter of territorial conflicts. The most serious involve uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, which Japan controls as the Senkakus and China calls Diaoyu.
Expansive Claims

Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia are among the countries disputing China’s expansive claim to the South China Sea and its energy resources, while the Philippines last month filed a complaint against China with an international arbitration panel.

China and South Korea also have tussled over rights to a submerged formation that China calls the Suyan Rock and South Korea knows as the Ieodo.

Even as tensions in East Asia remain high, U.S. officials insist they can toggle between cooperation and confrontation in their dealings with the world’s second-largest economy.

“There doesn’t need to be tension and conflict,” said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser. “An emerging power like China does not inherently have to come into conflict with an established power like the United States.”

Still, during his visit to Manila, Obama is scheduled to give a speech to an audience of American and Filipino service members and veterans intended to showcase “our security cooperation in the current environment in the Asia Pacific,” Rhodes said.
New Agreement

Earlier this month, the U.S. and the Philippines agreed on the draft of a new accord that would give American forces their broadest access to Filipino bases in more than 20 years. The deal, which doesn’t involve the permanent stationing of U.S. troops in the Philippines, is likely to be announced when Obama reaches Manila on April 28.

Ely Ratner, a former State Department China analyst, said the deal is “significant as a symbol of the degree to which the Chinese have scared the region.”

As China has prospered, it has lavished resources on the military in a manner exceeded only by the U.S., which will spend $572 billion on defense this year. In March, China said it plans to increase the PLA’s budget by 12.2 percent this year to 808.2 billion yuan, about $130 billion.

“China’s military modernization has moved more quickly than most experts had predicted,” says Ratner, now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
Rising Outlays

While China spends on its military less than one-quarter what the U.S. will devote to the Pentagon this year, China’s outlays are rising as the U.S. cuts back. This year’s Pentagon budget is less than in fiscal 2007 and is probably headed lower as Congress seeks to curb federal deficits.

Rising spending over more than a decade has transformed China’s once-primitive military into a more capable, though still limited, force. And even as China’s economic growth slows, the military expansion is likely to continue.

State-owned Xinhua News Agency reported last month that Yin Zhuo, director of the Chinese navy’s expert-consultation committee, said China’s military spending remained “far from the level it needs to be as the country faces increasingly severe security challenges.”

Though China’s rearmament has stretched from ballistic missiles to new jet fighters, the defense buildup may be having the most immediate impact at sea. The PLA navy is being transformed from a coastal defense force into a fleet increasingly able to operate in distant waters.
Modern Vessels

China is replacing older ships with modern vessels capable of more ambitious operations, the U.S. Navy’s top China intelligence specialist told the U.S-China Economic and Security Review Commission on Jan. 30.

The U.S. Navy now regards about 65 percent of China’s destroyers and frigates as “modern” and expects that figure to increase to 85 percent by 2020, said Jesse Karotkin, senior intelligence officer for China in the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Earlier this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel toured China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, the first foreign military boss to board the warship. The invitation, a nod to U.S. demands for greater transparency about the Chinese buildup, may have provided limited intelligence gains.

“The Chinese did not allow the Americans to take any photos at all,” said Glaser, a former consultant for the U.S. departments of Defense and State.

Though the refurbished Ukrainian-made vessel is a visible symbol of China’s modernization, the carrier won’t be fully operational for several years, Karotkin said.

Even then, the Liaoning will be no match for the American Nimitz-class carriers, which are longer, bigger and carry more warplanes.
Peaceful Settlement

For now, U.S. officials aren’t emphasizing such comparisons. The U.S. hasn’t taken sides in the disputes between China and its neighbors, saying only that conflicts should be settled peacefully. Some in China worry that Obama may use the trip to endorse the stern language his aides have used and deal a blow to Chinese hopes for a stable relationship, Glaser said.

Jeff Bader, former head of Asian affairs for Obama’s National Security Council, told reporters at an April 17 briefing that the tougher administration statements reflect a “tactical” adjustment rather than a fundamental rethinking.

For now, both the U.S. and China appear determined to keep the relationship from deteriorating. Since October, Chinese naval patrols around the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands have dropped from an average of a little more than one per week to one every couple of weeks, according to an analysis of Japanese Coast Guard data.

And this summer, the Chinese for the first time are scheduled to participate in a U.S. Navy-led exercise. The PLA navy is expected to send three ships to RIMPAC 2014, the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, which occurs every two years off the Hawaiian Islands and is billed as the world’s largest naval warfare demonstration.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-23/china-defies-obama-s-slow-asia-pivot-with-rapid-military-buildup.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 23, 2014, 07:22:33 am
Obama: U.S. will defend Japan if China seizes Senkaku Islands

Source: Japan News
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001227627?utm_content=buffer0a0ff&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

President Barack Obama—for the first time as an incumbent U.S. president—clearly stated the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture are subject to Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, in a written reply to questions submitted by The Yomiuri Shimbun.

“The policy of the United States is clear—the Senkaku Islands are administered by Japan and therefore fall within the scope of Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security. And we oppose any unilateral attempts to undermine Japan’s administration of these islands,” the U.S leader stated ahead of his visit to Japan starting Wednesday.

Article 5 stipulates U.S. defense obligations to Japan, which apply to territories under the administration of Japan. Obama’s comment therefore means the United States will defend Japan in the event of a Chinese incursion on the islets, over which China also claims sovereignty.

Mentioning “mutual interest” between the United States and China, Obama said his country will “deal directly and candidly” with China over differences on such issues. He also stressed that maritime issues should be handled constructively. “Disputes need to be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, not intimidation and coercion,” the president said.

The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aims to revise the government’s interpretation of the Constitution, which prohibits the nation from exercising the right to collective self-defense. Obama said he has “enthusiastically welcomed Japan’s desire to play a greater role in upholding international security.”

“I commend Prime Minister Abe for his efforts to strengthen Japan’s defense forces and to deepen the coordination between our militaries, including by reviewing existing limits on the exercise of collective self-defense,” the president said, requesting the Self-Defense Forces “do more within the framework of our alliance.”

Obama’s four-nation Asia tour aims to reassure the countries involved of his continuous commitment to and U.S. presence in the region. Describing the alliance as “stronger than ever,” Obama hailed Japan’s role as he said, “The world is better off because of Japan’s long-standing commitment to international peace and security.”

In regard to North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, the U.S. leader also clarified his position and declared, “We’re going to stand firm in our insistence that a nuclear North Korea is unacceptable.”

Describing the reclusive country’s repeated missile launches and nuclear development program as “a threat to our allies Japan and South Korea, a threat to the region, and increasingly a direct threat to the security of the United States,” the president said, “The commitment of the United States to the security of Japan and South Korea will remain unwavering.”

Regarding the planned relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture, Obama said the United States has been working on transferring the Futenma base to “a new facility,” likely referring to the Henoko district.

The president also said the U.S. Marine Corps’ presence in the prefecture is “absolutely critical” to mutual security, reiterating his determination to further strengthen the unity of the Japan-U.S. alliance.

Regarding the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, the progress of which is a major focus in the upcoming Japan-U.S. summit meeting, the president said he is “absolutely convinced” that TPP as a whole will provide benefits for all countries involved.

“By reducing tariffs and other barriers, it would open more markets to our goods, boost our exports, and help make our businesses more competitive in the global economy,” the president added.

On Sunday, The Yomiuri Shimbun, citing government sources, reported that Japan and the United States had agreed the tariff on imported U.S. beef will be “9 percent or more.” As of Tuesday, the two-sides are continuing further discussions on the issue in detail at working-level negotiations.

Obama went on to hail Japan’s participation in the TPP talks, in which the 12 participating countries failed to meet an initial goal to conclude the negotiations by the end of last year.

“All our nations will have to live up to our commitment to reaching a high-standard agreement and make important decisions, some of them difficult. It won’t be easy,” Obama said, reaffirming his determination to achieve results at an early stage.


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 25, 2014, 05:57:36 am
China splurging on military as US pulls back

 China's navy commissioned 17 new warships last year, the most of any nation. In a little more than a decade, it's expected to have three aircraft carriers, giving it more clout than ever in a region of contested seas and festering territorial disputes.

Those numbers testify to huge increases in defense spending that have endowed China with the largest military budget behind the United States and fueled an increasingly large and sophisticated defense industry. While Beijing still lags far behind the U.S. in both funding and technology, its spending boom is attracting new scrutiny at a time of severe cuts in U.S. defense budgets that have some questioning Washington's commitments to its Asian allies, including some who have lingering disputes with China.

Beijing's newfound military clout is one of many issues confronting President Barack Obama as he visits the region this week. Washington is faced with the daunting task of fulfilling its treaty obligations to allies such as Japan and the Philippines, while also maintaining cordial relation with key economic partner and rising regional power China.

China's boosted defense spending this year grew 12.2 percent to $132 billion, continuing more than two decades of nearly unbroken double-digit percentage increases that have afforded Beijing the means to potentially alter the balance of power in the Asia-Pacific. Outside observers put China's actual defense spending significantly higher, although estimates vary widely.

Increases in spending signal "strength and resolve to China's neighbors," requiring other countries to pay close attention to where Beijing is assigning its resources, said China defense expert Abraham Denmark, vice president for political and security affairs at the U.S-based National Bureau of Asian Research.

At the same time, the U.S. military is seeking to redirect resources to the Asia-Pacific as it draws down its defense commitment in Afghanistan, although officers warn that budget cuts could potentially threaten plans to base 60 percent of U.S. naval assets to the region. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert recently warned that U.S. capabilities to project power "would not stay ahead" of those of potential adversaries, given the fiscal restraints.

Meanwhile, China's navy is rapidly developing into a force to contend with the U.S., long the dominant military player in the Asia-Pacific region.

China commissioned its first aircraft carrier — a refurbished Ukrainian hull — in 2012, and another two indigenous carriers are expected to enter service by 2025, significantly increasing Beijing's ability to project power into the South China Sea that it claims virtually in its entirety.

Analysts say China will have as many as 78 submarines by 2020, part of an expansion that has seen it leap past the U.S. and Russia in numbers of warships delivered annually, according to experts and available figures.

"That's very much in line with the leadership's call for China to become a major military-industrial power," said Tai Ming Cheung, director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California, San Diego.

By comparison, the U.S. Navy takes on about 10 major vessels per year, while Russia averages slightly less.

Despite the impressive hardware, uncertainty still surrounds the capabilities of China's armed forces, which haven't seen significant combat since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Home-grown technologies have yet to be tested in battle, and training and organization are hampered by a risk-adverse attitude and overemphasis on political indoctrination that reflects the People's Liberation Army's essential role as the defender of the ruling Communist Party.

"Being the world leader is all about software and networking," said Denny Roy, an expert on the Chinese military at the East-West Center in Hawaii, referring to problems with China's command structure and communications.

Concerns about Chinese aggression focus on three scenarios: An attack on self-governing island democracy Taiwan that China claims as its own territory; an attempt to seize uninhabited East China Sea islands controlled by Japan but claimed by China; and a move to drive off claimants to waters and islands claimed by China in the South China Sea.

All those situations pose considerable risks for Beijing, ranging from a lack of transport and resupply capabilities, to the near certainty of the formidable U.S. military responding in defense of its allies. Japan and the Philippines are U.S. treaty partners, while American law requires Washington to respond to threats against Taiwan.

Although tensions with Japan have grown sharper over the islands dispute, Beijing takes great pains to play down the impact its military may have on the region. Its explanations about its military buildup, however, mix a proclaimed desire for closer cooperation with prickly nationalism.

Addressing navy chiefs from two dozen nations gathered at a forum in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao on Wednesday, one of China's most powerful generals said China is committed to maintain peace and stability but would never compromise its national interests.

"No country should expect China to swallow the bitter pill of compromising our sovereignty rights, national security and development interests," said Fan Changlong, vice chairman of the Communist Party's Central Military Commission.

http://news.yahoo.com/china-splurging-military-us-pulls-back-092026097.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 30, 2014, 06:22:37 am
Obama’s pivot to Asia will lack firepower

President Obama’s pivot to Asia will lack a crucial military underpinning next year, when for four months, the Navy will not have an aircraft carrier in the region.

Defense cuts have helped shrink the number of available carriers, alarming GOP lawmakers who are fighting the Pentagon’s plan to permanently cut the number of U.S. carriers to 10.

They argue not having a carrier in the region for months at a time will send a signal of U.S. weakness, as China seeks to make territorial claims against several U.S. allies over the South China Sea.

“Symbolically, the worst thing we could do around the globe is to take one of those carriers out,” Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) told defense reporters on Tuesday. “We really need two or three carriers there.”

According to Forbes and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), there will not be a carrier in the region for about 130 days next year, between when the USS George Washington leaves its base in Japan, and when its replacement, the USS Ronald Reagan, arrives there.

They argue this would leave the U.S. with fewer options to respond to flare-ups.

Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nicholas Sherrouse said the Navy’s presence in the region would not be diminished. He said that, at “at any given time, there are 80 ships and submarines, 140 aircraft, and approximately 40,000 sailors and Marines in the region.”

Still, the U.S. would not be able to use a carrier if a show of force is needed against China or North Korea, or if a natural disaster strikes, which lawmakers say is a concern for U.S. Pacific Command chief Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear III.

“He can’t do what he needs to do with 11 carriers. He sure couldn’t do it with 10 carriers,” Forbes said.

“He said whenever things flare up, he likes to send an aircraft carrier, and that sends a strong message. If you don’t have an aircraft carrier to send, you know, what do you do?” McKeon said earlier this month.

Although there have been gaps in the past, they have been worsened by defense cuts under sequestration, which have slowed maintenance for ships and caused more to be sidelined for greater lengths of time, experts say.

“You want that delay to be as short as possible,” said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and a retired nuclear submariner.

The situation would get worse if the Navy goes through with the plan to retire an aircraft carrier, bringing the permanent fleet down to 10, Clark said.

Lawmakers alarmed by the situation are fighting to scrap the Navy’s plan. The Navy says the Congress should agree to a 10-carrier fleet, if it does not lift budget ceilings that were put in place by the 2011 budget deal, by 2016.

Current law requires 11 carriers, but right now, the U.S. has 10. This is legal under a temporary exception approved by Congress that allowed for the retirement of the USS Enterprise in 2012.

To keep the Navy at 11 carriers, Armed Services Committee members are working to prevent another carrier from being retired in 2016.

On Tuesday, the panel’s Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee released their markup of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, which would provide money in 2015 for the refueling and overhaul of the George Washington, which would extend its life for 25 years.

Although it does not guarantee that the carrier would keep operating in 2016 and beyond, it would ensure that it receives necessary maintenance in order to remain in the fleet.

Cutting carriers down to 10 would be a huge mistake, said retired Vice Adm. Peter Daly, CEO of the U.S. Naval Institute.

“If you lose the George Washington, its air wing and those pilots, we will never get that back,” he said. “The permanent reduction is a very big step that we should not back into.”

Lawmakers are particularly concerned about a carrier shortage in the Asia-Pacific, given an increasingly assertive China.

China is rapidly modernizing its naval forces, spending 12.2 percent more on its military this year than last year.

China is also locked in a territorial dispute over a group of islands in the South China Sea with Japan, a U.S. defense treaty ally.

In November, it unilaterally declared an air defense identification zone that prohibited other nations from flying aircraft through without prior notification.

And South Korea, another U.S. defense treaty ally, is technically still at war with North Korea, and U.S. officials worry that provocative acts by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could lead to a miscalculation and all-out war between the two countries.

Lawmakers have also argued that reducing the number of U.S. carriers would be odd given the administration’s policy of “pivoting” its policies to Asia to counter China. The so-called Asian pivot is intended to beef up the U.S. military and economic presence in the region.

“Our presence is critical to ensure our allies that we can be relied on as a partner to protect our interest and theirs,” said retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold.

But Defense budget experts say the Navy has little choice but to retire a carrier if the budget cuts persist.

“Sixty percent of every Navy budget dollar supports something to do with an aircraft carrier,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “It goes to show the limited number of choices confronting the Department.”

Refueling the George Washington would cost about $6 billion, said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. 

“It takes a lot of money up front to do that refueling and overhaul, and they need to find savings,” Harrison said. “The cost of refueling the Washington is about the cost of buying two or three Virginia-class subs, so there’s a real trade-off in capability.”

Harrison said the Navy is looking at doing things in the future to improve the mix of aircraft on carriers to make them more effective and relevant in a future threat environment, which could require fewer carriers.

But Daly said there would be no way to make up for the lack of a carrier.

“There will be more gaps and less bench strength. Your ability to deal with the things that come up as emergencies and unforeseen situations will be less than what you want,” Daly said.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/defense/204767-obamas-pivot-to-asia-will-lack-firepower-with-carrier-shortage#ixzz30MrZKnCZ


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 30, 2014, 02:29:00 pm
China to conduct naval drills with Russia in East China Sea

China said on Wednesday it would conduct joint naval drills with Russia in the East China Sea off Shanghai in late May, in what it called a bid to deepen military cooperation.

China's defense ministry did not give an exact location in the East China Sea, where Beijing is locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with Japan over the ownership of a group of uninhabited islets.

"These drills are regular exercises held by China and Russia's navies, and the purpose is to deepen practical cooperation between the two militaries, to raise the ability to jointly deal with maritime security threats," the ministry said on its website.

It provided no other details.

China alarmed Japan, South Korea and the United States last year when it announced an air defense identification zone for the East China Sea, covering the islands.

The Beijing government, which is swiftly ramping up military spending, has regularly dispatched patrols to the East China Sea since it established the defense zone.

China was angered last week after U.S. President Barack Obama assured ally Japan that Washington was committed to its defense, including the disputed isles.

Earlier this month, Tokyo announced it would break ground on a new radar base in the area, on a tropical Japanese island close to Taiwan.

The radar station on Yonaguni Island, just 150 km (93 miles) from the disputed islands in the East China Sea, marks Japan's first military expansion at the western end of its island chain in more than 40 years.

China and Russia have close diplomatic, security and economic ties, and regularly carry out military exercises together.

http://news.yahoo.com/china-conduct-naval-drills-russia-east-china-sea-182415119.html;_ylt=AwrBJR5_QGFTlk8AUU7QtDMD


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 04, 2014, 04:57:48 am
Japan split over revision to pacifist constitution

Japan marked the 67th anniversary of its postwar constitution Saturday with growing debate over whether to revise the war-renouncing charter in line with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push for an expanded role for the military.

The ruling conservative party has long advocated revision but been unable to sway public opinion. Now Abe is proposing that the government reinterpret the constitution to give the military more prominence without having to win public approval for the revisions.

His push, backed by the U.S. which wants Japan to bear a greater burden of its own defense, has upset the liberals who see it as undermining the constitution and democratic processes.

Hundreds of people gathered at a Tokyo rally commemorating Constitution Day, a national holiday.

Japan's pacifist charter is at stake, organizer Ken Takada said: "We citizens must stand up, take action and raise our voice to stop Abe, or this country could return to a Japan that wages war with Asia as it has done before."

Written under U.S. direction after World War II, the 1947 constitution says the Japanese people "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation" and that "land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained."

That ban has been relaxed over the years, with U.S. encouragement as the Cold War unfolded and America sought allies in Asia, allowing Japan to have a military to defend itself, dubbed a Self-Defense Force.

The ruling Liberal-Democratic Party has long denounced the postwar constitution as one imposed by the U.S., which occupied Japan from the end of World War II until 1952. Abe's grandfather and role model Nobusuke Kishi — who was arrested as a suspected war criminal but never charged and later became prime minister — was among vocal opponents of the constitution.

Abe advocates a "breakaway from the postwar regime" as a way to overcome the humiliation — symbolically, the constitution — as well as education system, social values and historical views set by the occupation.

A 2012 draft revision proposed by the Liberal Democratic Party promotes a conformist Japan and traditional patriarchal values, placing family units above individuals and elevates the emperor to head of state from the current "symbol." Civil liberties such as freedom of speech and expression can be restricted if considered harmful to public interest.

Official visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines war victims including convicted war criminals, would be legalized, and the war renouncing Article 9 of the constitution reduced to a mere policy, allowing a full-fledged military.

"Our goal is to write a new constitution of our own that envisions a new era and serves a new role," Yasuhiro Nakasone, a 96-year-old former prime minister who heads a group of lawmakers campaigning for a revision, said Thursday at a Tokyo gathering attended by hundreds of lawmakers, their supporters and business lobbies.

With potential military threats coming from China and North Korea, Abe wants to raise Japan's defense posture further, as well as allow the country to play a greater role in international peacekeeping.

Amending the constitution is a challenge, requiring two-thirds approval in both houses of parliament before they are put to a national referendum. Surveys show mixed opinions among Japanese to revising the constitution, with a majority disapproving and opposition growing amid escalating debate over what is seen as the Abe government's attempt to force through change by simply reinterpreting it.

Abe and other supporters of the change believe that Japan's current policy is inadequate. They say U.S. warships may come under attack while in or near Japan, or there may be instances in which Japanese troops have to fight for allies during international peacekeeping missions, even when Japan is not attacked directly.

To do that, Japan would have to exercise a right known as collective self-defense.

That would help strengthen deterrence in the Asia-Pacific and align with the direction of the U.S. strategy, Shigeru Ishiba, Liberal Democratic Party secretary-general and a defense expert, said in a speech in Washington this week.

"The lifting of the ban on the collective defense is basically taking any remaining meaning out of Article 9, so in that sense it's really going to be undermining the Constitution itself," said Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo and an opponent of revision.

But Takeshi Iwaya, a senior lawmaker in charge of the ruling party's defense policy, said: "If we stick to this position, Japan won't be able to secure the necessary deterrence to defend our own national security or keep peace and stability in the region."

An Abe-appointed panel of defense experts is currently finalizing a recommendation to allow collective self-defense, expected in mid-May, which would pave the way for a Cabinet approval.

Whatever the reason, reinterpreting the constitution to change policies is inappropriate, because it could lead to abuse of power, says Tokyo company employee Rie Sato, 36. She said she hasn't seriously thought about the constitution, as it doesn't seem to directly affect her life.

"But I don't have any problem with the constitution either," Sato said while taking a lunch break outside an office building. "Perhaps I should give it a credit for my relatively peaceful life."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20140503/japan-constitution-959355b9b2.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 05, 2014, 07:07:29 am
US and Philippines begin annual military exercises

About 5,500 troops from the United States and the Philippines have begun a military exercise, amid tensions between Manila and China. The drills, called Balikatan (Shoulder to Shoulder), take place every year. These exercises come a week after a military pact to increase the US troop presence in the country was signed.   

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27281100


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 08, 2014, 04:35:01 am
Vietnam: Chinese ships ram vessels near oil rig

Chinese ships have been ramming into and firing water cannons at Vietnamese vessels trying to stop Beijing from putting an oil rig in the South China Sea, according to officials and video footage Wednesday, in a dangerous escalation of tensions over waters considered a global flashpoint.

Several boats have been damaged and at least six Vietnamese on board them have been injured, officials said. The United States said it was concerned and accused China of ramping up tensions in the area.

"China's decision to introduce an oil rig accompanied by numerous government vessels for the first time in waters disputed with Vietnam is provocative and raises tensions," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement. "This unilateral action appears to be part of a broader pattern of Chinese behavior to advance its claims over disputed territory in a manner that undermines peace and stability in the region."

Elsewhere in the sea, the Philippines arrested 11 Chinese fishermen for catching endangering turtles, angering Beijing and further exposing regional strains.

China recently has been harassing Vietnam and Philippine vessels and fishermen in the potentially oil- and gas-rich waters it claims almost entirety — a shaky stance to many international law experts.

But China's deployment of the oil rig on May 1 and the flotilla of escort ships, some armed, is seen as one of its most provocative steps in a gradual campaign of asserting its sovereignty in the South China Sea. With neither country showing any sign of stepping down, the standoff raises the possibility of more serious clashes.

Hanoi, which has no hope of competing with China militarily, said it wants a peaceful solution and — unlike China — hadn't sent any navy ships to areas close to the $1 billion deep sea rig near the Paracel Islands. But a top official warned that "all restraint had a limit."

"Our maritime police and fishing protection forces have practiced extreme restraint, we will continue to hold on there," Ngo Ngoc Thu, vice commander of Vietnam's coast guard, told a specially arranged news conference in Hanoi. "But if (the Chinese ships) continue to ram into us, we will respond with similar self-defense."

After China stationed the oil rig, Vietnam immediately dispatched marine police and fishery protection vessels but they were harassed as they approached, Thu said.

Video was shown at the news conference of Chinese ships ramming into Vietnamese vessels and firing high-powered water cannons at them. Thu said the Chinese vessels have done so "dozens" of times over the last three days. He said Vietnam had not carried out any offensive actions of its own close to the rig, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) off the Vietnamese coast.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing that the oil rig was in China's territorial waters and therefore drilling is "normal and legal." The country previously said foreign ships would be banned within a 3-mile (4.8-kilometer) radius of the rig.

"The disruptive activities by the Vietnamese side are in violation of China's sovereign rights," she said.

A Vietnamese official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity said earlier that Vietnam's ships were outnumbered by the Chinese flotilla. He said the Vietnamese ships were trying to stop the rig from "establishing a fixed position" at the spot where it wanted to drill.

In this May 7, 2012 file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, CNOOC 981, the first deep-wat …

China's assertiveness, along with its growing military and economic might, is alarming many smaller neighbors even as they are aware they need to keep relations open with a vital trading partner.

Hua said the U.S. has no right to make unwarranted remarks on China's sovereign rights.

Vietnam has limited leverage in dealing with its giant neighbor. While it is no longer as isolated as it once was, the country can't expect much diplomatic or other help from powerful friends. It appears likely to try to rally regional support against China's actions.

"China seems intent on putting down its footprint squarely in contested waters and force Hanoi's hand. It appears a critical juncture has occurred and one would expect Hanoi to be weighing its options," said Jonathan London, a Vietnam expert at the City University of Hong Kong.

The Philippines has filed a legal challenge to China's territorial claims at a U.N. tribunal, against the wishes of China. Vietnam and other claimant states haven't done that yet.

Tran Duy Hai, vice chairman of Vietnam's national borders committee, didn't rule it out.

"Vietnam will have to use all measures stipulated in the U.N. Charter to defend its interests," he said.

The arrests of the 11 fisherman Wednesday by the Philippines took place near territory known as Half Moon Shoal in waters claimed by Beijing and Manila. China demanded that the Philippines release the boat, and Hua urged Manila to "stop taking further provocative actions."

Philippine maritime police Chief Superintendent Noel Vargas said the fishermen will face charges of violating Philippine laws protecting endangered green sea turtles.

China occupied the Paracel Islands 40 years ago, and 74 U.S.-backed South Vietnamese forces died in a subsequent military clash. The Vietnamese and Chinese navies clashed again in 1988 in the disputed Spratly Islands, leaving 64 Vietnamese sailors dead.

In 1992, China awarded a contract to U.S. energy company Crestone to explore for oil and gas in the Spratly Islands. Vietnam protested the move. Two years later, Vietnam's navy forced the company's oil rigs to leave.

http://news.yahoo.com/vietnam-chinese-ships-ram-vessels-near-oil-rig-134607409.html;_ylt=AwrBJR7GdmpT6SwAQMnQtDMD


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 08, 2014, 04:37:36 am
Vietnam, Philippines Incidents Raise Sea Tensions
Vessels Clash Over Chinese Oil Rig; Philippines Detains Fishermen Near Spratly Islands


Strains between China and its neighbors burst to the surface in two parts of the South China Sea, taking the high-stakes struggle for control over the waters to new levels of friction.

Off Vietnam, dozens of Chinese military and civilian ships clashed with the Vietnamese coast guard, with Vietnamese officials complaining its vessels were repeatedly rammed. On the same day, Philippine police apprehended Chinese fishing vessels loaded with hundreds of sea turtles in disputed waters.

About 80 Chinese vessels moved into an area near the disputed Paracel Islands, where Hanoi has sought to prevent China from deploying a massive oil rig, said Rear Adm. Ngo Ngoc Thu, vice commander of the Vietnamese coast guard. He said the flotilla included seven military ships and that it was supported by aircraft.

He said the situation, which started brewing over the weekend, was "very tense" and said six Vietnamese officers had been injured in the standoff.

The confrontation—by far the most serious in recent years between the two neighbors—marked a significant escalation in Beijing's willingness to press its natural-resource claims, analysts said.

 Theresa Fallon, a senior associate at the European Institute for Asian Studies, a Brussels-based think tank, said China's move represented the regional energy sector's "worst nightmare" and was bound to provoke Vietnam's anger.

"This is a huge rig—it's the size of a couple of football fields," Ms. Fallon said.

A senior administration official said the White House views the latest escalation as part of a pattern of behavior as China continues to try to advance its territorial claims. "We're obviously very concerned about it," the official said. "We have conveyed our concerns to the Chinese."

The standoff is "an unprecedented situation," said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. The sheer number of Chinese vessels that appeared to be involved was a clear indication of China's "resolve to make sure this rig can operate in these waters."

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi described the move as part of a Chinese business's normal operations and asked Vietnam to stop interfering, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said at a daily briefing.

China's Defense Ministry didn't respond to a request to comment.

(http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-BQ052_LIONDO_G_20140507181510.jpg)

The U.S., which has a vital interest in maintaining open sea lanes for trade in the South China Sea, has encouraged a multilateral approach to resolve the disputes—though China insists on negotiating with one country at a time.

The State Department said on Wednesday said China's decision to move the oil rig into contested waters was "provocative and unhelpful."

"We are strongly concerned about dangerous conduct and intimidation by vessels in the disputed area," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

President Barack Obama toured the region last month, stressing U.S. security cooperation. The latest escalation of tensions in the South China Sea reinforces that the disputes "are not going to be solved with one trip or one speech," said Michael Green, senior vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "And it shows that the Chinese side is not fazed by the negative reaction in the region," Mr. Green said.

China and Vietnam fought a brief but bloody border war in 1979. Today, China's military far outguns Vietnam's, but that doesn't mean Vietnam will quickly back down. "Vietnam has a record of not pulling back from military confrontations," said James Hardy, Asia-Pacific editor at IHS Jane's Defence Weekly.

Security scholars said the latest escalation in tensions is the cumulative result of deep-seated mistrust over China's intentions among smaller regional players combined with Beijing's increased assertiveness as well as a lack of mechanisms to prevent and manage crises.

The confrontation also illuminated the role of China's state-owned energy companies in helping advance China's territorial ambitions, despite frequent assertions by executives that they are driven by profit and not politics.

The company controlling the oil rig, China National Offshore Oil Corp., or Cnooc, has previously figured as a controversial actor in the South China Sea, by offering up for foreign cooperation oil blocks in contested waters.

The deep-water rig launched with much fanfare in 2012, at which time the company chairman described it as a "strategic weapon" for China's oil industry. The company didn't respond to requests to comment Wednesday.

The administration of President Xi Jinping, who took over as China's Communist Party leader in November 2012, has pledged to bolster ties with regional neighbors. At the same time, China has stepped up its assertiveness in territorial disputes, which has undermined regional trust-building.

The Philippines on Wednesday apprehended a Chinese fishing vessel "carrying large numbers of endangered species" near Half Moon Shoal, a sandbar in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and a hotbed for illegal sea-turtle poaching. Philippines police senior inspector Dante Padilla said an inspection of the boat yielded around 500 sea turtles, some of them dead.

He said the police had arrested the captain of the Chinese vessel and its 10 crew members.

The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement it seized the Chinese fishing boat "to enforce maritime laws and to uphold Philippine sovereign rights over its [exclusive economic zone]."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying urged the Philippines to release the fishermen and to refrain from taking further provocative actions. Ms. Hua said the Chinese Embassy in Manila had complained to the Philippine government.

The Philippines and China have overlapping maritime claims in several areas in the South China Sea. Amid China's recent aggressive assertions of its claims in the dispute areas, the Philippines had brought its case before an international tribunal to rally international support for its territorial claim.

On his visit to the region last month, President Obama assured the Philippines that American military support is "ironclad," though he left vague whether the U.S. would come to the aid of the Philippines in its island disputes.

The territorial disputes aren't part of the agenda of this weekend's meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Myanmar this weekend. The summit is aimed at regional integration and participation in the G-20 summit in November. Tensions flared at an Asean summit in 2012 after Philippine President Benigno Aquino III disputed a statement by Cambodia, then the summit's chairman, about an agreement in the bloc "not to internationalize the South China Sea from now on."

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304431104579547241211054588?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304431104579547241211054588.html%3Fmod%3DWSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 15, 2014, 01:15:48 pm
Philippines releases photos of Chinese reclamation

The Philippine government on Thursday released military surveillance photos of Chinese land reclamation on a reef claimed by Manila in the South China Sea that it said showed Beijing violated a regional agreement not to escalate territorial disputes.

Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Charles Jose said the pictures show Chinese aggressiveness in asserting its claims over the entire South China Sea.

The aerial photographs were accompanied by a caption stating that they were obtained from "Philippine intelligence sources." The caption said the "extensive reclamation" by China on the Johnson South Reef, called Mabini by Manila and Chigua by Beijing, was "destabilizing."

The Chinese Embassy in Manila had no immediate comment, but a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing has said that the area is part of China's territory, and that any Chinese activities at the reef should be of no concern to Manila.

The United States said it was aware of the reports that China is reclaiming land on a disputed reef in the South China Sea. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf urged self-restraint in activities that could escalate or complicate disputes.

"Major upgrades or the militarization of disputed land features in the South China Sea by any claimant has the potential to raise tensions," she said.
View gallery
In this photo taken Feb. 28, 2013 by a surveillance …
In this photo taken Feb. 28, 2013 by a surveillance plane, and released Thursday, May 15, 2014, by t …

Jose noted that a 2002 nonbinding agreement between China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations calls for restraint in conducting activities in the region that would "complicate or escalate disputes" and to not inhabit uninhabited areas

"We want to show people that (China's) actions are part of its aggressive behavior to assert its claim in violation of the DOC," or Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which was signed by China, Philippines and nine other ASEAN members, Jose said.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said a stronger accord and international arbitration would offer more lasting solutions to the territorial conflicts. A proposed legally binding "code of conduct" between China and Southeast Asian countries is seen as a mechanism to prevent a major armed conflict in the disputed waters. Manila sought international arbitration against Beijing in January 2013 after Chinese government ships took control of a shoal claimed by the Philippines off its main island of Luzon.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said Wednesday that it was not clear what China would build on the reclaimed land, but that an airstrip was a possibility.

A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the issue, said it could also be used as a military base and a resupply and refueling hub. The official said the reclamation was first detected by air force planes six months ago.
View gallery
In this photo taken March 13, 2012 by surveillance …
In this photo taken March 13, 2012 by surveillance planes and released Thursday, May 15, 2014, by th …

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the Philippine military has been monitoring Chinese activities at the reef for several months. "For whatever purpose (the reclamation was done) we still do not know, but we are almost sure that there will be a base," he told reporters Thursday.

An airstrip or a military base on the reef would boost the mobility of Beijing's naval and air forces in the South China Sea region, far from the Chinese mainland.

The pictures showed "before-and-after" images — from an untouched reef in 2012, followed by another showing a concrete building jutting out of the water, and the reclaimed land two years later. Philippine aircraft helping search for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane in March reported reclamation work was continuing, Jose said.

Del Rosario said Manila lodged a protest against China last month, but that Beijing has ignored it.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing on Wednesday that the reef was part of China's territory and any construction there is covered by its "sovereignty rights."

The Philippine government estimates that the Chinese have reclaimed a land mass of at least 30 hectares (74 acres) from the reef, which Manila says is part of its western Palawan province. What has emerged from the coral outcrop appears like a vast tree-less island of white sand in the middle of turquoise blue waters.

One of the released pictures shows a long pipe connected to a large dredging vessel on the northwestern edge of the reef. A concrete building, likely to be China's outpost on the reef, stands on the southern edge of the emerging islet. A ship is anchored close by.

The reef, part of the Spratly Islands chain, is also claimed by Vietnam, which fought a deadly naval battle against China in the area in 1988.

http://news.yahoo.com/philippines-releases-photos-chinese-reclamation-053311309.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 16, 2014, 07:15:09 am
Abe Takes 1st Step in Allowing Japan to Go to War Again

The Japanese government will take steps to exercise its right to so-called collective self-defense, allowing it to attack a third country when an ally is in some way under threat. The move is at odds with Japan' pacifist postwar constitution and has alarmed neighbors who recall the country's wartime aggression.

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2014/05/16/2014051600722.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 18, 2014, 05:35:12 am
China evacuates 3,000 nationals from Vietnam over unrest

China has evacuated more than 3,000 of its nationals from Vietnam following deadly anti-Chinese violence, state media said Sunday, as Vietnamese authorities clamped down to prevent any further unrest threatening vital foreign investment.

Xinhua news agency said the evacuees included 16 Chinese who were "critically injured" last week in unrest triggered by Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in contested South China Sea waters that has triggered rage in Vietnam.

The recent chaos, centred on foreign-owned enterprises, marked the worst anti-China unrest in Vietnam in decades and has stained the developing country's reputation as a stable, welcoming destination for foreign investment.

China said it was dispatching five ships to Vietnam to bring even more nationals to safety as Vietnamese activists sought to stage further demonstrations on Sunday against Chinese "aggression".

The attempted protests were thwarted, however, by a security crackdown that saw hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes security personnel restricting access to streets leading to the Chinese embassy in Hanoi and other suspected protest sites in the capital.

Blogs linked to activist groups said several protest bids in various other cities were thwarted by police who detained a number of activists. The government had earlier ordered authorities nationwide to ramp up security to nip any Sunday demonstrations in the bud.

China's positioning of the oil rig in waters claimed by both sides has inflamed long-simmering enmity between the two quarrelsome communist neighbours, who have fought territorial skirmishes in the past.

Worker demonstrations spread to 22 of Vietnam's 63 provinces in the last week, according to the Vietnamese government, with enraged mobs torching foreign-owned factories and enterprises believed to be linked to China or which employed Chinese personnel.

Hundreds of enterprises were hit, Vietnam's government has said.

The government has in the past occasionally allowed protesters to vent anger at the country's giant neighbour for domestic political gain.

- Vietnam in damage control -

But Vietnam depends heavily on foreign investment for development, and the anti-China violence Tuesday and Wednesday has sent the government scrambling to limit the damage.

"We will not allow any acts targeting foreign investors, businesses or individuals, to ensure that the regrettable incidents will not be repeated," Dang Minh Khoi, assistant to Vietnam's foreign minister, told reporters in a briefing Saturday.

"We ask countries to continue to encourage their investors and citizens to rest assured on doing business in Vietnam."

Officials told the briefing that the violence had left two Chinese nationals dead and 140 injured. More than 300 suspected perpetrators were being prosecuted, they said.

Vietnam attracted $21.6 billion in foreign direct investment in 2013, up from $16.3 billion the year earlier, according to government figures.

The events could have a potential long-term impact on the country's image as a safe place for business, said Edmund Malesky, an expert on Vietnam's investment-fuelled development at Duke University.

"The riots have called that safety into question. In the future, foreign investors will have to balance Vietnam?s advantageous labour costs and quality against this potential instability," he said.

More than 3,000 Chinese nationals had been evacuated as of Saturday afternoon, Xinhua reported early Sunday.

- 'Explosion of violence' -

China's foreign ministry also advised its nationals against travelling to Vietnam for now following what it called the "explosion of violence" and urged Chinese citizens to increase safety precautions.

Xinhua said Chinese security chief Guo Shengkun had spoken to his Vietnamese counterpart, urging steps to quell the violence.

There was no immediate response from the Vietnamese government on the Chinese evacuations or travel warning, but officials in recent days have stressed the safety of foreign nationals would be guaranteed.

China's deployment of the giant rig in early May is viewed in Vietnam as a provocative assertion of Beijing's hotly disputed claims to virtually all of the South China Sea, and has been criticised by Washington as exacerbating territorial tensions.

Chinese and Vietnamese vessels have engaged in repeated skirmishes near the rig, including collisions and the use of water cannon.

The violence in Vietnam has further inflamed the situation, with China blaming Hanoi for the unrest. Beijing has refused Vietnam's demands to remove the rig.

Enterprises targeted in the violence included Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and Singaporean businesses.

It was not clear why non-Chinese businesses were hit, but there is growing resentment in Vietnam over a perceived rise in Chinese workers taking jobs from locals.

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou has ordered commercial jets to be on standby to evacuate its nationals should further violence erupt.

Taiwan-based China Airlines and EVA Airways have already provided extra chartered flights to Vietnam.

The oil-rig confrontation is the latest to spark alarm among China's Southeast Asian neighbours, who have watched as Beijing's increasing insistence on its historic maritime territorial claims over the years has corresponded with a rapid build-up of the Chinese military.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/news/a/23615974/china-evacuates-its-nationals-from-vietnam-after-deadly-unrest/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 18, 2014, 05:39:02 am
Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea demand a U.S. response

The China National Overseas Oil Corporation (CNOOC) began drilling in Vietnamese-claimed waters last week, accompanied by more than 70 vessels, including armed Chinese warships. At first glance, this might look like merely another front in China’s quest for natural resources, which has taken Chinese companies to seemingly every corner of the earth.

Yet what is happening in the South China Sea is actually far more dangerous than what has come before — and the forces driving it go well beyond pursuit of energy riches. The United States needs to face up to the full magnitude of the Chinese challenge to have any hope of successfully confronting it. This means not only tough talk but also a willingness to take difficult action.

There has long been speculation that massive oil and gas deposits are locked beneath the South China Sea — 1.4 million square miles bordered by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam and claimed in part by all of them. According to the Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources, the area might contain as much as 400 billion barrels of oil, surpassing the bounties of the Middle East.

Most informed estimates, though, are much smaller. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated in 2010 that the region’s undiscovered oil (much of which will never be financially attractive to produce) totals a far smaller 11 billion barrels. It is difficult to believe that China would risk armed conflict for such modest stakes.

Two other forces are essential to understanding what is going on. One is nationalism: The drilling is taking place near the Paracel Islands, which sit within a disputed area of the South China Sea, roughly 120 miles from Vietnam’s coast and well within Vietnam’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone. But China claims the islands based on historical usage and effective exercise of sovereignty, having occupied them since 1974. Backing off from the Paracels would deal a blow to China’s prestige, while underlining Chinese control over the islands would strengthen the leadership’s legitimacy at home.

Chinese leaders are also motivated by a desire to control the sea lanes of the South China Sea. More than $5 trillion of trade passes through the increasingly crowded waters each year. That includes almost one-third of world seaborne oil trade and more than three-quarters of Chinese oil imports (as well as most of the oil destined for Japan, South Korea and Taiwan). The Chinese navy may be too weak to challenge U.S. dominance in key Middle East sea lanes, or even to exercise control over the critical Straits of Malacca, but by operating naval forces across the South China Sea it can gain greater confidence that the United States will not be able to disrupt its supplies.

Beyond these two motivations, it does not hurt that Chinese oil companies are eager to operate in the region. By cloaking its military excursion in commercial garb, Beijing might have hoped to defuse some of the inevitable opposition.

If so, that gambit has not paid off. China’s latest move, which came as a surprise to Vietnam and other nations, undermines Beijing’s insistence that strong relations within the region are its top foreign policy priority. It also calls into question China’s commitment to its current working-group talks with Vietnam on joint resource development in the South China Sea.

The United States has said it won’t take a stand on the sovereignty dispute and has called on the two parties to resolve their differences peacefully. This is not enough: The United States ought to call China’s bluff and make clear the real stakes. The United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should present a unified front in refusing to recognize unilateral assertions of claims in disputed territories.

Even more important, the United States must be prepared to give life to its rhetorical position. Although it does not have a treaty obligation to defend Vietnam, its rebalancing to Asia is premised on its role as the primary guarantor of stability in the Pacific. Chinese actions challenge that.

Vietnam has reiterated its commitment to peacefully resolve the dispute. If China does not reciprocate, the United States should be prepared to offer support to Vietnam through an increased naval presence. This would give Washington the ability to assess Chinese capabilities and to help de-escalate the situation. Other options, such as restrictions on CNOOC’s activities in the United States, could also be considered. If the United States can’t back up its words with actions, its credibility in promising to uphold peace and stability in the region will be gutted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rein-in-china-in-its-dispute-with-vietnam-over-energy-resources/2014/05/15/b853bbf0-d7b7-11e3-8a78-8fe50322a72c_story.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 19, 2014, 08:30:02 am
Japan to establish island military posts: Report

Japan is to establish new military outposts on remote islands, a report said Monday, as Tokyo looks to bolster its defence amid a territorial dispute with China.

Up to 350 troops each could be stationed on three islands in the far southwest, close to the Senkakus, which Beijing claims as its own under the name Diaoyus, the mass-selling Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

With the exception of the main Okinawa island, Japan's Ground Self-Defence Forces - its army - have no bases on the chain of islands that runs from the bottom of Kyushu to Taiwan. There are limited air force facilities in the area.

The lack of substantial military presence is a source of worry for some in Japan, who caution that it leaves Japan vulnerable to China's increasingly assertive stance.

- See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/east-asia/story/japan-establish-island-military-posts-report-20140519#sthash.7a6Lrvfx.dpuf



Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 19, 2014, 02:48:11 pm
Large number of Chinese troops seen heading for China-Vietnam border

A large number of People’s Liberation Army troops have reportedly been spotted heading towards the China-Vietnam border as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate, reports Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily. Sing Tao Daily is generally considered to be aligned to Chinese state media.

Thousands of Chinese nationals living or on business in Vietnam have already fled the country amid anti-China riots, which were sparked by a tense standoff between Chinese and Vietnamese naval ships near a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters off the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on May 4.

The Chinese foreign ministry confirmed Friday that at least two Chinese nationals have been killed and nearly a hundred were injured during violent protests last week that saw dozens of Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong factories set on fire. The UK’s Guardian claims as many as 21 people have died.

As yet another large-scale anti-China protest was scheduled for Sunday, Chinese netizens reported seeing an “endless stream” of PLA soldiers in full combat gear at Chongzuo train station, apparently on their way to the 97-kilometre China-Vietnam border at Pingxiang city in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The soldiers were said to have been accompanied by tanks, armoured vehicles, missile launchers and other heavy artillery.

Pingxiang was where the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979 began, and locals are reportedly preparing to evacuate the area out of fears of an imminent military conflict.

Last week, Beijing denied that PLA troops had been sent to Guangxi and also denied reports that neighbouring Yunnan province had been put on high alert and escalated to combat readiness levels, but that has not stopped rumours of a military response to the Vietnam riots from continuing.
Update 19th May 2014 – Epoch Times reports:

Troops, tanks, trucks, artillery, and armored personnel carriers of China’s military were seen heading to the Vietnamese border on May 16 and 17, according to photographs taken by by residents near the border.

Chinese netizens have been posting photographs of the large movement of the People’s Liberation Army, many of them showing Chinese troops in full combat gear heading to the local train station in Chongzuo, along with military vehicles.

One netizen said the Chinese military was taking the train from the Chongzuo station to Pingxiang City, which shares a 60-mile border with Vietnam. The netizen said that the Huu Nghi Border Gate to Vietnam is also now closed.

One of the photos, taken from inside a passenger train, shows the Chinese military preparing artillery for transport on a train track. Others show Chinese troops and military vehicles traveling along dirt roads.

Another photograph shows troops walking under the red-colored entrance to the Longzhou International Building Materials Market, on Provincial Road in the city of Chongzuo.

A reverse image search of each of the photographs using Google indicated that the photographs had appeared on the Internet only recently. Most were indexed by Google on Saturday.

Collectively, the images and eyewitness reports from the ground show what Taiwanese media are calling an “endless stream” of Chinese troops.

One netizen, with the username Zhiyuan0703, echoed a common sentiment on the Chinese social media site, “Conflict between China and Vietnam is imminent.”

China is currently involved in territorial conflicts with nearly all its neighbours.

http://chinadailymail.com/2014/05/18/large-number-of-chinese-troops-seen-heading-for-china-vietnam-border/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 19, 2014, 03:33:34 pm
State Department expresses regret at China's announcement that they are suspending participation in the US-China Cyber Working Group; 'We expect the Chinese government to understand that today's announcement relates to law enforcement' - @NBCNews

Wonder if Obama is gonna sanction China now?


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 27, 2014, 09:10:22 am
China Sinking Fishing Vessel Raises Tensions With Vietnam

Vietnam and China traded barbs over the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat, their most serious bilateral standoff since 2007 as China asserts its claims in the disputed South China Sea.

“It was rammed by a Chinese boat,” Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said by phone of the Vietnamese vessel, with the crew of 10 rescued after the scrap. The incident occurred after some 40 Chinese fishing vessels encircled a group of Vietnamese boats in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, the government in Hanoi said in a statement on its website.

China said the Vietnamese vessel capsized after it rammed a Chinese fishing boat, having intruded into a “precautionary area” around an oil rig that China has located near islands claimed by both Vietnam and China.

“We once again urge the Vietnamese side to stop immediately all kinds of disruptive and damaging activities and avoid in particular dangerous actions on the sea,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters in Beijing.

China’s 2012 success in assuming control of the Scarborough Shoal, an area previously overseen by the Philippines, highlighted to nations from Vietnam to Japan the potential consequences of the Chinese push to assert claims in neighboring bodies of water. Yesterday’s incident came after Chinese aircraft flew close to Japanese planes on May 24 in disputed airspace in the East China Sea, and days before U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visits Singapore for a regional meeting of defense officials.

‘Sending a Message’

“The message China is sending Vietnam is, this area of water is Chinese territory,” Ha Hoang Hop, visiting senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said by phone of the boat sinking. “Yesterday a spokesman for China said Vietnam’s claims are ‘ridiculous.’ They are escalating things at sea and with their language.”

China’s placement of the rig near the contested Paracel Islands sparked violent protests in Vietnam this month and led China to send ships to evacuate workers from the country after three Chinese nationals were killed. It spurred confrontations between coast guard vessels, including the use of water cannons and accusations of boats being rammed. China says the rig is in its territory and that it has long drilled in the area.

Vietnam has “insisted on disturbing the normal operation by the Chinese side and taken dangerous actions on the sea,” Qin said, adding that Vietnamese actions will hurt their own interests. Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry said it lodged a protestVietnam’s Foreign Ministry said it lodged a protest with the Chinese Embassy over the sinking.

China’s ‘Lifeline’

China is devoted to promoting peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea through direct negotiation with the countries concerned, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said in Beijing today, according to Xinhua News Agency.

“Being the lifeline for China at sea, the South China Sea is far more important to China than to other countries,” Xinhua cited Liu as saying.

The tensions come as China’s President Xi Jinping expands the country’s naval reach to back its claims in the South China Sea that are based on a “nine-dash line” map, first published in 1947. That map runs hundreds of miles south from China’s Hainan Island to equatorial waters off the coast of Borneo.

China’s dispute with Vietnam was one of the most popular political topics on China’s heavily censored social media platforms today, with users defending China’s actions during the incident over the fishing boat.

“Should we continue to swallow insult and humiliation silently?,” a commenter identified as Trivial Passenger said of Vietnam’s claims. “These are naked abuses and insults.”
Rig Relocated

The first phase of the drilling, which began May 2 off Zhongjian Island in the Xisha Islands, as the Paracels are known in Chinese, has been completed, China Oilfield Services Ltd. (2883), which is conducting the operation, said in a statement today. Exploration has moved to another place and is expected to end in mid-August, according to the statement.

China’s actions violate international law and threaten peace, security and freedom of navigation, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said on May 22 in Manila. Tensions in the South China Sea risk disrupting the flow of goods, Dung said, with the resource-rich waters taking in some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

China and Vietnam fought a border war in 1979, with China having forcibly taken the Paracel Islands from Vietnam five years earlier. In 1988, a Chinese naval attack in the Spratly Islands, which Vietnam also lays claims to, killed 64 Vietnamese border guards as China seized seven atolls. In 2007, Chinese naval patrol vessels fired on a Vietnamese fishing boat, killing one sailor.
China’s Determination

In March 2013, Vietnam’s government lodged a protest after it said a Chinese ship fired on a fishing vessel near the Paracels and caused a cabin fire.

Vietnam’s leaders will probably protest the latest incident, according to Xu Liping, a researcher at the National Institute of International Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

“But from China’s point of view it reflects China’s determination -- that there will be no compromise on the problem of the Xisha islands,” Xu said. “Vietnam will likely counter-attack, stir up domestic opinion or send fishing boats to disturb our drilling platforms. This will continue, but slowly it will get less, when they realize their disturbances have no use,” he said.

Vietnam’s benchmark VN Index (VNINDEX) of shares rose 1.6 percent today. The gauge has retreated about 9 percent from this year’s high on March 24. The dong was steady at 21,145 per dollar as of 3:47 p.m. local time.
Spratly Dispute

Philippine President Benigno Aquino, visiting a military base today on Palawan Island, the jumping-off point to the Spratly Islands, another contested part of the South China Sea, said he may raise Chinese reclamation of a disputed reef with Asean and a United Nations arbitration process already underway.

The situation on the shoals is volatile and the navy needs to upgrade its base in Ulugan Bay on Palawan, according to Philippine Navy chief Vice Admiral Jesus Millan.

“The menace of various threats to territorial integrity are real and present,” he told reporters.

Addressing the actual territorial claims will take a long time, Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said yesterday in an interview.

“What’s achievable is to try and have a code of conduct that tries to work out how the countries, countries’ ships and so on interact with each other, what can be done, what cannot be done, what kind of conduct is acceptable, what kind of conduct is unacceptable,” he said.

Asean has called for progress on the code with China that would seek to preserve freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Talks have made little headway since China agreed in July to start discussions.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-27/chinese-boat-attacks-sinks-vietnam-fishing-vessel-vietnam-says.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 28, 2014, 03:46:23 pm

Three Chinese Nuclear Missile Submarines Photographed in South China Sea
China ups tensions after sinking Vietnam fishing boat


China has deployed three nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines to a naval base in the South China Sea, according to a recent photo of the vessels that appeared on the Internet.

The three Type 094 missile submarines were photographed at the Yalong Bay naval base on Hainan Island, located at the northern end of the South China Sea.

The submarines appear to be part of China’s plan to begin the first regular sea patrols of nuclear missile submarines.

Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, voiced concerns about Chinese missile submarines in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee in March.

“China’s advance in submarine capabilities is significant,” Locklear said. “They possess a large and increasingly capable submarine force. China continues the production of ballistic missile submarines. … This will give China its first credible sea-based nuclear deterrent, probably before the end of 2014.”

Disclosure of the strategic submarine deployment comes as China sharply increased tensions over the weekend after one of its naval vessels rammed and sank a Vietnamese fishing boat in disputed waters claimed by both countries in the region.

Meanwhile, China on Tuesday called recent Japanese military aircraft incursions during joint Chinese-Russian war games in the East China Sea both dangerous and provocative, further escalating tensions between Beijing and Tokyo.

The photograph of the three missile submarines is the latest example of state-controlled media signaling new strategic nuclear capabilities by China.

The submarines, also called the Jin-class, are equipped with 12 multiple-warhead JL-2 submarine launched ballistic missiles that have a range of up to 4,900 miles.

Meanwhile, one of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered attack submarines based in Guam last week deployed for missions in the Asia Pacific and likely will conduct surveillance of China’s submarine forces in the region.

The submarine was monitoring a large Chinese-Russian joint naval exercise in the northern East China Sea that ended this week.

The Air Force also has begun long-range Global Hawk drone flights over Asia as part of a summer deployment of two of the unmanned surveillance aircraft to Japan.

On Tuesday, a Chinese general called the intrusion into military exercises by Japanese warplanes “dangerous” and “provocative.”

“Japan unilaterally stirred up the military jets’ encounter over the East China Sea,” Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of general staff of the People’s Liberation Army, told Xinhua, referring to the Japanese jets’ confrontation by Chinese jets.

The jets flew in the unilaterally declared Chinese air defense identification zone that Tokyo, Washington and other Asia states do not recognize.

The incident occurred as Chinese and Russian warships were engaged in naval maneuvers.

“Japan’s move, like its decision to purchase the Diaoyu [Senkaku] Islands in 2012 so as to change the status quo, is very dangerous and provocative,” Sun said

The encounter between Japanese and Chinese jet fighters took place May 24 over open waters as the Japanese sought to monitor the military exercises.

The Vietnamese fishing boat sank Monday after colliding with a Chinese patrol vessel near the disputed Paracel Islands, in the South China Sea, where China raised tensions by beginning undersea oil drilling.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters the vessel sinking is troubling.

“We remain concerned about dangerous conduct and intimidation by vessels operating in this area by the Chinese,” she said. “We continue to call on all parties to exercise restraint and take steps to lower the tensions and conduct themselves in a safe and, of course, professional manner.”

Relations between Hanoi and Beijing remain tense over the maritime dispute. Protests were held recently in communist Vietnam against communist China.

There have been unconfirmed reports that Chinese military forces were massing near the Chinese border with Vietnam. The two nations fought a brief conflict early 1979, after Chinese forces invaded and captured several cities before retreating.

Regarding the missile submarines, Andrei Pinkov, a military analyst with Kanwa Defense who reported on the submarines May 1, said the three submarines at Hainan are a sign Beijing is speeding up the pace of deployments. Also, a review of the photo indicates that one of the three submarines could be a more advanced missile submarine called the Type 096, based on an analysis of the length of missile submarines, he stated in his journal Kanwa Defense Review.

The deployment is “intended to give the new SSBN better protection in the deep waters of the South China Sea,” Pinkov stated, using the military acronym for ballistic missile submarine.

Hans M. Kristensen, an analyst with the Federation of American Scientists, said China now has three or four Type-094s.

China over the past decade has built an extensive naval infrastructure for its underwater forces, including upgraded naval bases, submarine hull demagnetization facilities, underground facilities and high-bay buildings for missile storage and handling, and covered tunnels and railways to conceal the activities from prying eyes in the sky.

It is not known if the Chinese will deploy actual nuclear warheads with the submarines or continue the past Chinese practice of keeping warheads in central storage sites for deployment in a crisis.

“The South Sea Fleet naval facilities on Hainan Island are under significant expansion,” Kristensen stated in a recent blog post. “The nuclear submarine base at Longpo has been upgraded to serve as the first nuclear submarine base in the South China Sea.”

The base also includes a submarine tunnel that is part of an underwater complex of nuclear facilities on Hainan.

The Washington Free Beacon first reported in July that China would begin the first sea patrols of the Type 094 some time this year.

China conducted a test flight of the JL-2 missile, the system to be deployed on the Type 094, in August 2012.

A report by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center last year stated that the JL-2 “will, for the first time, allow Chinese SSBNs to target portions of the United States from operating areas located near the Chinese coast.”

China’s jingoistic Global Times on Oct. 28 published an unprecedented report that revealed a nuclear missile strike on the western United States with JL-2 missiles could kill up to 12 million Americans.

The Obama administration and senior Navy officials were silent regarding the nuclear attack threat, which included graphics showing nuclear plumes and collateral damage caused by radiation.

The congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission stated in a report several years ago that China is planning to deploy an anti-satellite missile on its missile submarines.

Anti-satellite missiles are key elements of China’s anti-access, area denial capabilities designed to drive the U.S. Navy out of Asia.

China only recently began publicizing its nuclear missile submarine forces, mainly through semi-official disclosures on so-called military enthusiast websites.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/three-chinese-nuclear-missile-submarines-photographed-in-south-china-sea/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 29, 2014, 08:39:20 am
China-Vietnam rig dispute 'very tense,' U.S. says

China should work to calm the row over a drilling rig deployed in waters disputed by Vietnam rather than acting provocatively, a visiting U.S. senator said.

The U.S. government this week expressed concern on word a Vietnamese boat capsized this week after it was allegedly rammed by a Chinese vessel near a Chinese oil rig deployed in disputed waters.

The row erupted in early May when China National Offshore Oil Co. sent a rig to an area about 120 miles off the coast of Vietnam.

Visiting U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Chinese action in the region was unacceptable.

"We think the situation is very tense and we have urged China to take actions to de-escalate rather than to provoke through the presence of their military vessels, and their interference with maritime activities," he said during a Wednesday press conference in Hanoi.

Cardin said a resolution on the issue is expected soon on the Senate floor. He reiterated the U.S. position that, while it has no stance on territorial claims, aggression is no way to settle the issue.

Vietnamese officials have said they have a right to defend their national interests. Beijing says it's operating within its territorial waters and has called on Vietnam to stop interfering with its legitimate work in the region.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2014/05/29/China-Vietnam-rig-dispute-very-tense-US-says/7861401364194/#ixzz336zIp6Sl


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on June 07, 2014, 06:00:34 pm
China plans artificial island in disputed Spratlys chain in South China Sea

The move indicates a shift from defence to offence in the East and South China seas


China is looking to expand its biggest installation in the Spratly Islands into a fully formed artificial island, complete with airstrip and sea port, to better project its military strength in the South China Sea, a Chinese scholar and a Chinese navy expert have said.

The planned expansion on the disputed Fiery Cross Reef, if approved, would be a further indication of China's change of tack in handling long-running sovereignty disputes from a defensive stance to an offensive one, analysts said. They said it was seen as a step to the declaration of an air defence identification zone.

The Philippines last month protested against China's reclamation activities at nearby Johnson South Reef, site of a 1988 skirmish between the Chinese and Vietnamese navies that was triggered by China's occupation of Fiery Cross Reef.

With recent developments in the South China Sea having again focused the international spotlight on China, the analysts warned reclamation at the Fiery Cross atoll - which China, the Philippines and Vietnam all claim - would further strain Beijing's relations with neighbours.

The proposal to build an artificial island there had been submitted to the central government, said Jin Canrong , a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. The artificial island would be at least double the size of the US military base of Diego Garcia, a remote coral atoll occupying an area of 44 square kilometres in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Jin added.

The reef currently houses Chinese-built facilities including an observation post commissioned by Unesco's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

Li Jie, a naval expert from the Chinese Naval Research Institute, said the expanded island would include the airstrip and port. After the expansion the island would continue to house the observation post and to provide military supplies and assistance, he said.

A retired People's Liberation Army senior colonel, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the construction of a landing strip on Fiery Cross Reef would allow China to better prepare for the establishment of an air defence identification zone over the South China Sea.

Beijing's declaration of such a zone over the East China Sea in December prompted concerns among Southeast Asian countries that a similar arrangement could be imposed in the South China Sea.

Fiery Cross Reef, known as Yongshu in China, Kagitingan in the Philippines and Da Chu Thap in Vietnam, is close to sea lanes and could serve as a strategic naval staging post, said Alexander Neill, a Shangri-La Dialogue senior fellow.

Jin said consideration of whether and how to go ahead with the Fiery Cross Reef proposal would depend on progress on reclamation at Johnson South Reef.

"It's a very complicated oceanic engineering project, so we need to learn from the experience" on Johnson South, Jin said.

Late last month, renditions of a proposed artificial island were circulated among Chinese media. Citing a report posted on the website of the Shanghai-based China Shipbuilding NDRI Engineering, the Global Times said the unidentified artificial island could include a landing strip and a 5,000-tonne berth.

Zhang Jie, an expert on regional security with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China had long been researching island reclamation. Institutes and companies had drafted various designs over the past decade, said Zhang, adding that she had attended deliberation of one proposal years ago.
Building an artificial island ... would cause very severe negative impacts
Zhang Jie, security expert

"We had the ability to build artificial islands years ago, but we had refrained because we didn't want to cause too much controversy," she said.

However, this year had seen a "turning point" in which Beijing appeared to be making more offensive moves in the area, said Zhang, citing the recent deployment of an oil rig to disputed waters near Vietnam.

"Building an artificial island can no doubt provide supplies to ships and oil rigs nearby, but this would also cause very severe negative impacts in the region."

Such moves, she added, would further deepen mistrust among China's neighbours and cause instability in the region.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence in Beijing did not respond to requests for comment.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1527059/china-plans-artificial-island-disputed-spratlys-chain-south-china-sea


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on June 09, 2014, 09:24:00 am
China ships 'rammed 1,400 times by Vietnamese vessels'

Chinese officials have accused vessels from Vietnam of launching more than 1,400 ramming raids on its ships near a drilling rig in the South China Sea. The foreign ministry said in a statement the actions were illegal and called on Hanoi to stop "provocations". China moved the drilling rig on 2 May, helping to spark anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam in which four people died. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27758685


China Plans to Establish an Artificial Island in South China Sea

China is planning is planning to build an artificial island in the disputed South China Sea (SCS) rejecting the authority of International Court over the dispute. It has plans to expand its largest installation in the Spratly Islands into a completely formed artificial island with a sea port and an airstrip to better plan its military power in the SCS, a Chinese navy expert and a Chinese scholar have told.

Beijing-based Renmin University’s professor of international relations, Jin Canrong revealed that the bid to establish an artificial island at the spot had been proposed to the central government. He added that the proposed island would be minimum two times Diego Garcia US military base’s size

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ regional security expert, Zhang Jie stated – “We had the ability to build artificial islands years ago, but we had refrained because we didn’t want to cause too much controversy.”

Chinese Naval Research Institute’s naval expert, Li Jie told the island would continue to accommodate the observation post after expansion and also give military assistance and supplies.

A senior colonel, who wanted to stay anonymous, told that the development of a landing band on Fiery Cross Reef would allow China to prepare better for the setting up of an air defense identification zone over SCS.

The tribunal, established under UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), does not have any jurisdiction over the maritime and territorial disputes in the area, according to Xinhua news agency that is run by a state of China.

Vietnam is presently facing challenges from the Chinese naval ships over an oil rig deployment by Beijing in the disputed SCS waters and is hence planning to join the Hague court arbitration. Apart from Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei hotly contend the claims of China over almost the whole SCS.

Zhang Jie further stated – “Building an artificial island can no doubt provide supplies to ships and oil rigs nearby, but this would also cause very severe negative impacts in the region.” She added that such measures would further increase the mistrust among the neighbors of China and lead to instability in the area.

The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affair in Beijing didn’t react to press requests for their comments on the matter.

http://stixs.in/china-plans-to-establish-an-artificial-island-in-south-china-sea/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on June 15, 2014, 08:01:39 am
China to build school in contested Paracel Islands

China says it will build a school in the disputed Paracel Islands, boosting its presence in waters also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam. China calls the island Yongxing and has been building up a settlement there for the last two years. The school is expected to serve just 40 children, whose parents all work on the tiny island. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27856082


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on June 20, 2014, 09:32:25 am
China says moving 2nd oil rig closer to Vietnam

China said Thursday it is moving a second oil rig closer to Vietnam's coast, showing its determination to press its territorial claims and continue searching for resources in disputed waters despite a tense confrontation with Vietnam over another oil rig to the south. The...long rig is being towed southeast of its current position south of Hainan Island and will be in its new location closer to Vietnam by Friday...   

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20140619/as--china-vietnam-bf0c5a2e02.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on June 29, 2014, 09:18:17 am
China's New Map Roils Diplomatic Waters in Region

China has roiled the diplomatic waters in the region by publishing a new map that lays claim to swaths of the South China Sea that encompass almost all of Southeast Asia.
Related Stories

The map reinforces China's claim to islands that are disputed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Malaysia. The disputes have escalated in recent months to confrontations between Chinese and Vietnamese ships, water cannons and at least one ramming.

The new map is bound to court controversy because it is seen as an official statement that asserts the internationally disputed waters and islets are inherently part of China’s national territory. The provincial level Hunan Map Press, the publisher of the new map, said in an online article this week that the new map more clearly portrays the disputed area as under Chinese sovereignty.

Professor Lee Yunglung at the South China Sea Institute of Xiamen University said that the map raises the South China Sea issue to a level of prominence equal to China’s decades-long disputes with Japan over the East China Sea and the Senkaku Island.

He said the publication of the map serves a two-layered purpose. Domestically, the map “enhances Chinese citizens’ understanding of China’s sovereignty" over the South China Sea. On the international stage, the map gives a “more comprehensive narrative of the historical justification for China’s claims of sovereignty” over the disputed area.

The map's creator is calling it a "vertical" map. Unlike old horizontal maps, which focus on China’s huge landmass and show the South China Sea in a separate corner box, the new map features the South China Sea on the same scale in one complete map. The English website of People’s Daily, the Chinese government’s official newspaper, shows the new map.

Lee said that by letting a provincial level publisher put out the map, the central government in Beijing is “testing waters.” This gives the government the opportunity to see how other countries would respond and, where necessary, make amendments to mitigate the consequences of its actions. Given the recent upheavals in the South China Sea, “publishing the map directly by the central government could lead to clashes,” he said.

The demarcation line marks out the South China Sea and includes two prominent clusters of islands, the Paracels and the Spratlys, within the line. China, Vietnam, and Taiwan have all voiced claims to the Paracels. Six governments, including China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, claim the Spratlys.

Lee said Vietnam has also published maps that “include the entire Spratly and Paracel Islands” and has been using them in textbooks. In contrast, some maps published in the Yunnan and Guangxi provinces in China in the 1970s and 1980s exclude these islands. Vietnam has “used the maps produced back then to undermine China’s claims over the islands.”

The publication of the map follows a series of actions China has undertaken to assert its sovereignty over the South China Sea and the disputed islands. Last month, China positioned an oil rig in waters claimed by Hanoi as well as Beijing. This has led to rammings between vessels from the two countries.

Since January, China has also been moving sand onto three or four reefs and rocks in the Spratlys in an attempt to turn them into bigger islands that can support large buildings and human habitation. These actions have set off anti-China riots in Vietnam factories owned by Taiwanese, Singaporean, and Chinese companies last month. Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, reported that at least five Chinese citizens were killed in the riots and 20 foreign-owned factories were burned down, affecting over 1,000 foreign companies.

http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-map-roils-diplomatic-waters-region-153746353--abc-news-topstories.html 


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on June 29, 2014, 09:19:18 am
Japan set for landmark easing of constitutional limits on military

Japan is poised for a historic shift in its defense policy by ending a ban that has kept the military from fighting abroad since World War Two, a major step away from post-war pacifism and a big political victory for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The change will significantly widen Japan's military options by ending the ban on exercising "collective self-defense", or aiding a friendly country under attack. It will also relax limits on activities in U.N.-led peace-keeping operations and "grey zone" incidents short of full-scale war, according to a draft government proposal made available to reporters.

For now, however, Japan is likely to remain wary of putting boots on the ground in future multilateral operations such as the 1990-1991 Gulf War or the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, activities Abe himself has ruled out.

The change will likely rile an increasingly assertive China, whose ties with Japan have chilled due to a maritime row, mutual mistrust and the legacy of Japan's past military aggression, but will be welcomed by Tokyo's ally Washington, which has long urged Japan to become a more equal partner in the alliance.

Abe's cabinet is expected to adopt as early as Tuesday a resolution revising a long-standing interpretation of the U.S.-drafted constitution to lift the ban after his ruling party finalizes an agreement with its junior partner.

Legal revisions to implement the change must be approved by parliament and restrictions could be imposed in the process.

"If this gets through the Japanese political system it would be the most significant change in Japan's defense policy since the Self-Defense Forces were established in 1954," said Alan Dupont, a professor of international security at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

Since its defeat in 1945, Japan's military has not engaged in combat. While successive governments have stretched the limits of the U.S.-drafted pacifist charter not only to allow the existence of a standing military but also to permit non-combat missions abroad, its armed forces are still far more constrained legally than those in other countries.

Conservatives say the charter's war-renouncing Article 9 has excessively restricted Japan's ability to defend itself and that a changing regional power balance including a rising China means Japan's security policies must be more flexible.

Abe, whose first term as premier ended when he abruptly quit in 2007, returned in triumph in December 2012 pledging to revive Japan's stagnant economy and bolster its global security clout. He has pushed for the change despite surveys showing voters are divided and wary.

"In my view, Japan is finally catching up with the global standard of security," said former Japanese diplomat Kunihiko Miyake. "Japan can now do as every other United Nations member under the U.N. charter."

EXISTENTIAL THREAT, CLEAR DANGER

According to the draft cabinet resolution, Japan could exercise force to the minimum degree necessary in cases where a country with which it has close ties is attacked and the following conditions are met: there is a threat to the existence of the Japanese state, a clear danger exists that the Japanese people's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness could be subverted, and there is no appropriate alternative.

Precisely how the change might work in practice remains unclear. Junior coalition partner New Komeito is stressing that the scope of revision is limited, and Japanese voters are still wary of entanglements in conflicts far from home.

"Symbolically, it is a big step. The fundamental change to post-war Japanese security and defense policies which basically said we would defend ourselves but not help others by using force - philosophically this will be a fundamental change," said Narushige Michishita, a security expert at the National Graduate School for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo.

But he added: "The Japanese people are not going to support a significant military commitment of Japan to foreign contingencies and wars, quite apart from how you could interpret the words."

Examples floated by the government of what the change could allow Japan's military to do range from defending a U.S. ship evacuating Japanese nationals and aiding a U.S. ship under attack near Japan to shooting down a ballistic missile headed for U.S. territory and taking part in international mine-sweeping operations when a conflict has closed vital sea lanes.

WELCOME SIGN FOR SOME IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Some of the scenarios, however, have been dismissed by experts as a public relations exercise to persuade wary voters of the need for the change, rather than realistic possibilities.

Japan might, for example, be too busy coping with North Korean missiles headed for its territory to shoot down ones headed for America, some experts said.

Unforeseen contingencies, meanwhile, could also well arise.

"The idea of identifying specific cases is a red herring, because we never really know," said Richard Samuels, director of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "What we need to know is whether an ally will help us."

The change will make it easier for Japan to take part in bilateral and multilateral military exercises with countries other than the United States, including Southeast Asian nations such as the Philippines that have maritime disputes with China and are welcoming Japan's expanded security role, GRIPS' Michishita said.

"It is not for joint war fighting, but for capacity building. It would be a very difficult step if we were to fight together," Michishita said.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino said after meeting Abe this week that Manila welcomed Japan's more assertive policy.

Critics say revising the interpretation of the constitution will gut pacifist Article 9 and make a mockery of formal amendment procedures, which are politically much tougher.

"Cabinets can change often. If we change the interpretation of the constitution each time the cabinet changes, the stability of law will be fundamentally overturned and we will be unable to exist as a constitutional state," Seiichiro Murakami, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker who is a rare, outspoken critic of Abe, told a news conference.

Still, experts say the impact of Article 9 remains strong.

"They are still genuflecting to the constitution," said MIT's Samuels. "I think there is a lot left of Article 9. The Japanese public has made it clear that it is 'not so fast' in getting rid of it."

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-set-landmark-easing-constitutional-limits-military-100536412.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on August 24, 2014, 10:24:52 am
U.S. Sends Second Carrier to Asia Amid Tensions with China
China demands end to U.S. surveillance flights


The Navy is sending a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Asia Pacific region amid new tensions with China over a dangerous aerial encounter between a Chinese interceptor and Navy P-8 surveillance craft.

The strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson departed San Diego for the Pacific on Friday, the Navy said in an announcement of what it terms a “planned” deployment.

China’s military on Saturday, meanwhile, demanded an end to all U.S. monitoring flights and called U.S. criticism of  dangerous Chinese jet maneuvers false.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said in a statement that a Chinese fighter jet made a “regular identification and verification” of the Navy P-8 anti-submarine warfare jet during an encounter in an area 135 miles east of Hainan Island.

Yang called Pentagon criticism of the incident “totally groundless” and insisted the Chinese pilot operated professionally and kept a safe distance.

The Chinese spokesman’s account, published in the state-run Xinhua news agency, is at odds with Pentagon officials who called the encounter both dangerous and aggressive. A White House official also said the dangerous intercept was a Chinese “provocation.”

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby on Friday called the maneuvers by the Chinese J-11—a Russian design Su-27—a dangerous and unprofessional encounter and said the military has protested the incident to the Chinese military.

“We have registered our strong concerns to the Chinese about the unsafe and unprofessional intercept, which posed a risk to the safety and the well-being of the air crew and was inconsistent with customary international law,” Kirby said, adding that the pilot of the J-11 was “very, very close; very dangerous.”

Asked Saturday about Yang’s assertion, Kirby told the Free Beacon: “We stand by our account of this dangerous and unprofessional incident.”

The Carl Vinson strike group will patrol “both 5th and 7th Fleet areas of responsibility,” the Navy statement said The 7th fleet covers the Pacific and the 5th Fleet is responsible for operations in the Middle East.

The guided missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill and three guided missile destroyers, the USS Gridley, USS Sterett, and USS Dewey also deployed with the Vinson.

The Vinson will join the Japan-based USS George Washington strike group.

Earlier, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeff Pool said in a statement that the aerial incident took place 135 miles east of Hainan Island when the J-11 came within 20 feet of a U.S. Navy P-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

“The intercept was aggressive and demonstrated a lack of due regard for the safety and well-being of the U.S. and Chinese aircrews and aircraft,” Pool said, adding that the incident was of the most dangerous aerial encounters with the Chinese since the April 2001 EP-3 mid-air collision with a Chinese J-8.

The P-8 was on a routine mission in international airspace when the Chinese jet sought to intimidate the crew with several dangerous maneuvers, including a barrel roll over the top of the militarized Boeing 737 jet.

“On three different occasions, the Chinese J-11 crossed directly under the U.S. aircraft with one pass having only 50 to 100 feet separation between the two aircraft,” Pool said. “The Chinese jet also passed the nose of the P-8 at 90 degrees with its belly toward the P-8 to show its weapons loadout.”

“In doing so, the pilot was unable to see the P-8, further increasing the potential for a collision,” Pool said. “The Chinese pilot then flew directly under and alongside the P-8 bringing their wingtips within 20 feet and then before he stabilized his fighter he conducted a roll over the P-8 passing within 45 feet.”

The latest incident followed earlier intercepts that the Pentagon said were “nonstandard, unprofessional and unsafe intercepts of U.S. aircraft.”

Additionally, the aggressive interceptor was based at the same unit on Hainan Island that conducted similar aggressive intercepts in March, April, and May.

“We are concerned that the intercepting crews from that unit are acting aggressively and demonstrating a lack of regard for the regard for the safety of our aircrews,” Pool said. “We have raised our concerns over this unsafe behavior to the PRC.”

Deputy White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters the Chinese aerial encounter was “a deeply concerning provocation.”

Both the Pentagon and White House comments were unusually harsh for the Obama administration, which has sought to play down dangerous and threatening military developments by the Chinese.

Yang stated that “massive and frequent close-in surveillance of China” endangers air and maritime security and is at the root of accidents.

China is urging the United States to abide by international law and international practices and to respect the concerns of coastal countries, Yang said, adding that Washington should properly deal with the differences between the two nations on air and maritime security issues.

Yang said the United States should abide by the principle of “non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, take concrete actions, reduce and finally stop close-in surveillance of China, so as to create a sound atmosphere for bilateral military ties.”

Pool, the Pentagon spokesman, said in his statement Friday that U.S. monitoring is legal.

“Under international law, as reflected in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, military activities may be conducted within the Exclusive Economic Zone of another nation as an exercise of the freedoms of navigation and overflight,” he said. “Coastal states, including China, shall have due regard for the rights and duties of other States, including in the exercise of these freedoms.”

The aerial encounter comes amid a toughening posture by China in the South China Sea.

U.S. officials said Chinese official statements related to the ASEAN Regional Forum in early August revealed that China had no plans to back off aggressive claims in the South China Sea and is pushing hard to block U.S. involvement in the regional dispute.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi rejected a U.S. proposal to voluntarily freeze destabilizing action in disputed waters, such as China’s placement of an oil-drilling rig in the South China Sea.

China also announced it was stepping up activities in disputed areas of the sea, challenging claims by Vietnam, Philippines and other nations.

Until the Defense Ministry statement Saturday, China’s government had remained silent on the Su-27 encounter with the P-8.

Most state-run news outlets in China did not cover the affair, with major newspapers and wire services ignoring the story. Only CCTV, the state television network, reported on the Aug. 19 incident.

CCTV’s report from the network’s Washington correspondent quoted unspecified “Chinese experts” as saying the P-8 “posed a threat to their country’s military security over the South China Sea.”

The White House said Friday through Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisers, that the Chinese jet, which conducted a barrel roll over the P-8 some 135 miles east of Hainan Island was a “provocation.”

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/u-s-sends-second-carrier-to-asia-amid-tensions-with-china/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on November 24, 2014, 05:50:23 am
Why is China building an artificial island large enough for an airfield in disputed south sea waters?

    Chinese officials have created a 3,000m-long reef in the Spratly Islands
    Archipelago has been source of dispute between south Asian countries
    Vietnamese, Malaysian and Filipino forces all have airfields in the water
    The developing Fiery Cross Reef may become China's first airbase
    Air force colonel said the military needed facilities in South China Sea


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2846176/China-building-island-large-airfield-disputed-south-sea-waters-satellite-images-workers-expanding-archipelago-military-bases.html#ixzz3JzBrXEff



Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 09, 2015, 05:38:52 am
China urges caution from U.S. on dispute with Japan

China's Foreign Ministry urged the United States on Thursday to act and speak cautiously after the U.S. defense chief repeated Washington's opposition to any "coercive unilateral" actions by China over a group of islets disputed with Japan. Visiting Tokyo, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter expressed opposition to any moves by China to undermine Japan's administrative control of uninhabited islands...   

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/09/us-china-japan-usa-idUSKBN0N00XO20150409


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 17, 2015, 10:29:07 am
Images show rapid Chinese progress on new South China Sea airstrip

 Recent satellite images published on Thursday show China has made rapid progress in building an airstrip suitable for military use in contested territory in the South China Sea's Spratly Islands and may be planning another, moves that have been greeted with concern in the United States and Asia.

IHS Jane's Defense Weekly said March 23 images from Airbus Defence and Space showed work on the runway on reclaimed parts of Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago, which China contests with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

It said images from earlier in March showed reclamation work on Subu Reef in the Spratlys creating landmasses that, if joined together, could create space for another 3,000-meter airstrip.

The report said other images suggested China was working to extend another airstrip to that length in the Paracel Islands further north in the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, a vital shipping route through which $5 trillion of trade passes every year.

The report comes a day after the U.S. military commander for Asia, Admiral Samuel Locklear, said China, which claims most of the South China Sea, could eventually deploy radar and missile systems on outposts it is building that could be used to enforce an exclusion zone should it move to declare one.

Senator John McCain, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, called the Chinese moves "aggressive" and said they showed the need for the Obama administration to act on plans to move more military resources into the economically important Asian region and boost cooperation with Asian countries worried by China.

McCain referred to a U.S. intelligence assessment from February that China's military modernization was designed to counteract U.S. strength and said Washington had a lot of work ahead to maintain its military advantage in the Asia-Pacific.

"When any nation fills in 600 acres of land and builds runways and most likely is putting in other kinds of military capabilities in what is international waters, it is clearly a threat to where the world's economy is going, has gone, and will remain for the foreseeable future," he told a public briefing in Congress.

U.S. WARNS AGAINST MILITARIZATION

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said the scale of China’s land reclamation and construction was fueling concerns within the region that China intends to militarize its outposts and stressed the importance of freedom of navigation.

"The United States has a strong interest in preservation of peace and security in the South China Sea. We do not believe that large-scale land reclamation with the intent to militarize outposts on disputed land features is consistent with the region’s desire for peace and stability."

The issue was discussed in a meeting in Washington between U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Japanese and South Korean counterparts.

Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki told reporters afterwards that China had a duty to address regional concerns, while his Korean counterpart, Cho Tae-yong, stressed the importance of stability in the South China Sea for trading nations like his.

The United States warned last week against militarization of contested territory in Asia, and President Barack Obama accused China of using its "sheer size and muscle" to push around smaller nations, after Beijing sketched out plans to use the Spratlys for military defense as well as to provide civilian services that would benefit other countries.

IHS Jane's said images of Fiery Cross Reef showed a paved section of runway 505 meters by 53 meters on the northeastern side of the reef, which China began turning into an island with extensive dredging last year.

IHS Jane's said its photos showed further dredging work on the southwestern side of the island and floating cranes consolidating a harbor.

Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said satellite photographs from April 11 showed the runway about one-third complete, with a projected total length at 3,110 meters, large enough for heavy military transport planes and fighters.

CSIS said the reclamation work could help China press its territorial claims, many of which are more than 1,000 miles from its shores, by allowing it to sustain long-distance sea and air patrols.

However, its artificial islands were too small and vulnerable, both to weather and wartime targeting, to support major forward deployment of military forces, it said.

CHINA DEFENDS ITS MOVES

At a seminar in Washington on Thursday, China's ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, said it was "natural" that its reclamation work would include military defense facilities.

He said there "should be no illusion that anyone could impose on China a unilateral status quo" or "repeatedly violate China's sovereignty without consequences."

In an apparent reference to U.S. air activity, Cui added that the U.N. Convention on Law of the Sea, to which the United States is not a signatory, did not give anyone the right to "conduct intensive and close-range reconnaissance in other countries' exclusive economic zone."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/17/us-southchinasea-china-runway-idUSKBN0N723Y20150417


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 22, 2015, 06:44:12 am
Japan PM Abe meets China's Xi in Indonesia

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in Indonesia on Wednesday, the latest sign of a thaw in relations between the Asian rivals.

The meeting took place despite an awkward diplomatic backdrop.

Speaking at the conference earlier, Abe warned powerful nations against imposing on the weak, an implicit reference to China. He also made an allusion to Tokyo's remorse in the past over World War Two without issuing a fresh apology.

Also on Wednesday, lawmakers from Abe's ruling party and the opposition visited a Japanese war shrine in Tokyo that is seen in China as a symbol of Tokyo's past militarism.

But Xi and Abe held talks in the early evening in a meeting room at the Jakarta Convention Centre, the venue of the Asian-African summit. "It is ongoing," a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said after the talks started.

Abe and Xi left the room about half an hour later.

Tensions between Asia's two biggest economies have flared in recent years due to feuds over wartime history as well as territorial rows and regional rivalry. Memories of Japan's past military aggression run deep in China and Beijing has repeatedly urged Japan to face up to history.

But the meeting on Wednesday could promote a cautious rapprochement that began when Abe and Xi met at a summit in Beijing late last year.

"The country (China) is shifting to a policy of stressing that it hopes for stable relations with its neighbors," said Hiroko Maeda, a research fellow at the PHP Institute in Tokyo.

Earlier in the day, Abe said: "We should never allow to go unchecked the use of force by the mightier to twist the weaker around.

"The wisdom of our forefathers in Bandung was that the rule of law should protect the dignity of sovereign nations, be they large or small," he said at the summit marking the 60th anniversary of the Bandung Conference, a meeting of Asian and African leaders opposed to colonialism.

Xi had spoken at the conference earlier but did not make any reference to relations with Japan.

RECONCILIATION AND TRUST

China is locked in territorial rows with several smaller countries in the South China Sea while Japan has a separate feud over islets in the East China Sea.

Abe often warns against the use of force to change the status quo and says the rule of law should prevail - both seen as implicit criticism of China's assertiveness.

Abe's stance on Japan's wartime past is especially sensitive this year, when he plans to issue a statement marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two.

He has said that while he will uphold past apologies including a 1995 landmark statement by then-premier Tomiichi Murayama, he wants to issue forward-looking remarks in his own words, sparking concern he wants to water down past apologies.

Abe said in his Jakarta speech that Japan had, "with feelings of deep remorse over the past war", pledged to adhere to principles affirmed at the first Bandung Conference, including refraining from the use of force and settling international disputes by peaceful means.

In Beijing, China's foreign ministry protested against the visit to the Yasukuni shrine by the Japanese lawmakers.

"In this sensitive year, Japanese politicians should adhere to correct historical views and do more to promote reconciliation and mutual trust with Asian neighbors, and not the opposite," said China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing.

Abe's speech in Jakarta will be followed by a speech to the U.S. Congress next week and a statement in August marking the anniversary of the end of World War Two.

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-china-leaders-set-meet-summit-mps-visit-023041774.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 28, 2015, 01:39:23 pm
'Historic Transition' In US-Japan Defense Cooperation Signals Global Role For Asian Nation

Japan and the United States unveiled a “historic transition” in defense ties on Monday during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Washington. The new revisions, which are the first in 18 years to the rules that govern defense ties between the two nations, come at a time of heightened Chinese belligerence in the South China Sea region, and a growing threat from North Korea.

“The guidelines that we have worked on that have been announced today will enhance Japan's security, deter threats and contribution to regional peace and stability,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said, at a press conference on Monday. The revised guidelines strengthen Japan’s role in global military cooperation, ranging from defense against ballistic missiles, cyber and space attacks, as well as maritime security, in both the Asia-Pacific region as well as across the globe.

The amended guidelines, which also allow Japan to come to the aid of U.S. forces and respond to attacks on any other country, come a year after Abe's government approved a reinterpretation of the country’s constitution. Under Article 9 of Japan’s constitution, which came into effect after World War II, Japan renounced war “as a sovereign right of the nation.” However, in July last year, in a dramatic policy shift from its post-war pacifism, Japan ended the ban on exercising “collective self-defense” and aiding an ally under attack. Under its revised constitution, Japan can shoot down a missile headed toward the U.S. even if Japan itself is not under attack, something that was previously prohibited.

“The new guidelines reflect both the enhancement of solidarity and the expansion of cooperation between Japan and the United States,” Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, said, at the press conference. “Japan, in close cooperation with the United States, will continue to contribute even more proactively to ensuring peace, stability and prosperity of not only Japan but the Asia-Pacific region and the international community.”

At the press conference, Kerry also reaffirmed America’s “ironclad” commitment to Japan’s security, including over the issue of a disputed cluster of islands -- known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

“We reject any suggestion that freedom of navigation, overflight and other unlawful uses of the sea and airspace are privileges granted by big states to small ones subject to the whim and fancy of a big state,” Kerry said, in an apparent reference to China’s claims over these islands.

The announcements came at the beginning of Abe's week-long visit to the U.S.

http://www.ibtimes.com/historic-transition-us-japan-defense-cooperation-signals-global-role-asian-nation-1899227


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 21, 2015, 05:17:16 am
China warns U.S. surveillance plane

Above the South China Sea (CNN)The Chinese navy issued warnings eight times as a U.S. surveillance plane on Wednesday swooped over islands that Beijing is using to extend its zone of influence.

The series of man-made islands and the massive Chinese military build-up on them have alarmed the Pentagon, which is carrying out the surveillance flights in order to make clear the U.S. does not recognize China's territorial claims. The militarized islands have also alarmed America's regional allies.

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell told CNN's Erin Burnett Wednesday night that the confrontation indicates there is "absolutely" a risk of the U.S. and China going to war sometime in the future.

READ: China cautions U.S. Navy on patrols

A CNN team was given exclusive access to join in the surveillance flights over the contested waters, which the Pentagon allowed for the first time in order to raise awareness about the challenge posed by the islands and the growing U.S. response.

CNN was aboard the P8-A Poseidon, America's most advanced surveillance and submarine-hunting aircraft, and quickly learned that the Chinese are themselves displeased by the U.S. pushback.

"This is the Chinese navy ... This is the Chinese navy ... Please go away ... to avoid misunderstanding," a voice in English crackled through the radio of the aircraft in which CNN was present.

This is the first time the Pentagon has declassified video of China's building activity and audio of Chinese challenges of a U.S. aircraft.
China shows off new stealth fighter jet

China shows off new stealth fighter jet 02:15
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The aircraft flew at 15,000 feet in the air at its lowest point, but the U.S. is considering flying such surveillance missions even closer over the islands, as well as sailing U.S. warships within miles of them, as part of the new, more robust U.S. military posture in the area.

Soon after the Chinese communication was heard, its source appeared on the horizon seemingly out of nowhere: an island made by China some 600 miles from its coastline.

The South China Sea is the subject of numerous rival -- often messy -- territorial claims over an area that includes fertile fishing grounds and potentially rich reserves of undersea natural resources. China is increasingly showing that even far from its mainland, it sees itself as having jurisdiction over the body of water.

Wednesday's mission was specifically aimed at monitoring Chinese activities on three islands that months ago were reefs barely peaking above the waves. Now they are massive construction projects that the U.S. fears will soon be fully functioning military installations.

READ: What is a littoral combat ship?

China's alarming creation of entirely new territory in the South China Sea is one part of a broader military push that some fear is intended to challenge U.S. dominance in the region. Beijing is sailing its first aircraft carrier; equipping its nuclear missiles with multiple warheads; developing missiles to destroy us warships; and, now, building military bases far from its shores.

That's exactly what Morell warned may be coming if China continues down its current path. He warned on CNN that "there's a real risk, when you have this kind of confrontation, for something bad happening."

He added that China's aggressive growth hints at a broader trend as the Asian economic superpower continues to expand its influence and strength -- one that Morell said could "absolutely" lead to war between the U.S. and China.

"China is a rising power. We're a status quo power. We're the big dog on the block ... They want more influence," he said. "Are we going to move a little bit? Are they going to push? How is that dance going to work out? This is a significant issue for the next President of the United States."

War is "not in their interests, (and) it's not in our interests," Morell acknowledged.

"But absolutely, it's a risk," he said.

"I'm scratching my head like everyone else as to what's the (Chinese) end game here. We have seen increased activity even recently on what appears to be the building of military infrastructure," Capt. Mike Parker, commander of the fleet of P8 and P3 surveillance aircraft deployed to Asia, told CNN aboard the P8.

"We were just challenged 30 minutes ago and the challenge came from the Chinese navy, and I'm highly confident it came from ashore, this facility here," Parker said of the Chinese message for the U.S. plane to move away, as he pointed to an early warning radar station on an expanded Fiery Cross Reef.

In just two years, China has expanded these islands by 2,000 acres -- the equivalent of 1,500 football fields -- and counting, an engineering marvel in waters as deep as 300 feet.
The Convair B-36 Peacemaker was a bomber used by the United States Air Force during the 1950s. Before 1955, it was used primarily for nuclear weapons delivery for the Strategic Air Command.
The evolution of American surveillance planes 7 photos
EXPAND GALLERY

In video filmed by the P8's surveillance cameras, we see that in addition to early warning radar, Fiery Cross Reef is now home to military barracks, a lofty lookout tower and a runway long enough to handle every aircraft in the Chinese military. Some call it China's "unsinkable aircraft carrier."

In a sign of just how valuable China views these islands to be, the new islands are already well protected.

From the cockpit, Lt. Cmdr Matt Newman told CNN, "There's obviously a lot of surface traffic down there: Chinese warships, Chinese coast guard ships. They have air search radars, so there's a pretty good bet they're tracking us."

The proof was loud and clear. The Chinese navy ordered the P8 out of the airspace eight times on this mission alone.

Each time, the American pilots told them calmly and uniformly that the P8 was flying through international airspace.

That answer sometimes frustrated the Chinese radio operator on the other end.

Once he responds with exasperation: "This is the Chinese navy ... You go!"

READ: World wary of China's 'great wall of sand

This is a military-to-military stand-off in the skies, but civilian aircraft can find themselves in the middle.

As was heard on the first of several Chinese warning on the radio, the pilot of a Delta flight in the area spoke on the same frequency, quickly identifying himself as commercial. The voice on the radio then identified himself as "the Chinese Navy" and the Delta flight went on its way.

The more China builds, U.S. commanders told CNN, the more frequently and aggressively the Chinese navy warns away U.S. military aircraft.

Over Fiery Cross Reef and, later, Mischief Reef, fleets of dozens of dredgers could be seen hard at work, sucking sand off the bottom of the sea and blowing it in huge plumes to create new land above the surface, while digging deep harbors below.

"We see this every day," Parker said. "I think they work weekends on this because we see it all the time."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/20/politics/south-china-sea-navy-flight/index.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 24, 2015, 06:24:16 am
Chinese Military Using Jamming Against U.S. Drones

China tried to electronically jam U.S. drone flights over the South China Sea in a bid to thwart spying on disputed island military construction, U.S. officials said. Global Hawk long-range surveillance drones were targeted by the jamming in at least one incident near the disputed Spratly Islands, where China is building military facilities on Fiery Cross Reef.   

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/chinese-military-using-jamming-against-u-s-drones/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 26, 2015, 08:28:22 am
Chinese State Paper Warns "War Will Be Inevitable" Unless U.S. Stops Meddling In Territorial Dispute

Whereas over the past year, ever since the outbreak of the hostilities over the fate of Ukraine following the Victoria Nuland orchestrated presidential coup, relations between Russia and NATO have devolved to a Cold War 2.0 state as manifested by countless interceptions of Russian warplanes by NATO jets and vice versa as depicted in the following infographic...

... at least China was mercifully allowed to stay out of the fray between the Cold War enemies.

This all changed this month when first the Pentagon's annual report to Congress this month cast China as a threat to regional and international peace and stability, followed several weeks ago when, with China aggressively encroaching into territories in the South China Sea claimed by US allies in the region such as Philippines, Vietnam and Japan, the US decided to get involved in yet another regional spat that does not directly involve it, and started making loud noises about China's territorial expansion over the commodity-reach area.

China promptly relatiated by threatening a US spy plane during a routine overflight, while immediately thereafter the US retaliated at China's escalation, and warned that building sea "sandcastles" could "lead to conflict."

Far from shutting China up, earlier today China said it had lodged a complaint with the United States over a U.S. spy plane that flew over parts of the disputed South China Sea in a diplomatic row that has fuelled tension between the world's two largest economies.

Quoted by Reuters, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday China had lodged a complaint and that it opposed "provocative behaviour" by the United States.

"We urge the U.S. to correct its error, remain rational and stop all irresponsible words and deeds," she said. "Freedom of navigation and overflight by no means mean that foreign countries' warships and military aircraft can ignore the legitimate rights of other countries as well as the safety of aviation and navigation."

China had noted “ear-piercing voices” from many in the U.S. about China’s construction on the islands and reefs.

In other words, China just imposed an effective "no fly zone" for US spy planes, a dramatic shift from its recent posture when it tolerated and turned a blind eye to US spy plane overflights. Going forward, the US has been explicitly warned not to fly over China or risk the consequences.

This handout photo taken on March 16, 2015 by satellite imagery provider Digital Globe shows a satellite image of vessels purportedly dredging sand at Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea

And just to confirm that if the US had hoped it could threaten Beijing into submission and force the Politburo into curbing its expanionist appetit, it was dead wrong, the nationalist Global Times, a paper owned by the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, said in a Monday editorial that war was “inevitable” between China and the United States unless Washington stopped demanding Beijing halt the building of artificial islands in the disputed waterway.

PressTV has more details:

    A war between the United States and China is “inevitable” unless Washington stops demanding Beijing halt its construction projects in the South China Sea, a Chinese state-owned newspaper warns.

    “If the United States’ bottom line is that China has to halt its activities, then a US-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea,” The Global Times, an influential newspaper owned by the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper the People’s Daily, said in an editorial Monday.

    “We do not want a military conflict with the United States, but if it were to come, we have to accept it,” said The Global Times, which is among China’s most nationalist newspapers.

    Beijing last week said it was “strongly dissatisfied” after a US spy plane defied multiple warnings by the Chinese navy and flew over the Fiery Cross Reef, where China is reportedly building an airfield and other installations.   

    “The intensity of the conflict will be higher than what people usually think of as ‘friction’,” it warned.

    The paper also asserted that China was determined to finish its construction work in the South China Sea, calling it Beijing’s “most important bottom line.”

Such commentaries are not official policy statements, but are sometimes read as a reflection of government thinking.

More importantly, they serve as populism-timestamped warnings that US demands for a Chinese retreat over what the world's most populous nation considers' its own national interest, will backfire dramatically and the next time a US spy plane flies over the Spratly Islands, or Beijing's smog for that matter, a very serious diplomatic incident may ensue.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-25/war-will-be-inevitable-unless-us-stops-meddling-terrotorial-dispute-chinese-state-ne


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 26, 2015, 08:29:15 am
China to extend military reach, build lighthouses in disputed waters

China outlined a strategy to boost its naval reach on Tuesday and held a groundbreaking ceremony for two lighthouses in disputed waters, developments likely to escalate tensions in a region already jittery about Beijing's maritime ambitions.

In a policy document issued by the State Council, the Communist-ruled country's cabinet, China vowed to increase its "open seas protection", switching from air defence to both offence and defence, and criticised neighbours who take "provocative actions" on its reefs and islands.

China has been taking an increasingly assertive posture over recent years in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, where Beijing has engaged in land reclamation in the Spratly archipelago.

China, which claims most of the South China Sea, criticised Washington after a U.S. spy plane flew over areas near the reefs last week, with both sides accusing each other of stoking instability.

It has overlapping claims with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.

Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said China's reclamation in the Spratlys was comparable with construction of homes and roads on the mainland.

"From the perspective of sovereignty, there is absolutely no difference," he told reporters.

Some countries with "ulterior motives" had unfairly characterized China's military presence and sensationalised the issue, he said. Surveillance in the region was increasingly common and China would continue to take "necessary measures" to respond.

"Some external countries are also busy meddling in South China Sea affairs. A tiny few maintain constant close-in air and sea surveillance and reconnaissance against China," the strategy paper said in a thinly veiled reference to the United States.

OFFENCE AND DEFENCE

It said China's air force would shift its focus from territorial air defence to both offence and defence, and building airspace defences with stronger military capabilities.

China also hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the building of two lighthouses in the South China Sea, broadcast on state television, defying calls from the United States and the Philippines for a freeze on such activity.

The construction was to help maritime search and rescue, disaster relief, environmental protection and navigational security, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

Wu Shicun, president of the government-affiliated National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said the lighthouses were among the first of planned civilian-use facilities in the region.

"The reefs are located near an important commercial shipping route, so there will be continued development to maintain the security of those shipping lanes," he said in an interview with Reuters.

The People's Liberation Army's nuclear force, known as the Second Artillery Corps, would also strengthen its capabilities for deterrence and nuclear counterattack as well as medium- and long-range precision strikes, the paper said.

"China faces many complex maritime security threats and challenges and requires a navy that can carry out multifaceted missions and protect its sovereignty," Wang Jin, a senior colonel, told reporters.

The paper also cited "grave threats" to China's cyber infrastructure, adding that China would hasten development of a cyber military force.

Self-ruled Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province, called on all South China Sea claimants to shelve their disagreements to enable talks on sharing resources before a conflict breaks out.

Japan meanwhile will join a major U.S.-Australian military exercise for the first time in a sign of growing security links between the three countries as tensions fester over China's moves.

All three nations have said they are concerned about freedom of movement through the South China Sea and air space.

China's Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday it had carried out military training for party cadres from border and coastal areas on border defence, among other topics.

The trainees, who visited military combat units, developed a better understanding of the "national security situation", said a statement on the ministry's website.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/26/china-defence-idUSKBN0OB0C520150526


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 26, 2015, 11:22:50 am
George Soros Warns “No Exaggeration” That China-US On “Threshold Of World War 3″

While admitting that reaching agreement between the two countries will be difficult to achieve, George Soros - speaking at The World Bank’s Bretton Woods conference this week - warned that unless the U.S. makes ‘major concessions’ and allows China’s currency to join the IMF’s basket of currencies, “there is a real danger China will align itself with Russia politically and militarily, and then the threat of world war becomes real.”

Much in global geopolitics depends on the health and trajectory of the Chinese economy, was the undertone of George Soros’ comments as he spoke this week, but as MarketWatch reports,

    Billionaire investor George Soros said flatly that he’s concerned about the possibility of another world war.

    If China’s efforts to transition to a domestic-demand led economy from an export engine falter, there is a “likelihood” that China’s rulers would foster an external conflict to keep the country together and hold on to power.

    …

    To avoid this scenario, Soros called on the U.S. to make a “major concession” and allow China’s currency to join the International Monetary Fund’s basket of currencies. This would make the yuan a potential rival to the dollar as a global reserve currency.

    In return, China would have to make similar major concessions to reform its economy, such as accepting the rule of law, Soros said.

    Allowing China’s yuan to be a market currency would create “a binding connection” between the two systems.

    An agreement along these lines will be difficult to achieve, Soros said, but the alternative is so unpleasant.

    “Without it, there is a real danger that China will align itself with Russia politically and militarily, and then the threat of third world war becomes real, so it is worth trying.”

And while on the topic, Soros also spoke recently, as ValueWalk notes, on the situation in Europe…

    “The European Union was a very inspiring idea to people like me,” he commented, reflecting back to when EU economies were more balanced. “It was the embodiment of the idea of an open society, like minded countries getting together and sacrificing part of their sovereignty for the common good.  It was meant to be a voluntary association of equals.”

    Soros continued to say: “Because of the Euro crisis, [the E.U.] has been transformed into something radically different.” He also emphasized that over time two different classes of countries have evolved: creditors and debtors. “The debtors had difficulty meeting their obligations and this put the creditors in charge. They (the creditors) set the rules and made it very difficult for the debtors to exit their inferior status. A voluntary association of equals turned into an involuntary association of un-equals.”

rest: http://etfdailynews.com/2015/05/26/george-soros-warns-no-exaggeration-that-china-us-on-threshold-of-world-war-3/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 26, 2015, 11:33:31 am
Japan to join U.S., Australia war games amid growing China tensions

Japan will join a major U.S.-Australian military exercise for the first time in a sign of growing security links between the three countries as tensions fester over China's island building in the South China Sea.

While only 40 Japanese officers and soldiers will take part in drills involving 30,000 U.S. and Australian troops in early July, experts said the move showed how Washington wanted to foster cooperation among its security allies in Asia.

The Talisman Sabre biennial exercises, to be held in locations around Australia, will encompass maritime operations, amphibious landings, special forces tactics and urban warfare.

"I think the U.S. is trying to get its allies to do more," said Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

"There is an obvious symmetry between Japan as the upper anchor of the Western Pacific alliance and ... Australia as the southern anchor."

All three nations have said they were concerned about freedom of movement through the seas and air in the disputed South China Sea, where China is creating seven artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago, a vital shipping corridor.

Some security experts say China might impose air and sea restrictions in the Spratlys once it completes construction work that includes at least one military airstrip. China has said it had every right to set up an Air Defence Identification Zone but that current conditions did not warrant one.

China claims most of the South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims.

The Japanese personnel will embed with U.S. forces while 500 New Zealand troops will join Australian contingents, according to the Australian Defence Force website.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani rebuffed suggestions the exercises were aimed at China, telling Reuters that Japan simply wanted to improve military cooperation with the United States and Australia.

China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, asked if Beijing was concerned the exercises appeared to be targeted toward China, said it was "not worried".

"We believe the relevant countries should all play a proactive and constructive role to strengthen mutual trust and cooperation between countries in the region," she said at a regular news briefing.

"UNPRECEDENTED TRILATERAL COOPERATION"

Security cooperation between Canberra and Tokyo has already flourished under Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and Shinzo Abe, with Japan seen as the frontrunner to win a contract to supply next generation submarines to the Australian navy. U.S. commanders have publicly supported such a tie-up.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense David Shear highlighted Washington's goal of boosting cooperation between its allies in testimony to the U.S. Senate this month.

"To expand the reach of these alliances, we are embarking on unprecedented trilateral cooperation," he said.

"In some cases this cooperation directly benefits our work on maritime security. For example, we're cooperating trilaterally with Japan and Australia to strengthen maritime security in Southeast Asia and explore defense technology cooperation."

Winning the submarine deal would be a big boost for Japan's defense industry and potentially pave the way for the sale of advanced Japanese weapons to countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam, which are at loggerheads with Beijing over the South China Sea, experts have said.

Australia also hopes to sign a deal with Japan this year that would smooth the passage of military personnel into one another's country for joint exercises, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported over the weekend.

Deals such as this would likely become more common as Abbott and Abe push to cement the security ties they have fostered before they leave office, said the Lowy Institute's Graham.

"There will be more of this, and it's important in the next couple of years that the relationship beds in because otherwise ... you could quickly find it isn't a self-sustaining relationship," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/26/us-australia-usa-japan-idUSKBN0OA1GE20150526


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 27, 2015, 08:32:35 am
PLA Navy will have 415 warships in near future: US expert

James Fanell, the former director of the US Pacific Fleet's intelligence and information, predicted China will eventually have about 415 warships including four aircraft carriers and 100 submarines in the near future while attending a two-day conference held by the US Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute in Newport, Rhode Island last week, reports the Defense News.

The event was held to discuss the PLA Navy's shipbuilding progress and challenges. It concluded that the PLA Navy is making achievements and will continue to grow. Most experts and scholars attending the conference agreed that the PLA Navy has devoted more resources to develop new vessels including destroyers, frigates and submarines armed with with the capability to hit and destroy enemy warships.

"Both surface vessels and subs seem to be largely focused on anti-surface warfare," said Andrew Erickson, one of the experts attending the event. "That doesn't mean they're not working to progress in new directions, but it doesn't seem to have borne as much fruit that we can easily see." A lot of the anti-ship missiles equipped by the Chinese warships or submarines have ranges far in excess of similar missiles in service with the US Navy.

With such a large number of long-range surface-to-surface missiles in hand, the PLA Navy is altering politics and strategies throughout the Asian theater. "The PLA Navy will continue to expand for the next 15 years," said Fanell. He added that the PLA Navy's active defense in the near seas are going to grow while far seas operations will increase. At the same time, Fanell believes that more goodwill deployments will take place.

Along with continued improvements in modular construction, the use of robotics and virtual 3D manufacturing, and a growing preference for indigenous designs of improving quality, Fanell said that the PLA Navy can certainly increase the number of surge deployments and ballistic missile submarine patrols. More carrier strike groups will be established as well. To accomplish this task, China needs about 415 warships by year of 2030.

Fanell said those 415 warships include 99 submarines, four aircraft carriers, 26 corvettes, 73 amphibious ships, three missile craft, and 102 destroyers and frigates. China's Type 052D guided-missile destroyer may not be as good as the US Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, but Fanell believes that it is good enough for the PLA Navy since it is fitted with a vertical launch system, the YJ-18 anti-ship missile and an active array radar system.

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20150526000161&cid=1101&MainCatID=0


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 28, 2015, 06:33:53 am
China puts weapons on its new artificial islands

China has moved weaponry onto artificial islands that it is building in contested areas of the South China Sea, adding to the risks of a confrontation with the United States and its regional security partners including Australia.

Australian officials are concerned that China could also introduce long-range radar, anti-aircraft guns and regular surveillance flights that will enable it to project military power across a maritime expanse which include some of Australia's busiest trading lanes.

Fairfax understands that these concerns are prompting discussions in senior military circles that could lead to Australian naval officers and air force pilots embarking on "freedom of navigation" missions to demonstrate that Canberra does not accept Beijing's hardening claims.

The options, which include fly-throughs, sail-throughs and exercises involving various regional partners, are expected to crystallise after officials deliver a personal briefing to Prime Minister Tony Abbott during the next fortnight.

Already, diplomats have dropped "talking points" about Australia not taking sides in the multi-layered territorial contest, which Chinese officials have used as evidence of Australian support.

More substantially, Australia's intelligence agencies are upgrading the strategic threat assessments which will inform the Abbott government's first Defence White Paper, according to government sources. Late on Wednesday, Australia's top defence official, Dennis Richardson, brought Canberra's growing concerns into public view by telling a Sydney forum that China's "unprecedented" land reclamations raise questions of "intent" and risks of "miscalculation".

"It is legitimate to ask the purpose of the land reclamation – tourism appears unlikely," said Mr Richardson, delivering the annual Blamey Oration at the New South Wales state Parliament.

"Given the size and modernisation of China's military, the use by China of land reclamation for military purposes would be of particular concern," he said.

The Defence Secretary's comments were the most detailed and forthright from a senior Australian official since China began building its audacious network of airstrips, deep-water ports and other military-capable infrastructure on previously submerged reefs in the Spratly Islands last year.

China says the new sand islands will be used for humanitarian, environmental, fishing and other internationally-minded purposes.
</P>

But it warned this week in its own Defence White Paper that it would gradually expand "offshore waters defence" to include "open seas protection", adding that it would not tolerate other countries "meddling".

In Canberra, Fairfax understands that China's frenetic building activity has prompted the Defence Intelligence Organisation and Office of National Assessments to adopt a more hawkish tone since they each delivered major strategic threat assessments to the National Security Committee of Committee (NSC) mid-last year.

Their revised strategic assessments, due to be submitted to the NSC in coming weeks, will show how the reclamations could enable China to greatly amplify threats of coercive force in order to play a gate-keeping role across hotly-contested maritime areas, if left unchecked.

What Australia should do about the challenge is a more difficult question.

Australian military officers and officials have discussed a need to demonstrate that they do not recognise any 12-mile territorial zone or more expansive economic zone that China may unilaterally claim around its freshly-minted islands. But they are grappling with the need to avoid inflaming a potential confrontation Australia's largest trading partner.

Last week the United States demonstrated its position with a flyover by a P-8 surveillance plane, which carried a CNN journalist.

The voice of an Australian can be heard over the aircraft's radio.

Senior officers and officials have speculated that Australia could join a humanitarian or military exercise with the United States or one of several regional partners including Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.

Such a move has been discussed in Washington and key capitals in the region but no proposal has yet been put to Canberra, it is understood.

It could also dispatch naval vessels or air force planes through a contested area on route to a routine destination.

Officials say that any such "demonstration" is likely to be conducted with minimal publicity, to avoid inflaming China's reaction.

Mr Richardson, in his Sydney address to the Royal United Services Institute, said the area of previously-submerged atolls that China has reclaimed in the past year is nearly four times as large as that which the five other claimant states have achieved over several decades.

And he critiqued the nebulous nature of China's claims which, on some readings, cover more than 80 per cent of the entire South China Sea.

"It is not constructive to give the appearance of seeking to change facts on the ground without any clarification of actual claims," he said.

"It is legitimate to raise such questions and express such concerns because tensions and potential miscalculations are not in anyone's interest."

http://www.smh.com.au/national/china-puts-weapons-on-its-new-artificial-islands-20150527-ghaxa8.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on September 15, 2015, 05:54:47 am
China appears to be working on third airstrip on disputed South China Sea islets

China appears to be carrying out preparatory work for a third airstrip in contested territory in the South China Sea, a U.S. expert said on Monday, citing satellite photographs taken last week. The photographs taken for Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank on Sept. 8 show construction on Mischief Reef, one of seven artificial islands China has created in the Spratly archipelago.   

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/15/us-china-southchinasea-airstrips-idUSKCN0RE28220150915


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on September 18, 2015, 04:24:43 pm

Obama Blocks Navy from Sailing Near Disputed Chinese islands
Failure to assert passage rights in South China Sea bolsters Beijing’s illegal maritime claims


The Obama administration has restricted the U.S. Pacific Command from sending ships and aircraft within 12 miles of disputed Chinese-built islands in the South China Sea, bolstering Beijing’s illegal claims over the vital seaway, Pentagon leaders revealed to Congress on Thursday.

“The administration has continued to restrict our Navy ships from operating within 12 nautical miles of China’s reclaimed islands,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said in opening remarks criticizing the failure to guarantee safe passage for international commercial ships in Asia.

“This is a dangerous mistake that grants de facto recognition of China’s man-made sovereignty claims,” he said.

The South China Sea is a strategic waterway used to transport $5 trillion annually in goods, including $1.2 trillion in trade to the United States.

David Shear, assistant defense secretary for Asian and Pacific affairs, sought to play down the restrictions on Navy ship transits close to the islands. According to Shear, a regional freedom of navigation exercise took place in April and the tactic is “one tool in a larger tool box … and we’re in the process of putting together that tool box.”

Shear acknowledged that “we have not recently gone within 12 miles of a reclaimed area,” noting the last time a Navy ship sailed that close to a Chinese-built island was 2012.

The disclosure undermines statements made Wednesday by Defense Secretary Ash Carter who said the United States would not be coerced by China into not operating ships or aircraft in Asia. Carter said the United States “will continue to protect freedom of navigation and overflight.”

Shear insisted that in recent years the U.S. military has challenged “every category of Chinese claim in the South China Sea, as recently as this year.”

Blocking China from militarizing the new islands could include a range of options, including freedom of navigation operations, he said.

McCain, however, noted that the U.S. restrictions on close-in island military flights and ship visits were continuing despite the provocative dispatch of five Chinese warships in an unprecedented deployment to waters within 12 miles of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands—at the same time President Obama was concluding a recent visit to the state earlier this month.

A visibly angered McCain told Shear the best way to assert that international waters around the islands do not belong to China would be for American ships to make 12-mile passages by the disputed islands. “And we haven’t done that since 2012. I don’t find that acceptable, Mr. Secretary,” he said.

Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, was asked if he is authorized to order ships to travel within 12 miles of any of the man-made islands and answered, no. Harris also said no U.S. surveillance aircraft have flown directly over any of the islands.

Asked why not, Harris stated: “I’ll just [say] that Pacom presents options, military options to the secretary. And those options come with a full range of opportunities in the South China Sea, and we’re ready to execute those options when directed.”

The restrictions appear to be an element of the Obama administration’s conciliatory policies toward China that have increased in the months leading up to the planned visit to Washington next week by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The administration also has not taken steps to penalize China for large-scale hacking of U.S. government and private sector databases, although sanctions are planned.

China has been building islands on several reefs within the South China Sea for the past several years near the Paracels, in the northwestern sea, and near the Spratlys, near the Philippines. Several nations, including Vietnam, Philippines, and Malaysia have challenged Chinese claims to maritime sovereignty.

After ignoring the island building for several years, the Obama administration earlier this year began pressing the Chinese to halt the construction. The U.S. appeals were ignored.

A Chinese admiral recently declared that the entire South China Sea is China’s maritime territory.

“The South China Sea is no more China’s than the Gulf of Mexico is Mexico’s,” said Harris, who described himself as critic of China’s maritime behavior and large-scale military buildup.

Harris made clear implicitly during the hearing he did not agree with the restrictions on transit near the disputed islands but has been overruled by the president and secretary of defense.

“I think that we must exercise our freedom of navigation throughout the region …,” Harris said.

Pressed for his views on whether close passage of U.S. ships in the sea should be permitted, Harris said: “I believe that we should [be] allow[ed] to exercise freedom of navigation and flight—maritime and flight in the South China Sea against those islands that are not islands.”

Asked if he has requested permission for close-in island transits, Harris would not say, stating only that he has provided policy options for doing so to civilian leaders.

Harris said Pacific command surface ship commanders and crews, as well as Air Force pilots and crews, have orders when operating near China to “insist on our right to operate in international airspace and maritime space” and to respond professionally when challenged by Chinese warships or interceptor jets.

The four-star admiral warned that more incidents, such as the dangerous aerial intercept of a P-8 surveillance jet by a Chinese jet in 2014, are possible after China finishes building runways on Fiery Cross Reef and two other reefs.

With missiles, jet fighters, and warships stationed on the islands, “it creates a mechanism by which China would have de facto control over the South China Sea in any scenario short of war,” he said.

In a conflict the sites could be easily targeted, but “short of that, militarization of these features pose a threat, and certainly it poses a threat against all other countries in the region,” he said.

Shear also said the island militarization is a concern.

“The Chinese have not yet placed advanced weaponry on those features and we are going to do everything we can to ensure that they don’t,” Shear said. “This is going to be a long-term effort. There are no silver bullets in this effort. But we’re certainly complicating Chinese calculations already.”

Shear said U.S. forces are continuing to operate freely in the region and have deterred Chinese coercion of regional states.

“That we freely operate in the South China Sea is a success? It’s a pretty low bar, Mr. Secretary,” McCain said.

China’s dispatch of five warships to waters near the Bering Strait followed recent joint exercises with the Russians, after which the Chinese ships sailed near Alaska to demonstrated the ships’ ability to operate in the far north, Harris said, noting that he viewed the timing to the president’s Alaska visit as “coincidental.”

Sen. Dan Sullivan, (R., Alaska) said the Chinese action was a “provocation” and criticized the administration’s weak response. The Pentagon dismissed the Chinese ship transit as legal under international law.

“I thought it was more of a provocation and a demonstration of their interest in the Arctic,” Sullivan said. “I’m not sure that this White House would recognize a provocation if it was slapped in the face, and we need to be aware of that.”

Harris also said he is concerned by China deploying submarines, including nuclear missile submarines, further from its shores.

“We’re seeing Chinese submarine deployments extend further and further, almost with every deployment,” he said. “It has become routine for Chinese submarines to travel to the Horn of Africa region and North Arabian Sea in conjunction with their counter piracy task force operations. We’re seeing their ballistic missiles submarines travel in the Pacific at further ranges and of course all of those are of concern.”

China’s claims to have halted island construction and militarization on some 3,000 acres are false, McCain said.

“Recently released satellite images show clearly this is not true,” the senator said. “What’s more, China is rapidly militarizing this reclaimed land, building garrisons, harbors, intelligence, and surveillance infrastructure, and at least three air strips that could support military aircraft.”

Surface-to-air missiles and radars also could be added enabling China “to declare and enforce an air defense identification zone in the South China Sea, and to hold that vital region at risk,” McCain added.

Shear said the island building is nearly completed.

Meanwhile in the House, Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R., Va.), chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on seapower, led a group of 29 members of Congress in writing to President Obama and Carter, the defense secretary, urging the lifting of the restrictions on naval and air operations near the disputed islands.

“The longer the United States goes without challenging China’s unfounded claims to sovereignty over these artificial formations—and to territorial waters and exclusive economic rights in the surrounding water—the greater the consequences will be for regional security,” the lawmakers stated in the Sept. 17 letter.

“It is our belief that the Defense Department should act immediately to reaffirm the United States’ commitment to freedom of navigation and the rule of law.”

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/obama-blocks-navy-from-sailing-near-disputed-chinese-islands/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on September 19, 2015, 06:50:34 am
Japan enhances military’s role as security bills pass 

Japan’s parliament early Saturday approved contentious legislation that enhances the role of the country’s military by loosening post-World War II constraints, after the ruling bloc defeated opposition parties’ last-ditch effort to block a vote.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/japan-enhances-militarys-role-as-security-bills-pass/2015/09/18/16a5bf3e-5e65-11e5-8475-781cc9851652_story.html


China warns Japan over expanding military role abroad


China has said Japan is endangering peace in the region after it passed controversial laws expanding the role of its military abroad. Japan should learn "profound lessons from history", China's defence ministry said after Japan's parliamentary vote. The vote allows Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since the end of World War Two 70 years ago.   

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34301456


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on October 26, 2015, 11:11:20 pm
U.S. warship sails close to Chinese artificial island in South China Sea

The United States sent a warship very close to one of China's artificial islands in the South China Sea on Tuesday, a potential challenge to Beijing's territorial claims in the contested waters.

A U.S. defense official told CNN that the destroyer USS Lassen "conducted a transit" within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands on Tuesday morning local time.

The operation put the ship within an area that would be considered Chinese sovereign territory if the U.S. recognized the manmade islands as being Chinese territory, the official added.

The mission, which had the approval of President Barack Obama, has now concluded, the official said.

The United States had not breached the 12-mile limit since China began massive dredging operations to turn three reefs, including Subi, into artificial islands in 2014.

The South China Sea is the subject of numerous rival and often messy territorial claims, with China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam disputing sovereignty of several island chains and nearby waters.

On Tuesday morning before it was confirmed that the U.S. warship had breached the 12-mile zone, Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, said:

"We advise the U.S. side to think twice before action, not to conduct any rash action, and not to create trouble out of nothing."

China has repeatedly said its activity in the South China Sea does not target any other country or affect freedom of navigation by sea or air.

'Routine operation'
Another defense official told CNN that the operation was "routine" and was in accordance with international law.

"We will fly, sail and operate anywhere in the world that international law allows," the official said.

"U.S. Freedom of Navigation operations are global in scope and executed against a wide range of excessive maritime claims, irrespective of the coastal state advancing the excessive claim," the official added.

His comments echoed those of State Department spokesman John Kirby on Monday, who said one country didn't need to consult another "when you are exercising the right of freedom of navigation in international waters."

Zhu Haiquan, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Washington said: "Freedom of navigation and overflight should not be used as excuse to flex muscle and undermine other countries' sovereignty and security."

"We urge the United States to refrain from saying or doing anything provocative and act responsibly in maintaining regional peace and stability," Zhu said in a statement Monday night.

News of the ship's plan was first reported by Reuters.

Chinese navy ships entered U.S. territorial waters off Alaska in September, coming within 12 miles of the coastline during President Barack Obama's visit to the state, U.S. officials told CNN at the time.

The officials emphasized that China's actions were consistent with "innocent passage" under international maritime law.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/26/politics/south-china-sea-islands-u-s-destroyer/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on October 27, 2015, 06:42:42 pm
CHINA “NOT FRIGHTENED TO FIGHT A WAR” WITH US AFTER WARSHIP INCIDENT
Beijing mouthpiece says vessels should be sent out to confront US destroyers


Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the Global Times has published an editorial asserting that Beijing is “not frightened to fight a war with the US” as a result of the passage of a US warship near disputed islands in the South China Sea.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen violated the 12-nautical mile zone China claims around Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly archipelago yesterday, a move observers have described as a deliberate provocation.

China responded by warning and following the vessel before China’s foreign ministry characterized the maneuvers as a “threat to China’s sovereignty”.

Chinese state media outlet the Global Times said that Beijing should now “prepare for the worst” and that Beijing “is not frightened to fight a war with the US in the region.”

Speculation on how China should respond to future violations included sending warships out to confront US destroyers.

“Beijing ought to carry out anti-harassment operations. We should first track the US warships. If they, instead of passing by, stop for further actions, it is necessary for us to launch electronic interventions, and even send out warships, lock them by fire-control radar and fly over the US vessels,” states the editorial.

The piece also asserts that the United States has no intention of starting a military conflict with China and is engaging in the provocations simply for “political show”.

China’s Navy has repeatedly issued warnings to U.S. surveillance planes flying over the region.

Experts have warned that an accidental collision between aircraft, similar to a 2001 incident which led to an international controversy, could spark a deadly conflict. According to Michael Auslin, a war between the two superpowers is more likely than at any point in the last 20 years.

Earlier this year, billionaire investor George Soros also cautioned that the ruling Communist Party may see fit to rally its population around an external threat in order to head off a societal collapse in the aftermath of an economic implosion.

“There is a real danger that China will align itself with Russia politically and militarily, and then the threat of third world war becomes real,” said Soros.

http://www.infowars.com/china-not-frightened-to-fight-a-war-with-us-after-warship-incident/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on October 28, 2015, 08:51:41 pm
‘Mentally Unstable’ Obama Looking To Start A War With China?

This week, Barack Obama sent a guided missile destroyer into disputed waters in the South China Sea to see if the Chinese would start shooting at it. Yes, this is what he actually did. Fortunately for us, the Chinese backed down and did not follow through on their threats to take military action. Instead, the Chinese have chosen to respond with very angry words. The Chinese ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, says that what Obama did was “a very serious provocation, politically and militarily.” And as you will see below, a state-run newspaper stated that China “is not frightened to fight a war with the US in the region”. So why in the world would Obama provoke the Chinese like this? Yes, the Chinese claims in the South China Sea are questionable. But there are other ways to resolve things like this. My friend Rick Wiles began his radio broadcast yesterday by suggesting that these kinds of actions show that Barack Obama has become “mentally unstable”, and I would have to agree. You don’t risk military confrontations that could potentially spark World War III unless you have a really good reason to do so.

The Global Times is a Chinese state-run newspaper that has very close ties to the Communist party. After Obama’s provocation in the South China Sea, it published an editorial entitled “After the show, it’s time for US destroyer to leave“. The following is the most alarming portion of that editorial…

In face of the US harassment, Beijing should deal with Washington tactfully and prepare for the worst. This can convince the White House that China, despite its unwillingness, is not frightened to fight a war with the US in the region, and is determined to safeguard its national interests and dignity.

Beijing ought to carry out anti-harassment operations. We should first track the US warships. If they, instead of passing by, stop for further actions, it is necessary for us to launch electronic interventions, and even send out warships, lock them by fire-control radar and fly over the US vessels.

Another major Chinese newspaper also responded very angrily…

The People’s Liberation Army Daily, China’s leading military newspaper, used a front-page editorial to accuse the US of sowing chaos in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Cast-iron facts show that time and again the United States recklessly uses force and starts wars, stirring things up where once there was stability, causing the bitterest of harm to those countries directly involved,” the newspaper said, according to Reuters.

But the Obama administration is not backing down.

In fact, CNN is reporting that the decision has already been made to send even more patrols cruising by the disputed islands.

What do you think that will do to our delicate relationship with China?

Most Americans assume that an actual shooting war between the United States and China is not even within the realm of possibility, but many of our leaders see things very differently. For instance, just check out what CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell thinks…

The current posturing in the area has led to heightened tensions between the world’s preeminent military powers, and in May Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell told CNN that the confrontation indicates there is “absolutely” a risk of the U.S. and China going to war sometime in the future.

And Barack Obama’s good buddy George Soros has warned that the threat of a third world war involving the United States and China is very real…

Earlier this year, billionaire investor George Soros also cautioned that the ruling Communist Party may see fit to rally its population around an external threat in order to head off a societal collapse in the aftermath of an economic implosion.

“There is a real danger that China will align itself with Russia politically and militarily, and then the threat of third world war becomes real,” said Soros.

Needless to say, if our relationship with China breaks down that is going to be really, really bad for the global economy. China accounts for more global trade than anyone else in the world, and the U.S. is number two.

And already we are witnessing a slowdown in global trade which is more than just a little bit alarming. So far in 2015 total global trade is down 8.4 percent, U.S. exports are down 11 percent, and Chinese imports during the month of September were down a whopping 20.4 percent from a year earlier.

So what do you think that an actual shooting war between the two great economic superpowers would do?

Meanwhile, the Obama administration continues to move toward sparking World War III in the Middle East as well. On Tuesday, we learned that Obama has authorized “direct action on the ground” in Iraq and in Syria. That means that our boys and girls could potentially end up in combat in areas inside Syria where the Russians are currently conducting operations. The following comes from NBC News…

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday that the U.S. will begin “direct action on the ground” against ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria, aiming to intensify pressure on the militants as progress against them remains elusive.

“We won’t hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL, or conducting such missions directly whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground,” Carter said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services committee, using an alternative name for the militant group.

When pressed, Carter admitted that U.S. soldiers “will be in harm’s way, no question about it“.

Wasn’t Obama supposed to be the president that brought all of our troops home and ended all of the wars?

Instead, his arrogance just seems to grow by the day and he is threatening to plunge the entire planet into World War III.

So what do you think of Barack Obama’s recent “foreign policy decisions”?

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/mentally-unstable-obama-looking-to-start-a-war-with-china


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on November 27, 2015, 01:40:27 pm
Japan plans to deploy troops near disputed islands

Japan's deputy defense minister met with the mayor of a southern island Thursday to seek his support for the planned deployment of hundreds of troops in the region including nearby disputed East China Sea islands.

Vice Minister of Defense Kenji Wakamiya met in Ishigaki with Mayor Yoshitaka Nakayama to explain a plan to deploy about 500 ground troops on the island beginning in 2019, ministry officials said. The troops would be for emergency response in case of infiltration on nearby islands or for missile defense.

Ishigaki has jurisdiction over the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands, which China also claims and calls the Diaoyu islands.

Japan has stepped up its defense readiness, especially on islands in the country's southwestern region, amid China's military buildup and its frequent patrols near the disputed islands. China and North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons ambitions top Japan's security concerns.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's hawkish government enacted new security laws in September despite widespread criticism that they violate Japan's war-renouncing constitution.

Japan is already constructing a base on the nearby island of Yonaguni to deploy 150 coastal monitoring troops, and plans to deploy hundreds more each on Miyako and Amamioshima islands by 2018.

Japanese coast guard statistics show that Chinese government vessels have entered Japanese-claimed territorial waters surrounding the disputed islands between four and 28 times a month, and approached those waters nearly every day since Japan nationalized some of the disputed islands in September 2012.

Relations between the nations, which have the world's second- and third-largest economies, are also strained over their World War II history, development of undersea gas deposits in areas near the disputed islands, and other issues.

Japan and China are to hold maritime security talks in Xiamen next month to discuss some of the outstanding issues and ways to avoid security mishaps, according to Japanese media reports.

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-deploy-troops-near-disputed-islands-064352346.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on February 20, 2016, 05:17:08 pm
Chinese media calls for government to 'fire shots and ram U.S. warships to teach them a lesson' over disputed South China Sea islands

Quote
Chinese media calls for government
Just saying, the Chinese Media is the Government

Chinese media have urged their military to fire warning shots at the U.S.
Satellite images show missile systems on Chinese-controlled islands
But China maintains U.S. presence in the region is threatening peace

Chinese state media have urged their national military to fire warning shots and deliberately ram U.S. warships that sail too close to their footholds in the disputed South China Sea.

U.S. ship Curtis Wilbur came within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracels last month, catapulting tensions in the oil-rich region to an all-time high.

The commentary article declared China must 'teach the US a lesson' if they continue intruding on China's rightful territory, reports SCMP.

The Paracels have been under Chinese rule for over 40 years, deeming them the most fundamentally important foothold for China to defend, the article claimed.

The author proposed the American presence in the Paracels was intended to 'oppose China for the sake of opposing' – which called for 'proper toughness and deterrence.'

It comes after U.S satellite images surfaced this week showing advanced air defence missile system on Woody Island in the Paracels, igniting concerns over China's militarisation.

But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters that patrols by U.S. military aircraft and Navy vessels, along with joint exercises involving regional partners were the true reason why concerns were escalating over stability.

China has been embroiled in fierce territorial disputes in the region since laying claim to a vast swathe of land known as the 'nine-dash line.'

They have further stroked tensions by linking islands in the region with runways in a process known as 'land reclamation.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3455911/China-fire-shots-ram-U-S-warships-teach-lesson-disputed-South-China-Sea-islands.html#ixzz40kkgC5tb





Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on February 24, 2016, 10:47:10 pm
Tensions ratchet up in the South China Sea as Beijing sends fighter jets to join anti-aircraft missile on its man made island

    Satellite images show radar being constructed in Cuarteron Reef
    Island is part of seven disputed islands - the Spratlys - in South China Sea
    Spratly Islands are claimed by Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam
    Comes as other images show China deploying missiles on Paracels island
    Taiwan and US say China deployed defence system in South China Sea
    Tensions have escalated after China began reclaiming contested reefs


China has deployed fighter jets to the same contested island in the South China Sea to which it also has sent surface-to-air missiles, US officials said Tuesday.

Citing two unnamed US officials, Fox News said US intelligence services had spotted Chinese Shenyang J-11 and Xian JH-7 warplanes on Woody Island in the disputed Paracel Islands chain over the past few days.

Navy Captain Darryn James, a spokesman for US Pacific Command, confirmed the report but noted that Chinese fighter jets have previously used the island.

Woody Island, which is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam, has had an operational airfield since the 1990s but it was upgraded last year to accommodate the J-11.

'We are still concerned that the Chinese continue to put advanced arms systems on this disputed territory,' James said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3460472/China-setting-radars-man-islands-help-establish-control-sea-air-space-disputed-region.html#ixzz419U5AsmK



Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on February 25, 2016, 03:57:27 am
China Warns U.S. After Trump Wins Nevada Caucus
Trump has promised to punish Chinese currency manipulation

China warned the United States on Wednesday not to adopt punitive currency policies that could disrupt U.S.-China relations after Donald Trump’s win in the Nevada caucus.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing that “we are following with interest the U.S. presidential election.”

Hua was asked about China’s response to a possible Trump presidency and his announced plan to punish China for currency manipulation with a tax on Chinese goods.

“Since it belongs to the domestic affair of the U.S., I am not going to make comments on specific remarks by the relevant candidate,” she said.

“But I want to stress that China and the U.S., as world’s largest developing and developed countries, shoulder major responsibilities in safeguarding world peace, stability and security and driving world development,” the spokeswoman added.

“The sustained, sound and steady growth of China-U.S. relations serves the fundamental and long-term interests of the two countries and benefits the world. We hope and believe that the U.S. government will pursue a positive policy toward China in a responsible manner.”

The comments came as Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, is holding talks in Washington that include U.S. concerns about a Chinese military buildup on disputed islands in the South China Sea, and cooperation on dealing with North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations.

Hua said Wang and Secretary of State John Kerry agreed the two sides will enhance cooperation and increase talks and exchanges.

“We stand ready to preserve and advance China-U.S. relations together with the U.S. side,” she said.

Kerry said he spoke to Wang about reducing tensions and finding diplomatic solutions to competing South China Sea claims.

“We want there to be a halt to the expansion and militarization of occupied features,” Kerry said. “Everyone benefits by true demilitarization, non-militarization.”

Kerry also said the United States remains committed to freedom of navigation and overflight, “something which China says it does not stand in the way of; it agrees that there should be peaceful freedom of navigation.”

Reports from Asia say Chinese state-run media have been ordered by the Communist Party to minimize reporting on the U.S. presidential election.

Hong Kong’s Chinese-language news outlet Oriental Daily reported Feb. 5 that the Party’s Propaganda Department, which sets policies for all state-run media, ordered all publications to ban election coverage of U.S. policies toward China and to focus election coverage on negative stories and scandals.

Trump won the Nevada caucus with 45 percent of the vote, increasing his chances of winning the Republican nomination later this year.

Last month, Trump vowed to impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese good to offset China’s devaluation of the yuan.

“They’re devaluing their currency, and they’re killing our companies,” Trump said. “We are letting them get away with it, and we can’t let them get away with it.”

The Obama administration has adopted conciliatory policies toward China on trade and currency issues.

Trump, on his campaign website, outlined a hardline approach to dealing with China that involves officially declaring China a currency manipulator and negotiating an end to the practice.

Trump also wants to thwart China’s theft of intellectual property and adopt policies aimed at bring jobs back from overseas to the United States.

Bolstering the U.S. military and “deploying it appropriately in the East and South China Seas” are other goals.

“These actions will discourage Chinese adventurism that imperils American interests in Asia and shows our strength as we begin renegotiating our trading relationship with China,” the Trump website states. “A strong military presence will be a clear signal to China and other nations in Asia and around the world that America is back in the global leadership business.”

http://freebeacon.com/politics/china-warns-u-s-after-trump-wins-nevada-caucus/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on March 03, 2016, 07:50:18 pm
The U.S. just sent a carrier strike group to confront China

The U.S. Navy has dispatched a small armada to the South China Sea.

The carrier John C. Stennis, two destroyers, two cruisers and the 7th Fleet flagship have sailed into the disputed waters in recent days, according to military officials. The carrier strike group is the latest show of force in the tense region, with the U.S. asserting that China is militarizing the region to guard its excessive territorial claims.

Stennis is joined in the region by the cruisers Antietam and Mobile Bay, and the destroyers Chung-Hoon and Stockdale. The command ship Blue Ridge, the floating headquarters of the Japan-based 7th Fleet, is also in the area, en route to a port visit in the Philippines. Stennis deployed from Washington state on Jan. 15.

The Japan-based Antietam, officials said, was conducting a "routine patrol" separate from the Stennis, following up patrols conducted by the destroyer McCambell and the dock landing ship Ashland in late February.

The stand-off has been heating up on both sides. After news in February that the Chinese deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile battery to the Paracel Islands, U.S. Pacific Command head Adm. Harry Harris told lawmakers that China was militarizing the South China Sea.

"In my opinion China is clearly militarizing the South China Sea," Harris testified on Feb. 24. "You’d have to believe in a flat Earth to believe otherwise."

A Pacific Fleet spokesman downplayed the heavy U.S. presence in the region.

"Our ships and aircraft operate routinely throughout the Western Pacific — including the South China Sea — and have for decades," Cmdr. Clay Doss said in a statement. "In 2015 alone, Pacific Fleet ships sailed about 700 combined days in the South China Sea."

However, experts say sending Stennis and its air wing to the South China Sea is a clear signal to China and the region.

"Clearly the Navy and DoD is demonstrating its full commitment to presence and freedom of navigation in the region,” said Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain and analyst with the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C. “With the full carrier strike group and the command ship, the Navy is showing the scope of its interests and ability to project presence and power around world.”

The destroyer Lassen's vaunted October patrol within the 12-mile limit of China's man-made South China Sea islands was the first challenge of China's sovereignty over the Spratly Islands since Chinese land-reclamation projects began there.

On Jan. 30, the destroyer Curtis Wilbur patrolled near Triton Island, part of the Paracel Islands chain China also claims.

Six nations in the region lay claim to parts or all of the disputed islands chains. The Spratly Islands, a collection of reefs, rocks and other natural features, have been the site of extensive Chinese land reclamation projects. In the last two years, China has begun constructing islands on top of reefs and claiming territorial seas around them to gain exclusive fishing and resource rights to most of the South China Sea.

These disputes have led to violence in the past. In 1974, a conflict between South Vietnam and China led to a shootout in the Paracel Islands, located between Vietnam and China's Hainan Island. That dispute continues.

http://www.navytimes.com/story/military/2016/03/03/stennis-strike-group-deployed-to-south-china-sea/81270736/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 12, 2016, 02:16:47 am
Japan Sends Helicopter Destroyer to South China Sea
The Japan Maritime Self Defense Force warship will join a naval exercise held off Indonesia this week.

Last week, the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) has dispatched the JS Ise, a 1 3,950-ton Hyūga-class helicopter destroyer, through the South China Sea to participate in the Multilateral Naval Exercise Komodo (MNEK) 2016 hosted by the Indonesian Navy on April 12-16, according to Japanese media reports.

MNEK will take place in the waters off the western Indonesian city of Padang, the capital of the province of West Sumatra, and focus on maritime peacekeeping operations, humanitarian aid, and disaster relief scenarios. The last (and first) MNEK was held in 2014 near Batam, Indonesia.

The chief of staff of the JMSDF, Admiral Tomohisa Takei, told reporters that he hopes Japan’s participation in MNEK will help sharpen the JMSDF’s tactical skills, build trust, and deepen cooperation among participating countries.

According to JMSDF officials interviewed by The Japan Times, the passage of the JS Ise through the South China Sea has nothing to do with the U.S. Navy’s freedom of navigation operations near Chinese-occupied artificial islands in the area.

However, an unnamed Japanese official told Sankei Shimbun that the presence of the JS Ise in the South China Sea is sending a “strong message” to China and its building activities there. The Japanese warship also made a port call in Subic Bay in the Philippines last week.

Another unnamed Japanese defense official speaking to Yomiuri Shimbun said that the JS Ise’s visit to the Philippines was “aimed at promoting friendly relations, but it also includes a strong message to keep China in check.” A small flotilla of JMSDF warships was also slated to pay a port visit to Vietnam this month, but until now no news has emerged whether this port call took place just yet.

During a March 2016 press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei commented on Japanese warships transiting the South China Sea: “Japan once illegally occupied China’s islands in the South China Sea during WWII. We are on high alert against Japan’s attempt to return to the South China Sea through military means.”

The JS Ise ‘helicopter destroyer’ is an aircraft carrier in disguise and one of the most advanced anti-submarine warfare platforms of the JMSDF. It can carry up to 11 SH-60J/K Seahawk anti-submarine helicopters, but could also be modified to accommodate F-35B Joint Strike Fighters or MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

JS Ise also was the flagship of a flotilla that participated in an annual JMSDF-U.S. Navy war game, codenamed Guam Exercise (Guamex), near the U.S.-owned island of Guam in the northwestern Pacific Ocean in January  2016 (See: ”US and Japan Hold Naval Drills off Guam”).

http://thediplomat.com/2016/04/japan-sends-helicopter-destroyer-to-south-china-sea/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 29, 2016, 07:02:01 pm
US aircraft carrier denied entry to Hong Kong, American consulate official says

Refusal comes after US defence chief Ash Carter visited the USS Stennis in South China Sea

Beijing denied a US aircraft carrier permission to make a port call in Hong Kong, a US consulate official says, a rejection that comes amid escalating tensions in the South China Sea.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry told the US on Thursday night the visit by the USS John C. Stennis would not be allowed, said the official, who requested anonymity.

US defence chief Ash Carter visited the Stennis earlier this month.

“[The ministry] needs to approve every ship coming into Hong Kong. [They] said ‘no’ to the carrier,” the official said, adding the reason for the denial was not clear.

In a written reply to the South China Morning Post’s inquiry, the ministry said on Friday night that port calls made by US warships and military aircraft were examined on a “case by case basis in accordance with sovereignty principles and specific circumstances”.

Carter flew to the nuclear-powered carrier for a two-hour visit on April 15, as it sailed about 100km west of the Philippine island of Luzon. Experts said the move likely irritated Beijing as Carter was accompanied by his Philippine counterpart, Voltaire Gazmin.

China to build up atoll in contested South China Sea, source says

Last week, the US Pacific Command revealed they had sent six powerful A-10 Thunderbolt aircrafts near the Scarborough Shoal, which China occupies but Manila also claims.
The Chinese Defence Ministry had expressed concern over the flight.

It’s not the first time China has turned down port calls by US warships. During the Thanksgiving holidays in 2007, Beijing rejected the USS Kitty Hawk’s visit to Hong Kong after Washington announced an advanced missile deal with Taiwan and US President George W. Bush met the Dalai Lama.

However, the Kitty Hawk was allowed to dock in the city five month later in April 2008, as Sino-US military relations returned to normal.

The Stennis carrier strike group is currently operating in the South China Sea, where China has territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam and other Asian countries.

The consulate said it had originally arranged public tours aboard the Stennis for next Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Cancellation notices had been sent out to invitees, the consulate official said.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/1940083/us-aircraft-carrier-denied-entry-hong-kong-american


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 10, 2016, 06:12:13 pm
China scrambles fighters as U.S. sails warship near Chinese-claimed reef

China scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday as a U.S. navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, a patrol China denounced as an illegal threat to peace which only went to show its defense installations in the area were necessary.

Guided missile destroyer the USS William P. Lawrence traveled within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bill Urban said.

The so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertaken to "challenge excessive maritime claims" by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam which were seeking to restrict navigation rights in the South China Sea, Urban said.

"These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise," Urban said in an emailed statement.

China and the United States have traded accusations of militarizing the South China Sea as China undertakes large-scale land reclamation and construction on disputed features while the United States has increased its patrols and exercises.

Facilities on Fiery Cross Reef include a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) runway which the United States worries China will use to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense of weaker rivals.

China's Defence Ministry said two fighter jets were scrambled and three warships shadowed the U.S. ship, telling it to leave.

The U.S. patrol "again proves that China's construction of defensive facilities on the relevant reefs in the Nansha Islands is completely reasonable and totally necessary", it said, using China's name for the Spratly Islands where much of its reclamation work is taking place.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the U.S. ship illegally entered Chinese waters.

"This action by the U.S. side threatened China's sovereignty and security interests, endangered the staff and facilities on the reef, and damaged regional peace and stability," he told a daily news briefing.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry waved aside a question as to whether the U.S. aim was to send a message ahead of a visit to Asia by President Barack Obama this month.

"This is not a pointed strategy calculated to do anything except keep a regular process of freedom of navigation operations underway," he told reporters in London.

SENSITIVE AREA

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.

The Pentagon last month called on China to reaffirm it has no plans to deploy military aircraft in the Spratly Islands after China used a military plane to evacuate sick workers from Fiery Cross.

"Fiery Cross is sensitive because it is presumed to be the future hub of Chinese military operations in the South China Sea, given its already extensive infrastructure, including its large and deep port and 3,000-metre runway," said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.

"The timing is interesting, too. It is a show of U.S. determination ahead of President Obama's trip to Vietnam."

Speaking in Vietnam, Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, said freedom of navigation operations were important for smaller nations.

"If the world's most powerful navy cannot sail where international law permits, then what happens to the ships of navy of smaller countries?" Russel told reporters before news of the operation was made public.

China has reacted with anger to previous U.S. freedom of navigation operations, including the overflight of fighter planes near the disputed Scarborough Shoal last month, and when long-range U.S. bombers flew near Chinese facilities under construction on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys last November.

U.S. naval officials believe China has plans to start reclamation and construction activities on Scarborough Shoal, which sits further north of the Spratlys within the Philippines-claimed 200-nautical-mile (370-km) exclusive economic zone.

Tough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who looks set to become president of the Philippines after an election on Monday, has proposed multilateral talks on the South China Sea.

A Chinese diplomat warned last week that criticism of China over the South China Sea would rebound like a coiled spring.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-conducts-freedom-navigation-operation-south-china-sea-052908352.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on May 14, 2016, 05:51:30 pm
U.S. sees China boosting military presence after island-building spree

China is expected to add substantial military infrastructure, including surveillance systems, to artificial islands in the South China Sea this year, giving it long-term "civil-military bases" in the contested waters, the Pentagon said on Friday. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-pentagon-idUSKCN0Y42J1


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on June 21, 2016, 06:30:42 pm
Beijing indicates it may exit U.N. sea convention if South China Sea ruling disappoints

China has told other Asian countries that it may leave the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea as a countermeasure if a ruling from an international tribunal expected in the coming weeks over territorial rows in the South China Sea runs counter to the bedrock of its position, diplomatic sources said Monday. 

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/06/21/national/politics-diplomacy/beijing-indicates-may-exit-u-n-sea-convention-south-china-sea-ruling-disappoints/#.V2jBdZN94ym


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on July 05, 2016, 06:28:28 pm
Power game decides post-arbitration order

As the result of the international arbitration over the South China Sea dispute approaches, China is undertaking a military drill from July 5 to 11 in the waters around the Xisha Islands. In Western media reports, this exercise is happening "at a sensitive time," because the arbitral result will be announced on July 12. Beijing has announced its position of neither participation in nor recognition of the arbitration.

The South China Sea dispute has been greatly complicated after heavy US intervention. Now an international tribunal has also been included, posing more threat to the integrity of China's maritime and territorial sovereignty.

Regardless of the principle that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) shall not arbitrate on territorial disputes, the arbitration becomes nothing but a farce. But the US could use it to impose more pressure on China, causing more tensions in the South China Sea.

Washington has deployed two carrier battle groups around the South China Sea, and it wants to send a signal by flexing its muscles: As the biggest powerhouse in the region, it awaits China's obedience.

The US will probably project more military power to the West Pacific in a bid to press China militarily and politically.

As long as all parties are still reasonable, the situation in the South China Sea will be controllable. China's refusal to cooperate with the tribunal is legitimate based on UNCLOS. All hyperbole and distortion of China's stance will not make a real difference.

If the US is taking advantage of the mess to deploy more military forces to the South China Sea, which are a direct threat to China's national security, China's military exercises could be regarded as a countermeasure.

The trajectory of the South China Sea dispute, after July 12, will be decided by the intentions of the major players. The new Philippine government seems reluctant to keep the territorial face-off as a priority for Sino-Philippine ties. Now, it is some outside powers that are eager to make waves in the region.

China should speed up building its military capabilities of strategic deterrence. Even though China cannot keep up with the US militarily in the short-term, it should be able to let the US pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force.

China is a peace-loving country and deals with foreign relations with discretion, but it won't flinch if the US and its small clique keep encroaching on its interests on its doorstep.

China hopes disputes can be resolved by talks, but it must be prepared for any military confrontation. This is common sense in international relations.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/992320.shtml


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on July 05, 2016, 06:29:06 pm
Chinese, Japanese warplanes in close encounter

BEIJING: Beijing and Tokyo were at loggerheads on Tuesday (Jul 5) over accusations Japanese warplanes locked their fire control radar onto Chinese aircraft, as state-run Chinese media said the country needed to be ready for "military confrontation" elsewhere.

Beijing has long been embroiled in fierce territorial disputes with Tokyo over Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, and with a host of littoral states over the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety.

Chinese vessels and planes regularly enter waters and airspace near the East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

China's defence ministry late on Monday accused Japanese fighter jets of using their fire control radar to lock onto two Chinese aircraft on "routine patrol" in the Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) it declared unilaterally in 2013.

The aggressive move generally means an attacker is ready to fire weapons at a target.

Japan's deputy chief cabinet secretary Koichi Hagiuda denied the accusation on Tuesday, telling reporters that Tokyo's Self-Defence Forces had scrambled F15 jets to monitor Chinese aircraft.

"There are no facts showing that we took provocative action against Chinese military planes," he said.

In 2013, Tokyo demanded Beijing apologise when it said a Chinese frigate had locked its fire-control radar onto a Japanese destroyer in international waters.

The row over the islands has seen relations between the world's second- and third-largest economies plunge in recent years, before recovering slightly, although they remain poor.

Beijing is also involved in a separate set of territorial disputes with other littoral neighbours over its extensive claims in the strategic and resource-rich South China Sea. It has rapidly built up reefs and outcrops into artificial islands with facilities capable of military use.

The issue has raised tensions in the region and with the United States, which has key defence treaties with Japan and other allies in the area.

On Tuesday, China began a week of naval exercises in waters around the Paracel Islands, in the northern part of the sea. They came a week before a United Nations-backed tribunal in The Hague rules on a case brought by the Philippines challenging China's position.

Beijing has boycotted the hearings and is engaged in a major diplomatic and publicity drive to try to delegitimise the process.

BITTER PILL OF HUMILIATION

In an editorial Tuesday, the Global Times - a newspaper owned by the People's Daily group that often takes a nationalistic tone - said China should accelerate the build-up of its defence capabilities and "must be prepared for any military confrontation".

"Even though China cannot keep up with the US militarily in the short-term, it should be able to let the US pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force," it added.

Beijing also accuses Tokyo of interfering in the South China Sea, where it is not a claimant but has strengthened ties with some of the Asian giant's rivals, including the Philippines.

China bases its maritime claims on a vaguely defined "nine dash line" dating back to maps it produced in the 1940s, and has been asserting them more aggressively in recent years.

Manila lodged its suit against Beijing at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in early 2013, saying that after 17 years of negotiations it had exhausted all political and diplomatic avenues to settle the dispute.

The tribunal will issue its ruling on Jul 12, though China has consistently rejected its right to hear the case and has taken no part in the proceedings.

At a regular briefing on Tuesday, Chinese ministry of foreign affairs spokesman Hong Lei reiterated that Beijing rejected all third-party resolutions of the dispute. The hearing would "in no way help peace and stability" in the region, he said, adding: "We will not accept any settlement imposed on us."

The arbitration case had been orchestrated by the Philippines and the US to portray China as "an outcast from a rules-based international community", said an editorial in the China Daily.

The newspaper, which is published by the government, added: "It is naive to expect China to swallow the bitter pill of humiliation".

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/chinese-japanese/2932136.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on July 07, 2016, 07:25:20 pm
China is trying to discredit the international court that will rule on the South China Sea dispute

 Senior Chinese diplomats have ramped up efforts to discredit the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ahead of a decision next week that is expected to go against China.

While calling for a peaceful resolution, Dai Bingguo, a former state councillor and top diplomat, ­dismissed the expected ruling on the South China Sea as just “a piece of paper” and said China would not be intimidated even if the United States sent 10 aircraft carriers to the disputed waters.

“The final award of the arbitration, which will come out in the next few days, amounts to nothing more than a piece of paper,” Dai said on Tuesday at a forum held by US and Chinese think tanks in Washington.

The disputes should not be allowed to define Sino-US relations, he said, calling on both nations to manage their differences constructively.

“China is willing to maintain communication with the US on maritime issues and work with the US and all other parties to keep the situation under control,” he said.

China has refused to take part in the international court proceedings, saying the disputes should be settled by direct talks between the nations involved.

In an article published in party journal Qiushi, Vice-Foreign ­Minister Liu Zhenmin said the tribunal had infringed on the rights of the disputing parties to choose their own path to a resolution. The tribunal also had “serious flaws” in verifying facts and applying legal concepts, Liu said.

The tribunal had “worked with the Philippines to cover up its act of illegally occupying China’s ­territory in the Nansha Islands”, Liu wrote, using the Chinese name for the Spratly Islands.

“It not only intensifies the ­confrontations between China and the Philippines, but seriously affects the stability of maritime ­order,” he said.

The court referred to highly controversial cases in its proceedings, he wrote.

The comments come as ­Beijing steps up its rhetoric against the ruling, claiming it has the backing of about 60 countries.

US Defence Secretary Ash ­Carter said earlier that China risked erecting a “Great Wall of self-isolation” over its assertive moves in the disputed waters. But Beijing blames the US for “militarising” the region by expanding patrols with aircraft carriers.

 Dai said Washington recognised China’s sovereignty over the Spratly Islands after the second world war, and its present stand of not taking a position on the dispute “amounts to back-pedalling and defiance of the post-war international order”.

“If the US is unable to go back to its position of recognising China’s sovereignty over the Nansha Islands, it should honour its stated position of not taking sides on issues concerning territorial disputes,” Dai said. He repeated China’s call for an immediate halt to the tribunal’s proceedings.

Wu Shicun, president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, also told the forum the Permanent Court of Arbitration had no jurisdiction to rule over the territorial disputes.

Jia Qingguo, associate dean of Peking University’s School of International Studies, said Dai’s remarks were consistent with China’s stance that international arbitration should be rejected.

Dai was using the occasion to get China’s message across to the United States that Beijing would not be deterred by military action, Jia said.

http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-dismissing-the-upcoming-south-china-sea-court-ruling-2016-7


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on July 11, 2016, 01:51:36 am
CHINA TO US: WE’RE READY TO FIGHT IF NEEDED AND RUSSIA HAS OUR BACK

South China Sea — Beijing should be ready to “let the US pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force,” an editorial in a Chinese state-run paper warned on Tuesday — less than a week before the International Court at The Hague (ICH) is set to rule on a territorial disagreement between China and the Philippines.

“China hopes disputes can be resolved by talks,” wrote the Global Times, “but it must be prepared for any military confrontation. This is common sense in international relations.”

The dispute is over an island chain in the South China Sea, the Spratlys, and the maritime rights to the waters surrounding them. At the heart of the issue is sovereignty, with both China and the Philippines claiming territorial control.

In June of 2015, China announced that the artificial island chain it had been constructing in the South China Sea — in disregard of territorial claims by other Southeast Asian nations such as Vietnam, Taiwan, and Malaysia — would be completed within days. In the year that’s followed, the country has built military buildings, ports, and airstrips on the connected atolls.

In October of last year, the U.S. sent the first of what would become a considerable number of warships — and, eventually, even an aircraft carrier — into the South China Sea as a direct challenge to China’s claims in the region.

As pretext for involvement in what’s a wholly Southeast Asian affair, the U.S. has continuously claimed its allies in the region — notably India and the Philippines, itself — are concerned over China’s bold territorial assertions.

As Forbes recently wrote:

“While it is still unclear which way the ICH will rule, one thing is clear: China’s aggressive standing in the South China Sea disputes has spooked its neighbors.”

But China has made it clear it sees such U.S. involvement as military provocation.

“The South China Sea dispute has been greatly complicated after heavy US intervention,” the Global Times editorial states. “Washington…wants to send a signal by flexing its muscles. As the biggest powerhouse in the region, it awaits China’s obedience.”

Accordingly, China’s Maritime Safety Administration announced Monday it would be conducting military exercises in the waters of the South China Sea from July 5 to July 11 — the day before the ICH is set to make its ruling in the case brought before it by the Philippines.

“The drills are a very symbolic expression of China’s resolve,” Zhu Feng, dean of the Institute of International Affairs at Nanjing University, told TIME. “It is definitely also responding to the recent American warships patrolling in the South China Sea.”

Complicating the situation further is the fact that China, claiming the ICH has no authority to rule on territorial disputes, has repeatedly stated it has no intention of abiding by the tribunal’s ruling.

This inconvenience appears to be something the Pentagon is choosing to ignore, however, as evidenced by recent statements made by spokesperson Peter Cook and reported by Reuters:

“‘We’ve pointed to the diplomatic route for resolving these issues…they should be resolved peacefully,’ he said, adding the ruling from The Hague would provide an opportunity for this.’”

Wishful thinking, it seems, on the part of United States.

But there’s another, perhaps even more troubling facet of this entanglement that merits consideration. And, in point of fact, was not-so-subtly addressed in a recent article by another of China’s state-run publications, thePeople’s Daily.

And that facet can be encapsulated in a single word: Russia.

“China and Russia vowed to strengthen global strategic stability,” reports the Daily, “in a joint statement signed by Chinese President Xi Jingping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on June 25 during Putin’s visit to Beijing.”

Additionally, the Daily points out that “China and Russia have held six joint naval exercises since 2005” and that, for the 2016 maneuvers, “it is very likely that the South China Sea Fleet will take its turn as the main power, and the location might be near the South China Sea.”

If not a veiled threat, it’s at a minimum a reminder to the U.S. that China is far from alone in its military capacity.

And considering the NATO summit in Warsaw is only days away from approving the deployment of four battalions along the Russian border in Eastern Europe — and amid ongoing and increasingly dangerous confrontations between the U.S. and Russia in Syria — it might do Washington, D.C., well to take China’s “reminder” to heart.

http://undergroundreporter.org/china-us-ready-fight/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on July 12, 2016, 11:44:15 am
Tribunal rejects China's expansive South China Sea claims

An international tribunal rejected China's extensive claims in the South China Sea in a landmark ruling Tuesday that also found the country had aggravated the seething regional dispute and violated the Philippines' maritime rights by building up artificial islands that destroyed coral reefs and by disrupting fishing and oil exploration.

While the decision is seen as a major legal declaration regarding one of the world's most contested regions, China immediately rejected it as a "farce" and the true impact is uncertain given the tribunal has no power of enforcement.

While the findings cannot reverse China's actions, it still constitutes a rebuke, carrying with it the force of the international community's opinion. It also gives heart to small countries in Asia that have helplessly chafed at China's expansionism, backed by its military and economic power.

"The Philippines strongly affirms its respect for this milestone decision as an important contribution to ongoing efforts in addressing disputes in the South China Sea," Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said in Manila, calling on "all those concerned to exercise restraint and sobriety."

Former Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, who helped oversee the filing of the case, said the ruling underscored "our collective belief that right is might and that international law is the great equalizer among states."

Del Rosario stressed that it was important for the ruling to be accepted by all.

"For the sake of maintaining international order, it is imperative that the Award and clarification of maritime entitlements be accepted by all relevant countries - without exception - so that we can work together on how remaining issues can be peacefully resolved," he said.

Six regional governments have overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea, waters that are rich in fishing stocks and potential energy resources and where an estimated $5 trillion in global trade passes each year.

The disputes have also increased friction between China and the United States, which has ramped up its military presence in the region as China has expanded its navy's reach farther offshore.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the ruling is an opportunity for everyone in the region to act in a sensible way in accordance with the rule of law in order to settle disputes. Carter spoke at a news conference in Afghanistan where he was meeting with U.S. commanders.

The U.S. State Department called on both parties to comply with their obligations, according to a statement from spokesman John Kirby. The United States has not taken sides in the South China Sea disputes but has worked to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight in the region are maintained.

The Philippines, under a U.N. treaty governing the seas, asked in 2013 for arbitration on a number of issues it had with treaty co-signee China.

The five-member panel from the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, unanimously concluded China had violated its obligations to refrain from aggravating the dispute while the settlement process was ongoing.

It also found that China had interfered with Philippine petroleum exploration at Reed Bank, tried to stop fishing by Philippine vessels within the country's exclusive economic zone and failed to prevent Chinese fishermen from fishing within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone at Mischief Reef and Second Thomas Shoal.

China, which boycotted the entire proceedings, reiterated that it does not accept the panel's jurisdiction. China "solemnly declares that the award is null and void and has no binding force. China neither accepts nor recognizes it," a statement from the foreign ministry said.

It added that "China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea shall under no circumstances be affected by those awards." The ministry repeated China's often-expressed stance that the Philippines' move to initiate arbitration without China's consent was in "bad faith" and in violation of international law.

A professor of Asian political economy said the ruling could be a "transformative moment" in the region.

Speaking outside the Peace Palace in The Hague, Leiden University professor Jonathan London said the decision will "give countries with a common interest in international norms something to point to and to rally around."

He said they can say to China: "Look, here are the results of an international organization that has found that your claims have zero historical basis."

Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said the tribunal's decision is "final and legally binding" and that the two sides should comply with it. He said in a statement that "Japan strongly expects that the parties' compliance with this award will eventually lead to the peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea."

China considers bilateral talks with the other claimants the only way to address the South China Sea disputes.

It has said vast areas of the South China Sea have been Chinese territory since ancient times and demarcated its modern claims with the so-called nine-dash line, a map that was submitted under the U.N. treaty. Manila brought the case to arbitration because China's claims infringe upon its own 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

The tribunal said that any historical resource rights China may have had were wiped out if they are incompatible with exclusive economic zones established under the U.N. treaty, which both countries have signed.

It also criticized China for building a large artificial island on Mischief Reef, saying it caused "permanent irreparable harm" to the coral reef ecosystem and permanently destroyed evidence of the natural conditions of the feature.

Just before the panel announced its ruling, a busload of Chinese tourists arrived outside the court building in The Hague and joined a handful of other protesters in shouting down three people calling for China to leave Philippine waters. In Manila, dozens of rallying Filipinos jumped for joy, wept, embraced each other and waved Philippine flags after news of their victory. One held up a poster that said: "Philippine sovereignty, non-negotiable."

The aftermath of the ruling could be greatly influenced by new Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who took office late last month and inherited a case filed by his predecessor. Duterte has spoken of having friendlier relations with China and said last week his government stood ready to talk to Beijing if it got a favorable ruling. It remains to be seen, however, how far Duterte can stray from Manila's previously critical stance, given his country's growing nationalist sentiment against China's actions.

Vietnam, meanwhile Tuesday, accused Chinese vessels of sinking a Vietnamese fishing boat in disputed waters. Nguyen Thanh Hung, a local fisheries executive in the central province of Quang Ngai, said two Chinese vessels chased and sank the Vietnamese boat around midday Saturday as it was fishing near the Paracel islands. The five fishermen were rescued by another trawler around seven hours later.

Vietnam's government welcomed the ruling in the Philippines' case.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SOUTH_CHINA_SEA_RULING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-07-12-06-24-07


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on July 12, 2016, 11:50:35 am
S. China Sea arbitration: A US-led conspiracy behind the farce

 Since U.S. President Barack Obama took office, "Pivot to Asia" has become one of Washington's political pursuits and military strategies. The disputes between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea, which was provoked by former Philippine President Aquino III, came just in time as it offered Washington a good excuse and easy approach to return to the region.

In January 2013, the Philippines unilaterally initiated arbitral proceedings on the South China Sea issue. To circumvent the law, it secretly changed relative concepts, deliberately separated the Nansha Islands, and asked the tribunal to issue an award over the legal status and maritime claims of some of the islands and reefs that belong to the Nansha Islands as a whole.

What Aquino III did was a clear violation of international law. However, Washington chose to ignore the facts and the law, giving full support to its flunkey in Asia without hesitation.

So, we can tell that Washington has taken sides from the very beginning. What has it done before and behind the curtain then? Generally, it took four kinds of actions.

First, colluding with its allies to rubbish China.

Regarding the South China Sea arbitration, U.S. government officials and media have expressed many negative opinions of China, so as to portray Beijing as a "violator" of international order. U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter used to say in public that China's activity in the South China Sea could lead to a "great wall of self-isolation." Japan, as an ally of Washington, was also active and enthusiastic in helping the U.S. to suppress China.

Second, showing off military force and putting pressure on China.

The U.S. has been stepping up military actions in the South China Sea recently. Particularly, in the middle of June, two U.S. aircraft carriers, the USS John C. Stennis and USS Ronald Reagan, launched joint operations in the South China Sea, staging a show of force aimed at China.

In the meantime, Japan also launched joint military exercises with the Philippines and conducted arms sales with the latter, which is meant to put pressure on China. On July 8, Washington and Seoul jointly announced the deployment of the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) systems in South Korea, and the ulterior motive behind it was obvious enough.

Third, playing China and ASEAN countries off each other.

Chu Yin, a research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization said that "the U.S. escalates the tensions in the South China Sea with an essential purpose of containing China." For the U.S., sabotaging the relations between China and ASEAN countries is an effective way to hinder China's development, apart from being a best solution with low cost and high efficiency to increase Southeast Asian countries' dependence on it.

Fourth, manipulating the international arbitration tribunal and complicating the South China Sea issues into a "dead knot."

Once the arbitration tribunal makes a verdict against China, it will amount to fulfilling the U.S. purpose, putting an end to the tranquility in the South China Sea. In that case, the prospects for China-Philippine disputes to get resolved peacefully will be reduced.

In addition, the United States has been calculating the timing and progress of the arbitration. Initially, the U.S. had the press leak the message that the arbitration result would be announced on July 7, making all involved parties tense. Later on June 29, the secretariat of arbitration tribunal said July 12 would be the date when the verdict on the concrete issues of the Philippine-led arbitration on the South China Sea would be made public.

The timing of the announcement totally reflected the U.S. calculations as June 30 was the date that the new Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was to be sworn in. Picking this date to announce the verdict represents no more than a backing up of the new Philippine government, a move that the U.S. hopes will minimize the possible improvement between China-Philippine relations.

The U.S. actions near China, particularly those on the South China Sea issues, are part of its Asia-Pacific Rebalance strategies. Its intentions are no more than containing China to preserve its interests in the Asia-Pacific region and its global hegemony.

The U.S. motives are apparent to the world, especially to the Chinese people. The current China is nothing like the country it was one hundred years ago. Any act that tries to violate China's territorial sovereignty will fail.

http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0712/c90000-9085051.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on July 13, 2016, 01:36:14 pm
China threatens to impose air defence zone on disputed area of South China Sea

China raised tensions in the South China Sea on Wednesday by threatening to declare an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over disputed waters where a tribunal has quashed its legal claim.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled on Tuesday that China had “no legal basis” for its “nine-dash line”, which lays claim to almost all of the South China Sea. After considering a case brought by the Philippines, the court ruled against China on virtually every substantive point.

President Xi Jingping responded by saying that China would “refuse to accept” the decision.

On Wednesday, Liu Zhenmin, the vice foreign minister, said: "If our security is being threatened, of course we have the right to demarcate a [air defence identification] zone.”

If such an ADIZ were to be imposed, China would require all aircraft entering the designated airspace to identify themselves. China declared an ADIZ over disputed islands in the East China Sea in 2013, escalating tensions with the United States and Japan.

America then responded by sending two B52 bombers through the ADIZ, without identifying themselves to China.

A new ADIZ in the South China Sea could provoke a similar response. It would also increase tensions not only with the Philippines, but also with other rival claimants in the South China Sea, including Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.

rest: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/13/china-declares-right-to-set-up-air-defence-zone-in-south-china-s/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on August 02, 2016, 05:43:17 pm
Unintentional Consequences': Japan Warns of Chinese Aggression in Pacific

Citing Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea, Japan’s annual defense review expresses “deep concern” over China’s refusal to accept to the nine-dash line territorial ruling.

Entitled "Defense of Japan 2016," the new report outlines Tokyo’s defense priorities for the coming year, and chief among its concerns is China’s growth in the Pacific.

"There has…been a noticeable trend among neighboring countries to modernize and reinforce their military capabilities and to intensify their military activities," the report reads.

In particular, it points to Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea, "where the Hague-based Court of Arbitration recently ruled against China’s territorial claims. Beijing has refused to recognize the ruling as valid, and aims to follow through with its land reclamation projects in the region.

"China is poised to fulfill its unilateral demands without compromise," the report reads, adding that this could result in "unintentional consequences."

The Chinese Defense Ministry has criticized the report for hyping an already tense situation.

"China’s military is extremely dissatisfied with this and resolutely opposed to it," it said in a statement.

The United States and its Pacific allies, including Japan, have expressed concern over Beijing’s construction of artificial island in the South China Sea, claiming they will used to establish an air defense zone. China maintains it has every right to build within its own territory and that the islands will be used primarily for humanitarian purposes.

The Pentagon has carried out a number of aggressive naval and air force patrols near these projects, and vows to continue to do so in the wake of the Hague ruling. Washington has also conducted joint military exercises with regional partners, including Japan, which has rolled back key provisions of its pacifist constitution,” the 2015 report read.

Tokyo’s defense report from the previous year made similar claims about Beijing’s intent.

"Nevertheless, in the waters and airspace in the periphery of Japan, especially the East China Sea and the South China Sea, it has become increasingly common for countries to unilaterally assert their rights or take actions, based on their unique assertions which are incompatible with the existing international law and order.

"This has caused situations of undue infringement upon such principles."

Neither the United States nor Japan have any territorial claims in the South China Sea.

http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160803/1043879351/japan-defense-report-china.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on August 06, 2016, 04:49:36 pm
China conducts 'combat patrols' over contested islands

China's air force sent bombers and fighter jets on "combat patrols" near contested islands in the South China Sea, in a move a senior colonel said was part of an effort to normalize such drills and respond to security threats.

The exercises come at a time of heightened tension in the disputed waters after an arbitration court in The Hague ruled last month that China did not have historic rights to the South China Sea.

The air force sent several H-6 bombers and Su-30 fighter jets to inspect the airspace around the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal, Senior Colonel Shen Jinke of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force said, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The patrols included surveillance and refueling aircraft, Xinhua said, although it did not say when they occurred.

"The Air Force is organizing normalized South China Sea combat patrols, practising tactics ... increasing response capabilities to all kinds of security threats and safeguarding national sovereignty, security and maritime interests," Shen said.

China has refused to recognize the ruling by an arbitration court in The Hague that invalidated its vast territorial claims in the South China Sea and did not take part in the proceedings brought by the Philippines.

A dispute over the shoal, 124 nautical miles northwest of the Philippines mainland, was one of Manila's main reasons for bringing international legal action against China in 2013.

Beijing has reacted angrily to calls by Western countries and Japan for the decision to be adhered to and has released pictures of aircraft flying over the shoal since the ruling.

China has repeatedly blamed the United States for stoking tension through its military patrols in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually.

China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam all have rival claims in the South China Sea.

The United States has conducted freedom of navigation patrols close to Chinese-held islands, to Beijing's anger, while China has been bolstering its military presence there.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-china-patrols-idUSKCN10H091


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on August 06, 2016, 04:51:23 pm
Chinese fleet sails near Japanese Senkaku islands

Japan says China has sailed a fleet of 230 vessels near Japanese-controlled waters in the East China Sea.

The fleet included fishing boats and coastguard ships, Japan says, and three vessels appeared to be armed. Officials have protested to Chinese diplomats.

The reported incident occurred near the Senkaku Islands. They are administered by Japan but also claimed by China, which calls them the Diaoyu Islands.

Beijing has been increasingly assertive about waters it believes are Chinese.

In a separate incident on Saturday, Chinese state media said fighter jets and bombers had completed a patrol of airspace above islands in the South China Sea, as part of combat training.

These islands are also disputed, but last month an international tribunal ruled dismissed most of Beijing's claims in that sea.

China said it would ignore the decision.

Testing Japan's resolve

A Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said the fleet's despatch to the East China Sea islands was a unilateral escalation of tension in the area.

How uninhabited islands soured China-Japan ties

Less than a decade ago, Tokyo and Beijing talked of jointly exploiting the resources of the East China Sea, the waterway that separates the two countries.

But since then tension has increased, particularly over the disputed Senkakus, which are uninhabited.

Over recent years, China has sent an increasing number of ships towards the islands, in what appears to be an attempt to test Japan's resolve to defend them.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36996534


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on August 07, 2016, 12:09:20 am
Japan protests over China's radar unit near disputed waters

Japan has filed a protest to Beijing after the discovery that China installed radar equipment in a gas exploration platform close to disputed waters in the East China Sea, a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

Japan fears that the radar, a type commonly found on patrol ships and not necessary for gas field development, could be a sign that China intends to use gas exploration platforms in the disputed waters as military stations, Japanese media said.

According to the spokesman, Japan discovered the radar in late June and issued a protest on Friday through its embassy in China, urging Beijing to explain the purpose.

Japan has been calling on China to halt construction of oil-and-gas exploration platforms in the East China Sea, accusing it of unilateral development despite a 2008 agreement to maintain cooperation on resources development in the area, where no official border between them has been drawn.

On Saturday, Japan issued another protest to Beijing after Chinese coastguard ships and about 230 fishing vessels sailed close to what Tokyo considers its territorial waters around disputed islets in the East China Sea.

The latest protests adds to bilateral tensions between the two Asian neighbours over territorial claims and comes less than a month after an arbitration court in The Hague invalidated China's sweeping claims in the South China Sea.

http://news.trust.org/item/20160807033434-95py1


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on August 09, 2016, 04:04:37 pm
BUILDING FOR WAR Damning new satellite images show China has built aircraft hangars on South China Sea islands for fleet of fighter jets

The reinforced buildings are designed to withstand an airstrike and can hold up to 24 fighters jets each


CHINA has vastly extended its military scope by constructing military jet hangars on a set of contested islands, damning new images reveal.

Their confirmed presence in the South China Sea quashes China’s repeated claims it was never planning to militarise the region.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1578927/damning-new-satellite-images-show-china-has-built-aircraft-hangars-on-south-china-sea-islands-for-fleet-of-fighter-jets/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on August 16, 2016, 12:55:08 am
China Officially Orders Citizens To Prepare For World War 3

We have been warning you all for months that something big was happening, but now it looks like we have confirmation. The Chinese Defense Minister, Chang Wanquan, has warned its citizens to prepare for the coming World War III.

China has vowed to take measures to defy the 12th of July ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration and to protect its sovereignty. It has been reported that in a post-Brexit world, China and Russia will become the world’s super powers.

China’s state-run media has been awash with bluster on the subject of their military and sovereignty. China’s Global Times went as far as to challenge Australia directly, saying: “If Australia steps into the South China Sea waters, it will be an ideal target for China to warn and strike.”

On Weibo, a state-regulated blogging site, Lian Fang, a professor at the military –run National Defense University said that “The Chinese military will step up hard and China will never submit to any country on matters of sovereignty,” Reuters reports.

Wanquan reportedly made the statement while inspecting military installations in China’s eastern coastal province of Zhejiang. The Defense Minister said the Chinese public should be educated about national defense issues because the country’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity are at risk.

Wanquan also warned of offshore security threats, and the need to acknowledge the gravity of risk to China’s national security. He further charged the entire security apparatus of the country, including military, police, together with citizens to prepare for mobilization to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Commentators also believe that China has a strong belief that the United States instigated the Philippines to dispute the South China Sea so that the United States could take advantage and exploit the area for its benefit.

The Free Thought Project confirms that hundreds of ships and submarines from all three fleets of China’s People’s Liberation Army conducted extensive live ammunition drills in the country’s East, North, and South Seas as a show of offensive and defensive capabilities.

A war between China and its neighbors also has the dangerous possibility to divide the world. The U.S. will no doubt come to the aid of its allies, and China and Russia have increased military ties which could further complicate the scenario.

http://awarenessact.com/china-officially-orders-citizens-to-prepare-for-world-war-3/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on August 16, 2016, 06:39:16 pm
Tokyo Releases Video Allegedly Showing Territorial Intrusion of Chinese Vessels

Amid ongoing tensions in the East China Sea, Japan’s coast guard has released video showing Chinese vessels entering disputed waters near the Senkaku Islands.

Over the weekend, reports surfaced that Tokyo has plans to develop new land-to-sea missiles to be deployed to the southernmost point of Okinawa prefecture. With a range of 186 miles, the projectiles could easily reach the Senkakus.

"In light of China’s repeated acts of provocation around the Senkaku islands, Japan aims to increase deterrence with improved long-range strike capability," Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCq-HgIsm2s

On Monday, the Japan Coast Guard released footage that claims to show these provocations.

Allegedly occurring between August 5 and 9, the video documents 28 separate breaches of territorial waters claimed by Japan. The breaches includes several Chinese fishing boats, but also Chinese coast guard ships.

"Your ship has intruded into the territorial waters of our country," says an electronic message sent from the Japanese patrol ship Aguni to one of the Chinese vessels, according to the Japan Times.

"Non-innocent passage in the Japanese waters is not allowed. Get out of this area immediately."

According to a statement released by the Japan Coast Guard, 18 Chinese vessels were equipped with machine guns.

"Actions by the Chinese side like this, which will escalate the situation, is not tolerable," the statement said.

Beijing claims ownership of the islands, which are known in Chinese as the Diaoyus, dating to their discovery in the 14th century. Tokyo maintains that it formally owned the chain between 1895 and the end of the Second World War, when they were ceded to the United States until being returned in 1971.

The islands are believed to be rich in energy resources.

Japan has sided with the US and its Pacific allies in territorial disputes in the neighboring South China Sea, where the Hague-based Court of Arbitration recently rejected Beijing’s nine-dash line claims.

http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160817/1044340772/video-chinese-coast-guard-senkakus.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on August 19, 2016, 07:02:45 pm
Japan eyes fighter drone, seeks record defense budget amid China assertiveness

Japan aims to develop a prototype drone fighter jet in two decades with private sector help in a technology strategy that focuses on weapons communications and lasers... The plan will be announced this month...as tension rises in the East China Sea and North Korea steps up its missile threat, government officials with direct knowledge of the matter said. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-defence-budget-idUSKCN10U0MJ


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on October 06, 2016, 12:39:19 am
China's Taiwan affairs spokesman: 'Our position is steadfast on opposing any Taiwan-independence activities... Do not underestimate the resolution of more than 1.3 billion people on the mainland' - Xinhua

read more on xinhuanet.com

Sounds like war drums to me


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on October 24, 2016, 07:33:17 pm
and Democrats said it was Russia...  ::)

Chinese firm admits its hacked DVRs, cameras were behind Friday's massive DDOS attack
Michael Kan IDG News Service

A Chinese electronics component manufacturer says its products inadvertently played a role in a massive cyberattack that disrupted major internet sites in the U.S. on Friday.

Hangzhou Xiongmai Technology, a vendor behind DVRs and internet-connected cameras, said on Sunday that security vulnerabilities involving weak default passwords in its products were partly to blame.

According to security researchers, malware known as Mirai has been taking advantage of these vulnerabilities by infecting the devices and using them to launch huge distributed denial-of service attacks, including Friday’s outage.

“Mirai is a huge disaster for the Internet of Things,” Xiongmai said in an email to IDG News Service. “(We) have to admit that our products also suffered from hacker's break-in and illegal use.”

Mirai works by enslaving IoT devices to form a massive connected network. The devices are then used to deluge websites with requests, overloading the sites and effectively taking them offline.

Because these devices have weak default passwords and are easy to infect, Mirai has been found spreading to at least 500,000 devices, according to internet backbone provider Level 3 Communications.

Xiongmai says it patched the flaws with its products in September 2015 and its devices now ask the customer to change the default password when used for the first time. But products running older versions of the firmware are still vulnerable.

To stop the Mirai malware, Xiongmai is advising that customers update their product’s firmware and change the default username and passwords to them. Customers can also disconnect the products from the internet.
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Botnets created from the Mirai malware were at least partly responsible for Friday's massive internet disruption, according to Dyn, the DNS service provider targeted in the assault.

“We observed 10s of millions of discrete IP addresses associated with the Mirai botnet that were part of the attack,” Dyn said in statement.

The DDOS attack, which flooded sites with an overwhelming amount of internet traffic, slowed and stopped access to Twiiter, Spotify, PayPal and many more services.

Although Dyn managed to fend off the disruption and restore access to its service, Mirai-powered botnets could easily strike again. Earlier this month, the unknown developer of the Mirai malware released its source code to the hacker community. Security firms have already noticed copycat hackers using it.

The Mirai malware also appears to target products from other IoT vendors that use weak default passwords in their devices. Security experts have noticed the malware tries a list of more than 60 combinations of user names and passwords.

Last month, a Mirai-powered botnet also briefly took down the website of cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs, by delivering 665 Gbps of traffic, making it one of the largest recorded DDOS attacks in history.


http://www.pcworld.com/article/3134039/hacking/chinese-firm-admits-its-hacked-products-were-behind-fridays-massive-ddos-attack.html


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on December 21, 2016, 11:48:20 pm
Japan boosts coast guard fleet to defend disputed East China Sea islands
Five large surveillance ships and three research vessels will be added, along with 200 extra security officials

Japan’s government has announced it will bolster its coast guard capabilities to defend East China Sea islands that China also claims and regularly patrols.

The government said Japan’s 2017 coast guard budget will reach a record 210bn yen ($1.8bn) to add eight new ships and more than 200 law enforcement officials. The 14-ship fleet will add five large surveillance ships and three research vessels.

Abe’s cabinet on Thursday is set to approve a defence budget expected to be around 5.1tn yen ($44bn), another new high since Abe took office in 2012, according to Japanese media. The reports said upgraded missile defence and new submarine construction were behind the increase.

The uninhabited East China Sea islands, called Senkaku by Japan and the Diaoyu by China, are controlled by Japan and Wednesday’s decision by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would let Japan add to its maritime presence in the surrounding waters.

Abe said Japan needed to “substantially strengthen the structure and capabilities” of the coast guard. “We will urgently begin strengthening our [maritime safety] structure,” he said.

. The islands are at the centre of a diplomatic row and both Japan and China send patrol vessels and aircrafts there routinely, raising concerns of an accidental collision or other risks.

The new coast guard budget will also cover the cost of putting video transmission devices on vessels dedicated to Senkaku patrols, while strengthening maritime surveillance and other measures, Abe said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/22/japan-boosts-coast-guard-fleet-to-defend-disputed-east-china-sea-islands


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on February 08, 2017, 08:20:28 pm
Pearl Harbor 2? China 'has prepared for a preemptive strike against US military bases which would cripple American forces in the region'

    An investigation of satellite imagery compares China's missile testing grounds and US military bases
    The images show that the test areas have been designed to look like the military bases, according to the report
    Earlier this week, a highly accurate Chinese ballistic missile capable of threatening US and Japan bases in Asia made its latest appearance
    The medium-range DF-16 featured in a video posted last week


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4204262/China-prepared-pre-emptive-strike-against-US.html#ixzz4Y9P53XxA
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on February 19, 2017, 05:40:34 pm
South China Sea: US carrier group begins ‘routine’ patrols

US aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson has started what it calls “routine operations” in the South China Sea, with a fleet of supporting warships. The deployment comes days after China’s foreign ministry warned Washington against challenging Beijing’s sovereignty in the region. China claims several contested shoals, islets and reefs in the area.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-39018882


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on March 06, 2018, 06:31:38 pm
Red Alert! Japan Preparing for War with China

The Japanese military only accounts for 1% of the country’s GDP. However, Japan is moving into war mode. Who are they preparing for? The answer is simple, they are preparing to fight China. Japan has taken the unprecedented move, in the modern era, of putting missile batteries  on the Island of Okinawa to counter a potential Chinese threat. The entire storyis contained in the following video.

http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/red-alert-japan-preparing-for-war-with-china/


Title: Re: War Between Japan And China In The Next Year
Post by: Mark on April 07, 2018, 06:16:46 pm
Japan activates first marines since WW2 to bolster defenses against China

Japan on Saturday activated its first marine unit since World War Two trained to counter invaders occupying Japanese islands along the edge of the East China Sea that Tokyo fears are vulnerable to attack by China.

In a ceremony held at a military base near Sasebo on the southwest island of Kyushu, about 1,500 members of the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB) wearing camouflage lined up outside amid cold, windy weather.

"Given the increasingly difficult defense and security situation surrounding Japan, defense of our islands has become a critical mandate," Tomohiro Yamamoto, vice defense minister, said in a speech.

The troops conducted a 20-minute mock public exercise recapturing a remote island from invaders.

The formation of the Japanese marine brigade is controversial because amphibious units can project military force and could, critics warn, be used to threaten Japan’s neighbors. In its post World War Two constitution Japan renounced the right to wage war.

The brigade is the latest component of a growing marine force that includes helicopter carriers, amphibious ships, Osprey tilt-rotor troop carriers and amphibious assault vehicles, meant to deter China as it pushes for easier access to the Western Pacific.

China, which dominates the South China Sea, is outpacing Japan in defense spending. In 2018, Beijing which claims a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea controlled by Tokyo, will spend 1.11 trillion yuan ($176.56 billion) on its armed forces, more than three times as much as Japan.

The activation of the 2,100 strong ARDB takes Japan a step closer to creating a force similar to a U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) able to plan and execute operations at sea far from its home base.

"They've already demonstrated the ability to put together an ad hoc MEU. But to have a solid, standing MEU capability requires concerted effort," Grant Newsham, a research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies.

"If Japan put its mind to it, within a year or year and a half it could have a reasonable capability."

Newsham, who helped train Japan's first amphibious troops as a U.S. Marine Corps colonel liaison officer assigned to the Ground Self Defense Force (GSDF), said Japan still needs a joint navy-army amphibious headquarters to coordinate operations as well as more amphibious ships to carry troops and equipment.

Japanese military planners are already mulling some of those additions. Its Air Self Defense Force (ASDF) wants to acquire F-35Bs to operate from its Izumo and Ise helicopter carriers, or from islands along the East China Sea, sources have told Reuters.

The United States last month deployed its F-35Bs for their first at-sea operations aboard the USS Wasp amphibious assault ship, which is based in Sasebo. The Kyushu port is also home to Japan's Ise and close to the ARDB's base.

Separately the GSDF may acquire small amphibious ships up to a 100 meters (328.08 ft) long to transport troops and equipment between islands and from ship to shore, two sources familiar with the discussion said. Japanese ground forces have not operated their own ships since World War Two.

"The idea is to bring forces and gear on large ships to the main Okinawa island and then disperse them to other islands on smaller vessels," said one of the sources, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to talk to the media.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/japan-activates-first-marines-since-ww2-bolster-defenses-064938992--finance.html