Wednesday, August 04, 2021

The Chinese naval threat is about fishing and freedom of navigation.

Duterte said it was okay to restart the joint exercizes with the US... he needs the vaccine, and China has reniged on their promises too many times.

And VPHarris is going around pushing back on Chinese aggression. She is visiting VietNam and Singapore.

this is important news, since Pres Biden's health is poor and the US press whispers that Harris will have to take over before his four year term is finished. Harris alas has little overseas experience, so she is getting on the job training.

Over the last decade, China has slowly tried to take over the shoals in the West Philppine sea: First they fence off the fishing areas then they put in their own "ships" which are "civilian" ships who are protected by the Chinese navy.

the Chinese vessels then threaten local fishermen from their traditional fishing grounds, and it is hard to push back against them because the Philippines is a small poor country......

........

But it's not about fish: there is also oil there to steal.

But for the international community, the main threat is when China dig up the sea bed and have built and then militarized artificial islands. These will not only let them decimate the ecology and fish in the area, but will let them block the valuable sea lanes from Europe/the Middle East to Korea and Japan.


Most of the information in the MSM on China's aggression in the west Philippine sea usually points to the Philippines, but actually Viet nam actually went to war with them when they stole their islands. True, they lost, but unlike the Philippines, they did fight.

Of course, Viet Nam is very anti China: They were once part of China and revolted a couple centuries ago and remember their history... but like much of SEAsia, the business folk are Chinese and are resented...a lot of the boat people refugees were Chinese ethnics who fled the communist takeover, and there was a small border war between those countries.

But the Inquirer has two other articles on other countries who just realized the Chinese threat to the sea lanes:


Indian Navy task force in South China Sea, West Pacific for 2 months....

...During the deployment in the Indo Pacific, the ships are scheduled to participate in bilateral exercises with the Vietnamese Peoples’ Navy, the Republic of Philippines Navy, Republic of Singapore Navy (SIMBEX), and the Indonesian Navy (Samudra Shakti) and Royal Australian Navy (AUS-INDEX). Further, they would also participate in multilateral exercise MALABAR-21 alongside the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force, the Royal Australian Navy and the United States Navy in Western Pacific. 

background here (2020 article from EconTimes) 

this is not "new": the Diplomat has an article about their visit to Viet nam back in 2016. and this blog notes when Indian ships visited Subic in 2016.

so nothing new: after all, if China blocks the sea lanes it will be able to block India's trade with Korea and Japan...

But this one is new:

.....German warship heads for South China Sea amid tension with Beijing (from the Inquirer).

and now the map is updated to note the radar and air power threat.



China Radar South China Sea Map showing potential Chinese radar cover in the South China Sea, according to analysis by US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. 


AFP BERLIN — Germany on Monday sent a warship to the South China Sea for the first time in almost two decades, joining other Western nations in expanding its military presence in the region amid growing alarm over China’s territorial ambitions.

 ... Officials in Berlin have said the German navy will stick to common trade routes. ...Berlin has made it clear the mission serves to stress the fact Germany does not accept China’s territorial claims. 
 Germany is walking a tightrope between its security and economic interests as China has become Berlin’s most important trading partner.

the USNI blog has an essay aimed at ordinary sailor who might be deployed there:

 

I also ran into this essay: reminding sailors that these countries have their own cultures and priorities.

10 Things Every Sailor and Marine Should Know Before Deploying to Southeast Asia

and of course lots of stuff recently on StrategyPage 

LINK  discusses the threat of Islamic and communist terrorism and the threats by China and how the Philippines has been forced to upgrade their military, and how China is using fishing vessels not only in poaching fish but playing a game of "chicken" with the Chinese threatening local fishermen and other boats in the area, hoping that someone will shoot at them in panic.

so far this hasn't happened near here, but Chinese poachers have been shot at elsewhere. LINK. discusses this practice off the coast of South America.

.. and notes that Argentina and Indonesia have both sank poachers in the past, but that it hasn't stopped them.

this is a major ecological problem that is also being ignored by the world for fear of upsetting emperor Xi.

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