Militarization of South China Sea & East China Sea. Six Wars Necessary

[jimmy olsen]

Sino-American War might be what it takes to draw Seedy back here.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-military-proposes-challenge-to-china-sea-claims-1431463920

U.S. Military Proposes Challenge to China Sea Claims

Moves would send Navy planes, ships near artificial islands built by China in contested waters

By
Adam Entous, Gordon Lubold and Julian E. Barnes

Updated May 12, 2015 7:33 p.m. ET

189 COMMENTS   
 
The U.S. military is considering using aircraft and Navy ships to directly contest Chinese territorial claims to a chain of rapidly expanding artificial islands, U.S. officials said, in a move that would raise the stakes in a regional showdown over who controls disputed waters in the South China Sea.

Defense Secretary  Ash Carter has asked his staff to look at options that include flying Navy surveillance aircraft over the islands and sending U.S. naval ships to within 12 nautical miles of reefs that have been built up and claimed by the Chinese in an area known as the Spratly Islands.

Such moves, if approved by the White House, would be designed to send a message to Beijing that the U.S. won't accede to Chinese territorial claims to the man-made islands in what the U.S. considers to be international waters and airspace.

The Pentagon's calculation may be that the military planning, and any possible deployments, would increase pressure on the Chinese to make concessions over the artificial islands. But Beijing also could double down, expanding construction in defiance of the U.S. and potentially taking steps to further Chinese claims in the area.

The U.S. has said it doesn't recognize the man-made islands as sovereign Chinese territory. Nonetheless, military officials said, the Navy has so far not sent military aircraft or ships within 12 nautical miles of the reclaimed reefs to avoid escalating tensions.

If the U.S. challenges China's claims using ships or naval vessels and Beijing stands its ground, the result could escalate tensions in the region, with increasing pressure on both sides to flex military muscle in the disputed waters.

According to U.S. estimates, China has expanded the artificial islands in the Spratly chain to as much as 2,000 acres of land, up from 500 acres last year. Last month, satellite imagery from defense intelligence provider  IHS  Jane's showed China has begun building an airstrip on one of the islands, which appears to be large enough to accommodate fighter jets and surveillance aircraft.

The U.S. has used its military to challenge other Chinese claims Washington considers unfounded. In November 2013, the U.S. flew a pair of B-52 bombers over disputed islands in the East China Sea to contest an air identification zone that Beijing had declared in the area.

Officials said there was now growing momentum within the Pentagon and the White House for taking concrete steps in order to send Beijing a signal that the recent buildup in the Spratlys went too far and needed to stop.

Chinese officials dismiss complaints about the island-building, saying Beijing is entitled to undertake construction projects within its own sovereign territory. They say the facilities will be used for military and civilian purposes.

"China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters," said embassy spokesman Zhu Haiquan, using the Chinese name for the Spratlys. "The relevant construction, which is reasonable, justified and lawful, is well within China's sovereignty. It does not impact or target any country, and is thus beyond reproach."

Mr. Zhu said that Beijing hopes that "relevant parties," a reference to the U.S. military and its regional allies, will "refrain from playing up tensions or doing anything detrimental to security and mutual trust."

China claims almost all of the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping routes, and its efforts to enforce control of the area in recent years have caused growing concern in the U.S. and in Asia, where several nations have competing claims, including the Philippines, a U.S. ally.

"The Philippines believes that the U.S., as well as all responsible members of the international community, do have an interest and say in what is happening in the South China Sea," said Charles Jose, spokesman for the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, early Wednesday, citing freedom of navigation and unimpeded flow of commerce among other factors.

U.S. military aircraft have repeatedly approached the 12-nautical-mile zone declared by China around the built up reefs. But to avoid an escalation, the planes haven't penetrated the zone. A senior military official said the flights "have kept a distance from the islands and remained near the 12-mile mark."

U.S. planes have flown close to the islands where the building has been taking place, prompting Chinese military officers to radio the approaching U.S. aircraft to notify the pilots that they are nearing Chinese sovereign territory. In response, U.S. pilots have told the Chinese that they are flying through international airspace.

The USS Fort Worth, a combat ship, has been operating in recent days in waters near the Spratlys. "We're just not going within the 12 miles—yet," a senior U.S. official said.

The military proposals haven't been formally presented to the White House, which would have to sign off on any change in the U.S. posture. The White House declined to comment on the deliberations.

Officials said the issue is a complicated one because at least some of the areas where the Chinese have been doing construction are, in eyes of the U.S. government, legitimate islands, which would be entitled to a 12-nautical-mile zone.

The proposal under consideration would be to send Navy ships and aircraft to within 12 nautical miles of only those built-up sites that the U.S. doesn't legally consider to be islands, officials say.

Under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, reclaimed features aren't entitled to territorial waters if the original features are not islands recognized under the agreement, U.S. officials say. Under that interpretation, the U.S. believes it doesn't need to honor the 12-mile zone around the built-up reefs that weren't considered to be islands before construction there began.

Several U.S. allies in the region have been privately urging the White House to do more to challenge Chinese behavior, warning Washington that U.S. inaction in the South China Sea risked inadvertently reinforcing Beijing's territorial claims, U.S. officials said. Some allies in the region have, in contrast, expressed concern to Washington that a change in the U.S.'s approach could inadvertently draw them into a conflict.

"It's important that everyone in the region have a clear understanding of exactly what China is doing," a U.S. official said. "We've got to get eyes on." The U.S. has been using satellites to monitor building at the islands.

In recent months, the White House has sought to increase pressure on Beijing to halt construction on the islands through diplomatic channels, as well as by calling out the Chinese publicly in recent press briefings and government reports.

The U.S. Navy regularly conducts "freedom of navigation transits" in the region, including across the South China Sea. But the Navy has yet to receive explicit authorization from the administration to do so within 12 nautical miles of the artificial islands.

John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, is due in Beijing this weekend to make preparations for a visit to the U.S. in September by Chinese President  Xi Jinping, who has made improving military ties with the U.S. a top priority.

A new standoff with China would add to mounting security crises facing the U.S. in other regions.

Last year, after Russia seized Ukrainian territory, the White House imposed sanctions on Moscow but so far has rebuffed Ukrainian requests for U.S. weapons. In the Middle East, Islamic State militants took over large swaths of Iraq last summer, prompting the U.S. to launch an air campaign against the group.

The U.S. has long maintained that it doesn't take sides in the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, though it has a national interest in maintaining freedom of navigation in the area. In the last year, though, U.S. officials have stepped up its criticism of China's efforts to enforce and justify its claims in the region.

U.S. officials say they are concerned that a decision not to send naval vessels into the zone would inadvertently help the Chinese build their own case for sovereignty in the area.

Chinese coast guard vessels routinely sail within 12 nautical miles of the Senkaku Islands, which are controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing, which calls them the Diaoyu.

U.S. officials say they believe China sends vessels into the Senkaku area in the East China Sea because it wants to demonstrate to Tokyo and to others that Beijing doesn't recognize the islands as Japanese sovereign territory.

China's claims include territorial seas stretching out 12 nautical miles from all the Spratlys, where it controls seven reefs—all recently expanded into artificial islands. Rival claimants occupy several other islands, reefs and rocks.

Historical images from  Google  Earth and elsewhere reveal that reclamation work at most of the Chinese held reefs began after President Xi took power in 2012.

Much of the construction began in the past year, despite protests from neighboring countries, warming military ties with Washington, and a new Chinese drive to improve relations in its periphery.

U.S. officials say they have repeatedly asked China to stop the work, to no avail.

—Jeremy Page and Trefor Moss contributed to this article.

[Berkut]

It seems like flying near the 12 mile limit but not breaching it is pretty much tacit acceptance that said limit exists.

Either ignore it, or don't even approach it at all. Going near it but not breaking it seems like a move designed by the Chinese to confirm their sovereignty.

[Razgovory]

Is there a story in this article?

[jimmy olsen]

The U.S. military has done so, but with planes rather than ships.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/20/politics/south-china-sea-navy-flight/index.html 

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.

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.

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. 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!"

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."

[Admiral Yi]

"No, you go!"

[jimmy olsen]

More Chinese maritime aggression! 

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/china-japan-disputed-waters-oil-plantform-n396351

Japan-China Spat: Beijing Plans To Tap Oil Field Near Disputed Waters, Tokyo Says

by Arata Yamamoto

TOKYO — Japan released aerial photos of Chinese oil and gas exploration platforms Wednesday it said were close to disputed waters and proved that Beijing was planning to tap into an oil field that straddles both countries' territory.

"While the objects may be on the Chinese side of the dividing line, for China to unilaterally develop the natural resources there is extremely regrettable," Japan's main government's main spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters during a press conference.

In 2008, Japan and China agreed to jointly develop resources in the area, which is claimed by both countries.


The new aerial photographs showed 16 Chinese platforms in the area, 12 of which have been built since 2013, Suga said.

"We decided to disclose what we can show, as there's been increasing interest home and abroad over China's unilateral efforts to change the status quo," Suga said, referring to a territorial dispute involving Vietnam and the Philippines over the Spratly Islands in South China Sea.

Related: China Has Some News About Disputed-Islands Project

On Tuesday, Japan's defense minister Gen Nakatani called on China to stop building the platforms, adding that Beijing's activities "were also of international concern."

China pushed back after Nakatani's statement.

"This kind of action completely lays bare the two-faced nature of Japan's foreign policy and has a detrimental impact on peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region," China's defense ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

[Syt]

[celedhring]

Damn, I'm late to post that 

[jimmy olsen]

Go Go Go! 

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/10/23/a_maritime_game_of_chicken_in_asia_128523.html

A Maritime Game of Chicken in Asia
David Ignatius
October 23, 2015

SINGAPORE -- The U.S. appears to be moving toward a military test of China's claims of sovereignty in disputed areas of the South China Sea, and officials here seem pleased that President Obama is prepared to put more muscle into his famous "pivot" to Asia.

The U.S. has been briefing Asian allies about its new readiness to assert "freedom of navigation" by sending ships within the 12-mile limits that China has placed around its newly reclaimed "islands." Adm. John Richardson, the new chief of naval operations, said in Tokyo a week ago that U.S. warships will be "just steaming in international waters," and that this shouldn't be seen by Beijing as a "provocation."

After ducking a confrontation with China over the disputed islands since 2012, the administration has decided to take a tougher stance. "The United States will continue to sail, fly and operate anywhere that international law allows," Obama said at a news conference with President Xi Jinping during the Chinese leader's visit to Washington last month. Xi, for his part, insisted that China won't militarize the islands.

What will the Chinese do as U.S. warships sail past the maritime limits Beijing claims? Its foreign ministry warned that "there is no way for us to condone infringement of China's territorial sea." But officials here expect that China will do no more than shadow U.S. vessels, and perhaps attempt to block their passage, rather than open opening fire.

The maritime game of chicken that's looming could easily escalate out of control. So the U.S. and China would be wise to agree on clearer rules for dealing with incidents at sea, before vessels actually come in contact. Superpowers shouldn't make "invidious premature choices," warns Bilahari Kausikan, a Singapore ambassador at large and former top official of the foreign ministry.

Southeast Asian leaders, who have been worried that Obama was too passive about China's island grab, appear relieved. They want Washington to follow through on the logic of the pivot, which was that America's military focus should shift from the Middle East, where it has been bogged down in seemingly unwinnable wars, to Asia, where many believe the U.S. economic future lies.

"America has been distracted," says a former top Singapore official. "There's been a lack of focus on Asia. If America had been more alert, the Chinese could not have moved in the South China Sea. They're opportunists. They will continue to push until they hit a wall."

  Southeast Asian leaders were pleased when administration officials began talking about the pivot back in November 2011. But they have been disappointed at the lack of follow-through, which some say encouraged the Chinese to press ahead with their reclamation of reefs in the South China Sea, turning them into artificial islands where the Chinese could assert sovereignty and eventually build military bases.

The Chinese concluded several years ago that the Obama administration "would talk but do nothing" about the disputed islands, said a senior Singapore official. He speculates that the Chinese may have been "rushing" to construct the islands because they feared the next U.S. president would have a more "robust" stance than Obama.

The debate here about checking Chinese power in Asia has a different (and more positive) tone than the relentless Washington focus on Russia and the Middle East. Officials here see the Middle East as an unfortunate diversion from the more important challenge of a rising China. Obama would probably say the same thing.

Kausikan says he's not worried about a U.S. retreat from the Middle East. "'Offshore balancer' is fine," he says, using the term foreign policy experts use to describe a less-engaged U.S. military strategy in the Middle East. "When you tried to be an onshore balancer, you cocked it up royally," he says, referring to the Iraq War. "Now you are finding a new equilibrium. And you are part of Asia, inextricably."

Talking with Southeast Asian officials is the foreign policy equivalent of changing the channel. The Middle East is a continuing demonstration of the limits of U.S. military power, and antipathy toward its use. But in the Pacific region, countries invite that same U.S. power to check China's bid for regional dominance. The common theme, perhaps, is that nations want America to fight their wars, until they go bad.

"We speak of the U.S. as a 'benign hegemon," says Chan Heng Chee, Singapore's former ambassador to Washington. Have you ever heard that phrase applied to America's role in the Middle East?

[jimmy olsen]

Somewhere out there, CdM is smiling.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-warship-sails-within-12-miles-of-chinese-built-island-in-south-china-sea/2015/10/26/a178497b-7033-4e4c-a328-0f3c980cf193_story.html

U.S. warship sails within 12 miles of Chinese-built island in South China Sea

By Simon Denyer, Craig Whitlock and Steven Mufson October 26 at 10:56 PM

BEIJING — A U.S. naval destroyer sailed early Tuesday within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island built by China in the South China Sea, a U.S. defense official said, in a direct challenge to China's territorial claims.

The USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, was accompanied by Navy surveillance planes as it approached the Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands, the official said.

The mission "was completed without incident," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The decision to go ahead with the mission follows months of deliberation in Washington and is certain to China, which said last month it would "never allow any country" to violate what it considers to be its territorial waters and airspace around the islands.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had said earlier that Beijing was trying to verify whether the U.S. vessel had entered the 12-mile zone.

"If true, we advise the U.S. to think again, not to act blindly or make trouble out of nothing," the Foreign Ministry quoted him as saying.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea as its territory, including the main islands and reefs, and has argued that giving up that claim would "shame its ancestors." The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims, and several of them also occupy different islands, reefs and rocks.

A massive Chinese program of land reclamation and construction on several islands has taken place since 2014, upsetting ties with the United States and several of those rival claimants.

This week's U.S. naval mission is also intended to test a pledge made by President Xi Jinping during his visit to Washington last month that Beijing would not militarize the islands, U.S. officials have said.

Subi Reef, which lies close to the Philippines in the South China Sea, used to be submerged at high tide before China began a massive dredging project to turn it into an island. It is now big enough to potentially host an airstrip.

Satellite images also show what looks like a surveillance tower and multiple satellite antennas on Subi reef, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, part of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Under the international law of the sea, turning such features into artificial islands does not imply any rights to territorial waters around them, something the U.S. mission is designed to underline, although countries can claim a "safety zone" of just 500 meters around previously submerged reefs.

A Chinese airstrip is already under construction at Fiery Cross reef and experts say another could potentially soon be built at Mischief reef. China says the construction work is primarily designed for civilian use and will not affect freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

But the Chinese Embassy in Washington said that the concept of freedom of navigation should not be used as an excuse for muscle-flexing and that the United States should "refrain from saying or doing anything provocative and act responsibly in maintaining peace and regional stability," Chinese state media reported.

In Washington, experts backed the U.S. naval action.

"This should have been done a long time ago," said Bonnie Glaser, an expert on the Chinese military at CSIS. The Navy has wanted conduct such an operation for some time, but the Obama administration had prevented that until now, she said.

While the exercise would probably not stop China from further construction or militarization of air strips on the reefs, Glaser said that there were still good reasons to go ahead.

"Our aim in any freedom of navigation operation is not aimed at that kind of objective. It is simply to sail through waters that are subject to the law of the sea," she said.

"Some parts of the administration believed this would make things even more difficult, that China would become even more obstreperous, more difficult to deal with," she said, "and others thought this wasn't something we should do before Xi Jinping came to Washington."

At the summit, President Obama told Xi that the United States would operate, fly or sail anywhere that international law allows. On Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest referred questions on specific operations to the Pentagon but reiterated that commitment to freedom of navigation.

"This is a critically important principle, particularly in the South China Sea, because there are billions of dollars of commerce that flow through that region of the world every year, and maybe even more than that, Earnest said. "Ensuring the free flow of this commerce and that freedom of navigation of those vessels is protected is critically important to the global economy."

Additional patrols will follow in coming weeks, and could also be conducted around features that have been built up by Vietnam and the Philippines in the Spratlys, a U.S. defense official told the Reuters news agency.

"This is something that will be a regular occurrence, not a one-off event," the official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. "It's not something that's unique to China."

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Monday the United States is not required to consult with other nations if it decides to conduct such operations.

"The whole point of freedom of navigation in international waters is that it's international waters. You don't need to consult with anybody. That's the idea," he said.

At the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I., associate professor Andrew Erickson said the U.S action underscored its "commitment to maintaining an open global system with global commons that all are free to use to the maximum extent permitted by international law."

"As can be seen from the operation's peaceful, unimpeded nature, China and the U.S. share an interest in keeping the vital sea lanes of the South China Sea stable and open," he said.

The USS Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, operates out of its home port in Yokosuka, Japan — headquarters for the U.S. 7th Fleet.

The Lassen has been deployed to the South China Sea since late May and has had several routine interactions at sea with Chinese naval vessels, according to U.S. Navy officials.



Whitlock and Mufson reported from Washington.

[KRonn]

Japan should start drilling on the other side of that area where they claim the Chinese are encroaching on by doing the same thing.

[grumbler]

The facade of rationality in the CCP cracks more every time an official argues that the country should do stupid things because the alternative would "shame its ancestors."

[The Brain]

Well Chinese have more ancestors than many Americans. :hillbilly:

[Jacob]

The facade of rationality in the CCP cracks more every time an official argues that the country should do stupid things because the alternative would "shame its ancestors."

I think it's basically the replacement for "safeguard the revolution" and similar. A nice sounding reason that may or may not be heartfelt in any given instance, and which can be shaped to support pretty much any action.

[mongers]

Timmay taint for once being put to good effect.