South China Sea - Page 11

As Chinese President Xi Jinping worked to consolidate his power at the Communist Party Congress in Beijing, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was unloading on the Chinese in an address to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Wednesday.

The United States should keep an eye on China’s rapidly growing naval forces, a part of which China has hidden as civilian fishing boats, a prominent U.S. expert on China warned at an event on Wednesday.

President Trump should increase the U.S. military’s presence in the South China Sea to counter a rising and increasingly belligerent China before that country’s territorial ambitions become unstoppable and make it impossible for America to come to the defense of Taiwan or other allies in the region.

China’s foreign ministry vociferously protested the presence of the USS Chafee near the Paracel Islands on Tuesday, a naval warship conducting a “freedom of navigation” exercise in international waters that Beijing insists fall under Chinese control.

Contents: China demands that Indonesia end plans to rename its own territorial waters; Indonesia blocks China’s repeated attempts to annex Indonesia’s Natuna Islands

Vietnam condemned Chinese live-fire military drills near disputed islands in the South China Sea this week, but the complaint was dismissed by a Chinese official who implied Hanoi was acting irrationally.

Contents: Vietnam protests China’s military drills near the Gulf of Tonkin in South China Sea; India and Vietnam become allies in confronting China

The Chinese Communist Party newspaper Global Times remarked on Steve Bannon’s departure from the White House in an editorial on Saturday. It was not a fond farewell. The Chinese are happy to see Bannon go because they dislike his focus on China fighting an “economic war” with the United States.

The leftist government of Ecuador, a close ally of China, has lodged a stern protest against Beijing this week after seizing an illegal fishing vessel carrying thousands of endangered sharks. China’s presence in the waters of Latin America has grown as the lucrative illegal fish market has grown.

Contents: Chinese vessels massing near Philippines island in South China Sea; Official warns may be necessary to invoke US-Philippines mutual defense treaty

During a meeting in Washington on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and his Vietnamese counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich agreed that an American aircraft carrier would sail to Vietnam next year, marking the first such visit since the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

The latest freedom of navigation patrol for the U.S. Navy in the South China Sea brought the destroyer USS John S. McCain to within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese artificial island off the Philippine coast on Thursday.

Singapore is scheduled to assume the rotating chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next year, and China wasted no time making it known that it expects Singapore to keep a lid on ASEAN discontent over Chinese adventures in the South China Sea.

Japan’s annual defense report is focused on the threat from North Korea, but it also has a good deal to say about China. Those two Japanese concerns converge in a live-fire exercise held by the Chinese Navy off the Korean coast this week, in which dozens of different types of missiles were tested, air intercepts were simulated, ground assaults were practiced, and submarines prowled the waters.

At the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting this weekend, Australia and Japan joined the United States in calling for a legally binding “code of conduct” for the South China Sea. More to the point, they want an internationally-recognized legal barrier to China’s conduct in the region.

Contents: UK to send warships to South China Sea, as China’s neighbors militarize; South China Sea countries build larger navies, preparing for war with China

President Trump approved a Pentagon plan this year that will require regular challenges to China’s excessive maritime claims in the South China Sea, Breitbart News has learned.

President Trump has placed a high priority on rebuilding the U.S. military and allowing his commanders to make more calls. So far, in the administration’s first six months, successes have been piling up.

Contents: China bans Winnie The Pooh because Xi Jinping looks like him; Indonesia defies China and renames part of the South China Sea

Indonesia is attempting to change the name of a portion of the hotly disputed South China Sea that falls within its exclusive economic zone, christening it the “North Natuna Sea.”

Contents: China establishes its first foreign military base, in Djibouti; Russia, India, Japan prepare for war with China

The Chinese state-run People’s Daily newspaper reported Wednesday that the nation’s military will reduce its army to under one million troops in an effort to do away with “the old military structure.”

Since President Donald Trump took the oath of office in January, he has taken a series of actions and used diplomatic channels to put in place many of the China policies he spoke about on the campaign trail, including confronting the nation on trade, North Korea, the South China Sea, and human rights.

Even as China and India square off over unrest on their borders, the United States Navy held its largest joint maritime exercise with India and Japan in three decades, teaming the USS Nimitz battle group with India’s only aircraft carrier and Japan’s most powerful warships.

Contents: China and India have military confrontation over Bhutan’s Doklam plateau; Border tensions grow between China and India

The U.S. Air Force confirmed that two American bombers flew over disputed territories in the South China Sea on Friday, where China has illegally built numerous military facilities. China condemned the flight and demanded America stop “flaunting” its military assets in the region.

The U.S. Navy conducted its second freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea this week in a challenge to China’s disputed claim to islands there.

Chinese President Xi Jinping praised the current period of China-Russia ties as the “best time in history” before his arrival in Moscow for a meeting with counterpart Vladimir Putin, following a phone call with American President Donald Trump in which Xi lamented “negative factors” affecting the bilateral relationship.

Contents: China builds illegal surface-to-air missile sites in South China Sea; Xi Jinping threatens Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters with ‘Red Line’

A report updated this week suggests that China has continued to build advanced military facilities on illegally-seized reefs and artificial islands in the South China Sea, as the anniversary of an international tribunal ruling against China on the matter nears.

Japan sent the Izumo-class helicopter carrier, the nation’s largest warship, into the South China Sea this week as part of an effort to strengthen ties with southeast Asian nations, angering the Chinese the government.

The U.S. military confirmed a military exercise by Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers over the South China Sea Thursday, a move that prompted Beijing, which illegally claims most of the sea, to remind Washington that it remains “vigilant” before U.S. exercises.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has expressed its “firm opposition” to “irresponsible remarks” by Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who demanded at a security conference in Singapore this weekend that China cease its mission to colonize the entire South China Sea.

Defense Secretary James Mattis over the weekend assured nervous allies in the Asia Pacific that the U.S. military is committed to securing stability in the region, amid several rising threats.

Vice President Mike Pence delivered words of encouragement to the class of 2017 at the United States Naval Academy on Friday. He told them to look toward their future, to write a heroic story of service, selflessness, and leadership with their lives, and that President Donald Trump is the best friend the armed forces of the United States will ever have.

The Chinese government has condemned a U.S. Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP) conducted near the disputed Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, the first such operation under President Donald Trump.