Chinese Weapons Spotted on Disputed Island, U.S. Says

[Gufi]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/w...llery-spotted-on-spratly-island.htmlSINGAPORE — The United States has spotted a pair of mobile artillery vehicles on an artificial island that China is building in the South China Sea, a resource-rich stretch of ocean crossed by vital shipping lanes, American officials said.

China’s construction program on previously uninhabited atolls and reefs in the Spratly Islands has already raised alarm and drawn protests from other countries in the region, whose claims to parts of the South China Sea overlap China’s.

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter called this week for China to halt the construction, saying that international law did not recognize Chinese claims of sovereignty over the new territories and that American warships and military aircraft would continue to operate in the area.

The artillery was spotted by satellites and surveillance aircraft about a month ago, and the two vehicles have since been either hidden or removed, according to an American official who spoke about intelligence matters on the condition of anonymity. The official added that even if the weapons remain on the island, they pose no threat to American naval forces or aircraft in the region, though the guns could reach some nearby islands claimed by other countries.

With Mr. Carter in Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-profile annual Asian security meeting that Chinese officials are also attending, American officials were reluctant to publicly discuss the intelligence they had collected about the artillery.

Brent Colburn, a spokesman traveling with Mr. Carter, would say only that the United States was aware of the weapons, whose detection was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized China’s deployment of artillery on the island as “a disturbing development and escalatory development.”

“Their actions are in violation of international law, and their actions are going to be condemned by everyone in the world,” Mr. McCain was quoted by Reuters as saying in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where he stopped on Friday on his way to Singapore for the security conference.

“We are not going to have a conflict with China,” he said, “but we can take certain measures which will be a disincentive to China to continue these kinds of activities.”

There was no immediate comment from Chinese officials about the weapons.

A top Chinese military official, Adm. Sun Jianguo, is scheduled to speak at the conference in Singapore about Chinese military policies. Admiral Sun, the deputy chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army, which includes the navy, will lead the strongest delegation of military officials that China has yet sent to the annual forum.

China released a military strategy document earlier this week that, for the first time, called for its navy to project force beyond its coastal waters into the open oceans. Western officials said because of its timing, the document seemed intended as a challenge to other participants in the conference.

The heightened tensions between the United States and China over the South China Sea were on display last week when the United States sent a surveillance plane close to Fiery Cross Reef, which China has built into an island with a runway that military aircraft can use. The Chinese told the American plane to leave the area, according to a CNN television crew that was aboard the flight at the Pentagon’s invitation.

When an American littoral combat ship, the Fort Worth, conducted a weeklong patrol of waters near the Spratly Islands, including Fiery Cross Reef, a Chinese guided missile frigate, the Yancheng, followed the American vessel for a time, the Pentagon announced. Other American warships will conduct similar patrols, which will be the “new normal” for the Navy in the South China Sea, the Pentagon said.

China has said that it was building the artificial islands in the sea largely for civilian purposes, but it has not denied that it also envisions a military role for them.

In April, Hua Chunying, the spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry,told reporters that the islands would be used to aid the country’s defense, though she did not provide details. “Such constructions are within China’s sovereignty and are fair, reasonable, lawful and do not affect nor target any country, and are beyond reproach,” she said.

The United States disagrees, and American officials have stressed in recent days that the American-dominated security order in the region should be respected because it has brought calm and prosperity.

The implication is that China is threatening to upend that system, but the American officials have hesitated to say so directly, preferring to talk in generalities about all countries needing to find diplomatic solutions to their disputes in the South China Sea.

Still, American officials have not been shy about pointing out that China has created roughly 2,000 acres of new land in the South China Sea, three quarters of it this year. The United States has also released video images taken by surveillance aircraft showing Chinese ships and dredges building runways and harbors on remote outcroppings in the sea.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/world/asia/chinese-artillery-spotted-on-spratly-island.html

 

[Gufi]

China Voice: U.S. playing with fire over South China Sea
English.news.cn 2015-05-29 17:08:06
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2...huanet.com/english/2015-05/29/c_134282034.htm



BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The United States' attempts to stir trouble in the South China Sea and denigrate China raise doubts on whether the self-proclaimed global peacekeeper is really so keen on quiet waters.

Speaking on his way to Singapore to attend the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security forum, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Wednesday called for an end to island-building in the South China Sea, urging China and other countries involved to stop militarizing disputes and find a peaceful solution in their competing claims to sovereignty in the area.

Though the land being reclaimed by China is within its sovereign territory, the move is "out of step" with the regional consensus, Carter said. Beijing has repeatedly asserted that China's work on the islands mostly serves civil purposes as well as meeting the needs of military defense.

This is not the first time the United States has made a fuss over a legitimate sovereign issue within China's territory.

Washington has never missed an opportunity to talk about the "China threat" when it comes to the South China Sea disputes between countries including China, the Philippines and Vietnam. It tries to pit other countries in the region against China.

Addressing U.S. Navy Academy cadets last week, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said China is a destabilizing factor in the South China Sea and the United States should keep peace in the region "as it has for the past 60 years".

Such remarks -- particularly hypocritical given a U.S. anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft's fly-over of waters off the Nansha Islands last week -- are inconducive to ensuring peace and stability in the busy body of water vital to international trade.

Outside meddling on the South China Sea issue will do nothing but sow discord, stoke tension and thus hinder the search for a peaceful solution to the disputes.

Overlooking China's commitment to peaceful development, the U.S. strategic rebalance toward the Asia Pacific -- a euphemism for containing rising powers such as China -- only serves Washington's own agenda of expanding its political and military presence in the region.

In particular, Washington is emboldening Hanoi and Manila, among others, to take a hardline stance against China, putting an amicable solution further beyond reach.

For sure, touting "China fear" in Beijing's neighborhood suits Washington.

Countries like the Philippines and Vietnam are increasingly looking to the United States for support when confronting China in their territorial claims, although they tend to skip the fact that the United States is not even a relevant party in the South China Sea. Nor do they recall past tranquility in the region, before Washington embarked on its "Pivot to Asia".

But the United States will not necessarily gain from the disputes.

For one thing, it risks poisoning its ties with China, the world's second-largest economy and its second-largest trade partner.

Despite some fundamental differences, Beijing and Washington share considerable interests on many major challenges, such as the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue.

There is more -- one does not need to be reminded of the benefits of a peaceful neighborhood to any country.

For both China and the United States, stability and security in their vicinity translate to stronger economic and trade links with neighbors, and more cultural and people-to-people exchanges -- all of which vital to their economy.

China needs peace and stability in the South China Sea more than any other country. As the country embarks on building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, the trade and infrastructure network that will connect China with Southeast Asian nations, Africa and Europe, it is more than willing to turn the South China Sea into a platform for cooperation.

A peaceful region is imperative to the success of the Belt and Road Initiative.

In its own interests and in the interests of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, Washington needs to tread carefully on the South China Sea issue, and stop stirring up trouble.

The best way to iron out differences is to let the countries involved solve the disputes on their own, rather than hear proposals by an outside interested party, who claims neutrality but often adopts double standards.

 

[hsinchong]

China islands are being developed by themselves and use by the China Coast Guard and PLA Navy in order to detect Phillipine and US conductions exercise near South China Sea

 

[Galad]

Disputed...please.Those islands belongs to China.None care what USA is thinking about the activities done by China in their own territory.

 

[Khalid Newazi]

And US weapons are regularly seen at the hands of ISIS and Al-Nusra.

 

[hsinchong]

US are spying on china

THE CHINESE will deploy their shaanxi-y9 anti submarine warfare aircraft to conduct photographic mapping when the US dares to come back again one more time.

China is currently fighting for America in electronic warfare.

 

[JSCh]

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that all the islands has military personnel station on them and has weapon.

They are not there on vacation, are they?

 

[dlclong]

WEEKEND EDITION MAY 29-31, 2015
Pivot Insanity
Why is Obama Goading China?
by MIKE WHITNEY
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is willing to risk a war with China in order to defend “freedom of navigation” in the South China Sea. Speaking in Honolulu, Hawaii on Wednesday, Carter issued his “most forceful” warning yet, demanding “an immediate and lasting halt to land reclamation” by China in the disputed Spratly Islands.

Carter said: “There should be no mistake: The United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as we do all around the world.” He also added that the United States intended to remain “the principal security power in the Asia-Pacific for decades to come.”

In order to show Chinese leaders “who’s the boss”, Carter has threatened to deploy US warships and surveillance aircraft to within twelve miles of the islands that China claims are within their territorial waters. Not surprisingly, the US is challenging China under the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a document the US has stubbornly refused to ratify. But that’s neither here nor there for the bellicose Carter whose insatiable appetite for confrontation makes him the most reckless Sec-Def since Donald Rumsfeld.

So what’s this really all about? Why does Washington care so much about a couple hundred yards of sand piled up on reefs reefs in the South China Sea? What danger does that pose to US national security? And, haven’t Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines all engaged in similar “land reclamation” activities without raising hackles in DC?

Of course, they have. The whole thing is a joke. Just like Carter’s claim that he’s defending the lofty principal of “freedom of navigation” is a joke. China has never blocked shipping lanes or seized boats sailing in international waters. Never. The same cannot be said of the United States that just recently blocked an Iranian ship loaded with humanitarian relief–food, water and critical medical supplies–headed to starving refugees in Yemen. Of course, when the US does it, it’s okay.

The point is, Washington doesn’t give a hoot about the Spratly Islands; it’s just a pretext to slap China around and show them who’s running the show in their own backyard. Carter even admits as much in his statement above when he says that the US plans to be “the principal security power in the Asia-Pacific for decades to come.” China knows what that means. It means “This is our planet, so you’d better shape up or you’re going to find yourself in a world of hurt.” That’s exactly what it means.

So let’s cut to the chase and try to explain what’s really going on, because pretty soon no one is going to be talking about Ukraine, Syria or Yemen because all eyes are going to be focused on China where our madhatter Secretary of Defense is trying to start a third world war.

Here’s the scoop: Washington has abandoned its China policy of “containment” and moved on to Plan B: Isolation, intimidation and confrontation. In my opinion, this is why the powerbrokers behind Obama dumped Hagel. Hagel just wasn’t hawkish enough for the job. They wanted a died-in-the-wool, warmongering neocon, like Carter, who is, quite likely, the most dangerous man in the world.

Carter’s assignment is to implement the belligerent new policy of incitement and conflict. His actions will prove to the skeptics that Washington is no longer interested in integrating China into the US-led system. Rather, China has become a the biggest threat to Washington’s plan to pivot to Asia. And, just to remind readers how important the pivot is to America’s future, here’s an Obama quote I lifted up from Tom Engelhardt’s latest titled “Superpower in Distress”:

“After a decade in which we fought two wars that cost us dearly, in blood and treasure, the United States is turning our attention to the vast potential of the Asia Pacific region….As we end today’s wars, I have directed my national security team to make our presence and mission in the Asia Pacific a top priority.”

The so called pivot is Washington’s “top priority”, which means that China’s unprecedented ascendency must be slowed and its regional influence curtailed. Thus, the dust up over the Spratly Islands will be used in the same way the US has used other incidents, that is, by demonizing China’s leaders in the media, by assembling a coalition that will publicly oppose China’s activities, by implementing harsh economic sanctions, by launching asymmetrical attacks on China’s currency and financial markets, by excluding China from critical trade agreements, and by inciting social unrest (color-coded revolution) through the support of dissidents living in China. These are the all-too-familiar signs of US meddling directed at “emerging rivals” who threaten US global hegemony. China now finds itself at the top of the list.

US powerbrokers know that bullying China involves significant risks for themselves and the world. Even so, they have decided to pursue this new policy and force a confrontation. Why? Why would they embark on a strategy so fraught with danger?

The answer is: They don’t see any way around it. They’ve tried containment and it hasn’t worked. China’s growing like crazy and its regional influence threatens to leave the US on the outside looking in. Carter even admitted as much in a recent speech he gave at the McCain Institute at Arizona State University. He said: “We already see countries in the region trying to carve up these markets…forging many separate trade agreements in recent years, some based on pressure and special arrangements…. Agreements that…..leave us on the sidelines. That risks America’s access to these growing markets. We must all decide if we are going to let that happen. If we’re going to help boost our exports and our economy…and cement our influence and leadership in the fastest-growing region in the world; or if, instead, we’re going to take ourselves out of the game.”

See? It’s all about markets. It’s all about money. Here’s more from Carter’s speech: (The) ” Asia-Pacific…is the defining region for our nation’s future”… “Half of humanity will live there by 2050″ and that “more than half of the global middle class and its accompanying consumption will come from that region.”….”There are already more than 525 million middle class consumers in Asia, and we expect there to be 3.2 billion in the region by 2030…President Obama and I want to ensure that… businesses can successfully compete for all these potential customers. ….Over the next century, no region will matter more… for American prosperity.”

This is why the Obama administration is making a general nuisance of itself in the South China Sea. It’s so the big US mega-corporations will have new customers for their IPADs and toaster ovens.

For that, they are willing to risk a nuclear war.


MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.
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