ALERT The Winds of War Blow in Korea and The Far East

northern watch

TB Fanatic
Chinese long-range bombers join drills over South China Sea
China says long-range bombers took part in recent aerial drills over the South China Sea amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over the strategic waterway

By The Associated Press
30 July 2020

BEIJING -- China said Thursday that long-range bombers were among the aircraft that took part in recent aerial drills over the South China Sea amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over the strategic waterway.

The exercises included nighttime takeoffs and landings and simulated long-range attacks, Defense Ministry spokesperson Ren Guoqiang said.

Among the planes were H-6G and H-6K bombers, upgraded versions of planes long in use with the People's Liberation Army Air Force and the People’s Liberation Army Navy Air Force, Ren said.

He said the exercises had been previously scheduled and were aimed at boosting pilot abilities to operate under all natural conditions. It wasn't clear whether live bombs were used.

Ren's statement appeared to distance the drills from recent accusations exchanged between the sides over China's claim to virtually all of the South China Sea, which it has buttressed in recent years by building man-made islands equipped with runways.

The U.S. this month for the first time rejected China’s claims outright, prompting Beijing to accuse it of seeking to create discord between China and its neighbors.

Five other governments also exercise claims in the South China Sea, through which around $5 trillion in trade is transported annually.

Previously, U.S. policy had been to insist that maritime disputes between China and its smaller neighbors be resolved peacefully through U.N.-backed arbitration.

But in a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. now regards virtually all Chinese maritime claims outside its internationally recognized waters to be illegitimate. The shift does not involve disputes over land features that are above sea level, which are considered to be “territorial” in nature.

“The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire,” Pompeo said.

Although the U.S. will officially continue to remain neutral in the territorial disputes, the announcement means the administration is in effect siding with governments which oppose Chinese assertions of sovereignty over maritime areas surrounding contested islands, reefs and shoals.

In other comments Thursday, Ren criticized stepped-up military cooperation between the U.S. and Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that China claims as its territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary.


Washington and Taipei have no formal diplomatic ties but the U.S. is the island's key provider of defensive arms and is legally obligated to treat threats to the island as matters of grave concern.

“The U.S. must realize that China is destined to unify (with Taiwan), and China is destined to realize its great rejuvenation,"" Ren said.

 

jward

passin' thru
Co-opting the Narrative: How Changing Women’s Roles Provide Legitimacy to Kim Jong Un
By: Darcie Draudt

On July 30, KCNA reaffirmed the country’s commitment to gender equality with a short notice on the 74th anniversary of the country’s Law on Sex Equality. According to Kim Il Sung, the women of the DPRK pushed “one of the two wheels of the revolutionary chariot” and are “flowers of the era for the prosperity of the country.”


In fact, how the North Korean state treats women’s roles can give us insights into regime capacity and illuminate potential cracks in the Supreme Leader’s domestic legitimacy. Official representations of gender roles show how much the regime can co-opt social changes and use them to support its legitimacy. When it comes to North Korean state-society relations more generally—like in music and media, technology and consumer trends—Kim Jong Un, like his father, has broadly been able to follow a three-step process taken from a successful dictator’s playbook: 1) identify on-the-ground changes perceived to threaten control and legitimacy, 2) stamp out or co-opt the narrative of those changes, and 3) use that narrative for his own political legitimacy.


Role of Women


As in most socialist ideologies, North Korea’s political ideology criticizes the burden of unpaid domestic labor and seeks to move women to the public workforce. North Korea took early steps to ensure women’s political and economic participation to build the nation. For example, to ease domestic burdens on women, the state established public childcare and “take out” food distribution centers as early as the 1960s. Service and political discussion groups specifically for women increased participation in social and political life outside the home. These steps led the North Korean state to claim the country is a woman’s paradise, where women have already been liberated from patriarchal feudalism.


But as we know, reality doesn’t always match rhetoric. Deeply rooted cultural practices often supersede these revolutionary prescriptions.[1] When it comes to the role of women in North Korean culture, the key is looking at how the family unit as an institution serves national development. Whether it’s a result of embedded Confucian mores or not, in Korean society the family unit is the basis for economic and social activity. In these traditional family institutions, the man takes care of all business outside the home and the woman takes care of all business inside the home.


Like his father, KCNA reports that Kim Jong Il respected women who served in the military as soldiers as well as officers’ wives and elevated their role as revolutionaries and cooks on the same footing. This family unit becomes a handy mechanism for the regime, because it’s already a seemingly natural, even primordial way of organizing society; in effect, the regime’s endurance is bolstered by its deep roots in an already conservative society.


Women’s roles can tell us a lot about the extent of control in totalitarian regimes, which by definition restrict individuals or groups from opposing the state and exercise immense control over public and private life. The North Korean regime’s “toolbox” ensures control both externally, by manipulating foreign governments, as well as internally, by restrictive social policies and manipulating ideas and information.[2] Social roles, including women’s roles, can be described on three levels:


  • Policies that protect or prohibit certain political or civil rights, dole out social benefits like welfare provisions on the basis of gender or family position, or shape individual economic advancement;
  • Practices, like giving preference to male applicants for work or female participation in neighborhood watch groups; and
  • Representation, or the power potential of an individual; in societies with low, bullet-proof glass ceilings, a woman’s influence on policymaking will be limited.

Just as there are elite politics and everyday politics in North Korea, there are two corresponding types of gender politics at play. The connection between grassroots changes and elite representations of womanhood suggests again how the regime is able to co-opt new social trends in the service of political legitimation and political and economic development.


Markets and Women’s Roles


When it comes to everyday gender politics, the most significant shift occurred during the Great Famine in the 1990s. At the time, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) couldn’t afford to hire the entire workforce and women were the first to be let go. In effect, the state recast women as unpaid domestics as part of the family unit, and created policies and practices that upheld women’s roles as mothers and wives—rather than workers in social, political and economic life.


But there was another countervailing trend. Men, if they were still employed, couldn’t bring home enough to support their family on a paltry government paycheck. Some women then turned to selling in black markets, becoming the breadwinners in these families. The makeshift market stalls were illegal, and women could face arrest or punishment, but the state largely turned a blind eye to these illicit market activities during the period of mass starvation.


At the same time, the government also criticized the work of these female traders as unnecessary or lower-class. Men at this time were limited to work at SOEs and were banned from working in markets unless a household dependent.[3] But as the economy picked up and the state rebuilt its capacity, the state saw an opportunity to introduce its own markets, made individual market activities illegal, and pushed out the local female entrepreneurs. In fact, in 2007, the government banned market trade for women under the age of 50. Women were once again relegated to the home.


In other words, the market activities that bubbled up from below were co-opted by the state and the economic benefits garnered from them were used to legitimate the regime. Women were empowered when convenient (whether intentional or not), but the official narrative and policy never institutionalized the gains made during this period. Low- and mid-level practices of political and economic empowerment may be possible, but policies that permit bottom-up social change are readily leveraged to promote regime stability.


Co-Opting the Narrative

KimYoJong_RiSolJu-300x200.jpg
(Source: Reuters)
Over the years, the state co-opted the social effects of marketization while reaping its economic benefits. To get a full picture of the role of women in the DPRK, we can compare policy and official representation of everyday women’s empowerment with the female figureheads Kim Jong Un surrounds himself with. In North Korea today, the “new Korean women” are represented by two idealized images: Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s much talked-about sister, and Ri Sol Ju, his wife. These women fill different roles: one is the new top female political figure and the other the highest female ceremonial figure. Obviously, both are directly related to the Supreme Leader—one by blood and the other by marriage. But in the North Korean context, the importance of those family connections is actually much deeper: because of the primacy of the family unit in social, political and economic life in North Korea, the young Kim Jong Un benefited from the image of a strong family to uphold his legitimacy.


Kim Yo Jong serves as an essential advisor with her own military and political clout, but she doesn’t threaten Kim Jong Un’s claim to power, like a brother would. Her apparently strong influence is also an important signal in terms of domestic power consolidation. Kim Jong Un’s aunt, Kim Kyong Hui, was the most powerful woman in the country when Kim Jong Un took leadership. But she’s been virtually sidelined from the public eye and, it seems, political decision-making. Kim Jong Un has literally replaced the old guard with the new, his father’s sister with his own.


Ri Sol Ju fills an important role for everyday gender politics and crafting the new woman ideal in North Korea today. Ri wears modern shift dresses like any world leader’s wife does and carries luxury handbags from the West. Though easy to brush aside Ri’s image as merely cosmetic change, this image of the mother of the nation, of wife to the Supreme Leader, is carefully chosen and it matters to the society especially in a country where leadership is based around a charismatic personality.


By portraying his wife as the new modern mother of the nation, Kim Jong Un can get ahead of consumerism trends that started illegally during the Great Famine period. Ri helps the leadership show North Korean women, especially in elite circles, an official story about how to live. Many upper class North Korean women have acquired relatively more cosmopolitan tastes. New styles of female consumption are not counter to the regime, but rather co-opted by it. And because Kim Jong Un makes these goods more available—at least to the elite classes—it legitimizes his claims at being able to modernize the nation.


Social Roles and Legitimacy


Authoritarian regimes are resilient not only when they can withstand outside pressures, but also respond to any grassroots or popular changes in social roles that may spur political mobilization. With nearly a decade of rule under his belt, Kim Jong Un has apparently shored up control over acceptable social change. The official representations of his sister and wife are his leadership’s answer to remedying the social breakdown that occurred under his father, and he seems to have effectively used that dictator’s three-step playbook. When it comes to gender roles, his leadership has been able to not only tamp down unacceptable changes to gender roles and the family unit structure arising from marketization, but also create its own narrative to legitimize economic advancement and cultural resiliency.


  1. [1]
    Kyungja Jung and Bronwen Dalton, “Rhetoric versus Reality for the Women of North Korea,” Asian Survey 46, no. 5 (2006): 741-760.
  2. [2]
    Daniel Byman and Jennifer Lind, “Pyongyang’s Survival Strategy: Tools of Authoritarian Control in North Korea,” International Security 35, no. 1 (2010): 44-74.
  3. [3]
    Andrei Lankov, The Real North Korea: Life and Politics In the Failed Stalinist Utopia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
posted for fair use
 

jward

passin' thru
Peter Wood
@PeterWood_PDW


New Map for August 1st: The PLA Navy Marine Corps
View: https://twitter.com/PeterWood_PDW/status/1289665244067803136?s=20


I should note that these are not all fully fledged brigades. The newer brigades are frankly a kludge of transferred coastal defense units, motorized and other odds and ends..

..which is to be expected. But a core of officers from the 1st and 2nd Brigades seem to have been transferred to help them get up and running. The aviation brigade in particular is going to need aircraft (which the Navy itself probably wants to hold on to, or get in line behind..
PLA Ground Force Aviation units for Z-10s/-19s). Haven't run the numbers but that is my best guess. Longer term it is possible that additional brigades could be set up for logistics functions. Point being: this is a work in progress, not a fully-formed expeditionary force
 

jward

passin' thru
You don't say. Chinese Communist Party reclassifies body of water in the South China Sea between Hainan and Paracels Islands from "offshore" to "coastal," with an aim "to bring as much of the disputed waterway under its control as possible."
________________________________________________________________________
South China Sea: Beijing reclassifies navigation area to increase control, experts say
  • Change to regulation drawn up in 1974 indicative of Beijing’s drive to bring as much of the disputed waterway under its control as possible
  • Country is facing growing criticism on the world stage over its claims to almost all of the South China Sea
Kristin Huang

Kristin Huang
Published: 11:00pm, 31 Jul, 2020
Updated: 3:40am, 1 Aug, 2020

Why you can trust SCMP

1.3k



Beijing’s redefined navigational area encompasses parts of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. Photo: AFP

Beijing’s redefined navigational area encompasses parts of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. Photo: AFP
China has changed the wording of a shipping regulation to identify a stretch of water between Hainan province and the Paracels Islands in the
South China Sea
as a “coastal” rather than “offshore” navigation area.
Observers said the move was indicative of Beijing’s drive to bring as much of the disputed waterway under its control as possible.
The word change appeared in an amended version of a regulation – drawn up in 1974 – regarding technical rules for the statutory testing of seagoing vessels. It will take effect on Saturday.
The regulation, titled “Technical Rules for the Statutory Testing of Seagoing Vessels on Domestic Voyages” establishes the “Hainan-Xisha Navigation Area”, which is bound by two points on Hainan island – China’s most southerly province – and three in the Paracels, or Xisha as they are known in Mandarin.
Beijing is facing growing criticism on the world stage over its territorial claims in the South China Sea. Photo: Reuters

Beijing is facing growing criticism on the world stage over its territorial claims in the South China Sea. Photo: Reuters
Zhang Jie, an expert on the South China Sea at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the move might have been designed to strengthen the administration of Paracels using domestic laws.


“Even if this is not directly aimed at enhancing control, it has that effect,” he said.

Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, agreed.
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“This might not come as a surprise, especially after Beijing announced the creation of administrative districts for the Paracels and Spratlys,” he said.

China is facing growing criticism on the world stage over its claims to almost all of the South China Sea.

Earlier this month, the United States and Australia declared those claims illegal, saying they were inconsistent with international law.
In a diplomatic note to the United Nations on Wednesday, Malaysia rebuked China
for claiming Kuala Lumpur had no right to seek the establishment of its continental shelf in the northern part of the South China Sea.

The pressure from the international community comes as Beijing has sought to use domestic law to put its claims to the disputed waters into context and boost its influence in the region.
Since 2010, China has established seven new maritime courts, one of which was set up in the Hainan city of Sansha.

In 2013, Beijing centralised several maritime agencies under the new Chinese Coast Guard, and in 2017, the Supreme People’s Court announced that its jurisdiction extended to all areas under China’s “sovereign control”, including “jurisdictional seas”.

posted for fair use
video at source
 

jward

passin' thru
Indo-Pacific News
@IndoPac_Info

1h

Sharing my chart of the #Chinese Navy vs the #QUAD countries (#US Pacific Fleet + #Japanese Navy + #IndianNavy + #Australian Navy) Small / Obsolete ships / SSBNs / LPDs are not included #China #PLAN #USA
@US7thFleet
@INDOPACOM
@USPacificFleet
#USNavy #FreeandopenIndoPacific
View: https://twitter.com/IndoPac_Info/status/1289745857848283143?s=20

Note 1: The chart includes the US Pacific fleet, not the whole US Navy. Note 2: Only LHD & LHA amphibious ships are included, not LPDs, etc Note 3: Indian Navy SSK submarine breakdown: 2 Calvari, 8 Kilo, 4 Shishumar classes.
 

jward

passin' thru
Global: MilitaryInfo
@Global_Mil_Info

5h

According to a confidential U.N. report, North Korea is continuing to develop its nuclear weapons program and likely developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its ballistic missiles.
++____________________________________________________________
Could also mean a miniturized warhead could be sold to a terrorist organization which is a game changer. If NK has sold weapons before, would they be willing to sell a mini nuke? Not something we can risk.

..if used the nuke matl signature would be determined & NK may be hit with a decapitation plan or even tactical nukes on NK front line. Tactical nukes can be carried on F15s & Stealth, they can destroy both tunnels & NK artillery lines. No good scenario if this happens 2020sux!

Não precisa de relatório confidencial , pois todo o mundo já sabe disso !
 

jward

passin' thru
Duterte bans Philippines from joining naval exercises in South China Sea

By
Patricia Lourdes Viray(Philstar.com)
-
August 4, 2020 - 9:58am






scs-joint-drills_2020-08-04_09-30-13743_thumbnail.jpg

In this May 5, 2019 photo, the US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence (DDG 110), upper left, transits international waters of the South China Sea with the Indian navy destroyer INS Kolkata (D 63) and tanker INS Shakti (A 57); the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter carrier JS Izumo (DDH 183) and destroyer JS Murasame (DD 101); and the Republic of the Philippines navy patrol ship BRP Andres Bonifacio (PS 17).
US Navy/Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force/Released

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will no longer be participating in joint maritime exercises in the South China Sea with other countries, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Monday.

According to Lorenzana, President Rodrigo Duterte issued this directive to reduce tension in the contested waterway.
Related Stories
Raising stakes, US brands China claims in South China Sea illegal
Australia backs US, affirms Philippines' South China Sea arbitral win

"President Rodrigo Duterte has a standing order to us, to me, that we should not involve ourselves in naval exercises in the South China Sea except our national waters, the 12 mile distance from our shores," Lorenzana said at an online press briefing.

Just last month, the United States declared that it would treat China's pursuit of resources in the South China Sea as illegal. Beijing rejected this, claiming that the accusation was "unjustified."

The US, along with allies such as Australia, has been recently conducting joint maritime exercises in the South China Sea following its latest policy on the maritime disputes.

"If one country’s action is considered as belligerent, another tension will normally rise, so I hope that all the parties in this exercise will have, will work on their actions there, to exercise prudence and carefulness so that there will be no miscalculations that could further increase the tension," the defense chief said.

Duterte: I am 'inutil'
In his penultimate State of the Nation Address last week, Duterte admitted that he is "useless" on the West Philippine Sea issue as China has "possession" of the area. The West Philippine Sea is the portion of the South China Sea which is within Philippine exclusive economic zone.

The president, once again, insisted that asserting the Philippines' sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea would entail going to war with China.

"China is claiming it, we are claiming it. China has the arms. We do not have it. So, it's simple as that," Duterte said.

Instead of supposedly going to war, Duterte said the issue should be treated "with a diplomatic endeavor."

"They (China) are in possession of the property, so what we can do? We have to go to war and I cannot afford it. Maybe some president can but we cannot. Inutil ako d'yan," the president said.

This, despite the Philippines' July 2016 arbitral win that invalidated China's historic nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea. Beijing continues reject the ruling while Manila, under the Duterte administration, refuses to invoke the award.

Naval powers in West Philippine Sea
In response to Duterte's remarks, retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said the president should not say that China is in possession of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea because this is not the case.

"China does not possess Philippine EEZ which is beyond the 12-nautical mile territorial seas of disputed islands or high-tide geologic features," Carpio said in a statement.

Carpio, part of the Philippine delegation in the South China Sea arbitration, stressed that naval power like the US, the UK, France, Australia, Japan and Canada regularly sail in the West Philippine Sea, proving that Beijing is not in possession of the area.

He also pointed out that Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia are asserting their sovereign rights to their maritime zones against China's claims without going to war.

"A country does not need to go to war to assert its sovereign rights. There are lawful and peaceful means of asserting sovereign rights," Carpio earlier said.

posted for fair use
 

jward

passin' thru
Global: MilitaryInfo
@Global_Mil_Info

5h

According to a confidential U.N. report, North Korea is continuing to develop its nuclear weapons program and likely developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its ballistic missiles.
++____________________________________________________________
Could also mean a miniturized warhead could be sold to a terrorist organization which is a game changer. If NK has sold weapons before, would they be willing to sell a mini nuke? Not something we can risk.

..if used the nuke matl signature would be determined & NK may be hit with a decapitation plan or even tactical nukes on NK front line. Tactical nukes can be carried on F15s & Stealth, they can destroy both tunnels & NK artillery lines. No good scenario if this happens 2020sux!

Não precisa de relatório confidencial , pois todo o mundo já sabe disso !


World News
August 3, 2020 / 5:15 PM / Updated 43 minutes ago
North Korea has 'probably' developed nuclear devices to fit ballistic missiles, U.N. report says

Michelle Nichols
4 Min Read

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea is pressing on with its nuclear weapons program and several countries believe it has “probably developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its ballistic missiles,” according to a confidential U.N. report.

The report by an independent panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions said the countries, which it did not identify, believed North Korea’s past six nuclear tests had likely helped it develop miniaturized nuclear devices. Pyongyang has not conducted a nuclear test since September 2017.
The interim report, seen by Reuters, was submitted to the 15-member U.N. Security Council North Korea sanctions committee on Monday.
“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is continuing its nuclear program, including the production of highly enriched uranium and construction of an experimental light water reactor. A Member State assessed that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is continuing production of nuclear weapons,” the report said.

North Korea is formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.N. report.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said last week there would be no more war as the country’s nuclear weapons guarantee its safety and future despite unabated outside pressure and military threats.
The U.N. report said one country, which it did not identify, assessed that North Korea “may seek to further develop miniaturisation in order to allow incorporation of technological improvements such as penetration aid packages or, potentially, to develop multiple warhead systems.”

‘LUCRATIVE’ CYBERATTACKS
North Korea has been subjected to U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. While the Security Council has steadily strengthened sanctions in a bid to cut off funding for those programs.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump have met three times since 2018, but failed to make progress on U.S. calls for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons and North Korea’s demands for an end to sanctions.
In May 2018 North Korea followed through on a pledge to blow up tunnels at its main nuclear test site, Punggye-ri, which Pyongyang said was proof of its commitment to end nuclear testing. But they did not allow experts to witness the dismantlement of the site.
The U.N. report said that as only tunnel entrances were known to have been destroyed and there is no indication of a comprehensive demolition, one country had assessed that North Korea could rebuild and reinstall within three months the infrastructure needed to support a nuclear test.
The U.N. experts said North Korea is violating sanctions, including “through illicit maritime exports of coal, though it suspended these temporarily between late January and early March 2020” due to the coronavirus pandemic.


FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks at an event to confer "Paektusan" commemorative pistols to leading commanding officers of the armed forces on the 67th anniversary of the "Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War", which marks the signing of the Korean War armistice, in this undated photo released on July 27, 2020 by North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang. KCNA via REUTERS
Last year the U.N. experts said North Korea has generated an estimated $2 billion using widespread and sophisticated cyberattacks to steal from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges.

“The Panel continues to assess that virtual asset service providers and virtual assets will continue to remain lucrative targets for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to generate revenue, as well as mining cryptocurrencies,” the latest report said.

Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Sandra Maler and Tom Brown
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
posted for fair use
 

northern watch

TB Fanatic
Australian leader says US-China war no longer inconceivable

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison says his government holds a less dramatic view of U.S.-China strategic tensions than a predecessor who warned of a potential “hot war” before U.S. presidential elections in November

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press
5 August 2020

CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday his government held a less dramatic view of U.S.-China strategic tensions than a predecessor who warned of a potential “hot war” before U.S. presidential elections in November.

Former prime minister and China scholar Kevin Rudd wrote in the Foreign Affairs journal this week that the risk of armed conflict between the United States and China in the next three months was “especially high.”

Morrison said his administration had expressed similar views in a defense policy update last month when he announced 270 billion Australian dollars ($190 billion) in new warfare capability spending, including longer-range missiles.

“Our defense update expresses it differently and certainly not as dramatically as Kevin,” Morrison told the Aspen Security Forum in an online address from the Australian capital Canberra.

“But in our own defense update, we’ve acknowledged that what was previously inconceivable and not considered even possible or likely in terms of those types of outcomes is not considered in those contexts anymore,” he added.

Morrison disagreed with many in Washington that the United States was in a new Cold War with China. Morrison said the “circumstances are quite different.”

He had no answers for how China’s push for power in the South China Sea, on the Indian border and in Hong Kong should be handled.

“I’m an optimist, Australians are indefatigable optimists about these things,” Morrison said.

“We have to take an optimistic attitude but not an unrealistic or naïve attitude.

We’ve got to set out and wed ourselves to the objectives here and that is not the suppression or containment of any one state, it’s about the productive and strategic balance that can be achieved,” he added.

Australia and the Unites States share a bilateral security treaty as well as an alliance with India and Japan through the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which China views with distrust.

Australia’s relations with China, its most important trading partner, has plumbed new lows in part because of Australian calls for an independent investigation into the origins of and responses to the coronavirus.

Morrison said he had not met Chinese President Xi Jinping since the pair spoke on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Japan in June last year. Australia has extended an open invitation for further talks.

“I don’t get hung up on these things, to be honest,” Morrison said. “What matters is that the trading relationship, the economic relationship is able to be pursued. That is occurring. It has its frustrations from time to time.”
 

OldArcher

Has No Life - Lives on TB
A fire in port does not equate to battle damage at sea. The Chinese have never had experience in doing damage contol while under fire. The US Navy and allies practice under real world condtions. That mini flat deck won't stand a chance. If her aircraft get aloft, and are not shot down, those aviators best know how to swim- long time, long way...

Bright Blessings,

OldArcher, GNIW
 

jward

passin' thru
Pompeo tells lawmakers the ‘tide is turning’ against China
Pompeo was speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Adam Shaw

By Adam Shaw | Fox News

Secretary Pompeo tells Senate Foreign Relations Committee 'the tide is turning' on China

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told lawmakers Thursday that the “tide is turning” on China, as the U.S has led the push to ramp up international pressure on the communist regime on issues from property theft to international surveillance to the Chinese crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong.
“We see the Chinese Communist Party also for what it is: the central threat of our times. Our vigorous diplomacy has helped lead an international awakening to the threat of the CCP,” Pompeo said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the State Department's budget. “Senators, the tide is turning.”

POMPEO ANNOUNCES END OF 'BLIND ENGAGEMENT' WITH COMMUNIST CHINA: 'DISTRUST AND VERIFY'
The Trump administration has been ramping up pressure against Chinese influence across the globe since the outbreak of COVID-19, which began in China and has drawn accusations that the government covered up the seriousness of the virus until it was too late and the virus became a global pandemic.
Pompeo said that, as part of that effort, more than 30 countries and territories have become 5G “Clean Countries” in banning untrusted Chinese vendors from their 5G networks. The U.K. recently announced it had changed its stance on allowing Huawei into its networks, a move praised by the U.S.
He also noted support from countries in denouncing China’s national security law, which is being used to crack down on freedoms in Hong Kong. He went on to cite opposition by Australia to Chinese moves in the South China Sea, as well as other countries taking action to push back against Chinese security threats.
"Momentum is building to mitigate CCP threats in multilateral settings, too," he said. "All 10 ASEAN nations have insisted that South China Sea disputes must be settled on the basis of international law, including [United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea]. Japan led the G7’s condemnation of China’s national security law targeting Hong Kong. The EU condemned the law, too, and also declared China a 'systemic rival' just last year."
Escalating tensions could lead to US-China military clash: Gordon Chang Video
He went on to say that “for America’s part, no administration, Republican or Democrat, has been as aggressive in confronting China’s malign actions as President Trump’s.”
CHINESE MILITARY SPY IS HOLED UP IN SAN FRANCISCO EMBASSY, FBI ALLEGES
“The Department of Justice is cracking down on Chinese [intellectual property] theft. We’ve sanctioned Chinese leaders for their brutality in Xinjiang, imposed export controls on companies that support it, and warned U.S. companies against using slave labor in their supply chains," he said.
He also cited U.S. moves to close down a Chinese consulate in Houston, calling it a “den of spies” and the termination of special arrangements for Hong Kong.
The hearing comes a day after Big Tech CEOs were quizzed in a House hearing, and were frequently asked questions related to Chinese influence and their connections to the Chinese government.
Pompeo said it was “patently clear to anyone who is watching that the Chinese are engaged in intense efforts of intel property theft, including to technology.”
Elsewhere he was asked by Senate Democrats about allegations that Russia had paid bounties to Taliban fighters to kill American troops in Afghanistan.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Pompeo was asked by Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., if he had raised the matter to Russian officials, and Pompeo said he has raised “all of the issues that put any Americans at risk” to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Pompeo later pointed to military action taken against 300 Russian mercenaries who were advancing on American forces in Syria in 2019. Those fighters “are no longer on this planet,” Pompeo said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

video at source
posted for fair use
 

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
Posted for fair use.....

A Chinese-Built Airport Next Door to a Key Australia-U.S. Naval Base?

By Thomas Shugart
August 07, 2020

Manus Island is a vital strategic location. Why is a Chinese company being paid to upgrade its airfield?

Judging by recent satellite imagery, it appears that significant progress is being made on an expansion and upgrade project at Momote Airport, the nearest airfield to Lombrum Naval Base on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. The runway’s usable length has been extended by about 200 metres, precision landing aids appear to have been added to at least one runway, and the apron area has been expanded significantly, with more work clearly in progress.

517828_5_.jpg

the interpreter via Googe Earth

Within the scope of the sharpening competition between China and its liberal democratic strategic competitors in the Pacific, Manus Island occupies a key location. While known most recently as an outpost for Australia’s asylum seeker policy, it was used extensively as an air and maritime base of operations during the Allied campaign in the southwest Pacific during the Second World War. Manus sits squarely astride the northern approaches to New Guinea (and thus to Australia), as well as lines of air and naval communication between US bases in the Marianas and the Antipodes.


During a visit to PNG’s capital of Port Moresby in 2018, US Vice President Pence specifically pledged American support to Australia’s efforts to upgrade facilities at the Lombrum base, part of a push back against expansion of China’s presence in the South Pacific.

So this seems like good news, then: progress on upgrading air transport infrastructure near a potentially critical naval facility. In fact, these upgrades are just the sort that strategic analysts have called for at the Momote Airport.

The devil – as in so many cases – lies in the details; specifically, who it is that is doing the work. It may surprise some to learn that the construction contractor is a Chinese company, specifically, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC). CHEC is, in turn, a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC).

Manus.png


If CCCC’s name sounds familiar, that is because it is one of the major Chinese firms that engaged in the construction of China’s massive – and highly controversial – artificial island bases in the South China Sea. CCCC has been singled out for potential sanctions by US officials, and has been specifically mentioned in proposed US legislation.

In terms of funding for the airport upgrade project, according to PNG’s National Airports Corporation (NAC), 90% of it comes from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Moreover, NAC states that “actual works” – one supposes this means the construction contracts to CHEC – are paid by ADB. According to ADB’s most recent annual report, the bank’s two largest capital subscribers are, by far, Japan and the United States. Australia is the fourth-largest contributor, just behind the People’s Republic of China.

Some observers may say that it matters little who builds projects such as these, as long as the results are satisfactory and maintained under the control of sovereign and friendly democratic nations. To be sure, one can certainly understand local leaders’ desire (and ADB’s process) to have work done by the lowest bidder, assuming that the proposal meets technical standards and requirements.

But the results of the process fail to account for strategic considerations that matter increasingly in an era of competition between an authoritarian China and its democratic neighbours, as well as the fact that Chinese state-owned enterprises are competing with artificially low bids sustained by de facto state subsidies. The process also fails to consider that Chinese companies, particularly state-owned enterprises, are not like those of their liberal democratic counterparts.

49948824866_e4002a17a9_k%20copy.jpg

Manus Island Navy Base in 1945 (Harley Flowers/Flickr)

As of 2015, as part of China’s distinct “military-civil fusion” strategy, state-owned enterprises are required by Chinese law to “provide necessary support and assistance to national security bodies, public security bodies, and relevant military bodies”, In particular, overseas logistical infrastructure development has been singled out as an area of focus for China’s military-civil fusion efforts, with civilian efforts intended to eventually transition to dual-use facilities.

For an airport facility such as this, one could imagine CHEC supplying the People’s Liberation Army with detailed logistical and design information, or perhaps installing equipment for surveillance of US or Australian military aircraft, or subtly modifying the project’s standards and construction to support use by key PLA aircraft types.

All of this reinforces how much more difficult it will be for liberal democracies such as Japan, Australia and the United States to engage in a geostrategic competition with a country that is as economically dynamic and intertwined as the PRC. For perspective, one could scarcely imagine that, during the Cold War era, NATO and its partner nations would have permitted the construction of critical transportation infrastructure by a Soviet state-owned company, and even less to have partially funded such a project with their own tax dollars. But such is the situation in which we now seem to find ourselves – one that is likely to be repeated.

In the meantime, while the first stage of the Lombrum naval base expansion has been completed, the agreement between Australia and PNG is now back under review amid reported unhappiness of parts of the PNG government with its implementation.


Thomas Shugart is a former U.S. Navy submarine warfare officer. He previously served as a Navy Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, where his research focused on great power competition between China and the United States. His work has been published in War on the Rocks, the National Interest and the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings, and has been cited in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and various other international publications and think tank studies.


This article appeared originally at Lowy Institute's the interpreter.
 

northern watch

TB Fanatic
Posted for fair use.....

A Chinese-Built Airport Next Door to a Key Australia-U.S. Naval Base?

By Thomas Shugart
August 07, 2020

Manus Island is a vital strategic location. Why is a Chinese company being paid to upgrade its airfield?

Judging by recent satellite imagery, it appears that significant progress is being made on an expansion and upgrade project at Momote Airport, the nearest airfield to Lombrum Naval Base on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. The runway’s usable length has been extended by about 200 metres, precision landing aids appear to have been added to at least one runway, and the apron area has been expanded significantly, with more work clearly in progress.

517828_5_.jpg

the interpreter via Googe Earth

Within the scope of the sharpening competition between China and its liberal democratic strategic competitors in the Pacific, Manus Island occupies a key location. While known most recently as an outpost for Australia’s asylum seeker policy, it was used extensively as an air and maritime base of operations during the Allied campaign in the southwest Pacific during the Second World War. Manus sits squarely astride the northern approaches to New Guinea (and thus to Australia), as well as lines of air and naval communication between US bases in the Marianas and the Antipodes.


During a visit to PNG’s capital of Port Moresby in 2018, US Vice President Pence specifically pledged American support to Australia’s efforts to upgrade facilities at the Lombrum base, part of a push back against expansion of China’s presence in the South Pacific.

So this seems like good news, then: progress on upgrading air transport infrastructure near a potentially critical naval facility. In fact, these upgrades are just the sort that strategic analysts have called for at the Momote Airport.

The devil – as in so many cases – lies in the details; specifically, who it is that is doing the work. It may surprise some to learn that the construction contractor is a Chinese company, specifically, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC). CHEC is, in turn, a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC).

Manus.png


If CCCC’s name sounds familiar, that is because it is one of the major Chinese firms that engaged in the construction of China’s massive – and highly controversial – artificial island bases in the South China Sea. CCCC has been singled out for potential sanctions by US officials, and has been specifically mentioned in proposed US legislation.

In terms of funding for the airport upgrade project, according to PNG’s National Airports Corporation (NAC), 90% of it comes from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Moreover, NAC states that “actual works” – one supposes this means the construction contracts to CHEC – are paid by ADB. According to ADB’s most recent annual report, the bank’s two largest capital subscribers are, by far, Japan and the United States. Australia is the fourth-largest contributor, just behind the People’s Republic of China.

Some observers may say that it matters little who builds projects such as these, as long as the results are satisfactory and maintained under the control of sovereign and friendly democratic nations. To be sure, one can certainly understand local leaders’ desire (and ADB’s process) to have work done by the lowest bidder, assuming that the proposal meets technical standards and requirements.

But the results of the process fail to account for strategic considerations that matter increasingly in an era of competition between an authoritarian China and its democratic neighbours, as well as the fact that Chinese state-owned enterprises are competing with artificially low bids sustained by de facto state subsidies. The process also fails to consider that Chinese companies, particularly state-owned enterprises, are not like those of their liberal democratic counterparts.

49948824866_e4002a17a9_k%20copy.jpg

Manus Island Navy Base in 1945 (Harley Flowers/Flickr)

As of 2015, as part of China’s distinct “military-civil fusion” strategy, state-owned enterprises are required by Chinese law to “provide necessary support and assistance to national security bodies, public security bodies, and relevant military bodies”, In particular, overseas logistical infrastructure development has been singled out as an area of focus for China’s military-civil fusion efforts, with civilian efforts intended to eventually transition to dual-use facilities.

For an airport facility such as this, one could imagine CHEC supplying the People’s Liberation Army with detailed logistical and design information, or perhaps installing equipment for surveillance of US or Australian military aircraft, or subtly modifying the project’s standards and construction to support use by key PLA aircraft types.

All of this reinforces how much more difficult it will be for liberal democracies such as Japan, Australia and the United States to engage in a geostrategic competition with a country that is as economically dynamic and intertwined as the PRC. For perspective, one could scarcely imagine that, during the Cold War era, NATO and its partner nations would have permitted the construction of critical transportation infrastructure by a Soviet state-owned company, and even less to have partially funded such a project with their own tax dollars. But such is the situation in which we now seem to find ourselves – one that is likely to be repeated.

In the meantime, while the first stage of the Lombrum naval base expansion has been completed, the agreement between Australia and PNG is now back under review amid reported unhappiness of parts of the PNG government with its implementation.


Thomas Shugart is a former U.S. Navy submarine warfare officer. He previously served as a Navy Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, where his research focused on great power competition between China and the United States. His work has been published in War on the Rocks, the National Interest and the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings, and has been cited in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and various other international publications and think tank studies.


This article appeared originally at Lowy Institute's the interpreter.

The article does not answer it's own question?

The US or Australia should lease the island from Papua New Guinea for 99 years, then any Chinese problem would go away.
 
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jward

passin' thru
#Chinese oil tanker held for illegally entering #Taiwan's waters Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) detained a Chinese oil tanker for illegally entering its waters on Sunday and arrested six crew members.

Chinese oil tanker held for illegally entering Taiwan's waters
08/09/2020 07:25 PM

Listen

Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
Taichung, Aug. 9 (CNA) Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) detained a Chinese oil tanker for illegally entering its waters on Sunday and arrested six crew members.

A CGA official takes the temperature of an arrested crew member/ Photo courtesy of the CGA
Taichung Coast Guard officers intercepted the unnamed oil tanker at 5:30 a.m. about 32 nautical miles off Baishatun, Miaoli County, and pursued the vessel before boarding it and detaining the crew.

After an investigation, the officers determined that the vessel departed a port in Fujian at 4 p.m. Saturday, and none of its crew had a fever, while no frozen meat was found on board the tanker.

The CGA has stepped up patrols in western Taiwan and around the offshore county of Penghu, as part of the central government's efforts to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak that originated in China.

(By Chao Li-yan and Evelyn Kao)

posted for fair use
 

jward

passin' thru
Chinese Vessels Maintain Presence in Philippine-claimed Waters in South China Sea

2020-08-10


Chinese structures are pictured in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, April 21, 2017.

Chinese structures are pictured in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, April 21, 2017.
Reuters



Two Chinese survey ships were spotted at a Philippine-claimed feature in the South China Sea last week while Beijing’s coast-guard has maintained a presence in the disputed waters through rotations, the Filipino navy chief said Monday, adding his forces were under orders to avoid confrontation.
The survey ships explored for about one week near Reed Bank, an area within Manila’s exclusive economic zone, Vice Admiral Giovanni Carlo Bacordo told the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of the Philippines (FOCAP).
“Our forces in the Western Command are trying to confirm what the Chinese vessels were doing in the area,” he said during his first virtual forum with reporters since becoming the Philippine Navy’s top commander in January. “We will submit a report to higher headquarters and request the foreign affairs’ department to protest the illegal activity of the Chinese.”
At any one time, he said, there could be as many as six China Coast Guard ships and fishing boats off Scarborough Shoal or in waters near Mischief Reef – other features of the contested waterway claimed by Manila.
“That is normally the trend,” Bacordo said, emphasizing that the navy has been avoiding direct confrontation with Chinese ships, and instead been passing reports on to the Department of Foreign Affairs so that diplomacy could take its course.
“What I am saying is that our option is a diplomatic protest. Options that may lead to armed confrontations should be avoided,” he added.
The Philippines, he said, would keep adhering to a 2002 deal struck between China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), whereby the signatories agreed to refrain from actions that could inflame tensions in the South China Sea.
China, Taiwan and four ASEAN members – the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei – have overlapping claims to the potentially resource-rich maritime region.
Other countries like the United States, Australia and Japan are not parties to the non-binding 2002 agreement, but the Philippines has committed to “exercising restraint,” Bacordo said.
“Our guiding principle here is the adherence to the rule of law, so what the president and the secretary of national defense pronounced is consistent to this 2002 document,” he said.
In July 2016, soon before President Rodrigo Duterte took office, the Philippines won an international arbitration that rejected China’s historical claims to most of the South China Sea. But rather than enforce the ruling, Duterte tried to appease Beijing, which agreed to normalize diplomatic and business relations with Manila.
Duterte has also said that his country is powerless against Beijing. The president recently reiterated that the Philippines would be militarily weak in confronting Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea, and that it did not want to provoke a fight with other countries.
According to Bacordo, this does not mean that the Philippine Navy would stop patrolling its maritime territory, even though he acknowledged that such patrols would be confined to the country’s exclusive economic zone so as not to “escalate tensions in that area.”
Features like Scarborough Shoal and Reed Bank lie within the Philippine EEZ.
“What the president was saying is that options that will lead to a shooting war with China should be avoided,” he said.
In recent weeks, China and the United States have conducted naval maneuvers and exercises in the South China Sea, while engaging in a war of words over the waterway, after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared Beijing’s sweeping claims there illegal.
Last month, the U.S. deployed two aircraft carriers, the USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan, along with their strike groups to the South China Sea. The deployment, the first in several years, followed a Chinese military exercise around the disputed Paracel islands.
Duterte, meanwhile, has ordered the Philippine military not to join other countries in naval exercises in international waters of the sea beyond “the 12-mile distance from our shores,” according to Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.
Chinese vessels maintain a regular presence in the disputed waters by rotating duties among themselves, Vice Admiral Bacordo explained.
“When they leave, newer vessels take over. So it’s like a guard, you are relieved of your duties, but another one takes over,” he said.
As much as possible, he said, Philippine naval personnel are ordered to restrain themselves because “the first one to shoot becomes the loser.”
“We have to be patient with that,” he said, referring to the need to resist provocative actions by Chinese ships. “Again, the first one to fire the shot loses public support and I am sure they will want us to take the first shot. But we will not.”
 

jward

passin' thru
Indo-Pacific News

@IndoPac_Info


In A War With #China, Where Should The #US Army Put Its Thousand-Mile Cannons? Batteries of the super-powerful Strategic Long-Range Cannon could bombard forces on the #Chinese mainland from U.S. bases in allied countries.



In A War With China, Where Should The U.S. Army Put Its Thousand-Mile Cannons?
The U. S. Army is trying to figure out what role it might play in the fighting if China attacks Taiwan or grabs disputed territory in the China Seas.

forbes.com

12:52 PM · Aug 12, 2020·Twitter Web App

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Indo-Pacific News

@IndoPac_Info

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RAND surveyed potential bases in South Korea, Japan and the Philippines for Army units packing 750-mile-range rockets. Units firing from these bases could “strike targets in China that could otherwise only be attacked using air or maritime platforms.”


Image
 

Zagdid

Veteran Member

Taiwan says discussing purchase of U.S. mines, cruise missiles
AUGUST 12, 2020 / 1:01 PM / A DAY AGO Reporting by Ben Blanchard and David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Taiwan is in discussions with the United States on acquiring underwater sea mines to deter amphibious landings as well as cruise missiles for coastal defense, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to United States said on Wednesday.

Speaking to the Washington’s Hudson Institute think tank, Hsiao Bi-khim said Taiwan was facing “an existential survival issue,” given China’s territorial and sovereignty claims over the island and needed to expand its asymmetric capabilities.
“What we mean by asymmetric capabilities is cost effective, but lethal enough to become deterrence - to make any consideration of an invasion very painful,” she said.

Hsiao said Taipei was currently working with the United States on acquiring a number of hardware capabilities, including cruise missiles that would work in conjunction with Taiwan’s indigenous Hsiung Feng missile system to provide better coastal defense.

Other systems under discussion included “underwater sea mines and other capabilities to deter amphibious landing, or immediate attack,” she said.

Earlier, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen told the online event she had made expanding accelerating development of Taiwan’s asymmetric defense capabilities its number-one priority.

Hsiao said Taiwan also wanted to strengthen defenses on islands its controls in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety.

“For Taiwan, our priority in our survival involves building up the defense of Taiwan itself, but also of the islands that Taiwan currently controls in the South China Sea,” she said.

Taiwan has been bolstering its defenses in the face of what it sees as increasingly threatening moves by Beijing.
It said in May it plans to buy land-based Boeing-made Harpoon anti-ship missiles and U.S. sources said last week Washington was negotiating the sale of at least four sophisticated aerial drones to Taiwan for the first time.

Washington broke off official ties with Taipei in 1979 in favor of Beijing but is still Taiwan’s biggest arms supplier and is bound by law to provide it with the means to defend itself.

The Trump administration has emphasized its support for Taiwan as U.S. relations with Beijing sour over issues including human rights and trade.

This week, U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar became the highest-level U.S. official to visit Taiwan in four decades, a trip condemned by China, which routinely denounces U.S. arms sales to Taipei.
 

jward

passin' thru
India, China militaries likely to participate in multinational joint exercise in Russia
While India has confirmed its participation, the response of other participating countries is not yet known, added the officer.

mail.png


Published: 13th August 2020 10:41 PM | Last Updated: 13th August 2020 10:41 PM | A+A A-




Indian Army, Line of Control, LoC, Border, War

Indian army (Photo | PTI)




By Mayank Singh
Express News Service

NEW DELHI: While the Indian and Chinese soldiers are locked in a stand-off in Ladakh, the militaries of the two countries are likely to carry out a joint exercise in September in Russia.
An Army officer said, “Russia has sent us an invitation for a multilateral exercise Kavkaz 2020 and the invitations have been sent to China and Pakistan too.”
While India has confirmed its participation, the response of other participating countries is not yet known, added the officer.
Russia is holding a multinational exercise from 15 September to 26 September in its Astrakhan region and has invited all Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member countries and few other countries.
The militaries of 18 countries will partake in the exercise together.
About the theme of the exercise, “It is based on a joint operation by friendly countries against an enemy which has taken over a part of Russia,” told the officer.

India is sending a 178-member strong tri-services contingent, 140 Army personnel, and 38 officers from the Air Force and Navy. An Army Colonel rank officer will be leading the Indian Contingent.
The 18 countries include Russia, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and the Central Asian Region countries.
The SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc that India and Pakistan joined as full-time members back in 2017.
The founding members of this group include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Joining the exercise in Russia will mark the beginning of international joint-exercises since the halt of training programs in view of COVID-19.
Prior to this exercise, Indian and Chinese marching contingents had participated in the 75th anniversary of Victory Day parade in Moscow in June.

Although Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe were there they did not meet.
Around 40,000 soldiers each of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA has been locked in a tense standoff since the first week of May at the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh.
The standoff had turned violent on June 15 in which India lost 20 soldiers. The Chinese side had acknowledged their side of the casualties but did not make the figures public.

posted for fair use
 

CaryC

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Hummm not so sure that is going to happen. India and China may have both received invites, I doubt one of them will accept.

Cooper had a tire plant in China, and Dunlop, an Indian owned company, wanted to buy it, and the Chinese workers walked off the job. The said they would never work for an Indian company.

Just saying.
 

jward

passin' thru
Why Doesn’t China Deploy Fighter Jets to the Spratly Islands?

Is Beijing merely trying to avoid provocation, or is there a more serious problem with its artificial island bases in the South China Sea?



By Ian Storey

August 14, 2020
Why Doesn’t China Deploy Fighter Jets to the Spratly Islands?

In this Friday, April 21, 2017, file photo, an airstrip, structures, and buildings on China’s man-made Subi Reef in the Spratly chain of islands in the South China Sea are seen from a Philippine Air Force C-130 transport plane.
Credit: AP Photo/Bullit Marquez
On August 4, China’s Global Times reported that SU-30MKK Flanker fighter jets belonging to the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) had conducted a 10-hour patrol over the South China Sea, breaking the air force’s previous record of 8.5 hours.
Although the report suggested only one SU-30 had made the 10-hour flight, an online video showed five to six fighter jets had been involved in the mission.
The fighter aircraft departed from an air base in southern China and were refueled twice by Ilyushin-78 aerial refueling tankers. The Global Times described the operation as “technically and mentally” challenging for the pilots, noting that they had “consumed rations to keep their energy levels up.”

The mission came at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and China over the maritime disputes in the South China Sea. Over the past few months, both countries have increased the tempo of naval exercises and air patrols in the South China Sea. On July 13, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared China’s jurisdictional claims in the South China Sea to be unlawful and accused Beijing of bullying the Southeast Asian claimants.
While the video was designed to demonstrate China’s growing power projection capabilities, one expert noted that it may have inadvertently revealed the PLAAF’s weaknesses. The Flankers were either lightly armed or unarmed, and the use of two Il-78s would have consumed two-thirds of the air force’s heavy tanker fleet. It suggests that in a conflict over the South China Sea the PLAAF would not be able to send large numbers of aircraft into the battle space and sustain them.
Subscriptions – The Diplomat
While the Global Times would only say that the fighter jets had been dispatched to the “most remote islands and reefs” in the South China Sea, the video clearly showed the aircraft flying over Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands.
Subi Reef is one of China’s seven artificial islands in the Spratlys and hosts a 3,300 meter-long runway. Fiery Cross Reef and Mischief Reef also support long runways.

The mission begs an important question: Why didn’t the SU-30s land and refuel on Subi Reef? Surely one of the main purposes of the artificial islands is to enable China to project air power into the South China Sea to assert its territorial and jurisdictional claims, including the possibility of establishing an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the Spratlys?
In the past, China has deployed fighter jets to Woody Island in the Paracels (including eight aircraft in July). In January 2016, two commercial aircraft landed on Fiery Cross Reef soon after the runway had become operational. And over the past two years, the PLA has flown transport planes and maritime patrol aircraft to the artificial islands, including most recently in April. PLA Navy (PLAN) warships, China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels, and Chinese-flagged survey ships are also frequent visitors to the man-made islands.

Yet, as far as we know, no PLAAF fighter aircraft has ever landed on Mischief, Subi, or Fiery Cross Reefs. Given the United States’ interest in publicizing China’s military activities in the South China Sea — both countries have accused each other of militarizing the dispute — it seems implausible that the Pentagon has evidence of fighter jet deployments to the Spratlys but hasn’t released the imagery.
Let’s assume then that no Chinese fighter aircraft has ever landed on any of the three artificial islands. Given the vast costs of reclaiming the seven features and then building military infrastructure on them - including fuel and ammunition depots, hangars, and radar and communications equipment - why hasn’t the PLAAF ever flown combat jets to the artificial islands?
There are three possible reasons.


The first is political: China does not want to inflame tensions with the Southeast Asian claimants by deploying combat jets to its artificial islands. Given that over the past few months China has doubled down on its claims and provocatively sent survey ships and CCG vessels into the EEZs of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines, this seems unlikely. As China seems unperturbed by the reputational damage its activities in the South China Sea have caused since the beginning of this year we can probably rule out this possibility.

The second is aircraft maintenance issues. Operating fighter aircraft at sea poses problems due to salt in the sea spray and high humidity, both of which can cause metal corrosion. However, U.S. aircraft carriers deal with this issue all the time and in any case China has constructed large hangars on its artificial islands, some of which are probably air conditioned. Besides, a few days’ deployment to Fiery, Subi, or Mischief Reef would not impose much wear and tear on PLAAF fighter jets, which could quickly be washed down with fresh water.

The third possible reason, if true, poses a more serious problem for Chinese defense planners: that the structural integrity of the facilities on the artificial islands, including the airstrips, is suboptimal and the PLAAF is therefore wary of using them.
Reclamation work at Subi Reef began in early 2014, but before the dredging was even completed construction had already started on the runways and support facilities. The runway on Subi was completed by mid-2016. The usual industry practice would have been to allow the reclaimed land to settle for months or even years before beginning construction. To do otherwise leads to the possibility of subsidence. Japan’s Kansai Airport, also constructed on an artificial island, has suffered from this problem since it opened in 1994, despite extensive remedial engineering work.

Doubts about the structural integrity of the artificial islands are amplified when the issue of corruption is considered. Despite President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft campaign, corruption in China remains endemic, including in the military-industrial complex. For instance, in July 2019 Su Bo, who oversaw the construction of China’s first domestically produced aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was convicted of corruption and jailed for 12 years. And in May 2020, Hu Wenming, the head of China’s aircraft carrier construction program, was arrested and charged with corruption and passing secrets to foreign powers. Corruption in the building industry leads to short cuts and shoddy construction.

If the airstrips on the three atolls are sinking or cracked it would not be readily apparent from satellite imagery. Aircraft could use them, especially slower turboprop aircraft such as the military transport planes and maritime patrol aircraft that landed on Fiery Cross Reef in March and April. But for fast combat jets the integrity of the runway surface needs to be much higher. The image-conscious and risk-averse PLA would be keen to avoid the public relations debacle that would accompany a mishap involving one of its fighters as it took off or landed on one of the three reefs.
If indeed there are structural problems with the runways and associated facilities on China’s man-made islands it calls into question their strategic utility for the Chinese air force and any ambitions Beijing may harbor to enforce an ADIZ over the South China Sea.
Ian Storey is Senior Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore.
 
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