PLAN SCS Bases/Islands/Vessels (Not a Strategy Page)

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
My observations:-
- the beach is fairly new, not much preparation has been done so the earth may not be hardened enough. It is adjacent to a lot of temporary construction buildings.
- the range of HQ-9 is 200 km, this will cover the entire Paracels. Triton is furthest away from Yongxing, and it is 170 km.

>>> Removed Political Statement/Comment <<<

.
ahojunk, I have removed your political statement/comment.

SD is not about politics.

I know it is sometimes hard, but when we make such comments, then it invites responses and then comments and responses to the responses and soon the thread is side tracked or even derailed with political debate.

SD is not about political debate.

Please do not make such comments here.

Thanks.

Ahojunk's political statement and ongoing discussion reacting to it and then branching off from it have been deleted.

DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS MODERATION
 
Last edited:

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Guys, cut the politics.

it just invites more and ultimately begins to distract from and then derails the thread.

This thread is simply a PRC/PLAN thread about those islands, what is being built there, which islands, pictures of the same, and discussions of those capabilities specifically and technically.

It is not even a Strategy Page...so let's leave all the political posturing and comments out of it.

Thanks

DO NOT RESPOND TO THOIS MODERATION
 

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
The official foreign minister Wang Yi visit to Washington and the deployment of J 11 B is their way of sending another message

EXCLUSIVE:
In a move likely to further increase already volatile tensions in the region, China has deployed fighter jets to a contested island in the South China Sea, the same island where China deployed surface-to-air missiles last week, two U.S. officials tell Fox News.

ADVERTISEMENT

One U.S. official put the number of Chinese warplanes in the single digits, “under ten,” he said.

The dramatic escalation came as Secretary of State John Kerry hosted his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, at the State Department.

Wang said Tuesday he hoped that “close up” military flights and patrols by U.S. Navy ships over the contested islands would end.

Kerry said he wanted China to end its militarization of the contested islands in the South China Sea.

Chinese Shenyang J-11s (“Flanker”) and Xian JH-7s (“Flounder”) have been seen by U.S. intelligence on Woody Island in the past few days, the same island where Fox News
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
last week that China had sent two batteries of HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles while President Obama was hosting 10 Southeast Asian leaders in Palm Springs.

Wang was supposed to visit the Pentagon Tuesday, but the visit was canceled. It was not immediately clear which side canceled the visit. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said a “scheduling conflict” prevented the meeting, when asked by Fox News at Tuesday's press briefing.

When asked about the earlier Fox News story in Beijing, Wang said the deployment of the missiles was for “defensive purposes.”

Woody Island is the largest island in the Paracel chain of islands in the South China Sea. It lies 250 miles southeast of a major Chinese submarine base on Hainan Island. China has claimed Woody Island since the 1950s, but it is contested by Taiwan and Vietnam.



&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;


Ahead of Wang’s visit to Washington, a spokeswoman likened China’s military buildup on Woody Island to the U.S. Navy’s in Hawaii.

“There is no difference between China’s deployment of necessary national defense facilities on its own territory and the defense installation by the U.S. in
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Monday.

More than $5 trillion of worth of natural resources and goods transit the South China Sea each year.

Earlier Tuesday, the head of the U.S. military’s Pacific Command said China is “clearly militarizing” the South China Sea, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"You’d have to believe in a flat Earth to believe otherwise," Admiral Harry Harris said.

China has sent fighter jets to Woody Island before. In November, Chinese state media published images showing J-11 fighter jets on the island, but this was the first deployment of fighter jets since the Chinese sent commercial airliners to test the runway at one of its artificial islands in the South China Sea.

The Pentagon sailed a guided-missile destroyer past a contested island in the South China Sea as a result. Late last year, the U.S. military conducted a flight of B-52 bombers and another warship to conduct a “freedom of navigation” exercise.

The Chinese have protested the moves and vowed “consequences.”

On Monday, new civilian
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
showed a possible high frequency radar installation being constructed in late January.

The imagery shows radar installations on China’s artificial islands in the Spratley Island chain of reefs-Gaven, Hughes, Johnson South, and primarily on Cuarteron reefs—the outhermost island in the South China Sea.
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
The official foreign minister Wang Yi visit to Washington and the deployment of J 11 B is their way of sending another message

EXCLUSIVE:
In a move likely to further increase already volatile tensions in the region, China has deployed fighter jets to a contested island in the South China Sea, the same island where China deployed surface-to-air missiles last week, two U.S. officials tell Fox News.

ADVERTISEMENT

One U.S. official put the number of Chinese warplanes in the single digits, “under ten,” he said.

The dramatic escalation came as Secretary of State John Kerry hosted his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, at the State Department.

Wang said Tuesday he hoped that “close up” military flights and patrols by U.S. Navy ships over the contested islands would end.

Kerry said he wanted China to end its militarization of the contested islands in the South China Sea.

Chinese Shenyang J-11s (“Flanker”) and Xian JH-7s (“Flounder”) have been seen by U.S. intelligence on Woody Island in the past few days, the same island where Fox News
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
last week that China had sent two batteries of HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles while President Obama was hosting 10 Southeast Asian leaders in Palm Springs.

Wang was supposed to visit the Pentagon Tuesday, but the visit was canceled. It was not immediately clear which side canceled the visit. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said a “scheduling conflict” prevented the meeting, when asked by Fox News at Tuesday's press briefing.

When asked about the earlier Fox News story in Beijing, Wang said the deployment of the missiles was for “defensive purposes.”

Woody Island is the largest island in the Paracel chain of islands in the South China Sea. It lies 250 miles southeast of a major Chinese submarine base on Hainan Island. China has claimed Woody Island since the 1950s, but it is contested by Taiwan and Vietnam.



&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;


Ahead of Wang’s visit to Washington, a spokeswoman likened China’s military buildup on Woody Island to the U.S. Navy’s in Hawaii.

“There is no difference between China’s deployment of necessary national defense facilities on its own territory and the defense installation by the U.S. in
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Monday.

More than $5 trillion of worth of natural resources and goods transit the South China Sea each year.

Earlier Tuesday, the head of the U.S. military’s Pacific Command said China is “clearly militarizing” the South China Sea, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"You’d have to believe in a flat Earth to believe otherwise," Admiral Harry Harris said.

China has sent fighter jets to Woody Island before. In November, Chinese state media published images showing J-11 fighter jets on the island, but this was the first deployment of fighter jets since the Chinese sent commercial airliners to test the runway at one of its artificial islands in the South China Sea.

The Pentagon sailed a guided-missile destroyer past a contested island in the South China Sea as a result. Late last year, the U.S. military conducted a flight of B-52 bombers and another warship to conduct a “freedom of navigation” exercise.

The Chinese have protested the moves and vowed “consequences.”

On Monday, new civilian
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
showed a possible high frequency radar installation being constructed in late January.

The imagery shows radar installations on China’s artificial islands in the Spratley Island chain of reefs-Gaven, Hughes, Johnson South, and primarily on Cuarteron reefs—the outhermost island in the South China Sea.
There's a huge difference between deploying aircraft there for an exercise (which they have done before), and having them stationed there.

I am not sure they currently have the facilities (fuel bunker, weapons bunkers, hardened shelters, etc.) to have them permanently stationed there.

But they can build all of that should they desire.
 

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
Just been having a look at the AMTI feature report below

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


It's interesting how they used the J-10 as the basis of fighter radius on the interactive map.
One would think that they should be using the J-11 Flanker airframe range instead.

But if they did, the fighter range circles would cover the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.
 

confusion

Junior Member
Registered Member
It's likely that China moved in quickly at Jackson Atoll to prevent another incident similar to that on Second Thomas Shoal. Either way, due to precedence, the grounding of another Filipino vessel on an unoccupied feature provides China with excellent cover for moving in to control the feature. We'll see if this move is permanent or temporary.

The bit at the end about Half-Moon Shoal is to be expected as well. Now that it has the capacity to patrol the Spratly Islands, China will not allow the Filipino navy to approach other unoccupied features.

Using this source since it has the most information and all others are quoting this as the primary source as of right now:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


China takes Philippine atoll

MANILA, Philippines – The Chinese have taken over another traditional Filipino fishing ground near Palawan where they have stationed up to five ships to keep local fishermen at bay, sources said.

Now effectively under Chinese control is Quirino or Jackson Atoll, which has been a rich source of catch for a long time for fishermen from Palawan, Southern Luzon, Western Visayas and even Manila.

Gray and white Chinese vessels have not left the atoll, which Filipino fishermen also call Jackson Five, because of the existence of five lagoons in the area.

The Chinese are claiming almost the entire South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea. Manila is contesting Beijing’s claim before an international arbitral court based in The Hague.

Filipino fishermen lamented the Chinese vessels would not allow them to come near or linger in the Quirino Atoll.

The area is between the Philippine-occupied Lawak Island and the Chinese-occupied Panganiban (Mischief) Reef.

Fishermen from Mindoro Occidental who asked not to be named said Chinese boats chased them away when they tried to enter the area last week.

“These gray and white Chinese ships, around four of them inside the lagoon, prevented us from entering our traditional fishing ground,” one of the fishermen said.

Kalayaan Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon Jr. said the Chinese ships have been staying in Quirino Atoll for more than a month now. “They have many ships there,” he said, without elaborating.

Philippine air patrol has confirmed the presence of at least four Chinese coast guard ships in the Jackson lagoons.

A Palawan-based fishing operator said the Chinese began deploying ships to Quirino Atoll after a Manila-based fishing carrier boat ran aground in the area due to bad weather.

The fishing operator said his boats have since been avoiding the area due to the menacing presence of presumably armed Chinese ships. “We can’t enter the area anymore,” he bewailed.

Early last month, Chinese gray and white ships – presumably naval and maritime surveillance vessels – harassed Philippine Navy logistic ship BRP Laguna near Hasa-Hasa (Half Moon) Shoal, another Filipino fishing ground in the West Philippine Sea just 60 nautical miles from the southern tip of Palawan.
 

Micron

New Member
Registered Member
If one follows a 1947 map edition published by American map publisher Rand McNally, China owns almost all the islands in the South China Sea way before the UNCLOS and the 200 nautical miles limit came into the picture. Moreover China signed the UNCLOS like many countries with a condition - Article 298 attached.

So it would be hypocritical for U.S. to say China cannot claim islands in the South China Sea because they are not within mainland China’s territory when America can claim Guam, which is thousands of miles away from home.

When USA demand China demilitarized all these islands then China should also as a matter of principle demands that USA demilitarized all her military installations from these faraway bases like Guam, Hawaii, Diego Gracia, etc.
 
Top