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

Blackstone

Brigadier
What's the big deal with PLA placing military hardware on Yongxing Dao (Woody Island)? There has been a Chinese garrison there since the mid-70s, and it's only natural they rotate personnel and upgrade facilities and equipment periodically.
 

jobjed

Captain
What's the big deal with PLA placing military hardware on Yongxing Dao (Woody Island)? There has been a Chinese garrison there since the mid-70s, and it's only natural they rotate personnel and upgrade facilities and equipment periodically.

To me, not a big deal. To Vietnam: 'omg, China's bullying us again'. As Plawolf said elsewhere, China already has Paracels in her possession, now it's all about preventing unwanted tenants from setting up shop. If other claimants try to pull
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on the Paracels, the YJ-62s will ensure that they set up shop not on islands but at the bottom of the ocean.
 

Blackstone

Brigadier
To me, not a big deal. To Vietnam: 'omg, China's bullying us again'. As Plawolf said elsewhere, China already has Paracels in her possession, now it's all about preventing unwanted tenants from setting up shop. If other claimants try to pull
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on the Paracels, the YJ-62s will ensure that they set up shop not on islands but at the bottom of the ocean.
But! Have you noticed Vietnam wasn't so vociferous about Woody Island militarization until recently? Could it be Hanoi believed it was a lost cause until the neocons and liberal interventionist changed US policies from hedging to containment?
 

confusion

Junior Member
Registered Member
Clash between the Indonesian and Chinese coast guards in the overlapping claims between Indonesia's EEZ and China's 9-dash line:

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Jakarta complains to Beijing over South China Sea clash
Avantika Chilkoti in Jakarta and Ben Bland in Hong Kong

Jakarta has protested to Beijing over “interference” in its sovereign affairs after a Chinese coast guard vessel sought to free a fishing boat and its crew that was suspected of operating within Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.

Susi Pudjiastuti, Indonesia’s minister of maritime affairs and fisheries, said on Monday that eight crew of the Chinese vessel had been detained and the government had summoned representatives from the Chinese embassy to discuss the alleged infringement.

Ms Pudjiastuti said there had been a tense chase in which a Chinese patrol boat had collided with the fishing vessel in an attempt to release it, putting passengers and Indonesian officers at risk.

“This is a very, very serious incident,” she said. “We consider this an interference in the law enforcement process of Indonesia, which is fighting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.”

According to Ms Pudjiastuti, China has claimed the area is a “traditional fishing ground”.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the South China Sea as Beijing ramps up its military presence in the resource-rich waters.

Jakarta has long tried to position itself as a neutral broker between China and the Southeast Asian nations with which Beijing has direct disputes over maritime sovereignty, including Malaysia and the Philippines.

The “nine-dash line”, which outlines Beijing’s claim to almost all of the South China Sea, intersects with Indonesia’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone around the Natuna islands — although it does not include any of the islands themselves.

However, President Joko Widodo’s government has taken a firmer stance in protecting the archipelago’s sovereignty and sought to revive Indonesia’s historical reputation as a powerful maritime nation.

Security analysts have questioned the presence of the Chinese coast guard in Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone, more than 1,300km from the Chinese coast.

The Indonesian navy said on Monday that it would double the size of its patrol operations in the Natuna Sea following the incident.

“The Indonesian exclusive economic zone is absolutely within Indonesia’s territory and interests,” Ms Pudjiastuti said. “So the Chinese government’s claim is baseless and incorrect.”

Analysts say Jakarta’s increasing assertiveness in its waters is being led by Ms Pudjiastuti, a tattoo-sporting high-school dropout who built a multimillion-dollar airline from scratch before taking office.

The minister has ordered the sinking of more than 100 illegal fishing boats since taking office last year in an attempt to protect the local industry.

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Last week Jakarta held a high-profile ceremony as it blew up the Viking, a stateless fishing boat that was one of Interpol’s most wanted vessels.

“Susi [Pudjiastuti] has been looking for an opportunity to push China on this question from the very beginning,” said Aaron Connelly, a Southeast Asia researcher at Australian think-tank the Lowy Institute. “Politically, she has built up this reputation for being tough on illegal fisheries . . . so if Indonesia gives China a pass on this it would go against her interests.”

In an interview with the Financial Times last year, Ms Pudjiastuti said China should amend its nine-dash line and confirmed Indonesia’s plans to build a new naval base on islands in the South China Sea.
 

confusion

Junior Member
Registered Member
Clash between Chinese coast guard ships and Filipino fishermen:

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China says Philippine fishermen used fire bombs in South China Sea
BEIJING

Philippine fishermen threw fire bombs at Chinese law enforcement vessels in the South China Sea, China's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, after Philippine media said fishermen had been struck by bottles hurled from Chinese coast guard ships.

China and the Philippines have long exchanged accusations about each other's behavior in the disputed South China Sea.

China claims most of the energy-rich waters through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

Philippine media said this week that a group of fishermen had been chased away from Scarborough Shoal by Chinese coast guards who hurled bottles at them. The fishermen then responded with rocks, the reports said.

Asked about the incident, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Scarborough Shoal - known by Beijing as Huangyan Island - was Chinese territory which Philippine fishermen had been fishing around illegally.

"Chinese official ships advised the illegally stationed Philippine trawlers to leave, in accordance with the law, but they refused to obey," she told a daily news briefing.

"Certain people on the ships even waved around machetes and flung fire bombs, carrying out deliberate provocation, attacking the Chinese law enforcers and official boat, confronting China's law enforcement and seriously threatening the safety and order of the waters around Huangyan Island," Hua said.

China had strengthened its "management" around the shoal, she added, without elaborating.

A spokesman for the Philippines Foreign Ministry said: "We can't comment at this time as we are still awaiting the official report from our concerned agencies on the incident."

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Karen Lema in MANILA; Editing by Nick Macfie)
 

ahojunk

Senior Member
Some pictures of Passu Keah in Xisha (Paracels) island group.

Passu Keah
: This reef encloses a shallow lagoon and is located at
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, approximately 37 miles (60 km) east-northeast from Triton Island. The sand cay measures 9 km (6 mi) in length. It's area is 40 hectares.

Panshi.Yu.盘石屿.Passu.Keah.2016-03-16a_satview-1k.jpg

Panshi.Yu.盘石屿.Passu.Keah.2016-03-16a_satview-closeup.jpg
Close up of the sandbar.
 
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