South China Sea Forum

[dichoi]

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Australian Military Plane Flies Over Disputed South China Sea
Agence France-Presse9:53 p.m. EST December 16, 2015

SYDNEY — An Australian military surveillance plane flew near disputed areas of the South China Sea, emerging Wednesday after the crew warned China's navy it was on a freedom of navigation mission.

Tensions in the region have mounted since China transformed reefs in the South China Sea into small islands capable of supporting military facilities, a move the United States says threatens free passage in an area through which one-third of the world's oil passes.

In October, Washington infuriated Beijing when the USS Lassen guided missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of at least one land formation claimed by China in the disputed Spratly Islands chain.

Now a Royal Australian Air Force patrol plane has carried out patrols in air space around the area.

"A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion was conducting a routine maritime patrol in the region as part of Operation Gateway from Nov. 25 to Dec. 4," a defence department spokesperson told AFP.

"Under Operation Gateway, the Australian Defence Force conducts routine maritime surveillance patrols in the North Indian Ocean and South China Sea as a part of Australia's enduring contribution to the preservation of regional security and stability in Southeast Asia."

The comments follow audio released by the BBC late Tuesday after a reporting assignment in the Spratly archipelago.

In the scratchy radio recording, an RAAF pilot is heard speaking to the Chinese navy.

"China navy, China navy," the voice said.

"We are an Australian aircraft exercising international freedom of navigation rights in international airspace in accordance with the international civil aviation convention and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — over."

The BBC said it recorded the audio from a RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft on Nov. 25. It said the message was repeated several times but no response was heard from the Chinese.

The Australian newspaper said it understood that the aircraft did not fly within the 12-nautical-mile limit China claims around the artificial islands it has built up.

The BBC hired a small plane and took off from the Philippines, which also claims some of the scattered atolls and reefs in the region, to film Chinese claimed land and construction and to see whether they were challenged.

It said they were warned several times, with radio communication from the Chinese navy telling them "you are threatening the security of our station."

China insists on sovereignty over virtually all the resource-endowed South China Sea, but Washington has repeatedly said it does not recognize the claims.

In a communique after talks in Sydney in November, US allies Japan and Australia called on "all claimants to halt large-scale land reclamation, construction, and use for military purposes" in the South China Sea.

 

[Elkanah]

 

[dichoi]

 

[ahojunk]

Chigua Island dated Dec 26, 2015. We can see the lighthouse, two concrete towers, a steel tower, solar panels, a new massive building which dwarf the original outpost adjacent to it.

Subi Island dated Dec 23, 2015. The airstrip is 3 km.

Meiji Island dated Dec 24, 2015. The airstrip is also 3 km.

Enjoy!

 

[dichoi]

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US Navy ship sails near disputed island in South China Sea

ASSOCIATED PRESS JANUARY 30, 2016

The USS Curtis Wilbur,

BANGKOK (AP) — A U.S. warship sailed near a disputed island in the South China Sea on Saturday to exercise the U.S.’s freedom to navigate in international waters, a defense official said.

The USS Curtis Wilbur destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island, in the Paracels chain, without notifying the three claimants to the surrounding seas beforehand, according to Defense Department spokesman Mark Wright in Washington.

In October, another U.S. warship sailed in the disputed Spratly Islands near Subi Reef, where China has built an artificial island.

U.S. officials said after that operation that such ship movements would be regular in the future.

China protested the October sail-by strongly. It had no immediate comment on Saturday’s movements.

China says virtually the entire South China Sea and its islands, reefs and atolls are its sovereign territory, although five other regional governments have overlapping claims.

The area has some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and U.S. officials say ensuring freedom of navigation there is in U.S. national interests.

China, Taiwan and Vietnam have claims in the Paracels and require prior notice from ships transiting in nearby waters. Wright said the claimants’ attempts to restrict navigational rights by requiring prior notice are inconsistent with international law.

Wright reiterated that while insisting on freedom of navigation, the United States took no position on the competing territorial claims to natural islands in the South China Sea.

US Navy ship sails near disputed island in South China Sea - The Boston Globe

 

[cirr]

A new round of land reclamation in the Xisha Islands（Paracels）has begun

 

[dichoi]

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US and India consider joint patrols in South China sea, says US official

Feb 10, 2016 | Reuters
New Delhi

(Photo: PTI) India and US have ramped up military ties in recent years, holding naval exercises in Indian Ocean.

New Delhi: The United States and India have held talks about conducting joint naval patrols that a US defence official said could include the disputed South China Sea, a move that would likely anger Beijing, which claims most of the waterway.

Washington wants its regional allies and other Asian nations to take a more united stance against China over the South China Sea, where tensions have spiked in the wake of Beijing's construction of seven man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago.

India and the United States have ramped up military ties in recent years, holding naval exercises in the Indian Ocean that last year involved the Japanese navy.

But the Indian navy has never carried out joint patrols with another country and a naval spokesman told Reuters there was no change in the government's policy of only joining an international military effort under the United Nations flag.

He pointed to India's refusal to be part of anti-piracy missions involving dozens of countries in the Gulf of Aden and instead carrying out its own operations there since 2008.

The US defence official said the two sides had discussed joint patrols, adding that both were hopeful of launching them within the year. The patrols would likely be in the Indian Ocean where the Indian navy is a major player as well as the South China Sea, the official told Reuters in New Delhi on condition of anonymity.

The official gave no details on the scale of the proposed patrols.

There was no immediate comment from China, which is on a week-long holiday for Chinese New Year.

China accused Washington this month of seeking maritime hegemony in the name of freedom of navigation after a US Navy destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of a disputed island in the Paracel chain of the South China Sea in late January.

The US Navy conducted a similar exercise in October near one of China's artificial islands in the Spratlys.

MARITIME COOPERATION

Neither India nor the United States has claims to the South China Sea, but both said they backed freedom of navigation and overflight in the waterway when US President Barack Obama visited New Delhi in January 2015.

Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also agreed at the time to "identify specific areas for expanding maritime cooperation".

More than $5 trillion in world trade moves through the South China Sea each year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan also claim parts of the waterway.

In December, the issue of joint patrols came up when defence minister Manohar Parrikar visited the US Pacific Command in Hawaii, an Indian government source said.

"It was a broad discussion, it was about the potential for joint patrols," said the source, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

India has a long-running land border dispute with China and has been careful not to antagonise its more powerful neighbour, instead focusing on building economic ties.

But it has stepped up its naval presence far beyond the Indian Ocean, deploying a ship to the South China Sea almost constantly, an Indian navy commander said, noting this wasn't the practice a few years ago.

The commander added that the largest number of Indian naval ship visits in the South China Sea region was to Vietnam, a country rapidly building military muscle for potential conflict with China over the waterway.

Still, the idea of joining the United States in patrols in the region was a long shot, the officer added.

The Philippines has asked the United States to do joint naval patrols in the South China Sea, something a US diplomat said this month was a possibility.

 

[ahojunk]

A couple of pictures of Yongxing Island preparing for the Spring Festival, a.k.a. Chinese New Year. Yongxing Island is in the Paracel Island group.

Red lanterns on a street in Yongxing Island.

Workers placing red flowers in front of a government building in Yongxing Island.

The island looks quite nice, quite neat and clean. It's a good little place to go for a nice vacation.

 

[Tiqiu]

Miji Island phase2 (bottom left corner) ........

And Yongshu Island

 

[dichoi]

Japan's Top Military Officer: Joint US-Japanese Patrols in South China Sea a Possibility
Will the Japanese Navy expand into the South China Sea with regular patrols?

By Franz-Stefan Gady
June 26, 2015

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Japan’s highest ranking military officer reiterated that Tokyo would consider joining U.S. Forces in conducting patrols in the South China Sea, the Wall Street Journal reports today.

According to Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, chief of the Joint Staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, Japan remains deeply concerned over China’s recent constructions of artificial islands in the South China Sea.

While noting that China’s activities have created “very serious potential concerns” for Tokyo, he also emphasized that as of now there are no concrete plans for the Japan’s Maritime-Self Defense Force (JMSDF) to patrol the 3,500,000 square kilometers (1,400,000 square miles) of the South China Sea:

Of course, the area is of the utmost importance for Japanese security. We don’t have any plans to conduct surveillance in the South China Sea currently but depending on the situation, I think there is a chance we could consider doing so. (…)

In the case of China, as we can see with the South China Sea problem, they are rapidly expanding their naval presence and their defense spending is still growing. Also because there is a lack of transparency, we are very concerned about China’s actions.

Admiral Kawano was appointed Chief of Staff of the Joint Staff Council in October 2014. In April this year, the United States and Japan revised a set of guidelines for U.S.-Japan defense cooperation that included bilateral pledges towards safeguarding sea lines of communications. “The alliance with the U.S. is our foundation. That’s how we build deterrence,” Kawano emphasized.

The United States military apparently would support Japan’s move into the South China Sea. “I view the South China Sea as international water, not territorial water of any country, and so Japan is welcome to conduct operations on the high seas as Japan sees fit,” noted Admiral Harry Harris, the head of the U.S. Pacific Command, earlier this month in Tokyo.

As one of colleagues pointed out last month (see: “US-Japan Joint Patrols in the South China Sea?”) a number of obstacles still would have to be overcome in order for joint U.S.-Japanese patrols in the South China Sea to become reality. These include, among other things, revised domestic legislation and successfully negotiating an agreement with Manila over access to Philippine military bases for Japanese aircraft and vessels in order to be capable of patrolling larger stretches of ocean in the South China Sea.

There is also the question of capacity within the JMSDF and whether it could keep up a regular patrol schedule given the current size of the Japanese Navy. As I have noted before (see: “This is Japan’s Best Strategy to Defeat China at Sea”), the JMSDF is a highly capable navy and it is technologically more advanced, more experienced, and more highly trained than its main competitor – the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

Yet, in the long-run, the JMSDF and the Japanese Coast Guard (JCG) – Tokyo’s principle enforcer of maritime law – are at a relative disadvantage if one looks at the burgeoning naval rearmament program of China, which is gradually shifting the regional maritime balance in Beijing’s favor.

 

[ahojunk]

The first commercial flight took off on Saturday 6 Feb 2016 from Hainan's Meilan International Airport for Yongxing Island in the South China Sea following a major upgrade of the island's airport. The airport's renovation has increased its capacity to take larger planes, allowing it to accommodate Boeing 737s which can hold up to 200 Passengers.

CCTVNEWS reporter Han Bin at Hainan's Meilan International Airport on Saturday.

Reporter Han Bin boards flight.

Leaving Meilan Airport in Hainan.

Landing on Yongxing Island.

On the island runway.

Reporter Han Bin in front of the island airport.

The airplane on the tarmac.

Enjoy!

 

[cnleio]

The first commercial flight took off on Saturday 6 Feb 2016 from Hainan's Meilan International Airport for Yongxing Island in the South China Sea following a major upgrade of the island's airport. The airport's renovation has increased its capacity to take larger planes, allowing it to accommodate Boeing 737s which can hold up to 200 Passengers.

View attachment 292986
CCTVNEWS reporter Han Bin at Hainan's Meilan International Airport on Saturday.

View attachment 292987
Reporter Han Bin boards flight.

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Leaving Meilan Airport in Hainan.

View attachment 292990
Landing on Yongxing Island.

View attachment 292991
On the island runway.

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Reporter Han Bin in front of the island airport.

View attachment 292993
The airplane on the tarmac.

Enjoy!

Very smart ... behind the 'SCS Casino' it's the world N.o2 power, if U.S can't afford war lost with China, nobody can stop Chinese building on these artificial islands.

 

[dichoi]

.US B-52 bombers flying over South China Sea manmade islands contacted by Chinese ground control - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
US B-52 bombers flying over South China Sea manmade islands contacted by Chinese ground control
Updated 13 Nov 2015, 9:53am

Two US B-52 strategic bombers flying near Chinese manmade islands in the South China Sea recently were contacted by Chinese ground controllers but continued their mission undeterred, the Pentagon said.

"We conduct B-52 flights in international air space in that part of the world all the time," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told a briefing.

In the latest mission, which occurred overnight on November 8 and 9, the bombers flew "in the area" of the Spratly Islands but did not come within the 12-nautical-mile zones that China claims as its territory, Pentagon spokesman Commander Bill Urban said.

"The B-52s were on a routine mission in the SCS (South China Sea)," taking off from and returning to Guam, Mr Urban said.

Chinese ground controllers contacted the bombers but the aircraft continued their mission unabated, he said.

The latest US patrol in the disputed South China Sea occurred in advance of president Barack Obama's visit to the region next week to attend Asia-Pacific summits where he is expected the re-assert Washington's commitment to freedom of navigation and overflight in the area.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he did not know whether the South China Sea would be on the formal agenda at any of the three Asia summits, but added it would be "on the minds and lips" of world leaders who gather there.

China claims most of the South China Sea through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year, and the US has said it will continue conducting patrols to assure unimpeded passage.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims in the region.

Last week, a top US admiral said in Beijing the US military would continue to operate wherever international law allows after infuriating China by sailing close to artificial islands it is building in the South China Sea.

"The South China Sea is not — and will not — be an exception," he said.

In late October, the USS Lassen guided missile destroyer travelled within 12 nautical miles of at least one of the land formations China claims in the disputed Spratly Islands.

The US and Chinese navies recently held high-level talks after the challenge, with a US official saying they have agreed to maintain dialogue to avoid clashes.

 

[ahojunk]

A few more pictures of the first flight, this time of the passengers.

A "military" wife with her son visiting her husband who is based on Yongxing Island.

Luo Baoming, the Party Secretary of Hainan Province, who is also on this flight.

The passengers of this first flight. The flight is quite full.

@cnleio
I don't think there is a casino there yet!

 

[ahojunk]

Pictures of Sansha I, the supply ship for the SCS.

These pictures were taken at Yongxing Island.

Pictures of the government building at Yongxing Island.