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Post by Admin on Jul 16, 2016 18:46:21 GMT
China said Wednesday it has the right to set up an air defense zone in the hotly disputed South China Sea, a day after a landmark court ruling against Beijing's claims in the contested waters. Liu Zhenmin, China's vice foreign minister, told a press conference in Beijing that China's sovereignty over the bulk of the South China Sea wouldn't be affected by a decision by the International Court for Arbitration, which went overwhelmingly in favor of the Philippines. Liu said imposing an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the region, which would require aircraft flying over the waters to first notify China, would depend on the threat level China faced. "If our security is threatened, we of course have the right to set it up," Liu said. China set up an ADIZ over the East China Sea in 2013, prompting an outcry from Japan and the United States, but the zone has not been fully enforced.
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Post by Admin on Jul 18, 2016 18:44:11 GMT
AUSTRALIA would be unwise to conduct a very provocative freedom of navigation exercise in the South China Sea, an adviser to China’s government says. Freedom of navigation (FON), is a principle of customary international law that, apart from the exceptions provided for in international law, ships flying the flag of any sovereign state shall not suffer interference from other states. Ruan Zongze, a member of an advisory committee to the Chinese government, said freedom of navigation as pursued by the US had gone far beyond what was permitted under international law and Australia shouldn’t follow. He said he could not prejudge China’s reaction were Australia to conduct a freedom of navigation exercise in that zone. “It would be unwise, it would be wrong and it will be devastating for Australia to join that kind of very dangerous exercise. You take a position to challenge China’s sovereignty,” he told Sky News.
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Post by Admin on Aug 22, 2016 18:32:16 GMT
China’s coast guard launched live-firing exercises in the Tonkin Gulf on Monday, the latest in a series of military drills that come amid renewed tensions among disputants to territory in the South China Sea. The Maritime Safety Administration said ships and boats were barred from the area between its southern island province of Hainan and the northern coast of Vietnam from Monday to Wednesday. China’s navy and air force have held a series of drills in surrounding waters since an international arbitration panel issued a ruling last month invalidating China’s claim to virtually the entire South China Sea. China angrily rejected the ruling and said it would begin flying regular air patrols over the strategic waterway while continuing to develop airstrips, harbors and other infrastructure of military value on man-made islands it controls in the disputed Spratly group.
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Post by Admin on Dec 18, 2016 18:26:52 GMT
China will return an underwater U.S. drone seized by a naval vessel this week in the South China Sea, both countries said on Saturday, but Beijing complained the United States had been “hyping up” the incident. The drone, known as an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), was taken on Thursday, the first seizure of its kind in recent memory. The Pentagon went public with its complaint after the action and said on Saturday it had secured a deal to get the drone back. “Through direct engagement with Chinese authorities, we have secured an understanding that the Chinese will return the UUV to the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement.
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Post by Admin on Feb 11, 2017 19:03:33 GMT
Welcoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White House with a hug, Trump said he wants to bring the post-World War II alliance with Japan “even closer.” While such calls are ritual after these types of meetings, from Trump they’re sure to calm anxieties that he has stoked by demanding that America’s partners pay more for their own defense. They are concerned about Trump's transactional approach and fear that he will link economic and trade issues with security, holding the alliance hostage and putting the credibility of U.S. commitments in doubt. They are concerned about what "America First" means, especially for U.S. commitment to the Asia-Pacific region, and whether U.S. leadership and the U.S. presence will continue. They are concerned that the United States will abandon its commitments to the international order and to rules of the road that have long underpinned global security, prosperity, and stability — efforts in which Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has invested heavily and that are critical to managing China's rise. They are concerned that China will step in to fill the vacuum left by a U.S. retreat, as we have already seen in Chinese President Xi Jinping's remarks at the World Economic Forum painting China as the leader of a globalized world. Stepping carefully into Japan’s longstanding territorial dispute with China over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, Trump said the U.S. is committed to the security of Japan and all areas under its administrative control. The implication was that the U.S.-Japan defense treaty covers the disputed islands, which Japan which calls the Senkaku, but China calls the Diaoyu.
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