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Post by Admin on Apr 12, 2014 22:21:08 GMT
Lt. Gen. John Wissler, the commanding general of III Marine Expeditionary Force, speaks on the telephone from an office at Camp Courtney, Okinawa, on Dec. 6, 2013. If the Chinese invaded the Senkaku Islands, U.S. Marines in the Pacific could recapture them, the commander of Marines in Japan said Friday. The Senkakus have been administered by Japan for decades, but China now claims sovereignty over them. Amid other heated territorial disputes with its neighbors, China has deployed naval assets near the Senkakus in recent months. During his recent trip to Asia, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel reiterated the U.S. position that the Senkakus fall under the scope of the U.S. defense treaty with Japan, and the U.S. would be obliged to come to the aid of its Japanese ally if the islands were attacked by a foreign power. Hagel’s comments came after Adm. Samuel Locklear III, the commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific, told lawmakers last month that the Navy and Marines don’t have enough transportation assets in the region to carry out amphibious operations in a contested environment. “If we were directed to take the Senkakus, could we? Yes. [But] to tell you how it would take place or would it take place or any of that would be pure speculation,” Lt. Gen. John Wissler, the commander of the III Marine Expeditionary Force based in Japan, said at a breakfast with defense reporters in Washington. “They’re not real big,” he said. “I think sometimes people get this idea that the Senkakus look like the island of Okinawa or, you know, any of the other major islands. It’s a very, very small collection of small islands.” Wissler suggested that U.S. naval and air assets could take out the Chinese forces on their own, and a forcible entry probably wouldn’t be required. “You wouldn’t maybe even necessarily have to put somebody on that island until you had eliminated the threat, so to speak. And that’s where that whole integration of our full capabilities as a Navy-Marine Corps team would be of value,” he said. Wissler, however, expressed concerns about the Army’s desire to contribute to the joint force in the Pacific by putting its attack helicopters on flat-deck ships. He said he isn’t opposed to the idea in principle, but he’s worried that the Army’s use of the ships will impinge upon the Marines. “We, the Marine Corps, have no shortfall of capability of sea-based aviation,” he said. “[But] I’ve never been anywhere [in a combat area] where I’ve said, ‘[expletive], there’s too many guys here. I wish some of our capability would go away.’ So if the Army has a capability to bring in an amphibious environment, a capability that we need as a joint warfighting team, good on ’em. I just think there’s challenges to it … There aren’t enough amphibious ships for us to train to our mission right now. So how you jam a bunch of other guys on that platform is going to be [an issue that needs to be addressed]. We’ve got Marines who don’t get sufficient amphibious training, [and] we have a very big challenge for those [Marine aviation] units to get sufficient what we call deck-landing qualifications.”
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Post by Admin on Apr 24, 2014 14:06:04 GMT
The US is duty-bound to come to Japan’s aid in the event of a conflict with China over a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea, Barack Obama declared at the start of a tour of Asia aimed at reassuring Washington’s allies in the face of threats to stability from North Korea and an increasingly assertive China. Obama went further than some analysts had expected in reassuring the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, that Japan’s dispute with China over the Senkakus – known in China as the Diaoyu – were covered by the allies’ post-war security treaty. But he reiterated Washington’s refusal to take sides in the sovereignty dispute and called on China and Japan to resolve their differences through dialogue. “Our commitment to Japan’s security is absolute and article five [of the security treaty] covers all territories under Japan’s administration, including the Senkaku islands,” Obama said during a joint press conference with Abe. “We don’t take a position on final sovereignty on the Senkakus but historically they’ve been administered by Japan and should not be subject to change unilaterally. “My hope is that Chinese will continue to engage with the US and other countries. We don’t take a position on this piece of land or this piece of rock but we do take a position on the peaceful resolution of these disputes.” Obama’s confirmation over the past two days that the Senkaku dispute falls under the US-Japan bilateral security treaty drew an angry response from China. On Wednesday a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said that China had "indisputable sovereignty" over the islands and that "the so-called Japan-US alliance" should be careful not to impinge on China's territorial rights.
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Post by Admin on May 10, 2014 23:12:42 GMT
Vietnamese anger toward China is running at its highest level in years after Beijing deployed an oil rig in disputed waters as naval ships from both countries engage in a tense standoff near the rig off the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. The heightened tension comes less than a week after President Obama visit the region where he, in part, cultivated ties with countries in the area. The Wall Street Journal reported that even prior to the standoff, Vietnam has been beefing up its military by investing in advanced military capabilities, with a special focus on its navy. "Vietnam has ordered these [new capabilities] as a deterrent to China and to show, if push comes to shove, that they'd be able to give China a bloody nose," said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, a Singapore-based think tank, told The Journal. The report said the country’s new submarine fleet, comprising six Russian Kilo-class submarines, will be the jewel in the crown of Vietnamese defense. But only two of the six boats have been delivered so far and will take some time to be fully operational. The two Asian nations have a history of conflict going back 1,000 years, and the streets of Vietnam's cities are named after heroes in those fights. In the more recent past, the navies have twice had deadly engagements in the South China Sea. There was a brief but bloody border war in 1979. All have a created a deep well of mistrust toward China among ordinary Vietnamese. "It's fair to say both Vietnam and China have rights to claim sovereignty over the Paracels," America's top Asia official, Assistant Secretary of State Danny Russel, told The Journal. "It is not for the U.S. to say which position is stronger. It's within the rights of the United States and the international community to call all parties to address the dispute in a peaceful way." Yet the two countries share a Communist ideology and close economic ties, making the China-Vietnam relationship highly sensitive topic. The latest round of tension — the worst since 1988, when 64 Vietnamese sailors were killed in a clash with the Chinese navy — had led to fresh and awkward questions over that relationship, a normally taboo topic in the state-controlled media. Experts say the incident might push Vietnam closer to the Philippines, which also is engaged in territorial disputes with China, or toward the United States, which wants closer ties with Vietnam as part of its efforts to counter Chinese influence in Asia. Last year, the Philippines filed a case against the Chinese claim at a U.N tribunal, to the displeasure of Beijing. Many analysts believe that Vietnam will now be seriously considering filing its own appeal or joining Manila, opening a diplomatic and legal front against Beijing. "That's the one arrow left in their quiver other than shooting," said David Brown, a former U.S diplomat and Vietnam observer.
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Post by Admin on May 15, 2014 20:58:19 GMT
Anti-China protests escalated in Vietnam as attacks on Taiwanese companies left two people dead and at least 129 injured, while more foreign-owned factories shut production and Chinese workers fled the country. Vietnamese staff at a Taiwanese steel mill in Vung Ang in the central province of Ha Tinh yesterday looted the site, leaving 90 Chinese injured, and one Chinese person died of heat stroke, mill owner Formosa Plastics (1301) Group said in a statement. Taiwanese workers were not involved, it said. A Chinese technician at Taiwan’s DDK Group, which makes bike parts, choked to death as one of the company’s plants was set on fire, Matthew Shih, a manager, said by telephone in Taiwan. A Chinese employee is hospitalized in stable condition after violence at DDK’s factories 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of southern Ho Chi Minh City. The attacks follow damage to factories in the southern province of Binh Duong amid anger over a Chinese oil rig placed in disputed waters near the Paracel Islands claimed by both Vietnam and China. Vietnam and China fought a border war in 1979, with ties normalized in 1991. With China, Singapore and Taiwan calling for Vietnam to protect their citizens, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung issued an order for the violence to be brought under control as the country seeks to preserve its status as a home for foreign companies producing clothes, shoes and furniture. While Vietnam’s leaders have condemned China’s actions over the rig, large-scale anti-China protests in the country risk an investment backlash.
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Post by Admin on May 31, 2014 21:46:12 GMT
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned an international security conference Saturday that the U.S. "will not look the other way" when nations such as China try to restrict navigation or ignore international rules and standards. China's territorial claims in the South China Sea are destabilizing the region, and its failure to resolve disputes with other nations threatens East Asia's long-term progress, Hagel said. Later, a top Chinese general took issue with Hagel's comments during a brief meeting with the Pentagon chief. Lt. Gen. Wang Guanzhong, deputy chief of the General Staff, told Hagel, "You were very candid this morning and, to be frank, more than our expectation." He added, "although I do think that those criticisms are groundless, I do appreciate your candor." Reporters had to leave the room before Hagel responded. But Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Hagel told Wang that all regional disputes should be solved through diplomacy, and he encouraged China to foster dialogue with neighboring nations. For the second year in a row, Hagel used the podium at the Shangri-La conference to call out China for cyberspying against the U.S. While this has been a persistent complaint by the U.S., his remarks come less than two weeks after the U.S. charged five Chinese military officers with hacking into American companies to steal trade secrets. The Chinese, in response, suspended participation in a U.S.-China Cyber Working Group, and released a report that said the U.S. is conducting unscrupulous cyber espionage and that China is a major target. Noting the suspension, Hagel in his speech said the U.S. will continue to raise cyber issues with the Chinese, "because dialogue is essential for reducing the risk of miscalculation and escalation in cyberspace." In a string of remarks aimed directly at China, Hagel said the U.S. opposes any nation's use of intimidation or threat of force to assert territorial claims. China and Japan have been at odds over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are controlled by Japan but claimed by both. The U.S. has declined to take sides on the sovereignty issue but has made clear it has a treaty obligation to support Japan. And the U.S. has also refused to recognize China's declaration of an air defense zone over a large swath of the East China Sea, including the disputed islands. His remarks drew an immediate challenge from Maj. Gen. Yao Yunzhu of China's People's Liberation Army, who questioned if the U.S. and its allies followed international law and consulted with others whey they set up air defense zones.
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