Chinese warnings to U.S. plane hint of rising stakes over disputed islands
The U.S. Navy released this video showing flight operations aboard a P-8A Poseidon over the South China Sea on May 20, 2015. During the flight, the crew documented several warnings issued by China’s navy to leave the area. (U.S. Navy)
BEIJING — The Chinese navy repeatedly warned a U.S. surveillance plane to leave airspace around disputed islands in the South China Sea, a sign that Beijing may seek to create a military exclusion zone in a move that could heighten regional tensions.
The warnings, delivered eight times to a P-8A Poseidon over the Spratly Islands on Wednesday, were reported by a CNN team aboard the plane.
“Foreign military aircraft. This is Chinese navy. You are approaching our military alert zone. Leave immediately,” a radio operator told the aircraft, later bluntly warning: “Go, go.”
After each warning, the U.S. pilots responded calmly that the P-8A was flying through international airspace, according to the CNN team.
China claims sovereignty over more than 80 percent of the South China Sea. Rival claimants to islands and reefs — set amid fertile fishing grounds and potentially oil- and gas-rich waters — include the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.
These photos taken Jan. 3, left, and April 30 by satellite imagery provider DigitalGlobe and released to Agence France-Presse on May 9 by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies show significant land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea. (Digitalglobe/AFP/Getty Images)
In the Spratly Islands, China has been engaged in a massive program of land reclamation and construction, including building artificial islands.
On Thursday, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, Hong Lei, said Beijing “has the right to monitor certain airspace and maritime areas and safeguard national security, to prevent unexpected incidents at sea.”
He added that other countries should respect China’s sovereignty.
The Philippines says similar warnings have been delivered to its military aircraft in the past three months, suggesting that China is trying to exclude foreign military planes from the area.
An attempt to impose restrictions in what is widely seen as international airspace would significantly raise tensions in the area and could provoke confrontations between the U.S. and Chinese militaries, experts said.
Images captured by the U.S. plane’s high-performance cameras showed dozens of dredging vessels at different islands, some pumping sand onto reefs to build new land out of the ocean.
They also showed an early-warning-radar building and a new airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef that CNN reported was long enough to land any military aircraft operated by China.
Capt. Mike Parker, on board the aircraft, said he thinks that at least one of the verbal challenges came from the radar station.
“Although China glosses over the military purpose of those artificial islands, they are likely primarily intended to change the power balance in the South China Sea vis-a-vis the U.S. Navy, which for now is the dominant force in the area,” said Yanmei Xie, senior China analyst at the International Crisis Group.
China could use the completed installations to “scramble fighter jets to intercept, tail and attempt to evict incoming military aircraft,” Xie noted.
“That scenario would turn the South China Sea into a theater of frequent near-misses and even clashes,” she said.
Under international law, the construction of artificial islands confers no right of sovereignty over neighboring waters, and the United States has made it clear that it will not respect China’s claim to what it sees as international waters and airspace.
In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman, Col. Steve Warren, said “freedom of navigations operations” would continue in the South China Sea, but he insisted that U.S. military aircraft do not fly directly over areas claimed by China in the Spratly Islands.
“We will continue to fly in international airspace,” he said.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry expressed concern about China’s land reclamation project to the nation’s leaders last weekend, but his complaints appeared to fall on deaf ears.
Crew members confer on the forward deck of the USS Fort Worth, a littoral combat ship that is conducting patrols out of Singapore. (Will Englund/The Washington Post)
These photos were taken Dec. 13, 2014, (top), and April 2 by satellite imagery provider DigitalGlobe. (Digitalglobe/AFP/Getty Images)
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China’s determination “to safeguard our own sovereignty and territorial is as firm as rock and is unshakable.”
But on social media, some Chinese mocked the failure to scare off the U.S. plane.
“Isn’t intercepting the robbers in the air the responsibility of the Chinese air force?” one asked. Another branded the incident a “national disgrace and a disgrace for the Chinese people.”
Although China has acknowledged that the islands will have military uses, Hong insisted that the main purpose of the construction work was “to provide service for search and rescue at sea, fishing security, disaster prevention and relief, and meteorological monitoring, among other things.”
Last week, senators on both sides of the aisle in Washington called for a more robust U.S. response to China’s maritime activity, arguing that China was not paying any price for its actions while regional allies were questioning U.S. commitment to Asian security.
Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing, said Chinese President Xi Jinping has taken a much more assertive approach to strengthening his country’s maritime claims.
“After several decades of being weak, the Chinese feel they have lost ground on their historical claims and are now in a better position to strengthen them. And the lack of strong U.S. leadership internationally has contributed to a sense in China that they can push these claims now and will not face negative consequences,” he said.
Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said at a conference in Jakarta on Wednesday that China’s actions were eroding regional trust and could provoke conflict.
“Its behavior threatens to set a new precedent whereby larger countries are free to intimidate smaller ones, and that provokes tensions, instability and can even lead to conflict,” he said, according to the Reuters news agency.
But in a sign that the U.S. and Chinese militaries have taken measures to improve communication and avoid clashes, a U.S. combat ship used agreed codes for unplanned encounters when it met a Chinese vessel during a recent patrol of the South China Sea.
“We exchanged messages, and it was very professional,” Cmdr. Matthew Kawas, the commanding officer of the USS Fort Worth, told visiting journalists in Singapore on Wednesday.
He declined to comment further on the communications with the Chinese vessel, other than to point out that it is useful for both navies to become accustomed to each other’s practices.
“Fort Worth came across one of our counterparts and they did do that, so things went as professionally as they have since that agreement was made,” she said, according to Bloomberg News.
If the Navy acts on the proposal to step up patrols in the South China Sea, the Fort Worth, a littoral combat vessel, and its sister ships are likely to play a key role.
The expensive new additions to the Navy’s fleet are speedy and maneuverable and have a draft of just 15 feet.
“It enables us to go places where other ships cannot,” said Capt. Fred Kacher, commodore of the U.S. Navy’s Destroyer Squadron 7, adding that an unmanned helicopter on board the ship is equipped with a a video camera that allows the Fort Worth “to see what’s going on.”
Will Englund in Singapore, Liu Liu and Gu Jinglu in Beijing and Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report.
Simon Denyer is The Post’s bureau chief in China. He served previously as bureau chief in India and as a Reuters bureau chief in Washington, India and Pakistan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinese-warnings-to-us-plane-hint-of-rising-stakes-over-disputed-islands/2015/05/21/381fffd6-8671-420b-b863-57d092ccac2d_story.html?wpisrc=nl_p1most&wpmm=1
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will leave China "in absolutely no doubt" about Washington's commitment to ensuring freedom of navigation and flight in the South China Sea when he visits Beijing this weekend, a senior State Department official said on Wednesday.
Setting the scene for what could be contentious encounters with Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, the official said Kerry would warn that China's land-reclamation work in contested waters could have negative consequences for regional stability - and for relations with the United States.
On Tuesday, a U.S. official said the Pentagon was considering sending military aircraft and ships to assert freedom of navigation around rapidly growing Chinese-made artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea.
China's Foreign Ministry responded by saying that Beijing was "extremely concerned" and demanded clarification.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense David Shear told a Senate hearing the United States had right of passage in areas claimed by China. "We are actively assessing the military implications of land reclamation and are committed to taking effective and appropriate action," he said, but gave no details.
The senior State Department official said "the question about what the U.S Navy does or doesn’t do is one that the Chinese are free to pose" to Kerry in Beijing, where he is due on Saturday for meetings with civilian and military leaders.
Kerry's trip is intended to prepare for the annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue next month in Washington and Xi's expected visit to Washington in September. But growing strategic rivalry rather than cooperation look set to dominate.
China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday that freedom of navigation did not mean that foreign military ships and aircraft can enter another country's territorial waters or airspace at will.
"We demand the relevant side talks and acts cautiously and does not take any actions that are risky or provocative to maintain regional peace and stability," she said.
The State Department official dismissed the idea that constructing islands out of half-submerged reefs gave China any right to territorial claims.
“Ultimately no matter how much sand China piles on top of a submerged reef or shoal ... it is not enhancing its territorial claim. You can’t build sovereignty," he said.
"He (Kerry) will leave his Chinese interlocutors in absolutely no doubt that the United States remains committed to maintaining freedom of navigation and to exercise our legitimate rights as pertaining to over flight and movement on the high seas."
He said Kerry would "reinforce ... the very negative consequences to China's image and China’s relationship with its neighbors on regional stability and potentially on the U.S.- China relationship from their large-scale reclamation efforts and the behavior generally in the South China Sea."
Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.
Last month, the U.S. military commander for Asia, Admiral Samuel Locklear, said China could eventually deploy radar and missile systems on the islands it is building in the Spratly archipelago that could be used to enforce an exclusion zone should it move to declare one.
The U.S. official who spoke on Tuesday said U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter had requested options that include sending aircraft and ships within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the reefs China has been building up.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced a strategic shift toward Asia in 2011 in response to growing Chinese power and influence, but critics have questioned his commitment to this "rebalance" given U.S. security distractions elsewhere in the world and stretched resources.
News of the possibly tougher U.S. stance came as the key economic pillar of the rebalance suffered a blow at the hands of Obama's Democrats in the U.S. Senate, who blocked debate on a bill that would have smoothed the path for a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.
Failure to clinch an agreement could damage Washington's leadership image in Asia, where China has been forging ahead with a new Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) seen as a challenge to U.S. global financial leadership.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, addtional reporting by Phil Stewart and David Alexander; editing by Emily Stephenson, W Simon, Christian Plumb and Chris Reese)
http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-u-committed-free-south-china-sea-movement-140250712.html
Kerry to take tough approach in China over South China Sea
By David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will leave China "in absolutely no doubt" about Washington's commitment to ensuring freedom of navigation and flight in the South China Sea when he visits Beijing this weekend, a senior State Department official said on Wednesday.
Setting the scene for what could be contentious encounters with Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, the official said Kerry would warn that China's land-reclamation work in contested waters could have negative consequences for regional stability - and for relations with the United States.
On Tuesday, a U.S. official said the Pentagon was considering sending military aircraft and ships to assert freedom of navigation around rapidly growing Chinese-made artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea.
China's Foreign Ministry responded by saying that Beijing was "extremely concerned" and demanded clarification.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense David Shear told a Senate hearing the United States had right of passage in areas claimed by China. "We are actively assessing the military implications of land reclamation and are committed to taking effective and appropriate action," he said, but gave no details.
The senior State Department official said "the question about what the U.S Navy does or doesn’t do is one that the Chinese are free to pose" to Kerry in Beijing, where he is due on Saturday for meetings with civilian and military leaders.
Kerry's trip is intended to prepare for the annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue next month in Washington and Xi's expected visit to Washington in September. But growing strategic rivalry rather than cooperation look set to dominate.
China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday that freedom of navigation did not mean that foreign military ships and aircraft can enter another country's territorial waters or airspace at will.
"We demand the relevant side talks and acts cautiously and does not take any actions that are risky or provocative to maintain regional peace and stability," she said.
The State Department official dismissed the idea that constructing islands out of half-submerged reefs gave China any right to territorial claims.
“Ultimately no matter how much sand China piles on top of a submerged reef or shoal ... it is not enhancing its territorial claim. You can’t build sovereignty," he said.
"He (Kerry) will leave his Chinese interlocutors in absolutely no doubt that the United States remains committed to maintaining freedom of navigation and to exercise our legitimate rights as pertaining to over flight and movement on the high seas."
He said Kerry would "reinforce ... the very negative consequences to China's image and China’s relationship with its neighbors on regional stability and potentially on the U.S.- China relationship from their large-scale reclamation efforts and the behavior generally in the South China Sea."
Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.
Last month, the U.S. military commander for Asia, Admiral Samuel Locklear, said China could eventually deploy radar and missile systems on the islands it is building in the Spratly archipelago that could be used to enforce an exclusion zone should it move to declare one.
The U.S. official who spoke on Tuesday said U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter had requested options that include sending aircraft and ships within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the reefs China has been building up.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced a strategic shift toward Asia in 2011 in response to growing Chinese power and influence, but critics have questioned his commitment to this "rebalance" given U.S. security distractions elsewhere in the world and stretched resources.
News of the possibly tougher U.S. stance came as the key economic pillar of the rebalance suffered a blow at the hands of Obama's Democrats in the U.S. Senate, who blocked debate on a bill that would have smoothed the path for a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.
Failure to clinch an agreement could damage Washington's leadership image in Asia, where China has been forging ahead with a new Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) seen as a challenge to U.S. global financial leadership.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, addtional reporting by Phil Stewart and David Alexander; editing by Emily Stephenson, W Simon, Christian Plumb and Chris Reese)
http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-u-committed-free-south-china-sea-movement-140250712.html
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