Reuters: Exclusive: U.S. sees new Chinese activity around South China Sea shoal
The United States has seen Chinese activity around a reef that China seized from the Philippines nearly four years ago that could be a precursor to more land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea, the U.S. Navy chief said on Thursday.
The head of U.S. naval operations, Admiral John Richardson, expressed concern that an international court ruling expected in coming weeks on a case brought by the Philippines against China over its South China Sea claims could be a trigger for Beijing to declare an exclusion zone in the busy trade route.
Richardson told Reuters the United States was weighing responses to such a move.
He said the U.S. military had seen Chinese activity around Scarborough Shoal in the northern part of the Spratly archipelago, about 125 miles (200 km) west of the Philippine base of Subic Bay.
"I think we see some surface ship activity and those sorts of things, survey type of activity, going on. That’s an area of concern ... a next possible area of reclamation," he said.
Richardson said it was unclear if the activity near the reef, which China seized in 2012, was related to the pending arbitration decision.
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WNU Editor: This new project is very close to the Philippines.
2 comments:
This article is so chock full of things I don't know where to start. Maybe a few brief ones:
1) " 'But he said Washington needed to proceed judiciously rather than charging in "very fast and very heavy,' given the enormous influence and importance of the Chinese economy in the region."
Who's going to make those IPhones?
2)" 'We have to be sophisticated in how we approach this so that we don't force any of our partners into an uncomfortable position where they have to make tradeoffs that are not in their best interest,' he said."
About as an explicit warning to american allies in the region as you can get.
3)"'We would hope to have an approach that would ... include us a primary partner but not necessarily to the exclusion of other partners in the region.'"
Don't count on the US for support in this one.
China can bully its way.
The U.S. made a the Phillipines a colony. It was McKinley's mistake. Admiral Dewey and Mark Twain warned against it.
Germany probably was looking to step in and take the Phillipines over. Dewey warned them off. All we needed to do was negotiate a defense treaty, get a SOFA and get a base treaty with Phillipino agreement. We did the wrong thing. Although our colonization came off better than most others, ut still was wrong and still poisons relations to this day.
China should split the difference for long term relations.
Scarborough is a reef too far.
... And Obama is a chickenshit
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