Website reveals future warship deployment to Philippines’ Scarborough Shoal
China’s plan for a new military buildup on a disputed island near the Philippines shows the future deployment of Chinese warships close to where U.S. naval forces will be stationed in the future.
Details of the militarization plan for Scarborough Shoal in the Spratly Islands were obtained by U.S. intelligence agencies over the last several months, according to defense officials. Continue reading
“I’m an amateur student of history and I’m reminded of … how Germany was testing the waters and what the response was by various other European powers… But unfortunately, up to the annexation of the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, the annexation of the entire country of Czechoslovakia, nobody said stop. If somebody said stop to Hitler at that point in time, or to Germany at that time, would we have avoided World War II.”
That piece of revisionist history is brought to you by Benigno Aquino and is excerpted from a speech the Philippine President gave to the Japanese parliament earlier this month. Continue reading
In case you needed yet another bit of proof as to which side the Obama administration’s loyalties lay.
Press Secretary Earnest welcomes passport ruling at Supreme Court, saying it gives president authority to recognize borders.
The White House on Tuesday relished the US Supreme Court ruling the day before, which sided with US President Barack Obama in striking down a Congressional law calling to have Jerusalem recognized as part of Israel on American passports.
“We welcome the Supreme Court’s important decision yesterday in Zivotofsky v. Kerry, which reaffirms the long-established authority of the president to recognize foreign states, their governments, and their territorial boundaries,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement. Continue reading
SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — As Russian-backed armed forces effectively seized control of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula on Saturday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia requested —and received — authorization from the Russian Senate to use military force in Ukraine.
The actions signaled publicly for the first time the Kremlin’s readiness to intervene militarily in Ukraine, and it served as a blunt response to President Obama, who just hours earlier pointedly warned Russia to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Within hours after receiving Mr. Putin’s request, Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, voted to approve it, after a debate that warned of the apocalyptic consequences of failing to stop a fascist threat from spreading to Russia’s borders. The lawmakers directed considerable fury at President Obama and others in the West they accused of fomenting the upheaval in Ukraine. Continue reading
In May, a private-sector study group advocating the independence of Okinawa Prefecture from Japan was formed. The group is led by Ryukoku University Prof. Yasukatsu Matsushima, a native of Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, and its secretariat is based at Okinawa International University.
The group, known as the “comprehensive study group on the independence of Ryukyuans,” has about 150 members, including House of Representatives and Social Democratic Party member Kantoku Teruya, who repre-sents Okinawa Constituency No. 2.
Its charter states: “Ryukyu has been under the rule of Japan and the United States. It is necessary that we Ryukyuans declare independence from Japan, have all military bases withdrawn from our islands, and build the islands of peace and hope with our own hands.” Continue reading
Taipei, May 27 (CNA) China should hit out when necessary to resolve rows over some shoals in the South China Sea that are unlawfully occupied by other countries, a Chinese scholar has urged.
In a recent interview with a Shanghai-based radio, Han Xudong, a professor at the PLA National Defense University, issued the call on grounds that it is hard to settle the territorial disputes in that region through soft power such as “diplomatic maneuvering” and China “should strike at any time when necessary against any attempt by other countries to take control of the islets there.” Continue reading
The nine-day-old naval standoff between China and the Philippines showed few signs of cooling on Thursday, with Beijing sending a powerful military vessel toward the disputed islands in the South China Sea.
According to Chinese media reports Thursday, officials say the country’s most advanced fishing patrol vessel, the Yuzheng 310, has been sent to protect Chinese fishermen in the region.
The standoff began early last week when Chinese surveillance ships prevented a Philippines warship from arresting several Chinese fishermen near Scarborough Shoal, an area both sides claim as sovereign territory.
Full article: China Sends Second Boat to Standoff with Philippines (Voice of America)
The two navies engaged each other after the Philippine vessel—a former Coast Guard cutter provided by the U.S. Navy—attempted to arrest the crew of several Chinese fishing boats who were anchored at Scarborough Shoal, off the Philippines’ northwest coast but which is also claimed by China. The Philippine government said Chinese surveillance vessels intervened to prevent any arrests, leading to the standoff, and that Filipino sailors who inspected the Chinese vessels on Tuesday found illegally collected corals and live sharks in one of the fishing boats.
China is locked in a series of overlapping territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei, who claim either all or part of the South China Sea as their sovereign territory. The dispute has flared in recent months as the region’s potential energy reserves begin to draw growing attention.
Over the past year, Vietnam and the Philippines have accused Chinese navy craft of harassing oil-exploration vessels operating in their United Nations-defined maritime economic zones. Beijing has denied that, but has warned Vietnam and the Philippines from prospecting in the area without its permission.
“This is part of larger pattern. These new standoffs are coming to light only because we are better positioned to stand up to China now,” said a Philippine military official who asked not to be identified.
Full article: Philippine Warship in Standoff With China Vessels (Wall Street Journal)
The Obama administration, despite the nation’s economic woes, effectively killed the job-producing Keystone Pipeline last month. The Arab Spring is turning the oil production of Libya and other Arab nations over to the Muslim Brotherhood. Iraq is distancing itself from the U.S. And everyone recognizes that Iran, whose crude supplies are critical to the European economy, will do anything it can to frustrate America’s strategic interests. In the face of all of this, Obama insists on cutting back U.S. oil potential with outrageous restrictions.
Part of Obama’s apparent war against U.S. energy independence includes a foreign-aid program that directly threatens my state’s sovereign territory. Obama’s State Department is giving away seven strategic, resource-laden Alaskan islands to the Russians. Yes, to the Putin regime in the Kremlin.
Full article: Obama’s giveaway: Oil-rich islands to Russia (WND)
There have been projections among some Indian experts and think tanks that a limited Chinese attack along the unresolved Sino-Indian border may be imminent. This view cannot be totally faulted. They are based on China’s aggressive official and semi-official postures and warning to India, especially on the sovereignty of Tawang, an important Buddhist pilgrim town in India’s north-east state of Arunachal Pradesh.
China claims officially the whole of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory. The official Chinese media, have started referring to Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet. This is a very important shift in China’s nomenclature of Arunachal Pradesh. This is an effort to now make this Indian state a historical part of Tibet which China militarily occupied in 1950. With India among other countries in the world having acknowledged the original Tibet as a sovereign part of China, extension of Tibet to Arunachal Pradesh may give China an opening into its sovereignty claim on Arunachal Pradesh. Beijing believes it as another instrument to pressure India.
Full article: An India-China Military Conflict? – Analysis (Eurasia Review)
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