China's Navy an Emerging Global Force

 by Christian Fleming

 While still a long way off from challenging the United States as the predominant world naval power, China's modernized People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is beginning to take a more assertive role in an expanding theater of operations.

Previously content on patrolling coastal waters and preparing for an armed conflict with Taiwan, China now has a naval presence all along commercial sea routes to the Middle East and has stepped up military operations in the contested waters of the East and South China Seas.

On April 10, a Chinese flotilla of 10 destroyers, frigates, and submarines from the East Sea Fleet, based in Ningbo, travelled through Japan's Miyako Straight on to the Pacific to conduct open ocean military exercises. A few days earlier, China's North Sea Fleet, based in Qingdao, passed through the Bashi Straight between the Philippines and Taiwan to do similar military exercises in the South China Sea. The PLA Navy's recent operations in the region have troubled China's coastal and island neighbors, with Japan's government particularly irked by the proximity of the maneuvers to Japanese territory.

Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama during the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington on April 13, assuring him that China's intentions in the East China Sea are to turn the region into an area of peace, friendship, and cooperation.

"China does not hold an intention to challenge the U.S. in the central Pacific or engage in a military clash with Japan in close waters, though it is willing to protect its core interests at any cost," China's state-owned Global Times printed today in an attempt to comfort the world. The problem with the statement is that China has expanded what it defines as its "core interests." Beijing has previously reserved the term for areas such as Tibet and Taiwan, but now places its territorial claims in the South China Sea under the "core interest" category, according to the New York Times. Beijing may find its Southeast Asian neighbors, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, take issue with that statement.

U.S. officials in Washington are also fretting over the implications of a growing Chinese presence in the Middle East. In March, two Chinese frigates made port in the United Arab Emirates' capital of Abu Dhabi; the first time in modern history that a PLAN vessel has docked in the Middle East. Beijing also committed three warships to the Gulf of Aden in December 2008 to aid with international antipiracy efforts; the first time in modern history Chinese naval forces have been deployed beyond the Pacific Ocean.

Quantitatively, China and the United States are already on a similar playing field. A 2009 Pentagon report estimated the number of active Chinese naval vessels at 260, including 75 major warships and more than 60 submarines, compared to the U.S. Navy's 286 active vessels.

Qualitatively, though, China's navy remains decades behind that of the United States.  Ten of the American Navy's 286 active vessels are Nimitz-class nuclear powered supercarriers - each one capable of operating continuously for up to 20 years without refueling while holding up to 90 aircraft and 5,600 personnel. In contrast, China doesn't have any aircraft carriers, and although Beijing has revealed that it will complete the first Chinese carrier within the next few years, the United States will surely belittle that accomplishment when it launches the new Ford-class supercarrier in 2015.

China's official military budget for 2009 stood at US$70.3 billion, good for second highest in the world, but the Pentagon estimates that China's military spending last year was in the range of US$105 billion to US$150 billion. Whichever figure you use, it pales in comparison to the roughly US$533.8 billion proposed by U.S. President Obama for 2010. That translates into an expensive long-term battle for China if it wants to challenge America's global military presence in the 21st Century.



This article was written by 2point6billion.com by Christian Fleming. The site is contributed to by Dezan Shira and Associates, who offer advice on China tax and accounting to foreign companies doing business in Asia. They maintain accountants in China, India and Vietnam.

The writers also contribute to the India business news website, India-Briefing.com.

Article Source: http://www.articlesphere.com/Article/China-s-Navy-an-Emerging-Global-Force/222285

China's Tibet Price: The South China Sea

 by Dezan Shira

 The fallout from the recently held ASEAN summit in Hanoi has far reaching implications for China and the region, but also indicates rising disquiet of China's attempts to gain regional assertiveness. With Vietnam currently chairing ASEAN, the item that China had wanted to avoid discussion over - ownership of parts of the South China Sea - well and truly gained the glare of the spotlight.

That the region is disputed is beyond doubt, the Paracel and Spratly Islands lie in these waters and are claimed in all or in part by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei, all of which have stationed troops on various sections. The entire land mass of the Spratlys is a little less than five square kilometers, however in total the Spratlys include 148 or so islets, coral reefs, and seamounts scattered over an area of nearly 410,000 square kilometers of the central South China Sea.

The Paracel Islands, meanwhile, consist of over 30 islets, sandbanks or reefs, occupy about 15,000 square kilometers of the ocean surface, and are also located in the South China Sea. Currently under Chinese control, they are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, the latter which mirrors politically the Mainland Chinese position. The islands are considered important for several reasons: the fishing rights, submarine military access to deep water ocean, the potential for oil and gas exploitation, and tourism. A successful Chinese claim will also take the associated sea bed claims directly to the coast of all of eastern Vietnam, and could effectively seal Vietnamese shipping off from any other sea access. Understandably, Vietnam is highly nervous about this, while China wants to control the waves in its own backyard.

China's diplomatic solution to dealing with the situation has been to flex its financial muscle and to insist that negotiations over sovereignty of the islands take place with it alone, on a bilateral basis. That has left each individual claimant out on a limb and has negated any involvement of ASEAN, unilaterally a more powerful bloc, out of the picture.

China is not a member of ASEAN, and does not have voting or sanction rights. Step forward to Vietnam, the current ASEAN chair, and fast forward to last month's meetings in Hanoi. Inviting the United States to participate, like China, as an "observer," the Hanoi meeting quickly got on with business and brought to the table the one topic China did not want to hear about - the sovereignty of the South China Sea. While attending the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quick to observe from the sidelines that the dispute was now high on the agenda as part of America's international interests. Noting that commercial shipping passed through the seas, she effectively indicated that the issue was no longer one that China would be able to unilaterally dictate. The repercussions are going to rumble on, and have dealt a major blow to Chinese assertiveness in the waters.

In part, China only has itself to blame. Although Tibet was never mentioned as part of the dispute in the South China Sea, and the Chinese position over its sovereignty is both very clear and undisputed by all attending ASEAN nations and observers, it is obvious that China's 60 year old assertiveness towards regional disputes has reached a plateau. Buddhism is still a strong influence in many ASEAN member countries and the plight of the Dalai Lama, while not officially recognized or discussed, still causes regional discomfort. Add to that skirmishes with Vietnam in 1979, and still ongoing border disputes over Tibetan territorial claims with India, and China's position as asserting more regional sovereignty is now starting to be questioned.

While China has moved on from 1979 and the days when it could engage in Southeast Asian diplomacy down the barrel of a gun, its relative strengths in terms of investment and financial muscle can make it hard for individual nations to resist overtures. Contracts have been dangled as incentives to secure sovereignty, and used as punishments through cancellations to show displeasure. Collectively, ASEAN has more bargaining power, and is a sizeable trading bloc that can stand up to China's belligerence. It also diminishes the possibility of China punishing errant neighbor countries by taking the onus away from unilateral discussions. Add the United States to that mix and the situation gets less sustainable for China to press claims over disputed lands. While the Chinese always claim to have long memories, it's a game now being played by ASEAN members, and the situation over China's handling over the Tibet issue still reverberates. While that issue is not going to be discussed, the price to pay for it is now arriving - a toughening of regional attitudes towards further Chinese territorial claims and, specifically, China's influence over the South China Sea.



This article was written for the Asia news blog, 2point6billion.com, which is published by China business book publishers, AsiaBriefingMedia.com.

They also publish the India business news site, India-Briefing.com.

Article Source: http://www.articlesphere.com/Article/China-s-Tibet-Price--The-South-China-Sea/236514

Current Human Rights Issues 2017-01-13

The international community has resources for human rights. The intelligence services around the world should compile critical risk areas for future abuse of human rights. We can contribute to report and inform on similar excesses such as that in this video. However, we need better resources for action to improve human rights in the world! I have no transparency specifically in this case and I therefore take distance from whether the video production is true or false. Please note the source of the material.

Världssamfundet har resurser för mänskliga rättigheter. Underrättelse tjänsterna runt om i världen borde sammanställa kritiska riskområden för framtida övergrepp i  mänskliga rättigheterna. Vi kan bidra med att rapportera och informera om liknande övergrepp som det som framkommer i denna video. Vi behöver dock bättre resurser för insatser att förbättra mänskliga rättigheter i världen! Jag har ingen insyn specifikt i detta fall och jag tar därför avstånd i från huruvida video produktionen är äkta eller falsk. Observera källan till materialet.



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