China building more in South China Sea

by | Sep 2, 2016 | News

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Rectangles show disputed areas in South China Sea.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Sept. 2 that China is building on another shoal in the South China Sea despite an international court ruling rejecting most of China’s claims in the resource-rich area. The Communist Party dictatorship of President Xi Jinping has been aggressively militarizing parts of the sea.

A U.N.-backed tribunal  has ruled in July that China’s claims to almost all of the strategic sea had no legal basis and  that its construction of artificial islands in disputed waters was illegal.

Mr. Duterte said he received an “unsettling” intelligence report showing China had sent barges to the contested Scarborough Shoal and had appeared to begin construction in the area for the first time.

China has already built artificial islands in the Spratly chain in the South China Sea. The United States  has warned  of unspecified “actions” if Beijing extended its military expansion to the Scarborough Shoal.

To read the Straits Times article on this, please hit this link.

South China Sea shoal may become ‘line in sand’

South China Sea shoal may become ‘line in sand’

by | Jun 6, 2016 | Initiative

(June 13th, 2016) Scarborough Shoal, in the South China Sea, may be becoming a line in the sand against Chinese militaristic expansionism in that sea, most of which China claims. China seized and occupied the shoal in 2012.

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It is unclear what the United States and nations friendly to it in the region would do if China continues to seize and militarize reefs and islands in the sea.

China has warned that it might respond to an unfavorable international arbitration ruling against its claim to the “island’’ in favor of the Philippines by putting structures on the shoal to give it a military outpost very close to the Philippines’s door. Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo says China will not accept the tribunal’s ruling, expected sometime this summer.

Speaking at a Singapore forum, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said that the U.S., as an ally of the Philippines, would take action, without elaborating. Hit this link for more information.