China unveiled a new navy commander, a move that comes amid worsening tensions in the South China Sea and as the Philippines rejected China’s accusation that Manila was encroaching on Beijing’s territory.
Hu Zhongming (胡中明) was promoted to the rank of admiral at a ceremony in Beijing attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Monday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The report marked the first time that Hu has been publicly referred to as commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy. China’s military is known for providing few details on key personnel moves.
Photo: The Philippine Coast Guard via AP
The report did not say what is next for Hu’s predecessor, Dong Jun (董軍), who appeared as head of the navy in 2021. Dong was also attended the ceremony, a Xinhua photograph showed.
Hu previously served as the navy’s chief of staff, and before that captained a submarine. He joined a celebrated mission in 2002 in which a Chinese destroyer sailed around the world over four months.
Xinhua also said that Wang Wenquan (王文全) was the new political commissar of the Southern Theater Command, which oversees Chinese military activity in the South China Sea.
Wang was also promoted, to general.
The changes comes as China flexes its muscles in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims as its own, and in the Taiwan Strait.
Philippine military spokesman Medel Aguilar yesterday rejected China’s accusation that Manila was encroaching on Beijing’s territory.
It was the latest salvo amid rising tensions as the two have traded accusations in the past few months over a series of maritime run-ins, including China allegedly ramming a ship this month carrying the Philippines’ military chief.
“The Philippines is not provoking conflict,” Aguilar told state broadcaster the People’s Television Network. “We follow international law and we are only implementing our domestic law, meaning the limits of our territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, where we have sovereign rights.”
The comments came a day after China’s People’s Daily wrote that the Philippines had relied on US support to continually provoke China.
This “extremely dangerous” behavior has seriously harmed regional peace and stability, it said.
Aguilar said Philippine activities would not put vessels and seafarers in danger, instead accusing China of carrying out dangerous maneuvers that sometimes result in collisions at sea.
“They are the ones committing all the violations,” he added.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS