The China Coast Guard (CCG) maintained near-daily patrols at key features across the disputed South China Sea last year, ramping up its presence as tensions over the waterway with Southeast Asian neighbors remain high, new tracking data shows.
Patrols in the waters surrounding the Vanguard Bank off Vietnam, an area known for its oil and gas reserves and the site of repeated standoffs between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels, more than doubled to 310 days last year, the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said.
The number of days Chinese ships patrolled near Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), which Taiwan also claims and where the Philippines maintains a garrison, increased to 279 from 232, while those at Luconia Shoals, near important Malaysian oil and gas operations, rose to 316 from 279, the analysis showed.
Photo: Reuters
The patrols show that Beijing’s determination to assert control over its claim to more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, the analysis of ship identification data says, and raises the risk of a mishap at sea that regional officials worry could lead to a larger conflict.
“With CCG vessels operating in Malaysian, Philippine and Vietnamese waters every day of the year, it all but guarantees tensions remain high and run-ins with those neighbors a regular occurrence,” said Greg Poling, head of the Southeast Asia program at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The report said that its count of Chinese incursions are probably incomplete, because not all ships employ the transceivers used to track their whereabouts, and some try to obscure their identities with false data.
Poling said the Chinese patrols are becoming a fact of life in the region.
“The patrol locations have been extremely consistent in recent years, creating a predictable status quo that the Southeast Asian parties can manage, albeit with difficulty,” he said.
The analysis of China’s actions comes as US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin makes his sixth trip to the Indo-Pacific region this week. The Pentagon head is to meet with his counterpart in South Korea in an effort to bolster the security environment in the region.
Austin is then expected to visit the Philippines, where he is poised to secure expanded access to key military bases, the Washington Post reported, adding that negotiations are still ongoing.
The number of high-level engagements between Washington and Manila has increased under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, and the two sides have agreed to speed up existing military projects and undertake new ones under an existing defense pact.
The Philippines last month ordered the military to strengthen its presence in the South China Sea after repeatedly voicing displeasure with incursions by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Vietnam and Indonesia are also bolstering their own defenses.
A senior US defense official last month said that the PLA has generally become more reckless toward US and allied partners in the South China Sea as it increases its military capacity, directing chaff toward other planes and having its ships cut across the bows of foreign vessels.
The same official said that the Pentagon is struggling to get Beijing to resume military-to-military talks after the PLA in December last year held its largest drills near Taiwan since the unprecedented exercises that followed then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit in August.
“When there’s no trust, when there’s no communication between nations, when you have two fighter jets flying closely in the air like we had very recently over the South China Sea, that could escalate very quickly if one of the pilots has a quick trigger and makes a mistake,” said Stephen Roach, author of Accidental Conflict.
EMBASSY TRAP? A missionary said that the group had been told they needed to report to the Chinese embassy, but added if they were to walk in, ‘they are gone’ More than 60 members of a Chinese Christian church have been detained in Thailand, supporters said yesterday, raising fears they might be returned to their home country, where they face possible persecution. Deana Brown, one of two American supporters detained along with the church members, said that Thai authorities in the coastal city of Pattaya on Thursday detained the 63 church members, many of whom are children. Thirty-two adult Chinese nationals were charged with overstaying their visas, said Colonel Tawee Kutthalaeng, chief of the Pattaya-area Nong Prue police station. The children were not charged, Kutthalaeng said. The two US citizens were not placed under
China and Brazil have reached a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the US dollar as an intermediary, the Brazilian government said on Wednesday, Beijing’s latest salvo against the greenback. The deal would enable China, the top rival to US economic hegemony, and Brazil, the biggest economy in Latin America, to conduct their massive trade and financial transactions directly, exchanging yuan for reals and vice versa instead of going through the US dollar. “The expectation is that this will reduce costs ... promote even greater bilateral trade and facilitate investment,” the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency said in a
India yesterday summoned Canada’s high commissioner in India to “convey strong concern” over Sikh protesters in Canada and how they were allowed to breach the security of India’s diplomatic mission and consulates. Canadian media reported that hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Indian consulate in Vancouver on Saturday over demands for an independent Sikh state, a simmering issue for decades that was triggered again in the past few weeks. Canada has the highest population of Sikhs outside their home state of Punjab in India. “It is expected that the Canadian government will take all steps which are required to ensure the
The Japanese government has made tackling its falling birthrate a top priority, but with few women involved in official debate on the issue, some are making themselves heard on social media. Japan recorded fewer than 800,000 births last year, the lowest in the nation of 125 million since records began. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has warned the trend threatens “whether we can continue to function as a society,” and fresh focus on the issue has sparked countless articles. However, one in particular, which said Japan has the highest ratio in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development of women aged 50
RSS