South China Sea

Uighurs feel pressure in Flight 370 case

The Uyghur American Association (UAA) has issued a statement protesting "speculation" over the fate of the missing Malaysian Boeing 777 airliner that disappeared March 8 over the South China Sea en route to Beijing. Among the 239 passengers was Memetjan Abla, an acclaimed Uighur artist whose work dealt with social and political themes. Abla was traveling as part of a Chinese state-sponsored group of 29 artists. UHRP writes: "Conjecture alleging Mr. Abla's presence on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 as evidence of possible Uyghur involvement in the plane's fate is a disservice to his life and work. At present, there is no publicly available evidence to support a Uyghur connection hypothesis and UAA urges commentators to await the results of a full investigation into the incident." As an example of irresponsible speculation, UAA links to a Tweet from Rupert Murdoch: "777crash confirms jihadists turning to make trouble for China. Chance for US to make common cause, befriend China while Russia bullies." (UAA, March 10)

East China Sea gets scary —again

Another choreographed spectacle of brinkmanship is underway in the East China Sea, as Beijing launched two fighter planes Nov. 29 to track flights by a dozen US and Japanese reconnaissance and military planes that flew into in its newly announced "air defense identification zone" (ADIZ). (AP) The US planes included a contingent of B-52 bombers, that overflew disputed islands without announcing themselves, an open defiance of the new ADIZ. A map on the BBC News report of the incident shows both the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands and the Chunxiao gasfield immediately to the north, which lies partially within Japan's claimed exclusive economic zone and entirely within that claimed by China. BBC News also reports that two Japanese airlines (so far) have said they will disregard the ADIZ, while Japan Today reports the US is advising airlines to comply—while stressing that it does not recognize the ADIZ. All of this is going on as the joint AnnualEx 2013 US-Japanese naval maneuvers are taking place off nearby Okinawa—involving dozens of warships, submarines and aircraft from the US Navy's 7th fleet and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) (CNN, Nov. 28)

US troops to Philippines amid Mindanao fighting

The Obama administration is finalizing an agreement with the Philippines that will allow the US to deploy more troops and weapons in the archipelago nation. The deal avoids the contentious issue of establishing permanent bases and instead will have more US troops using Philippine bases. Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, the head of Pacific Command, said the US is seeking access that will enable it to help the Philippines in its defense as well as to aid in responding to disasters. The US maintained large military bases in the Philippines for nearly a century, but the last one, Subic Bay, closed in 1992. Subic Bay is today a "special economic zone," but the former base is still used by US military ships. The deal comes as President Obama has publicly weighed in for the Philippines in its maritime border dispute with China. (NYT, Digital Journal, July 13; NYT, June 8)

Anti-China protests: Vietnam's turn

In the recent wave of anti-Japan protests in China, we've wondered how much of it was genuinely spontaneous and how much (contrary to official appearances) state-instrumented. The signals are even harder to read in Vietnam, where several were actually arrested in anti-China protests Dec. 8. At issue is the contested South China Sea and its oilfields, a question that has (paradoxically, for those who can remember back just to the 1960s) caused Vietnam to tilt to the US in the New Cold War with China. Has the regime's anti-China propaganda (and exploitation of hopes for an oil bonanza to lift the nation out of poverty) created something now a little out of control? Or are even the arrests part of a choreographed game?

Geopolitical chess game heats up South China Sea

China's move to set up a military garrison at Sansha on disputed Yongxing Island (also known as Woody Island) in the Xisha chain (claimed by the Philippines as the Paracels), along with creating a city administration for the island which has heretofore had few permanent inhabitants, is escalating tensions in the South China Sea (or, as Manila has it, the West Philippine Sea)—the key theater in Washington's new cold war with Beijing. On Aug. 4, Beijing summoned a senior US diplomat, the embassy's deputy chief of mission Robert Wang, over State Department criticism of the move. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said in a statement the day before that the US is "concerned by the increase in tensions in the West Philippine Sea and [we] are monitoring the situation closely."

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