As our own Naval Diplomat noted, several months back:

“Carriers steam in company with a coterie of escorts and support vessels. The PLA Navy, however, has not yet filled out the remainder of a carrier task force. The navy’s newest guided-missile destroyers appear adequate for air-defense purposes, but anti-submarine warfare remains a puzzling shortfall—particularly since China’s likely adversaries, the United States and Japan, excel at undersea operations. Combat logistics—oilers, ammunition ships, refrigerated stores ships—remains another glaring shortcoming for the PLA Navy. These unglamorous but crucial vessels can replenish men-of-war, allowing them to stay at sea for long intervals without returning to port. Chinese task forces will remain vulnerable and tethered to shore logistical support until shipbuilders plug these gaps in the inventory.” [See more on the Chinese military's developing support capacity from David Lague at Reuters, via CDT.]

So while China’s new carrier has certainly made huge strides in its development from being a partially completed dream of the Soviet Navy to the Liaoning, the ship must be considered part of the development of a larger goal — the creation of a Chinese carrier strike group. The development of such a potent and complex asset takes time. Flight crews need countless hours of training to start. Kinks in carrier operations need to be sorted out. The list could go on and on.

PLA Navy deputy chief of staff Song Xue gave some details of China’s future carrier plans the following day, announcing that the Liaoning will be joined by an escort of destroyers, frigates, submarines and supply ships, and ultimately by a new generation of larger, domestically built carriers. From Michael Forsythe at Bloomberg News:

Future aircraft carriers will carry more fighter jets than the Liaoning, Rear Admiral Song Xue told foreign military attaches yesterday in Beijing, according to the official Xinhua New Agency. The carrier was built around a Soviet-era hull and began trials at sea last year.

The remarks signal that the People’s Liberation Army will push ahead with a modernization plan under which defense spending has more than doubled since 2006. China has been more assertive in pressing sovereignty claims against Japan as well as Vietnam and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

“This only adds publicly to what many believed to be the case: that the Liaoning is a training or ‘starter’ carrier and eventually China would build larger and more capable ones,” Taylor Fravel, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who focuses on China’s relations with its neighbors, said by e-mail. “It suggests that today’s PLA is much more confident than in the past regarding its willingness to talk about future military programs.”

Things might have gone rather differently for the Liaoning, née Riga, and later Varyag. Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho reportedly had plans to turn it into a floating casino, a fate also proposed for Britain’s retired HMS Ark Royal.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: aircraft carriers, Chinese Navy, Japan, Liaoning, military modernization, military technology, navy, philippines, South China Sea, Vietnam
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China says the policy has emboldened Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam in longstanding territorial disputes with Beijing.

China faces “multiple and complicated security threats” despite its growing influence, the Ministry of Defense said in its annual white paper, adding that the U.S. strategy meant “profound changes” for Asia.

“There are some countries which are strengthening their Asia Pacific military alliances, expanding their military presence in the region and frequently make the situation there tenser,” the ministry said in the 40-page document, in a clear reference to the United States.

Such moves “do not accord with the developments of the times and are not conducive towards maintaining regional peace and stability”, ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told reporters.

The white paper also revealed the size and structure of China’s armed forces, the first time the People’s Liberation Army had ever made such a disclosure, according to Xinhua News:

China now has about 850,000 army servicemen in 18 combined corps and additional independent combined operational divisions (brigades), according to the paper.

The combined corps, composed of divisions and brigades, are respectively under seven military area commands.

Currently, the PLA Navy has a total strength of 235,000 officers and men, and commands three fleets — the Beihai Fleet, the Donghai Fleet and the Nanhai Fleet.

The PLA Air Force now has about 398,000 officers and men and an air command in each of the seven military area commands of Shenyang, Beijing, Lanzhou, Jinan, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Chengdu. In addition, it boasts one airborne corps.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Japan, Ministry of Defense, philippines, United States, Vietnam, white paper
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A statement posted on the Vietnamese government’s website said the trawler was chased away and came under attack from Chinese ships near the Paracel islands on March 20, calling the incident a breach of international maritime law.

Vietnam’s state-controlled newspapers showed photographs on Tuesday of what they said were the charred remains of the ship’s cabin.

“This is a very serious case, violating Vietnam’s sovereignty,” the Foreign Ministry said in the statement posted late on Monday.

“Vietnam resolutely opposes this and demands China investigates and strictly deals with the above inhumane wrongdoing and compensates for the damages carried by Vietnamese fishermen.”

While Hanoi demanded China punish those responsible, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said China has taken unspecified but “legitimate and reasonable” actions against Vietnamese boats fishing illegally in Chinese waters. Meanwhile, Chinese state media report China is urging Vietnam to stop illegal fishing in Xisha Island. From Xinhua:

The Xisha Islands are Chinese territory, said Hong, adding that China’s sovereignty over the islands is indisputable.

China’s actions toward the Vietnamese fishing boat were necessary and justified, as the boat had operated illegally in waters off China’s Xisha Islands, according to the spokesman.

He said that checks with relevant authorities had verified that China’s action cause no damage to the Vietnamese boat.

China urges Vietnam to take effective measures to strengthen education and management of its fishermen, and stop them from illegal activities, said.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: maritime disputes, South China Sea, territorial disputes, Vietnam
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While fears about the safety of Chinese food products are often well founded, in Vietnam they are so tangled up with anti-Chinese sentiment it is hard to tell where one begins and the other ends. More than 1,000 years of occupation, a bloody border war in 1979 and renewed assertiveness by China in pushing territorial claims in the South China Sea mean that tales of Chinese perfidy find fertile soil in which to grow.

[…] Nguyen Quang Bach, a customs official at Tan Thanh, one of the major entry points for Chinese goods into Vietnam, said last year daily imports peaked at 2,100 metric tons of fruit a day in the run up to the Lunar New Year, when demand for fruits is at its highest. He said this year the busiest day saw half that cross the border.

“The information (about alleged dangers) has affected people’s psychology,” he said. “Consumers don’t eat Chinese fruits and importers can’t sell them.”

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-Chinese sentiment, exports, food safety, Vietnam
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The episode comes as China’s fishing boats increasingly find themselves embroiled in both cross-border and commercial disputes. Chinese ships fish in both international waters and under bilateral fisheries agreement in the waters of other nations. They work for largely private companies or for themselves, and aren’t generally directed by Beijing.

However, in Asian waters, fishing boats have become a proxy for China’s sovereign reach in largely territorial spats. In cases farther afield, its fishing boats have been entangled in accusations of overfishing and harming local economies.

[…] China’s hunger is growing at a time when around 87% of global fisheries are seen to be at full exploitation, overexploited, or depleted, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. China like other nations has signed international agreements that allow it to fish in global waters, and some fishing experts have praised Beijing for beefing up its statistics on fishing in some areas and for raising more fish in domestic farms.

Still, a European Commission report this year said China reported just 368,000 tons of its 2010-2011 catch from the high seas compared with an estimated actual haul of 4.6 million tons.

The height of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute in the autumn saw forays into the islands’ waters by fishing boats from Hong Kong and Taiwan, while China dispatched its own fishery monitoring vessels. Reports suggested that a thousand-strong armada of Chinese fishing boats would also converge on the islands, but this ultimately failed to materialise.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: argentina, coast guard, conservation, diaoyu islands, fishing, Japan, marine economy, south korea, Vietnam
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The grants are named for the American playwright Lillian Hellman and her longtime companion, the novelist Dashiell Hammett. Both were both questioned by US congressional committees about their political beliefs and affiliations during the aggressive anti-communist investigations inspired by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. Hellman suffered professionally and had trouble finding work. Hammett spent time in prison.

In 1989, the trustees appointed in Hellman’s will asked Human Rights Watch to devise a program to help writers who were targeted for expressing views that their governments oppose, for criticizing government officials or actions, or for writing about subjects that their governments did not want reported.

[…] A concentration of grantees in certain countries points to especially severe repression of free expression by those governments. Twelve of this year’s grantees come from the People’s Republic of China; four of them are Tibetan and remain anonymous for security reasons. Five grantees are from Vietnam, four from Ethiopia, and three from Iran.

In addition to the four anonymous and imprisoned Tibetans, the honorees include one ethnic Mongolian, Huuchinhuu Govruud, and two Uyghur writers, Memetjan Abdulla and Gulmire Imin. Wang Lihong, Qi Chonghuai, Huang Qi, He Depu and Sun Wenguang also received grants. Profiles of all the named writers are available at HRW.org.

See also the November edition of Words without Borders magazine, which focused on banned Chinese writers and is still available for free.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ethiopia, free expression, freedom of expression, huang qi, human rights watch, Iran, mongolians, Qi Chonghuai, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Vietnam, Wang Lihong, writers
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Writing for The National Interest, James Clad and Robert A. Manning claim that Beijing’s provocative moves have backfired:

A joke now making the rounds in Asia asks, “who is America’s most effective diplomat in Asia?” The punch line brings knowing laughter: “‘Mr. Beijing.’ Yes, Mr. Bob Beijing is playing America’s best hand.”

The joke’s sting lies in the law of unintended consequences. Beijing’s increasingly provocative moves include cutting a Vietnamese seismic-exploration ship’s cables, disrupting oil exploration, declaring the entire South China Sea under Chinese sovereignty and making some hitherto unpublicized but very sensitive challenges to Malaysia. All seem tailor-made to produce exactly what China says it doesn’twant: a de facto anti-China coalition backed discreetly by the United States and reaching from India to the Sea of Japan.

As if to put an exclamation point on it, the Philippine foreign minister recently said that if Japan rearmed and abandoned its pacifist constitution, Manila “would welcome that very much.”

Meanwhile, The Diplomat’s Minxin Pei suggests a few steps China can take to dig itself out of its diplomatic hole:

The most urgent action item is to stabilize Beijing-Tokyo ties. The actions taken by Beijing to contest Tokyo’s claims to the disputed islands in the East China Sea are fraught with risks of escalation. While they may be designed to force the Japanese to the negotiating table, the Chinese government needs to take extra precaution to avoid dangerous confrontations and escalations. Under current circumstances, the smarter way is not to escalate, but deescalate, so that Beijing can give Tokyo an opportunity to respond. With anti-China sentiments high among a broad segment of Japan’s population and elites, it is unwise to expect Tokyo to meet Chinese escalations with concessions.

…

Parallel to its efforts to stabilize Sino-Japanese relations, Beijing’s second policy priority is to defuse itstensions with ASEAN over the South China Sea disputes.   Chinese policymakers must first realize that its stance on the maritime disputes in the South China Sea has painted Beijing into a corner.  The historical claims are increasingly difficult to defend.  The insistence on bilateral negotiations, not multilateral ones, looks too self-serving.  The use of a proxy such as Cambodia to undermine ASEAN’s unity on the South China Sea disputes may be a temporary tactical success, but it comes with long-term strategic costs and will ultimately be futile.

A bold move for the new Chinese government to take is to do a U-turn on the South China Sea.  It can do so by announcing its willingness to negotiate in a multilateral setting and adhere to existing international laws, not historical claims.   This dramatic change of policy will not necessarily produce an outcome totally unfavorable to China.  Because most of Vietnam and the Philippines’ claims are equally weak under existing international laws, shifting China’s position will not necessarily strengthen their claims.  The practical effect will be prolonged negotiations that can defuse the tensions – and repair China’s tattered image as a bully.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: diaoyu islands, India, Japan, oil exploration, philippines, South China Sea, Taiwan, United States, Vietnam
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Police initially allowed about 200 protesters to march from Hanoi’s iconic Opera House through the streets, but after 30 minutes ordered them to disperse. When some continued, they pushed about 20 of them into a large bus which then drove quickly from the scene. It was unclear where they were taken, but in the past people detained at anti-China protests have been briefly held and released.

As foreign tourists and Sunday morning strollers looked on, protesters shouted “Down with China” and carried banners bearing the slogan “China’s military expansion threatens world peace and security.”

Using loudspeakers, authorities urged them to disperse and tried to reassure them.

“The Communist Party and government are resolutely determined to defend our country’s sovereignty and territory through peaceful means based on international law,” it said. “Your gathering causes disorder and affects the party’s and government’s foreign policy.”

These protests come amid Beijing’s call for Hanoi to halt oil exploration in the disputed waters. Aside from the protest in Hanoi, a smaller protest in Ho Chi Min city was also broken up by police, from AFP:

Activists at the scene told AFP that the 20 demonstrators were rounded up into a bus after the half-hour rally, the fifth such display of public discontent in Hanoi this year against Beijing’s perceived aggression in the sea.

The protestors were taken to Loc Ha detention centre on the outskirts of Hanoi, one activist told AFP on condition of anonymity. “I’m detained. And they’ve jammed my mobile phone,” the activist said via text message. They could not be reached for further questions.

Security forces also broke up a similar anti-China protest also attended by hundreds of people in the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City, eyewitnesses told AFP, after Hanoi and Beijing traded barbs over the neighbours’ conflicting territorial claims.

The first demonstrations this year were allowed to go ahead, but in August Vietnamese police detained some 25 people at an anti-China rally who were later taken to a rehabilitation centre usually used to detain sex workers and drug users.

Although the demonstrations are not the first anti-China protests, the BBC’s Vietnam correspondent, Nga Pham, says it is the first protest in Ho Chi Min city in over a year, the BBC adds:

Public demonstrations are extremely rare in Vietnam, where the government makes social and political stability its top priority.

Police have been trying hard to prevent demonstrations, but this time it seems public anger was too great to suppress, our correspondent says.

According to the Global Times, the protests in Vietnam have been ‘misrepresented’ in Western media:

Vietnamese police dispersed anti-China protesters in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday and 20 activists were reportedly detained. The protests, unsurprisingly, were painted by Western media as a manifestation of new “anger” of the Vietnamese public over the South China Sea dispute with China. According to their interpretation, in a nation where public demonstrations are strictly regulated, anti-China sentiments are just “too great to suppress.”

A closer examination of the protests shows this is not a convincing explanation. In Western reports, interviewed protesters vented their frustration with “government bans” on public expression, rather than anger toward China.

According to local scholars, it’s become increasingly clear since last summer’s anti-China demonstrations that most protesters are political dissidents who seek to undermine the government’s credibility and social stability under the guise of anti-China protests. Territorial disputes with China give these people a convenient excuse.

It is Vietnam that has stirred up the current tensions over its territorial disputes with China. Hanoi underestimated China’s determination and measures it has at its disposal to safeguard its sovereignty. Nevertheless, after this misjudgment, Hanoi found it hard to restrain domestic nationalist sentiment, which had been agitated, to an appropriate level. All these factors have undermined the cooperative relationship between Vietnam and China.

Read more about China’s relation with Vietnam and the South China Sea maritime disputes, via CDT.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Anti-China protests, anti-Chinese sentiment, border disputes, Global Times, maritime disputes, protests, South China Sea, Vietnam
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“May the radiant sun General Kim Jong-un shine forever!”

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

Central Propaganda Department: Use only Xinhua wire copy in reporting North Korea labelling Ri Yong-ho a counter-revolutionary. Do not make other reports or commentary. (November 26, 2012)

中宣部：对朝鲜将李英浩定性为反革命分子，只用新华社通稿，不作其他报道评论。

Central Propaganda Department: Use only Xinhua wire copy with regards to Vietnam passing an anti-corruption bill. Do not make other reports or commentary. (November 26, 2012)

中宣部：对越南通过反腐法案，只用新华社通稿，不作其他报道评论。

Central Propaganda Department: Use only Xinhua wire copy with regards to the reopening of the investigation of the cheap sale of Wu Ying’s property. (November 26, 2012)

中宣部：对吴英财产贱卖案重审及相关问题只采用新华社通稿。

Once one of China’s richest business people, Wu Ying was detained in 2007 and eventually convicted of illegal fundraising. Sentenced to death in 2009, a retrial in May changed this to a two-year commuted death sentence, a punishment which often ends with the convicted averted execution. Meanwhile, Wu Ying argued for herself in court on Tuesday concerning the cheap sale of 14 of her companies’ properties, which she claims was fraudulent [zh].

Central Propaganda Department: Do not reprint, report, or comment on the female Heilongjiang TV anchor reporting a People’s representative to the authorities. (November 27, 2012)

中宣部：对黑龙江女主播举报人大代表一事不转不报不评。

On November 23, anchor Wang Dechun revealed that she has been sexually assaulted by a representative of the National People’s Congress.

Central Propaganda Department: In reports and commentary on the mine explosion in Xiangshui, Guizhou, do not implicate the political system. (November 27, 2012)

中宣部：对贵州响水煤矿爆炸事故的报道评论不联系体制。

Central Propaganda Department: Do not reprint, report, or comment on the paean to Kim Jong-un carved into a mountainside by North Korea. (November 27, 2012)

中宣部：对网上有关朝鲜刻写歌颂金正恩大幅标语一事不转不报不评。

A 548-meter slogan in praise of Kim Jong-un has been carved into a mountain in North Korea. Each word is 20 meters high, spelling out the slogan, “May the radiant sun General Kim Jong-un shine forever!”

Central Propaganda Department: With regards to online discussion of the vulgar Chongqing photos implicating six other officials, use on information issued by authoritative departments, and do not exaggerate. (November 27, 2012)

中宣部：对网传重庆不雅照还涉及其他6名官员，只采用权威部门发布的信息，不炒作。

Central Propaganda Department: All media are to maintain a positive spin on the national civil service examination. Do not independently report or comment on the situation surrounding test-taker Xuan Hai (who is visually impaired). (November 27, 2012)

中宣部：对国家公务员考试，各媒体要坚持正面宣传，对考生宣海（视力有障碍）参加考试相关情况，不单独报道评论。

Central Propaganda Department: Traditional media are not to reprint, report, or comment on online rosters of CCP Central Committee member posts. (November 28, 2012)

中宣部：网上关于中央委员现任职务的盘点，传统媒体不转载不报道不评论。

Central Propaganda Department: Do not reprint or report on Larry Hsien Ping Lang’s idea of China’s economy facing eight major crises [zh]. (November 28, 2012)

中宣部：对郎咸平有关中国经济面临八大危机的观点不转载不报道。

Central Propaganda Department: All media are not to report, reprint, or comment on the State Council “plan for organizational reform” spread online [zh]. (November 28, 2012)

中宣部：对网传的国务院机构改革方案，各媒体不报道不转载不评论。

Central Propaganda Department: All media are to report in accordance with the scope of Xinhua copy the death of J-15 Chief Designer Luo Yang. (November 28, 2012)

中宣部：对歼-15飞机总设计师罗阳逝世一事，各媒体按新华社稿的口径报道。

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CCP Central Committee, censorship, central propaganda department, Chongqing, civil service, civil service examination, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Heilongjiang, Kim Jong-un, Larry Hsien Ping Lang, media censorship, Ministry of Truth, North Korea, propaganda, Ri Yong-ho, State Council, Vietnam, Wu Ying, Xinhua, Xuan Hai
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At a press conference on Monday, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland presented the U.S. position: that accepting the passports for entry to the U.S. does not constitute endorsement of any territorial claims, and that the department expects “a conversation” on the issue with China.

MS. NULAND: Our position, as you know, on the South China Sea remains that these issues need to be negotiated among the stakeholders, among ASEAN and China. And a picture in a passport doesn’t change that. […]

QUESTION: Do you care what China has – what they print inside of their passports? Does this raise any concern at all with you, because is it simply their business and they can do – they can put whatever they want in their passport?

MS. NULAND: My understanding is that we – and I looked into this a little bit and didn’t get a complete sort of brief on this – but my understanding is that we have certain basic international standards that have to be met in a passport in the way it’s presented […] for us to honor it. And stray maps that they include aren’t part of it, so –

QUESTION: Okay. And does that – that would go for any country?

MS. NULAND: Yes.

QUESTION: So then, I mean, if Mexico put a new passport with a map that had Texas and New Mexico on it – (laughter) – that wouldn’t be a problem?

MS. NULAND: Again, that’s a hypothetical we’re hoping not confront, Matt. (Laughter.) […] As a technical legal matter, that map doesn’t have any bearing on whether the passport is valid for U.S. visa issuance or for entry into the United States. There are a bunch of other issues –

See also Global Times’ special coverage of the passport controversy.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aksai Chin, Arunachal Pradesh, India, philippines, South China Sea, State Department, Taiwan, territorial disputes, United States, Vietnam, visa
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“I think it’s one very poisonous step by Beijing among their thousands of malevolent actions,” Nguyen Quang A, a former adviser to the Vietnamese government, told The Financial Times, which first reported on the modified passports.

A senior diplomat based in Beijing told the paper that the new map represented “quite a serious escalation because China is issuing millions of these new passports and adult passports are valid for 10 years. If Beijing were to change its position later it would have to recall all those passports.”

[…] John Blaxland, a research fellow at the Strategic and Defense Studies Center at Australian National University, said the map gambit was “pretty clever.”

“It basically forces everyone who’s a claimant of South China Sea elements to acknowledge it by stamping it,” he told VOA News, calling it part of the “long game” being played by Beijing.

For now, the Philippines is playing along, but Vietnam has started issuing new visas on separate pieces of paper and invalidating existing ones to avoid endorsing the new passports. India has been more assertive, reports Rama Lakshmi at The Washington Post:

Now, the Indian Embassy in Beijing is doing a tit-for-tat with its own map. It has started stamping its version of the Indian map on visas issued to Chinese citizens, one that includes the two regions.

[…] Two years ago, China caused much irritation among Indian officials when it began stapling the visas of residents of Kashmir, a Himalayan province where Indian troops are fighting to put down a Pakistan-backed separatist Islamist insurgency for more than two decades. By stapling the visas, instead of stamping them, Beijing was declaring that they regarded Kashmir was a disputed region as well.

Indian officials had to sternly remind Beijing in 2010 to be “sensitive” to its concerns about Kashmir, just as New Delhi is sensitive to Beijing’s attitude about Tibet.

Earlier this year, Beijing declined to issue a visa to an Indian air force officer who hails from Arunachal Pradesh. The row led New Delhi to cut the size of the military delegation that visited China in January.

The controversy arrives barely a month after the 50th anniversary of the 1962 Sino-Indian War, fought over disputed territory in Arunachal Pradesh. Future conflict between the two countries may be more likely at sea, however. From The Economist:

China suspects India of complicity in efforts to undermine its sweeping claim to sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea. It saw evidence of this in India’s involvement in oil-and-gas exploration in waters disputed by China and Vietnam. The underlying fear is of an American-led plot to contain China. Even were such a plot hatched, India would be a reluctant conspirator. But it and China are in a “security dilemma”, where one country’s “essential steps” to safeguard its interests are taken by the other as threats that demand a response.

[…] The risk, as Chinese and Indian warships venture farther afield, is akin to that in China’s maritime disputes with Japan and its South-East Asian neighbours: of an accidental conflict that escalates. This is exacerbated by an absence of codes of conduct and forums to thrash out disputes. The East Asian Summit, which includes America, might one day become such a gathering. But for the time being it aims only at “confidence-building”. Marred this year again by squabbles about how to discuss disputes in the South China Sea, the summit finds even that elusive.

Meanwhile, The Japanese government and The Washington Post’s Max Fisher have both suggested that the hotly disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands are absent from the passport map. (CDT believes it can see a slight thickening of the map’s texture in roughly the appropriate location, though well short of anything that might indicate a duplicate set of islands). Even allowing for the islands’ tiny size, one would expect them to be more obviously visible given China’s recent demands for cartographical fastidiousness. At the height of the islands row in September, Beijing increased penalties for publishers of maps which failed to include all outlying islands claimed by China. From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

Current regulations, drafted in 1995, allow for a maximum fine of 10,000 yuan (US$1500) which would increase to 100,000 yuan (US$16,000) if the new law is passed, according to the Xinhua news agency.

The draft also proposed greater supervision of Internet map services, requiring providers to place data servers within China’s territory and use only approved maps.

Charles Custer tweeted that these regulations can greatly complicate magazine design, as not only formal maps but any graphical representation of China’s shape must include “ALL distant islands”.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aksai Chin, Arunachal Pradesh, containment, diaoyu islands, diplomacy, India, Japan, Kashmir, maps, New Delhi, Pakistan, philippines, South China Sea, Taiwan, Tibet, Vietnam, visa
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FT Chinese’s Zhang Lifen asks the Weibo public what they would like to ask the Party Congress representatives.

The Chinese Communist Party 18th Party Congress begins tomorrow. Today (Wednesday) at 4:30 p.m. I will attend an “18 Big” news conference for Chinese and foreign journalists in the Golden Hall at the Great Hall of the People. Yesterday evening, I posted a weibo soliciting questions from Chinese people from all walks of life. I received nearly 600 replies, touching on all kinds of issues regarding political and economic reform during China’s social transformation, national welfare and the livelihood of the people, which may serve as a reference of Chinese popular will before the congress of the ruling party. Below are a selection of the questions posed by the public.

OldmanNotUseless: This old fellow has a question: How much are the annual membership fees paid by the 80-million-plus Party members nationwide? Could the total income and expenditure be made public during the congress?

老夫尚未朽：老夫有一问题：全国八千多万党员每年度共缴纳多少党费？总计收入与支出可否在会期公布？

VastUniverseWorld: Disclose officials’ personal finances, round up criminals and the corrupt and start a democratic system! The whole country wants just these three things!

苍茫天地人间: 官员公开财产，围捕贪腐罪犯，进入民主制度！全国人民就这三条！

ForeignFriendV: When will we have multi-party elections for the Politburo Standing Committee and president? At least catch up with Vietnam.

外国友人V：政治局常委和总书记何时能实现差额选举，最起码赶上越南的水平。

ShenzhenHugang: One question: How do eliminate corruption in a one-party system?

深圳胡纲：问一个，如何在一党制下消除腐败？

LiAn_NaDu: Can we not get domestic news from foreign media?

李安_纳度：能不能不从外媒得知国内新闻？

Llqrjl: I have an academic question: How do you learn to bullshit without blushing?

黄金镖：我问个学术性的，说瞎话不脸红是怎么锻炼出来的？

Chengqingui: When will we change parties? When will we have a referendum?

啸傲昨天：什么时候换党，什么时候全民公投啊。

Lanfenglin: My question is what the peasants should do whose life savings are not enough to buy homes for their sons to settle down in the cities. Is their life of hard work obliterated by inflation? Or who is stealing it?

芝林工作了：问一下那些一辈子为了让儿子在城市里留下攒钱买房子到最后还买不起的农民怎么办？他们一辈子辛勤的劳动被物价的上涨给抹杀了？又是被谁窃取了？

LindaNeil: The threshold for individual income tax should be raised and the price of land should be lowered. This will cause housing prices to fall.

LindaNeil：个税基数应该再调高，土地价低点，房价就降点。

macrocrazier: When will political reform go forward?

macrocrazier：政治改革何时进行？

XuShaolin: So I’ll only ask this once and it’s not a complicated political reform question. I just want to ask why you had to close the morning markets near some residential neighborhoods for a meeting. Can’t you hear how loudly the old folks are cursing over this? If you treat ordinary people like thieves, what’s the point of holding this kind of meeting anyway?

老徐时评: 那我就问一次。也不问什么高深的政改问题了，只问问开个会为啥要把一些小区附近的早市关了？可听到那些大爷大妈骂得多难听。像防贼一样防百姓，开这种会还有什么意义吗？

WitheredCucumber: As a Party member, I hope our Party activities won’t disturb the lives of the people who are outside the Party, and I don’t want the funding for our activities to come from tax payers outside the Party. Can these these two hopes be fulfilled?

霜打的黄瓜：作为党员，希望我党的活动不要干扰党外民众的正常生活，也不希望活动经费来自非党员纳税人，这两点可能实现吗？

Hongyu79: Could we increase education spending, and especially ensure proper compensation of teachers in rural areas? A little tip: fine corrupt officials and invest the money into education in their jurisdictions.

城北书生：能否大力度加大教育投入，尤其是农村地区的师资待遇能否得到有力保障？小建议：把罚没贪腐官员的钱款资产专门用于该地区的教育投入。

Lya402: The question I want to address is that people are demanding reform of the political system, but it cannot be pushed through if we do not have freedom of speech. I want to ask: What specific plans do the new leaders have in terms of allowing freedom of speech?

雷村人：我想问的是，政治体制改革民间呼声很高，问题是没有言论自由的开放是无法推进政治体制改革的。 请问，在言论自由开放方面，新一届班子有什么具体打算？

WangKaiyueA: I want to ask if there will be any substantial actions in reform, and how those naked senior Party members and government officials will be dealt with.

王凯悦A：我想问关于改革这届有何实质举措 关于党内政府高层裸官问题政府怎么处理？

SkirtChaserVSWildKid: How much did you spend on this meeting?

裙下之臣VS野孩子：开个会，花了多少钱？

WangYuanchengr: When will officials disclose their personal finances??

王元成知青农民工：官员财产公示啥时搞？？

FlyGerry: A question for the press spokesperson: How many people in your family live in the U.S.?

gd老男孩：请问新闻发言人，您家里有几口人在美国？

DingYoucai: What “-ism” is in place today? Is it state capitalism, or crony capitalism, or what? How are we going to push political reform?

丁友才：现在是什么主义？是国家资本主义，还是权贵资本主义？还是什么？怎样推进政治改革？

Tiangengg: Pay attention to workers laid off by state-owned enterprises and the pension problem.

天根gg：关注国企下岗工人的生存及养老金问题。

NongZaiTianya: Where is the Party leading the country and the people? Any plans? Any goals?

农在天涯：党将把国家、民族引向何方？如何规划的？我们的目标?

WatersideCampanula: The agenda and timetable for judicial independence, please?

在水一方风铃草：请问司法独立的时间表?

Laofang001: How can you give the people true freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of association?

SP老方：如何真正使人民获得言论、游行及结社等自由？

ZhouBuchen: When will the billions of peasants truly have equal health care?

木匠周不沉：亿万农民何时有真正的平等医疗福利！！！

WanderDrunkDream: When will the taxi window cranks be reinstalled? I feel carsick.

漂泊醉梦：出租车窗户的手摇啥时候装回去？我晕车。

FreedomState789: A quick question: what’s the standard for the conference meals? Could you broadcast it on TV?

自由的境界789：问个小问题：大会的宴用标准是啥？能拍个视频播放一下吗？

SettingSunLightsRoad: I’m asking where my ballot is. Who is representing me?

夕阳照路：问下我的选票呢？哪去了？谁代表我了？

Mryehaiyan: Will you continue to use “serve the people” and “public servant” as your slogans? Who does “the people” specifically refer to? Do you feel pressured?

叶海燕先生: 依然会用为人民服务及公仆宣传用语吗?人民具体是指什么人？压力大吗?

Maobaochun: Remove the Internet block.

慕容水火：网络屏蔽解除。

NationalAnthemSlave: When will one-party rule end?

唱国歌的奴隶：一党执政到何时?

Hongliholly: Nothing to ask, ’cause the answer will be fake anyway.

hongliholly：没什么可问的，反正答案也是假的

Daxue0755: You tell the spokesperson: Actually, we know everything. If you don’t believe it, just ask me.

daxue0755：你跟发言人说，其实我们什么都知道，不信，你问我。

Anzai: The questions we want to ask are the ones you don’t dare to ask; the questions you want to ask are the ones we have no interest in!

安仔：我们想问的你都不敢问，你想问的我们都没兴趣！

Translated by Mengyu Dong.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, CCP, education, Financial Times, freedom of speech, health care, leadership transition, netizens, Politburo Standing Committee, political reform, state capitalism, state-owned enterprises, Vietnam, weibo
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The United States has accused China of raising tensions through a new military garrison in the South China Sea, calling on all sides to lower tensions in the hotly contested waters.

“We are concerned by the increase in tensions in the South China Sea and are monitoring the situation closely,” US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said in a statement on Friday.

“In particular, China's upgrading of the administrative level of Sansha city and establishment of a new military garrison there covering disputed areas of the South China Sea run counter to collaborative diplomatic efforts to resolve differences and risk further escalating tensions in the region,” he said.

Ventrell also pointed to “confrontational rhetoric” and incidents at sea, saying: “The United States urges all parties to take steps to lower tensions.”

Washington has voiced it’s support for the Philippines in the past, and analysts, such as Stanford University’s Don Emmerson, are speculating on the US’s role in the dispute, the Voice of America reports:

“One would even suggest that those within the People’s Liberation Army who are among the most vehement nationalists on this issue would like to see the South China Sea actually become a Chinese lake,” Emmerson says.

Cato’s Justin Logan believes Washington is going “a little bit too far into making this a U.S. vs. China competition in the South China Sea.”

“If the United States had a somewhat more distant posture and wasn’t always rushing to assure its friends and allies in the region that we would be on the hook to ensure freedom of navigation,” Logan says, “other countries in the region would be, in fact, more alarmed about China’s behavior.”

“But the idea that they see the United States at the forefront of this effort to constrain China’s ambition in the South China Sea allows them to stand back a little bit and play one side off the other.”

Tensions in the region were heightened due to the lack of a resolution from the ASEAN summit. In response to Washington, Xinhua reports China strongly opposes the US’s statement on the dispute. :

China expressed its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition on the press statement released Friday by the U.S.Department of State on the South China Sea, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said here Saturday.

The statement “completely ignored the facts, deliberately confounded right and wrong, and sent a seriously wrong signal, which is not conducive to the efforts safeguarding the peace and stability of the South China Sea and the Asia Pacific region,” Qin said in a statement.

Why does the U.S. turn a blind eye to the facts that certain countries opened a number of oil and gas blocks, and issued domestic laws illegally appropriating Chinese islands and waters? Why does the U.S. avoid talking about the threats of military vessels to Chinese fishermen by certain countries and their unjustified claims of sovereignty rights over Chinese islands? And why do they choose to abruptly express concerns on and fiddle with the issue at a moment when regional countries are enhancing communication and dialogue and trying to solve the disputes and calm the situation? Qin asked.

China attached great importance to the friendly cooperation with ASEAN, support the process of ASEAN integration and ASEAN' s major role in the East Asia cooperation, said Qin.

Reuters reports that China protested the U.S. accusations by calling in the U.S. Diplomat, Robert Wang:

In a statement released late on Saturday, China's Foreign Ministry said Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Kunsheng summoned the U.S. Embassy's Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Wang to make “serious representations” about the issue.

Zhang said the U.S. statement “disregarded the facts, confused right with wrong, sent a seriously wrong signal and did not help with efforts by relevant parties to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea or the Asia Pacific.”

In the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, police on Sunday arrested at least 40 people preparing to stage another anti-China protest, said blogger Phuong Bich.

Authorities in Vietnam rarely allow demonstrations, but there have been periodic protests against China in Hanoi over the past few months as a result of what many Vietnamese see as Beijing's aggressive moves in the South China Sea

According to Bloomberg, China’s assertiveness in the region coincides with the upcoming change in leadership:

“What we’re seeing is a significant ratcheting up of Chinese pressure on the region to basically acquiesce that the South China Sea is Chinese territory,” Dean Cheng, a researcher on Chinese political and security issues at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said in a telephone interview.

China’s assertiveness in the region coincides with preparations for a political and military transition. Communist party leaders are believed to be meeting to select new members for the country’s Politburo and Standing Committee, the nation’s civilian leaders, and its Central Military Commission, which controls the military, Cheng said. In October or November, the full party Congress will convene to select a new president to replace Hu Jintao in a once-a-decade leadership handover.

Cheng said the U.S. interest is primarily in free navigation through the region. The South China Sea sea lanes are particularly important to the economies of U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, he said.

Any military conflict in the South China Sea might draw in the U.S. The Philippines is a U.S. ally, and the two countries have a mutual protection pact. While the treaty doesn’t cover disputed territories in the South China Sea, an attack on Filipino ships or other assets could trigger a U.S. response, Cheng said .

China is becoming more aggressive in the region by setting up the city of Sansha and a military garrison. Another Reuters article reports they are also increasing their presence through China National Offshore Oil Corp’s (CNOOC) acquisition of Canada’s tenth largest oil company, Nexen:

The acquisition of Nexen — which faces reviews by both the Canadian and U.S. governments — will not be an instant game changer, however, because deepwater technology will take years for China to master, say experts on China's energy sector.

CNOOC, parent of Hong Kong-listed CNOOC Ltd, has emerged as a key component of China's strategy to bolster its claims to nearly the entire South China Sea. The vast body of water, believed to hold rich oil and gas reserves, is also claimed in part by Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia.

CNOOC become more deeply involved in China's South China Sea strategy in late June when it invited foreign firms to bid on oil blocks that overlap territory being explored by Vietnam. Earlier CNOOC unveiled the Haiyang Shiyou (Offshore Oil) 981 rig, China's first domestically made ultra-deepwater rig.

With the Nexen acquisition comes deepwater fields in the Gulf of Mexico that would bring with it expertise in managing complex operations and technology that, once assimilated, would extend CNO OC's rea ch in the South China Sea.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Canada, diplomacy, oil, philippines, South China Sea, United States, Vietnam
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China on Tuesday officially set up the city of Sansha on Yongxing Island in the southernmost province of Hainan.

The national flag was hoisted while the national anthem played after the signboards of the Sansha Municipal Government and the Sansha Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) were unveiled.

On Tuesday, 613 local residents living off fishing became official residents of Sansha.

The newly elected city government has planned to make tourism one of three economic engines for the development of Sansha city, besides fishing and oil and gas exploration, according to Xia Jie, the city mayor elected on Monday.

CDT previously reported on China’s plans to establish a military garrison on the disputed island . Vietnam and the Philippines have responded by slamming China’s garrison plan. Aside from China’s deployment of a military garrison, Navy warships have also been in the region. From AFP:

Hanoi filed a formal protest with Beijing against the plan outlined by China this week to station troops in Sansha in the disputed Paracel Islands, saying it “violates international law”.

Manila, which is involved in a dispute over another archipelago, the Spratly Islands, also weighed into the row, summoning the Chinese ambassador to lodge a complaint against the garrison announcement.

The disputes have become particularly acrimonious in recent weeks, with Vietnam and the Philippines criticising what they call Chinese encroachment.

Beijing's garrison plan “violates international law, seriously violates Vietnam's sovereignty… and is invalid,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi told AFP.

Amid Hanoi and Manila’s protests, another AFP article reports that the International Crisis Group claims that an armed conflict is possible:

Prospects of solving the disputes “seem to be diminishing” after a recent failure by the 10-nation ASEAN grouping to hammer out a “code of conduct” that would govern actions in the sea, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said.

“Without a consensus on a resolution mechanism, tensions in the South China Sea can easily spill over into armed conflict,” warned Paul Quinn-Judge, the ICG's program director for Asia.

The Brussels-based ICG said in its report on Tuesday that China had “worked actively to exploit” the divisions in ASEAN by offering preferential treatment to members of the bloc that supported its position in the dispute.

The ICG said the best way to ease the tensions would be for the rival claimants to agree on ways to share the natural resources on offer in the South China Sea.

As concern grows over China’s increasing military presence in the South China Sea, China has showed foreign media its military helicopters in a bid for transparency, according to Reuters:

China organises annual tours of military bases to try to assuage those concerns and to answer criticism over a perceived lack of transparency, but officials refused to answer any contentious questions.

While the Defence Ministry announced over the weekend it would set up a formal military garrison for the South China Sea, officers accompanying reporters to the Tongzhou base in Beijing's far east avoided the issue.

“Our military's aim is to protect peace. The training exercises we carry out are normal and in line with what we always do,” Zhang Zhilin, the jocular commander of the Army Aviation 4th Helicopter Regiment, told reporters.

“Do you really think we're not transparent? Actually we're extremely transparent,” Defence Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng told reporters on the base's sun-baked concrete apron, brushing off such remarks.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: maritime boundaries, maritime disputes, philippines, sansha, South China Sea, transparency, Vietnam
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Southeast Asian states sought to save face on Friday with a call for restraint and dialogue over the South China Sea, but made no progress in healing a deep divide about how to respond to China’s growing assertiveness in the disputed waters.

After heated discussions at a summit last week that saw its customary communique aborted for the first time in its 45-year history, the Association of Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN) issued a six-point statement that omitted the contentious issues that had its 10 members locked in a bitter dispute for days.

Cambodia’s comments contrasted with the positive gloss applied by Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, who on Friday said ASEAN had reached a “common position”, even though there was no communique.

“You can only have an ASEAN that is central in the region if ASEAN itself is united and cohesive. Last week we were tested, there have been some difficulties but we have grown the wiser from it,” he told Reuters.

Despite the ASEAN summit’s lack of a resolution for the South China Sea dispute, Xinhua has reported that China has pledged to work with ASEAN:

China pledged Friday to make joint efforts with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to safeguard regional peace and stability after the 10-member bloc issued a six-point statement on the South China Sea.

“The Chinese side is willing to work together with the ASEAN members to implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) comprehensively and effectively,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in response to a question on the ASEAN statement.

“The Chinese side has noticed the ASEAN’s statement on the South China Sea (on Friday),” Hong said, adding that the core problem of the South China Sea was the disputes over the sovereignty of the Nansha islands and the demarcation of the islands’ adjacent waters.

“China has sufficient historical and jurisprudential evidence for its sovereignty over the Nansha islands and the adjacent waters,” he added.

The US has previously expressed support for the Philippines in the dispute. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the United States sees a risk of war in the South China Sea:

The White House has warned of the rising risk of accidental war in the South China Sea and called for countries in the region urgently to agree to a code of conduct.

Analysts say the South China Sea is the new flashpoint of Asia. Most world shipping – and Australian exports – pass through it. ”A code of conduct, in our view, is a matter of commonsense,” the National Security Council’s senior director for Asia, Danny Russell, said. In a call implicitly aimed at China, Mr Russell said 10 years ago China had agreed to negotiate such a code of conduct. It has repeatedly said it will agree to discussions ”when the time is ripe”. A Pentagon official with responsibility for US defence policy in Asia, Vikram Singh, said: ”The time is ripe now”.

China has said the US is meddling in the region’s affairs by encouraging a code of conduct. The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, responded: ”The US is a resident Pacific power”.

The US takes no position on the competing claims but wants a ”binding framework” to avoid clashes or to resolve them peacefully.

While China moves to take control of the disputed region, Vietnamese protests continue against ‘Chinese aggression,’ from The Guardian:

Hundreds of demonstrators have marched through the streets of Hanoi to protest, for the third time this month, against China’s claims to sovereignty in the South China Sea.

Protesters stopped mid-morning traffic as they carried banners and Vietnamese flags, while shouting “The Spratly and Paracel Islands belong to Vietnam!” and “Down with Chinese aggression!”.

While police escorted the protesters through the streets and did not appear to be making arrests, police have heavily cracked down on dissent in the past few weeks, and a number of influential activists and bloggers have been harassed and detained.

“Police came to my house last night and told me that if I attended [the demonstration] I would be arrested,” one prominent human rights activist told the Guardian by telephone on Sunday. “When I tried to leave this morning, a group of them forced me back into the house to stop me, and they are still outside.”

Another Reuters article reports that China has approved of a formal military garrison of the area:

China’s powerful Central Military Commission has approved the formal establishment of a military garrison for the disputed South ChinaSea, state media said on Sunday, in a move which could further boost tensions in already fractious region.

China has a substantial military presence in the South China Sea and the move is essentially a further assertion of its sovereignty claims after it last month upped the administrative status of the seas to the level of a city, which it calls Sansha.

The official Xinhua news agency said the Sansha garrison would be responsible for “national defense mobilization … guarding the city and supporting local emergency rescue and disaster relief” and “carrying out military missions”.

It provided no further details.

Read previous coverage about tensions in the South China Sea, via CDT.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ASEAN, maritime disputes, military strategy, philippines, South China Sea, Vietnam
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