Friday, July 31, 2015

Obama team, military at odds over South China Sea

From Politico (Jul 31): Obama team, military at odds over South China Sea

Washington maintains the Navy has the right to sail or fly by the series of artificial islands that China is outfitting with military equipment.

Protesters brandish placards at a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate in Manila's financial district on July 7, 2015, denouncing China's claim to most of the South China Sea including areas claimed by the Philippines. The protest comes as a UN tribunal in the Hague begins a hearing on a Philippine suit challenging China's claim over disputed islands in the South China Sea. The Philippines has become increasingly vocal in criticising China's aggressiveness in staking its claim, including the building of artificial islands using reclaimed land in the disputed waters.   AFP PHOTO / Jay DIRECTO        (Photo credit should read JAY DIRECTO/AFP/Getty Images)

Protesters brandish placards at a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate in Manila, Phillippines. | Getty

Some U.S. naval commanders are at odds with the Obama administration over whether to sail Navy ships right into a disputed area in the South China Sea — a debate that pits some military leaders who want to exercise their freedom of navigation against administration officials and diplomats trying to manage a delicate phase in U.S.-China relations.

The Pentagon has repeatedly maintained it reserves the right to sail or fly by a series of artificial islands that China is outfitting with military equipment. The Navy won’t say what it has or hasn’t done, but military officials and congressional hawks want the U.S. to make a major demonstration by sending warships within 12 miles of the artificial islands and make clear to China that the U.S. rejects its territorial claims.

By not doing so, they charge, Washington is tacitly accepting China’s destabilizing moves, which are seen by U.S. allies in the region such as Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam as highly threatening.

“We continue to restrict our Navy from operating within a 12 nautical mile zone of China’s reclaimed islands, a dangerous mistake that grants de facto recognition of China’s man-made sovereignty claims,” Sen. John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told POLITICO.

Sources in the military and within the administration acknowledge the difference of opinion privately, but would not go on the record to discuss the differences between Navy leaders and the administration. The internal debate within the U.S. government comes as leaders of Pacific nations, including Secretary of State John Kerry and his his Chinese counterpart, are set to convene for a regional security conference next week in Malaysia and ahead of the state visit to the United States in September of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The dispute is more than just a naval territorial dispute — there are global economic implications if China claims ownership of this part of the sea, which sees trillions in goods shipped between Asia and the rest of the globe.

It centers on a group of man-made islands in the South China Sea that China has created by dumping thousands of tons of sand on coral reefs and shoals. Over the last 18 months, Chinese engineers have created about 3,000 acres of new land, the Pentagon says, where they have deployed artillery, built aircraft runways and buildings and positioned radars and other equipment. This week, the chief of the Philippine military, General Hernando Iriberri, told journalists in Manila it was investigating reports China had reclaimed three more reefs in the South China Sea.

China claims it has exclusive control over waters hundreds of miles off its coast, and U.S. officials say Beijing believes the man-made islands strengthen its claim to the disputed Spratly Islands chain, which China and several Southeast Asian countries claim as their own.

“China is changing the facts on the ground, literally, by essentially building man-made islands on top of coral reefs rocks and shoals,” Adm. Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said last week at the Aspen Security Forum. “I believe that China’s actions to enforce its claims within the South China Sea could have far-reaching consequences for our own security and economy, by disrupting the international rules and norms that have supported the global community for decades,” Harris warned.

China shot back on Thursday, with a Ministry of Defense spokesman saying it is the United States that is “militarizing” the South China Sea.

“China is extremely concerned at the United States’ pushing of the militarization of the South China Sea region,” the spokesman said, according to Reuters. “Recently they have further increased military alliances and their military presence, frequently holding joint drills.”

The U.S. Navy has so far been deliberately ambiguous about where it has operated in the South China Sea, not responding to questions about where exactly it has operated. When the warship USS Fort Worth encountered a Chinese vessel near the contested Spratly Islands in May, for example, officials declined to say exactly where.

Yet it is Harris, the top U.S. military commander in the region, who in private has been one of the biggest proponents of sailing U.S. warships within 12 miles of the islands, according to a government official directly familiar with his thinking. Harris’ staff did not respond to a request for an interview, but a senior Pentagon official who asked not to be named confirmed the differing viewpoints and Harris’ — and the wider Pacific Command’s — position.

The admiral signaled his view when he appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee in December, telling lawmakers in answers to a series of written questions that “it is essential for the U.S. Navy to maintain its presence and assert its freedom of navigation and overflight rights in the South China Sea in accordance with customary international law.”

The artificial islands have added to a broader disagreement between Washington and Beijing over freedom of navigation. The United States and most other countries, citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, maintain that a coastal nation has the right to regulate economic activities such as fishing and oil exploration within a 200-mile economic exclusionary zone and that it cannot regulate foreign military forces except within 12 nautical miles off its shores. China, however, has insisted it can regulate economic and military activities out 200 nautical miles.

But in the case of the artificial islands, China has no rights at all, in the view of a senior Pentagon lawyer, who last month urged the U.S. to “not go wobbly on freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.”

Raul Pedrozo, a former legal adviser to the Pacific Command now a deputy general counsel at the Department of Defense, maintained in a journal article published by the East Asia Forum at Australian National University that “man-made islands constructed on submerged features are not entitled to a 12- nautical mile territorial sea. Therefore, US ships and aircraft can legally conduct operations within 12 [nautical miles] of the feature. “

Pedrozo, who said he was providing his personal views and not those of the Department of Defense, concluded his article with a vow.

“The U.S. will not acquiesce in unilateral acts designed to restrict the rights and freedoms of the international community.”

More than $5 trillion worth of international trade, from Middle East oil bound for Asian markets to children’s toys bound for Wal-Mart stores in the U.S., pass through the South China Sea each year. If China can restrict the passage of ships through what today are considered international waters, that could cause shockwaves for the world economy, U.S. officials warn.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter tried to illustrate this point on a visit to Singapore in May, when he took a flight with reporters over the vital Strait of Malacca, which was crowded with ships traveling between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. On that visit, Carter vowed that the U.S. would continue to observe freedom of navigation everywhere it believes law permits its ships and aircraft to travel.

He took direct aim at China’s man-made island plan. “The United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as U.S. forces do all over the world. America, alongside its allies and partners in the regional architecture, will not be deterred from exercising these rights — the rights of all nations. After all, turning an underwater rock into an airfield simply does not afford the rights of sovereignty or permit restrictions on international air or maritime transit.”



A satellite view of a Chinese South China Sea land reclamation project. | Getty

Around the same time, the Navy drew heavy TV news coverage when it sent a P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft on a flight near the disputed artificial islands — with CNN reporter Jim Sciutto on board.

True to form, Chinese air controllers warned the American crew on the radio to turn away from what they called a restricted military zone. The Navy released its own full-length video of the flight, which showed some of the improvements on one island and the crew members listening to the Chinese warnings.

A Pentagon spokesman insisted that the military’s policy remains unchanged.

“The U.S. military has, and will continue to operate consistent with the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea in the South China Sea,” said Navy Cmdr. William Urban. “Freedom of navigation and overflight is a linchpin of security, peace and commerce in the Pacific and no claimant should impede lawful activities by others.”

But asked about the internal discussion about how to address the 12-nautical mile area around China’s artificial islands, he demurred.

“We’re not going to discuss specific parameters of the freedom of navigation operations we conduct, or the internal U.S. government decision-making process for these operations.”

The National Security Council also declined to discuss the dispute or outline the White House’s view, referring questions to the Pentagon.

But the Obama administration is increasingly seen as eager to avoid a confrontation by actually doing so — at least publicly — and Republicans are trying to pressure President Obama ahead of the Chinese leader’s visit to more aggressively assert himself in the face of China’s controversial behavior.

On Thursday, Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, a freshman Republican on the Armed Services panel, pressed Obama’s nominee for chief of naval operations on the issue at his confirmation hearing.
“There seems to be some confusion in the policy,” Sullivan told Adm. John Richardson.

“The administration looks to clearly be sitting on this policy decision, ” added a congressional aide, “because it would be a bad news story ahead of the Xi visit in September. At what point are our efforts to gain Chinese goodwill and contributions to the international system upended by their very blatant effort to undermine the rules-based order in Asia?

“We need a robust freedom of navigation plan that includes joint patrols and exercises across the first-island chain, and specifically in the South China Sea,” the aide added.

But at the same time U.S. military leaders are advocating for something else — for the U.S. Senate to ratify the UN Law of the Sea treaty that it repeatedly cites as as the international framework for navigation of the high seas.

“We undermine our leverage by not signing up to the same rule book by which we are asking other countries to accept,” Gen. Joe Dunford, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate earlier this month.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/barack-obama-administration-navy-pentagon-odds-south-china-sea-120865.html

China Builds World's Largest Aircraft Carrier Dock in South China Sea

From The National Interest (Jul 31): China Builds World's Largest Aircraft Carrier Dock in South China Sea



China has built the world’s largest aircraft carrier dock in its naval base in the South China Sea.

This week the Canadian-based Asian security magazine, Kanwa Asian Defence, reported that China had completed work on a 700 meter-long dock at its sprawling Sanya naval complex in Hainan province in the South China Sea. According to the report, the dock is able to service ships on both sides, allowing it to accommodate two aircraft carriers or other large ships at the same time.

That would make the new dock the longest in the world. Indeed, the report noted that America’s aircraft carrier docks in Norfolk, Virginia, as well as its carrier base in Japan, were between 400 and 430 meters long.

A Chinese defense official confirmed the reports during a press briefing on Friday. In response to a question about the Western report, Yang Yujun, a spokesperson for China’s Defense Ministry, said that “The onshore support facilities includes docking ports for the aircraft carriers, airports, training facilities and so on.”

Other reports in China’s state-run media said that the aircraft carrier dock had been completed in November 2014. They went on to say that “the base incorporates a pier which can dock large ships on both sides, suggesting that two carriers can dock at the PLA Navy's carrier bases at the same time.”

Chinese officials had previously said that construction on the aircraft carrier base began in 2012, and China’s sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, docked at the Hainian base briefly in September 2013. The Liaoning’s home port is at the Dalian naval base in northern Liaoning province.

According to the Kanwa report, the new dock is connected to the PLA Navy’s Yulin nuclear submarine base, making the Sanya complex the largest naval base in all of Asia. It is also strategically located in the South China Sea.

Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post that China is still likely to further expand the Sanya base.

"There might need to be more construction work at the Sanya carrier base to develop it further [to cater to other vessels]. So far it is just able to accommodate two-way rapid replenishment for two aircraft carriers," Li said, SCMP reported.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/china-builds-worlds-largest-aircraft-carrier-dock-south-13466

What has China been building in the South China Sea?

From the New York Times (Jul 31): What has China been building in the South China Sea?
            

What China Has Been Building
in the South China Sea


May 2015
Images by DigitalGlobe, via the CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, and CNES, via Airbus DS and IHS Jane’s
Asia
Pacific Ocean
South China Sea
Africa
Australia
The speed and scale of China’s island-building spree have alarmed other countries with interests in the region. China announced in June that the creation of islands — moving sediment from the seafloor to a reef — would soon be completed. “The announcement marks a change in diplomatic tone, and indicates that China has reached its scheduled completion on several land reclamation projects and is now moving into the construction phase,” said Mira Rapp-Hooper, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington research group. So far China has built port facilities, military buildings and an airstrip on the islands. The installations bolster China’s foothold in the Spratly Islands, a disputed scattering of reefs and islands in the South China Sea more than 500 miles from the Chinese mainland.
Guangzhou
Hong Kong
Kunming
China
Luzon
Hanoi
Pacific Ocean
South China Sea
Hainan
Manila
Vietnam claims the Paracel and the Spratly Islands.
Myanmar
Laos
Paracel Islands
Philippines
Claimed by the Philippines
China has long marked its claim with a “nine-dash line” that skirts the coasts of other countries.
Visayas
Thailand
Mindanao
Palawan
Vietnam
Yangon
Sulu Sea
Cambodia
Spratly Islands
Bangkok
Fiery Cross Reef
100 Miles
Ho Chi Minh City
Phnom Penh
Celebes Sea
Claimed by Brunei
Gulf of Thailand
Malaysia
Andaman Sea
Claimed by Malaysia
Brunei
Indonesia
Sulawesi
Claimed by Indonesia
Borneo
Islands are colored by occupying country: China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam or Taiwan. Lines in the same colors show the extent of territorial claims.
Sources: C.I.A., NASA, China Maritime Safety Administration
The new islands allow China to harness a portion of the sea for its own use that has been relatively out of reach until now. Although there are significant fisheries and possible large oil and gas reserves in the South China Sea, China’s efforts serve more to fortify its territorial claims than to help it extract natural resources, Dr. Rapp-Hooper said.The islands are too small to support large military units but will enable sustained Chinese air and sea patrols of the area. The United States has reported spotting Chinese mobile artillery vehicles in the region, and the islands could allow China to exercise more control over fishing in the region.
Dredgers
Sediment stream
Dredgers pump sediment onto Mischief Reef, March 2015.
Image by DigitalGlobe, via CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
Dredgers pump sediment onto Mischief Reef, March 2015. Image by DigitalGlobe, via CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
The Chinese were relative latecomers to island building in the Spratly archipelago, and “strategically speaking, China is feeling left out,” said Sean O’Connor, principal imagery analyst for IHS Jane’s. Still, China’s island building has far outpaced similar efforts in the area, unsettling the United States, which sees about $1.2 trillion in annual bilateral trade go through the South China Sea. At the end of May, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter criticized China’s actions in the region.
Several reefs have been destroyed outright to serve as a foundation for new islands, and the process also causes extensive damage to the surrounding marine ecosystem. Frank Muller-Karger, professor of biological oceanography at the University of South Florida, said sediment “can wash back into the sea, forming plumes that can smother marine life and could be laced with heavy metals, oil and other chemicals from the ships and shore facilities being built.” Such plumes threaten the biologically diverse reefs throughout the Spratlys, which Dr. Muller-Karger said may have trouble surviving in sediment-laden water.
Half a mile
Dredgers
Submerged reef
Dozens of dredgers and support ships at Mischief Reef, June 2015.
Image by DigitalGlobe, via CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
Dozens of dredgers and support ships at Mischief Reef, June 2015. Image by DigitalGlobe, via CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

What Is on the Islands?

Philippine claim
Reed Bank
Existing airstrip
Subi Reef
Sand Cay
Gaven Reef
Mischief Reef
Fiery Cross Reef
Johnson South Reef
Hughes Reef
South China Sea
Philippines
Under construction
Spratly Islands
West Reef
Malaysian claim
Sulu Sea
50 Miles
Chinese claim
Islands and reefs that have undergone recent construction are shown with a white ring. Colored rings show whether the feature is occupied by China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam or Taiwan.
Sources: C.I.A., NASA, China Maritime Safety Administration
Islands and reefs that have undergone recent construction are shown with a white ring. Colored rings show whether the feature is occupied by China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam or Taiwan. Sources: C.I.A., NASA, China Maritime Safety Administration
Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan have all expanded islands in the Spratlys as well, but at nowhere near the same scale as China.
2011
2015
Island expansion
Land reclamation at Vietnam’s Sand Cay.
Image by DigitalGlobe, via CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
Land reclamation at Vietnam’s Sand Cay. Image by DigitalGlobe, via CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
For China, the Fiery Cross Reef is the most strategically significant new island, with a nearly completed airstrip that will be large enough to allow China to land any plane, from fighter jets to large transport aircraft. But China’s airfield is not the first in the region — every other country that occupies the Spratlys already operates one as well.
Dredging pipes
Seawall
10,000-foot airstrip
Apron
Support buildings
Cement plant
Seawall under construction
Temporary loading pier
Harbor
Construction on Fiery Cross Reef, April 2015.
Image by CNES distributed by Airbus DS, via IHS Jane’s
Construction on Fiery Cross Reef, April 2015. Image by CNES distributed by Airbus DS, via IHS Jane’s
China’s reefs hosted smaller structures for years before the surge in construction. By preserving these initially isolated buildings, China can claim that it is merely expanding its earlier facilities, similar to what other countries have done elsewhere in the region.
Possible radar facility
Harbor
Cement plant
Pier
Solar panels
Existing structure
Construction on Johnson South Reef, May 2015.
Image by DigitalGlobe, via CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
Construction on Johnson South Reef, May 2015. Image by DigitalGlobe, via CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
China continues to expand islands at two locations, Mischief Reef and Subi Reef. It is unclear what structures will be built on the islands, though each will have straight portions long enough for airfields.
Half a mile
Cloud
Existing structure
Lagoon
Unfinished dredging
Access channel
China’s continuing land reclamation efforts at Subi Reef, June 2015.
Image by DigitalGlobe, via CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
China’s continuing land reclamation efforts at Subi Reef, June 2015. Image by DigitalGlobe, via CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative