Showing posts with label Taiwan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taiwan. Show all posts

Thursday, February 24, 2022

China on Ukraine| Feb. 25, 2022

 

普京获准在境外“动武”!俄乌大规模冲突一触即发?20220223 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Feb 24, 2022
     
China Offers Restrained Response to Russian Attacks on Ukraine, Refuses to Call it an ‘Invasion’
China instead pointed blame at the U.S. for fanning the flame of conflict between Russia and Ukraine.


Feb. 25 - China on Thursday offered a restrained response to Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, refusing to characterize the military action as an “invasion” and accusing the U.S. of fanning the flames.


In response to a question about whether China considers Russia’s actions an “invasion,” China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chunying said: “To make a suggestion, you may go ask the U.S. They started the fire and fanned the flame. How are they going to put out the fire now?”


After months of threats, Russia this week invaded Ukraine, with reports that its troops were approaching the outskirts of the capital city of Kyiv on Thursday.


Hua said that “China did not wish to see what happened in Ukraine today,” but she refused to characterize the attack as an “invasion.” She reiterated that China believes Russia and other parties have "legitimate security concerns.”


“As to the definition of ‘invasion,’ it brings us back to how we view the current situation in Ukraine,” Hua said at a press briefing, according to a government transcript. She noted that Ukraine has a “complicated historical background.”

“The current state of affairs is not what we would hope to see.” Hua said.

China is thought to be keeping a close eye on the situation and the Western response as it weighs its next move in its own increasingly contentious relationship with Taiwan, which it considers a breakaway province.


Hua also downplayed speculation that Beijing is secretly helping Russia.

“I believe that as a strong country, Russia doesn’t need China or other countries to provide weapons to it,” Hua said.

China isn’t the only country offering a tepid response to the news. In a speech on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett similarly did not condemn Russia’s attack, instead offering prayer for “peace and calm in Ukraine.”

“These are difficult and tragic moments, and our hearts are with the civilians that through no fault of their own have been thrust into this situation,” Bennett said.

Israel's foreign minister, on the other hand, condemned Russia’s attack and called it a “serious violation of the international order.”     source from US News


Related Article
Why Did Russia Invade Ukraine?

Russia Begins Invasion of Ukraine


Picture

Hua Chunying (Chinese华春莹; born 24 April 1970) is a Chinese official and former diplomat serving as spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China since 2012 and as the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2021.[2] Hua was the fifth spokeswoman and 27th spokesperson since the position was established in the ministry in 1983.[3]

Commentary
Hua has criticized the US plea to release Pu Zhiqiang saying "I think lots of people have the same feeling with me, that some people in the United States have hearts that are too big and hands that are too long. Washington should address human rights problems at home and stop trying to be the world's policeman or judge."[11]
In 2021, she compared the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol with the 2019 storming of the Legislative Council.[12]

Social media
In February 2021, Hua said that many Western officials use Weibo and Wechat, and asked "Why can't Chinese people use Twitter or Facebook when foreigners can use Chinese social media platforms?"[14] Twitter and Facebook have been banned by the mainland Chinese government since 2009.[14]

quotes from Wikipedia

China says Taiwan is 'not Ukraine' as island raises alert level

​Feb. 23 - Taiwan is "not Ukraine" and has always been an inalienable part of China, China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday, as Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen called for the island to beef up vigilance on military activities in response to the crisis.

​The comments come after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson flagged the risk for Taiwan in a warning last week about the damaging worldwide consequences if Western nations failed to fulfil their promises to support Ukraine's independence. 

​China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, has stepped up military activity near the self-governing island over the past two years, though Taiwan has reported no recent unusual manoeuvres by Chinese forces as tension over Ukraine has spiked.

Speaking in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying dismissed any link between the issues of Ukraine and Taiwan.

"Taiwan is not Ukraine," she said. "Taiwan has always been an inalienable part of China. This is an indisputable legal and historical fact."

The issue of Taiwan is one left over from the civil war, but China's integrity should never have been compromised and never has been compromised, Hua added.

The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the civil war to the Communists, who set up the People's Republic of China.

Taiwan's government strongly opposes China's territorial claims. Tsai says Taiwan is an independent state called the Republic of China, which remains Taiwan's official name.

All security and military units "must raise their surveillance and early warning of military developments around the Taiwan Strait," Tsai told a meeting of the working group on the Ukraine crisis set up by her National Security Council.

Taiwan and Ukraine are fundamentally different in terms of geostrategy, geography and international supply chains, she added, in details of the meeting provided by her office.

"But in the face of foreign forces intending to manipulate the situation in Ukraine and affect the morale of Taiwanese society, all government units must strengthen the prevention of cognitive warfare launched by foreign forces and local collaborators," it cited Tsai as saying.

The statement did not mention China by name, but the country is the most significant military threat that Taiwan faces.

Tsai has expressed "empathy" for Ukraine's situation because of the military threat the island faces from China.  Source from Reuters


Related Articles
UK sees threat to Taiwan if West does not support Ukraine
​Taiwan president expresses 'empathy' for Ukraine's situation


Book review: Dispatches from a troubled region

This thoroughly researched book examines the marine degradation in the South China Sea and the major players who can do something about it

By Bradley Winterton / Contributing reporter

Taiwan is one of seven nations laying claims of one kind or another to islands in the South China Sea. “Islands” is hardly the correct term — they are in reality sand-banks, atolls, shallows and coral reefs, but they have many natural resources and lay astride major shipping lanes. China has claimed that they all lie within its territorial waters.

These islets are in two groups, the Paracels (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) to the north and the Spratlys (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) to the south. Taiwan’s interest is largely in the Paracels, as is that of the Philippines, with Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia focusing on the southern region.


But this book isn’t primarily political in its focus. Rather, it’s concerned with marine degradation in the whole region as observed by the author from his experiences on a Vietnamese fishing boat, or “cruising yawl” to use a phrase mariners of Joseph Conrad’s generation would have been familiar with.

​This important book appears just as 100 nations agreed at the Brest Summit to take action to curb illegal fishing and the plastic pollution of the world’s oceans.

​Shao Kwang-Tsao (邵廣昭), a retired researcher at Academia Sinica’s Biodiversity Research Center, has studied the “coral cathedrals” beneath the Spratleys, prompting former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to propose a “Spratley Initiative,” which would have recognized the entire area as an environmental protection zone...     click to read more




Taiwan Foreign Minister Calls US Help Critical to Deterring War with China 

Feb. 24 - As Taiwan continues to face a military threat from China, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said this week the Taiwanese government continues to focus on its “asymmetric defense” capability — including U.S. assistance — to make it an unattractive target, despite its limited military power.

Taiwan’s current strategy is to make certain “China will understand it will pay a very heavy price if it initiates conflict against Taiwan,” Wu said during a virtual event hosted by the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University.

Speaking with former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Wu argued for continued U.S. support of Taiwan through arms sales, military exchanges, shared intelligence, and freedom of navigation exercises in the Taiwan Strait.

​“We want the people here in Taiwan to be able to defend themselves if China is going to launch a war against Taiwan,” Wu said.
Taiwan has lived under the threat of military action by China since China’s Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang fled the mainland after losing the Chinese civil war in 1949. While the conflict has remained largely a stalemate since then — with Beijing continuing to claim Taiwan as a province — an aggressive military modernization campaign by China means it could be able to attack Taiwan as early as 2027, according to the U.S. Defense Department.,,     click to read more

Friday, February 11, 2022

China Calles on US To Stop Selling Weapons To Taiwan

 Both Sides of Taiwan Strait Are Closely Watching Ukraine’s Crisis


​Taiwan knows what it’s like to have an overbearing neighbor. China wonders how forcefully Western powers might react to a Russian invasion.

Feb. 7 - With Russia massing troops along Ukraine’s borders, President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan felt compelled to act.

She ordered the creation of a task force to study how the confrontation thousands of miles away in Europe could affect Taiwan’s longstanding conflict with its larger, vastly more powerful neighbor.

“Taiwan has faced military threats and intimidation from China for a long time,” Ms. Tsai told a gathering of her national security advisers late last month, according to a statement by her office.


Perhaps more than people in any other place in the world, Taiwanese know what it is like to live in the shadow of an overbearing power, with China claiming the island as its own. Ms. Tsai added, “we empathize with Ukraine’s situation”...     more on New York Times


实锤!F-35C坠海视频曝光 美再次对台军售 中国三部委回应!20220209 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Feb 10, 2022
China Calles on US To Stop Selling Weapons To Taiwan

Feb. 8 - On Tuesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that China condemns the United States' plan of selling 100 million U.S. dollars in armament to Taiwan, calling for immediate cancellation.

​Zhao Lijian spokesperson noted that the current selling traffic of the U.S. to Taiwan severely infringes the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communique, especially the August 17 Communique.

"Such acts seriously undermine China's sovereignty and security interests and gravely harm China-U.S. relations as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," exposed Zhao.


China appealed to the United States to stay bound to the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint arrangements and instantaneously stop the arms-sale plan and quit the military ties with the Taiwan region.     quoted from teleSUR



Stealth aircraft are designed to avoid detection using a variety of technologies that reduce reflection/emission of radarinfrared,[1] visible light, radio frequency (RF) spectrum, and audio, collectively known as stealth technology.[2] The F-117 Nighthawk was the first operational aircraft specifically designed around stealth technology. Other examples of stealth aircraft include the B-2 Spirit, the F-22 Raptor,[3] the F-35 Lightning II,[4] the Chengdu J-20,[5] and the Sukhoi Su-57.     quoted from Wikipedia





What Happens When a Stealth Jet Ends Up on the Ocean Floor?
​Here’s how the Navy might recover a $94 million F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that crashed in China’s backyard.

Feb. 10 - On Jan. 24, one of the U.S. Navy’s most expensive warplanes crashed as it tried to land on an aircraft carrier and sank to the bottom of the South China Sea. The $94 million F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is now the subject of a salvage operation.

In a statement issued on the day of the incident, the Navy said seven sailors had been injured when the jet suffered a “landing mishap” on the aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson. It did not mention that the plane had ended up in the ocean.

​The Navy has said little publicly since then about the incident. In response to questions from The New York Times, the Navy’s Seventh Fleet said last week that the service had “begun mobilizing units that will be used to verify the site and recover” the F-35 involved in the crash...     more on The New York Times


What’s behind the South China Sea dispute? | Start Here
Nov 22, 2020


Hunter Biden sought ‘forever’ deal with China military-tied firm: emails

Feb. 8 - Hunter Biden tried to strike an exceedingly lucrative, “forever” business deal with a state-owned Chinese energy company that’s since been sanctioned by the US over its ties to the Chinese military, according to the latest emails unearthed from his infamous laptop.

​The plan would have apparently also involved the then-prime minister of Kazakhstan, who was arrested on suspicion of treason last month following his ouster as head of the country’s intelligence service.

The emails date to April 2014, when Biden’s dad, President Biden, was vice president and about a year before father and son apparently posed for a photo with the Kazakhstani official, Karim Massimov, in a Washington, DC, restaurant.

The correspondence shows Hunter Biden and then-business partner Devon Archer — who has since cooperated in a tax probe of the first son — discussing an offer to help find “investment opportunities” for the China National Offshore Oil Corp.


That same month, both men were appointed to the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings — which paid Biden as much as $1 million a year — and Archer suggested that a deal involving the two overseas firms would set them up for life.

“If we can connect the dots here between CNOOC and Bursima we can do only that, forever,” Archer wrote on April 8, 2014.

Less than 10 minutes later, Biden responded: “Thinking the same thing, fraught with many land mines- but…”

“Many…don’t even know if we could pull it off but it’s a major option,” Archer wrote back...     more on New Your Post


US imposes sanctions on China's CNOOC oil company over South China Sea

​The US said the sanctions were a response to China's increased naval activity in the region. The move comes just days before Joe Biden is set to take over as US president.

​Date published on Jan. 2021

The US government on Thursday slapped more sanctions on Chinese firms and military officials over Beijing's actions in the South China Sea.

At the center of the wide-ranging sanctions was China's state-owned oil company, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), which was added to a US Commerce Department blacklist forbidding business with US citizens.


However, a US official said the sanctions on the CNOOC do not target hydrocarbon exploration or joint ventures outside the
South China Sea.

"The United States stands with Southeast Asian claimant states seeking to defend their sovereign rights and interests, consistent with international law," said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. "We will continue to act until we see Beijing cease its coercive behavior in the South China Sea."

Pompeo said the sanctions were directed against those "responsible for, or complicit in, either the large-scale reclamation, construction, or militarization of disputed outposts in the South China Sea, or (China's) use of coercion against Southeast Asian claimants to inhibit their access to offshore resources in the South China Sea"...     more on DW


Why China and the US are at odds over Taiwan | Start Here
Nov 8, 2021

Friday, January 21, 2022

The Paracels | Jan. 21, 2022

 


US Navy warship challenges Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea

Jan. 21 - ..The USS Benfold sailed around the Paracel Islands, known as the Xisha Islands in China, in what the Navy calls a freedom of navigation operation (FONOP), Lt. Mark Langford, spokesperson for the US 7th Fleet, said in the statement...

...The islands are also claimed by Vietnam and self-ruled Taiwan but in Chinese hands for more than 46 years. The islands have been fortified with People's Liberation Army (PLA) military installations.

The US Navy statement said the Benfold also challenged the claims of Vietnam and Taiwan.

"All three claimants require either permission or advance notification before a military vessel engages in 'innocent passage' through the territorial sea. Under international law ... the ships of all states -- including their warships -- enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea. The unilateral imposition of any authorization or advance-notification requirement for innocent passage is unlawful," the US Navy statement said.

Asserting freedom of navigation rights involves sailing within the 12-mile territorial limit from a nation's coastline recognized by international law...     more from BBC news



The name Paracel is of Portuguese origin, and appears on 16th-century Portuguese maps. The archipelago is approximately equidistant from the coastlines of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Vietnam; and approximately one-third of the way from central Vietnam to the northern Philippines.[5] The archipelago includes Dragon Hole, the deepest underwater sinkhole in the world.[6][7] Turtles and seabirds are native to the islands, which have a hot and humid climate, abundant rainfall and frequent typhoonsThe archipelago is surrounded by productive fishing grounds and a seabed with potential, but as yet unexplored, oil and gas reserves.     quoted from Wikipedia

Architecture, development and geological control of the Xisha carbonate platforms, northwestern South China Sea

Newly acquired seismic data allow improved understanding of the architecture and evolution of isolated carbonate platforms on the continental slope of the northern South China Sea. The Xisha carbonate platforms initiated on a basement high, the Xisha Uplift, in the early Miocene and have remained active to the present. Their distribution is limited to pre-existing localized, fault-bounded blocks within the Xisha Uplift so individual platforms were small in size at the beginning of the Miocene. However, during the middle Miocene, the platform carbonate factories flourished across an extensive area with 55,900 km2. The platforms began to backstep in response to a relative sea-level rise in the late Miocene. Platform-edge reefs, patch reefs, pinnacle reefs, atoll reefs and horseshoe reefs, all developed on various platforms. The distribution of platform carbonates shrank significantly during Pliocene-Quaternary time to isolated carbonate platforms, represented today by Xuande Atoll and Yongle Atoll. Tectonics and eustasy were the two main controls on platform development. Tectonics controlled both the initial topography for reef growth and the distribution of platforms, including those that survived the drowning event associated with the late Miocene rapid relative sea-level rise. Eustasy controlled high-frequency carbonate sequence development.

Friday, December 24, 2021

Philippine Sea| Dec. 24, 2021

 The Philippine Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean east of the Philippine archipelago (hence the name), occupying an estimated surface area of 5 million square kilometers (2×106 sq mi).[1] The Philippine Sea Plate forms the floor of the sea.[2] Its western border is the first island chain to the west, comprising the Ryukyu Islands in the northwest and Taiwan in the west. Its southwestern border comprises the Philippine islands of LuzonCatanduanesSamarLeyte, and Mindanao. Its northern border comprises the Japanese islands of HonshuShikoku and Kyūshū. Its eastern border is the second island chain to the west, comprising the Bonin Islands and Iwo Jima in the northeast, the Mariana Islands (including GuamSaipan, and Tinian) in the due east, and HalmaheraPalauYap and Ulithi (of the Caroline Islands) in the southeast. Its southern border is Indonesia's Morotai Island.[3]


​The sea has a complex and diverse undersea relief.[4] The floor is formed into a structural basin by a series of geologic faults and fracture zones. Island arcs, which are actually extended ridges protruding above the ocean surface due to plate tectonic activity in the area, enclose the Philippine Sea to the north, east and south. The Philippine archipelago, Ryukyu Islands, and the Marianas are examples. Another prominent feature of the Philippine Sea is the presence of deep sea trenches, among them the Philippine Trench and the Mariana Trench, containing the deepest point on the planet.

US and Japanese forces sail in formation in the Philippine Sea during multinational military exercises in 2018. 

US and Japan draw up joint military plan in case of Taiwan emergency – report

US would set up bases from a Japanese island to Taiwan and deploy troops, with Japan providing logistical support, Kyodo reports

Date published on Dec. 24, 2021

Japanese and US armed forces have drawn up a draft plan for a joint operation for a possible Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency has reported, amid increased tensions between the island and China.

​Under the plan, the US marine corps would set up temporary bases on the Nansei island chain stretching from Kyushu – one of the four main islands of Japan – to Taiwan at the initial stage of a Taiwan emergency and would deploy troops, Kyodo said on Thursday, citing unnamed Japanese government sources.


Japanese armed forces would provide logistical support in such areas as ammunition and fuel supplies, it said.

​Japan, a former colonial ruler of Taiwan, and the US would likely reach an agreement to start formulating an official plan at a “2+2” meeting of foreign and defence ministers early next year, the news agency said.

Japanese defence ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own “sacred” territory and in the past two years has stepped up military and diplomatic pressure to assert its sovereignty claims, fuelling anger in Taipei and deep concern in Washington.

Taiwan’s government says it wants peace, but will defend itself if needed.

In October, Japan’s government signalled a more assertive position on China’s aggressive posture towards self-ruled Taiwan, suggesting it would consider options and prepare for “various scenarios”, while reaffirming close US ties.

Earlier this month, former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said Japan and the US could not stand by if China attacked Taiwan.

US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have long said that given the tens of thousands of troops the US has in Japan and its proximity to Taiwan, Japan would likely have to play an important role in any Taiwan emergency.

Japan is host to major US military bases, including on the southern island of Okinawa, a short flight from Taiwan, which would be crucial for any US support during a Chinese attack.

The US, like most countries in the world, recognises China over Taiwan, in line with Beijing’s “one China” policy. But Washington is the island’s biggest arms supplier and ally and is obliged by law to help it defend itself.

As we approach the end of the year in Taiwan, we have a small favour to ask. We’d like to thank you for putting your trust in our journalism this year - and invite you to join the million-plus people in 180 countries who have recently taken the step to support us financially, keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent.

In 2021, this support sustained investigative work into offshore wealth, spyware, sexual harassment, labour abuse, environmental plunder, crony coronavirus contracts, and Big Tech.

The new year, like all new years, will hopefully herald a fresh sense of cautious optimism, and there is certainly much for us to focus on in 2022 - a volley of elections, myriad economic challenges, the next round in the struggle against the pandemic and a World Cup.

With no shareholders or billionaire owner, we can set our own agenda and provide trustworthy journalism that’s free from commercial and political influence, offering a counterweight to the spread of misinformation. When it’s never mattered more, we can investigate and challenge without fear or favour.     more

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China will end US dominance – Putin
Beijing is on the cusp of overtaking America as the powerhouse of global trade, the Russian president has argued.

Dec. 24 - Within the next three decades, China will surpass the US in every aspect of its economy, Vladimir Putin said, predicting that America will lose its position of dominance in finance and trade.

​Speaking to journalists at his annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Putin pointed out that “today, China’s economy is already larger than America’s in terms of purchasing power parity.” According to him, “by 2035-2050, it will have surpassed it and China will become the leading economy in the world according to all metrics.”

However, the Russian president continued, the West is working to undermine the world’s most populous nation and strangle its growth. The US-led boycott of the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing purportedly over human rights abuses is an attempt to make sure China “cannot raise its head” above its competitors, he added.


Putin blasted the decision as “unacceptable and erroneous,” and an “attempt to restrain the development of the People’s Republic of China.” Washington announced the decision over concerns for the safety of tennis player Peng Shuai, who disappeared from public for several weeks after accusing former vice premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. The Women’s Tennis Association has suspended all tournaments in the East Asian nation in response.

Earlier this month, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks via video link amid escalating tensions between the two nations and the West. In the wake of the discussions, the Kremlin revealed that the pair had agreed to develop a shared financial system to reduce reliance on US-dominated platforms. The move appears to be a response to a series of warnings that Western nations could push to disconnect Russia from the Brussels-based SWIFT financial system as a form of sanction.

During the press conference on Thursday, Putin said China is his country’s number-one partner, adding that “we have very trusting relations and it helps us build good business ties as well.”
“We are cooperating in the field of security. The Chinese Army is equipped to a significant extent with the world’s most advanced weapons systems. We are even developing certain high-tech weapons together,” the Russian leader added.

Related Articles:
Kremlin reveals new independent Russian-Chinese financial systems

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