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 radar, infrared,[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

Why Biden Wants Taiwan/拜登支持台灣的理由
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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


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

South China Sea Oil Field | Feb. 4, 2022

 Beijing’s self-sabotage in the South China Sea​

jAN. 29 -...In March, the Philippines reported more than 220 Chinese maritime militia vessels gathered at Whitsun Reef in the disputed Union Banks. The Philippine Coast Guard conducted several patrols to the reef and the government released photos and video of the militia flotilla. Vietnam soon did the same. The embarrassment and diplomatic tension got Beijing’s attention and it temporarily dispersed the fleet to other nearby reefs. But the militia boats returnedand by October their numbers were approaching 200.

The oil and gas standoffs that have been routine since 2019 also continue. In June 2021, CCG vessels began patrolling around Malaysian drilling operations in the Kasawari gas field off Sarawak, targeting offshore supply vessels. Chinese military planes simultaneously patrolled near Malaysian air space, prompting Kuala Lumpur to scramble jets and issue a diplomatic protest. In September, China seemed to retaliate against a drilling operation by conducting a seabed survey on Malaysia’s continental shelf.

In July, China and Indonesia got into their first real spat over hydrocarbons when an Indonesian-licensed rig began drilling two appraisal wells in the country’s Tuna block at the southern edge of the South China Sea. CCG vessels patrolled around the rig for the next four months. China also deployed a survey ship with a CCG escort to conduct a seabed survey of Indonesia’s continental shelf — carefully tracing the edge of China’s ‘nine-dash line’ — as Indonesian Navy vessels shadowed it...     quoted from EAST ASIA FORM

China discovers major gas field in South China Sea
Sep 16, 2014

China’s South China Sea actions faces counter reactions from international community

Feb.2. - China’s shift from the so-called ‘nine-dash line’ toward a new legal theory based on Four-Sha to bolster its claims in the South China Sea (SCS) region could create new challenges for the countries in the region and international community. The Four-Sha is an attempt to develop an UNCLOS-like justification for control over the South China Sea, with some sort of legal basis.

This shift has been noticed by member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and “is even more serious” than the old claim, according to Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.

“Four Sha” (four sands archipelagos) are the four island groups in the SCS region over which Beijing claims it has “historical rights”. The Chinese call them Dongsha Qundao, Xisha Qundao, Zhongsha Qundao and Nansha Qundao. Internationally they are known as Pratas Islands, Paracel Islands, the Macclesfield Bank area and Spratly Islands.

Amid the Chinese designs two U.S. aircraft carrier groups have entered the SCS region for training to reassure allies and demonstrate resolve to "counter malign influence". The carrier groups will carry out exercises including anti-submarine warfare operations, air warfare operations and maritime interdiction operations to strengthen combat readiness. The training will be conducted in accordance with international law in international waters...     more

Abdul Nasser Qardash 
​(Arabic: عبد الناصر قرداش[2]) (sometimes identified as Abdel Nasser Qirdash or Kardesh, also known as Hajji Abdullah al-Afari) is an Iraqi militant who in 2019 was wrongly reported as the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). He was also nicknamed "The Professor" and "Destroyer".[3] Qardash was a high-ranking and very influential member of ISIL with close connections to its first Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and tipped as a potential candidate for ISIL leadership succession. However days after the death of al-Baghdadi, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi was ultimately chosen as the new declared leader of ISIL. Qardash was captured by Iraqi security forces in 2020.     quoted from Wikipedia

【2022国际观察】美强化战略威慑 全球核冲突风险仍在加剧？20220203 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Feb 4, 2022

Ukraine tensions: Russia condemns destructive US troop increase in Europe
​
Russia has condemned a US decision to send extra troops to Europe to support its allies amid continuing fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Feb. 3 - Moscow said it was a "destructive" step which heightened tension and reduced the scope for a political solution.
The Pentagon said 2,000 US troops would be sent from North Carolina to Poland and Germany, and a further 1,000 already in Germany would go to Romania.

​has some 100,000 troops near Ukraine. It denies planning to invade.
The tensions come eight years after Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula and backed a bloody rebellion in the eastern Donbas region.

Moscow accuses the Ukrainian government of failing to implement the Minsk agreement - an international deal to restore peace to the east, where Russian-backed rebels control swathes of territory and at least 14,000 people have been killed since 2014...     more

Related Articles:

• LISTEN: Biden boosts US troop numbers in Europe
• Is Russia preparing to invade?
• Ukraine: How big is Russia's military build-up?
• How will we know if war has started?

Minsk Protocol | Jan. 28, 2022

 

The Minsk Protocol is an agreement which sought to end war in the Donbas region of Ukraine. It was written in 2014 by the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, consisting of Ukraine, the Russian Federation, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE),[1][2][3] with mediation by the leaders of France and Germany in the so-called Normandy Format.

After extensive talks in Minsk, Belarus, the agreement was signed by representatives of the Trilateral Contact Group and, without recognition of any status, by the then heads of the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic.

​The agreement, which followed multiple previous attempts to stop the fighting in the Donbas, aimed to implement an immediate ceasefire. It failed to stop fighting in Donbas,[4] and was thus followed with a new package of measures, called Minsk II, which was signed on 12 February 2015.[5] This too failed to stop the fighting, but the Normandy Format parties agreed that it remains the basis for any future resolution to the conflict.

Reactions
​The new package, commonly referred to as "Minsk II", was criticised for being "highly complicated" and "extremely fragile", and for being very similar to the failed Minsk Protocol.[5][34][35] The New York Times reported that the plan had "included some tripwires", such as not demarcating control over the city of Debaltseve, which was the site of the most fierce fighting at the time of the plan's drafting.[5][36] Following the Minsk talks, Chancellor Merkel, President Hollande, and President Poroshenko attended a European Union (EU) summit in Brussels.[37] At the summit, the Minsk participants briefed EU leaders about the talks. During the briefing, they said that President Putin had tried to delay the implementation of a ceasefire by ten days, so as to force Ukrainian troops in Debaltseve to surrender their positions. For his part, President Putin said that the Debaltseve defenders were encircled, and that the separatists expected them "to lay down their arms and cease resistance".[37] Kommersant reporter Andrey Kolesnikov wrote that implementation of the ceasefire in Debaltseve hinged upon whether or not Ukrainian forces were truly encircled, "Above all, does it exist or not? Vladimir Putin insisted that it [the encirclement] exists and that if a cease-fire agreement is reached, it will be odd if it isn't violated: Those in the kettle will certainly try to get out of there; those who have boiled that kettle will try to collect the foam".[38]   quoted from Wikipedia

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乌边境全线备战 美增兵“预备调遣” 乌东进入战争前夜？20220126 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Jan 27, 2022

China backs Putin as top diplomat warns US that Russia's security demands 'must be taken seriously' amid fears of war in Ukraine​

Jan. 27 - China has thrown its back behind Russia over Ukraine, warning the US that Putin's security demands must be 'taken seriously'. 

Foreign minister Wang Yi told Secretary of State Antony Blinken that he should abandon his 'Cold War mentality' and engage in negotiations during a call today.

'All parties should abandon the Cold War mentality and form a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiation,' Wang said.
'Russia's reasonable security concerns should be taken seriously and resolved.'

In a nod to Moscow's concerns about the expansion of the NATO alliance in Europe Wang added that 'regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs'.

The exact contents of Blinken's letter to Putin are not being made public, but Blinken said it contains 'serious' offers to de-escalate tensions.

These are said to include controls on nuclear arms and limits on military exercises, according to the New York Times.

After speaking with Blinken, Wang added that 'regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs'.

Wang also urged the US to 'stop interfering' in the Winter Olympics, which are set to take place next month in Beijing.     more from  MailOnline

Why Biden Wants Taiwan/拜登支持台灣的理由
​

US lawmakers praise Taiwan at Lai meeting

Feb. 28 - A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has praised Taiwan for its determination to uphold democracy, Vice President William Lai (賴清德) said on Tuesday during a stopover in Los Angeles en route to Honduran president-elect Xiomara Castro’s inauguration.


Several lawmakers at an online meeting with 17 members of the US Congress earlier that day praised Taiwan for sticking to democracy, Lai told the Taiwanese community in Los Angeles via a videoconference.


They hailed the nation for not bowing to pressure from China, despite Beijing sending warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone and conducting disinformation campaigns, Lai said.   more form Taipei Times

Upstream Operations

...The fact that Taiwan’s onshore oil and gas reserves could be depleted within 10 years from now drives CPC’s continued engagement in overseas exploration and production as well as M&A activities. CPC has also reset its overseas exploration strategy in line with both the government’s New Southbound Policy and with trends in the international energy industry – which means being active in joint-ventures and/or acquisitions pertaining to oil and natural gas producing assets in places such as Southeast Asia and the United States and then developing them for commercial production. Exploration for conventional oil and gas is currently focused on America (including California, Paraguay and the Gulf of Mexico), Southeast Asia, Australia and offshore West Africa; for unconventional resources, the focus is on acquiring shale oil and gas assets in the United States, building up relevant technical capabilities and gradually increasing cooperation on unconventional resources with other countries. In all of the aforementioned activities, CPC is working vigorously to deploy its available resources to best advantage, on core overseas target areas that hold out the possibility of discovering oil and gas resources with commercial production value and that will materially raise the degree of self-sufficiency....     quoted from CPC Corporation, Taiwan

Live: World's largest semi-submersible oil and gas production platform sets off for South China Sea
Streamed live on Jan 17, 2021
China's self-built semi-submersible oil and gas production platform is ready to leave its construction site in east China's Shandong Province and head to the Lingshui 17-2 gas field in the South China Sea – the biggest gas field in China. The platform is the world's first semi-submersible oil and gas production platform and weighs over 100,000 tonnes. Join CGTN's reporter Cao Bing for more.

CPC drilled 3 wells in Taichung to help relieve drought
Apr 19, 2021
With no relief in sight for the ongoing drought, the nation''s oil refiner CPC Corporation has stepped in to drill for water in Taichung. CPC brought out its heavy-duty drilling rig to a spot near Liyutan water purification plant. According to CPC''s drilling engineering team, the principle for drilling a water well is similar to that for drilling an oil well. In Taiwan, oil wells have to be drilled to a depth of 2,000 to 3,000 meters. Water wells, on the other hand, require a depth of just 350 meters, which can be easily reached by CPC''s drilling rig. The three wells that were drilled are expected to produce 15,000 tons of water a day, providing a new water source for more than 60,000 people.

​Geology of Taiwan

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 typhoons. The 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.

The South China Sea Basin | Jan. 14, 2022

 Why Biden Wants Taiwan/拜登支持台灣的理由

​

South China Sea Energy Exploration and Development
​
The U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates that the South China Sea holds about 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 11 billion barrels of oil in proved and probable reserves, most of which lie along the margins of the South China Sea rather than under disputed islets and reefs. The U.S. Geological Survey in 2012 estimated that there could be another 160 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 12 billion barrels of oil undiscovered in the South China Sea. Beijing’s estimates for hydrocarbon resources under the sea are considerably higher but still modest in relation to China’s overall demand—the country’s oil consumption in 2018 is expected to top 12.8 million barrels per day...     more

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US 'sends carrier strike group' to South China Sea

​It comes as the US ramps up pressure on Beijing, laying out its most detailed case yet against 'unlawful' territorial claims

Jan. 14 - The United States has reportedly deployed carrier strike groups for drills in the contested South China Sea as it ramps up its opposition to Beijing’s maritime claims in the region.
The USS Carl Vinson and USS Essex, a Wasp-class Landing Helicopter Dock - along with their escort vessels - entered the southern waters of the sea on Tuesday, said Beijing-based think tank, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative.

According to the South China Morning Post, the US Navy is expected to conduct joint drills in the strategic international waterways, whose islands, atolls and reefs are subject to territorial disputes between China and several Southeast Asian nations including the Philippines and Vietnam.

The exercises have so far not been confirmed by the United States Navy...

...The South China Sea is rich with oil and gas deposits and is crucial for international shipping. Beijing’s increasing swagger in the region has prompted alarm and a growth in “freedom of navigation” operations by the US and its allies....     quoted from The Telegraph

The South China Sea Enigma
Rasoul Sorkhabi, Ph.D.

The South China Sea, a marginal sea between Asia (the largest continent) and the Pacific (the largest ocean) covers an area of 3.5 million square kilometres and is surrounded by sedimentary basins, some of which have produced petroleum for decades. The oceanic and the stretched continental crusts underlying the South China Sea have experienced a complex tectonic history in Cenozoic times, which geologists are only beginning to unravel.

This article appeared in Vol. 10, No. 1 - 2013

The South China Sea Basin is one of the largest marginal basins in Asia. South China Sea is located to the east of Vietnam, west of Philippines and the Luzon Strait, and north of Borneo. Tectonically, it is surrounded by the Indochina Block on the west, Philippines Sea plate on the east, Yangtze Block to the north. A subduction boundary exists between the Philippines Sea Plate and the Asian Plate. The formation of the South China Sea Basin was closely related with the collision between the Indian Plate and Eurasian Plates. The collision thickened the continental crust and changed the elevation of the topography from the Himalayan orogenic zone to the South China Sea, especially around the Tibetan Plateau. The location of the South China Sea makes it a product of several tectonic events. All the plates around the South China Sea Basin underwent clockwise rotation, subduction and experienced an extrusion process from the early Cenozoic to the Late Miocene.

The geological history can be classified into five tectonic evolutionary stages. (1) rift system development (2) sea floor spreading, (3) subsidence of the South China Sea, (4) closure of the South China Sea Basin and (5) uplift of Taiwan.    quoted from Wikipedia