Rentaka - Rentaka Defence Portal

China asked SoKor to cancel Pohang-class corvette donation to PH – report

10/8/2014

South Korean government's decision to donate a 1,200-ton patrol boat and a landing vessel to the Philippines has irked China. (Photo: Globalsecurity.net)

By: Grace Gonzales (www.angmalaya.net)

“China has strongly protested against the [South Korean] government’s decision to donate a 1,200-ton patrol boat and a landing vessel to the Philippines, it emerged Monday,” reported August 5 by The Chosun Ilbo, one of major news providers in South Korea.

June 27th, 2014

26/6/2014

China has published a new map that includes territories claimed. (Photo: China Daily/ ANN)

By: Matikas Santos (inquirer.net)

China has published a new map of the entire country including the islands in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) in order to “better show” its territorial claim over the region.

The government-run Xinhua news agency of China published photos of the map made by Hunan Map Publishing House and said in the caption “Islands in South China Sea share the same scale with mainland and are better shown than traditional maps.”

Why Malaysia, unlike Philippines, keeps quiet on sea row

25/6/2014

By: Camille Diola (www.philstar.com)

Malaysia also has overlapping claims with China on several coastal territories in the South China Sea, but it has a "broad consensus" with the Asian power.

This is what the Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed in its statement to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, answering queries on why Malaysia has been downplaying the sea row when its Southeast Asian neighbors like the Philippines and Vietnam have been outspoken against China's show of force in the maritime region.

China-Vietnam Sea Spat Heats Up

26/5/2014

By: Wendell Minnick (www.defensenews.com)

Thucydides, the Greek historian who penned the story of the Peloponnesian War, wrote that “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

The quote might be an appropriate description of what Vietnam is suffering after the placement of a Chinese mega oil rig off its coast this month.

Philippines Releases Photos Showing China Reef 'Reclamation'

15/5/2014

A photo released by the Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs shows the alleged reclamation by China on what is internationally recognized as the Johnson South Reef in the South China Sea, otherwise known as the Mabini Reef by the Philippines and Chigua Reef by China. The Philippines warned on May 14 that China may be building an airstrip on the reef, boosting the superpower's claim to most of the strategic Asian waters. (Department Of Foreign Affairs / AFP)

By: Agence France Presse (www.afp.com)

The Philippines released photographs Thursday to back its claim that China was reclaiming land on a disputed reef in the South China Sea in an apparent effort to build an airstrip.

'Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick’: What is Malaysia Playing At?

3/3/2014

By: Carl Thayer (www.thediplomat.com)

For the past two years China has dispatched a flotilla of People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships to the farthest reaches of the South China Sea to assert Beijing’s claim to “indisputable sovereignty” over the waters and features lying within its nine-dashed line. Beijing’s ambitious claim covers an estimated eighty percent of the South China Sea.

On each occasion PLAN warships sailed to James Shoal, or Beting Serupai in Malay, eighty kilometers off the coast of East Malaysia. According to Bill Hayton, who is completing a book on the South China Sea, China’s claim is based on a double historical error.

Insight - China's assertiveness hardens Malaysian stance in sea dispute

26/2/2014

Chinese sailors stand at attention as the Chinese frigate Yancheng comes in to dock at Limassol port in Cyprus in this January 4, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Andreas Manolis/Files

By Stuart Grudgings (http://uk.reuters.com)

(Reuters) - The submerged reef would be easy to miss, under turquoise seas about 80 km (50 miles) off Malaysia's Borneo island state of Sarawak.

But two Chinese naval exercises in less than a year around the James Shoal have shocked Malaysia and led to a significant shift in its approach to China's claims to the disputed South China Sea, senior diplomats told Reuters. The reef lies outside Malaysia's territorial waters but inside its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone.

Philippines Says China Fired Water Cannon at Disputed Shoal

25/2/2014

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Emmanuel Bautista, left, talks during the Feb. 24 Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) annual prospects forum as he sits beside US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg in Manila. The Philippines' military chief on Monday accused China's coast guard of firing water cannon at Filipino fishermen to drive them away from a disputed sea shoal. (Noel Celis / Getty Images)

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE (http://www.defensenews.com)

MANILA — The Philippines’ military chief on Monday accused China’s coast guard of firing water cannon at Filipino fishermen for the first time to drive them away from a disputed sea shoal.

Gen. Emmanuel Bautista said Chinese vessels fired cannon on Jan. 27 near Scarborough Shoal — the subject of a bitter territorial row in the strategically important South China Sea.

“The Chinese coast guard tried to drive away Filipino fishing vessels to the extent of using water cannon,” Bautista told a forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

He did not say if anyone was hurt and added that China continues to maintain an armed coast guard and other vessels at the shoal.

Arms Makers Try To Cash In As Asian Disputes Escalate

10/2/2014

RSAF Black Knights captivates audiences with their stunning moves (Photo: Ainonline/ Mark Wagner)

By: Agense France-Presse (www.afp.com)

Asia’s top aerospace and defense show opens Tuesday in Singapore, with major global arms makers seeking to cash in on rising military spending in China and elsewhere as territorial disputes escalate in the region.

Palace hopes US will defend Phl in sea row

9/2/2014

By: Delon Porcalla (www.philstar.com)

Malacañang hopes the US will come to the defense of the Philippines when China becomes more aggressive in claiming the entire West Philippine Sea.

Radars from Israel to boost Phl sea watch

5/2/2014

By: Alexis Romero

The Philippines will acquire three air search radars from Israel to boost its monitoring activities in the West Philippine Sea, where increasing Chinese military presence has been causing tension.

China risking Asean unease with patrol off Malaysia

29/1/2014

By Esther Teo & Yong Yen Nie (www.straistimes.com)

Chinese ships patrolling an area contested by Malaysia are likely to cause more anxiety across Southeast Asia and risk the ire of a country that has long sought to downplay strategic concerns generated by China's rising power.
Three Chinese ships on Sunday patrolled the James Shoal in the South China Sea, about 80km off Sarawak on Borneo island, which Beijing counts as the southernmost part of its territory. Soldiers on board swore to safeguard China's sovereignty, in the latest sign of Beijing's increasing territorial assertiveness in the waters.

Malaysia to set up marine corps, naval base close to James shoal

27/1/2014

By: Dzirhan Mahadzir (www.janes.com)

Malaysia is to set up a marine corps and establish a naval base close to waters claimed by China, Defence Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said in a statement on 10 October.

According to the statement, the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) base will be established at Bintulu on the South China Sea (SCS) to protect the surrounding area and oil reserves.

Malaysian sources deny PLAN drills around James Shoal

27/1/2014

By: Dzirhan Mahadzir (www.janes.com)

Malaysian military sources have said there is no basis to Chinese media claims that a People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) task group conducted a patrol around the James Shoal region of Malaysia's Exclusive Economic Zone on 26 January.

Chinese Ships Approach Malaysia

27/1/2014

PLAN Type 071 LPD Jinggang shan deploying Type 726 Yuyi class LCAC during an exercise. (Photo: Navy.81.cn)

By: Jeremy Page (online.wsj.com)

China took navy exercises to the farthest reaches of its claims in disputed waters, with four heavily armed ships coming within 50 miles of the coast of Malaysia, a country that has made relatively little noise about Beijing's recent assertiveness in the South China Sea.