Trump appointee shakes up US broadcasting, raising fears
President Donald Trump, who has consistently railed against the news
media, has appointed a new head of the agency overseeing government
broadcasters, raising fears they could lose their editorial independence
and be turned into poliitical tools (AFP Photo/POOL)
Washington (AFP) - The head of the US agency
overseeing government-funded broadcasters including Voice of America and
Radio Free Asia has begun a massive shakeup, raising fears the news
outlets are being politicized.
The organizations' directors have
either quit or been fired by the new head of the US Agency for Global
Media (USAGM), Michael Pack, according to lawmakers.
The moves
have raised concerns that the appointee of President Donald Trump will
seek to end the editorial independence of the outlets which include
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East
Broadcasting Networks, Voice of America and Radio and TV Marti.
Voice
of America director Amanda Bennett and deputy director Sandy Sugawara,
both veteran journalists, announced their resignations Monday as Pack
was preparing to assume his duties.
On Wednesday, Pack dismissed
the heads of the other outlets and dissolved the oversight boards of the
organizations at the agency, which is government funded but structured
to operate with editorial independence and serve countries lacking a
free press.
Lawmakers and others voiced alarm that the outlets could become tools of Trump, who has long denounced mainstream media.
"Michael
Pack has confirmed he is on a political mission to destroy the USAGM's
independence and undermine its historic role," said Senator Bob
Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat.
"The wholesale firing of the
agency's network heads, and disbanding of corporate boards to install
President Trump's political allies is an egregious breach of this
organization's history and mission from which it may never recover."
Janet
Steele, director of the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global
Communication at George Washington University, also expressed concern.
"The
sacking of the heads of those three news outlets confirms the worst
fears of those of us who believed that the appointment of Michael Pack
was part of an effort to turn USAGM into the international propaganda
arm of the Trump administration," Steele said.
The White House in
April accused VOA of spreading Chinese "propaganda" about the
coronavirus pandemic, and instructed US health officials to refuse
interviews to the news organization, according to Bennett.
"This
kind of blatant political interference has long been the norm in the
developing countries with which I'm most familiar, but not in the US,"
Steele said.
"It is thus a very sad day for those of us who value
the contribution of journalists at USAGM -- many of whom themselves
escaped authoritarian regimes -- and credible, non-partisan reporting."
Responding
to an AFP query, the agency said Pack intends to "steer the agency back
toward its mission: 'to inform, engage, and connect people around the
world in support of freedom and democracy.'"
In an email to
employees, Pack said he was "fully committed to honoring VOA's charter,"
as well as the missions of the other news outlets.
----
Politics
Voice Of America Director, Deputy Director Resign After Donald Trump-Selected CEO Takes Over At Global Media Agency
Voice of America Director Amanda Bennett
and Deputy Director Sandy Sugawara resigned on Monday, after defending
the government-backed media outlet from withering attacks from the White
House and President Donald Trump.
Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Michael Pack,
was confirmed by the Senate earlier this month. In a note to staff on
Monday morning, Bennett said that Pack has the right to replace them
with his own VOA leadership.
Bennett
also said that Pack “swore before Congress to respect and honor the
firewall that guarantees VOA’s independence, which in turn plays the
single most important role in the stunning trust VOA’s audiences around
the world have in the organization,” a spokesperson for VOA said. “She
remarked that she and Deputy Director Sugawara know that all VOA staff
members will offer him all of their skills, their professionalism, their
dedication to mission, their journalistic integrity and their personal
hard work to guarantee that promise is fulfilled.”
Bennett had defended the agency after the White House attacked its coverage of the coronavirus crisis, claiming that it “amplified Beijing’s propaganda.”
“We
are thoroughly covering China’s disinformation and misinformation in
English and Mandarin and at the same time reporting factually –– as we
always do in all 47 of our broadcast languages — on other events in
China,” Bennett wrote in April.
But Trump’s attacks continued, as he called the outlet a “disgrace.”
Over
the weekend, Bennett also weighed in after a report that the Centers
for Disease Control had blacklisted VOA from interviews, including those
coming from one of its on air personalities, Greta Van Susteren. The
Knight First Amendment Institute published emails obtained in a Freedom
of Information Act request, showing that CDC public affairs staff told
public affairs staff to ignore VOA media requests.
Bennett said in a statement
that “efforts such as those outlined in the CDC memo can result in the
kind of chilling effect on our journalism that we regularly see in the
markets we broadcast to that have no free press – including in China and
Russia.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was ordered in April not to cooperate with the Voice of America because the White House claimed the government-funded news service was disseminating Chinese “propaganda,” according to an email unearthed by a watchdog organization.
The bizarre White House attack on
the federally funded VOA said “much of the U.S. media takes its lead
from China.” The broadside was so odd that many initially thought hackers had posted it on the White House website, The New York Times reported.
The
Voice of America’s director on Sunday angrily responded to the CDC,
calling the freeze on its reporters “shocking” and “troubling” and
comparing the action to authoritarian nations without a free press —
like China.
In the April 30 CDC email, obtained by Just Security
and released Friday, Michawn Rich informs the organization’s press
staff: “As a rule, do not send up [press interview] requests from [VOA
reporter] Greta von Susteren or anyone working for VOA because of this” —
and links to the White House statement. Rich, communications director for Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, was assigned to the CDC in March to shape the CDC’s press response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The
White House statement posted in early April accused the Voice of
America of amplifying “Beijing’s propaganda.” As an example, the
statement cited a comment in a VOA article that China’s strict lockdown
at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak was successful in stemming the spread of the disease — a view widely held by scientists around the world.
The statement also accused the VOA of using “Communist government statistics” to compare China’s coronavirus death toll to America’s. In fact, the VOA used figures provided by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center in Baltimore, widely considered the gold standard of pandemic statistics.
At the time the statement was issued, the U.S. COVID-19 death toll had surpassed China, and President Donald Trump had begun to accuse the Chinese government of lying about its figures — and blaming China for the pandemic.
The VOA responded to the White House statement with a long list of its articles critical of China based
on what it called “verifiable facts.” It also bitingly pointed out the
difference between “state-controlled” media — compelled to follow the
party line — and “publicly-funded independent media,” like the VOA,
which “shows all sides of an issue.”
On Sunday, the VOA issued a scathing response to the CDC email.
“We were shocked to read the internal CDC documents
instructing the agency’s media relations office to refuse media
requests from ‘anyone associated with Voice of America,’ citing White
House” accusations that the VOA was spreading “Chinese propaganda,”
director Amanda Bennett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative
journalist, said in a statement. “VOA, a federally funded independent
news organization, strongly rejects the accusations and calls on the CDC
to immediately withdraw the instructions.”
For a “federal agency’s public affairs office to categorically deny
in advance interview requests from VOA journalists ... based on a White
House opinion statement ... is even more troubling,” Bennett continued.
The attack on the VOA is occurring as Trump is making a power play to control the organization and force it to spin positive coverage
for his administration. The Senate early this month voted to make
conservative filmmaker and Steve Bannon pal Michael Pack head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that oversees the VOA.
The New York Times reported that Trump intervened to nail down Pack’s confirmation quickly amid an investigation by the attorney general for the District of Columbia into whether Pack diverted at least $1.6 million in donations to his nonprofit organization to his for-profit film company. That investigation is continuing.
Annotated map showing the path of five Chinese maritime militia ships passing through the Union Banks in the Spratly islands during the first three weeks of March, 2020.
RFA
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China Ups Ante in South China Sea With New Place Names, Administrative Districts
China has upped the ante amid rising tensions in the South China Sea by declaring two new administrative districts for the contested region and releasing a new map naming all the islands and reefs it claims.
The provocative moves come as Beijing faces diplomatic pushback from some of its Southeast Asian neighbors against its sweeping assertion of sovereignty across the resource-rich sea.
It also takes place as the China’s Coast Guard and maritime militia pressure other claimants, even as they grapple with the global coronavirus pandemic. Most recently, China has deployed a survey vessel and escort ships near an oil field off the coast of Malaysia.
China’s announcement on the administrative measures came this weekend. The State Council, China’s top administrative body, approved the creation of two new municipal districts: Nansha District, which is based at Fiery Cross Reef, an artificial island built by China that it says will oversee all of the Spratly Islands and their surrounding waters; and Xisha District, based on Woody Island, which will oversee the Paracel Islands.
It follows the July 2012 declaration of Sansha City on Woody Island as China’s administrative center for the region. The two new districts cover a vast but largely uninhabited area. They are incorporated under Sansha, which itself has only 1,800 permanent residents.
China’s Global Television Network on Saturday described Sansha as a prefecture-level city that compromises only 20 square kilometers of land area but oversees “nearly two million square kilometers.”
The declaration comes despite unresolved territorial disputes across that area, and efforts by China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to forge a binding code of conduct.
Vietnam, which claims both the Paracels and the Spratlys, immediately condemned the announcement of the two new districts by China, calling it a serious violation of its sovereignty.
Pooja Bhatt, author of Nine-Dash Line: Deciphering the South China Sea Conundrum, said China’s move was intended to cement its territorial claims, which were undermined by a Permanent Court of Arbitration verdict from 2016. That verdict found that most of the land features it occupies in the South China Sea were actually rocks originally, due to lack of human habitation and economic activity. By inhabiting them now, China in time seeks to have these features regarded as islands entitled to territorial waters and exclusive economic zones, she said.
“Second, having administrative units can justify the presence of military and defense installations for protection purposes,” Bhatt said. “Furthermore the establishment of these cities increases the area of operation over the vast maritime domain in the South China Sea.”
China has constructed airstrips and military infrastructure at a number of the artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea in recent years, including at Fiery Cross Reef, where commercial satellite imagery provider ImageSat International recently spotted military aircraft.
Also on the weekend, in a move calculated to demonstrate Chinese jurisdiction of the new districts, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Natural Resources released a new map naming each feature in the South China Sea it claims – an exhaustive list that was last updated in 1983.
The move by China to assert jurisdiction comes after a dueling series of diplomatic notes by China and rival claimants that were submitted to the United Nations. Malaysia’s initial submission claiming a part of the seabed in December sparked a protest from China, which in turn sparked further protests against China’s claim from the Philippines and Vietnam.
China issued its latest statement on Friday, and adopted a notably more aggressive tone towards Vietnam.
“China always opposes the invasion and illegal occupation by Viet Nam of some islands and reefs of China’s Nansha Qundao, and the activities infringing upon China’s rights and interests in the waters under China’s jurisdiction,” its submission to the United Nations’ Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) read. Nansha Qundao refers to the Spratly Islands.
“China resolutely demands that Viet Nam withdraw all the crews and facilities from the islands and reefs it has invaded and illegally occupied,” the note added.
Bhatt believes the continental shelf dispute and China’s new districts will figure prominently in the year’s discussions between China and ASEAN. Vietnam is currently protesting Chinese actions the loudest and may be best-placed to press the issue further as the current chair of the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, she said.
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US Watching if Beijing Declares Air Defense Zone in South China Sea
General Charles Q. Brown, Jr. testifies on his nomination to be Chief of Staff, United States Air Force before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, May 7, 2020.
The United States is closely watching reports that Beijing is planning to declare a so-called Air Defense Identification Zone in the skies above the disputed South China Sea, the American air force commander in the Pacific told reporters Wednesday.
A Chinese move to claim an ADIZ in the sea region could have a negative impact on the ability of nations to fly, sail and operate in a free and open Indo-Pacific “wherever international law allows,” Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said during a special teleconference briefing from Hawaii.
“It really goes against the rules-based international order, and that’s concerning not only for PACAF and the United States, but I would say many of the nations in the region,” Brown said, referring to a potential Chinese ADIZ in the South China Sea, while he fielded questions from reporters across the region about a range of issues related to his Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) command.
“And this kind of impinges upon some of the international airspace, and it impacts not just the PACAF, but all the nations in the region,” he added. “And so, it’s important for us to pay attention to something like this.”
The air force commander said he was also “concerned by increasing opportunistic activity by the PRC [People’s Republic of China] to coerce its neighbors and press its unlawful maritime claims while the region and the world is focused on addressing the COVID pandemic.”
“We are committed to upholding the rules-based international order to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific that protects the sovereignty of every nation, ensures the peaceful resolution of disputes without coercion, and promotes free, fair, and reciprocal trade, and preserves freedom of navigation and overflight,” Brown added.
His comments came amid news reports that two U.S. Navy aircraft-carrier strike groups were sailing together in the Philippine Sea – on the doorstep of the South China Sea – and had launched dual flight drills.
Beijing: ‘Every country has the right’
Recent reports have pointed to the possibility that Beijing is planning to declare an ADIZ in the South China Sea.
On Monday, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was asked to confirm a report that China was “getting more likely” to establish such an aerial zone in the strategic and potentially mineral-rich waterway.
“I’m not sure what the source of this report is, but I’d like to stress that every country has the right to establish an ADIZ and to decide whether to establish an ADIZ based on the intensity of the threats it faces in air defense security,” spokesman Zhao Lijian said, referring to a report in The Economist.
“In the light of the air security threats China faces above relevant waters of the South China Sea, China will carefully and prudently study the relevant issue taking into account all factors,” he added.
An ADIZ is a zone where all civilian aircraft must identify themselves and announce their location. In such a zone, civilian aircraft are tracked and identified before further entering into a country’s airspace, although an ADIZ does not restrict travel in and out of its limits, nor does it usually apply to military aircraft.
In practice, an ADIZ in the South China Sea would likely mean that civilian planes would need to report their presence to Chinese air traffic control, and could potentially be intercepted if they didn’t. However, China has not yet taken such action in an ADIZ it established seven years ago above the East China Sea, farther north.
Experts have said that enforcing such a zone, which would cover a vast area of the South China Sea, would present huge logistical challenges for the Chinese air force and could provoke a diplomatic backlash.
Other nations maintain airstrips on islands they occupy in the contested region. In the Spratly Islands, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan are among countries that have built runways on territories they occupy.
China, for its part, has for years been expanding its territorial claims in the sea and has installed weapons systems and established military outposts, while deploying maritime militia vessels to the South China Sea.
The maritime region is claimed in whole or in part by China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Indonesia urges firmness by ASEAN
Meanwhile in Jakarta on Wednesday, Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi urged members of the ASEAN bloc to take a firm stance regarding Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Retno was speaking after taking part in an online meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It took place two days before ASEAN leaders are to meet in an online summit Friday.
“Regarding the Nine-Dash Line claim in the South China Sea, Indonesia conveyed that ASEAN needs to show solidity regarding respect for the international legal principles including UNCLOS 1982 and all its mechanisms,” Indonesia’s top diplomat said in a statement.
Retno was referring to a boundary on Chinese maps that delineates the extent of Beijing’s claims in the sea and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
She also urged major powers to contribute to peace and disability in the sea region.
“Collaboration and cooperation must continue to be prioritized, not rivalry,” Retno said.
Indonesia is not among the countries with contending territorial claims in the South China Sea but tensions arose between Jakarta and Beijing in early 2020 and 2016 over the presence of Chinese fishing boats in waters off Indonesia’s Natuna Islands.
Last week, Retno said there was “no reason to negotiate” with China as she reaffirmed Jakarta’s stance that it has “no overlapping claims with China” in the maritime region.
Her earlier comments came days after Indonesia sent another diplomatic letter on the topic to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, in response to one submitted by China to the U.N. chief 10 days earlier.
In its letter, Beijing had invited Jakarta to negotiate what it called “overlapping claims of maritime rights and interests” in the South China Sea.
Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-afiliated news service.
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China Resumes Dredging at Woody Island in the Paracels
Satellite imagery of Woody Island’s northwest, showing dredging visible by the discoloration of the water and new sand structures built up nearby, with smaller artificial jetty-like structures are visible further down the coast, to the east, June 25, 2020.
China is dredging in a bay at Woody Island, its biggest settlement in the South China Sea, likely to expand the artificial island’s northwest corner, satellite imagery shows.
This development in the disputed Paracel island chain, in the northern part of the South China Sea, comes amid mounting concern in Southeast Asia over China’s assertion of its sweeping territorial claims.
In an unusual move Friday, leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, pointedly called for maintaining free airspace over the South China Sea in reaction to reports that Beijing’s plans to establish an Air Defense Identification Zone over the region.
Woody Island, where the dredging appears to have been underway for several weeks, includes Sansha City, China’s main administrative center in the Paracels -- an archipelago of rocks and reefs disputed between China, Vietnam, and Taiwan.
Commercial satellite imagery between April 17 and June 25 shows the shallow fringing reef off Woody Island’s northwest coast, right next to the smaller of the island’s two harbors, has had a chunk dug out of its center. Also visible are a web of new land bridges that could be a foundation for more land reclamation, to expand the island.
Cranes or heavy machinery can be spotted working in the same spot on May 8. Based on Radio Free Asia and BenarNews’ review of the imagery, sand was likely dredged out of Woody Island’s shallows to create this new structure. The coastline nearest the foundation has been also been reinforced with what looks like a sea wall, and several smaller artificial jetty-like structures have been built at points along the coast to the east.
Woody Island often hosts ships of the China Coast Guard (CCG) and China’s maritime militia before they deploy elsewhere, harassing shipping of other South China Sea claimants. Satellite imagery taken on Friday shows three CCG ships in the island’s harbor, along with what looks like a barge carrying material or supplies.
China undertook a massive land reclamation campaign between 2014 and 2016 to create new artificial islands in the South China Sea, destroying the natural environment and militarizing the occupied rocks and reefs shortly thereafter.
Virtually all of China’s occupied features in the South China Sea have had parts dredged up to make way for new settlements and military outposts. But the four biggest bases China maintains in the South China Sea, Subi Reef, Fiery Cross Reef, Mischief Reef, and Woody Island, are virtually unrecognizable since land reclamation was finished in 2017, granting them deep-water harbors, airstrips, and living facilities. But small-scale dredging has continued, as this latest satellite imagery shows.
The new dredging on Woody Island comes at a sensitive time. Last month, Indonesia joined with Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia in denouncing China’s sweeping assertion of sovereignty over the entirety of the South China Sea in a series of notes to the United Nations. Indonesia cited a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that struck down the legal basis of most of China’s claims to the disputed waters, definitively stating none of China’s ‘islands’ could generate exclusive economic zones and were only rocks.
More recently, China has tried to intimidate Vietnam, another claimant in the South China Sea, out of exploring for oil within its waters with an international partner by sending a government-operated survey vessel into Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone on June 17.
Vietnam was the chair of Friday’s virtual summit of ASEAN leaders. All the claimants to the South China Sea were taking part, save for China and Taiwan.
“While the world is fighting against COVID-19 pandemic, there are irresponsible actions, violating international law, effecting to security environment and stability in some regions, including the ASEAN region,” Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in his opening remarks, in a tacit reference to China.
The 10-member ASEAN bloc has long struggled to reach a consensus on issues related to the South China Sea, so Friday’s joint statement implicitly criticizing Beijing’s reported plans for an ADIZ was an unusually pointed expression of concern over rising tensions.
On Sunday, China adopted a revision to its law governing the People’s Armed Police (PAP), a paramilitary branch of its armed services that has been formally placed under the Central Military Commission alongside the People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN).
The reform may signal that China wants to beef up the security forces it can draw on to police the South China Sea. The amended law now tasks the PAP with “maritime rights enforcement” and allows it to participate in joint exercises with the People’s Liberation Army. The China Coast Guard is a constituent part of the PAP.
This week, navies of several governments have been on maneuvers in the South China Sea – which is widely viewed as an effort to push back against China’s assertive behavior.
Japan performed a bilateral training drill with Singapore on Monday, and a bilateral exercise with the United States in the same area on Tuesday. The U.S. and Taiwan both sent maritime patrol aircraft south of Taiwan on Wednesday, seemingly tracking Chinese submarine movements in the area after a submarine was detected by Japan in the East China Sea last week.
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AFP
Japan city to rename area of islands disputed with China
Tokyo (AFP) - A local council in southern
Japan voted Monday to rename an area including islands disputed with
China and Taiwan, a move Beijing denounced as illegal and a "serious
provocation".
The local assembly of Ishigaki city approved a plan
to change the name of the area covering the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku
Islands -- known by Taiwan and China as the Diaoyus -- from "Tonoshiro"
to "Tonoshiro Senkaku".
Local media said another part of Ishigaki is also known as Tonoshiro, and the name change was cast as a bid to avoid confusion.
But
the uninhabited islands are at the centre of a festering row between
Tokyo and Beijing and the move by the small local council -- which does
not carry national governmental weight -- sparked anger in both Taiwan
and mainland China.
"The passing of the so-called administration
designation bill by Japan is a serious provocation to China's
territorial sovereignty," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian
said in response to a question on the issue.
"It is illegal and
invalid, and cannot change the fact that the Diaoyu islands belong to
China," Zhao added, saying Beijing had lodged "solemn representations to
Japan through diplomatic channels and reserves the right to make
further responses".
Taiwan says the islands are part of its territory, and also protested the move.
"The
sovereignty of Diaoyu islands belongs to our country and any move
attempting to alter this fact is invalid," the foreign ministry said in a
statement.
It said it had expressed "regret and stern protest" to Tokyo.
Japan's
chief government spokesman declined to comment on the Ishigaki council
move, but Tokyo has long complained about China's routine dispatch of
its coast guard ships to waters surrounding the islands.
Relations
between Japan and China deteriorated in 2012 when Tokyo "nationalised"
some of the disputed islets and tensions have flared up periodically
over the region.
burs-nf/sah/je
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Business
More F-35 Stealth Fighters Are Headed to South Korea
As tensions continue to rise on the Korean peninsula – with the Republic of Korea (South Korea) sending tanks and troops
to the DMZ – the government in Seoul could rest easy in knowing that
its air force will be bolstered by early next year with 40 additional
F-35A stealth fighters. South Korea already received 13 F-35A fighters
in 2019.
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s LMT business unit won a $183 million modification contract for the F-35 Lightning II, and work-related as part of the deal is expected to be completed by January of next year, according to a report from Zacks Equity Research.
The deal calls for Lockheed to offer additional operation, security and
technical services to support the program and work will be executed at
the company's facilities in Fort Worth, Texas.
The recent contract
modification follows the $675 million deal that the U.S. State
Department approved in April, as part of the Pentagon's foreign military
sales program. According to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency,
the deal would fund support and services for South Korea's F-35
aircraft, engines, weapons and related equipment. Government and
contractor technical and logistics support services; and other related
elements of program support will also be provided.
DSCA said in a
statement that the "proposed sale would support the foreign policy and
national security objectives of the United states by meeting legitimate
security and defense needs of one of its closest allies in the INDOPACOM
Theater. The Republic of Korea is one of the major political and
economic powers in East Asia and the Western Pacific and a key partner
of the United States in ensuring peace and stability in the region."
South Korea, which has become one of Asia's economic tigers and is far more technologically advanced
than its northern rival, has also developed a robust domestic arms
industry – but it has also remained a key partner in the F-35 program.
By 2021, South Korea is also expected to have the third-biggest stealth fighting operation in Asia.
The
F-35 currently dominates the combat aircraft market as it combines
advance stealth capabilities with fighter speed and agility. And while
it has been estimated that the cost of the program could exceed $1.5 trillion dollars, the program has been seen as the one of the most lethal but also cost-effective fighter programs today.
As financial analysts have also noted F-35
contracts such as this one with South Korea should be seen as a win for
the Pentagon and U.S. allies. These bring the overall cost of the
aircraft down, while production of the jets is only expected to
continue. The U.S. military has a current inventory target of 2,456
aircraft for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
In May, an F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 58th Fighter Squadron crashed upon landing
at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. It was only the third such crash
involving the Joint Strike Fighter – which had an otherwise excellent
safety record. Aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin reported that the
fleet of F-35s hit 250,000 flight hours this past March.
Peter
Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four
dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He is the author of several
books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan air force jets
"drove away" a Chinese fighter plane that briefly entered Taiwan's air
defence identification zone on Tuesday, the defence ministry said,
reporting the third intrusion in a week.
The single J-10 fighter
was given radio warnings to leave before the Taiwanese air force jets
ushered the intruder out of the airspace southwest of the island, the
ministry said.
On Tuesday last week, the ministry said several
Su-30 fighters, some of China's most advanced jets, crossed into the
same airspace and were also warned to leave.
On Friday, the
ministry said a Chinese Y-8, a propeller aircraft based on a Soviet-era
design some of which have been retrofitted as surveillance aircraft, was
warned too by Taiwan's air force to leave the air space, again in the
southwest.
The Y-8 flight came a few hours after Taiwan said it had carried out missile tests off its eastern coast.
Taiwan
has complained that China, which claims the democratic island as its
own, has stepped up military activities in recent months, menacing
Taiwan even as the world deals with the coronavirus pandemic.
China
has not commented publicly on the last week of Chinese air force
activity near Taiwan. Beijing routinely says such exercises are nothing
unusual and are designed to show the country's determination to defend
its sovereignty.
China has never renounced the use of force to
bring Taiwan under its control. One of China's most senior generals last
month said China would attack if there was no other way of stopping
Taiwan becoming independent.
China is deeply suspicious of
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, whom it accuses of being a separatist
intent on declaring formal independence. Tsai says Taiwan is already an
independent country called the Republic of China, its official name.
The
United States has stepped up its military activities near the island
too, with semi-regular navy voyages through the narrow Taiwan Strait.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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World
A History of the 2025 Sino–American War in the South China Sea
More than
two decades after the fact, the reasons why the United States and the
People’s Republic of China (PRC) avoided total war, let alone a nuclear
exchange, during their armed conflict in the autumn of 2025 remain a
source of dispute. What is clearer is why the Sino–American Littoral War
broke out in the first place, and the course it took. Years of
worsening U.S.–China relations, supercharged by the 2020 COVID-19
coronavirus pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China, and long fueled by
endemic Chinese cyberattacks on American businesses and individuals,
military jockeying in the South China Sea, and Beijing’s influence and
propaganda campaigns, had created a deep reservoir of ill will and
distrust of the other in each country.
When a series of accidents
propelled Washington and Beijing into war, both sides were taken by
surprise, but each saw the risk differently. The Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) feared the domestic repercussions of losing a war but had long
convinced itself that Americans were a weak and uncommitted people who
would not endanger their comfortable lifestyle. As for American leaders,
they were naturally risk-averse and unconvinced they could maintain a
major military campaign so far from home against the world’s
second-most-powerful military. Each, therefore, tripped into war without
a full plan for how to dominate and win. The result of the conflict —
the establishment of three geopolitical blocs in East Asia — continues
to this day. The resulting cold war between the United States and China
became the defining feature of geopolitics in the Asia-Pacific in the
middle of the 21st century.
The Gray Rhino: September 8–9, 2025
The Littoral War began with a series of accidental encounters in the
skies and waters near Scarborough Shoal, in the South China Sea. Beijing
had effectively taken control of the shoal, long a point of contention
between China and the Philippines, in 2012. After Philippines president
Rodrigo Duterte, who had steadily moved Manila toward China during the
late 2010s, was impeached and removed from office, the Philippines’ new
president steadily moved to reassert Manila’s claim to the shoal, and by
the summer of 2025 sent coastal-patrol boats into waters near the
contested territory. When armed People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia
(PAFMM) vessels pushed out the Philippine forces in early July, Manila
appealed to Washington under its security treaty for assistance.
Prior
Philippine requests for U.S. help in dealing with China had been
largely shunted aside by Washington, even during the Trump
administration. However, new U.S. president Gavin Newsom, who had been
dogged during the 2024 campaign by allegations that Chinese cyber
operations had benefited his candidacy, saw the Philippine request as an
opportunity to show his willingness to take a hard line against
Beijing. Newsom increased U.S. Air Force flights over the contested
territory, using air bases made available by Manila, and sent the
carrier USS Gerald Ford, along with escort vessels, on a short
transit. On two occasions in late July, U.S. and Chinese ships came
close to running into each other due to aggressive maneuvering by the
People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), and a U.S. Navy FA-18 operating
from the Gerald Ford was forced to take emergency evasive
action to avoid colliding with a PLANAF J-15. Despite the increasing
tensions, the U.S. Navy ships returned to Japan at the beginning of
August, yet no diplomatic attempts were made to alter the trajectory of
events. The fact that both sides knew some type of armed encounter was
increasingly possible, if not probable, yet seemed to ignore the risk,
led pundits to call the events surrounding the clash an example of a
“gray rhino,” unlike the complete surprise represented by a “black swan”
occurrence. Ironically, CCP general secretary Xi Jinping himself had
warned about the dangers of “gray rhinos” back in 2018 and 2019.
In
response to the brief uptick in U.S. Navy freedom-of-navigation
operations near other Chinese-claimed territory in the Spratly and
Paracel island chains, Beijing decided to fortify Scarborough Shoal,
building airstrips and naval facilities as it had done in the Spratlys.
As Scarborough lay only 140 miles from Manila, China’s announcement set
off alarm bells in the Philippines. As Chinese naval construction ships
approached Scarborough on September 4, dozens of small Philippine boats,
many of them private, attempted to block them. On the second day of the
maritime encounter, a Chinese frigate rammed a Philippine fishing boat,
sinking it, with the loss of two Philippine fishermen. As news spread
over the next several days, dozens more Philippine vessels, including
the country’s entire coast guard, confronted the Chinese. Though no
further ship collisions occurred, worldwide broadcast of video of the
maritime confrontation further inflamed tensions.
At this point,
on Saturday, September 6, U.S. Indo–Pacific Command, acting directly
under orders from U.S. secretary of defense Michele Flournoy, dispatched
one guided-missile destroyer, the USS Curtis Wilbur, and the Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Charleston (LCS-18) to the waters off Scarborough, and ordered the USS John C. Stennis
aircraft carrier to head from its home port in Bremerton, Wash., to
Pearl Harbor. In order not to inflame the high tensions, however, the
White House and Pentagon decided not to send the Gerald Ford to the area. Instead, another U.S. guided-missile destroyer, USS Stethem (DDG 63), and a mine-countermeasures ship, the USS Patriot (MCM
7), were ordered to transit the Taiwan Strait. The next day, Beijing
announced an air-defense identification zone over the entire South China
Sea, demanding that all non-Chinese aircraft submit their flight plans
to Chinese military authorities and receive clearance to proceed. While
the U.S. Air Force and Navy immediately rejected China’s authority over
the South China Sea, Chinese army and navy aerial patrols increased, and
international civilian airliners complied with Beijing’s demands.
On
Monday, September 8, at approximately 18:30 local time (10:30 Greenwich
time; 00:30 Hawaii time; 05:30 Eastern time), a U.S. Navy EP-3
surveillance flight out of Japan over the Spratlys was intercepted by a
PLAAF J-20 taking off from Fiery Cross Reef, in the same chain. After
warning off the EP-3, the J-20 attempted a barrel roll over the American
plane. The Chinese pilot sheared off most of the EP-3’s tail and left
rear stabilizer; the Chinese plane lost a wing and went into an
unrecoverable spin into the sea. The EP-3 also could not recover and
plunged into the sea, killing all 22 Americans aboard. Tragically, the
EP-3 was not even supposed to be flying, as the U.S. Navy had intended
to replace the fleet with unmanned surveillance drones by 2020, but cost
overruns and delays in the drone program led to occasional use of a
limited number of aging manned aircraft in the region, especially when
real-time interpretation of data was required.
Roughly 30 minutes
later, before word of the EP-3’s downing had reached U.S. Indo–Pacific
Command in Hawaii, let alone Washington or Beijing, 13 nautical miles
northwest of Scarborough Shoal, the Bertholf (WMSL-750), a U.S. Coast Guard cutter returning from a training mission along with the Japan Coast Guard Kunigami-class patrol vessel Motobu,
out of Naha in Okinawa, was approached by a cutter-class armed Chinese
Coast Guard (CCG) ship. After broadcasting warnings for the Bertholf and the Motobu
to leave the area, the Chinese ship attempted to maneuver in front of
the American ship, to turn its bow. The CCG captain miscalculated and
struck the Bertholf amidships, caving in the mess and one of its enlisted crew compartments. The Bertholf
began taking on water and attempted to turn east toward the Philippines
while emergency crews attempted to keep the ship afloat. The CCG ship
immediately left the scene without rendering assistance. Six US sailors
later were declared missing and presumed dead in the collision, while
three Chinese CCG sailors were swept overboard and lost at sea.
Being the closest U.S. naval vessel to the downed EP-3 surveillance pland, the Curtis Wilbur raced toward the site of its crash, while the Charleston moved to assist the Bertholf.
Nighttime darkness caused confusion for rescue and patrol operations on
both sides. Two PLAN ships returned to the scene of the maritime
collision to search for the lost Chinese seamen, coming in close
quarters with the Motobu — which was helping in rescue operations to stabilize the American vessel — as well as with the littoral combat ship Charleston, which arrived several hours later. Mechanical trouble kept the Bertholf
from making way under her own power, and she began to drift back toward
PLAN vessels. In the darkness, U.S. ships and the Japanese attempted to
disengage with the Chinese vessels, while continually warning the other
side to stand down so rescue operations could continue.
After several close encounters, one Type 052D Luyang III class PLAN destroyer, the Taiyuan, activated its fire-control radar and locked on the Motobu.
The captain of the thousand-ton Japanese patrol ship, knowing he could
not survive a direct hit from the PLAN destroyer, radioed repeated
demands that the radar be turned off. When no Chinese response was
forthcoming, and with rescue operations ongoing, the Motobu’s commander fired one round from his Bushmaster II 30 mm chain gun across the bow of the Taiyuan.
In response, a nearby Chinese frigate, thinking it was under attack
from the Japanese Coast Guard ship, fired a torpedo in the direction of
the Motobu. In the congested seas, however, the torpedo hit the Charleston,
which was transiting between the Chinese and Japanese ships, ripping a
hole below the waterline. The lightly armored littoral combat ship, with
a complement of 50 officers and seamen, foundered in just 25 minutes,
with an unknown loss of life, at 01:30 (17:30 Greenwich time; 07:30
Hawaii time; 10:30 Eastern time) on Tuesday, September 9. U.S.
surveillance drones flying over the melee recorded parts of the
encounter and flashed images back to U.S. commanders in the region.
With
radio and electronic traffic flashing between Honolulu and Washington,
America’s military leaders in the Pacific began to mobilize the U.S.
fleet in Hawaii and Japan to steam into the South China Sea, and
launched F-35 fighters from Okinawa to begin forcing Chinese air-force
planes out of the skies. After more than a decade of rising tension and
distrust between China and the United States, a series of accidents
threw the two antagonists against each other. The Littoral War had
begun.
Bussa Krishna from Telengana in India is such a huge fan of Donald Trump that he today (June 14th) held an elaborate 74th birthday party for the US president. Krishna says Trump came to him in his dreams and since then he's been treating him like a deity. Footage showed residents of Konney Village in Janagaon District watching Krishna give various offerings to a large statue of the 45th president of the United States. They then enjoyed some birthday cake with Trump's face on it and the message: "Happy Birthday 74 Donald Trump."
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World
HIMARS Could Be A Game-changer In The Philippines Fight Against China
Click here to read the full article. Here's What You Need To Remember: “Absent
an abrupt change in foreign policy outlook by President Duterte, it is
unlikely the Philippines would acquire HIMARS in the near future,” says
Brian Harding, an Asian security expert at the Washington-based Center
for Strategic and International Studies. “In addition to the price tag,
Duterte would likely find HIMARS to be too provocative vis-à-vis China.”
The
United States and the Philippines have been discussing whether the
Filipino military should buy the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System
(HIMARS), a multiple rocket launcher used by the United States and other
nations, according to the South China Morning Post.
“If
deployed, the long-range, precision-guided rockets fired by the system
would be able to strike Chinese man-made islands on reefs in the Spratly
chain,” the newspaper said. HIMARS is a lighter, more mobile
six-barreled version of the U.S. Army’s M270 multiple rocket launch
system (MLRS). It can shoot rockets out to 70 kilometers (43 miles) and
GPS-guided ballistic missiles out to 300 kilometers (186 miles).
However,
funding from the cash-strapped Philippines is a hurdle. “The two sides
have been unable to reach a deal because HIMARS could be too expensive
for Manila given its tight defense budget,” said the newspaper.
Exactly
how much does HIMARS cost? Manufacturer Lockheed Martin refused to give
cost estimates, instead referring queries to the U.S. Army’s Aviation
and Missile Command, which didn’t respond to questions from TNI.
The cost of HIMARS is split between the launcher itself and separate
contracts for various munitions including guided and unguided rockets,
the longer-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, and
weapons under development such as extended-range rockets and the
Precision Strike Missile.
Some estimates put the cost of a HIMARS guided rocket at $100,000 to $200,000 apiece, or an ATACMS at more than $700,000 apiece. Another clue is that Poland recently signed a $414 million contract
for eighteen launchers plus support and training. With the 2019
Philippines defense budget at only $3.4 billion, a big HIMARS purchase
would be a strain.
Yet HIMARS is still a cheaper option than, say,
a $1.4 million Tomahawk cruise missile. And the Philippines had already
had a taste of HIMARS. The weapon was deployed there by U.S. Marines in
2016 during the joint U.S.-Philippines Balikatan exercises.
Collin Koh Swee Lean, a Singaporean defense analyst, told the South
China Morning Post that “there were two possible locations for the
system: Palawan province in the Philippines and Thitu, or Zhongye in
Chinese—the largest island held by Manila in the disputed Spratly chain.
From Palawan, HIMARS could launch a missile at its maximum range to hit
China’s man-made island at Mischief Reef, Koh said. But Thitu island
would also be vulnerable to PLA air and missile strikes because it is
only about 22 kilometers (14 miles) from China-occupied Subi Reef, and
within striking range of missiles originating from the Paracel Islands
and Hainan.”
The cheaper price tag of HIMARS compared to other
weapons does make it attractive. “The idea of purchasing HIMARS systems
may be one of the few viable options in response to China's artificial
islands and continuing and increasingly provocative actions in the SCS
[South China Sea],” says Jay Batongbacal, director of the
Philippines-based Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea.
Yet
Batongbacal does not see a sale any time soon. “The Philippines is
probably not yet in a position to make a purchase,” he told The National Interest. “It is also not likely to arm its own possessions significantly, for fear of Chinese reaction.”
American
experts agree. “Absent an abrupt change in foreign policy outlook by
President Duterte, it is unlikely the Philippines would acquire HIMARS
in the near future,” says Brian Harding, an Asian security expert at the
Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “In
addition to the price tag, Duterte would likely find HIMARS to be too
provocative vis-à-vis China.”
But Harding believes this could
change. “Just as Duterte has dramatically reoriented Philippine foreign
policy, there could again be an abrupt change with a new president in
2022. A new president could also seek to accelerate the implementation
of the U.S.-Philippines Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which
could potentially provide an avenue for the United States to deploy
systems such as HIMARS in the Philippines.”
Indeed, perhaps the
more interesting possibility isn’t Philippines-owned rockets, but
American-operated rockets on Philippines soil. “I think observers
shouldn’t just think about capabilities that the Philippines could
acquire on its own,” Harding warns. “EDCA provides a vehicle for the
United States to deploy its own platforms on a rotational basis, which
could be a way to potentially move high-end capabilities into the
region, if agreed to by leaders.” Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook. This first appeared earlier in the year. Image: Wikipedia. Weekends Reads from TNI: The War On History Has Come for George Washington Meet America's Best and Worst Presidents Ever Ever Why Joe Biden Should Fear Donald Trump Click here to read the full article.
