Republic of Vietnam Culture Organization (RVNCO)
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Kính gởi quý thân hữu và đồng hương
Những Ý Tưởng Xây Dựng Lại Nền Văn Hóa VNCH
1. Liệu có thể xây dựng lại nền Văn Hóa VNCH từ đổ nát và hoang phế?
2. Lá cờ Vàng Ba Sọc Ðỏ và Quốc Ca VNCH?
3. Nếu có thể, thì chúng ta sẽ bắt nguồn từ đâu? Từ những nguồn vốn liếng nào?
4. Âm nhạc VNCH trong mùa chinh chiến có là tài sản vốn liếng giúp tái cấu trúc nền Văn Hóa VNCH?
5. Các Quân Trường, các TT Huấn Luyện, các Huấn Khu, TT Xây Dựng Nông Thôn, các Trường Học thời VNCH đào tạo con dân nước Việt?
6. Hình ảnh người lính, nữ quân nhân, người cảnh sát thời VNCH?
7. Các bài viết về các trận đánh dù nhỏ hay lớn, dù thắng hay bại?
8. Cấu trúc các đơn vị hành chánh thời VNCH?
9. Nghĩa trang Quân Ðội Biȇn Hòa?
10. Little Saigon San Jose?
….
Xây dựng lại nền Văn Hóa VNCH không có nghĩa là thành lập một Viện Bảo Tàng để tồn trữ những thứ tồn kho để ngắm nhìn, thương tiếc, oán trách hay ngồi than vãn mà để ổn định lại những giá trị văn hóa VNCH có sẳn làm nền tảng cho những bước đi hoà nhịp với tương lai của thế giới và dân tộc.
Ðó là một mơ ước có thể sẽ là hiện thực.
Ðầu tiȇn, thử cấu trúc một Nền Tảng Văn Hóa VNCH trȇn không gian Internet:
Republic of Vietnam Culture Foundation (RVNCF), hay The Cultural Foundation of The Legacy of The Republic of Vietnam, hay Republic of Vietnam Culture Organization (RVNCO).
Chúng ta thử một hướng nhìn và một chương trình “gói ghém” những vấn đề nội dung cho Foundation/Organization này trong thời gian sắp tới.
Kính mong các quý thân hữu cho biết ý kiến và hình dung một không gian của Republic of Vietnam Culture Organization (RVNCO)
Trân trọng
Hoàng Hoa
2020/07/17
Thứ Sáu, 17 tháng 7, 2020
Thứ Năm, 16 tháng 7, 2020
The Global Daily Watch (Reuters) HSBC warned over Huawei role in Chinese government-backed website column. (The Guardian) Alarm over discovery of hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels near Galápagos Islands. (Reuters) U.S. targets all Chinese Communist Party members for possible travel ban: source
THE GLOBAL DAILY WATCH
Timeline Links: June 18, 2020
https://quandiemvietnam.blogspot.com/2020/06/us-china-politics-chinh-tri-hoa-ky_18.html
World
HSBC warned over Huawei role in Chinese government-backed website column
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hsbc-warned-over-huawei-role-083429837.html
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese government-backed website took aim at HSBC Holdings PLC on Tuesday, accusing the Asia-focussed lender of "maliciously" playing a role in the arrest of Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer.
Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou's is fighting against extradition from Canada to the United States, where she is accused of bank fraud for misleading HSBC about Huawei's relationship with a company operating in Iran, putting HSBC at risk of fines and penalties for breaking U.S. sanctions on Tehran.
Anger in China over the treatment of Meng and Huawei, the world's biggest telecoms equipment maker, has led to criticism of London-headquartered HSBC intensifying in recent days, with the latest salvo fired by website China.com.cn.
"The role of HSBC in the Meng Wanzhou incident is already clear. HSBC's credibility has also been wiped out," said the commentary http://www.china.com.cn/opinion/2020-07/28/content_76319622.html posted on the site backed by the State Council Information Office and the China International Publishing Group.
"In the U.S. government's political pursuit of Huawei, HSBC was the one who 'handed the knife'," it said in a column written under the byline Tang Hua, and signed by three editors.
HSBC had issued a statement on Saturday saying it had not participated in the decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Huawei and that it had no "malice" against the company.
The Chinese website article dismissed HSBC's denial as "meaningless".
"Now, wallowing in degradation and with its reputation at rock bottom, HSBC may struggle to continue to enjoy treatment in China where it can break the pot it eats food from," the column said.
A spokeswoman for HSBC in China declined to comment on the article.
HSBC, which last month broke from its usual political neutrality to back Beijing's imposition of a controversial national security law in Hong Kong, generates the bulk of its revenue in Hong Kong and mainland China.
Other official Chinese media outlets including the People's Daily newspaper and the China Global Television Network have also targeted HSBC in the past week.
(Reporting by Cheng Leng and Gabriel Crossley; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Simon Cameron-Moore)
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World
Alarm over discovery of hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels near Galápagos Islands
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| Photograph: Adrian Vasquez/AP |
Ecuador has sounded the alarm after its navy discovered a huge fishing fleet of mostly Chinese-flagged vessels some 200 miles from the Galápagos Islands, the archipelago which inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
About 260 ships are currently in international waters just outside a 188-mile wide exclusive economic zone around the island, but their presence has already raised the prospect of serious damage to the delicate marine ecosystem, said a former environment minister, Yolanda Kakabadse.
“This fleet’s size and aggressiveness against marine species is a big threat to the balance of species in the Galápagos,” she told the Guardian.
Kakabadse and an ex-mayor of Quito, Roque Sevilla, were on Monday put in charge of designing a “protection strategy” for the islands, which lie 563 miles west of the South American mainland.
Related: Diego the tortoise, father to hundreds and saviour of his species, finally retires
Chinese fishing vessels come every year to the seas around the Galápagos, which were declared a Unesco world heritage site in 1978, but this year’s fleet is one of the largest seen in recent years.
Sevilla said that diplomatic efforts would be made to request the withdrawal of the Chinese fishing fleet. “Unchecked Chinese fishing just on the edge of the protected zone is ruining Ecuador’s efforts to protect marine life in the Galápagos,” he said.
He added that the team would also seek to enforce international agreements that protect migratory species. The Galápagos marine reserve has one of the world’s greatest concentrations of shark species, including endangered whale and hammerhead varieties.
Kakabadse said efforts would also be made to extend the exclusive economic zone to a 350-mile circumference around the islands which would join up with the Ecuadorian mainland’s economic zone, closing off a corridor of international waters in between the two where the Chinese fleet is currently located.
Related: Shark finning: why the ocean's most barbaric practice continues to boom
Ecuador is also trying to establish a corridor of marine reserves between Pacific-facing neighbours Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia which would seal off important areas of marine diversity, Kakabadse said.
Ecuador’s president, Lenín Moreno, described the archipelago as “one of the richest fishing areas and a seedbed of life for the entire planet”, in a message on Twitter over the weekend.
The Galápagos Islands are renowned for their unique plants and wildlife. Unesco describes the archipelago – visited by a quarter of a million tourists every year – as a “living museum and a showcase for evolution”.
The Ecuadorian navy has been monitoring the fishing fleet since it was spotted last week, according to the country’s defence minister, Oswaldo Jarrín. “We are on alert, [conducting] surveillance, patrolling to avoid an incident such as what happened in 2017,” he said.
The 2017 incident he referred to was the capture by the Ecuadorean navy within the Galápagos marine reserve of a Chinese vessel. The Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999, part of an even larger fleet than the current one, was found to be carrying 300 tonnes of marine wildlife, mostly sharks.
“We were appalled to discover that a massive Chinese industrial fishing fleet is currently off the Galápagos Islands,” said John Hourston, a spokesman for the Blue Planet Society, a NGO which campaigns against overfishing.
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Politics
U.S. targets all Chinese Communist Party members for possible travel ban: source
By Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is considering banning travel to the United States by all members of the Chinese Communist Party and their families, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday, a move that would worsen already tense U.S.-China relations.
Senior officials discussing the matter have begun circulating a draft of a possible presidential order, but deliberations are at an early stage and the issue has not yet been brought to President Donald Trump, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The discussions, first reported by the New York Times, center on whether to deny visas to tens of millions of Chinese in what would be one of Washington's toughest actions yet in a widening feud with Beijing that some have likened to a new Cold War.
Such a ban, if implemented, could hit the ruling Communist Party from the highest levels down to its rank-and-file and would be certain to draw retaliation against Americans who travel to China. This could include not only diplomats but also business executives, potentially harming U.S. interests in China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said earlier such action by the United States, if true, would be "pathetic."
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stopped short of confirming it was under consideration but said: "We're working our way through, under the president's guidance, about how to think about pushing back against the Chinese Communist Party."
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters: "We keep every option on the table with regard to China."
Relations between the world's two largest economies have sunk to the lowest point in decades as they clash over China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak, its tightening grip on Hong Kong, its disputed claims in the South China Sea, trade and accusations of human rights crimes in Xinjiang.
U.S. officials across multiple agencies are involved in the process, which includes consideration of whether to block Communist Party members' children from attending American universities, said the source, who has been briefed on deliberations.
The fact that such a sweeping ban is being discussed shows the lengths to which Trump's aides may be prepared to go as they make the tough-on-China theme a thrust of his campaign for re-election in November.
Trump and prospective Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden have competed to outdo each other on which can take the strongest stand against China.
Trump's aides have made the Communist Party a main target for what they call Beijing's "malign" activities. But Trump has held off on direct criticism of Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he has praised as a friend.
Among the options is to base such a visa moratorium on immigration laws used by the Trump to justify his 2017 travel ban from a group of predominantly Muslim countries, according to the person familiar with the discussions.
Trump could also have authority to make exceptions for certain individuals or categories, the source said.
One difficulty would be determining which Chinese nationals are party members, since U.S. authorities do not have full lists, the source said.
(This story corrects typo in first paragraph)
(Reporting By Matt Spetalnick, additional reporting by Makini Brice, Humeyra Pamuk and David Brunnstrom in Washington and Cate Cadell in Beijing; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Tom Brown and Jonathan Oatis)
NHỮNG HOẠT ÐỘNG QUÂN SỰ TẠI BIỂN ÐÔNG và TÂY THÁI BÌNH DƯƠNG (Business Insider) Pentagon chief warns Beijing that the US military isn't 'going to be stopped by anybody' from operating in the South China Sea. (The Telegraph) Australia joins US and Japan for navy drills in the Philippine Sea as concerns grow over China. (Reuters) U.S. holds naval exercises with allies in Asia amid China tension. (AP) Japan protests Chinese maritime survey off southern islets. (Reuters) World Special Report: China expands amphibious forces in challenge to U.S. beyond Asia. (Al Jazeera) Taiwan flexes military might amid China tensions
(The Military Activities in the East Sea and West Pacific Ocean)
Timeline Links: Previous articles
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World
Pentagon chief warns Beijing that the US military isn't 'going to be stopped by anybody' from operating in the South China Sea
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pentagon-chief-warns-beijing-us-191739990.html
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| Aircraft from Carrier Air Wing 5 and Carrier Air Wing 17 fly in formation over the Nimitz Carrier Strike Force (CSF). The USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) Carrier Strike Groups are conducting dual carrier operations in the Indo-Pacific as the Nimitz CSF. |
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Keenan Daniels
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper warned Beijing on Tuesday that the US isn't "going to be stopped by anybody" in the South China Sea, stressing that US aircraft carriers will continue to sail these waters.
His remarks follows a statement last week from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejecting many of China's maritime claims and criticizing its efforts to enforce its will.
While Esper was tough on China in his remarks, he extended an olive branch that revealed that he is planning a trip to China, his first as secretary of defense, before the end of the year.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper warned Beijing on Tuesday that the US isn't "going to be stopped by anybody" in the South China Sea, the latest in a series of tough remarks from the US on the strategic waterway.
He said at a virtual International Institute for Strategic Studies event that China "continues to engage in systematic rule-breaking, coercion, and other malign activities, and most concerning, to me, is the People's Liberation Army continues its aggressive behavior in the East and South China Sea."
"We hope the [Chinese Communist Party] will change its ways, but we must be prepared for the alternative," he added. "We must uphold the free and open system that has secured peace and prosperity for millions and defend the principles that undergird it."
The secretary said that the US military is positioning forces to counter Chinese behavior and support US policies, revealing that the US conducted more freedom-of-navigation operations challenging unlawful movement restrictions and excessive claims in 2019 than it has any year in the past four decades. "We will keep up the pace this year," he said.
Last Tuesday, the US Navy destroyer USS Ralph Johnson conducted its sixth FONOP this year in the South China Sea, as the service calls patrols through disputed areas that the US considers international waters. And, two times this month, Esper noted, the US Navy has conducted dual carrier operations in the waterway with two carrier strike groups.
China has bristled at the presence of US Navy aircraft carriers in the South China Sea. The inflammatory Global Times, controlled by China's Communist Party, wrote earlier this month that the "South China Sea is fully within the grasp of the Chinese People's Liberation Army," and "any US aircraft carrier movement in the region is solely at the pleasure of the PLA."
The US Navy said at the time that it is "not intimidated."
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The Telegraph
Australia joins US and Japan for navy drills in the Philippine Sea as concerns grow over China
Five Australian warships are conducting military exercises in the Philippine Sea with the American and Japanese navies in a joint show of strength as tensions grow over China's maritime ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region.
An Australian Joint Task Group, led by HMAS Canberra, has joined the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group and a Japanese destroyer for a "trilateral exercise" billed as an effort to improve co-operation in keeping international waters "free and open".
It comes on the back of maritime drills between a US Navy carrier strike group, led by USS Nimitz, and Indian warships near the vital Malacca Strait trading route, sending a strong strategic signal to Beijing against the backdrop of a violent India-China border standoff in recent months.
The military co-operation also coincides with a warning from Washington that America will step up its challenges to Beijing's territorial moves in the region.
Last week, Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, formally rejected "most" of China's maritime claims in the South China Sea.
"Strategic balancing against China is ramping up dramatically in the Indo-Pacific region," said Professor Rory Medcalf, the head of the National Security College at the Australian National University and author of the newly-published Indo-Pacific Empire, which outlines the power struggle between China and the US.
"The symbolism of these exercises is powerful," Prof Medcalf told The Telegraph. "It's a potent reminder that the combined navies of the quad – America, Japan, India, Australia – are more than enough to give China pause, and that Beijing's own confrontational behaviour has brought them together.
"It's a reminder of the cordon they could form if ever confrontation were to escalate. China simply cannot control the vast Indo-Pacific region over which its oil lifelines and quasi-colonial ambitions have spread – it needs to find a settling point before a crisis boils over."
Recently, China has sparked alarm with increasingly assertive moves in disputed territories of the resource-rich South China Sea, and experts have warned against Chinese dominance in a region where commercial shipping lanes are key to global trade and could be exploited for economic coercion.
Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan all have claims over territory that Beijing maintains historic rights to, and concerns have grown over heavy Chinese investment in structures and facilities in the South China Sea, dredging through rocks and reefs to expand contested islands.
As the US has stepped up its freedom of navigation operations, China has bolstered its own military drills and last week deployed fighter jets to Woody Island in the Paracels, an archipelago also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
On Sunday, Chinese state media reported that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had also conducted live fire drills at an unspecified location in the South China Sea, launching more than 3,000 missiles at moving targets.
The South China Sea has become an increased source of tension between the US and China, who have simultaneously clashed over the coronavirus pandemic, trade issues, industrial espionage, human rights concerns in Xinjiang and Tibet and civil liberties in Hong Kong.
On Tuesday, Mark Esper, the US defence secretary, told the International Institute for Strategic Studies that US aircraft carriers in the South China Sea and Indo-Pacific were "not going to be stopped by anybody" and would continue to "assert international law" and defend the sovereignty of friends and partners.
Regular US freedom of navigation operations in the area have angered Beijing, which has maintained that America is provoking China by entering its sovereign territory.
China has also hit out at the UK for its plan to station its newest aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, in East Asia. The £3.1 billion carrier is expected to conduct military exercise with the US and Japan early next year.
In a briefing with foreign media on Wednesday, Joseph Wu, Taiwan's foreign minister, said increased co-operation between allies on freedom of navigation to uphold international law was helping to support regional peace and stability.
"If the UK is interested in conducting freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, that is something that we would not oppose," he said.
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Reuters
U.S. holds naval exercises with allies in Asia amid China tension
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| FILE PHOTO: Aircraft carrier USS Nimitz departs San Diego with Carrier Strike Group 11 and some 7,500 sailors and airmen for a 6 month deployment in the Western Pacific |
By Sanjeev Miglani
NEW DELHI/TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States is conducting two military exercises in Asian waters this week involving allies Japan, Australia and India, the U.S. navy said on Tuesday.
The exercises come as military rivalry between the United States and China is intensifying and days after the United States said China's claims of sovereignty in the disputed South China Sea were illegal.
The United States has long opposed China’s expansive territorial claims on the South China Sea, sending warships regularly through the strategic waterway to demonstrate freedom of navigation.
China opposes such exercises and said the U.S. rejection of its claims in the South China Sea raised tension and undermined stability in the region.
The USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan were deployed to the South China Sea twice this month but this week, the Nimitz was in the Indian Ocean for exercises with the Indian navy, the U.S. navy said, in the latest sign of growing cooperation between the forces.
Rear Admiral Jim Kirk, commander of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, said in a statement that Monday's drills with the Indian navy helped improve the interoperability of their forces.
"While operating together, the U.S. and Indian naval forces conducted high-end exercises designed to maximize training and interoperability, including air defense," the U.S. navy said.
India's relations with China have also been strained after a deadly clash on their disputed border in the Himalayas last month, prompting calls in India for closer security ties with the United States and its allies including Japan.
The drills were carried out near India's Andaman and Nicobar islands, off the north end of the Malacca Straits, one of the world's busiest shipping routes for trade and fuel, an Indian source said. India has a military base on the islands.
The U.S. navy said the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group was in the Indian Ocean in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
Separately, the U.S. strike group led by the Ronald Reagan was carrying out drills with naval forces from Japan and Australia in the Philippine Sea, U.S. and Australian officials said on Tuesday.
The exercises are due to end on July 23, Australia's defence department said.
Later this year, the United States will hold naval exercises with India and Japan in the Bay of Bengal and Australia might join.
(Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani in New Delhi, Ju-min Park and Tim Kelly in Tokyo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Robert Birsel)
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World
Japan protests Chinese maritime survey off southern islets
https://www.yahoo.com/news/japan-protests-chinese-maritime-survey-140657980.html
TOKYO (AP) — Japan has protested to Beijing over a Chinese survey ship that operated for 10 days inside the exclusive economic zone claimed by Japan around Okinotorishima, a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, officials said Monday.
Japan says Okinotorishima — two uninhabited rocky outcroppings about 1,700 kilometers (1,060 miles) southwest of Tokyo — are islands. China says they are only rocks and do not qualify as a demarcation point for Japan's exclusive economic zone, as Japan claims under international law.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that coast guard officials spotted a Chinese ship using survey equipment in the waters beginning July 9 and ordered it to stop. The Chinese ship stayed in the area until Saturday and Japan protested to Beijing via diplomatic channels, Suga said.
“We have not given permission to the Chinese side to conduct a maritime scientific survey in the waters,” Suga said. Japan says Okinotorishima anchors the country's EEZ under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, which requires foreign ships to gain prior consent to operate surveys or fishing.
Just the tips of the small outcroppings are visible at high tide. They have been heavily enhanced by concrete embankments to avoid further erosion. A few years ago, Japanese fisheries officials planted corals around the outcroppings in an attempt to enlarge them.
China does not dispute Japan's control over Okinotorishima, but has repeatedly criticized Tokyo's claim that it is an island.
On Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Okinotorishima is a reef under the U.N. convention, not an island, so Japan cannot use it to claim an EEZ. Hua said the Chinese survey ship was exercising freedom of scientific research on the high seas and Japan's permission was not needed.
Japan and China have stepped up their territorial disputes recently.
China has ramped up its claim to Japanese-controlled islands called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in Chinese. It also has been asserting his claim to most of the South China Sea, parts of which are claimed by several other regional governments.
The secretary of defense said Tuesday that he doesn't "know what the Chinese meant by that hollow statement about American carriers being there by the pleasure of the PLA or something."
"American aircraft carriers," he said, "have been in the South China Sea in the Indo-Pacific since World War II and will continue to be there, and we are not going to be stopped by anybody."
"We're going to sail, fly and operate where international law allows, Esper said, "and we do that, again, to assert international law and rights to back up the sovereignty of our friends and partners and to reassure them that we will be there to defend those things."
Esper's comments on the South China Sea follow a statement from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last Monday rejecting many of China's maritime claims and criticizing its efforts to enforce its will in the area.
"The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire," the secretary stated.
"Beijing's claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them," Pompeo said, adding that "the PRC's predatory world view has no place in the 21st century."
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the US statement on the South China Sea "irresponsible."
"It violates and distorts international law, deliberately stokes territorial and maritime disputes, and undermines regional peace and stability," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said last Tuesday.
Despite Esper's tough rhetoric on China's behavior, he extended an olive branch to Beijing Tuesday, saying that he is planning to visit China before the end of the year to "establish the systems necessary for crisis communications and reinforce our intentions to openly compete in the international system in which we all belong."
If he travels to China, it will be Esper's first trip to China as secretary of defense.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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World
Special Report: China expands amphibious forces in challenge to U.S. beyond Asia
https://www.yahoo.com/news/special-report-china-expands-amphibious-110402484.html
By David Lague
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China launched its military build-up in the mid-1990s with a top priority: keep the United States at bay in any conflict by making the waters off the Chinese coast a death trap. Now, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is preparing to challenge American power further afield.
China's shipyards have launched the PLA Navy's first two Type 075 amphibious assault ships, which will form the spearhead of an expeditionary force to play a role similar to that of the U.S. Marine Corps. And like the Marines, the new force will be self-contained - able to deploy solo with all its supporting weapons to fight in distant conflicts or demonstrate Chinese military power.
The 40,000-tonne Type 075 ships are a kind of small aircraft carrier with accommodation for up to 900 troops and space for heavy equipment and landing craft, according to Western military experts who have studied satellite images and photographs of the new vessels. They will carry up to 30 helicopters at first; later they could carry fighter jets, if China can build short take off and vertical landing aircraft like the U.S. F-35B.
The first Type 075 was launched last September and the second in April, according to reports in China's official military media. A third is under construction, according to the May edition of a Congressional Research Service report.
Eventually, the PLA Navy could have seven or more of these ships, according to reports in China's official military press.
Chinese military commentators quoted in official media say China's shipyards are now building and launching amphibious ships so rapidly it is like "dropping dumplings" into water.
The military rivalry between China and the United States is only growing sharper. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared most of Beijing's claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea illegal, throwing Washington's weight behind the rival claims of Southeast Asian nations over territory and resources in the strategic waterway that were supported by international law. China said the U.S. position raised tensions in the region and undermined stability.
China's nascent amphibious forces still lag far behind those of the United States, but the speed of China's military rise has already shifted the balance of power in Asia. Over the past two decades, China has deployed an arsenal of missiles and a massive surface and sub-surface fleet to deter potential enemies from sailing in its coastal waters. Now, as part of an accelerated modernization of the PLA since Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, these new amphibious ships and the specially trained marines they carry will boost Beijing's firepower and political influence far from its shores, according to Chinese and Western military analysts.
As shipyards churn out amphibious vessels, China is expanding its force of marines under the command of the PLA Navy. These troops are being trained and equipped to make landings and fight their way ashore. China now has between 25,000 and 35,000 marines, according to U.S. and Japanese military estimates. That's a sharp increase from about 10,000 in 2017.
"Without an amphibious force, any military force is greatly constrained in where and how it can conduct operations," said Grant Newsham, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and researcher at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies. Newsham advised the Japanese military on the formation of Tokyo's own Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, formed in 2018. "Jets can drop bombs and ships can fire missiles at the shore - but you might need infantry to go ashore and kill the enemy and occupy the ground."
China's Ministry of National Defense and the Pentagon did not respond to questions from Reuters.
At home, too, the PLA marines have become an important tool in the ruling Communist Party's efforts to showcase China's increasingly powerful military to its domestic audience. The state-controlled media regularly reports on the gruelling training and military skills of the Jiaolong, or Sea Dragon commandos - a unit from the marines special forces brigade based on Hainan Island off southern China.
"We should be the point of the sword in joint operations to strike terror into the heart of the enemy," said Gong Kaifeng, a Jiaolong commandos company commander, in a report last year on the unit's training broadcast on state television.
When the Type 075 ships enter service, China will have the capacity to combine them with its other new amphibious and support vessels, Chinese and foreign analysts say. These self-contained fleets can be sent to distant conflicts, deployed as a show of force to deter potential enemies or to protect Chinese investments and citizens abroad. They would also allow the PLA to provide disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, competing with the U.S. for prestige and soft power.
INVADING TAIWAN
For Beijing, these amphibious forces will also contribute to the PLA's mounting capacity to make a landing on Taiwan or seize other strategically important or disputed territory in China's offshore regions, according to specialists in amphibious warfare.
Beijing regards self-governing Taiwan a province of China. Xi Jinping has said unifying Taiwan with the mainland is a vital step in realizing the Chinese people's dream of a powerful, rejuvenated nation. In a key speech early last year calling on Taiwan to open talks on peaceful reunification, Xi warned that this long-standing dispute could not be deferred indefinitely. "We make no promise to renounce the use of force and reserve the option of taking all necessary means," Xi said.
China has this year stepped up military operations and exercises around Taiwan, according to U.S. and Taiwanese military analysts. PLA Air Force jets, including at least one bomber and a fighter, briefly entered Taiwan's air defense identification zone on June 22, before being warned off by the Taiwanese air force, the island's military said. It was the eighth such encounter in two weeks, the military said.
Taiwan launched its annual Han Kuang defense exercise on July 13 with an emphasis on joint operations between land, sea and air forces to defend the island from attack, according to the island's military. The exercise also involved an expanded role for reservists as the military strives to boost its firepower, senior Taiwan government officials said.
"Our military is always working hard to prepare for war, closely monitoring the dynamics of the Chinese Communist's military and the development of the situation in the Taiwan Strait," Taiwan's Defense Ministry said in response to questions from Reuters. "We have a complete defense plan and appropriate actions to deal with the threat of the Chinese Communists attacking Taiwan and the seizure of offshore islands, which can ensure national security."
Experts on amphibious forces note the PLA already has powerful army units that are trained and equipped to make the kind of landings necessary for an invasion of Taiwan. In expanding the marines, they argue, PLA military planners are looking at operations across the globe, in places where China has extensive offshore investments. These commercial interests are likely to multiply as Beijing presses ahead with its Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious bid to put China at the center of global trading routes.
China's marines will also be important to man what is expected to become a network of strategic military bases around the world, including fortifications on territory Beijing has seized in the South China Sea, according to Chinese and Western military commentators.
Beijing has already deployed marines and their armored vehicles to its first overseas base at Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, according to Pentagon reports. Marines are also deployed on the flotillas China sends on naval anti-piracy missions to the Gulf of Aden, these reports said.
"We are currently only seeing the tip of the iceberg," said Ian Easton, the senior director of the Project 2049 Institute, an Arlington, Virginia-based security research group. "Ten years from now, China is almost certainly going to have marine units deployed at locations all over the world. The Chinese Communist Party's ambitions are global. Its interests are global. It plans to send military units wherever its global strategic interests require."
Short of war, capable amphibious forces will also become a powerful diplomatic or coercive tool for Beijing, military analysts say. So far, Washington has had a monopoly on this type of engagement with other governments, routinely sending marine expeditionary units abroad for port visits, joint training exercises and disaster relief.
U.S. expeditionary flotillas, packed with marines, all their heavy equipment and air support, are a potent reminder of American power. A raw demonstration came in the tense period in 1999 when an Australian-led United Nations peacekeeping force intervened to stop violence in what was then Indonesian-controlled East Timor. American forces didn't become heavily involved on the ground. But the presence of the USS Belleau Wood, a 40,000-tonne amphibious assault ship carrying 900 marines and heavy lift and attack helicopters, served as formidable back-up as the UN troops restored order without any significant resistance from Indonesia.
SEIZING ISLANDS
China's first two Type 075 amphibious assault vessels are now berthed together undergoing final fit-out at a state-owned Shanghai shipyard, China's official military media has reported. Photographs in the official media and commercial satellite images show that the 250-meter-long vessels appear similar to flat-top amphibious assault ships in service with other advanced navies, including the U.S. fleet. America currently has a fleet of eight Wasp and two America-class amphibious assault vessels.
However, in a blow to U.S. efforts to blunt the challenge from China, the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard caught fire on July 12 while tied up at its home port in San Diego. The ship was extensively damaged in the fire which burned for four days. It was unclear if the ship would be salvaged, the U.S. Navy said.
Since 2005, China has also built a fleet of six Type 071 amphibious ships, according to a 2019 report from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. These vessels can carry up to four air-cushion landing craft, similar to the hovercraft carried on U.S. amphibious landing ships, as well as four or more helicopters, armored vehicles and troops on long-distance deployments, the report said. A seventh Type 071 is under construction, according to Western military analysts.
China's official shipbuilding industry journals have reported the 29,000-tonne Type 071 has command and control capabilities, a medical unit and accommodation for hundreds of marines. The 210-meter long vessel has a range of 10,000 nautical miles and reached a speed of 25 knots in trials, these reports said.
To build the force that will embark on these ships, China began a rapid increase in the size of its marine force in 2017, according to Pentagon reports. Earlier, marines had been a low priority in the decades when China's military built a massive ground force to defend the mainland. A regiment of marines was formed in 1953 and expanded to a division but then disbanded in 1957, according to an official timeline of major events in PLA history. It was reformed in 1979, the timeline shows.
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report said China's marine force is now organized into seven brigades, each with armor, infantry, artillery and missiles, and is the strongest force of this type among the rival claimants to disputed territories in the South China Sea. China's marines "can simultaneously seize multiple islands in the Spratlys," the report said, referring to a contested group of islands and reefs in the South China Sea. They could also rapidly reinforce China's outposts in the Paracel Islands, another disputed territory in the same waterway. China does not publish detailed accounts of the disposition of its forces.
Amphibious warfare specialists say these marines would also be useful for seizing other disputed territory, including the uninhabited group of isles in the East China Sea that are claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing - known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China.
Selected army units are being transferred to the marines to boost the force's capability, according to reports in the official Chinese military media and Western defense analysts. China's official military newspaper, the PLA Daily, reported in April that two army units trained in aerial assault had been transferred to a marines brigade dedicated to helicopter landings.
The Pentagon's annual report on Chinese military power in 2018 revealed that a newly established headquarters under the command of the navy was responsible for staffing, training and equipping the expanding force. And, the report said, a new commander had been appointed to lead the marines. China's state-controlled media has identified him as Major General Kong Jun, a former army officer who transferred to the marines in early 2017.
Despite this build-up, the Pentagon and other Western military experts argue the PLA marines remain far less capable than the 186,000-strong U.S. Marine Corps, with its extensive experience of amphibious and land operations.
In its 2019 report on China's military power, the Pentagon said most of the new PLA marines brigades were not yet manned and equipped to be fully operational. It said China's marines lacked sufficient armored vehicles, helicopters and training to conduct complex amphibious operations.
Some Western military experts suggest one reason for this: The top priorities for the PLA brass are the army amphibious units and air force airborne troops that would spearhead an attack on Taiwan. So, the marines "don't have priority when it comes to things like amphibious tanks and helicopters," said Easton of the Project 2049 Institute, who has written a book, The Chinese Invasion Threat, on the PLA's preparations to conquer Taiwan.
The ruling Communist Party has long wanted control of Taiwan for political reasons. The island also has huge strategic importance. It would give the PLA a key foothold in the so-called first island chain, the string of islands that run from the Japanese archipelago through Taiwan, the Philippines and on to Borneo, enclosing China's coastal seas. From bases on Taiwan, Chinese warships, strike aircraft and missiles would dominate the sea lanes vital to Japan and South Korea. And Taiwan would be an ideal jump-off point for operations aimed at seizing further territory in the island chain.
Newsham, the retired U.S. Marine colonel, said the PLA had assembled a formidable army amphibious force and sufficient ships, military and civilian, to probably land enough troops on Taiwan as part of a full-scale attack that includes air, missile, naval and cyber assaults. "The PLA already has a lot lined up," he said.
Special Report: U.S. rearms to nullify China's missile supremacy link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-missiles-specialreport-us/special-report-u-s-rearms-to-nullify-chinas-missile-supremacy-idUSKBN22I1EQ
Special Report: China’s vast fleet is tipping the balance in the Pacific link: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-army-navy/
How Beijing’s military build-up is ending U.S. supremacy in Asia link: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/china-army/
(Reporting by David Lague in Hong Kong. Edited by Peter Hirschberg.)
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World
Taiwan flexes military might amid China tensions
Thứ Bảy, 4 tháng 7, 2020
SB895, Bản dịch Việt ngữ của Hoàng Hoa. Some modifications after being approved by California Jerry Brown on September 22, 2018.
SB895
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LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGESTSB 895, as introduced, Nguyen.
Pupil instruction: Vietnamese American refugee experience: model curriculum. Existing law requires the adopted course of study for grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to include, among other subjects, the social sciences. Existing law encourages instruction in the area of social sciences that may include instruction on the Vietnam War, including a component drawn from personal testimony of Southeast Asians who were involved in the Vietnam War and men and women who contributed to the war effort on the home front, as specified. Existing law requires the State Board of Education, with the assistance of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to establish a list of textbooks and other instructional materials that highlight the contributions of minorities in the development of California and the United States. Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission and requires the commission to, among other things, recommend curriculum frameworks to the state board. This bill would require the commission to develop and submit to the state board, on or before December 31, 2020, and the state board to adopt, modify, or revise, on or before March 31, 2021, a model curriculum relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience, as specified, for use in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. The bill would encourage a school district, charter school, or county office of education that maintains any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, that does not otherwise offer a standards-based Vietnamese American studies curriculum relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience, Vietnamese boat people, and the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, to offer a course of study based on the model curriculum. The bill would require the model curriculum to be developed with participation from specified entities, including, among others, Vietnamese American refugees and Vietnamese American cultural centers and community groups located in California. The bill would provide that implementation of its provisions is subject to the receipt of grants, donations, or other financial support from private or public sources for its purposes, including, but not limited to, an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
DIGEST KEY Vote: majority
Appropriation: no
Fiscal Committee: yes
Local Program: no BILL TEXT THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The State of California is committed to providing excellent educational opportunities to all of its pupils.
(b) There are 92 languages other than English spoken throughout the state, with the primary languages being Arabic, Armenian, Cantonese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.
(c) There is a growing body of academic research that shows the importance of culturally meaningful and relevant curriculum.
(d) The state’s educational standards should be guided by core values of equity, inclusiveness, and universally high expectations.
(e) The state is committed to its obligation to ensure its youth are college prepared and career ready, while graduating 100 percent of its pupils.
(f) The implementation of various culturally relevant courses within California’s curriculum that are A–G approved, with the objective of preparing all pupils to be global citizens with an appreciation for the contributions of multiple cultures, will close the achievement gap, reduce pupil truancy, increase pupil enrollment, reduce dropout rates, and increase graduation rates.
(g) For the past 40 years, Vietnamese American refugees have enriched the social, cultural, and economic landscape of California and have achieved success in many professional fields, including business, politics, law, science, education, literature, journalism, sports, and entertainment.
(h)The state encourages the participation of pupils, community members, and members of California Vietnamese American communities in the development of a model curriculum that recognizes the importance of survivors, rescuers, and liberators of the Vietnam War, including Vietnamese-American refugees, Vietnamese boat people, and members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces.
(i)The state currently encourages the incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral testimony into the teaching of human rights, the Holocaust, and genocide, including the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides.
(j) Currently, the instructional resources available for use in California public schools do not include sufficient oral testimony from survivors, rescuers, and liberators of the Vietnam War, including Vietnamese American refugees, Vietnamese boat people, and members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces in the United States and especially in California.
(k) The state acknowledges the need to elevate tragic personal stories like those of the Vietnamese boat people who, after the fall of Saigon in 1975, risked their lives escaping communism only to spend weeks or months at sea battling storms, diseases, starvation, and pirates.
(l) The state acknowledges the importance of the history and experience of the more than 250,000 members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces who were sent to reeducation camps after the fall of Saigon, where many spent up to 17 years in captivity and more than 20,000 died before they were released.
(m) The state acknowledges that oral histories can help pupils better relate to and understand different perspectives in curriculum by providing first-person accounts from individuals who have experienced some of the most tragic times in international history, helping the subject become more than statistics on a page.
(n) The County of Orange, along with the City of San Jose, are home to the largest Vietnamese populations outside of Vietnam.
(o)It is in the best interest of all people and the future of this state to ensure that each school district, charter school, and county office of education has access to a model curriculum and culturally accurate instructional materials relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience, including the experiences of the Vietnamese boat people and the members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces. SEC. 2. Section 51207 is added to the Education Code, to read 51207.
(a)The Instructional Quality Commission shall develop, and the state board shall adopt, modify, or revise, a model curriculum relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience, that began with the fall of Saigon in 1975, including oral testimony of survivors, rescuers, and liberators of the Vietnam War, including Vietnamese-American refugees, Vietnamese boat people, and members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, to ensure quality standards and materials for this area of study. The model curriculum shall be developed with participation from Vietnamese American cultural centers and community groups located in California, survivors, rescuers, and liberators of the Vietnam War, Vietnamese American refugees, a group of representatives of local educational agencies, a majority of which are kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, and teachers who have relevant experience or education backgrounds in the study and teaching of Vietnamese American history. The model curriculum developed pursuant to this subdivision shall include curriculum appropriate for use in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools.
(b)The model curriculum shall be written as a guide to allow school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education to adapt their related courses to best meet the educational needs of their communities. The model curriculum developed for use in high schools shall include examples of courses offered by local educational agencies that have been approved as meeting the A–G admissions requirements of the University of California and the California State University, including, to the extent possible, course outlines for those courses.
(c) When teaching about the Vietnam War and the postwar period, the Legislature encourages the incorporation of writings that represent all perspectives of the refugee experience, including oral testimony by survivors, rescuers, and liberators of the Vietnam War, and Vietnamese refugees.
(d) The model curriculum shall include discussion of the Vietnamese boat people and members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, the reasons behind the exodus, the hardships faced by the Vietnamese people attempting to flee who were apprehended by the communist government, and the conditions that led to the resettlement of Vietnamese people in America.
(e)On or before December 31, 2020, the Instructional Quality Commission shall submit the model curriculum to the state board, and the state board shall adopt, modify, or revise the model curriculum on or before March 31, 2021.
(f) The Instructional Quality Commission shall provide a minimum of 45 days for public comment before submitting the model curriculum to the state board.
(g)Beginning in the school year following the adoption of the model curriculum pursuant to subdivisions (a) and (e), each school district, charter school, or county office of education maintaining any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, that does not otherwise offer standards-based Vietnamese American studies curriculum relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience, Vietnamese boat people, and the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, is encouraged to offer to pupils a course of study relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience based on the model curriculum. A school district, charter school, or county office of education that serves pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, that elects to offer a course of study in the Vietnamese American refugee experience pursuant to this subdivision, shall offer the course as an elective in the social sciences or world history and shall make the course available in at least one year during a pupil’s enrollment in grades 7 to 12, inclusive.
h) It is the intent of the Legislature that local educational agencies that maintain high schools submit course outlines for studies relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience for approval as A-G courses.
(i) For purposes of this section, “oral testimony” means the firsthand accounts of significant historical events presented in a format that includes, but is not limited to, in-person testimony, video, or a multimedia option, such as a DVD or an online video.
(j)The implementation of this section is subject to the receipt of grants, donations, or other financial support from private or public sources for its purposes, including, but not limited to, an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
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Bản dịch Việt ngữ của Hoàng Hoa
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LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGESTSB 895, as introduced, Nguyen.
Pupil instruction: Vietnamese American refugee experience: model curriculum. Existing law requires the adopted course of study for grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to include, among other subjects, the social sciences. Existing law encourages instruction in the area of social sciences that may include instruction on the Vietnam War, including a component drawn from personal testimony of Southeast Asians who were involved in the Vietnam War and men and women who contributed to the war effort on the home front, as specified. Existing law requires the State Board of Education, with the assistance of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to establish a list of textbooks and other instructional materials that highlight the contributions of minorities in the development of California and the United States. Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission and requires the commission to, among other things, recommend curriculum frameworks to the state board. This bill would require the commission to develop and submit to the state board, on or before December 31, 2020, and the state board to adopt, modify, or revise, on or before March 31, 2021, a model curriculum relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience, as specified, for use in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. The bill would encourage a school district, charter school, or county office of education that maintains any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, that does not otherwise offer a standards-based Vietnamese American studies curriculum relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience, Vietnamese boat people, and the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, to offer a course of study based on the model curriculum. The bill would require the model curriculum to be developed with participation from specified entities, including, among others, Vietnamese American refugees and Vietnamese American cultural centers and community groups located in California. The bill would provide that implementation of its provisions is subject to the receipt of grants, donations, or other financial support from private or public sources for its purposes, including, but not limited to, an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
DIGEST KEY Vote: majority
Appropriation: no
Fiscal Committee: yes
Local Program: no BILL TEXT THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The State of California is committed to providing excellent educational opportunities to all of its pupils.
(b) There are 92 languages other than English spoken throughout the state, with the primary languages being Arabic, Armenian, Cantonese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.
(c) There is a growing body of academic research that shows the importance of culturally meaningful and relevant curriculum.
(d) The state’s educational standards should be guided by core values of equity, inclusiveness, and universally high expectations.
(e) The state is committed to its obligation to ensure its youth are college prepared and career ready, while graduating 100 percent of its pupils.
(f) The implementation of various culturally relevant courses within California’s curriculum that are A–G approved, with the objective of preparing all pupils to be global citizens with an appreciation for the contributions of multiple cultures, will close the achievement gap, reduce pupil truancy, increase pupil enrollment, reduce dropout rates, and increase graduation rates.
(g) For the past 40 years, Vietnamese American refugees have enriched the social, cultural, and economic landscape of California and have achieved success in many professional fields, including business, politics, law, science, education, literature, journalism, sports, and entertainment.
(h)The state encourages the participation of pupils, community members, and members of California Vietnamese American communities in the development of a model curriculum that recognizes the importance of survivors, rescuers, and liberators of the Vietnam War, including Vietnamese-American refugees, Vietnamese boat people, and members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces.
(i)The state currently encourages the incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral testimony into the teaching of human rights, the Holocaust, and genocide, including the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides.
(j) Currently, the instructional resources available for use in California public schools do not include sufficient oral testimony from survivors, rescuers, and liberators of the Vietnam War, including Vietnamese American refugees, Vietnamese boat people, and members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces in the United States and especially in California.
(k) The state acknowledges the need to elevate tragic personal stories like those of the Vietnamese boat people who, after the fall of Saigon in 1975, risked their lives escaping communism only to spend weeks or months at sea battling storms, diseases, starvation, and pirates.
(l) The state acknowledges the importance of the history and experience of the more than 250,000 members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces who were sent to reeducation camps after the fall of Saigon, where many spent up to 17 years in captivity and more than 20,000 died before they were released.
(m) The state acknowledges that oral histories can help pupils better relate to and understand different perspectives in curriculum by providing first-person accounts from individuals who have experienced some of the most tragic times in international history, helping the subject become more than statistics on a page.
(n) The County of Orange, along with the City of San Jose, are home to the largest Vietnamese populations outside of Vietnam.
(o)It is in the best interest of all people and the future of this state to ensure that each school district, charter school, and county office of education has access to a model curriculum and culturally accurate instructional materials relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience, including the experiences of the Vietnamese boat people and the members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces. SEC. 2. Section 51207 is added to the Education Code, to read 51207.
(a)The Instructional Quality Commission shall develop, and the state board shall adopt, modify, or revise, a model curriculum relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience, that began with the fall of Saigon in 1975, including oral testimony of survivors, rescuers, and liberators of the Vietnam War, including Vietnamese-American refugees, Vietnamese boat people, and members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, to ensure quality standards and materials for this area of study. The model curriculum shall be developed with participation from Vietnamese American cultural centers and community groups located in California, survivors, rescuers, and liberators of the Vietnam War, Vietnamese American refugees, a group of representatives of local educational agencies, a majority of which are kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, and teachers who have relevant experience or education backgrounds in the study and teaching of Vietnamese American history. The model curriculum developed pursuant to this subdivision shall include curriculum appropriate for use in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools.
(b)The model curriculum shall be written as a guide to allow school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education to adapt their related courses to best meet the educational needs of their communities. The model curriculum developed for use in high schools shall include examples of courses offered by local educational agencies that have been approved as meeting the A–G admissions requirements of the University of California and the California State University, including, to the extent possible, course outlines for those courses.
(c) When teaching about the Vietnam War and the postwar period, the Legislature encourages the incorporation of writings that represent all perspectives of the refugee experience, including oral testimony by survivors, rescuers, and liberators of the Vietnam War, and Vietnamese refugees.
(d) The model curriculum shall include discussion of the Vietnamese boat people and members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, the reasons behind the exodus, the hardships faced by the Vietnamese people attempting to flee who were apprehended by the communist government, and the conditions that led to the resettlement of Vietnamese people in America.
(e)On or before December 31, 2020, the Instructional Quality Commission shall submit the model curriculum to the state board, and the state board shall adopt, modify, or revise the model curriculum on or before March 31, 2021.
(f) The Instructional Quality Commission shall provide a minimum of 45 days for public comment before submitting the model curriculum to the state board.
(g)Beginning in the school year following the adoption of the model curriculum pursuant to subdivisions (a) and (e), each school district, charter school, or county office of education maintaining any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, that does not otherwise offer standards-based Vietnamese American studies curriculum relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience, Vietnamese boat people, and the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, is encouraged to offer to pupils a course of study relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience based on the model curriculum. A school district, charter school, or county office of education that serves pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, that elects to offer a course of study in the Vietnamese American refugee experience pursuant to this subdivision, shall offer the course as an elective in the social sciences or world history and shall make the course available in at least one year during a pupil’s enrollment in grades 7 to 12, inclusive.
h) It is the intent of the Legislature that local educational agencies that maintain high schools submit course outlines for studies relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience for approval as A-G courses.
(i) For purposes of this section, “oral testimony” means the firsthand accounts of significant historical events presented in a format that includes, but is not limited to, in-person testimony, video, or a multimedia option, such as a DVD or an online video.
(j)The implementation of this section is subject to the receipt of grants, donations, or other financial support from private or public sources for its purposes, including, but not limited to, an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
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Bản dịch Việt ngữ của Hoàng Hoa
BẢN TÓM TÁT ÐỀ NGHỊ LẬP PHÁP SB895, (Cựu) TNS Janet Nguyễn giới thiệu.
Hướng dẫn học sinh: Kinh nghiệm người tị nạn Mỹ gốc Việt: chương trình giảng dạy kiểu mẫu. Luật hiện hành yêu cầu khóa học thông qua từ lớp 7 đến lớp 12 tổng quát bao gồm môn khoa học xã hội trong số các môn học khác. Luật hiện hành khuyến khích hướng dẫn trong lãnh vực khoa học xã hội có thể bao gồm hướng dẫn về Chiến tranh Việt Nam, theo quy định bao gồm một thành phần được rút ra từ lời khai cá nhân của người Đông Nam Á có liên quan đến Chiến tranh Việt Nam và đàn ông và phụ nữ đóng góp cho nỗ lực chiến tranh ở mặt trận hậu phương. Luật hiện hành yêu cầu Ủy ban Giáo dục Tiểu bang, với sự hỗ trợ của Giám Thị Hướng dẫn Công cộng, để thiết lập một danh sách các sách giáo khoa và các tài liệu giảng dạy khác nȇu bật được những đóng góp của các nhóm thiểu số trong sự phát triển của tiểu bang California và Hoa Kỳ. Luật hiện hành thành lập Ủy ban Phẩm Chất Giáo Dục và yêu cầu Ủy ban, trong số những điều khác, đề nghị các khuôn khổ chương trình giảng dạy lȇn hội đồng tiểu bang. Dự luật này sẽ yêu cầu Ủy ban soạn thảo và đệ trình lên hội đồng tiểu bang, vào hoặc trước ngày 31 tháng 12 năm 2020, và để hội đồng tiểu bang chấp nhận, sửa đổi, hoặc duyệt xét, vào hoặc trước ngày 31 tháng 3 năm 2021, một chương trình giảng dạy kiểu mẫu liên quan đến các kinh nghiệm của người tị nạn Mỹ gốc Việt Nam, theo quy định, để sử dụng trong các trường tiểu học, trường trung học chuyển tiếp và trường trung học. Dự luật sẽ khuyến khích một học khu, trường bán công hoặc văn phòng giáo dục của quận duy trì bất kỳ lớp 1 đến lớp 12 nào, gồm có, mà không cung cấp chương trình học Mỹ gốc Việt trȇn căn bản tiȇu chuẩn liên quan đến kinh nghiệm của người tị nạn Mỹ gốc Việt, các thuyền nhân người Việt, và Quân Lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa, để cung cấp một khóa học dựa trên chương trình kiểu mẫu. Dự luật sẽ đòi hỏi chương trình kiểu mẫu được phát triển với sự tham gia của các thực thể đặc biệt, bao gồm, trong số những thực thể khác, những người tị nạn Mỹ gốc Việt và các trung tâm văn hóa và các nhóm cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc Việt ở California. Dự luật sẽ giúp thực hiện các điều khoản của nó phải phụ thuộc việc nhận các khoản tài trợ, quyên góp hoặc hỗ trợ tài chính khác từ các nguồn tư nhân hoặc công cộng cho các mục đích của nó, bao gồm, nhưng không giới hạn, một sự phù hợp trong Đạo luật Ngân sách hàng năm hoặc một đạo luật khác.
Số Phiếu Then chốt Bản Tóm Lược: đa số
Quỹ riȇng: không có
Ủy ban tài chính: có
Chương trình địa phương: không
VĂN BẢN DỰ LUẬT
NGƯÒI DÂN CALIFORNIA THI HÀNH NHƯ SAU SAU: PHẦN 1.
Cơ quan lập pháp tìm và tuyên bố tất cả những điều sau đây:
(a) Bang California cam kết cung cấp các cơ hội giáo dục tuyệt vời cho tất cả các học sinh của mình.
(b) Có 92 ngôn ngữ khác ngoài tiếng Anh được nói trên toàn tiểu bang, với các ngôn ngữ chính là tiếng Ả Rập, tiếng Armenia, tiếng Quảng Đông, tiếng Hàn, tiếng Nga, tiếng Tây Ban Nha, tiếng Tagalog và tiếng Việt.
(c) Ngày càng có nhiều nghiên cứu học vấn cho thấy sự quan trọng của chương trình giảng dạy có ý nghĩa văn hóa và có liên quan.
(d) Các tiêu chuẩn giáo dục của tiểu bang nên được hướng dẫn bởi các giá trị cốt lõi của sự công bằng, tính toàn diện và kỳ vọng cao phổ quát.
(e) Tiểu bang cam kết sự bắt buộc của mình để đảm bảo các thanh niên được chuẩn bị đại học và sẵn sàng cho nghề nghiệp, trong khi tốt nghiệp 100 phần trăm học sinh của mình.
(f) Việc ứng dụng các khóa học liên quan mang tính văn hóa khác nhau trong chương trình giảng dạy của California được từ chấp thuận A-G, với mục tiêu chuẩn bị cho tất cả học sinh trở các công dân toàn cầu với sự đánh giá cao cho sự đóng góp của nhiều nền văn hóa, sẽ đóng lại khoảng cách biệt thành tựu, tăng tuyển sinh, giảm tỷ lệ bỏ học và tăng tỷ lệ tốt nghiệp.
(g) Trong 40 năm qua, người tị nạn Mỹ gốc Việt đã làm phong phú cảnh quan xã hội, văn hóa và kinh tế của California và đã đạt được thành công trong nhiều lĩnh vực chuyên môn, bao gồm kinh doanh, chính trị, luật, khoa học, giáo dục, văn học, báo chí, thể thao, và giải trí.
(h) Tiểu bang khuyến khích sự tham gia của học sinh, thành viên cộng đồng và thành viên của cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc Việt California trong việc xây dựng một chương trình giảng dạy kiểu mẫu công nhận sự quan trọng của những người sống sót, người cứu giúp và người giải phóng của chiến tranh Việt Nam, bao gồm cả người tị nạn Mỹ gốc Việt, thuyền nhân Việt Nam, và các thành viên của Quân lực Việt Nam Cộng Hòa.
(j) Hiện tại, các tài nguyên giảng dạy có sẵn để sử dụng tại các trường công lập ở California không bao gồm đủ lời minh chứng từ những người sống sót, nhân viên cứu hộ và người giải phóng của chiến tranh Việt Nam, bao gồm người tị nạn Mỹ gốc Việt, thuyền nhân Việt Nam và thành viên của Quân Lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa tại Hoa Kỳ và đặc biệt ở California.
(k) Tiểu bang thừa nhận sự cần thiết phải nâng cao những câu chuyện cá nhân bi thảm như của những thuyền nhân Việt Nam, sau khi Sài Gòn sụp đổ năm 1975, đã liều mạng trốn thoát khỏi chủ nghĩa cộng sản phải mất hàng tuần hoặc hàng tháng để chiến đấu với bão, bệnh tật, đói khát, và cướp biển.
(l) Tiểu bang thừa nhận tầm quan trọng của lịch sử và kinh nghiệm của hơn 250.000 thành viên của Quân Lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa đã bị bắt đưa vào các trại cải tạo sau khi Sài Gòn sụp đổ, nơi nhiều người đã bị giam cầm đến 17 năm và hơn 20.000 người chết trước khi họ được thả ra.
(m) Tiểu bang thừa nhận rằng lịch sử bằng miệng có thể giúp học sinh liên tưởng tốt hơn và hiểu các quan điểm khác nhau trong chương trình giảng dạy bằng cách cung cấp các tường thuật của những người đầu tiên trải qua một số thời kỳ bi thảm nhất trong lịch sử quốc tế, giúp chủ đề nhiều hơn là số liệu thống kê trȇn trang giấy.
(n) Quận Cam, cùng với Thành phố San Jose, là nơi có dân số Việt Nam lớn nhất bên ngoài Việt Nam.
(o) Lợi ích tốt nhất cho tất cả mọi người và tương lai của tiểu bang này là nhằm đảm bảo rằng mỗi học khu, trường bán công và văn phòng giáo dục quận tiến đến được một chương trình giảng dạy mẫu và tài liệu giảng dạy chính xác về văn hóa liȇn quan đến những thng khổ của người tị nạn Mỹ gốc Việt, kể cả kinh nghiệm của thuyền nhân Việt Nam và các thành viên của Quân Lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa.
Phần 2. Mục 51207 được thêm vào Bộ luật Giáo dục, để đọc 51207.
(a) Ủy ban Phẩm chất Hướng dẫn sẽ phát triển, và hội đồng tiểu bang sẽ thông qua, sửa đổi hoặc sửa đổi, một chương trình giảng dạy kiểu mẫu liên quan đến kinh nghiệm của người tị nạn Mỹ gốc Việt, bắt đầu từ sự sụp đổ của Sài Gòn năm 1975, bao gồm cả lời khai của những người sống sót, những người cứu hộ và những người giải phóng chiến tranh Việt Nam, bao gồm người tị nạn người Mỹ gốc Việt, thuyền nhân Việt Nam, và các thành viên của Quân Lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa, để đảm bảo các tiêu chuẩn và tài liệu phẩm chất cho lãnh vực nghiên cứu này. Chương trình kiểu mẫu sẽ được phát triển với sự tham gia của các trung tâm văn hóa và cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc Việt ở California, những người sống sót, cứu hộ và những người giải phóng chiến tranh Việt Nam, những người tị nạn Mỹ gốc Việt, một nhóm các đại diện của các cơ quan giáo dục địa phương, phần lớn là trường mẫu giáo và lớp 1 đến 12, bao gồm, và các giáo viên có kinh nghiệm hoặc nền tảng giáo dục có liên quan trong nghiên cứu và giảng dạy lịch sử Việt Mỹ. Chương trình giảng dạy mẫu được phát triển theo tiểu mục này sẽ bao gồm chương trình giảng dạy phù hợp để sử dụng trong các trường tiểu học, trung học chuyển tiếp và trung học.
(b) Chương trình giảng dạy kiểu mẫu sẽ được viết như một hướng dẫn cho phép các học khu, các trường bán công và văn phòng giáo dục quận điều chỉnh các khóa học liên quan của họ để đáp ứng tốt nhất nhu cầu giáo dục của cộng đồng. Chương trình giảng dạy kiểu mẫu được phát triển để sử dụng ở các trường trung học sẽ bao gồm các ví dụ về các khóa học được cung cấp bởi các cơ quan giáo dục địa phương đã được phê duyệt là đáp ứng các yêu cầu tuyển sinh A-G của Đại học California và Đại học tiểu bang California, bao gồm, trong phạm vi có thể, các phác thảo về khóa học cho các khóa học đó.
(c) Khi dạy về Chiến tranh Việt Nam và thời kỳ sau chiến tranh, Lập pháp tiểu bang khuyến khích sự phối hợp các bài viết nào thể hiện tất cả quan điểm về kinh nghiệm của người tị nạn, bao gồm chứng cớ bằng miệng của người sống sót, người cứu giúp, và những người giải thoát trong Chiến tranh Việt Nam và những người tị nạn Việt Nam.
(d) Chương trình giảng dạy kiểu mẫu sẽ bao gồm các thảo luận về thuyền nhân Việt Nam và các thành viên của Quân Lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa, lý do đằng sau cuộc di cư, những gian khổ mà người dân Việt Nam phải đối mặt khi chạy trốn bị chính quyền cộng sản trả thù, và các điều kiện dẫn đến việc tái định cư của người Việt Nam ở Mỹ.
(e) Vào hoặc trước ngày 31 tháng 12 năm 2020, Ủy ban Phẩm Chất Giảng dạy sẽ đệ trình chương trình giảng dạy cho hội đồng tiểu bang và hội đồng tiểu bang sẽ thông qua, sửa đổi hoặc xem xét chương trình giảng dạy mô hình vào hoặc trước ngày 31 tháng 3 năm 2021.
(f) Ủy ban Phẩm Chất Giảng dạy sẽ cung cấp tối thiểu 45 ngày để công chúng nhận xét trước khi gửi chương trình giảng dạy mẫu cho hội đồng tiểu bang.
(g) Bắt đầu vào năm học sau khi áp dụng chương trình giảng dạy kiểu mẫu theo các tiểu mục (a) và (e), mỗi học khu, trường bán công hoặc văn phòng giáo dục quận duy trì bất kỳ lớp 1 đến lớp 12 nào, bao gồm, không cung cấp chương trình dạy học Mỹ gốc Việt theo tiêu chuẩn căn bản liên quan đến kinh nghiệm tị nạn của người Mỹ gốc Việt, thuyền nhân Việt Nam và Quân Lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa, được khuyến khích cung cấp cho học sinh một khóa học liên quan đến kinh nghiệm tị nạn của người Mỹ gốc Việt dựa trên chương trình giáo dục kiểu mẫu. Một học khu, trường bán công, hoặc văn phòng giáo dục quận phục vụ học sinh ở bất kỳ lớp 7 đến lớp 12 nào, bao gồm, sẽ chọn cung cấp một khóa học về kinh nghiệm tị nạn của người Mỹ gốc Việt theo tiểu mục này, sẽ cung cấp khóa học như một tùy chọn trong môn học xã hội hay lịch sử thế giới và sẽ làm khóa học sẳn sàng ít nhất cho năm học trong khi học sinh ghi danh từ lớp 7 đến lớp 12.
h) Mục đích của Cơ quan lập pháp là các cơ quan giáo dục địa phương duy trì các trường trung học nộp các bản sơ lược khóa học cho các nghiên cứu liên quan đến kinh nghiệm tị nạn của người Mỹ gốc Việt để chấp thuận các khóa học A-G.
(i) Đối với mục đích của phần này, lời khai bằng miệng, có nghĩa là các tường thuật trực tiếp của các sự kiện lịch sử nổi bật được trình bày theo hình thức bao gồm, nhưng không giới hạn, lời người khai, video hoặc tùy chọn đa phương tiện truyền thông, chẳng hạn như DVD hoặc một video trȇn Internet.
(j) Việc thực hiện phần này tùy thuộc vào việc nhận các khoản tài trợ, quyên góp hoặc hỗ trợ tài chính khác từ các nguồn tư nhân hoặc công cộng cho các mục đích của nó, bao gồm, nhưng không giới hạn, một sự chiếm đoạt trong Đạo luật Ngân sách hàng năm hoặc một đạo luật khác.
Bản dịch Việt ngữ của Hoàng Hoa
USA 2020/07/05
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SB895 Modified version after approval by California Governor Jerry Brown
Some modifications are in bold as follow
Senate Bill No. 895
CHAPTER 686 An act to add Sections 33540.2, 33540.4, and 33540.6 to the Education Code, relating to pupil instruction.
[Approved by Governor September 22, 2018.
Filed with Secretary of State September 22, 2018.]
SEC. 2.Section 33540.2 is added to the Education Code, to read:33540.2.(a)On or before December 31, 2022, the commission shall develop and submit to the state board a model curriculum relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience that includes, but is not limited to, curriculum on the fall of Saigon in 1975. On or before March 31, 2023,the state board shall adopt, modify, or revise the model curriculum. The commission shall provide a minimum of 45 days for public comment before submitting the model curriculum to the state board.
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Page 2
The bill would require the commission to develop a model curriculum in Hmong history and cultural studies, as provided. The bill would require the commission, on or before December 31, 2022, to submit the model curriculum to the state board for adoption, and would require the state board to adopt, modify, or reject the model curriculum on or before March 31,2023. The bill would require the Superintendent, following the adoption of the model curriculum, to post the model curriculum on the State Department of Education’s Internet Web site for use on a voluntary basis by educators. The bill, beginning in the school year following the adoption of the model curriculum, would encourage local educational agencies, as defined, to use the model curriculum to provide instruction in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. The bill would provide that implementation of its provisions is subject to the receipt of grants, donations, or other financial support from private or public sources for its purposes, including, but not limited to, an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
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Page 3
(i) Currently, the instructional resources available for use in California public schools do not include sufficient oral testimony from survivors, rescuers, and liberators of the Vietnam War, including Vietnamese American refugees, Vietnamese boat people, and members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces in the United States and especially in California.
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CHAPTER 686 An act to add Sections 33540.2, 33540.4, and 33540.6 to the Education Code, relating to pupil instruction.
[Approved by Governor September 22, 2018.
Filed with Secretary of State September 22, 2018.]
SEC. 2.Section 33540.2 is added to the Education Code, to read:33540.2.(a)On or before December 31, 2022, the commission shall develop and submit to the state board a model curriculum relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience that includes, but is not limited to, curriculum on the fall of Saigon in 1975. On or before March 31, 2023,the state board shall adopt, modify, or revise the model curriculum. The commission shall provide a minimum of 45 days for public comment before submitting the model curriculum to the state board.
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Page 2
The bill would require the commission to develop a model curriculum in Hmong history and cultural studies, as provided. The bill would require the commission, on or before December 31, 2022, to submit the model curriculum to the state board for adoption, and would require the state board to adopt, modify, or reject the model curriculum on or before March 31,2023. The bill would require the Superintendent, following the adoption of the model curriculum, to post the model curriculum on the State Department of Education’s Internet Web site for use on a voluntary basis by educators. The bill, beginning in the school year following the adoption of the model curriculum, would encourage local educational agencies, as defined, to use the model curriculum to provide instruction in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. The bill would provide that implementation of its provisions is subject to the receipt of grants, donations, or other financial support from private or public sources for its purposes, including, but not limited to, an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
….
Page 3
(i) Currently, the instructional resources available for use in California public schools do not include sufficient oral testimony from survivors, rescuers, and liberators of the Vietnam War, including Vietnamese American refugees, Vietnamese boat people, and members of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces in the United States and especially in California.
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Thứ Sáu, 3 tháng 7, 2020
The Global Daily Watch (The National Interest) Can China Be Stopped From Stealing Technology From U.S. Colleges?
The Global Daily Watch
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World
Can China Be Stopped From Stealing Technology From U.S. Colleges?
Click here to read the full article.
Congress is cracking down on Chinese espionage taking place throughout the U.S. scientific community by requiring researchers to disclose foreign funding sources in federal grant applications.
The U.S. House Armed Services Committee has passed two of Representative Michael Waltz’s (R-Florida) amendments to the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act to protect federally-funded research from Chinese espionage.
“The United States faces the greatest adversary we have ever known in China,” Waltz said in a written statement. “For years, the Chinese Communist Party has infiltrated our colleges and universities, using them to steal sensitive scientific research and information. America can no longer be a safe harbor for blatant espionage and intellectual property theft—and I’m glad this is a bipartisan concern across the Armed Services Committee.”
Waltz’s amendments also enhance enforcement authorities for federal agencies and require the U.S. Secretary of Defense to develop and maintain a list of foreign talent recruitment programs posing a threat to national security. This development comes at a time when Congress is already moving quickly to massively uptick the U.S. military presence in the Pacific. The ranking member of HASC, Representative Mac Thornberry, is spearheading a specific legislative proposal to add as much as $6 billion to the 2021 defense budget to increase the U.S. military footprint in the region.
China’s cyber espionage, for example, has been well known and documented for years; a 2010 Defense Science Board report specifically cites instances of Chinese theft of U.S. military weapons specifications. Much of this concern comes at a time when Pentagon weapons developers are working quickly to address emerging Chinese military threats in certain technical areas, such as hypersonics, anti-satellite weapons, AI and quantum mechanics.
China’s foreign talent recruitment program, commonly referred to as the Thousand Talents Program, incentivizes Chinese nationals to gain access to American research and transmit it back to the Chinese government, Waltz’s statement added.
Kris Osborn is the new Defense Editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
Image: Reuters
Click here to read the full article.
Congress is cracking down on Chinese espionage taking place throughout the U.S. scientific community by requiring researchers to disclose foreign funding sources in federal grant applications.
The U.S. House Armed Services Committee has passed two of Representative Michael Waltz’s (R-Florida) amendments to the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act to protect federally-funded research from Chinese espionage.
“The United States faces the greatest adversary we have ever known in China,” Waltz said in a written statement. “For years, the Chinese Communist Party has infiltrated our colleges and universities, using them to steal sensitive scientific research and information. America can no longer be a safe harbor for blatant espionage and intellectual property theft—and I’m glad this is a bipartisan concern across the Armed Services Committee.”
Waltz’s amendments also enhance enforcement authorities for federal agencies and require the U.S. Secretary of Defense to develop and maintain a list of foreign talent recruitment programs posing a threat to national security. This development comes at a time when Congress is already moving quickly to massively uptick the U.S. military presence in the Pacific. The ranking member of HASC, Representative Mac Thornberry, is spearheading a specific legislative proposal to add as much as $6 billion to the 2021 defense budget to increase the U.S. military footprint in the region.
China’s cyber espionage, for example, has been well known and documented for years; a 2010 Defense Science Board report specifically cites instances of Chinese theft of U.S. military weapons specifications. Much of this concern comes at a time when Pentagon weapons developers are working quickly to address emerging Chinese military threats in certain technical areas, such as hypersonics, anti-satellite weapons, AI and quantum mechanics.
China’s foreign talent recruitment program, commonly referred to as the Thousand Talents Program, incentivizes Chinese nationals to gain access to American research and transmit it back to the Chinese government, Waltz’s statement added.
Kris Osborn is the new Defense Editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
Image: Reuters
Click here to read the full article.
Thứ Ba, 30 tháng 6, 2020
NHỮNG HOẠT ÐỘNG QUÂN SỰ TẠI BIỂN ÐÔNG và TÂY THÁI BÌNH DƯƠNG - (AP) Chinese long-range bombers join drills over South China Sea. (Fox News Videos) US Navy exercises military drills in South China Sea. (The Wall Street Journal) U.S. Shows Off Its Firepower to Beijing in South China Sea. (Reuters) U.S. sends carriers to South China Sea during Chinese drills. (AFP) Pentagon: China military exercises will 'further destabilize' S. China Sea. (AP) Philippines warns China of 'severest response' over drills. (Business Insider) More than 400 US Army paratroopers flew almost 5,000 miles to practice a long-range Pacific island invasion, Quan Ðiểm Việt Nam lȇn án tất cả những hoạt động quân sự, bán quân sự, hổn hợp không hải lục của Trung cộng diễn tập phi pháp (illegaly) trong vùng trời, vùng biển, hải đảo thuộc chủ quyền VNCH
NHỮNG HOẠT ÐỘNG QUÂN SỰ TẠI BIỂN ÐÔNG và TÂY THÁI BÌNH DƯƠNG
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Timeline Links: Military Activities in the East Sea and Western Pacific
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Chinese long-range bombers join drills over South China Sea
| Chinese long-range bombers join drills over South China Sea |
BEIJING (AP) — China said Thursday that long-range bombers were among the aircraft that took part in recent aerial drills over the South China Sea amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over the strategic waterway.
The exercises included nighttime takeoffs and landings and simulated long-range attacks, Defense Ministry spokesperson Ren Guoqiang said. Among the planes were H-6G and H-6K bombers, upgraded versions of planes long in use with the People's Liberation Army Air Force and the People’s Liberation Army Navy Air Force, Ren said.
He said the exercises had been previously scheduled and were aimed at boosting pilot abilities to operate under all natural conditions. It wasn't clear whether live bombs were used.
Ren's statement appeared to distance the drills from recent accusations exchanged between the sides over China's claim to virtually all of the South China Sea, which it has buttressed in recent years by building man-made islands equipped with runways.
The U.S. this month for the first time rejected China’s claims outright, prompting Beijing to accuse it of seeking to create discord between China and its neighbors. Five other governments also exercise claims in the South China Sea, through which around $5 trillion in trade is transported annually.
Previously, U.S. policy had been to insist that maritime disputes between China and its smaller neighbors be resolved peacefully through U.N.-backed arbitration. But in a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. now regards virtually all Chinese maritime claims outside its internationally recognized waters to be illegitimate. The shift does not involve disputes over land features that are above sea level, which are considered to be “territorial” in nature.
“The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire,” Pompeo said.
Although the U.S. will officially continue to remain neutral in the territorial disputes, the announcement means the administration is in effect siding with governments which oppose Chinese assertions of sovereignty over maritime areas surrounding contested islands, reefs and shoals.
In other comments Thursday, Ren criticized stepped-up military cooperation between the U.S. and Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that China claims as its territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. Washington and Taipei have no formal diplomatic ties but the U.S. is the island's key provider of defensive arms and is legally obligated to treat threats to the island as matters of grave concern.
“The U.S. must realize that China is destined to unify (with Taiwan), and China is destined to realize its great rejuvenation,"" Ren said.
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World
FOX News Videos
US Navy exercises military drills in South China Sea
The Wall Street Journal
U.S. Shows Off Its Firepower to Beijing in South China Sea
Strike fighters and electronic-warfare jets took off day and night from two U.S. aircraft carriers in the South China Sea to simulate sustained attacks on enemy bases as Washington put on a display of firepower to counter China’s growing military presence in the region.
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| Map showing disputed claims in the South China Sea. (AFP Photo/) |
The Pentagon said Thursday it was "concerned" about Chinese military exercises around a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea, noting the maneuvers will "further destabilize" the region.
"The Department of Defense is concerned about the People's Republic of China (PRC) decision to conduct military exercises around the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on July 1-5," the Pentagon said in a statement.
The activities "further destabilize the situation" in the area claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan, it said.
Such exercises also violate Beijing's "commitments under the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea to avoid activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability."
The declaration, signed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, said that all parties would "avoid activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability."
The exercises "are the latest in a long string" of Chinese actions "to assert unlawful maritime claims and disadvantage its Southeast Asian neighbors in the South China Sea."
The Pentagon urged "all parties to exercise restraint and not undertake military activities that might aggravate disputes" in the region, and said it will continue to monitor Chinese military activity.
The Chinese exercises are taking place amid a rise in US-China tensions over the novel coronavirus epidemic, in which Washington has accused Beijing of hiding and downplaying the initial outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Washington rejects Beijing's territorial claim to much of the South China Sea, including the Paracels.
The region is believed to have valuable oil and gas deposits.
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World
Philippines warns China of 'severest response' over drills
| Philippines warns China of 'severest response' over drills |
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine foreign secretary warned China on Friday of “the severest response” if ongoing Chinese military exercises in the disputed South China Sea spill over to Philippine territory.
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said China’s People’s Liberation Army has been staging exercises off the Paracel Islands since July 1 and Chinese maritime officials have prohibited all vessels from navigating within the area of the maneuvers.
After checking the coordinates of the no-entry zone, where the Chinese military maneuvers are being staged, Locsin said the waters off the Paracels, which are also claimed by Vietnam, “do not impinge on Philippine territory” although he raised some concern.
“Should the exercises spill over to Philippine territory, then China is forewarned that it will be met with the severest response, diplomatic and whatever else is appropriate,” Locsin said in a statement without elaborating.
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World
More than 400 US Army paratroopers flew almost 5,000 miles to practice a long-range Pacific island invasion
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| Paratroopers of the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, U.S. Army Alaska, demonstrate a joint forcible entry into Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, June 30 |
U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Divine Cox
US Army Alaska airborne troops flew from Alaska to Guam, where they jumped Tuesday and seized control of the airfield at Andersen Air Force Base in a mock invasion.
The exercise comes amid tensions with rival powers and as the US military attempts to demonstrate its ability to project power at great distances, something it has been doing with bombers and aircraft carriers.
These images show how the mock invasion went down.
Hundreds of US Army paratroopers practiced launching a long-range invasion of a Pacific island on Tuesday as the US military flexes its muscles in the region.
Here's what it looked like.
US Army airborne troops flew nearly 5,000 miles to execute a mock invasion of Guam.
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U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Richard Ebensberger |
Over 400 paratroopers flew from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, where the soldiers jumped and practiced seizing an airfield, which would clear the way for follow-on forces in a real combat situation.
US Army Alaska called it the exercise, which appears to be part of the Department of Defense's ongoing efforts to master modern expeditionary warfare tactics for possible combat in the Pacific theater, the "largest airborne operation here in recent memory."
The paratroopers flew in US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, gearing up for the jump en route.
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| US Army paratroopers jump over Guam |
U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Divine Cox
The participating airborne troops are part of the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division of US Army Alaska, the Army's only Pacific airborne brigade able to deploy rapidly anywhere in the world.
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| US paratroopers at Andersen |
U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Divine Cox
The "scenario tested our ability to execute real-world missions and demonstrated that we are capable of deploying anywhere in the US Indo-Pacific Command area at a moment's notice," Col. Christopher Landers, the commander of US Army Alaska's 4-25 IBCT(A), explained in a release.
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| US paratroopers at Andersen |
U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Michael S. Murphy
Source: US Army Alaska
The invasion drill, part of ongoing exercises in the Marianas, comes amid tensions with China in strategic airspace and waterways and as the US attempts to demonstrate its ability to project power in a clear message to rivals.
U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Divine Cox
China has constructed military outposts, including some with operational airfields that have at times hosted fighters and bombers, across the disputed South China Sea, a contested waterway where the US and Chinese militaries have had some "risky" run-ins in recent months.
The US demonstrated reach with synchronized flights through Europe and the Pacific in May with US-based B-52H Stratofortress and B-2 Spirit bombers.
U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Michael S. Murphy
STRATCOM said at the time that the "dynamic employment" of these long-range bombers "showcased the United States' ability to conduct synchronized strategic deterrence anywhere in the world with a ready, lethal force."
US-based bombers have been flying regularly over Europe and the Pacific in recent months.
And, as another demonstration of US military power projection capabilities, the US Navy has three carrier strike groups in the Pacific, where the service just conducted back-to-back dual carrier operations in a week.
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| A US paratrooper at Andersen |
U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Richard Ebensberger
"Dual carrier operations," one strike group commander said, "demonstrate our commitment to regional allies, our ability to rapidly mass combat power in the Indo-Pacific, and our readiness to confront all those who challenge international norms that support regional stability."
Read the original article on Business Insider
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Vùng Thao Diễn Tác Xạ của Lực Lượng Hổn Hợp Hải Quân Trung Cộng tại Hoàng Sa Trong Vùng Biển Chủ Quyền VNCH từ 2020/07/01 đến 2020/07/05. Map by Hoang Hoa VNR Vietnam Review. Khu vực biển Hoàng sa trong khung đỏ ABCDEF với toạ độ là vùng diễn tập tác xạ và bắn đạn thật theo báo cáo của Trung Cộng.
Quan Ðiểm Việt Nam lȇn án tất cả những hoạt động quân sự, bán quân sự, hổn hợp không hải lục của Trung cộng diễn tập phi pháp (illegaly) trong vùng trời, vùng biển, hải đảo thuộc chủ quyền VNCH, lȇn án Trung cộng đặt tȇn Tàu và lập các đơn vị hành chánh phi pháp (illegaly) cho các đảo của VNCH. Việc Trung cộng biến khu vực Biển Ðông thành căn cứ hải quân, không quân, kho dự trữ, trạm thông tin kiểm báo quân sự và tàu ngầm lớn nhất tiếp theo căn cứ Hải Nam của Trung cộng nhằm tiếp cận cho Vùng Biển Tây Thái Bình Dương sẽ khiến khu vực Biển Ðông đầy bùng nổ những bất trắc. Việc thao diễn quân sự của hải quân Trung cộng sẽ gây căng thẳng trȇn tuyến hải hành giao thông quốc tế trong vùng biển chủ quyền VNCH; do đó, bất cứ va chạm nào giữa hải quân Trung cộng với các tàu bè quốc tế tuần tra tự do lưu thông hàng hải trong khu vực Biển Ðông, Trung cộng sẽ hoàn toàn chịu mọi trách nhiệm về hậu quả các hành vi ngang ngược này trước quốc tế.
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Vùng Thao Diễn Tác Xạ của Lực Lượng Hổn Hợp Hải Quân Trung Cộng tại Hoàng Sa Trong Vùng Biển Chủ Quyền VNCH từ 2020/07/01 đến 2020/07/05. Map by Hoang Hoa VNR Vietnam Review. Khu vực biển Hoàng sa trong khung đỏ ABCDEF với toạ độ là vùng diễn tập tác xạ và bắn đạn thật theo báo cáo của Trung Cộng.
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Ðảo Phú Lâm
(Woody Island) thuộc chủ quyền của VNCH,
Trung cộng đã chiếm đảo Phú Lâm 21/12/1956. Không ảnh Google™ captured by VNR 2020/06/30
VNR Vietnam Review
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Theo dõi hoạt động quân sự của Trung cộng tại Biển Ðông July 1, 2020
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