Kính thưa quý cộng đồng người Việt tỵ nạn cộng sản, các quý cơ quan truyền thông báo chí và thân hữu.
Xét thấy nội dung của các hoạt động văn hóa của Saigonfilms.com trong 20 năm qua (2000-2020) đã rất lớn lao, phong phú và có quá nhiều chi tiết mà những Web Sites, Blog của nó hiện nay không thể hệ thống các dữ kiện một cách mạch lạc để trình bày hiệu quả trước công chúng và cho những ai quan tâm. Xét thấy nhu cầu cần có một Media Outlet (Cơ sở loan tải thông tin) hiệu quả, phổ thông và có danh xưng để dư luận dễ dàng nhận ra và theo dõi nội dung văn hóa của VNCH. Nay, chúng tôi mạo muội thành lập một Google™ Blog với domain name (sẽ thông báo sau) nȇu bật các giá trị văn hóa, giáo dục, phẩm hạnh người lính VNCH, và nhấn mạnh chủ quyền VNCH đối với các hải đảo tại Biển Ðông. Nay kính gởi: --- Bản Dự Thảo (Draft) cho Google™ Blog Tổ Chức Văn Hóa Việt Nam Cộng Hòa Republic of Vietnam Culture Organization (RVNCO) 1. Mục đích: Tái xây dựng và tiếp tục phát triễn các di sản văn hóa VNCH vào/cho tương lai dân tộc Việt Nam. 2. Những tài liệu căn bản làm khung sườn cho Dự Thảo của RVNCO: a. Quốc kỳ VNCH nền vàng ba sọc đỏ, và quốc ca VNCH. b. Bạch Thư Bộ Ngoại Giao VNCH in tại Sài Gòn 1975. c. Hồ Sơ Thềm Lục Ðịa nới rộng 350 hải lý và Bản đồ VNCH và các bản đồ chi tiết đính kèm, các tài liệu và Thư gởi TTK LHQ Ban Ki Moon do Ban Ðại Diện Cộng Ðồng Việt Nam Bắc California (VAC-NORCAL,) San Jose, Ca USA đệ trình Ủy Ban Luật Biển của LHQ cho ngày 13/5/2009. d. Những tác phẩm lịch sử về đường biȇn giới Việt –Trung do Sông Hồng (Hoàng Hoa) dịch và biȇn soạn in tại San Jose, Ca năm 2002. e. Các tài liệu văn bản chính thức của Bộ Ngoại Giao Hoa Kỳ về nước Việt Nam trong thời gian Hoa Kỳ can dự vào tình hình, hoàn cảnh Việt Nam kể từ (trong thời gian) Hiệp Ðịnh Geneva 1954. 3. Các tư liệu văn hóa lịch sử cận đại hiện nay: a. Các videos, Web sites, links, tài liệu và các dự án phát triễn Little Saigon San Jose (LSSJ) do Hoàng Hoa thực hiện trong thời gian thực hiện và phát triễn LSSJ kể từ năm 2004. b. Các videos, Web Sites, tài liệu và hình ảnh văn hóa về Little Saigon San Francisco do Hoàng Hoa thực hiện kể từ năm 2004. c. Các videos và tài liệu ghi chép về sinh hoạt cộng đồng mgười Việt tỵ nạn cộng sản tại San Jose do Hoàng Hoa thực hiện. 4. Các phương tiện truyền thông cơ hữu trách nhiệm: Blog Vietnam Review VNR, các tư liệu videos trȇn kȇnh SaigonFilms Media trȇn Youtube™, Web Site www.saigonfilms.com, www.littlesaigonsjid.com 5. Sơ lược các Dự án ban đầu (initiative): a. Các phóng đồ nghiȇn cứu hoạt động của Hải quân VNCH trong thời gian bảo vệ đất nước. b. Sưu tầm, nghiȇn cứu, các tư liệu phȇ bình giòng nhạc lính (giòng nhạc Boléro) trước năm 1975 và tính văn hóa của người lính VNCH trong lịch sử văn hóa dân tộc Việt Nam. Phân tích vai trò, tính văn hóa và tình yȇu nhân bản của người lính VNCH trong chiến tranh bảo vệ người dân và giữ nước. Tính văn hóa và phẩm hạnh, sự hy sinh cao cả của người lính VNCH khi miền Nam rơi vào tay quân CSBV ngày 30/4/1975 làm gương sáng cho giáo dục nhân bản VNCH. c. Tái cấu trúc sơ đồ hình ảnh các quân trường, huấn khu, biệt khu, trung tâm huấn luyện. d. Xem xét tái cấu trúc các trại tù cải tạo của CSBV nhằm giam giữ các người lính VNCH sau năm 1975. e. Tái cấu trúc, hình ảnh các trường học tư thục và công lập, các trường bình dân học vụ, và các trung tâm văn hóa. Tiểu sử các thầy cô.
6. Bản Dự thảo này được dịch sang Anh ngữ và thông báo lưu trữ trȇn Blog VNR Cơ Quan Ngôn Luận Chính Thức của Tổ Chức Văn Hóa VNCH, và có thể được bổ sung thȇm các chi tiết khi có nhu cầu. Trân trọng Hoàng Hoa Viettrade_net@yahoo.com San Jose, ngày 24/7/2020
US hits China anew for rights abuses in western Xinjiang
MATTHEW LEE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration
took new aim at China on Friday by imposing sanctions on a major
paramilitary organization in the country’s western Xinjiang region and
its commander for alleged human rights abuses against ethnic and
religious minorities.
The State and Treasury departments announced
the penalties as the White House denounced authorities in Hong Kong for
postponing local government elections ostensibly because of the
coronavirus pandemic. Criticism of the election delay, which Beijing
approved, also came just a day after President Donald Trump suggested
putting off November’s U.S. presidential vote.
The sanctions,
which freeze any assets the targets may have in U.S. jurisdictions and
perhaps more significantly bar Americans from doing business with them,
hit the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, its commander and
former political commissar for alleged abuses against Uighur Muslims,
including mass arbitrary detentions, forced labor and torture.
The
production and construction corps is a major operation consisting of 14
military-style divisions that reports to the Chinese Communist Party
and is in charge of billions of dollars in development projects in
Xinjiang, including mining and energy exploration.
"The
United States is committed to using the full breadth of its financial
powers to hold human rights abusers accountable in Xinjiang and across
the world,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. The
sanctions were imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act, which provides
authority for the administration to penalize human rights abusers
abroad.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the two officials
targeted — the commander, Peng Jiarui, and the former commissar, Sun
Jinlong — would also be subject to U.S. visa restrictions. The Trump
administration has previously sanctioned other officials in Xinjiang
subjecting them to travel bans.
Meanwhile, the White House lashed
out at the postponement of the upcoming Hong Kong elections in comments
likely to draw accusations of hypocrisy from China after Trump's tweeted
suggestion on Thursday that the U.S. elections be postponed to prevent
fraud from mail-in ballots expected to flood the polls because of the
virus outbreak.
“We condemn the Hong Kong government’s decision to
postpone for one year its legislative council elections and to
disqualify opposition candidates,” White House press secretary Kayleigh
McEnany said. “This action undermines the democratic processes and
freedoms that have underpinned Hong Kong’s prosperity and this is only
the most recent in a growing list of broken promises by Beijing."
Earlier
Friday, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced the government was
invoking an emergency ordinance to postpone the highly anticipated
legislative elections by a year, citing a worsening coronavirus
outbreak.
The postponement is a setback for the pro-democracy
opposition, which was hoping to capitalize on disenchantment with the
current pro-Beijing majority to make gains. A group of 22 lawmakers
issued a statement ahead of the announcement accusing the government of
using the outbreak as an excuse to delay the vote.
---
World
US ramps up sanctions over Uighur abuses with penalties on powerful Chinese paramilitary group
The U.S. has sanctioned
a powerful Chinese paramilitary organization in the country's western
province, accusing it of playing a key role in the detention and
repression of Muslim ethnic minorities.
The sanctions could have
far-reaching consequences, depending on their level of enforcement,
given the deep economic and political control of the group, the Xinjiang
Production and Construction Corps, in the Xinjiang region.
This round of penalties is also the second in just three weeks after President Donald Trump said earlier this month that he had withheld them for over a year to protect trade talks with China.
In recent weeks, his administration has bolted toward an increasingly
tough stance against Beijing as the Phase 1 trade deal all but fell
apart and the 2020 presidential election approaches.
On
July 9, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned regional officials and a security
agency for the repressive campaign against Uighurs and other ethnic
minorities that includes detaining over 1 million in "re-education" and forced labor camps, cracking down on practicing Islam and enforcing widespread sterilization practices.
China at first denied such camps existed, then defended them as a
counterterror operation; its foreign ministry has denied mass
sterilization.
"The Chinese Communist Party's human rights abuses in Xinjiang, China
against Uighurs and other Muslim minorities rank as the stain of the
century," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Friday.
In
addition to the XPCC, the Treasury Department is sanctioning the
organization's commander Peng Jiarui and a former senior official Sun
Jinlong.
The
latest actions mark a profound escalation in U.S. pressure. Described
as a "paramilitary organization" or a "farming militia," the XPCC is a
tool of the Chinese Communist Party first deployed in the 1950s to send
soldiers as pioneers or colonizers to Xinjiang, a largely undeveloped
region nearly 2,000 miles west of Beijing.
After years of
developing farmland, mining, and other industries, the XPCC now controls
huge portions of the region's economy, as well as critical security
functions. Analysts have reported
that the XPCC alone employs approximately 12% of the region's
population and accounts for 20% of the region's total economy, with even
larger shares of agriculture.
Pompeo accused the XPCC of being "directly involved in implementing"
what he called "a comprehensive surveillance, detention, and
indoctrination program" against Uighurs and other minorities.
It's
unclear if the XPCC has any assets in U.S. jurisdiction. But this now
puts any company, including American ones, at risk of U.S. sanctions if
they work in the region or have a supply chain with ties to it,
according to the U.S. Treasury, although teasing out those ties can be
difficult given how murky business in China can be.
"All
US companies (and foreign companies that do business in the US) should
be getting out of Xinjiang now (if they haven't already)," tweeted
Julian Ku, a professor at Hofstra University Law School.
Major
U.S. companies like Apple and Ralph Lauren are already struggling with
their commercial ties to Xinjiang after the U.S. Commerce Department
added to its list of blocked entities based in the region and several
agencies issued a joint warning of "legal risks" if companies' supply chains include the forced labor used in these internment camps.
On Capitol Hill Thursday, Pompeo said the administration hopes to use
these economic levers to change the Chinese government's behavior.
"I'm
really happy with the work we're making to convince businesses -- not
just American business because it's an international place of business
-- that they should really look hard at their supply chains -- not just
their direct employees, but their supply chains -- and what's taking
place there. I think if we get that right, we have the opportunity to
change what's taking place there," he told the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee.
Unleashing
economic pressure on China for the treatment of Uighurs is one of
several moves by the Trump administration to escalate its fight with
Beijing, including a declaration against its claims in the South China
Sea, a new round of arms sales to Taiwan, ending Hong Kong's special
economic status because of the crackdown on democracy and a crippling
campaign against Huawei, the telecommunications giant.
China is
likely to retaliate after Friday's sanctions, although its ability to do
so may be more limited. After the first round of sanctions this month,
it announced visa bans on U.S. ambassador-at-large for religious freedom
Sam Brownback, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J. -- four Republicans who have been outspoken on
the Uighur detention camps.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Chinese scientist
charged with visa fraud after authorities said she concealed her
military ties to China in order to work in the U.S. made her first
appearance Monday in federal court by video.
Juan Tang, 37, was
appointed a federal public defender and U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah
Barnes ordered Tang to remain in custody, saying she is a flight risk,
while her attorney prepares an argument to allow her release on bail.
The
Justice Department last week announced charges against Tang and three
other scientists living in the U.S., saying they lied about their status
as members of China’s People’s Liberation Army. All were charged with
visa fraud.
Prosecutors said Tang lied about her military ties in a
visa application last October as she prepared to work at the University
of California, Davis and again during an FBI interview in June. Agents
found photos of Tang dressed in military uniform and reviewed articles
in China identifying her military affiliation, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors
said Tang sought refuge at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco after
speaking with agents in June. U.S. marshals arrested her Friday and
booked her into Sacramento County Jail, where she remains.
Heather
Williams, a federal defender, said its common practice for people to
seek help from their consulate when dealing with law enforcement abroad,
and doing so did not make Tang guilty of anything, she said..
Williams added that U.S. agents took Tang's passport, forcing her young daughter to travel to China alone.
It's too soon to know what the photos of Tang mean, and she might have made a mistake on the visa application, the lawyer said.
“We
do know that our government seems to be increasingly hostile to China
and we hope Dr. Tang isn’t paying the price for that hostility," she
said.
The University of California, Davis said Tang left her job
in June as a visiting researcher in the Department of Radiation
Oncology.
The arrests come as tensions rise between China and the U.S.
-----
World
Escalating tensions could lead to US-China military clash: Gordon Chang
----
World
How a Chinese agent used LinkedIn to hunt for targets
Kevin Ponniah - BBC News
Jun Wei Yeo, an ambitious and freshly enrolled Singaporean PhD
student, was no doubt delighted when he was invited to give a
presentation to Chinese academics in Beijing in 2015.
His
doctorate research was about Chinese foreign policy and he was about to
discover firsthand how the rising superpower seeks to attain influence.
After
his presentation, Jun Wei, also known as Dickson, was, according to US
court documents, approached by several people who said they worked for
Chinese think tanks. They said they wanted to pay him to provide
"political reports and information". They would later specify exactly
what they wanted: "scuttlebutt" - rumours and insider knowledge.
He
soon realised they were Chinese intelligence agents but remained in
contact with them, a sworn statement says. He was first asked to focus
on countries in South East Asia but later, their interest turned to the
US government.
That
was how Dickson Yeo set off on a path to becoming a Chinese agent - one
who would end up using the professional networking website LinkedIn, a
fake consulting company and cover as a curious academic to lure in
American targets.
Alumni
at Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), which
trains some of Asia's top civil servants and government officials, were
left shocked by the news that their former peer had confessed to being a
Chinese agent.
"He was a very active student in class. I always
viewed him as a very intelligent person," said one former postgraduate
student who did not wish to be named
She said he often talked
about social inequality - and that his family struggled financially when
he was a child. She said she found it difficult to reconcile the person
she knew with his guilty plea.
A former member of staff at the
institution painted a different picture, saying Yeo seemed to have "an
inflated sense of his own importance".
Yeo's PhD supervisor had
been Huang Jing, a high-profile Chinese-American professor who was
expelled from Singapore in 2017 for being an "agent of influence of a
foreign country" that was not identified.
Huang Jing always denied those allegations. After leaving Singapore, he first worked in Washington DC, and now Beijing.
During
one meeting he was asked to specifically obtain information about the
US Department of Commerce, artificial intelligence and the Sino-US trade
war.
Bilahari Kausikan, the former permanent secretary at
Singapore's foreign ministry, said he had "no doubt that Dickson knew he
was working for the Chinese intelligence services".
He was not, he said, "an unwitting useful fool".
Yeo
made his crucial contacts using LinkedIn, the job and careers
networking site used by more than 700 million people. The platform was
described only as a "professional networking website" in the court
documents, but its use was confirmed to the Washington Post.
Former
government and military employees and contractors are not shy about
publicly posting details of their detailed work histories on the website
in order to obtain lucrative jobs in the private sector.
In
2017, Germany's intelligence agency said Chinese agents had used
LinkedIn to target at least 10,000 Germans. LinkedIn has not responded
to a request for comment for this story but has previously said it takes
a range of measures to stop nefarious activity.
Some of the
targets that Yeo found by trawling through LinkedIn were commissioned to
write reports for his "consultancy", which had the same name as an
already prominent firm. These were then sent to his Chinese contacts.
One
of the individuals he contacted worked on the US Air Force's F-35
fighter jet programme and admitted he had money problems. Another was a
US army officer assigned to the Pentagon, who was was paid at least
$2,000 (£1,500) to write a report on how the withdrawal of US forces
from Afghanistan would impact China.
In finding such contacts,
Yeo, who was based in Washington DC for part of 2019, was aided by an
invisible ally - the LinkedIn algorithm. Each time Yeo looked at
someone's profile it would suggest a new slate of contacts with similar
experience that he might be interested in. Yeo described it as
"relentless".
According to the court documents, his handlers
advised him to ask targets if they "were dissatisfied with work" or
"were having financial troubles".
William Nguyen, an American former student at the Lee Kuan Yew school who was arrested at a protest in Vietnam in 2018 and later deported,
said in a Facebook post on Saturday that Yeo had tried to contact him
"multiple times" after he was released from prison and his case made
headlines around the world.
In 2018, Yeo also posted fake online
job ads for his consulting company. He said he received more than 400
CVs with 90% of them coming from "US military and government personnel
with security clearances". Some were passed to his Chinese handlers.
The
use of LinkedIn is brazen, but not surprising, said Matthew Brazil, the
co-author of Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer.
"I
think lots of worldwide intelligence agencies probably use it to seek
out sources of information," he said. "Because it's in everybody's
interest who is on LinkedIn to put their whole career on there for
everybody to see - it's an unusually valuable tool in that regard."
He
said that commissioning consultant reports is a way for agents to get
"a hook" into a potentially valuable source who might later be convinced
to supply classified information.
"It's a modern version of classic tradecraft, really."
US
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said the
case was an example of how China exploits "the openness of American
society" and uses "non-Chinese nationals to target Americans who never
leave the United States".
Singapore, a multicultural society of
5.8 million where ethnic Chinese make up the majority of the population,
has long enjoyed close links with the United States, which uses its air
and naval bases. But it has also sought and maintained positive
relations with China.
Mr Kausikan said that he did not believe the
spying case - the first known to involve a Singaporean - would hurt the
country's reputation with the American government but he feared that
Singaporeans could face greater suspicion in American society.
A
spokesperson at the school told the BBC that Yeo had been granted a
leave of absence from his PhD in 2019 and his candidature had now been
terminated.
Dickson Yeo does not appear to have got as far with
his contacts as his handlers would have liked. But in November 2019, he
travelled to the US with instructions to turn the army officer into a
"permanent conduit of information", his signed statement says.
He was arrested before he could ask.
----
World
Australia rejects Beijing's South China Sea claims, backing US
Chinese navy ships, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, during military drills in the South China Sea
Chinese navy ships, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, during military drills in the South China Sea (AFP Photo/STR)
Sydney
(AFP) - Australia has rejected Beijing's territorial and maritime
claims in the South China Sea in a formal declaration to the United
Nations, aligning itself more closely with Washington in the escalating
row.
In a statement filed on Thursday, Australia said there was
"no legal basis" to several disputed Chinese claims in the sea including
those related to the construction of artificial islands on small shoals
and reefs.
"Australia rejects China's claim to 'historic rights'
or 'maritime rights and interests' as established in the 'long course of
historical practice' in the South China Sea," the declaration read.
"There
is no legal basis for China to draw straight baselines connecting the
outermost points of maritime features or 'island groups' in the South
China Sea, including around the 'Four Sha' or 'continental' or
'outlying' archipelagos."
The
declaration comes after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared
Beijing's pursuit of territory and resources in the South China Sea as
illegal, explicitly backing the territorial claims of Southeast Asian
countries against China's.
Beijing claims almost all of the South
China Sea based on a so-called nine-dash line, a vague delineation from
maps dating back to the 1940s.
The latest escalation comes ahead
of annual talks between Australia and the United States, with ministers
travelling to Washington for the first time since Australian borders
were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The meetings come at a
"critical time" and it is essential they are held face-to-face, Foreign
Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said in a
statement on Saturday.
US relations with China have markedly
deteriorated in recent months, especially over trade disputes, the
coronavirus pandemic and Beijing's crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.
On
Friday, Beijing ordered the US consulate in Chengdu to shut in
retaliation for the closure of its Houston mission over accusations of
being a hub for intellectual property theft.
Payne and Reynolds
also penned an article in The Australian newspaper on Saturday,
labelling national security legislation imposed on Hong Kong last month
as "sweeping and vague".
"We face a public health crisis, economic
upheaval and resurgent authoritarian regimes using coercion in a bid to
gain power and influence at the expense of our freedoms and
sovereignty," they wrote.
----
Reuters
Australia says China's South China Sea claims are unlawful
MELBOURNE
(Reuters) - Australia has joined the United States in stating that
China's claims in the South China Sea do not comply with international
law in a declaration likely to anger China and put more strain on their
deteriorating relations.
The United States this month rejected
China's claims to offshore resources in most of the South China Sea,
drawing criticism from China which said the U.S. position raised tension
in the region.
Australia, in a declaration filed at the United
Nations in New York on Friday, said it too rejected China’s maritime
claims around contested islands in the South China Sea as being
inconsistent with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
"Australia
rejects China's claim to 'historic rights' or 'maritime rights and
interests' as established in the 'long course of historical practice' in
the South China Sea," it said.
Australia
also said it did not accept China's assertion that its sovereignty over
the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands was "widely recognised by
the international community", citing objections from Vietnam and the
Philippines.
China claims 90% of the potentially energy-rich
waters but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also
lay claim to parts of it.
About $3 trillion worth of trade passes
through the waterway each year. China has built bases atop atolls in the
region but says its intentions are peaceful.
Australia has long
advocated for freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and for all
claimants to resolve their differences in compliance with international
laws.
Its more outspoken position on China's claims comes after
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this month China had offered no
coherent legal basis for its ambitions in the South China Sea and for
years has been using intimidation against other coastal states.
The
world would not allow China to treat the South China Sea as its
maritime empire, Pompeo said, adding that the United States would
support countries that believed China has violated their maritime
claims.
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.
Australia's
declaration on China's claims comes as its foreign and defence
ministers prepare to travel to Washington to attend a bilateral forum on
July 28, the government said.
Diplomatic tension between China
and Australia has worsened recently over various issues including an
Australian call for an international enquiry into the novel coronavirus,
which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Robert Birsel)
-----
NBC News
Justice Department charges Stanford researcher with lying about ties to Chinese military
Phil Helsel and Andrew Blankstein
A Chinese woman living in the United States as
a visiting researcher at Stanford University has been charged with
lying about her ties to the Chinese military, federal prosecutors said
Monday.
Song Chen, 38, is accused of obtaining a visa by material
false statements, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District
of California said in a statement.
She
was arrested over the weekend and in federal custody Monday night, a
spokesman for the office said. A hearing is scheduled Tuesday that will
deal with detention issues.
Song is not accused of stealing or
sending any materials to China, but she is accused of lying on visa
forms in 2018 to apply to go to Stanford as a neurologist.
Court
documents say Song answered that she had been in the Chinese military
from September 2000 to June 2011, and that she worked at "Xi Diaoyutai
Hospital" in Beijing.
Federal prosecutors say those were lies, and
that was a member of the People’s Liberation Army when she entered the
U.S. in 2018 and when she was here.
They say that the hospital she claimed to work for "was a cover for her true employer, the PLA."
A
criminal complaint says Song is employed by a Chinese air force
hospital and maintained her affiliation after 2011. Investigators think
she is part of a " civilian cadre," whose members are considered active
duty military.
The case was sealed in online records Monday. A
phone message to an attorney who represented her in court Monday was not
immediately returned Monday evening.
A representative for Stanford declined to comment.
An
FBI agent who wrote an affidavit in the case wrote that in an interview
this month, Song "repeatedly and adamantly denied" any current
affiliation with the People's Liberation Army Air Force or the Chinese
military or Fourth Military Medical University.
She said,
according to the affidavit, that after graduating from Fourth Military
Medical University, which is described as a PLA Air Force university,
she disassociated from the Chinese military.
But prosecutors said
that research articles showed her affiliation with institutions under
the air force, and that investigators who searched her computer
recovered a deleted document of a letter to the Chinese consulate in New
York.
Song allegedly "wrote that her stated employer, Beijing Xi
Diaoyutai Hospital, is a false front," according to the U.S. attorney's
office.
The FBI agent who wrote the affidavit in the criminal
complaint wrote that the recovered letter "provides further evidence
that Song works for the PLA and was here on its behalf."
Song is an expert in myasthenia gravis, a rare disorder
that causes muscle weakness. A Stanford professor told an investigator
that Song's research benefitted the work in his lab, according to the
affidavit.
The charge of obtaining a visa by material false
statements is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, according to the
U.S. attorney's office.
Song is only charged with lying in visa forms.
But FBI Director Chris Wray said at an event earlier this month that that nearly half of the FBI's 5,000 active counterintelligence cases relate to China.
In
June, another Chinese national who is alleged to be an officer of the
Chinese military was arrested in California on accusations that he lied
on visa applications to come to the U.S. as a researcher at the
University of California, San Francisco, according to the Justice Department.
Xin
Wang, who federal prosecutors say is a scientific researcher and
officer with the PLA, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport
as he attempted to leave for China.
Federal prosecutors say he was
instructed by the director of his military university lab in China to
observe the layout of the lab at UC San Francisco so that it could be
replicated in there. Wang was also charged with visa fraud.
----
U.S.
Chinese researcher charged with US visa fraud is in custody
JANIE HAR
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Chinese researcher
accused of concealing her ties to the Chinese military on a visa
application she submitted so she could work in the U.S. was booked
Friday into a Northern California jail and was expected to appear in
federal court Monday.
Sacramento County jail records show Juan
Tang, 37, was being held on behalf of federal authorities after she was
arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service. It was unclear if she had an
attorney who could comment on her behalf.
The Justice Department
on Thursday announced charges against Tang and three other scientists
living in the U.S., saying they lied about their status as members of
China’s People’s Liberation Army. All were charged with visa fraud.
Tang
was the last of the four to be arrested, after the justice department
accused the Chinese consulate in San Francisco of harboring a known
fugitive. The consulate did not immediately respond to email and
Facebook messages seeking comment and it was not possible to leave a
telephone message.
The
Justice Department said Tang lied about her military ties in a visa
application last October as she made plans to work at the University of
California, Davis and again during an FBI interview months later. Agents
found photos of Tang dressed in military uniform and reviewed articles
in China identifying her military affiliation.
UC Davis said Tang
left her job as a visiting researcher in the Department of Radiation
Oncology in June. Her work was funded by a study-based exchange program
affiliated with China’s Ministry of Education, the university said in a
statement.
Agents have said they believe Tang sought refuge at the
consulate after they interviewed her at her home in Davis on June 20.
The FBI has been interviewing visa holders in more than 25 American
cities suspected of hiding their ties to the Chinese military.
The
allegations came as U.S.-China relations continued to deteriorate,
particularly over allegations of Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual
property.
China's consulate in Houston was scheduled to shut down
Friday on order of U.S. authorities after Washington accused Chinese
agents of trying to steal medical and other research in Texas.
In response, China on Friday ordered the U.S. to close its consulate in the city of Chengdu.
---
CBS News Videos
China vows revenge after U.S. orders consulate in Houston to close
China is vowing retaliation after the U.S. ordered Beijing to close its
consulate in Houston. China received the order on Tuesday, before
reports that someone was burning documents in the courtyard of the
consulate. The U.S. said the facility was ordered closed "to protect
American intellectual property and Americans' private information."
----
World
People
are burning documents at the Chinese Consulate in Houston, as Beijing
says the US abruptly gave it 72 hours to shut it down
An image from video footage appearing to show documents being burned in the courtyard of China's Houston consulate.
Twitter/ KPRC2Tulsi/Breaking 911
People were seen burning documents at the Chinese Consulate in Houston, and fire services were called to the scene.
The
police told multiple outlets that people were burning documents in what
appeared to be open trash cans. It is not clear what those documents
were.
It came as China said the US
ordered the consulate to be closed in an "unprecedented escalation."
Chinese state media reported that the US had given China 72 hours to
close it.
The State Department said the closing was ordered to protect American intellectual property and Americans' private information.
China
painted the decision in light of strained US-China relations, claiming
the US "has repeatedly stigmatized China," and vowed to retaliate if the
US did not reverse its order.
People are burning documents at the Chinese Consulate in Houston after China said the US gave it 72 hours to close.
The local outlet ABC 13 reported early Wednesday morning that trash cans full of documents were being burned in the consulate's courtyard.
A police official told the Houston Chronicle that witnesses saw paper being burned in what appeared to be open trash cans outside the building.
The police also told the local outlet Fox26 Houston that a fire reported at the consulate on Tuesday evening was the result of people burning documents. KPRC 2 reported that the police were told documents were being burned just after 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday.
One witness told KPRC 2: "You could just smell the paper burning."
Fox26
reported that police officers and the fire department were not allowed
onto the premises as it's considered Chinese territory. The police
official told the Houston Chronicle that the police were not allowed to
access the building.
Video footage appears to show documents being burned outside the building:
The Houston police department also tweeted about the apparent document burning.
"About
8:25 pm on Tuesday, our officers responded to a meet the firefighter
call to the China Consulate General in Houston building ... Smoke was
observed in an outside courtyard area," the department said. "Officers were not granted access to enter the building."
Business
Insider was unable to contact the Consulate General of the People's
Republic of China in Houston outside its working hours.
The news comes as China said the US abruptly ordered China to close it immediately.
"On
July 21, the US suddenly requested China to close the Consulate General
in Houston. This was a political provocation unilaterally initiated by
the US against China," a Chinese Foreign Ministry representative, Wang
Wenbin, said on Wednesday, calling it an "unprecedented escalation" in US-China relations.
In
a statement sent to Business Insider, the US State Department
representative Morgan Ortagus said: "We have directed the closure of PRC
Consulate General Houston, in order to protect American intellectual
property and American's private information," using an abbreviation for
the People's Republic of China.
"The United States will not
tolerate the PRC's violations of our sovereignty and intimidation of our
people, just as we have not tolerated the PRC's unfair trade practices,
theft of American jobs, and other egregious behavior," she added.
Wang
said the move "seriously violated international law and basic norms of
international relation" and damaged relations between the US and China.
"China
strongly condemns this. China urges the US to immediately revoke the
wrong decision," he said. "Otherwise, China will definitely make a
proper and necessary response."
Hu Xijin, the editor of China's state-backed Global Times newspaper, said the US gave China just 72 hours to close the consulate.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department charged
two Chinese state-backed hackers with hacking into the computer systems
of hundreds of companies, governments, and individual activists and
stealing their data. It is not clear whether these charges are related
to the ordered closing.
China has four other consulates in the US —
in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco — as well as an
embassy in Washington, DC.
The Foreign Ministry statement said the
Houston consulate was being closed "unilaterally" by the US "for a
limited time." It did not specify a deadline given by the US.
The ministry also criticized the US's treatment of China.
"For
a period of time, the US government has repeatedly stigmatized China,
conducted unprovoked attacks on China's development, unreasonably made
things difficult for Chinese diplomatic and consular staff in the US,
and intimidated, interrogated, and confiscated personal electronic
equipment from Chinese students studying in the US," it said, without
giving evidence to back up its charges.
Ortagus, the State Department spokeswoman, said: "President Trump insists on fairness and reciprocity in US-China relations."
Sen.
Marco Rubio, the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
celebrated the move to close the consulate in a tweet. The Florida
Republican referred to the Chinese consulate in Houston as a "massive spy center."
"#China's
consulate in #Houston is not a diplomatic facility. It is the central
node of the Communist Party's vast network of spies & influence
operations in the United States. Now that building must close & the
spies have 72 hours to leave or face arrest. This needed to happen," Rubio said. The New York Times noted that while ordering a consulate closed was a strong step, it was one that had been taken before in disputes between countries.
For
example, the US ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco
in 2017 after Russia restricted the number of diplomats the US could
have in Moscow.
An unidentified source told Reuters
that Beijing was considering closing the US consulate in the Chinese
city of Wuhan in retaliation, but China's next moves remain unclear.
Tensions
between the US and China have reached historic heights in the Trump
era, with top experts warning that the two major powers are on the brink of a new Cold War. Though he praised China's handling of COVID-19 early on, President Donald Trump shifted to blaming Beijing for the pandemic as the US coronavirus outbreak worsened, which has exacerbated the situation. The virus was originally detected in Wuhan.
"We're essentially in the beginnings of a Cold War," Orville Schell, the director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society, told Insider in May. "We are on a downward slide into something increasingly adversarial with China."
Read the original article on Business Insider
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
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)
----
World
Alarm over discovery of hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels near Galápagos Islands
Dan Collyns in Lima
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.
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.
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.
---
Politics
U.S. targets all Chinese Communist Party members for possible travel ban: source
Matt Spetalnick
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)
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.
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."
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".
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.
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.
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.
---
Reuters
U.S. holds naval exercises with allies in Asia amid China tension
Sanjeev Miglani
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)
---
World
Japan protests Chinese maritime survey off southern islets
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."
"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."
"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.
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.)
