China's New 25 ton capacity Long March 5 rocket is on the launch pad and ready for November launch

nextbigfuture.com Mon, Oct 31 12:06 PM PDT 

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/2158ed88-f82c-3ff2-bc2e-1d6a399ebe9e/ss_china%26%2339%3Bs-new-25-ton.html

China's largest carrier rocket, the Long March-5, will make its first trip into space in early November this year. The rocket, which arrived at the Wenchang launch center in south China's Hainan Province in September, was transported to the launch area on Friday morning, after finishing final assembly and tests, said the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND ). With the strongest carrying capacity in China, the rocket will receive functional examinations and further tests before launch. According to the SASTIND, the Long March-5 integrates top space technologies, including non-toxic environmentally-friendly fuel and a highly stable controlling system, representing a landmark in the country's carrier rockets. 

Philippine Leader's Meeting With Japan Emperor Canceled

VOA News 16 hours ago 

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/27a28a7d-bd59-3acf-b091-42d14763f8ec/philippine-leader%26%2339%3Bs.html

TOKYO —  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is leaving Japan without meeting Emperor Akihito as the scheduled meeting had to be canceled because of the death of the emperor's uncle. Duterte earlier Thursday proposed joint military exercises with Japan, while reiterating that he will not conduct them with Americans in his presidency. Duterte made the proposal during his visit to a coast guard unit to observe an exercise from one of the patrol vessels Japan pledged to provide the Philippines to upgrade Manila's maritime security capabilities amid South China Sea disputes with Beijing. Duterte has criticized U.S. foreign policy while cozying up to Beijing to calm the dispute. He said Wednesday ...

The Case for Stronger Relations Between Vietnam and America

The National Interest Mon, Oct 24 1:00 AM PDT 

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At the invitation of Secretary of State John Kerry, Dinh The Huynh today embarks on a working visit to the United States. Little known beyond Vietnam as he is, Huynh is the Executive Secretary of Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), one of the country's five key leaders. In Hanoi’s power hierarchy, Huynh’s job is a highly contested position often reserved for strong candidates groomed for higher promotion. The fact that his visit came just five months after U.S. President Barack Obama visited Vietnam in May 2016 shows that Hanoi continues to attach great importance to its relations with the United States. Seventy years ago, in his letter dated February ...

China slams 'provocative' US sail-by in South China Sea

(Hải quân Hoa Kỳ đi vào đảo Tri Tôn quần đảo Hoàng Sa)

AFP Fri, Oct 21 9:04 PM PDT 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-slams-provocative-us-sail-south-china-sea-040452930.html

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China has slammed the US for sailing a warship near disputed territory in the South China Sea, saying the move was a "serious illegal act" and "deliberately provocative".

In a statement on its website late Friday night, the country's defence ministry said two Chinese naval vessels warned off a US ship after it entered "Chinese territorial waters" near the Paracel Islands, known as Xisha in Chinese.

China controls all of the islands, which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.

The ship's "entrance into China's territorial waters is a serious illegal act and a deliberately provocative act," it said, adding that the ministry had made "solemn representations" to Washington.

In a separate online statement, the foreign ministry said the action had "seriously violated China's sovereignty and security interests, and had seriously broken relevant Chinese law and international law."

The Pentagon said Friday it had sent the destroyer USS Decatur close to the Paracel Islands, but that the ship had not passed within the 12 nautical mile zone that international law defines as territorial waters.

The ships transited the area in "a routine, lawful manner without ship escorts and without incident," a spokesman said.

As Duterte embraces China, Japan's Abe set to roll out warm welcome

By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo,Reuters 16 hours ago 

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By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo

https://www.yahoo.com/news/duterte-embraces-china-japans-abe-set-roll-warm-060945483.html

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans private personal meetings with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Tokyo next week, three sources said, seeking to keep him onside with U.S.-led efforts to contain Beijing's South China Sea ambitions.

With Duterte winding up a trip to China where he announced his "separation" from the United States, Abe faces a delicate task to promote the closely aligned security goals of Tokyo and Washington without pushing the Philippine leader deeper into Beijing's embrace.

"Japan wants to explain its regional stance, including its thinking regarding the South China Sea," said one of the sources. "Abe wants to make a connection with Duterte," he added, asking not to be identified because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

Duterte's apparent cosying up to Beijing has both Tokyo and Washington worried that the commitment under former Philippine President Benigno Aquino to stand up to China in the hotly disputed waterway is under threat.

U.S. warship challenges China's claims in South China Sea

By Idrees Ali and Matt Spetalnick,Reuters 9 hours ago 

(Khu Trục hạm Hoa Kỳ tuần tra trong quần đảo Hoàng Sa)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-u-carries-freedom-navigation-operation-south-china-133448275.html

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By Idrees Ali and Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. navy destroyer sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea on Friday, drawing a warning from Chinese warships to leave the area.
The U.S. action was the latest attempt to counter what Washington sees as Beijing's efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters, U.S. officials said.
The Chinese Defense Ministry called the move "illegal" and "provocative," saying that two Chinese warships had warned the U.S. destroyer to leave.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur challenged "excessive maritime claims" near the Paracel Islands, among a string of islets, reefs and shoals over which China has territorial disputes with its neighbors, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The latest U.S. patrol, first reported by Reuters, is expected to anger Beijing and could further escalate tensions over the South China Sea. The destroyer sailed within waters claimed by China, close to but not within the 12-nautical-mile territorial limits of the islands, the officials said.
The Pentagon said the Decatur "conducted this transit in a routine, lawful manner without ship escorts and without incident." One official said the ship, which sailed near Triton and Woody Islands, was shadowed by three Chinese vessels and that all interactions were safe.
The White House confirmed the Reuters report.
"This operation demonstrated that coastal states may not unlawfully restrict the navigation rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise under international law," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing.
It was the fourth challenge that the United States has made to what it considers overreaching maritime claims by China in the South China Sea in the past year, and the first since May.
China, Washington's main strategic rival in Asia, claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion worth of trade passes each year. The United States has criticized Beijing's build-up of military facilities in the sea and expressed concerns they could be used to restrict free movement.
China's Defense Ministry said it had declared its "baseline" for the Paracel Islands in 1996, something the United States knew. Despite that, the Chinese government said, the United States had sent a ship into Chinese "territorial waters."
A statement from China's Foreign Ministry said the U.S. ship did not ask for permission to enter Chinese territorial waters, and had broken both Chinese and international law.
The ministry accused the United States of deliberately creating tensions.
China has a runway on Woody Island, the site of the largest Chinese presence on the Paracels, and has placed surface-to-air missiles there, according to U.S. officials. Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the Paracels.
In the last three U.S. freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea within the last year, U.S. warships cruised within 12 nautical miles of islands claimed by Beijing. The actions drew angry responses from China, which has accused the United States of stirring up trouble there.
The latest operation comes just after the volatile president of the Philippines announced, during a visit to China, his "separation" from Washington and realignment with Beijing. The Philippines has been a key ally of the United States and a territorial rival of Beijing in the South China Sea. Rodrigo Duterte took office as Philippine president in June.
Duterte's announcement on Thursday was a significant turnaround after a tribunal in The Hague ruled that China did not have historic rights to the South China Sea in a case brought by the previous Philippine administration and strongly backed by the United States.
But in Washington a person close to the matter said the latest naval operation was not timed for Duterte's China visit this week and that planning for the patrol had long been in the works.
U.S. officials have said they will continue such operations despite objections by Beijing.
"The U.S. Navy will continue to conduct routine and lawful operations around the world, including in the South China Sea, in order to protect the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of sea and airspace guaranteed to all. This will not change," Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said during a trip to China in July.
RIVAL CLAIMS
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam all have rival claims in the South China Sea, but Beijing's is the largest. It argues it can do what it wants on the islands it claims as they have been Chinese since ancient times.
The last U.S. freedom-of-navigation operation in May went within 12 miles of Fiery Cross reef in the Spratly Islands and China scrambled fighter jets in response.
In January, a U.S. destroyer went within 12 miles of Triton Island, and China called the action "irresponsible and extremely dangerous."
U.S. officials have said the operations will continue despite Beijing's protests, but the Obama administration has been criticized in Congress for not conducting them more regularly and robustly.
Greg Poling, a South China Sea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said the administration was likely to face further criticism after opting for relatively uncontroversial challenges to China in all of its freedom-of-navigation operations in the past year.
"They will have essentially performed the same FONOP, meaning an objection to China's demand for prior notification, four times in a year," he said.
"That is not only redundant, but it does nothing to put a spotlight on the other, much more worrying, restrictions China is placing on freedom of navigation."
China has been placing more serious restrictions on movement, he said, around artificial islands China has built on reefs in the Spratly chain, notably Mischief Reef.


(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Jeff Mason.; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Astronauts ready for China's longest space mission yet

By Katie Hunt and Serenitie Wang, CNN

Updated 12:12 AM ET, Sun October 16, 2016

 http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/16/asia/china-longest-space-mission/index.html

 (CNN)China is preparing for its longest-ever crewed space mission, with a spacecraft carrying two astronauts expected to lift off Monday, according to state media.

The Shenzhou-11 "heavenly vessel" will blast off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 7:30 a.m. (7:30 p.m. Sunday ET), state broadcaster CCTV said Sunday.

On board will be two astronauts -- Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong. They will dock with the Tiangong-2 space lab, which was launched last month.

Jing and Chen will remain in space for a total of 33 days, with 30 of those spent conducting experiments related to medicine, physics and biology in the space lab.