Thứ Bảy, 25 tháng 4, 2020

Special Report: U.S. rearms to nullify China's missile supremacy. China says it 'expelled' U.S. Navy vessel from South China Sea

World


Special Report: U.S. rearms to nullify China's missile supremacy


David Lague
1 / 15

https://www.yahoo.com/news/special-report-u-rearms-nullify-093102073.html

FILE PHOTO: With the USS-Wasp in the background, U.S. Marines ride an amphibious assault vehicle during the amphibious landing exercises of the U.S.-Philippines war games promoting bilateral ties at a military camp in Zambales province
By David Lague
HONG KONG (Reuters) - As Washington and Beijing trade barbs over the coronavirus pandemic, a longer-term struggle between the two Pacific powers is at a turning point, as the United States rolls out new weapons and strategy in a bid to close a wide missile gap with China.
The United States has largely stood by in recent decades as China dramatically expanded its military firepower. Now, having shed the constraints of a Cold War-era arms control treaty, the Trump administration is planning to deploy long-range, ground-launched cruise missiles in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Pentagon intends to arm its Marines with versions of the Tomahawk cruise missile now carried on U.S. warships, according to the White House budget requests for 2021 and Congressional testimony in March of senior U.S. military commanders. It is also accelerating deliveries of its first new long-range anti-ship missiles in decades.
In a statement to Reuters about the latest U.S. moves, Beijing urged Washington to "be cautious in word and deed," to "stop moving chess pieces around" the region, and to "stop flexing its military muscles around China."
The U.S. moves are aimed at countering China's overwhelming advantage in land-based cruise and ballistic missiles. The Pentagon also intends to dial back China's lead in what strategists refer to as the "range war." The People's Liberation Army (PLA), China's military, has built up a huge force of missiles that mostly outrange those of the U.S. and its regional allies, according to senior U.S. commanders and strategic advisers to the Pentagon, who have been warning that China holds a clear advantage in these weapons.
And, in a radical shift in tactics, the Marines will join forces with the U.S. Navy in attacking an enemy's warships. Small and mobile units of U.S. Marines armed with anti-ship missiles will become ship killers.
In a conflict, these units will be dispersed at key points in the Western Pacific and along the so-called first island chain, commanders said. The first island chain is the string of islands that run from the Japanese archipelago, through Taiwan, the Philippines and on to Borneo, enclosing China's coastal seas.
Top U.S. military commanders explained the new tactics to Congress in March in a series of budget hearings. The commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, General David Berger, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 5 that small units of Marines armed with precision missiles could assist the U.S. Navy to gain control of the seas, particularly in the Western Pacific. "The Tomahawk missile is one of the tools that is going to allow us to do that," he said.
The Tomahawk - which first gained fame when launched in massed strikes during the 1991 Gulf War - has been carried on U.S. warships and used to attack land targets in recent decades. The Marines would test fire the cruise missile through 2022 with the aim of making it operational the following year, top Pentagon commanders testified.
At first, a relatively small number of land-based cruise missiles will not change the balance of power. But such a shift would send a strong political signal that Washington is preparing to compete with China's massive arsenal, according to senior U.S. and other Western strategists. Longer term, bigger numbers of these weapons combined with similar Japanese and Taiwanese missiles would pose a serious threat to Chinese forces, they say. The biggest immediate threat to the PLA comes from new, long-range anti-ship missiles now entering service with U.S. Navy and Air Force strike aircraft.
"The Americans are coming back strongly," said Ross Babbage, a former senior Australian government defense official and now a non-resident fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a security research group. "By 2024 or 2025 there is a serious risk for the PLA that their military developments will be obsolete."
A Chinese military spokesman, Senior Colonel Wu Qian, warned last October that Beijing would "not stand by" if Washington deployed land-based, long-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region.
China's foreign ministry accused the United States of sticking "to its cold war mentality" and "constantly increasing military deployment" in the region.
"Recently, the United States has gotten worse, stepping up its pursuit of a so-called 'Indo-Pacific strategy' that seeks to deploy new weapons, including ground-launched intermediate-range missiles, in the Asia-Pacific region," the ministry said in a statement to Reuters. "China firmly opposes that."
Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn said he would not comment on statements by the Chinese government or the PLA.
U.S. MILITARY UNSHACKLED
While the coronavirus pandemic rages, Beijing has increased its military pressure on Taiwan and exercises in the South China Sea. In a show of strength, on April 11 the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning led a flotilla of five other warships into the Western Pacific through the Miyako Strait to the northeast of Taiwan, according to Taiwan's Defense Ministry. On April 12, the Chinese warships exercised in waters east and south of Taiwan, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy was forced to tie up the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt at Guam while it battles to contain a coronavirus outbreak among the crew of the giant warship. However, the U.S. Navy managed to maintain a powerful presence off the Chinese coast. The guided-missile destroyer USS Barry passed through the Taiwan Strait twice in April. And the amphibious assault ship USS America last month exercised in the East China Sea and South China Sea, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said.
In a series last year, Reuters reported that while the U.S. was distracted by almost two decades of war in the Middle East and Afghanistan, the PLA had built a missile force designed to attack the aircraft carriers, other surface warships and network of bases that form the backbone of American power in Asia. Over that period, Chinese shipyards built the world's biggest navy, which is now capable of dominating the country's coastal waters and keeping U.S. forces at bay.
The series also revealed that in most categories, China's missiles now rival or outperform counterparts in the armories of the U.S. alliance.
To read the series, click https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/china-army
China derived an advantage because it was not party to a Cold War-era treaty - the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) - that banned the United States and Russia from possessing ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges from 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers. Unrestrained by the INF pact, China has deployed about 2,000 of these weapons, according to U.S. and other Western estimates.
While building up its missile forces on land, the PLA also fitted powerful, long-range anti-ship missiles to its warships and strike aircraft.
This accumulated firepower has shifted the regional balance of power in China's favor. The United States, long the dominant military power in Asia, can no longer be confident of victory in a military clash in waters off the Chinese coast, according to senior retired U.S. military officers.
But the decision by President Donald Trump last year to exit the INF treaty has given American military planners new leeway. Almost immediately after withdrawing from the pact on August 2, the administration signaled it would respond to China's missile force. The next day, U.S. Secretary for Defense Mark Esper said he would like to see ground-based missiles deployed in Asia within months, but he acknowledged it would take longer.
Later that month, the Pentagon tested a ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missile. In December, it tested a ground-launched ballistic missile. The INF treaty banned such ground-launched weapons, and thus both tests would have been forbidden.
A senior Marines commander, Lieutenant General Eric Smith, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 11 that the Pentagon leadership had instructed the Marines to field a ground-launched cruise missile "very quickly."
The budget documents show that the Marines have requested $125 million to buy 48 Tomahawk missiles from next year. The Tomahawk has a range of 1,600km, according to its manufacturer, Raytheon Company.
Smith said the cruise missile may not ultimately prove to be the most suitable weapon for the Marines. "It may be a little too heavy for us," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee, but experience gained from the tests could be transferred to the army.
Smith also said the Marines had successfully tested a new shorter-range anti-ship weapon, the Naval Strike Missile, from a ground launcher and would conduct another test in June. He said if that test was successful, the Marines intended to order 36 of these missiles in 2022. The U.S. Army is also testing a new long-range, land-based missile that can target warships. This missile would have been prohibited under the INF treaty.
The Marine Corps said in a statement it was evaluating the Naval Strike Missile to target ships and the Tomahawk for attacking targets on land. Eventually, the Marines aimed to field a system "that could engage long-range moving targets either on land or sea," the statement said.
The Defense Department also has research underway on new, long-range strike weapons, with a budget request of $3.2 billion for hypersonic technology, mostly for missiles.
China's foreign ministry drew a distinction between the PLA's arsenal of missiles and the planned U.S. deployment. It said China's missiles were "located in its territory, especially short and medium-range missiles, which cannot reach the mainland of the United States. This is fundamentally different from the U.S., which is vigorously pushing forward deployment."
BOTTLING UP CHINA'S NAVY
Military strategists James Holmes and Toshi Yoshihara suggested almost a decade ago that the first island chain was a natural barrier that could be exploited by the American military to counter the Chinese naval build-up. Ground-based anti-ship missiles could command key passages through the island chain into the Western Pacific as part of a strategy to keep the rapidly expanding Chinese navy bottled up, they suggested.
In embracing this strategy, Washington is attempting to turn Chinese tactics back on the PLA. Senior U.S. commanders have warned that China's land-based cruise and ballistic missiles would make it difficult for U.S. and allied navies to operate near China's coastal waters.
But deploying ground-based U.S. and allied missiles in the island chain would pose a similar threat to Chinese warships - to vessels operating in the South China Sea, East China Sea and Yellow Sea, or ships attempting to break out into the Western Pacific. Japan and Taiwan have already deployed ground-based anti-ship missiles for this purpose.
"We need to be able to plug up the straits," said Holmes, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College. "We can, in effect, ask them if they want Taiwan or the Senkakus badly enough to see their economy and armed forces cut off from the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. In all likelihood the answer will be no."
Holmes was referring to the uninhabited group of isles in the East China Sea - known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China - that are claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing.
The United States faces challenges in plugging the first island chain. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to distance himself from the United States and forge closer ties with China is a potential obstacle to American plans. U.S. forces could face barriers to operating from strategically important islands in the Philippines archipelago after Duterte in February scrapped a key security agreement with Washington.
And if U.S. forces do deploy in the first island chain with anti-ship missiles, some U.S. strategists believe this won't be decisive, as the Marines would be vulnerable to strikes from the Chinese military.
The United States has other counterweights. The firepower of long-range U.S. Air Force bombers could pose a bigger threat to Chinese forces than the Marines, the strategists said. Particularly effective, they said, could be the stealthy B-21 bomber, which is due to enter service in the middle of this decade, armed with long-range missiles.
The Pentagon is already moving to boost the firepower of its existing strike aircraft in Asia. U.S. Navy Super Hornet jets and Air Force B-1 bombers are now being armed with early deliveries of Lockheed Martin's new Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, according to the budget request documents. The new missile is being deployed in response to an "urgent operational need" for the U.S. Pacific Command, the documents explain.
The new missile carries a 450 kilogram warhead and is capable of "semi-autonomous" targeting, giving it some ability to steer itself, according to the budget request. Details of the stealthy cruise missile's range are classified. But U.S. and other Western military officials estimate it can strike targets at distances greater than 800 kilometers.
The budget documents show the Pentagon is seeking $224 million to order another 53 of these missiles in 2021. The U.S. Navy and Air Force expect to have more than 400 of them in service by 2025, according to orders projected in the documents.
This new anti-ship missile is derived from an existing Lockheed long-range, land attack weapon, the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile. The Pentagon is asking for $577 million next year to order another 400 of these land-attack missiles.
"The U.S. and allied focus on long-range land-attack and anti-ship cruise missiles was the quickest way to rebuild long-range conventional firepower in the Western Pacific region," said Robert Haddick, a former U.S. Marine Corps officer and now a visiting senior fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies based in Arlington, Virginia.
For the U.S. Navy in Asia, Super Hornet jets operating from aircraft carriers and armed with the new anti-ship missile would deliver a major boost in firepower while allowing the expensive warships to operate further away from potential threats, U.S. and other Western military officials say.
Current and retired U.S. Navy officers have been urging the Pentagon to equip American warships with longer-range anti-ship missiles that would allow them to compete with the latest, heavily armed Chinese cruisers, destroyers and frigates. Lockheed has said it successfully test-fired one of the new Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles from the type of launcher used on U.S. and allied warships.
Haddick, one of the first to draw attention to China's firepower advantage in his 2014 book, "Fire on the Water," said the threat from Chinese missiles had galvanized the Pentagon with new strategic thinking and budgets now directed at preparing for high-technology conflict with powerful nations like China.
Haddick said the new missiles were critical to the defensive plans of America and its allies in the Western Pacific. The gap won't close immediately, but firepower would gradually improve, Haddick said. "This is especially true during the next half-decade and more, as successor hypersonic and other classified munition designs complete their long periods of development, testing, production, and deployment," he said.
(Additional reporting by the Beijing newsroom. Edited by Peter Hirschberg.)
 World










China says it 'expelled' U.S. Navy vessel from South China Sea


Adela Suliman and Eric Baculinao and Leou Chen and Ed Flanagan
NBC News
China's military has said it "expelled" a U.S. navy vessel from the hotly contested waters of the South China Sea this week. It said the "USS Barry" had illegally entered China's Xisha territorial waters on Tuesday.
China's Southern Theater army command "organized sea and air forces to track, monitor, verify, and identify the U.S. ships throughout the journey, and warned and expelled them," said Chinese military spokesperson Li Huamin, in a statement.
"The provocative actions of the United States seriously violated relevant international law norms, seriously violated China's sovereignty and security interests, artificially increased regional security risks, and were prone to cause unexpected incidents," he said.
NBC News reached out to American officials who were not immediately available for comment overnight.
The South China Sea is a potentially energy-rich stretch of water and home to more than 200 specks of land. It serves as a gateway to global sea routes where approximately $3.4 trillion of trade passes annually.
The numerous overlapping sovereign claims to islands, reefs and rocks — many of which disappear under high tide — have turned the waters into a zone of competing diplomatic interests, embroiling neighbors. Beijing holds the lion's share of these features with approximately 27 outposts peppered throughout.
Tension has been simmering in the South China Sea, of late, particularly between China and its Asian seafaring neighbors Malaysia and the Philippines.
This month Vietnam also lodged an official protest with China, following the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat it said had been rammed by a Chinese maritime surveillance vessel near the Paracel Islands, in the South China Sea. China denied the claims and said the Vietnamese boat had illegally entered the area to fish and refused to leave.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told his Southeast Asian counterparts that China was taking advantage of the world’s preoccupation with the coronavirus pandemic to push its territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.
"Beijing has moved to take advantage of the distraction, from China’s new unilateral announcement of administrative districts over disputed islands ... its sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel earlier this month, and its ‘research stations’ on Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef," Pompeo said in a video meeting with the foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on April 23.
Pompeo also accused China of deploying militarized ships to intimidate other claimant countries from developing offshore gas and oil projects in the region.
Last week, the U.S. Navy said it had partnered with the Australian navy for operations in the South China Sea, which began April 13.
"To bring this much combat capability together here in the South China Sea truly signals to our allies and partners in the region that we are deeply committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific," said Rear Adm. Fred Kacher, commander of the America Expeditionary Strike Group, in a statement.
The U.S. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest numbered fleet and routinely conducts operations in the Indo-Pacific area. It has said that all of its interactions during freedom of navigation movements have been in accordance with international norms.
The U.S. Navy has previously stated that sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea posed a serious threat to freedom of the seas and the right of innocent passage of all ships.











China has maintained that it has historical sovereign rights in the South China Sea, which neighboring countries have disputed. In this latest interaction, China said the U.S. was not acting "in line" with the wishes of other countries in the region, which want to "maintain peace and stability in that area."
Spokesperson Li also urged the U.S. to instead focus on its national COVID-19 crisis.
"We urge the United States to focus on the prevention and control of its national epidemic situation, do more useful things for international anti-epidemic efforts, and immediately stop military operations that are not conducive to regional security, peace and stability," he said.
The coronavirus pandemic has been a growing source of tension between the world's two largest economies, with both Washington D.C. and Beijing heaping criticism on each others' handling of the outbreak.
Li added that Chinese forces would continue to "resolutely perform their duties" in the South China Sea to "firmly maintain peace and stability."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
World












Australia asks China to explain 'economic coercion' threat in coronavirus row

By Kirsty Needham
Reuters

By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia has asked the Chinese ambassador to explain his "threats of economic coercion" in response to Canberra's push for an international inquiry into the source and spread of the coronavirus.
Australia's call for a probe into the pandemic, which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December, has angered China, its largest trading partner, following a couple of years of diplomatic tension.
Cheng Jingye, Beijing's ambassador to Australia, told a newspaper on Monday that Chinese consumers could boycott Australian beef, wine, tourism and universities in response.
Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said Australia was a "crucial supplier" to China and that Australia's resources and energy helped power much of China's manufacturing growth and construction.
He said Cheng had been called by the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to explain his comments.
"Australia is no more going to change our policy position on major public health issues because of economic coercion, or threats of economic coercion, than we would change our policy position in matters of national security," Birmingham said on ABC radio.
The Chinese embassy published a summary of the conversation on its website, which said Cheng had "flatly rejected the concern expressed from the Australian side".
Cheng also said "the fact cannot be buried that the proposal is a political manoeuvre," according to the statement, which added that Australia was "crying up wine and selling vinegar" when it said the proposed review would not target China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang denied the ambassador’s comments amounted to "economic coercion".
“The Chinese ambassador to Australia is talking about the concerns of the Chinese people, who ... disapprove of certain wrong actions by Australia lately,” Geng told reporters in Beijing.
Birmingham told Sky News the Australian "government's displeasure was made known" in the phone call.
China accounts for 26% of Australia's total trade, worth around A$235 billion ($150 billion) in 2018/19, and is the biggest single market for Australian exports such as coal, iron ore, wine, beef, tourism and education.
Birmingham said Australia wanted to maintain a positive relationship with China, but would also seek other opportunities in places such as India and the European Union. Trade with the European Union was worth A$114.3 billion and India A$30.3 billion in 2018/19.
Even amid escalating diplomatic tensions in 2018/19, when Australia introduced foreign interference laws perceived to be aimed at China, two-way trade with China grew by 20%.
"China needs us. Let's not forget that. Many of the critical imports to Chinese industry, like iron ore, coal, and gas come from Australia," James Paterson, a member of the ruling Liberal Party, told Sky News.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham, additional reporting by Cate Cadell in Beijing; editing by Jane Wardell and Nick Macfie)
 Politics












Trump says U.S. is investigating China over virus


Reuters Videos

On Monday (April 27) U.S. President Donald Trump blamed China again for the spread of the coronavirus and said his administration will seek damages for the United States.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:
"There are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable. We're doing very serious investigations, as you probably know, and we are not happy with China. We are not happy with that whole situation because we believe it could have been stopped at the source, it could have been stopped quickly and it wouldn't have spread all over the world. And we think that should have happened."
Trump has repeatedly targeted China's handling of the virus outbreak, which first appeared in the city of Wuhan late last year.
That includes at one time, floating the theory that the virus may have originated in a Wuhan lab.
China denied those accusations and the World Health Organization later rejected the theory.
And last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. quote "strongly believed" Beijing failed to report the outbreak in a timely manner.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO, SAYING:
"Even after the CCP did notify the WHO of the coronavirus outbreak, China didn't share all of the information it had. Instead it covered up how dangerous the disease is. It didn't report sustained human to human transmission for a month until it was in every province inside of China."
On Monday Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying took aim at Pompeo tweeting that he should quote "stop playing the political game" and "save energy on saving lives."
Pompeo is not the only member of Trump's administration to criticize China in recent weeks.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro - has accused China of quote "profiteering" from the pandemic.
Earlier on Monday he took to Fox News to accuse Beijing of sending quote "fake tests" for the coronavirus despite the United States being heavily reliant on China for basic equipment.
Politics











Republican senators ask U.N. chief for independent WHO review panel


Reuters


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leading Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Friday asked the United Nations to conduct an independent review of the World Health Organization response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying the body appeared to have shown "remarkable deference" to China.
In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the senators - led by Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - said the panel should be set up immediately and "include an interim assessment of the WHO's performance to date" and recommendations for reforms.
Signatories included Senators Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, Cory Gardner, Mitt Romney, Lindsey Graham, John Barrasso, Rob Portman, Rand Paul, Todd Young, Ted Cruz and David Perdue.
While implicitly critical of the WHO, the senators' letter took a less confrontational line than President Donald Trump, who last week halted funding while Washington reviewed the WHO response. Trump accused the WHO of promoting China's "disinformation," saying it likely led to a wider outbreak.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week the WHO's handling of the pandemic showed the need to overhaul WHO and warned that Washington may never restore WHO funding and could even work to set up an alternative to the U.N. body.
"The WHO appears to have shown remarkable deference to the Chinese government throughout this pandemic," the Republican senators wrote. "Restoring confidence in the WHO ... will require greater transparency, accountability, and reform."
When asked about the letter, a U.N. spokesman referred to an April 8 statement by Guterres when he said it will be essential to learn lessons from the coronavirus pandemic so similar challenges can be effectively addressed in the future.
"But now is not that time," Guterres said.
The new coronavirus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has so far infected some 2.7 million globally and 191,470 people have died, according to a Reuters tally.
The Republican letter cited a 2015 interim assessment panel, which reviewed the WHO response to the Ebola outbreak in Africa. Those independent experts were appointed by the WHO director-general at the request of the WHO executive board: 34 members qualified in health and elected for three years.
While the Geneva-based WHO is part of the U.N. family, referred to as a U.N. specialized agency, it is an independent international organization with its own funding and decision-making body: the 194-member World Health Assembly.
Australia said on Thursday it would push for an international investigation into the coronavirus outbreak at next month's annual meeting of the assembly.
World leaders pledged on Friday to accelerate work on tests, drugs and vaccines against COVID-19, but the United States did not take part in the launch of the WHO initiative.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and David Brunnstrom; additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Thứ Sáu, 24 tháng 4, 2020

The World Is Awaking to the Ugly Realities of the Chinese Regime

World

The World Is Awaking to the Ugly Realities of the Chinese Regime



Earlier this month, a McDonald’s restaurant in Guangzhou, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, was forced to remove a sign warning that “black people are not allowed to enter.” Upon removing it, McDonald’s told NBC News in a statement that the sign was “not representative of our inclusive values.”
That sounds like what it almost certainly is: a product of the company’s communications department, called in to do damage control. And while we can accept that the McDonald’s corporation itself is not, on the whole, racist, the sign does unfortunately represent China’s values.
As NR’s Jim Geraghty has noted, the incident is an example of the “xenophobia and racism” on display just now in China. This phenomenon is not new to the PRC, but the government has an extra incentive to lean into it now, because it helps the government’s concerted campaign to deflect blame for the global coronavirus pandemic.
There is ample evidence of this. A recent Reuters report noted that ambassadors from several African nations recently engaged the Chinese foreign ministry to raise concerns about how their citizens are being mistreated in China. Passport holders from African countries are subject to extreme stop-and-search practices. Many who are coronavirus-negative are being forced into 30-day quarantines anyway. Foreigners from a range of countries who can document clean bills of health are being denied entry to places of business and other facilities simply because they are foreigners.
Much of this is taking place in Guangzhou, known to some as “Little Africa” because it has the largest African-immigrant population in China. To some extent, African immigration to China is a by-product of Xi Jinping’s effort to build a global network of trade and infrastructure investment that gives the regime a perceived geopolitical advantage over the West in the developing world. Ghanaians, Nigerians, and other immigrants to China are all too happy to take advantage of the work and educational opportunities China offers. But many of them have learned the hard way just how limited the country’s kindness is.
In fact, China’s ill-treatment of foreign-minority populations reflects how the Chinese government treats its own citizens. Muslim minority Uighurs are being held in so-called re-education camps intended to strip them of their religious and ethnic identity, and in many cases subjected to forced labor. In Tibet, which China has oppressed since the very beginning of Communist rule in 1949, things have gotten worse under Xi: Last year, Freedom House named Tibet the second-least-free territory on Earth, behind only war-torn Syria.
It would be natural to presume that such discrimination is a regrettable result of the dominance of the Han Chinese, who are more than 90 percent of China’s population and dominate its society. (By comparison, ethnic Uighurs, for example, make up less than 1 percent of the population.)  The Han Chinese, with 1.3 billion members, are the largest ethnic group not just in the PRC but in the world. Antipathy, oppression, and discrimination toward minority ethnic groups in a country with such a dominant majority is regrettable but not surprising, and not unique to the PRC.
Beijing’s response to critics who note all of this is to try to drown them out by highlighting America’s own well-documented history of racial discrimination. But that’s the point: Our historical sins are well-documented, and they inform just about every aspect of our public policy. A free press and other institutions hold up our actions for the world to see. There is no mystery about how our country continues to deal with the effects of the institutionalized discrimination that persisted for nearly two centuries after our own founding, and for a century after we fought a war to end it.
That said, there is a quality to the pattern of behavior in the PRC that transcends ethnicity. Chinese racial discrimination is horrifying in its own right, of course. But it also suggests a farther-reaching chauvinism that is emerging as the defining characteristic of the Xi era.
Han Chinese make up the same percentage of the population in Hong Kong as on the mainland, and are 97 percent of the population in Taiwan. Neither Hong Kongers nor Taiwanese have suffered any less at Xi’s hands for that. Nor, for that matter, have the 400 million mostly Han Chinese living on less than $5 a day in the country outside China’s megacities, who face vicious discrimination from urban elites.
In some ways, the gulf between the rich in China’s cities and the poor in its rural areas has been institutionalized through the longstanding “hukou” system of internal registration, which hampers movement between regions and creates what amounts to an economic caste system. While Xi has made hukou reform a priority in order to create greater opportunity for urban migration and prosperity, the system continues to reinforce the divide between urban haves and rural have-nots. As the former become wealthier and more global in their perspective, the disdain they frequently show for those who are different — whether from Africa or rural China — is becoming more pronounced.
Xi-era chauvinism is beginning to create a backlash around the world. One example is the cooling ardor toward the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi’s aforementioned effort to gain footholds in foreign markets. Many projects have caused host countries to take on excessive debt. In one instance, a strategic port in Sri Lanka was ceded to China when the debt burden became too high. Politicians in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and other countries have reversed earlier positions of support because of what they see as China’s discriminatory debt diplomacy.
This backlash is appearing even in European countries that once saw China as a potential counterbalance to the Trump administration. In Sweden, for instance, some cities have ended sister-city relationships with Chinese counterparts, and the country has closed its Confucius Institute schools, dealing a blow to one of Beijing’s other soft-power propaganda operations. European leaders, including NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenburg and French president Emmanuel Macron, have also called for better understanding of how Beijing handled the coronavirus pandemic and pushed back against China’s campaign to deflect blame for it.
In short, the world finally seems to be recovering from its decades-long love affair with the PRC, which peaked with the rise of Xi, who was initially viewed as a reformer who would bring China onto the world’s stage as an equal, responsible actor. The true nature of the regime is becoming more apparent, and the world doesn’t like what it sees: the dreadful treatment of ethnic minorities and the rural poor; the obvious interference in Taiwan’s recent presidential election; the belligerence toward Hong Kong as the “one country, two systems” agreement is systematically dismantled and pro-democracy leaders are arrested or just disappear; the bullying of emerging economies through debt diplomacy; and now what is very likely a global pandemic caused by Chinese negligence.
For the first time since the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre 30 years ago, the world has awakened to these ugly realities, and if anything good has emerged from this chaotic geopolitical era, that might be it. Here’s hoping that more aggressive action to counter Beijing comes next.

More from National Review

  World
To Confront China After Coronavirus, We Must See the Bigger Picture



Lewis Libby
National Review



(correct translated Vietnamese)
Họ cho phép không phải một, mà hàng ngàn người nhiễm bệnh rời khỏi Trung Quốc và bước vào một thế giới không nghi ngờ, một thế giới bị Bắc Kinh ru ngủ.
 
NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE I n a popular movie two decades ago, hard-eyed criminals released into Sydney a woman infected with a virus, knowing that unsuspecting Australians would catch the highly contagious disease and, traveling on, unwittingly spread death across a hundred homelands. This past winter, the hard-eyed leaders of China did worse. They allowed not one, but thousands of infected to leave China and enter an unsuspecting world, a world lulled by Beijing. The crucial question is: Why?
“China caused an enormous amount of pain [and] loss of life . . . by not sharing the information they had,” Secretary of State Pompeo said on April 23. America is angry, he added, and while much remains to be known, China “will pay a price.”
No subpoenas, no oversight committees, no tell-all books will expose President Xi’s calculations as the novel coronavirus spread inside China. The unelected of Beijing guard well their secret debates. The CCP knows the virtues of opacity, of letting uncertainty, complacency, and wishful thinking paralyze the West. Exploiting these has been its way.
In 2018, a major Trump-administration speech called CCP misdeeds to task. Some, including, notably, Japan’s prime minister, applauded. But many nations looked toward their feet, too reluctant, too sophisticated, perhaps too intimidated to bestir. Staggering COVID-19 losses may yet remind the world of the dangers of drift as great powers go astray.
Today’s American, European, Japanese, and Asian policymakers, like those of centuries past, bear the burdens of judgment. Uncertainty has ever been the statesman’s curse. America’s famed diplomat, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, has written, “Nations learn only by experience, they ‘know’ only when it is too late to act. But statesmen must act as if their intuition were already experience. . . .”
A reassessment of Xi and the CCP looms. From their actions and practices, from assessments of their motives and apparent long-term aims, today’s statesmen, like their forebears, must judge future risks and craft the surest course ahead. These are early days, but the picture of Beijing presented so far is troubling.
Even before the virus spread in Wuhan, Xi brooded over a worrying hand. The CCP could not intimidate prolonged protests on the streets of freedom-loving Hong Kong. And the Party’s oppression there, in determined violation of treaty commitments, spurred voters in Taiwan to rebuff Beijing’s hopes for a more amenable regime in Taipei. The world was finally awakening to Xi’s increasingly autocratic surveillance state, his harsh repression of Uighur Muslims, and his predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China’s economy, essential to Xi’s hold on power, had stumbled, in part because of the Trump administration’s move to counter China’s unfair, neo-mercantilist practices and to condemn their grim geopolitical implications. Worse yet, America’s markets hummed, raising reelection hopes within the Trump administration, which had also surpassed modern predecessors in challenging China. Rumors of Party dissatisfaction with Xi seeped out.
COVID-19’s outbreak in Wuhan further darkened Xi’s prospects. As long as the virus raged primarily inside China — derailing only her economy, stigmatizing only her government — his troubles would soar. All the while, the world predictably would have leapt ahead, taking Chinese customers, stealing China’s long-sought glory.
The disease’s spread to Berlin and Paris, New York and Tokyo, improved Xi’s prospects, at least in the near term. Pandemic diverted foreign eyes from Hong Kong’s and the Uighurs’ plight. Desperate needs rendered disease-weakened nations more susceptible to China’s goods and BRI’s short-term appeal. Asian states, wary of Beijing, had new cause to doubt the commitment of a pandemic-preoccupied Washington, while a weakened economy and vastly increased debts would likely constrain future U.S. defense spending, essential to Asian security. An unpredictable element had entered into America’s 2020 election.
As events unfolded, might Xi have recognized that COVID-19’s leap into the wider world promised such political and geopolitical gains? Some say a desire to protect itself first fed a CCP cover-up, as if putting this before the health of innocents were not bad enough. But were CCP leaders blind, as days passed, to other benefits? It is the Chinese way, the noted French Sinologist François Jullien has written, to exploit the potential inherent in unfolding situations. CCP leaders still study China’s legendary strategist, Sun Tzu, who advised centuries ago that if, “in the midst of difficulties, we are always ready to seize an advantage, we may extricate ourselves from misfortune.”

Read more:  https://www.yahoo.com/news/confront-china-coronavirus-must-see-103029830.html
World


Malaysia committed to safeguarding its interests in S.China Sea - foreign minister


Reuters


KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 (Reuters) - Malaysia remains committed to safeguarding its interests and rights in the South China Sea, Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Thursday, amid a standoff between Chinese and Malaysian vessels in the disputed waters.
U.S. and Australian warships arrived in the South China Sea this week near an area where a Chinese government survey vessel has been operating close to a drillship contracted by Malaysian state oil company Petronas, regional security sources have said.
Hishammuddin said any disputes should be resolved through peaceful means.
"While international law guarantees the freedom of navigation, the presence of warships and vessels in the South China Sea has the potential to increase tensions that in turn may result in miscalculations which may affect peace, security and stability in the region," Hishammuddin said in a statement. (Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

B-1 Returns to Pacific in 'Dynamic Force Employment' - High-Seas Energy Fight Off Malaysia Draws U.S., Chinese Warships

World

B-1 Returns to Pacific in 'Dynamic Force Employment'


Oriana Pawlyk
Military.com

B-1 Returns to Pacific in 'Dynamic Force Employment'

After ending its 16-year permanent bomber presence in Guam, the U.S. Air Force this week flew a B-1B Lancer to the Pacific as part of its new unpredictable deployment experiment to test crews' agility when sending heavy aircraft forces around the world.
The B-1, from the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, flew a 30-hour round-trip flight to Japan. There, it operated alongside six U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons, seven Japan Air Self Defense Force F-2s and eight JASDF F-15s over Draughon Range near Misawa, Pacific Air Forces said in a release.
"This operation showcases our unwavering commitment to the security and stability of the Indo-Pacific region through the employment of strategic forces from around the globe," said Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown Jr., head of Pacific Air Forces and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
Related: After 16 Years, Air Force Ends Continuous Bomber Presence on Guam
"From confronting invisible threats of a global pandemic to addressing military aggression and coercive activities, we remain a lethal, innovative and interoperable force focused on a shared vision of upholding a free and open lndo-Pacific," he said in the release.
"Like the advancements of our agile combat employment concept of operations, we continue to innovate and adapt our approach, to include how we deploy and employ the various weapons systems we integrate with our allies and partners," Brown said. "Bringing the B-1 into theater ensures our bilateral interoperability accounts for any combination of flying operations to prepare for and outpace the rapidly growing threats in the Indo-Pacific region."
The show-of-force flights come as Pentagon officials in recent weeks have stressed continued operations to deter rivals, despite the novel coronavirus pandemic.
"Adversaries who think now is the time to challenge the USA: You're dangerously wrong," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a tweet last week.
On Friday, Esper renewed the message. "Our adversaries are not standing down," he said. "We will continue to make sure that the [Defense Department] is ready to protect the USA."
Last week, Air Force Global Strike Command announced that it is transitioning to a new model, ending the continuous bomber presence (CBP) mission in favor of forward-deploying bombers to the Indo-Pacific. For the last year, AFGSC officials have planned more and shorter strategic bomber rotations. The concept, known as "dynamic force employment," mimics how the service often sends its bomber forces to Europe for weeks-long summer exercises.
The B-1 -- call sign HYPER21 -- was spotted Tuesday flying over the Bering Sea near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, crossing over into the northern Pacific. The news was first reported by The Drive, citing movements reported by tracker @AircraftSpots on Twitter.
The Lancer's return to the Pacific, albeit short, marks the first for the long-range bomber since 2018. Between 2016 and 2018, the B-1 held the CBP deterrence mission, housed at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.
"The rapid employment of airpower directly supports the National Defense Strategy and assures we can provide overwhelming force anywhere, anytime in support of American interests or our allies and partners," said Gen. Tim Ray, AFGSC commander. "This mission is a demonstration to our friends throughout the region: We will continue to remain fully predictable in our commitment to ensuring peace, while also demonstrating that we have the ability to operate from numerous locations across the globe, even during the global pandemic."
The latest flight was the second bilateral training to occur with a bomber this year, officials said. In February, two B-52 Stratofortress bombers flew alongside six Air Force F-16s and more than 45 JASDF fighter aircraft near Japan, according to the release.
-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
Read more: COVID-19 Outbreak Forces Destroyer Kidd to Return to Port, Offload Crew

World


High-Seas Energy Fight Off Malaysia Draws U.S., Chinese Warships


Philip J. Heijmans
Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Malaysia’s push to explore energy blocks off its coast has turned into a five-nation face off involving U.S. and Chinese warships, raising the risk of a direct confrontation as broader tensions grow between the world’s biggest economies.
The episode began in December, when Malaysia’s state-run energy giant Petroliam Nasional Bhd. contracted a vessel to explore two areas in the South China Sea in its extended continental shelf. Those waters are also claimed by Vietnam and China, which immediately sent ships to shadow the boat.
The situation took a turn for the worse on April 16 with the arrival of a Chinese surveyor known as the Haiyang Dizhi 8, which last year was engaged in a standoff with Vietnam over offshore energy blocks. The U.S. this week sent at least two warships within some 50 nautical miles of the Malaysian ship, according to defense analysts privy to the information who asked not to be identified.
U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Thursday accused China of “exploiting” the world’s focus on the Covid-19 pandemic with provocations in the South China Sea. In a statement issued on the same day he held a video call with 10 Southeast Asian foreign ministers, he said China “dispatched a flotilla that included an energy survey vessel for the sole purpose of intimidating other claimants from engaging in offshore hydrocarbon development.”
“The U.S. strongly opposes China’s bullying and we hope other nations will hold them to account too,” Pompeo said.
Territorial Disputes
The U.S. doesn’t take a position on territorial disputes in the region even while staking a national interest in freedom of navigation, which involves challenging any claims that aren’t consistent with international laws. As China gets more assertive in enforcing its claims, it’s increased the risk of a potential confrontation with the U.S. that could quickly escalate.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command confirmed Wednesday that three ships -- the USS America, an amphibious assault ship; the USS Bunker Hill, a guided missile cruiser; and the USS Barry, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer -- were operating in the South China Sea, without giving a precise location. They were joined by an Australian Anzac-class frigate on April 18, according to the U.S. 7th Fleet.
“The risk of a new incident is rising, as tension elsewhere in the relationship could inflame the situation on the ground, or rather, in the water,” New York-based risk consultancy Eurasia Group said in an analysis on Wednesday. “Growing animosity between the two sides would it make it difficult to prevent an accidental collision from becoming a full-blown crisis.”
Without a direct threat from the U.S., China has increasingly disrupted the efforts of Vietnam, the Philippines -- and increasingly Malaysia -- to exploit oil, gas and fishing resources off their shores. China claims about 80% of the South China Sea through its so-called “nine-dash line,” and its increasing economic might has allowed it to invest in bigger ships that can operate ever-further from its shores.
It’s unknown how much recoverable oil and gas is in the disputed Malaysian blocks at the center of the standoff. But if China blocks all future exploration activities within the nine-dash line, the Malaysian company known as Petronas would be robbed of domestic drilling opportunities at a time when it’s trying to boost spending at home amid an economic slump.
‘Overt Challenge’
This is “by far the biggest and most overt challenge yet to Malaysia’s South China Sea energy interests,” said Collin Koh Swee Lean, research fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
Malaysia sought to tamp down tensions on Thursday, with Minister of Foreign Affairs Hishammuddin Hussein calling for all parties to work together to maintain peace.
“We must avoid unintended, accidental incidents in these waters,” he said. “While international law guarantees the freedom of navigation, the presence of warships and vessels in the South China Sea has the potential to increase tensions that in turn may result in miscalculations which may affect peace, security and stability in the region.”
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang this week said its survey ship was “conducting normal activities in waters under Chinese jurisdiction” and called the situation “basically stable.” At least half a dozen armed Chinese coast guard ships and several militia were involved, according to Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative in Washington.
Poling said China last year took similar actions against Petronas and Royal Dutch Shell Plc in Malaysian waters as they conducted at least two other surveys of its continental shelf.
That was similar to China’s actions against Vietnam, when it repeatedly sent coast guard ships and the Haiyang Dizhi 8 to an energy block operated by Russia’s state-owned Rosneft Oil Co PJSC. The situation drew criticism from the U.S. and the European Union.
“It’s the exact same operation we saw conducted against Vietnam when Rosneft was drilling a new well last year,” Poling said by email. “But this is more problematic because it has become so public, and because Petronas has invested so much time and expense in exploring fields this far out. I have no idea whether they’re likely to be commercially viable, but I do know that there’s no chance of Petronas actually producing hydrocarbons from them in the current environment.”
Petronas did not immediately reply to a request to comment.
Other incidents are occurring elsewhere in the South China Sea. Earlier this month, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus condemned China for reportedly sinking a Vietnamese fishing vessel on April 2.
China on Saturday announced the establishment of districts on the disputed Paracel and Spratly islands, drawing protests from both the Philippines and Vietnam. Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin also accused China of pointing a radar gun at a Philippine Navy ship in the country’s waters.
China and Southeast Asian claimants have sparred over which claims are valid under the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea, known as Unclos. Both sides have also been working on a code of conduct meant to resolve these types of confrontations in the South China Sea, though talks have dragged on for more than a decade.
“China is pushing the Southeast Asian countries to give up their Unclos rights and share their ‘exclusive’ economic zones with it,” said Bill Hayton, author of “The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia.” “If they try to develop their resources on their own, as is their right, China punishes them.”
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U.S. Wants to Know Where Aluminum Imports Really Come From

Business

U.S. Wants to Know Where Aluminum Imports Really Come From

 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. proposed rules to track aluminum imports more closely, in a move that could address industry demands to block Chinese supply that skirts tariffs.
While the Trump administration’s import levies are aimed at protecting against excess foreign supply of the metal, concerns have persisted that aluminum from China -- the world’s biggest producer -- is still flooding into the market.
That’s because some Chinese supply could first be sent to another nation that isn’t subject to the duties. It’s then melted and reformed before being shipped again, masking its true origin. Criticism about surplus metal entering the U.S. via such transshipment and re-labeling to circumvent trade laws has preceded the Trump administration.
Under the proposed new U.S. rules, importers will be required to identify the country from which the aluminum was originally obtained. They will also need to get a license for shipments. The program is modeled on a steel-import monitoring system that’s been in place for years.
The Commerce Department’s regulations, which are subject to a 30-day public-comment period and would take another 30 to 90 days to be implemented, would give customs officials a strengthened tool to more quickly identify and react to improper trading of U.S.-bound aluminum.
Combating Evasion
“It is yet another affirmation of our commitment to use all available tools to combat circumvention and evasion of duties,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement Wednesday. “Today’s proposed regulations are an important step forward in ensuring that trade in aluminum is free, fair, and reciprocal.”
Under the new North American trade deal signed last year, the U.S., Canada and Mexico all agreed to ramp up efforts to trace where metal comes from originally in an effort to stop the diversion of shipments from other nations to dodge tariffs. After the agreement, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acted to beef up the government’s power to respond to dumping of aluminum and steel in the country.
As recently as December, the Aluminium Association of Canada complained that the new North American trade law has failed to implement rules that would prevent transshipment of metal through Mexico. Chief Executive Officer Jean Simard said it made Mexico “more or less China’s North American backyard to dispose of the products of its overcapacity.”
Mexico’s aluminum association, Instituto Mexicano del Aluminio, voiced its support for the Commerce Department’s proposal, saying that it will do all it can to help the U.S. stop unfair trade practices.
Association President Fernando Garcia stressed that the Asian country accounts for 1% or less of Mexico’s primary and semi-finished imports. The majority of aluminum imported from China is can sheet, almost all of which the Latin American nation consumes, he said.
“I want to make clear that Mexico is not doing any kind of irregular practices with the transformation of materials coming from China and then resent to the USA,” Garcia said in a phone interview. The association meets with Mexico’s commerce department monthly to analyze all imports and exports, he said.
The U.S. Commerce Department is making the proposal just as the coronavirus pandemic has crushed demand in everything from retail goods to bank financing to commodities.
Demand Hit
U.S. aluminum has been particularly affected, with all domestic smelters under water at current prices. Alcoa Corp., the biggest American producer, said last week that it would curtail all production at one of its smelters in Washington state.
If implemented, the new rules would include monitoring imports of so-called semi-finished aluminum products. Alcoa has for years complained about China’s surging output of such products, which aren’t subject to the Asian country’s export taxes.
Semi-finished, not primary aluminum, is the principal form of China’s market penetration into the rest of the world, which Alcoa Chief Executive Officer Roy Harvey said in January is flooding the global market and effectively displacing output of the primary form of the metal.
China is the world’s largest exporter of the primary and semi-finished forms of aluminum, according to CRU Group. The country exports about 6 million metric tons annually, with about 90% to 95% of that being semi-fabricated products.
(Adds comments from Mexico’s industry association in 9th, 10th and 11th paragraphs.)
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Business

FCC may halt U.S. operations of three state-controlled Chinese telecom firms



By David Shepardson

By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday said it may shut down the U.S. operations of three state-controlled Chinese telecommunications companies, citing national security risks.
The FCC issued so-called show cause orders to China Telecom Americas, China Unicom Americas, Pacific Networks Corp and its wholly owned subsidiary ComNet (USA) LLC, directing them to explain why it should not start the process of revoking authorizations enabling their U.S. operations.
"We simply cannot take a risk and hope for the best when it comes to the security of our networks," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement.
The FCC granted its approvals to the firms more than a decade ago. Since then, it said, "the national security and law enforcement risks linked to the Chinese government’s activities have grown significantly."
The agency's show cause orders referred to the "sophistication and resulting damage of the Chinese government’s involvement in computer intrusions and attacks against the United States," but did not elaborate.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Justice Department and other federal agencies called on the FCC to revoke China Telecom's ability to operate in the United States.
In May 2019, the FCC voted unanimously to deny another state-owned Chinese telecommunications company, China Mobile Ltd, the right to provide services in the United States, citing risks that the Chinese government could use the approval to conduct espionage against the U.S. government.
China Telecom Americas is the U.S. subsidiary of a People’s Republic of China state-owned telecommunications company. A spokesman for China Telecom did not immediately comment on Friday.
A company spokesman denied any wrongdoing earlier this month, however, saying China Telecom has "been extremely cooperative and transparent with regulators."
The other companies named in the show cause orders did not respond to requests for comment.
Pacific Networks resells international voice and data to U.S. operators on a wholesale basis and ComNet provides international termination service, global SIM card service and international calling card service and interexchange service, the FCC said.
China's telecommunications networks and companies have come under heightened scrutiny by U.S. agencies.
Earlier this month, the FCC agreed to allow Alphabet Inc unit Google to use part of an U.S.-Asia undersea telecommunications cable but not a part that connected with Hong Kong.
Google agreed to operate only a portion of the 8,000-mile (12,875 km) Pacific Light Cable Network System between the United States and Taiwan. Google and Facebook Inc helped pay for construction of the now completed telecommunications link but U.S. regulators have blocked its use.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Tom Brown)

FILE PHOTO: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) logo is seen before the FCC Net Neutrality hearing in Washington

Bloomberg

FCC Threatens to Bar China Telecom and Others Over Security


Todd Shields
Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The Federal Communications Commission threatened to bar four telecommunications operators unless they can show they’re independent from the Chinese government, the latest in the agency’s efforts to limit Beijing’s role in U.S. networks.
The agency named China Telecom Americas, China Unicom Americas, Pacific Networks and its subsidiary ComNet, and told them to respond within 30 days. The companies need to explain why the agency shouldn’t move to revoke their authorizations, according to the FCC.
The action reflects “deep concern” among U.S. government agencies, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in an emailed statement.
Pai said the companies are vulnerable “to the exploitation, influence, and control of the Chinese Communist Party, given that they are subsidiaries of Chinese state-owned entities. We simply cannot take a risk and hope for the best when it comes to the security of our networks.”
The U.S. and China are at odds over a suite of issues such as the spread of the novel coronavirus, trade, and security of telecommunications networks. U.S. officials have moved to bar Chinese equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co. as a security threat, an assertion the company denies.
China Telecom “has been operating in good standing in the United States for nearly 20 years,” Ge Yu, a spokesman, said in an email. “We look forward, in the coming weeks, to sharing information with the FCC that speaks to our role as a responsible telecom company.”
Emails to China Unicom weren’t immediately returned, and the telephone system at ComNet’s California offices didn’t accept a voicemail. ComNet and Pacific Networks are owned by Citic Group Corp., a Chinese state-owned limited liability company, according to the FCC. An email to Citic’s telecommunications unit wasn’t immediately returned.
In an earlier filing by U.S. security agencies, the FCC told China Telecom to respond to concerns the Beijing-based telecommunications provider is a national security threat. China Telecom said it “unequivocally” denied the allegations.
The FCC barred China Mobile from the U.S. market last year and said it would review other companies’ record.
Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, said he supports the FCC’s action.
“No matter their cries to the contrary, these firms are beholden to the Chinese Communist Party, and their operation in the United States will continue to pose a threat to our critical networks as long as it continues,” Cotton said in a news release. “Chairman Pai has rightly identified the magnitude of the Chinese telecom contamination.”
(Updates with statement from China Telecom in sixth paragraph)
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China says it 'expelled' U.S. Navy vessel from South China Sea

World

China says it 'expelled' U.S. Navy vessel from South China Sea

Adela Suliman and Eric Baculinao and Leou Chen and Ed Flanagan
NBC News
China's military has said it "expelled" a U.S. navy vessel from the hotly contested waters of the South China Sea this week. It said the "USS Barry" had illegally entered China's Xisha territorial waters on Tuesday.
China's Southern Theater army command "organized sea and air forces to track, monitor, verify, and identify the U.S. ships throughout the journey, and warned and expelled them," said Chinese military spokesperson Li Huamin, in a statement.
"The provocative actions of the United States seriously violated relevant international law norms, seriously violated China's sovereignty and security interests, artificially increased regional security risks, and were prone to cause unexpected incidents," he said.
NBC News reached out to American officials who were not immediately available for comment overnight.
The South China Sea is a potentially energy-rich stretch of water and home to more than 200 specks of land. It serves as a gateway to global sea routes where approximately $3.4 trillion of trade passes annually.
The numerous overlapping sovereign claims to islands, reefs and rocks — many of which disappear under high tide — have turned the waters into a zone of competing diplomatic interests, embroiling neighbors. Beijing holds the lion's share of these features with approximately 27 outposts peppered throughout.
Tension has been simmering in the South China Sea, of late, particularly between China and its Asian seafaring neighbors Malaysia and the Philippines.
This month Vietnam also lodged an official protest with China, following the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat it said had been rammed by a Chinese maritime surveillance vessel near the Paracel Islands, in the South China Sea. China denied the claims and said the Vietnamese boat had illegally entered the area to fish and refused to leave.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told his Southeast Asian counterparts that China was taking advantage of the world’s preoccupation with the coronavirus pandemic to push its territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.
"Beijing has moved to take advantage of the distraction, from China’s new unilateral announcement of administrative districts over disputed islands ... its sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel earlier this month, and its ‘research stations’ on Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef," Pompeo said in a video meeting with the foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on April 23.
Pompeo also accused China of deploying militarized ships to intimidate other claimant countries from developing offshore gas and oil projects in the region.
Last week, the U.S. Navy said it had partnered with the Australian navy for operations in the South China Sea, which began April 13.
"To bring this much combat capability together here in the South China Sea truly signals to our allies and partners in the region that we are deeply committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific," said Rear Adm. Fred Kacher, commander of the America Expeditionary Strike Group, in a statement.
The U.S. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest numbered fleet and routinely conducts operations in the Indo-Pacific area. It has said that all of its interactions during freedom of navigation movements have been in accordance with international norms.
The U.S. Navy has previously stated that sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea posed a serious threat to freedom of the seas and the right of innocent passage of all ships.

China has maintained that it has historical sovereign rights in the South China Sea, which neighboring countries have disputed. In this latest interaction, China said the U.S. was not acting "in line" with the wishes of other countries in the region, which want to "maintain peace and stability in that area."
Spokesperson Li also urged the U.S. to instead focus on its national COVID-19 crisis.
"We urge the United States to focus on the prevention and control of its national epidemic situation, do more useful things for international anti-epidemic efforts, and immediately stop military operations that are not conducive to regional security, peace and stability," he said.
The coronavirus pandemic has been a growing source of tension between the world's two largest economies, with both Washington D.C. and Beijing heaping criticism on each others' handling of the outbreak.
Li added that Chinese forces would continue to "resolutely perform their duties" in the South China Sea to "firmly maintain peace and stability."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
World

US Navy ship sails through Chinese-claimed waters in South China Sea


AFP

Washington (AFP) - A US Navy guided-missile destroyer sailed through waters near the Paracel islands in the South China Sea challenging China's claim to the area, the Navy said Wednesday.
The USS Barry undertook the so-called "freedom of navigation operation" on Tuesday, a week after Beijing upped its claims to the region by designating an official administrative district for the islands.
The US sought to assert the "rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea recognized in international law," the Navy said in a statement.
"Unlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea pose an unprecedented threat to the freedom of the seas, including the freedoms of navigation and overflight and the right of innocent passage of all ships," it said.
The move came 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 December and January in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
The United States rejects China's territorial claim to much of the South China Sea, including the Paracels, also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
The region is believed to have valuable oil and gas deposits.
In a statement on the People's Liberation Army website, the Chinese military said it had mobilized sea and air assets to track and warn the US vessel away from "Chinese territorial waters."
The PLA accused the United States of "provocative acts" that "seriously violated international law and China's sovereignty and security interests."
The US action was "also incompatible with the current joint efforts of international community to fight against the COVID-19," it said.
Last week China sought to further advance its territorial claims when it announced that the Paracel and nearby Spratly islands, the Macclesfield Bank and their surrounding waters would be administered under two new districts of Sansha city, which China created on nearby Woody Island in 2012.
It also announced official Chinese names for 80 islands and other geographical features in the South China Sea, including reefs, seamounts, shoals and ridges, 55 of them submerged in water.



 
World


U.S. warship sails through Taiwan Strait, second time in a month


Reuters

TAIPEI, April 24 (Reuters) - A U.S. warship has again sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, Taiwan's Defence Ministry said on Friday, the second time in a month amid heighten tension between Taiwan and China and as a Chinese aircraft carrier passes near the island.
China, which considers Taiwan its own, has been angered by the Trump administration's stepped-up support for the island, such as more arms sales, U.S. patrols near it and a visit to Washington by Vice President-elect William Lai in February.
Taiwan's Defence Ministry said the U.S. warship had transited the narrow Taiwan Strait that separates the island from its giant neighbour China in a southerly direction and was continuing to sail south.
Taiwan's armed forces monitored the ship which it described as being on an "ordinary mission", the ministry added, without providing further details.
Two weeks ago a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer also sailed through the strait, on the same day that Chinese fighter jets drilled in waters close to the democratically-ruled island.
Taiwan said on Thursday that a Chinese aircraft carrier group had sailed to its south through the Bashi Channel that sits between Taiwan and the Philippines and was heading east.
The carrier group earlier this month sailed down Taiwan's east coast. China said at the time it was on its way to routine exercises in the disputed South China Sea.
China has carried out frequent drills near Taiwan in recent months, including flying fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers close to the island, in moves denounced by Taipei's government as attempts at intimidation. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Michael Perry)