South China Sea Dispute : News & Updates

A nuclear reactor can't explode in a way to produce 10 to 20Kt effect. It can explode, but will produce radioactivity and "act" as a dirt bomb, not an explosion : a nuclear core isn't made of enough enriched fissile material (in the 7% to 20% when a nuclear weapon need more than 90% enriched Pu or U)
You forgot we are discussing about nuclear reactor of nuclear Submarine, which use weapons grade highly enriched uranium and not 7to20% enriched uranium or plutonium which is used in civilian reactors used for producing electricity....
Although I do agree there are several safety measures to prevent core melt down and to prevent uncontrollable fission leading to nuclear blast. But Chinese quality has a reputation of its own....😬
 
You forgot we are discussing about nuclear reactor of nuclear Submarine, which use weapons grade highly enriched uranium and not 7to20% enriched uranium or plutonium which is used in civilian reactors used for producing electricity....
Although I do agree there are several safety measures to prevent core melt down and to prevent uncontrollable fission leading to nuclear blast. But Chinese quality has a reputation of its own....😬
Most nuke sub reactors are fired by plutonium to keep the size small with liguid metal cooling which in turn is cooled by sea water.
 
You forgot we are discussing about nuclear reactor of nuclear Submarine, which use weapons grade highly enriched uranium and not 7to20% enriched uranium or plutonium which is used in civilian reactors used for producing electricity....
Although I do agree there are several safety measures to prevent core melt down and to prevent uncontrollable fission leading to nuclear blast. But Chinese quality has a reputation of its own....😬
The conditions to detonate even a military grade of uranium or plutonium are hard. so hard that it's not possible exept in a weapon studied for. To initiate a nuclear detonation you have to create a very controled but powerfull explosion. Impossible to create during an accident and without a very special grade of classical explosive and a special electronic and a special form of explosive.
You will never see a nuclear reactor, civilian or militarian, explode like a H bomb. Never. It can explode as a classical explosive, ie some tons of TNT due to hydrogen or so one, but never reach kilotons (but it remains very dangerous, not because of the blast, but because of the radiations and dirt materials).
If this is a 10 to 20Kt nuclear explosion, it's due to a dedicated weapon, not a reactor.
 
Most nuke sub reactors are fired by plutonium to keep the size small with liguid metal cooling which in turn is cooled by sea water.
Liquid metal was used on some russian nuclear subs. It was difficult to master : sometime the metal solidified and the reactor was then good to scrap.
I think it's no more used.
 
‘Very dangerous’ for PH to wage war vs. China over WPS: PRRD
President Rodrigo Duterte has deemed it unwise for the Philippines to pick a fight with China over the control of disputed islands in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea).

In an exclusive interview aired by Russia Today on Friday, Duterte maintained that it would be “very dangerous” to take a hostile approach to the Philippines’ long-standing dispute with China in the resource-rich waters.

“I cannot afford a stand where I would be drumming my war drums because we cannot afford it. It would annihilate the Philippines and so it’s a very dangerous (move),” Duterte said.

“And I said, the war with China at this time is of no use for us,” he added.

Manila on July 12, 2016 won the arbitration case it lodged against Beijing after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands invalidates Beijing's nine-dash line claim over the contested waters.

China, refusing to acknowledge the arbitral ruling, has continued to claim ownership over nearly 90 percent of the South China Sea.

Apart from the Philippines, China also has competing claims with Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

The President said he could not be as aggressive as Vietnam, because the Philippines and China might only end up being engaged in a “bloody” battle.

“Because you know the other side (Vietnam) really wants to do a more aggressive stance and I cannot afford to do it,” he said.

“Spratly Island is near our islands, our provincial islands. Local government of the Philippines is near them and so it would be a reckless move if I send out, just like Vietnam, small vessels only to get a bloody nose at the end of the day,” Duterte added.

Vietnam and China got into a heated dispute when a Chinese energy survey ship began patrolling near Vanguard Bank, a seabed tract around 352 kilometers off the coast of southern Vietnam, in July last year.

Despite China’s sweeping maritime claims, Duterte maintained that he prefers to keep friendly negotiations with Beijing with regard to the ongoing sea disputes.

“We want as well just be friendly, improve our trade and commerce, and let time heal (everything),” he said.

“Tomorrow will take care of itself, one thing we are sure of. And like any other historical claim, the world is always changing. And we did not really do it at the expense of the lives of the Filipinos,” the President added. (PNA)
‘Very dangerous’ for PH to wage war vs. China over WPS: PRRD
 
Taiwan scrambles jets as Chinese air force flies round island

Taiwan scrambles jets as Chinese air force flies round island
ReutersFebruary 9, 2020, 9:48 AM GMT

TAIPEI, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Taiwan's air force scrambled on Sunday to intercept Chinese jets that flew around the island claimed by Beijing as its own, in a move denounced by Taiwan's Defence Ministry as a threat to regional peace and stability.

China has been flying what it calls "island encirclement" drills on-off since 2016 when Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen first took office.

Beijing believes Tsai, who won re-election last month, wishes to push the island's formal independence. She says Taiwan is an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name.

In a statement, Taiwan's Defence Ministry said Chinese J-11 fighters and H-6 bombers flew into the Bashi Channel to the south of Taiwan, then out into the Pacific before heading back to base via the Miyako Strait, located between Japan's islands of Miyako and Okinawa, to the northeast of Taiwan.

"During this period, the national military appropriately used air reconnaissance aircraft and air defence forces in accordance with combat readiness regulations," it said.

The ministry provided a picture of a Taiwan air force F-16 shadowing one of the Chinese H-6 bombers.

"The Chinese Communist's long-range far-out-at-sea missions have impacted regional security and stability and endanger the peace and welfare shared by all parties in the region," the ministry said.

There was no immediate comment from China's Defence Ministry. China has brushed off such drills in the past as nothing out of the ordinary.

Relations between Taipei and Beijing have further plummeted in the past few weeks following the outbreak of the new coronavirus in China, with Taiwan accusing China of preventing the island from accessing full information from the World Health Organization (WHO) or attending its meetings.

Taiwan is not a WHO member due to China's objections, which says the island is merely a Chinese province whose interests in the health body are adequately represented by Beijing.

But in one small diplomatic breakthrough for Taiwan, the WHO said Taiwanese experts will participate this week in an on-line meeting of experts about the virus.

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said in a Sunday statement this was a "good start" and that they would strive to take part in more WHO events.
 
US Navy warns China 'you don't want to play laser tag with us' after a Chinese destroyer fired a military-grade laser at a US aircraft

US Navy warns China 'you don't want to play laser tag with us' after a Chinese destroyer fired a military-grade laser at a US aircraft
[email protected] (Ryan Pickrell)

Business InsiderMarch 3, 2020, 6:22 PM GMT

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Chinese navy soldiers.
Guang Niu/Getty

  • The Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy Type 052D Luyang III-class destroyer Hohhot fired a weapons-grade laser at a US P-8A reconnaissance aircraft in the Philippine Sea last month, Pacific Fleet said on Thursday.
  • In response, the Navy issued a warning on Instagram: "You don't want to play laser tag with us."
  • Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday told USNI News on Monday that the US government had issued a formal protest in response to the incident.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The US Navy warned China on social media after one of the Asian nation's warships fired a military-grade laser at a US aircraft, telling them: "You don't want to play laser tag with us."

US Pacific Fleet said in a statement on Thursday that the Chinese Type 052D Luyang III-class destroyer Hohhot (hull number 161) fired a weapons-grade laser, apparently part of the ship's close-in weapon system, at a US Navy P-8A reconnaissance aircraft.

"The laser, which was not visible to the naked eye, was captured by a sensor onboard the P-8A," Pacific Fleet said. "Weapons-grade lasers could potentially cause serious harm to aircrew and mariners, as well as ship and aircraft systems."

After the statement went out, the US Navy issued a warning on its official Instagram account.

The US has issued a formal protest to China in response to the incident, USNI News reported on Monday, citing Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday.

"The US government demarched China," he said at an event on Monday.

"It's the first time we saw it happen from that type of PLA ship," he said, adding, "We do have protective gear onboard for our pilots, and importantly they're also trained to deal with it."

The US military — which has also sent warships to sea to test laser weapons — has had similar problems with the Chinese military in the past.

For example, the Department of Defense accused the Chinese military stationed at the country's first overseas base in Djibouti of targeting US military aircraft with military-grade lasers in 2018. The Pentagon said the activity posed "a true threat to our airmen."

A C-130 aircrew is said to have suffered minor eye injuries as a result. The US demarched China over this incident as well.
 
How China's Man-Made Islands Are Falling Apart and Sinking Into the Ocean
Since 2013 the Chinese government has dredged and mostly destroyed ecologically delicate reefs in disputed waters in order to build seven major military bases complete with ports, airstrips and radar and missile installations.

This first appeared in 2019 and is being reposted due to reader interest.

The islands function as unsinkable aircraft carriers and help to cement Beijing’s claims on waters rich with fish and minerals, waters that neighboring countries also claim.

“If the terraforming no longer makes headlines, it is because it is largely complete,” The Economist stated.
Perhaps the most important installations sit on the Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly island group. Vietnam, The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all also claim the Spratlys.

Between 2013 and 2016, huge construction vessels pulverized the reefs in order to create the raw materials for the bases. The dredger Tianjing alone shifted 4,500 cubic metres of materials every hour, “enough to nearly fill two Olympic-size swimming pools,” according to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post.

Beijing claims it has begun restoring the reefs it destroyed, but it’s unclear how effective restoration efforts might be. Marine biologist John McManus at the University of Miami said that dredging “kills basically everything” living around coral reefs.

To the Chinese Communist Party, the new bases were worth the environmental cost. The installations “allow China to control the entirety of the South China Sea in any scenario short of all-out war with the United States,” The Economist explained. “The new port and resupply facilities are helping China project power ever further afield. Chinese survey vessels look for oil and gas in contested waters.”

In 2014 China deployed an oil platform in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, leading to a stand-off between Chinese and Vietnamese forces. The Chinese eventually removed the first platform, only later to deploy a second one.

“Yet not everything is going China’s way,” The Economist added. “Rumors suggest the new islands’ concrete is crumbling and their foundations turning to sponge in a hostile climate. And that is before considering what a direct hit from a super-typhoon might do.”
More significantly, neighboring countries are resisting Chinese pressure to develop gasfields that lie within their [exclusive economic zones] jointly. Even though The Philippines agreed in principle to one joint development, a formal agreement to that end has yet to be signed.​
Nor has China prevented foreign oil companies from working with other littoral states. The rig Chinese vessels harried in Vietnamese waters is operated by a Russian state enterprise, Rosneft, even though Russia is supposedly a close friend of China’s.​
The island bases’ uncertain future hasn’t deterred China from heaping additional capabilities on their potentially fragile infrastructure. In November 2019 a surveillance blimp for the first time appeared on Mischief Reef.

“A radar-carrying aerostat [blimp] would provide a very capable, but also a relatively cheap option for monitoring various activity around Mischief Reef, as well as potentially cueing surface-to-air and anti-ship missiles to engage potential threats,” Joseph Trevithick reported at The War Zone.
The elevated position would help increase the overall range of the system substantially, which would be especially valuable for spotting low-flying threats, such as cruise missiles or swarms of small unmanned aircraft as they crest over the horizon. Though China is steadily improving the defenses on its man-made islands, low-flying cruise missiles certainly represent a continuing threat to its outposts.​
Aerostat-mounted radar systems can also remain aloft for long periods and, depending on their exact capabilities, in many types of weather, making them far more cost-effective and easier to maintain than manned aerial sensor platforms. They can also fly much higher, and therefore have far longer line-of-sight to the horizon, than even large mast-mounted ground-based radars.​
The U.S. Navy periodically maneuvers a warship close to one of China’s island bases in order to assert American forces’ legal right to sail through international waters. In the event of war between the United States and China in the western Pacific region, the outposts likely would be important targets for the Americans.
Sunk: How China's Man-Made Islands Are Falling Apart and Sinking Into the Ocean
 
Chinese ship, Vietnamese fishing boat collide in South China Sea
“This is the first time a Chinese ship has hit and sunk boats in our commune this year,” said Nguyen Van Hai, a local official from the Quang Ngai province, a few hundred kilometres from the Paracel Islands.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea as its territory and has built artificial islands with military-capable facilities over reefs and outcrops in the area, which are also claimed in part by Vietnam.

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South China Sea exclusive economic zones and continental shelf claims. CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/SCMP

Hai said China's ships hit and sank the fishing boat on Thursday morning before “capturing and detaining the crew” on a nearby island. However, Beijing’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Friday said the Vietnamese fishing boat had refused to leave the area when ordered to by a Chinese Coast Guard ship. The Vietnamese vessel “suddenly turned sharply” and hit the Chinese ship, which had tried to avoid it, she said.

Vietnamese state media, quoting local sources, said two Vietnamese fishing boats had attempted to rescue the eight fishermen, but they were also detained with their ships.

China released the eight fishermen and the two Vietnamese rescue boats on Thursday evening.

Local authorities are waiting for them to dock back in Vietnam on Sunday to hear a full report on the case before sending their complaints to higher authorities, Hai said.

In recent years, Vietnam has accused Chinese vessels of attacking Vietnamese fishing boats, with a few incidents corroborated by dramatic videos posted online.

The Paracel Islands are claimed by Vietnam but were occupied by China in the aftermath of a 1974 invasion that killed dozens of Vietnamese.
Chinese ship, Vietnamese fishing boat collide in South China Sea
 
US Rejects All Major #China Claims in South China Sea

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I think the state department issued this notification in response to the Philippines demanding China obey the 2016 maritime boundary case. Showing a little solidarity with allies in the region, making sure they aren't afraid to speak out against Chinese encroachment.


Philippines Says No Compromise on 2016 Sea Victory Against China
By Cecilia Yap
July 12, 2020, 6:41 AM EDT​


The Philippines will adhere without compromise to a 2016 court victory that nullified China’s claims in most of the South China Sea, its top diplomat said.

“The award is non-negotiable,” Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said in a statement on Sunday. He was commemorating the fourth anniversary of a Permanent Court of Arbitration’s decision which ruled China had no historic right to resources within the seas falling within its ‘nine-dash line.’

Locsin on Sunday also called on China to comply with the award, which he said is a victory for the Philippines and other law-abiding nations. His statement comes weeks after Vietnam and the Philippines, in a regional summit, raised concerns about repeated violations of maritime rules amid growing grievances with China over its territorial claims.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte last year said he would ignore the 2016 court ruling in order to advance oil exploration plans with Beijing.

— With assistance by Andreo Calonzo

Source:
Bloomberg News
 
Ok I believe it now. Trump is smarting for a fight. Overt or not he wants to give back some.
oh nothing is going to happen, chill down. Just some election fireworks. What was the point in declaring it illegal or reject claims as if they own the islands. It is just another feel good statement for the SCS allies but worth nothing on the ground. chinese will not stop, they will continue doing it unless sanctions or soldiers are put on the ground.