Nearly 25,000 people have been evacuated to makeshift camps after floods ravaged eastern Myanmar, an official said Wednesday, July 31, as relief teams struggled to reach remote areas inundated by water.
Flood waters have risen dramatically after several days of heavy rain in Karen State forcing thousands to flee to nearly 80 relief camps, Chum Hre, director of the social welfare, relief and resettlement department told AFP.
"Altogether 24,499 flood victims have been evacuated" in Karen State, he said, adding hundreds more had been displaced in Mon and Rakhine states.
"It is very difficult to reach some of the disaster-hit places because of the bad weather and landslides," he said, adding that helicopters had been deployed.
Heavy rains also inundated areas across the border in Thailand.
Seven Thai provinces remained flooded on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said in its daily update.
Three people have died since Monday, July 29, after they were hit by trees felled by fast-moving water, it added.
In Thailand's western town of Mae Sot, which borders the flood-hit area of Myanmar, waters have receded in the town center but remain high in outlying areas, especially near the frontier checkpoint.
"The situation has returned to normal in Mae Sot city," Pramote Chantasri, of Mae Sot City Municipality told AFP.
"The worst was on Monday after four days of heavy rain in the mountains," he said, adding the bridge between the two countries remains open.
Parts of Thailand and Myanmar are inundated each year during the monsoon period, which ends in October.
Deadly floods in 2011 left more than 800 dead in Thailand, inundating swathes of the country for months, deluging parts of the capital and taking a heavy toll on the country's lucrative manufacturing industry. - Rappler
The Philippines' new base near the South China Sea is designed to increase pressure on China and contain the country, experts say
The Philippine government's plan to relocate its major air force and navy camps to a former US naval base near the South China Sea is designed to increase pressure on China and introduce more outside forces to the region to contain the country, experts said.
As soon as funding is available, the Philippine government plans to transfer air and naval forces, with their aircraft and warships, to Subic Bay, northwest of Manila, to gain faster access to the South China Sea, Philippine Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said on Sunday.
"It's for the protection of our West Philippine Sea," said Gazmin, using Manila's newly adopted name for part of the South China Sea.
Subic's location will cut the time it takes for fighter aircraft to get to the South China Sea by more than three minutes, compared with flying from Clark Air Base, north of Manila, where some air force planes are currently based, according to a confidential defence department document obtained by The Associated Press.
The natural deep harbour can also accommodate two large warships that the Philippines recently acquired from its ally the United States, and will grant visiting US forces, ships and aircraft temporary access to more of its military camps to allow for more joint military exercises than are currently held, the media reported.
The first US coast guard cutter was relaunched as the Philippines' largest warship in 2011. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III will lead ceremonies on August 6 to welcome the second ship at Subic, the Philippine navy has said.
Aggressive stance
Li Guoqiang, deputy director of the Centre for Chinese Borderland History and Geography at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Manila is building up and concentrating its military forces near the South China Sea "with a clear target — China".
The move continues Manila's stance on the issue this year, which violates the spirit of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and increases the risks of conflicts in the region, Li said.
"If all related parties resort to military means as Manila has for a resolution, the region will surely become a powder keg."
China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei have overlapping territorial claims over parts of the South China Sea. China's call for a peaceful solution has recently gained a positive response from nearly all the involved parties, but not Manila.
The report AP cited said that the cost of repairs and improvements at Subic needed for an air force base there will be at least US$119 million.
Despite the high cost, the plan is likely to take place with assistance from Washington, which has been shifting its strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific region, and Tokyo, whose ties with Beijing have been strained after Japan illegally "nationalised" China's Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, Li said.
Complicating issue
Su Hao, a professor of Asia-Pacific studies at China Foreign Affairs University, said external forces that share the Philippines' goal of containing China are complicating the regional South China Sea issue.
"What Manila sometimes did was to meet the needs of Washington and US allies, to seek more support from them," he said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presented Manila 10 patrol boats for the country's weak naval forces last week, during his third trip this year to Southeast Asia.
The US-based Military Times website said that with the Pentagon's strategic focus shifting to the Pacific, the Philippine bases are an ideal stopping point that's roughly 1,600 km west of Guam, where four US ships are based.
"With this recognition of an existential threat from China, I think there's much more interest in having the US presence," the media quoted Carl Baker, a Hawaii-based defence expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, as saying.
But Su said the role Washington can play in the future is still unclear.
"The US would like to see Manila posing threats to China or to back Manila behind the scenes, but it is reluctant to have open conflicts with China," he said. - Asia News Network
Malaysia's prime minister vowed on Tuesday that police would crack down on "brazen" crimes as concern over rising lawlessness grew after a respected businessman was gunned down in broad daylight.
Bahrain-born Hussain Ahmad Najadi, 75, became the latest victim of a spate of gun violence when he was killed on Monday as he walked on a street in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
His wife was shot and wounded in the attack, one of several unrelated shootings around the country that were splashed across newspapers on Tuesday.
Public concern has mounted in Malaysia over proliferating reports of killings, armed robberies and other crimes that have further tarnished a police force widely criticised as corrupt and inept, and led to accusations that the government was covering up the extent of the crime problem.
"I am deeply concerned by recent developments where murders involving firearms can occur in a brazen manner," Prime Minister Najib Razak was quoted as saying by the Malay Mail, noting that people were "becoming increasingly worried".
"We are ready to give the police anything it needs in its fight against serious crime," he said, adding they "must take immediate action to restore public confidence".
Police said Najadi -- who in the 1970s founded and led Arab Malaysian Development Bank, one of Malaysia's largest banks, before leaving in 1982 -- may have been killed over a disputed land deal.
He was shot at close range in the chest and lower abdomen and died on the spot, according to Malaysian media.
His Malaysian wife was wounded in the arm before the attackers fled in a taxi from the scene in the heart of the capital's commercial area, The Star newspaper said.
Police said they believed three men carried out the attack.
"We believe the shooter is a contract killer," Kuala Lumpur police chief Mohmad Salleh told reporters on Tuesday.
He insisted police could maintain public safety. "Security forces have things under control. If you want to go out late at night, we are still safe," he said.
Media on Tuesday also reported a number of other unrelated killings, some described as contract-style murders, in the capital and elsewhere.
On Saturday, R. Sri Sanjeevan, the head of a crime watchdog NGO that has accused authorities of manipulating crime data, was shot and wounded by unknown attackers.
Media reports have speculated that Sanjeevan was targeted because he planned to expose police links with drug syndicates.
He was reported to be under police guard in a hospital near the capital awaiting surgery to remove a slug from his rib cage.
Najib's administration has claimed crime has fallen in the past two years.
But Sanjeevan and opposition leaders say statistics have been doctored to hide a worsening public safety situation.
The opposition says this is due to the government's failure after 56 years in power to reform the police force, which is widely seen as pro-establishment.
Public fear has seen gated communities and private security arrangements mushroom in residential areas.
Purse-snatchings and burglaries are widely viewed as being at epidemic levels in the Muslim-majority country.
But recent months have also seen a spate of brazen mass robberies at restaurants, while burglary victims have included a cabinet minister, relatives of the deputy premier and the national police chief. - Channel News Asia
Beijing has ruled out any imminent leaders' summit with Tokyo, Chinese state-run media said Tuesday after a Japanese official raised the possibility, in a rebuff underscoring tensions over a long-running maritime dispute.
Asia's two largest economies are locked in a bitter row over islands in the resource-rich East China Sea, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.
Isao Iijima, a close adviser to Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said on Sunday after a visit to Beijing that a high-level summit "will be held in the not-so-distant future". A day earlier, Abe also said he would like to hold such talks.
But an unnamed official told the China Daily: "What Iijima told reporters on Sunday is not true and is fabricated, based on the needs of Japan's domestic politics."
The official added that Iijima had not met any Chinese government officials, nor did either side discuss a leaders' meeting.
"Beijing has ruled out the possibility of an upcoming leaders' summit with Tokyo," the China Daily said.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in an online statement that "as far as I know", Iijima "has not engaged in any official activity in China, nor have officials of the Chinese government made contact with him".
Diplomatic ties have frayed since last September when Japan nationalised some of the islands, triggering street protests across China.
Tokyo controls the islands, but official Chinese ships regularly patrol the waters nearby -- believed to be potentially rich in petroleum deposits -- raising concerns over a possible confrontation. - Channel News Asia
Thai navy personnel on Monday battled to clean up a major oil slick which coated a beach on a popular tourist island in a national park after a pipeline leak.
Roughly 50,000 litres of crude oil gushed into the sea on Saturday about 20 kilometres off the coast of the eastern province of Rayong, operator PTT Global Chemical said.
The oil reached Ao Phrao beach on the island of Ko Samet where hundreds of navy personnel, national park officials, company workers and villagers raced to remove it.
"It covers about 300 metres of the beach. That's a lot," Soomet Saitong, chief of the Khao Laem Ya National Park which includes Samet island, told AFP.
Some visitors were cutting short their holidays on the island, which is a popular destination for weekend breaks for Bangkok residents.
"There are oil stains right in front of the beach. Customers are starting to check out," a worker at the Ao Phrao Resort told AFP.
"There's oil all over on the beach," said a member of the front desk staff at another nearby hotel.
"We just have to accept it. It's chaotic right now. Many people and officials are on the beach dealing with it."
The pipeline operator - part of state-owned giant PTT - had said in a statement Sunday that 10 ships were involved in an urgent clean-up and it was confident of containing the spill.
PTT Global Chemical chief executive Anon Sirisaengtaksin apologised at a news conference on Monday and said the company accepted responsibility for the leak.
The group said the spillage came as crude oil from an Omani tanker moored offshore was being transferred to the pipeline for delivery to a PTT refinery.
A local member of parliament suggested that the size of the leak might have been even worse than initially reported.
"If that (50,000 litres) was the real amount, they should have already eliminated it - they should have solved the problem fast enough before it reached Samet island," said Sathit Pitutacha, a lawmaker from Rayong with the opposition Democrat Party.
Greenpeace urged Thailand to end oil drilling and exploration in the Gulf of Thailand in light of what it described as a "massive leak".
"The Gulf of Thailand, the nation's food basket, has long been under threat from oil spills along oil transport routes, at points of discharge and loading of oil carriers or from the several hundred oil drilling operations across the Gulf," said Greenpeace activist Ply Pirom.
The environmental group said there had been more than 200 oil spills in Thai waters during the past three decades.
"This is the biggest oil spill in the province," said Puchong Saritdeechaikul, director of the government's Marine and Coastal Resource Conservation Center in Rayong. "It's the first time it happened on Samet island."
Conservationists have voiced concern about the impact of both the oil and the chemicals used to disperse the spill.
"The main damage will be to corals and the fish food chain," said Srisuwan Janya, president of Thai environmental group The Stop Global Warming Association.
Another PTT subsidiary was involved in a huge oil spill off northwestern Australia in 2009 that was the country's worst ever offshore drilling accident. - Channel News Asia
With handshakes and smiles, China's military put its best foot forward on Monday as it opened a secretive base to a rare visit by journalists, in an effort to allay Asia's growing fears about the country's strategic intentions.
China has advertised its military ambitions with displays of new hardware, from its first test flight of a stealth fighter jet in early 2011 to its launch of a fledgling aircraft carrier - both technologies that need further years of development.
The moves come as China jangles nerves in Asia and the United States with increasingly bold moves to assert territorial claims in the East and South China Seas.
But on an annual trip to a Chinese military base -- this year, for the first time, one outside of Beijing -- officers were at pains to show they had nothing to hide and the world had nothing to fear.
"The Chinese people and the People's Liberation Army are peace loving," said Chen Xifeng, the gruff commander of the base in Lintong, which is close to the northern tomb where the famed Terracotta Warriors were discovered.
"China does have territorial disputes with some neighbors but the government and military are quite restrained in dealing with them," Chen, whose base houses an air defense brigade, told reporters.
"As soldiers, we are happy to see the development of our military, but we love peace even more."
The base is grouped under the Lanzhou Military Region, one of China's seven military regions, and is strategically important because the restive far western region of Xinjiang falls within its boundaries. Xinjiang itself borders Central Asia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Chen's base is also home to a detachment of advanced HQ-7B short-range anti-aircraft missiles, though they were not put in front of the cameras as they were off-base at a training exercise, the commander said.
Instead, ageing anti-aircraft cannons dating from the 1960s were brought out, along with a slightly more modern version, and soldiers chatted amiably about their equipment and why they joined the army as they posed for pictures.
"It was always my dream to join up. I've always loved my country and wanted to help defend it," said Hu Dan, 32, sweating under his tightly fitted helmet in the afternoon heat. Hu, from the eastern province of Jiangsu, became a soldier when he was just 18.
Spending on the People's Liberation Army will rise 10.7 percent to 740.6 billion yuan ($120 billion) this year, a number many governments and analysts say is not representative of the country's true defense outlays.
More sensitive questions were studiously swatted away on the carefully organized visit.
Geng Yansheng, the Chinese military's official spokesman who often appears in state media issuing missives on everything from relations with Japan to military spending, refused to talk about anything besides the day's activities.
"We can talk about all these things back in Beijing," Geng admonished reporters, when asked about tensions with Japan over a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea.
China wants to show its commitment to transparency by arranging such visits, he added.
"This visit shows how open we are ... But this openness is a gradual process," Geng said. "We will continue to do this and open up more bases for visits."- Interaksyon
Vietnam's president on Thursday voiced firm opposition to China's claims in the South China Sea but declined to back a Philippine bid to take the row to a UN tribunal.
On a visit to Washington, President Truong Tan Sang rejected China's so-called "nine-dash line" through which it claims virtually all of the strategic sea including islands close to neighbouring countries.
"We cannot find any legal foundation or scientific basis for such a claim and therefore it is the consistent policy of Vietnam to oppose the nine-dash line plan by China," Sang told the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
But Sang declined comment when asked if Vietnam would join the Philippines which in January said it was asking an arbitration panel of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to declare China's claims invalid.
"As a member of the United Nations, the Philippines has the legal right to carry on with any proceedings they would like," Sang said.
The Philippines and Vietnam have led criticism of what they consider increasingly assertive claims by China in the South China Sea.
The Philippines has had especially tense relations with China, which seized the Scarborough Shoal, an outcrop claimed by Manila, after a two-month naval standoff last year.
But friction has eased slightly between Vietnam and China, with Sang visiting Beijing last month and agreeing to set up a hotline to try to prevent mishaps from escalating.
China separately has increasingly butted heads with Japan, which fears that Beijing is trying to exert control over resource-rich waters in the East China Sea.
Sang earlier Thursday met US President Barack Obama, who encouraged calm in the South China Sea.
Sang and Obama in a joint statement called for "the settlement of disputes by peaceful means" and renewed support for a code of conduct to manage potential mishaps. - Channel News Asia
Fresh off his coalition's upper house victory, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is setting off on a three-nation tour on Thursday that will take him to Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
He is set to discuss Abenomics -- his economic revitalisation plan -- with the leaders of those countries, and meet US Vice President Joe Biden, who will also be visiting Singapore on Friday. Economics will be top of the agenda during Abe's tour.
According to Japan's foreign ministry, Abe wants to promote Japan's revitalisation by tapping on the ASEAN economies.
The three nations he is visiting are strong economies that offer good opportunities for collaboration with Japanese firms in areas such as high speed bullet trains, sewage and water systems.
Abe's first overseas trip was to Southeast Asia -- namely to Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. He sent his Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso to Myanmar, and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida to the Philippines and Singapore, which shows he places great importance on the region.
Japan hopes that Singapore will help its small and medium sized firms boost exports to developing countries such as China and India.
Besides business, some political watchers feel that this trip also highlights the strengthening of security ties.
Hideki Kato, president of Japan Initiative, said: "I think Mr Abe has great interest in foreign affairs and he is good at it. So there are ways he can rebuild ties. What's important is to focus on the present and to look ahead.
“It's the same towards South Korea, China and Southeast Asia. On the so-called understanding of history, it's an issue of perception, so I don't think that should be put on the table as a set."
Toshio Nagahisa, research fellow at PHP Institute, said: "He puts importance on East Asian countries. He visits these countries surrounding China to keep better relations and deepen better relations. That could be a good step to approach China, which has a dispute with Japan."
However, it is still unclear whether Abe will be able to hold his first bilateral summit with China or South Korea. - Channel News Asia
Japan is likely to start considering acquiring the ability to launch pre-emptive military strikes in an update of its basic defense policies, the latest step away from the constraints of its pacifist constitution.
The expected proposal, which will almost certainly sound alarm bells in China, is part of a review of Japan's defense policies undertaken by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government, an interim report on which could come as early as Friday.
The hawkish Abe took office in December for a rare second term, pledging to bolster the military to cope with what Japan sees as an increasingly threatening security environment including an assertive China and unpredictable North Korea.
Article 9 of Japan's constitution, drafted by U.S. occupation forces after its defeat in World War Two, renounces the right to wage war and, if taken literally, rules out the very notion of a standing army. In reality, Japan's Self-Defense Forces are one of Asia's strongest militaries.
The Defense Ministry is likely to call in the report for consideration of acquiring the ability to make a pre-emptive strike when an enemy attack is imminent, and creating a Marines force to protect remote islands such as those at the core of a dispute with China, Japanese media said.
"The acquisition of offensive capability would be a fundamental change in our defense policy, a kind of philosophical change," said Marushige Michishita, a professor at the National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies.
Obtaining that capability, however, would take time, money and training, meaning any shift may be more rhetorical than real. "It's easier said than done," Michishita added.
The updated guidelines could also touch on Abe's moves toward lifting a self-imposed ban on exercising the right of collective self-defense, or helping an ally under attack, such as if North Korea launched an attack on the United States.
The defense review may also urge replacing a self-imposed ban on arms exports, that has been eased several times, making it easier for Japan's defense contractors to join international projects and reduce procurement costs.
Some experts stressed that the changes were evolutionary rather than a sudden transformation in Japan's defense posture.
Questions over hardware, cost
"It's all part of a process of Japan edging away from the most restrictive interpretation of Article 9," said Richard Samuels, director of the MIT-Japan program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Still, given Japan's strained ties with China over disputed isles and how to frame the narrative of Japan's wartime history, China is likely to react strongly to the proposals, which come after Abe cemented his grip on power with a big win in a weekend election for parliament's upper house.
"No matter how Japan explains things, China will attack it pretty harshly," said Michael Green of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Although China has been a nuclear power for decades and North Korea is developing nuclear arms, Japan says it has no intention of doing so.
Support has grown in Japan for a more robust military because of concern about China, but opposition also remains.
Japan last updated its National Defense Program Guidelines in 2010 when the Democratic Party of Japan was in power.
Those changes shifted Japan away from defending areas to its north, a Cold War legacy, to a defense capability that could respond with more flexibility to incursions to the south, the site of the row with China over tiny, uninhabited islands.
Japan has for decades been stretching the limits of Article 9 and has long said it has the right to attack enemy bases overseas when the enemy's intention to attack Japan is evident, the threat is imminent and there are no other defense options.
But while previous administrations shied away from acquiring the hardware to do so, Abe's Liberal Democratic Party in June urged the government to consider acquiring that capability.
Just what hardware might come under consideration is as yet unclear. And with a huge public debt, Japan may be in no position to afford the bill.
Japan already has a very limited attack capability with its F-2 and F-15 fighter jets, mid-air refueling aircraft and Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kit. Tokyo also plans to buy 42 Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighters, with the first four due for delivery by March 2017.
Acquiring the ability to hit mobile missile launchers in North Korea - the most likely target - would require many more attack aircraft as well as intelligence capability for which Japan would most likely have to rely on the United States, Michishita said. Cruise missiles might also be considered.
Obtaining the ability to strike missile bases in mainland China would be an even bigger stretch, experts said, requiring for example intercontinental missiles. "It would cost lots of money, and take time, training and education to acquire a robust and meaningful capability," Michishita said. - GMA News
Japan scrambled fighter jets on Wednesday after a Chinese military aircraft flew for the first time through international airspace near its southern islands out over the Pacific, in a move seen by Japan as underlining China's maritime expansion.
Ties between China and Japan have been strained by a territorial dispute over uninhabited East China Sea islets and hawkish Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won a decisive victory in upper house elections on Sunday.
Japan's Defense Ministry said a Chinese Y-8 airborne early warning plane flew through airspace between Okinawa prefecture's main island and the smaller Miyako island in southern Japan out over the Pacific at around noon and later took the same route back over the East China Sea.
"I believe this indicates China's move toward further maritime expansion," Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters, in comments carried on public broadcaster NHK.
Chinese government spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.
The waters around the disputed islands, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, and which are to the west of Okinawa's main island, are rich fishing grounds and the sea floor around them could hold big oil and gas reserves.
Tension between China and Japan escalated last September when Japan bought three of the disputed islands from a private Japanese owner.
Since then, patrol ships and aircraft from both countries have been shadowing each other in the sea and skies around the islets.
That has raised fears of an unintended collision leading to a broader clash.
Abe has pledged to take a firm stance in the territorial dispute, but said in his news conference following the upper house election win that Japan's door was open to dialogue. - GMA News
Second Thomas Shoal, a low tide coral reef located 105 nautical miles from the Philippines’ Palawan Island, is likely to become the next flashpoint in the South China Sea. The shoal—which is 15 kilometers long and five kilometers wide and is known as Ayungin in the Philippines and Ren’ai Reef in China—is a strategic gateway to deposits of coveted oil and natural gas in Reed Bank and is claimed by the Philippines to be within its 200 mile exclusive economic zone (Taipei Times, May 30).
In early May, Manila lodged an official protest over the patrols around Second Thomas Shoal of two Chinese surveillance ships and a naval frigate that it charged were blocking Philippine ships from delivering supplies to troops deployed at the shoal (Manila Times, June 2). In 1999, the Philippines deliberately ran aground the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War II-era landing transport ship, on the shoal to establish a presence on the island; the ship has served as a Philippine base hosting approximately 10 marines since that time. Manila claims that ships sent to the shoal carry provisions for the troops and that it has no intention to build further infrastructure on the shoal (Malaya, June 5; Philippine Star, May 22; May 17).
The former World War II vessel, however, has begun to rust out, prompting President Aquino to instruct it be repaired so that the Philippines can maintain its presence. The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs has stated it considers Second Thomas Shoal an “integral part” of the Philippines, and that “China should pull out of the area because under international law, they do not have the right to be there” (Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 28). Philippine Secretary of Defense Voltaire Gazmin has declared his country “will fight for what is ours up to the last soldier standing” (Philippine Star, May 24).
The Chinese government, however, maintains that is has “indisputable sovereignty” over the shoal and that any Philippine attempts to send supply ships to “intensify its illegal presence and occupation of the Ren’ai Reef” are in violation of theDeclaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DoC). Additionally, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei asserted that the right of Chinese ships to protect China’s national sovereignty by carrying out patrols around the shoal is “beyond reproach” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 30; May 22).
These events come in the wake of heightened tensions last year between the Philippines and China over a standoff at Scarborough Shoal. The episode was triggered in early April 2012 when the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, a navy frigate acquired by the Philippines from the United States, discovered eight Chinese fishing vessels illegally poaching in the shoal. After the Philippine Navy inspected the Chinese vessels, two Chinese maritime surveillance ships appeared in the shoal and positioned themselves between the Chinese fishing boats and the BRP Gregorio Del Pilar. In the subsequent days and weeks, a small number of Philippine vessels stood at an impasse with a much larger fleet of Chinese ships. At one point, the Philippine Navy had two ships facing off against 90 Chinese vessels. After quiet negotiations that were brokered by the United States, Manila and Beijing reached an oral agreement to withdraw their vessels from the area. In early June, the Philippines complied. The Chinese, however, reneged on the agreement, and Chinese government vessels have remained in the area, maintaining a continued presence around the shoal and preventing Philippine fishermen from returning. Recent reports suggest that China is building a permanent structure on the shoal (InterAksyon, June 6; Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 3).
After successfully seizing control of Scarborough Shoal, Chinese experts praised the operation as an adroit exercise of Chinese power to defend Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity. In recent weeks, some voices have called for the application of the successful strategy to Second Thomas Shoal. Chinese Air Force Major General Zhang Zhaozhong, a nationalistic pundit who regularly appears on Chinese television talk shows, proposed a “cabbage” strategy to deal with Second Thomas Shoal in which the Chinese would surround the shoal in layers of Chinese ships, with fishing vessels in the inner layers, surrounded by civilian maritime vessels and navy ships in the outer layers. The goal of such a strategy would be to compel the Philippine marines deployed on the Shoal to abandon the grounded vessel for lack of sustenance (Malaya, June 5). If such an approach fails, other experts have asserted China should consider towing the BRP Sierra Madre away from the shoal—an action that carries potential for conflict considering the presence of armed Philippine marines (CCTV-4, May 31).
Although Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also assert claims in the South China Sea, this particular feature is only contested by China, the Philippines and Taiwan. Manila filed a case with the United Nations in January to bring its territorial dispute with China to an United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) arbitration tribunal—an action that has drawn support from the United States, the European Parliament, Japan and Vietnam, but anger from China that strongly opposes multilateral discussions on territorial issues (Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 28).
Washington does not take an official position on competing territorial claims in the South China Sea, but it is a treaty ally of the Philippines and, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, “stands firmly against any coercive attempts to alter the status quo.” While recently attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Hagel spoke with his Filipino counterpart Voltaire Gazmin on the U.S.–Philippines relationship, reaffirming the 1954 Mutual Defense Treaty between the nations. According to a Pentagon spokesman, the two “discussed deepening bilateral defense cooperation including work toward increasing rotational presence of U.S. forces in [the] Philippines to address common challenges” (Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 1). The United States also is helping the Philippine military to increase its maritime domain awareness in its coastal waters, including the South China Sea.
Although Washington recently has increased military assistance to the Philippines, it is less clear whether the United States is required to come to the aid of the Philippines under the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) in the case of aggression in the Second Thomas Shoal (New York Times, June 6). The MDT states in the case of an attack on either party, the other is obligated to “meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes,” but the U.S. Government has been careful to not state whether this includes an attack on marine features such as Second Thomas Shoal. In the case of Scarborough Shoal tension last year, the U.S. sent an aircraft carrier to the region in a signal of support for Manila and to deter Chinese coercion and aggression, but it did not intervene (New York Times, May 1, 2012) [1].
The failed negotiations to defuse tensions at the Scarborough Shoal last year and return the situation to the status quo ante have had significant consequences. Beijing evidently is applying lessons learned from that incident to the Second Thomas Shoal. From China’s perspective, the Philippines’ attempt to repair its vessel that was grounded on the shoal over a decade ago constitutes a provocation. As in the case of Scarborough Shoal, Beijing is poised to exploit any perceived provocation with the goal of creating a new status quo that favors China. This strategy also was applied by China in the East China Sea in September 2012, when the Japanese government purchased three of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands from a private Japanese citizen. Regular Chinese patrols around those islands—including within the 12-mile territorial waters—have contested Japanese administrative control effectively, establishing a new status quo that is to Beijing’s advantage. Repeated U.S. declarations that the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands are covered under the scope of the U.S.-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty have not deterred Beijing from conducting almost daily sea patrols to assert Chinese sovereignty.
China is betting that the United States will be unwilling to intervene to preserve Manila’s presence on Second Thomas Shoal. That calculus probably is correct. Washington will continue to speak out against the use of coercion to change the status quo unilaterally, but it is unlikely that U.S. Navy ships will engage directly with Chinese government maritime vessels or the Chinese Navy over rocks and shoals in the South China Sea. That does not mean, however, that there are no risks in the current standoff.
The Philippine Navy is substantially inferior to the emerging blue-water Chinese navy and lacks the capability to defend its presence on Second Thomas Shoal in the event that China is determined to dislodge its marines. Nevertheless, Manila may put up a fight. The potential for a military skirmish between the two sides will increase under either of the following scenarios:
(1) if China blocks provisions from being delivered to the Philippine forces on the shoal, Manila could seek to air drop supplies from a helicopter. Chinese interference in the operation could result in an exchange of fire and potential loss of life;
(2) if the Philippines were to attempt to erect structures, as China is reportedly doing on Scarborough Shoal, the Chinese would likely seize the opportunity to publicly accuse the Philippines of provocation and commence their “cabbage” strategy or even attempt to tow away the rusting vessel.
Either scenario could escalate to military conflict. Even if conflict is avoided, heightened tensions could deal a blow to efforts to launch early talks on negotiation of a Code of Conduct between China and the members of ASEAN (“The South China Sea Dispute (Part One): Negative Trends Continue in 2013,” China Brief, June 7).
China’s employment of civilian maritime surveillance vessels in the South China Sea and East China Sea to alter the status quo in its favor poses a serious challenge to the Obama administration and its strategy of “rebalancing” foreign policy priorities toward the Asia-Pacific. U.S. credibility as a guarantor of peace and stability in the region is as stake, especially with U.S. treaty allies Japan and the Philippines. To date, Washington lacks an effective strategy to deter Chinese coercion against its neighbors and its efforts to change the status quo unilaterally over disputed islands, reefs and shoals.-Asian Studies Multimedia
Taiwan started a computerised military drill on Monday, set against an imagined scenario in which China invades the island in 2017.
The five-day exercise is part of the island's biggest annual military manoeuvre which is this year codenamed “Han Kuang 29” (Han Glory 29), officials at the defence ministry said Monday.
The drill simulates a surprise attack by the Chinese in 2017, followed by a large-scale invasion, the ministry said, without explaining why the scenario is being staged in that particular year.
But analysts said the time-frame was reasonable, given China's continued military development and its territorial disputes with neighbouring countries.
"Looking ahead, we can expect China to put into service -- to name just a few -- its first carrier battle group, stealth planes and Type 081 amphibious assault ships," Kevin Cheng, editor-in-chief of the Taipei-based Asia-Pacific Defence Magazine, told AFP.
"China's landing capabilities would be significantly lifted once its forces are armed with the amphibious assault ships, designed to carry transport, anti-submarine and attack helicopters," he said.
The amphibious assault ships could be used in its disputes in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, Cheng added.
He also warned of the threat from China's deployment of more than 1,500 ballistic and cruise missiles targeting Taiwan, as their accuracy has been enhanced.
Tensions across the Taiwan Strait have eased since Ma Ying-jeou's China-friendly administration came to power in 2008 on a platform of beefing up trade and tourism links. He was re-elected in January 2012.
But Beijing has still not ruled out the use of force against the island should it declare independence, even though Taiwan has ruled itself for more than six decades since their split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.
"Over the past few years, ties across the Strait have improved and civil exchanges have been on the rise, but military threat from the mainland has not accordingly diminished," Taiwanese army major-general Tseng Fu-hsin told reporters last week.
The People's Liberation Army launched ballistic missiles into waters near Taiwan during a series of live-fire drills in 1995 and 1996, aiming to deter the Taiwanese from voting for Lee Teng-hui, the independence-minded president then seeking another four-year term.
China halted its sabre-rattling only after the United States sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to waters near the island.-Channel News Asia
Southeast Asian nations gathering to discuss the annual shroud of hazardous smog that blights the region are unlikely to find any immediate solutions, despite a meeting to address the issue being brought forward by a month to Monday.
Officials from five ASEAN member countries that form the so-called "haze" committee are scheduled to hold two-day talks over Indonesian forest fires that sent clouds of smoke into Malaysia and Singapore last month before environment ministers head into a showdown Wednesday.
But leaders of the two affected nations, which said they were subjected to life-threatening levels of pollution, hold little hope of a significant outcome.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong admitted in early July the forest fires in Indonesia would take "a very long time" to eradicate because of Indonesia's vast size.
"I know that there will be a spirit of cooperation but I think solving the haze issue will take a very long time, with the best will in the world," he said.
Malaysia's environment minister Palanivel Govindasamy refused to be drawn on immediate solutions to the haze which sent pollution levels to a 16-year high, forcing a state of emergency in two southern districts.
"Our job is to work closely with Indonesia and our ASEAN partners on the haze meeting. Once an agreement is reached we can go forward," he told AFP after stressing "long-term solutions" would be the focus of the meeting.
Formally known as the Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) Meeting on Transboundary Haze Pollution, the three nations along with Brunei and Thailand have met on 14 previous occasions since 2006, but have little to show for it.
The main obstacle appears to be internal Indonesian politics, as slash-and-burn remains the cheapest -- albeit illegal -- way to clear land for agriculture.
The government has sought parliament's approval to ratify a 2002 pact on haze pollution which has been signed by all its ASEAN partners but the proposal was rejected in 2008.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said in June the treaty had been resubmitted to the current legislature, although no timeline for ratification was given.
Singapore and Malaysia have demanded Indonesia punish those behind the blazes, but Jakarta has hit back, saying fires have also been set in plantations owned by their neighbours, especially Malaysian palm oil firms.
Indonesian police said Friday they were investigating fires found in a concession held by the local subsidiary of Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Kepong, which last month denied allegations of using slash-and-burn methods.
The haze has been a bone of contention in ASEAN for nearly two decades, with the worst haze crisis in 1997-1998 estimated to have cost the region US$9 billion. - Channel News Asia
The Philippines has reached a deal with the country's largest Muslim rebel group to share wealth generated from Mindanao's natural resources.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will receive 75% of the gold, copper and other resources mined from the southern island.
It follows lengthy negotiations aimed at ending a 40-year conflict that has cost an estimated 120,000 lives.
But a rebel group not at the talks has continued attacks on the national army.
Two soldiers and five guerrillas died in an ambush by the violent break-away faction Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) on Saturday.
Disarming rebels
Sunday's agreement was reached after six days of talks in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur.
It adds details to an outline agreement - the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) - signed last October in which the Philippine government agreed to give Muslims on Mindanao more autonomy in the southern region where Muslims represent a majority in the mainly Catholic nation.
"The Parties believe that the Annex, which forms part of the FAB, will provide sufficient guidance for the crafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law's provisions on wealth sharing and revenue generation for the Bangsamoro as envisioned by the FAB," said the government and MILF representatives in a joint statement.
Under the terms of the FAB:
- The new autonomous region would be named Bangsamoro, after the Moros - or Moors, which was how the Spanish used to refer to the followers of Islam - living there
- Bangsamoro's leaders would have more political and economic powers
- Law enforcement would be transferred from the army to the Bangsamoro police in a "phased and gradual manner"
- The needs of the region's poverty-stricken communities would be addressed
- The deal makes it more likely the two sides will reach a final peace agreement to end a decades-old conflict, says BBC Asia analyst Michael Bristow.
But other aspects of a final peace agreement still need to be worked out, such as how to disarm the rebels and exactly how much autonomy the will get, he adds.
As well as the 75%-25% agreement on sharing the wealth from natural resources, the two sides agreed to split earnings from energy resources equally.
The government in Manila says a failure to bring about a binding agreement could give other groups a reason to continue fighting.
The government's chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer told AFP a final peace deal could be signed after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ends later this month.
The MILF, created after a split with another rebel group in 1977, originally wanted an independent Muslim state, but dropped this demand.
The Philippines has faced separatist movements for decades in Mindanao, where the MILF is based, and in Jolo, home to the radical Islamist Abu Sayyaf group, which is reputedly linked to al-Qaeda.
Communist rebels have also waged a guerrilla conflict over parts of the country from 1969.-Birtish Broadcasting Corporation
Burma's government and rebels from the ethnic Wa guerrilla group have reached a peace deal, state media has reported.
A delegation was sent to the remote Wa region in Shan state, which borders China, said the Kyemon Daily newspaper.
The military and the United Wa State Army (UWSA) agreed to hold regular meetings and withdraw to positions they occupied before a recent stand-off.
The move came as part of a government effort to reach agreements with all the country's ethnic groups.
For decades, Burma, also known as Myanmar, has faced rebellions from several minority groups, seeking autonomy.
The UWSA is believed to be the largest, with a fighting force numbering as many as 30,000.
It reached an agreement once before with the former military regime in 1989, but recently tensions flared after the Burmese military surrounded Wa territory.
Opium trade
The UWSA is said to be equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry. China reportedly supplied combat helicopters to the group, a report by UK-based intelligence monitor Jane's Information Group said last May.
The Wa region was singled out by the international community for its involvement in huge drug problems in the region.
Under intense international pressure, especially from China, the UWSA banned opium cultivation in 2005.
Burma is the second largest opium grower in the world after Afghanistan, according to UN reports. Almost all of the opium it produces is grown in Shan and Kachin states.
President Thein Sein's government has embarked on a series of reforms to find a solution to the problem,
Ceasefires and political opening up mean international organisations such as the UN will have better access to areas that were previously considered no-go areas.
Burma signed ceasefire agreements with the Karen and Kachin rebel groups earlier this year.-British Broadacasting Corporation
The Thai government and Muslim separatists in the south of the country have announced they will stop fighting each other during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
The conflict has killed more than 5,000 people in the last decade.
The agreement is the first major step since February, when the two sides signed a first-ever peace talks deal.
Malaysia is facilitating the negotiations but correspondents say that progress has been slow.
Attacks in the region have occurred almost daily despite several rounds of talks since March.
'Stepping stone'
Mediator Ahmad Zamzamin Hashim said that both parties had "reached a common understanding to work towards a violence-free Ramadan".
Under the terms of the "Ramadan Peace Initiative", Thai security forces will refrain from "aggressive actions" while rebel groups including the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) will not engage in "armed attacks, bombings and ambushes" against Thai troops.
"This is a stepping stone to what we want to achieve in the future. If there are no incidents, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It will be a precedent, a stepping stone," Mr Hashim said.
The deal is for a 40-day period from 10 July to 18 August and will be effective in the southern provinces of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Songkhla, he said.
Thailand's National Security Council chief and lead peace negotiator Paradorn Pattanatabut welcomed the rebels' pledge, but warned that some splinter groups were opposed to dialogue.
"But I'm convinced that the BRN will be able to curb violence," he told the AFP news agency in Bangkok. "In the past they never came out and made a clear announcement of their goal."
The BBC's Jennifer Pak in Kuala Lumpur says that it has been a shaky peace process and that the deal is a verbal agreement - nothing has been signed.
Our correspondent says that the worry is that the negotiators representing rebel groups do not have full command of their troops.
But the peace talks are different from previous attempts because this is the first time that the Thai state has recognised the insurgents and is allowing their demands to be heard and discussed.
Thai negotiators have suggested the possibility of creating some form of locally-elected administration in the region, but full autonomy for the south remains off the agenda because the Thai constitution stipulates that the Buddhist-majority kingdom must not be divided.-British Broadcasting Corporation
Indonesia's most wanted Islamic militant has appeared in a video posted on the Internet delivering a tirade against the country's anti-terror police and urging "jihad", police said Wednesday.
Santoso is the leader of a group called the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen that hides out in the jungles around Poso on Sulawesi island, an area considered a hotbed of terrorism.
In the six-minute video posted on YouTube, a man calling himself Syaikh Abu Wardah Santoso describes Detachment 88 -- the elite police anti-terror squad -- as "a real enemy, a real satan".
"My brothers in Poso, I have felt how cruel Detachment 88 is to these people," he said in the video that was posted on the Internet at the weekend.
"Today, God almighty has decided that jihad will continue until judgement day."
Police said the man was the terror suspect commonly known as Santoso. The video has now been removed from YouTube.
"We saw the six-minute video and can tell from the circumstances of the video that it is Santoso in his hiding place," Central Sulawesi police spokesman Soemarno, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP.
The call to jihad came after raids across the country in May which in part targeted militants believed to be raising funds for Santoso's group. More than 20 suspected militants were killed or captured in the raids.
Terror expert Noor Huda Ismail told AFP his information was that the video was of Santoso. He said it was a "wake-up call" for militants to continue fighting and gathering funds for Santoso's group.
The militants around Poso are thought to be among the few that remain a real threat in Indonesia, which fought a decade-long battle against terror groups after attacks on Western targets, including the 2002 Bali bombings.
They regularly launch attacks but these tend to target Indonesian security forces and be low-impact. Last month a suicide bomber attacked a police station in Poso but no one was hurt apart from the attacker.
Detachment 88 was set up in the wake of the Bali bombings, which killed 202 people including many foreign tourists.-Channel News Asia
President Barack Obama has invited his Vietnamese counterpart to visit the United States this month, sources said Wednesday, looking to boost cooperation on security and trade despite concerns over the communist state's rights record.
President Truong Tan Sang's visit would be only the second by a Vietnamese head of state to Washington since the former war adversaries normalised relations and comes as both governments see growing common interests.
Two people familiar with the trip plans, who were not allowed to be quoted by name, told AFP that Obama has invited Sang to the White House during the last week of July.
The White House and Vietnamese embassy declined immediate comment.
Vietnam has been eager to expand military cooperation with the United States as Southeast Asian nations accuse a rising China of increasingly aggressive tactics to exert territorial disputes.
While tensions remain high between China and the Philippines, friction has appeared to ease between Beijing and Hanoi in the run-up to Obama's decision to invite Sang.
The Vietnamese president visited Beijing last month to discuss disputes. Chinese state media said that the historic rivals agreed to establish a hotline to resolve incidents involving fishing boats in the hotly contested South China Sea.
But the growing US relationship with Vietnam has faced sustained criticism on Capitol Hill, which accuse the administration of paying only lip service to calls on Vietnam to improve human rights.
Representative Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, charged that the Obama administration has been "incredibly weak" in promoting human rights in Vietnam and elsewhere.
"If you voted for Obama and you thought that he was going to be an advocate for human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam, you have been cheated," Wolf told AFP.
"He is the worst president we have ever had on this issue," he said.
Administration officials who testified before Congress last month said that Vietnam's human rights record was deteriorating, with the country holding more than 120 political prisoners and stepping up curbs on the Internet.
The stance of Congress comes in part because of appeals from Vietnamese American constituents, many of whom fled communist rule.
Duy Hoang, a spokesman for Viet Tan, a US-based advocacy group banned by Hanoi, said that Obama should press Sang to institute "true political freedom" and to free prisoners including the prominent Catholic dissident lawyer Le Quoc Quan.
Obama has made Southeast Asia a priority, seeing an opportunity to build relations with a region that has posted high economic growth rates and is mostly friendly to the United States.
Since the start of his second term, Obama has met at the White House with the leaders of Singapore, Brunei and -- in a visit that would have been unthinkable before recent democratic reforms -- Myanmar.
The United States has also been expanding commercial relations with Vietnam, which is one of a dozen nations negotiating the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The Obama administration has envisioned the pact as the basis for a new order, which would set rules for the Asia-Pacific region at a time of rapid change marked by China's rise.
Presidents Bill Clinton normalised relations with Vietnam and paid a landmark visit of reconciliation in 2000. President George W. Bush also visited in 2007 for an Asia-Pacific summit.
The only previous Vietnamese president since the war to visit the White House was Nguyen Minh Triet in 2007 at Bush's invitation. Protesters trailed his six-day US visit.
Sang visited Hawaii last year for an Asia-Pacific summit and Vietnamese prime ministers have visited Washington several times since 2005.
Secretary of State John Kerry, a Vietnam veteran who was active in normalisation of relations, has said that he plans to visit Hanoi soon.-Channel News Asia
Eight brand new attack helicopters capable of navigating safely in bad weather will be acquired for P3.4 billion for the Air Force.
A bid bulletin of the Department of National Defense (DND) shows that the project would involve the purchase of eight helicopters with full night operation capability, complete weapons system and integrated logistics support package.
“These helicopters shall be capable of performing close air support during day and night,” read the bulletin.
The deadline for the submission of bids has been slated tentatively on July 24, but it can be moved if prospective bidders request for an extension.
The DND said: “The guiding principles for this project shall be based on affordability and sustainability while conforming to the requirements of our Air Force in furtherance of accomplishing its mission.”
A prospective bidder, to be qualified, must have completed within 10 years from the date of submission of bids a contract similar to the project.
Bids that are higher than the approved budget contract of P3.4 billion will be rejected at the outset.
The helicopters must be delivered within 540 calendar days from the opening of the letter of credit, which serves as an assurance that the government would pay the winning bidder.
The Air Force’s inventory has been depleted due to recent accidents that killed some of its pilots.-The Philippine Star
