Sina Delenda Est

China has flown bomber jets in the vicinity of Guam and practiced attacks on the island.

• Chinese military activities are causing the United States to worry about the country as the primary threat 
• Chinese bombers have also flown near Hawaii.

By Stacey Yuen

A Chinese Xi'an H-6M bomber aircraft is displayed at an exhibition in Guangdong, China, on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014.

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii -- China has practiced bombing runs targeting the U.S. territory of Guam, one of a host of activities making U.S. forces here consider Beijing the most worrisome potential threat in the Pacific, even as North Korea pursues a nuclear warhead.
Beyond the well-publicized military build up on man-made islands in the South China Sea, China has built up its fleet of fighters to the extent that it operates a daily, aggressive campaign to contest airspace over the East China Sea, South China Sea and beyond, U.S. military officials here in the region said.

China has also taken several other non-military steps that are viewed as attempts to make it much more difficult for the U.S. to operate there and defend allies in the future.
The officials described the escalatory behaviors by China in a briefing they provided to reporters traveling with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford.
The officials said despite increased threats by North Korea as it pursues its nuclear weapons program, a conflict with North Korea is still viewed as “a fight we can win,” they said. 

With China, they said they “worry about the way things are going.”
China “is very much the long-term challenge in the region,” said Dunford, who was not part of the briefing. 

“When we look at the capabilities China is developing, we’ve got to make sure we maintain the ability to meet our alliance commitments in the Pacific.”
Over the last year Japan has scrambled 900 sorties to intercept Chinese fighters challenging Japan’s Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ. 

In 2013 China announced borders for its own ADIZ, borders which overlapped Japan’s zone and included Japan's Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. 

Since then, increased interactions between Japanese and Chinese aircraft ultimately resulted in Japan relocating two fighter squadrons to Naha Air Base on Okinawa to more easily meet the incursions, the officials said.
“We now have, on a daily basis, armed Chinese Flankers and Japanese aircraft” coming in close proximity of each other, the officials said.
Intercepts between the U.S. and China are also increasing, the officials said.
“It’s very common for PRC aircraft to intercept U.S. aircraft,” these days, the officials said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
Chinese aircraft are also testing U.S. air defense identification zones, the officials said.
Chinese H-6K “Badger” bombers upgraded with 1,000 mile range air launched cruise missiles are testing U.S. defense zones around Guam, the officials said.
The Badgers run frequent flights to get within range of the U.S. territory, they said.
“The PRC is practicing attacks on Guam,” the officials said.
Those bombers are also flying around Hawaii, they said.
The vast majority of the flights occur without an incident, for example, a report of unsafe flying. 

The officials said they follow U.S. Pacific Command guidance on how to respond in those events, so they do not further escalate.
Military-to-military relationships between the U.S. and China remain open, if guarded, the officials said. 

Both Chinese and U.S. officials meet twice a year at the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement conference, where the incursions are discussed along with other security topics.
The expanded Chinese fighter and bombers runs are just one part of the country’s effort to “win without fighting” to gradually normalize the gains China has made in the South China Sea, the officials said.
There are other pressures. 

For example, the officials said they estimate the People’s Liberation Army Navy has placed as many as 150,000 Chinese commercial fishing vessels under its direction, even though they are not official Chinese navy. 

The Chinese fishing vessels make coordinated attacks on Vietnamese fishermen, the officials said, ramming and sinking boats near the Paracel Islands. 

China took the territory from Vietnam in the 1970s and has militarized some of the islands. 

The area remains a traditional fishing area for the Vietnamese,
Taken together, China’s activities suggest it is preparing to defend expanded boundaries, the U.S. officials worry.
“I think they will be ready to enforce it when they decide to declare the Nine-Dash line as theirs,” one of the officials said, referring to the territorial line China has identified that would notionally put the entire South China Sea under Chinese control if enforced.
If unchallenged, the U.S. officials worry that China could slowly force countries away from what they describe as the “rules based order” -- essentially the standing international treaties and norms -- in the region and make them shift their security alliances to Beijing for their own economic survival.
Dunford said the U.S. would not allow that to happen.
“We view ourselves as a Pacific power,” Dunford said.
“There are some who try to create a narrative that we are not in the Pacific to stay,” he said. 

“Our message is that we are a Pacific power. We intend to stay in the Pacific. Our future economic prosperity is inextricably linked to our security and political relationships in the region.”
U.S. forces in the region are rethinking what a Pacific war would look like.
“If we find ourselves in conflict out there we will be under air attack,” the official said.
One concept they shared is “Agile Combat Employment” -- dispersing the U.S. advanced fighters concentrated at air bases in Japan and scattering them to 10-15 undeveloped and highly expeditionary airstrips on islands in the region. 

The dispersion would require the rapid dissemination of logistics support to keep those aircraft operating at their remote locations. 

The Air Force has already been practicing how to disperse the fuel, most recently in their Arctic Ace exercise, the officials said.
The idea would be that the aircraft would be so dispersed that it would make it difficult for China to prioritize what it would attack.
President Donald Trump will visit the Pacific region later this week, making stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. 

Dunford said he expected that some of the security and economic concerns generated by the increased incursions and economic pressures by China would likely come up.
“If people want to view that as a focus on China they can. But it’s based on a rules-based international order,” Dunford said. 

“It’s focused on our ability to advance our national interests. We’re not going to compromise in that regard.”

Chinese Aggressions

Vietnamese Collector Offers Antiques to Battle China
By Ha Nguyen

Fishing boats are docked in Tho Quang port, Danang, Vietnam, March 26, 2016. Fishermen from around the South China Sea tell stories of contending with bandits and coast guards.
As Vietnam struggles to keep the peace with neighboring China, one of its citizens believes he has something to add to Hanoi’s arsenal: his antique collection.
Hoang Van Cuong, who says he can raise tens of millions of dollars by selling everything from royal beds to 2,500-year-old bronze drums, has promised to donate the proceeds to the state so it can support fishermen out in the South China Sea, where Vietnam and China are sparring over the rights to several archipelagos. 

He expects Hanoi to use some of his money to bolster the military, should clashes break out between the two countries.
A portion of the funds would come from China, of all places, because his collection includes porcelain from the Qing dynasty and other Chinese artifacts, attracting scores of dealers from north of the border. 

The peculiar irony of taking Chinese money to buy weapons to fight China is not lost on Cuong.
“I don’t like Chinese people,” Cuong said in an interview at his home in downtown Saigon, cluttered with bodhisattva figures and lacquer tables. 

“But when I’m putting things on sale, I need money. I don’t mind if it’s a Chinese person, an American person, or whoever has money, I’ll sell. But the truth is, between me and China, I don’t like Chinese people.”

The oil rig
In Vietnam, such rancor toward China seems to always linger under the surface, but it burst onto the international stage in 2014 after Beijing parked an oil rig in a part of the South China Sea that both countries claim. 

That sparked rare, deadly rioting across Vietnam. 

Authorities quelled the violence, but many Vietnamese are still finding ways to air their objections to China.
Fundraisers are a common means for citizens to show their love of Vietnam and displeasure with China, from collection boxes at concerts, to donation campaigns by top newspaper Tuoi Tre. 

The funds go to Vietnamese fishermen, who are seen as humble national heroes on the frontline of perceived Chinese bullying.
Even though the oil rig was eventually withdrawn, Vietnamese have increasingly vented their anger through a boycott of Chinese goods. 

The political act is pragmatic, too, for shoppers who are suspicious of imported goods from China, from apples that never seem to rot, to toys made of carcinogenic plastic. 

But it’s a testament to Beijing’s influence that its exports remain popular here.
The “love-hate” relationship extends to the communist government in Hanoi, which walks a tightrope between defending Vietnamese territory from China, and cultivating economic and political ties with their much larger neighbor. 

The ruling elite recognize they’re in a sticky spot.
After tensions peaked with the violent riots in 2014, Saigon delegate Truong Trong Nghia told the National Assembly that Vietnam can’t extract itself from its reliance on China.
“Dependence in this case means we want to withdraw but we can't,” Nghia said. 

“We know it's not good, but we are forced to continue this dependence.”
The Vietnamese public is less likely to admit it depends on China. 

People like Cuong, the antique collector, want their leaders to take a hard line, but at the same time hope for peace.
“I don’t want anymore war here,” said Cuong, who witnessed major battles as a UPI photographer during the Vietnam War.
Pointing to the antiques around him, Cuong added he might as well sell his fortune because, “I figured, if war arrives, everything here would be worthless.”

China Bans Vietnam from Fishing in Vietnamese South China Sea

The government of Vietnam has condemned China for imposing a fishing ban over its territory in the Paracel Islands, a South China Sea archipelago that China illegally claims as its own.
by FRANCES MARTEL

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture announced a ban last week on fishing in multiple regions of the South China Sea, including the Gulf of Tonkin and the waters of Vietnam’s Paracel Islands. 

Between May 1 and August 16, the Chinese Coast Guard will prevent Vietnamese fishermen from exploiting the resources within Chinese sovereign territory.
The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry has condemned the move as a serious violation of the nation’s sovereignty. 

“Vietnam resolutely opposes and rejects the regulation issued by China,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said last week. 

According to the English-language regional outlet Vietnam Net, Binh added that Vietnam “has sufficient legal ground and historical evidence affirming its sovereignty over Hoàng Sa (Paracel) archipelago as well as legitimate rights over its waters in line with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”
This week, Hanoi announced it would send surveillance ships to the affected area to protect its fishermen, who have come under attack by Chinese Coast Guard ships in the past.
The Chinese government claims most of the South China Sea, including the sovereign waters of Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia. 

The South China Sea is among the world’s most highly-trafficked trade routes and a natural resource believed to hold as many as 11 billion barrels of oil. 

Most recently, satellite images revealed that China was preparing military bases to install long-range missiles in South China Sea’s international waters.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague ruled last year that China’s claims were invalid and its activities in the disputed territories illegal. 

The Chinese government vowed to disregard the ruling, deeming it the result of a conspiracy between Japan (which is not a claimant in the South China Sea) and the United States. 

Since then, China has continued to construct artificial islands and install military assets in Vietnamese and Philippine waters in the region.
China has used force against Vietnam more than any other South China Sea rival. 

In 2014, Chinese ships sunk a Vietnamese fishing vessel in Vietnamese waters, claiming the fishermen had “forcefully intruded into the area of a Chinese company’s oil rig and capsized” rather than being sunk. 

A year later, A Chinese ship rammed itself into another Vietnamese ship until it sank, leaving the entire crew floating on lifeboats in the middle of the South China Sea until Vietnamese rescue teams saved them. 

At the time, regional Fisheries Association head Phan Huy Hoang claimed at least twenty similar incidents in which Chinese ships attacked Vietnamese counterparts in Vietnamese waters.
In an attempt to repair increasingly tense relations between the fellow Communist countries, Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong visited Beijing in March 2016, meeting with Xi Jinping. 

The meeting did not result in a statement on the South China Sea, with Xi instead stating, “China and Vietnam share a common destiny, so do the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of Vietnam.” 

The meeting triggered widespread protests against Chinese belligerence in the South China Sea among Vietnamese citizens in Hanoi.
A month after that meeting, Vietnamese Coast Guard officials seized a Chinese ship in the Vietnamese waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, where China imposed its fishing ban this week.
China’s latest aggression has triggered reactions from other countries in the region. 

Taiwan — which China considers a breakaway province, not a sovereign nation — announced this week that it would increase the number of South China Sea navy patrols in its schedule, in part to protect civilian Taiwanese activities in the region. 

Voice of America notes that Taipei has sent a 1,000-ton coast guard frigate to the region to protect fishing operations in the region.
The United States has also announced it would increase the number of “freedom of navigation” operations in the region to protect its allies. 

The U.S. Navy has already begun “routine operations” in the international waters of the sea, which China claims exclusively as its own.