Sina Delenda Est: Vive la France

France leads Guam military exercises amid China Sea fears
By Haven Daley and Audrey McAvoy

HAGATNA, Guam — The U.S., the U.K. and Japan are joining a French-led amphibious exercise at remote U.S. islands in the Pacific over the next week. 

Participants say they are showing support for the free passage of vessels in international waters, an issue that has come to the fore amid fears China could restrict movement in the South China Sea.
The drills around Guam and Tinian may also get the attention of nearby North Korea. 

Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea spiked last month after Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile and the U.S. sent an aircraft carrier strike group to the region.
The drills will practice amphibious landings, delivering forces by helicopter and urban patrols.

Satellite images reveal Chinese expansion in South China Sea

Two ships from France are participating, both of which are in the middle of a four-month deployment to the Indian and Pacific oceans. 

Joining are U.K. helicopters and 70 U.K. troops deployed with the French amphibious assault ship FS Mistral. 

Parts of the exercise will feature British helicopters taking U.S. Marines ashore from a French ship.
"The message we want to send is that we're always ready to train and we're always ready for the next crisis and humanitarian disaster wherever that may be," said U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col Kemper Jones, the commander of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. 

About 100 Marines from Jones' unit will be part of the drills slated for this weekend and next week.
Cars enter Naval Base Guam on Thursday, May 11, 2017, near Hagatna, Guam.

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea and has aggressively tried to fortify its foothold in recent years by transforming seven mostly submerged reefs into island outposts, some with runways and radars and — more recently — weapons systems. 

This has prompted criticism from other nations, who also claim the atolls, and from the United States, which insists on freedom of navigation in international waters.
Nations fear China's actions could restrict movement in a key waterway for world trade and rich fishing grounds.

Mira Rapp-Hooper of the Center for New American Security, a Washington think tank, said the exercises will send a strong message in support of a "rules-based order in Asia" at a time when China's actions have raised questions about this.
"A reminder in this exercise is that lots of other countries besides the United States have an interest in that international order," said Rapp-Hooper, who is a senior fellow with the center's Asia-Pacific Security Program.
The French stealth frigate Courbet is docked at Naval Base Guam on Thursday, May 11, 2017, near Hagatna, Guam. Military personnel from the United States, Japan, France and the United Kingdom are gathering in the remote U.S. Pacific islands of Guam and Tinian. The exercises come at a time of regional tensions in the South China Sea and North Korea.

Meanwhile, this week the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote Donald Trump to express concern that the U.S. hasn't conducted freedom of navigation operations since October.
The letter from Republican Sen. Bob Corker, Democrat Sen. Ben Cardin and five other senators supported a recent assessment by the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific that China is militarizing the South China Sea and is continuing a "methodical strategy" to control it.
The letter, dated Wednesday and obtained by The Associated Press, urged the administration to "routinely exercise" freedom of navigation and overflight. 

The senators described the South China Sea as critical to U.S. national security interests and to peace in the Asia-Pacific.
The Guam exercises come amid modestly growing European interest in the South China Sea, said David Santoro, a senior fellow for nuclear policy at Pacific Forum CSIS, a Honolulu think tank.
"What I'm hearing from the French and to some degree the British, is an increased interest in what's going on in Asia and how they can help," Santoro said. 

As for North Korea, Santoro said Pyongyang would likely be watching but he didn't think the exercises were intended to send any signal to the country.
Japan, which is sending 50 soldiers and 160 sailors and landing craft, has been investing in amphibious training so it can defend its own islands. 

Tokyo is particularly concerned China might attempt to take over its rocky, uninhabited outcrops in the East China Sea: the Senkaku islands.

Japan has also expressed an interest in vessels being able to freely transit the South China Sea.

Guam and Tinian are about 1,500 miles (2,414 kilometers) south of Tokyo. 

They're about the same distance to the east from Manila, Philippines.

The Manchurian President

Senators to Trump: Show Resolve with Beijing in South China Sea
BY DAN DE LUCE

Senators from both sides of the aisle wrote to Donald Trump on Wednesday urging him to take a tougher line with Beijing in the South China Sea, calling for more U.S. naval patrols to uphold navigation rights in the disputed waterway.
The appeal, backed by three Republicans and four Democrats, reflects growing concern in Congress that the Trump administration could be ceding strategic ground to China.
The letter obtained by Foreign Policy expresses concern that the United States had not carried out patrols upholding “freedom of navigation” in the strategic South China Sea since October 2016. 

Last year, Pentagon officials privately complained that the Obama administration limited its ability to patrol the disputed waters; Rex Tillerson initially promised a much tougher line against Chinese antics in the South China Sea, but none has yet materialized.
“We therefore urge your administration to take necessary steps to routinely exercise freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, which is critical to U.S. national security interests and to peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region,” the letter said.
The administration has so far rebuffed requests from the U.S. Pacific Command to conduct freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, congressional staffers and Pentagon officials say, despite earlier vows by Trump and his aides to assert American interests against China.
The U.S. Navy routinely sails through international waters to assert the principle of freedom of navigation, even pushing back against excessive claims by allies, if needed. 

But the patrols have taken on added political weight in the contested South China Sea, where tensions are running high because of Beijing’s vast island-building campaign and its expansionist territorial claims.
Given mixed signals from an erratic White House, the lawmakers wanted to send a message that there was a “bipartisan center of gravity” on the issue, a Democratic congressional aide told FP.
The senators were trying “to provide ballast for the administration as it engages in the region,” the aide said, adding: “We thought it was important to weigh in and also to try to help shake things loose in the administration on this.”
The letter cites a series of “aggressive” and “troubling” actions by China in the waterway, including building artificial islands on disputed reefs, ramming commercial fishing boats, and issuing warnings to aircraft and ships in international airspace and waters.
“All of these measures raise serious questions about China’s commitment to regional security, the free flow of commerce, and freedom of navigation and overflight,” it said.
In an elaborate dredging operation, China has built up a network of artificial islands on disputed reefs and atolls in recent years, constructing runways and deep harbors that can accommodate military aircraft, naval warships, and missile launchers.
Commercial satellite images published this week showed China is preparing new land-based missile sites at a naval base at the tip of Hainan Island in the South China Sea. 

The Chinese military reportedly has deployed multiple anti-ship missile launchers on the western side of the base, and the satellite photos indicated it was making preparations for missile sites on the eastern side of the base. 

The work at the forward base would help China project its military power at a much greater distance into the western Pacific.
The letter was signed by Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.); Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.); Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee; Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.); Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.); and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
A bipartisan group of senators sent a similar letter to the previous administration last year, urging — unsuccessfully — then-President Barack Obama to expand naval patrols in the South China Sea. But Obama’s deputies were reluctant to jeopardize cooperation with China on climate change and other issues.