Perfidious Albion

Pompeo Warns Britain Over Huawei Security Risks

By Stephen Castle

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with Britain’s foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, at Lancaster House in London on Wednesday. Mr. Pompeo warned about the risks of allowing the Chinese company Huawei to be part of Britain’s new cellular network.

LONDON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday made a blistering attack against China as he stepped up pressure on Britain, warning that American intelligence sharing could be risked by the involvement of a Chinese company in a new British telecommunications network.
Speaking in London, Mr. Pompeo argued that China posed such a range of economic and security threats that the world now faced “a new kind of challenge, an authoritarian regime that’s integrated economically into the West.”
“China steals intellectual property for military purposes,” he said. 

“It wants to dominate A.I., space technology, ballistic missiles and many other areas.”
The question on the table in Britain is whether the government should allow Huawei, a Chinese company considered a security risk by the United States, to help build some of the next-generation, 5G cellular network in Britain.
Discussions on that topic were the subject of a leak that last week prompted the firing of the British defense secretary, Gavin Williamson, who had opposed working with the Chinese firm.
Huawei denies that it is a security risk.
In a speech for the 40th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher’s first election victory, Mr. Pompeo asked whether the British leader who came to be known as the Iron Lady would have allowed China “to control the internet of the future.”
Mr. Pompeo argued that Chinese law allowed the government to demand access to data flowing through Huawei systems.
“Why would anyone grant such power to a regime that has already grossly violated cyberspace?” he asked. 

“What can Her Majesty’s government do to make sure sensitive technologies don’t become open doors for Beijing’s spymasters?”
He also issued a stark reminder to his British hosts that if security were compromised, it would restrict the ability of the United States to share sensitive intelligence information with the British, as it does extensively.
“Insufficient security will impede the United States’ ability to share information within trusted networks. This is just what China wants — to divide western alliances,” Mr. Pompeo said.

A Huawei ad in central London.

Mr. Pompeo also said at an earlier news conference, however, that he has “great confidence that the United Kingdom will never take an action that will break the special relationship,” a reference to the close ties of the two nations and a comment that reassured some British officials that damage to relations with the United States can be avoided.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, told reporters that the government had not made its final decision on Huawei, and would never take a decision that would compromise its ability to share intelligence with its closest allies, “or in particular with the United States.”
British officials believe that it is possible to give Huawei some access to noncore elements of its new 5G system while maintaining the security of more sensitive networks.
The United States has warned several governments around Europe against working with Huawei, and the topic has become increasingly touchy as countries decide on how to build their 5G networks.
The issue is particularly delicate for a British government that is planning to leave the European Union and wants to forge stronger economic links with China, while also building on its close diplomatic and trading relationship with the United States.
Mr. Williamson was fired last week after an investigation into a report in The Daily Telegraph regarding discussions about the Huawei decision in Britain’s National Security Council, of which Mr. Williamson was a member.
The article suggested that Theresa May had overruled objections from some cabinet ministers, including Mr. Williamson, about bringing the Chinese company into the 5G project. 

Mr. Williamson has denied being the source of the leak.
In Parliament on Wednesday, Julian Lewis, a senior lawmaker in May’s Conservative Party and chairman of the House of Commons Defense Committee, asked the prime minister whether it would not “be naïve to the point of negligence to allow Huawei further to penetrate our critical national infrastructure.”
May said she was “not considering any options that would put our national security communications at risk, either within the U.K. or with our closest allies.”
During his visit, Mr. Pompeo, who held talks with May and Mr. Hunt, also made an apparent swipe at their political adversary, Jeremy Corbyn, the left-wing leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party. Speaking at his news conference, Mr. Pompeo described the support of some politicians for the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, as “disgusting.”
Unlike the British government, Labour has refused to condemn Maduro, arguing that Venezuela’s political future was a matter for its own citizens. 

Corbyn has announced that he will not attend an official dinner during President Trump’s scheduled state visit to Britain next month.

Chinese Aggressions

The UK’s shift in attitude to the threat of China
By James Forsyth

Defence secretary Gavin Williamson



Gavin Williamson’s speech today is another demonstration of how the UK government’s attitude to China has changed.
In the Cameron Osborne era, the UK was determined to be China’s best friend in the West.
All the emphasis was on creating a ‘golden era’ in Anglo-Chinese relations.
But now, the government strikes a more realistic tone on China.
In his speech today, Williamson brackets China with Russia as a threat.
The headlines today have been about Williamson’s decision to send the UK’s new aircraft carrier, carrying both US and UK jets, to the Pacific in a message to Beijing.
But just as telling is the emphasis that Williamson places on various alliances.
He talks about the Five Eyes—the intelligence sharing agreement between the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand—which is at the forefront of efforts to deal with Chinese intellectual property theft. 
Williamson also stresses the UK’s growing closeness to Japan, South Korea and India—three countries that are vital to any attempt to balance and contain Chinese power in Asia.
The government’s shift in thinking on China is sensible.
Ultimately, the UK will not benefit from a world in which China’s power grows unchecked.

EVIL COMPANY: BRITAIN VOICES GRAVE CONCERNS OVER CHINA'S HUAWEI

The Chinese technology giant has defended its ambitions in the face of global fears that it serves as a Trojan horse for Beijing's security apparatus.

AFP

The defence secretary has become the first cabinet minister to speak out against the telecoms giant Huawei amid fears of Chinese spying.

LONDON - British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has warned of his "very deep concerns" about Chinese technology giant Huawei being involved in the use of 5G on Britain's mobile network, The Times reported Thursday.
"I have grave, very deep concerns about Huawei providing the 5G network in Britain. It's something we'd have to look at very closely," Williamson was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
"We've got to look at what partners such as Australia and the US are doing in order to ensure that they have the maximum security of that 5G network," he said.
"We've got to recognise the fact, as has been recently exposed, that the Chinese state does act in a malign way," he said.
Williamson's comments echo similar warnings from MI6 spy agency chief Alex Younger who earlier this year said Britain would have to make "some decisions" about the involvement of firms such as Huawei.
Britain's government earlier this year announced the West Midlands region in central England would become the first large-scale testing area for 5G.
Fifth-generation mobile networks, or 5G, will have faster transmission speeds and could enable a far wider use of self-driving vehicles and internet-powered household objects.
It is expected to be rolled out in Asia and the United States from 2020.
Huawei has defended its ambitions in the face of global fears that the Chinese telecom giant serves as a Trojan horse for Beijing's security apparatus.
The company has been under fire this year with Washington leading efforts to blacklist Huawei internationally and securing the arrest of the company's chief financial officer in Canada.
Countries like the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Britain have pulled back from using its products while concerns grow in Japan, France, Germany, and even the Czech Republic over security issues.

China's isolation at the Shangri-La Dialogue

Britain, France Join U.S. in Responding to Chinese Intimidation and Coercion in South China Sea

By Patrick Goodenough

Ships and submarines participating in the biennial RIMPAC exercise in 2012. The Obama administration invited China to take part in 2014 and 2016, but the Pentagon has rescinded the invitation for the 2018 exercises. 

Britain and France are backing U.S.-led efforts to challenge what Defense Secretary James Mattis at the weekend called Chinese “intimidation and coercion” in the disputed South China Sea.
The two European defense ministers indicated in Singapore – where they and Mattis were taking part in the annual Shangri La security dialogue – that their navy ships will conduct “freedom of navigation” operations in the region in the coming days.
French armed forces minister Florence Parly said French and British ships would visit Singapore in the days ahead before “sailing together to certain areas.”
“I mean those areas where, at some point, a stern voice intrudes into the transponder, and tells us, sail away from supposedly territorial waters,” she continued. 

“But our commander then calmly replies that he will sail forth, because these – under international law – are indeed international waters.”
British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson, who spoke at the security event and addressed sailors onboard a Royal Navy frigate docked in Singapore, said Britain has sent three warships to the region, where their presence aims “to send the strongest of signals.”
“We believe that countries should play by the rules,” he said, stressing the importance of the “rules-based order.”
Like the U.S., France and Britain do not themselves have territorial claims in the resource-rich South China Sea, a vital thoroughfare for international trade.
As China has moved military assets to and around the islands, reefs and artificial islands it claims as Chinese, the U.S. has led the pushback.

China is engaged in disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei over resource-rich areas of the South China Sea, an area that includes some of the world’s most important shipping trade corridors. 

A recent U.S. “freedom of navigation” operation in the area saw two U.S. Navy warships sail within 12 nautical miles of islands claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan in the Paracel group. 

Their presence drew sharp criticism from Beijing although Vietnam, which accuses China of illegally occupying the islands, welcomed the U.S. move.
In response to steps taken by China to back up its territorial claims by deploying military assets, the Pentagon has rescinded an invitation to China to participate in a major international military exercise in the Pacific this summer.
While China is excluded from the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises – after participating in the last two at the invitation of the Obama administration – Vietnam has been invited to take part for the first time since they began in 1971.
Other participants among the 26 nations include several further countries locked in territorial disputes with China in the South and East China Seas, including Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

‘Much larger consequences’
Speaking at the security dialogue, which is hosted by the International Institute For Strategic Studies, Mattis had strong words for China.
He noted that Beijing has deployed anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles, electronic jammers in the South China Sea and recently landed long-range bombers on an island in the Paracel group.
“Despite China’s claims to the contrary, the placement of these weapons systems is tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion,” Mattis said, adding that it also contravened assurances Xi Jinping gave to the U.S. during a visit to the White House in 2015.
During a question-and-answer session Mattis described the decision to disinvite China from “the world’s largest naval exercise” as a “relatively small consequence” of its behavior, but warned there could be “much larger consequences in the future” if it continues down its path. 

He did not elaborate.
Militarizing features in the contested region, he said, is “not going to be endorsed in the world” and is not going to enhance China’s standing.
“There are consequences that will continue to come home to roost, so to speak, with China if they do not find the way to work more collaboratively with all of the nations who have interest” in the region.
Beijing’s defense ministry early this year invited Mattis to visit during the first half of the year, in what would be the first visit by a U.S. defense secretary in four years. 

Speaking to reporters as he flew home from Singapore, Mattis said he still planned to go to China, despite the tensions over the South China Sea.

Britain Is Right to Stand Up to China Over Freedom of Navigation

By sailing through the Spratly Islands, the UK is pushing back against China’s attempts to close off these waters – and standing up for freedom of navigation around the whole world.
By Bill Hayton

HMS Sutherland visits Japan in April.

This weekend the British defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, is likely to reveal that two British naval ships have taken part in ‘freedom of navigation’ operations in the South China Sea during the past month. 

This will highlight a significant revival of British interest in Asian security after four years in which no Royal Navy ship visited the Asia-Pacific.
Williamson is expected to tell the international security conference in Singapore known as the ‘Shangri La Dialogue’ that HMS Albion and HMS Sutherland sailed through parts of the South China Sea to which China is attempting to restrict access. 

HMS Albion navigated through the Spratly Islands in early May en route from Brunei to Japan. 

It is not yet clear where HMS Sutherland sailed but it has recently transited from Japan to Singapore through the same region.
Why is the UK taking an interest in the right of ships to sail through distant waters? 

The simple answer is that China is attempting to reverse hundreds of years of international consensus and close off access to the sea for military vessels. 

If this goes unchallenged, the world will be reverting to an era in which navies had to fight their way through blockades and when seaborne trade, the lifeblood of the global economy, was subject to the whims of coastal states. 

By sailing through the Spratly Islands, the UK is pushing back against China’s attempts to close off these waters – and standing up for freedom of navigation around the whole world.
What are the international rules about military ships sailing across seas? 

Put simply: they can sail almost anywhere they like. 

Both the UK and China have signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the document is clear. 

It was entirely legal for naval ships from any country to sail through even the most hotly disputed regions of the South China Sea.
Countries only ‘own’ the sea up to 12 nautical miles from their coast. 

That is one of the rules laid down by UNCLOS. 

But military vessels can still sail through this ‘territorial sea’ – right up to the coast if they choose – provided they do nothing to threaten ‘peace, good order or security’ or jeopardize anyone’s safety. 

Article 24 of UNCLOS clearly states: ‘The coastal State shall not hamper the innocent passage of foreign ships through the territorial sea.’ 

This right applies everywhere, including around rocks and reefs subject to sovereignty disputes.
These rights – and many others – were agreed by almost every country in the world in 1982, after nine years of negotiations. 

The concern of the British government – and others – is that China is trying to undermine an international agreement by unilaterally acting against its provisions. 

Ten years after it agreed to UNCLOS, China approved its 1992 ‘Law on the Territorial Sea’, which directly contradicts it.
The law states that ‘foreign ships for military purposes shall be subject to approval by the Government of the People’s Republic of China for entering the territorial sea of the People's Republic of China’. 

Then, when China ratified UNCLOS four years later, it asserted an opt-out from the ‘innocent passage’ provisions, requiring that a foreign state ‘obtain advance approval from or give prior notification … for the passage of its warships through the territorial sea’.
China’s position here is hypocritical.

It is making demands on other countries that it does not itself respect in other parts of the globe.
In July 2017, three Chinese naval vessels, including a Type-052D guided missile destroyer, sailed through the English Channel. 

The Dover Strait is 18 nautical miles wide at its narrowest point, meaning the flotilla had to sail through the territorial waters of either Britain or France. 

The Chinese navy made use of the right of ‘innocent passage’ to make the transit to the Baltic Sea in order to take part in war-fighting exercises with the Russian Navy. 

They sailed right past the UK’s naval bases in Plymouth and Portsmouth and nobody objected. This is what freedom of navigation is all about.
If the UK and France took the same position on the territorial sea that China takes, it could have blocked Chinese navy ships from passing through the English Channel. 

In Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore could use the same argument to block the Strait of Malacca to Chinese vessels. 

Is this the world that China wants to create – where states can unilaterally block waterways? 

The consequences for international peace will be dire.
This is particularly important because some Chinese officials have argued for even more restrictions on where ships can sail. 

For example, the sirector of China’s National Institute for South China Sea Studies, a body jointly run by the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the province of Hainan, has argued in a recent book that China has the ‘historic right’ to control navigation across almost the entirety of the South China Sea. 

This would completely undermine the ‘freedom of the seas’ currently enjoyed by every country.
Some of the media reaction to the news of the Royal Navy’s voyages contained an element of this Chinese attitude – as if the UK was somehow impinging on China’s rights simply by sailing through the South China Sea. 

The South China Sea does not belong to China any more than the English Channel belongs to England. 

Outside the territorial sea it belongs to no one at all.
This is a critical test for what has become known as the rules-based international order. 

Governments are supposed to stick to international agreements, not undermine them. 

By sailing through the South China Sea, wherever international law allows, HMS Albion and HMS Sutherland are showing that the British government supports the rules that have prevented superpower conflict for over 70 years. 

China should come forward and make it clear that it respects them as well.

Chinese Aggressions

UK sends 'strongest of signals' on free navigation in South China Sea
By Nicola Smith, Singapore

Gavin Williamson, UK defence secretary, on board the HMS Sutherland in Singapore

Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, said on Sunday that the UK has deployed three ships to the Asia-Pacific this year to send the “strongest of signals” on the importance of freedom of navigation and to keep up maximum pressure on North Korea.
His comments on board the Royal Navy’s HMS Sutherland docked in Singapore, come a day after General James Mattis, the US Secretary of Defence, accused China of “intimidation and coercion” in the South China Sea and warned there would be “consequences” if it continued.
The surge of British warships, which include the Sutherland - an anti-submarine frigate - the HMS Albion and HMS Argyll, is the first deployment of three vessels to the region in a generation.
Part of their mission is to conduct freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, where Beijing is continuing to alarm the international community with a build up of military fortifications in disputed waters.
“The reason that they are here and the reason that we are visiting is to send the strongest of signals. We believe that countries should play by the rules,” said Mr Williamson.
“This is even more important at a time when storm clouds are gathering and regional fears are rising, when more nations have nuclear and chemical weapons, not to mention the infringement of regional access, freedoms and security.”
But he declined to answer whether British ships would sail within 12 nautical miles of a disputed territory or artificial island built by the Chinese, as US ships have done.
At the end of May China’s military said it had dispatched warships to challenge two US Navy vessels that had passed within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Islands, an archipelago in disputed waters off the coast of Vietnam. 

Gavin Williamson, UK defence secretary, tours the HMS Sutherland in Singapore

China, whose claim to the Paracel Islands is not recognised, argued that passage within 12 nautical miles constitutes a violation of the country’s territory under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea.
Mr Williamson stressed that the UK, France and Australia had also been asserting their rights of passage in the region. 

“We’ve been sending a clear message to all that the freedom of navigation is absolutely critical,” he said.
Since it left UK shores in January, the Sutherland and its 220-strong crew have also engaged in surveillance operations to counter efforts by North Korea to bypass UN sanctions on banned commodities through illicit ship-to-ship transfers.
Mr Williamson said the UK was “very realistic about the challenges” that lay ahead with North Korea, but welcomed the prospect of the upcoming Singapore summit between Donald Trump, the US President and Kim Jong-un.
“The most important thing that we have is the fact that people are talking, people are trying to work to find a solution and the diplomatic lead that has been shown is one that I think we all welcome and we know is the right approach.”

Sina Delenda Est

China in military drills to ‘prepare for war’ as British frigate due to sail through contested South China Sea
By Neil Connor

HMS Sutherland

China's air force and navy have announced drills in the South China Sea to help develop preparedness for war, military leaders said, after the British defence secretary indicated the UK would sail a warship through the disputed region.
The Chinese military's latest fighters and bombers were involved in the exercises over the disputed region, as China continues to flex its muscles on the world stage.
The drills come after Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, gave a nationalist speech last week when he warned of Beijing's willingness to fight a "bloody battle" against its enemies.
They also come after Gavin Williamson, British Defence Secretary, said last month that the HMS Sutherland, an anti-submarine frigate, would sail through the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation rights.

Defence secretary Gavin Williamson

The warship was expected to make the patrol during March. 

However, Chinese military officials said its recently announced drills were not aimed towards any country.
China's airforce carried out a "high-sea training mission" in the West Pacific and a joint combat patrol mission in the South China Sea, according to the airforce's social media account, which did not say when the drills took place.
The exercises tested China's latest military hardware, such as its H-6K bombers and Su-30 and Su-35 fighters.
Meanwhile, the PLA Navy also said last Friday it was planning to hold drills in the South China Sea to test the navy's "combat readiness".
The Air Force said on its social media account that the exercises were "rehearsals for future wars and are the most direct preparation for combat."
Meanwhile, Chen Liang, commander of a naval air force, said: "Pilots will all march ahead without fear, no matter how complicated the drill environments are and how unfamiliar the drill regions are.
"They always maintain mentally prepared for wars," he told the Chinese language website of the Global Times newspaper.
China claims nearly all of the strategic South China Sea, despite partial counter-claims from several south-east Asian nations including the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Observers say China is developing its military capabilities by fortifying and building infrastructure on what were previously reefs and partially-submerged islets in the sea, where more than $5 trillion (£3.8 trillion) of trade passes every year.
The US Navy has conducted a series of freedom of navigation patrols in the region.
The latest, last Friday, saw a US Navy destroyer come within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island China has built in the South China Sea, sparking anger from Beijing.

Paper tiger: U.S. “innocent passages” in South China Sea

By Timothy Saviola, Nathan Swire 

The USS Hopper in November 2017 during a photo exercise in the Arabian Gulf. 

The United States drew significant criticism from China for its latest freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) in the South China Sea. 

In the days following the USS Hopper’s transit through the 12-nautical-mile zone around the Scarborough Shoal, editorials in China’s People’s Daily warned that the action was “reckless” and that “China must strengthen and speed up the building of its abilities” in the islands. 

The Global Times, another state-owned paper, noted that as China’s power grows, it is better able “to send more naval vessels as a response and can take steps like militarizing islands.” 

China’s actions have matched its words. 

It recently deployed advanced Su-35 and J-20 fighter aircraft to patrol the South China Sea and is upgrading the civil communications infrastructure on the islands it occupies. 

The Philippines-based Inquirer recently released a cache of new high resolution photos taken in late 2017 detailing the rapid addition of military infrastructure.
A U.S. official described the Hopper’s action as “innocent passage” rather than a FONOP, though “the message was the same.” 

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Articles 17–19, all nations have the right of “innocent passage” to continuously and expeditiously traverse other nations’ territorial seas. Though both China and the Philippines claim the Shoals, this reference to the Hopper’s activity as innocent passage seemed to implicitly accede that the shoals are entitled to a territorial sea: Warships need only declare innocent passage to traverse territorial seas, as opposed to the high seas. 

In the 2016 South China Sea arbitration, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled that the shoals were not an island but a rock and therefore does not create a territorial sea or other maritime zones on its own.
The Philippines may be making it more difficult for other nations to protect freedom of navigation in the South China Sea by minimizing their claims to Scarborough Shoal and other features. 

The Philippine government has appeared to largely ignore China’s reclamation and militarization efforts during recent meetings: The two countries recently pledged cooperation on joint exploration for oil and gas in the region without touching on construction work or sovereignty in the South China Sea. 

However, the Philippine military recently deployed a TC-90 turboprop aircraft, donated by Japan, to monitor its exclusive economic zone and protect its maritime domain in the South China Sea.
Other major maritime powers have supported the United States’ position on freedom of navigation. 

In March, Britain plans to send a Royal Navy Type 23 frigate, the HMS Sutherland, on a transit through the South China Sea. 

British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson

Speaking on a recent trip to Australia, British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson noted that the United Kingdom “absolutely support(s) the U.S. approach” to FONOPS. 

The Royal Navy has left open whether the ship will sail within 12 nautical miles of any of the contested features—thus entering the contested territorial waters—or will simply pass through the sea in uncontested international waters. 

But Williamson noted that the “navy has a right” to sail through the South China Sea. 

The Global Times published an editorial dismissing the effort as an attempt by Britain to maintain its naval influence.
The U.S. Department of Defense chronicles these FONOPs in its Annual Freedom of Navigation Report for Fiscal Year 2017, describing the United States’ challenges to what it views as “Excessive Maritime Claims.” 

Activities in 2017 were similar to the scope of challenges in previous years.

The annual report identifies the geographic scope of FONOPs as well as the rights that the United States is asserting.

East China Sea
Natural gas condensate, an ultra-light oil, has spread into the waters of the East China Sea following the collision last month of the Iranian-owned tanker Sanchi with a cargo ship. 

The oil is endangering fisheries in hundreds of square miles of surrounding waters. 

China has taken the lead in dealing with the cleanup. 

Chinese firefighters attempted to extinguish the flames on the ship, but they were unable to rescue any of the 32 crew members from the oil tanker. 

Beijing has come under criticism for the slowness of its response to its disaster and for initial communications that seemed to understate the seriousness of the spill, which is now estimated at 111,000 metric tons, the largest oil spill since 1991.
The environmental effects on the surrounding waters, which include fisheries utilized by both China and Japan, could be severe and long-lasting. 

Oil slicks totaling up to 128 square miles were sighted in regions that include spawning beds for numerous sea creatures, as well as migration routes for marine mammals such as whales. 

The regions affected by the oil spills include both China’s and Japan’s exclusive economic zones. 

The Chinese government has responded by banning fishing in affected regions, while Japan has set up a special coordination unit in the prime minister’s office to deal with the oil spill, including investigating oil that has washed up on the shores of the Japanese Amami-Oshima islands. 

The type of natural gas condensate that has leaked from the Sanchi is highly toxic, but it does not coalesce into highly visible clumps like crude oil, making the extent of contamination hard to measure.
Whether the damage to the East China Sea’s marine ecosystem will have any effect on the maritime disputes in the region remains to be seen.

Robot Wars
On Feb. 10, China began construction on the Wanshan Marine Test Field in the city of Zhuhai in southern China. 

According to the government-controlled China Internet Information Center, the test field will be used as a research facility for unmanned ship technology. 

The approximately 300-square-mile facility will be the largest of its kind in the world and will be run as a joint program between the Zhuhzai government, the China Classification Society, the Wuhan University of Technology, and Oceanalpha, a company focused on developing unmanned surface vessels.
This is not China’s first foray into unmanned vessels. 

Over the past few months, the Chinese government has promoted the success of several of such vessels with military or law enforcement applications. 

These include the Tianxing-1—which China claims is the world’s fastest unmanned vessel, with a maximum speed of over 57 miles per hour—as well as the Huster-68, which successfully executed a patrol around the Songmushan Reservoir. 

The website of Shenzhen Huazhong University, which developed the Huster-68, states that the patrol vessel would aid China’s ability to manage water resources and achieve its ambitions of becoming a blue-water navy (according to a translation from the South China Morning Post). 

Wuhan University has been running a research program into the development of maritime drones since 2012.
These developments come as other navies around the world are developing their own maritime drones. 

In 2016, the British Royal Navy conducted “Unmanned Warrior” off the coast of Scotland and Wales, a mass demonstration of aerial, surface, and underwater maritime autonomous vessels. 

The U.S. Navy, meanwhile, has recently established its first Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Squadron, UUVRON 1, which will oversee existing vehicles and test new ones.

The United States
Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, has been nominated to be U.S. Ambassador to Australia. 

In testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, Harris took a hard line against China’s actions in the South China Sea—which he oversaw when leading Pacific Command—saying that China’s aggression in the region is “coordinated, methodical, and strategic, using their military and economic power to erode the free and open international order.”

Analysis and Commentary
In the National Interest, Gordon Chang criticizes as self-defeating the U.S. description of the transit near Scarborough Shoal as “innocent passage,” because it seems to be implying that China is the rightful sovereign of the shoal—even though the shoal itself is contested and the South China Sea arbitration found it did not confer a territorial sea.
Peter Jennings of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute applauds the pick of Harris as ambassador to Australia, saying “[t]he posting sends the clearest possible signal that the US is intent on strengthening its Asian alliances.”
In Japan Forward, Ryozo Kato, former Japanese Ambassador to the U.S., suggests that Japan should reopen the debate into whether it should pursue nuclear weapons in an age of continuous threat from North Korean missiles.

China Threat

HMS Sutherland, an anti-submarine frigate, would next month assert freedom of navigation rights through South China Sea
Agence France-Presse

British anti-submarine frigate HMS Sutherland is to sail warship through disputed waters of the South China Sea.

A British warship will sail from Australia through the disputed South China Seavnext month to assert freedom of navigation rights, the UK’s defence secretary said on Tuesday.
China claims nearly all of the resource-rich waterway and has been turning reefs and islets into islands and installing military facilities such as runways and equipment on them.
-
Photo shows Beijing’s militarisation of South China Sea

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said HMS Sutherland, an anti-submarine frigate, would arrive in Australia later this week.
“She’ll be sailing through the South China Sea (on the way home) and making it clear our navy has a right to do that,” he told The Australian newspaper after a two-day visit to Sydney and Canberra.
He would not say whether the frigate would sail within 12 nautical miles of a disputed territory or artificial island built by the Chinese, as US ships have done.
But he said: “We absolutely support the US approach on this, we very much support what the US has been doing.”
In January, Beijing said it had dispatched a warship to drive away a US missile destroyer which had “violated” its sovereignty by sailing close to a shoal in the sea.
Williamson said it was important that US allies such as Britain and Australia “assert our values” in the South China Sea, which is believed to hold vast oil and gas deposits and through which US $5tn in trade passes annually.
“World dynamics are shifting so greatly. The US can only concentrate on so many things at once,” he said.
“The US is looking for other countries to do more. This is a great opportunity for the UK and Australia to do more, to exercise leadership.”
China in December defended its construction on disputed islands, which are also claimed by Southeast Asian neighbours, as “normal” after a US think tank released new satellite images showing the deployment of radar and other equipment.
In a separate interview with Australia’s national broadcaster the ABC, Williamson warned of the need for vigilance to “any form of malign intent” from China, as it seeks to become a global superpower.
“Australia and Britain see China as a country of great opportunities, but we shouldn’t be blind to the ambition that China has and we’ve got to defend our national security interests,” he said.
“We’ve got to ensure that any form of malign intent is countered and we see increasing challenges – it’s not just from China, it’s from Russia, it’s from Iran – and we’ve got to be constantly making sure that our security measures, our critical national infrastructure is protected.”
Australia has been ratcheting up the rhetoric against China in recent months, with ties tested in December when parliament singled out Beijing as a focus of concern when it proposed laws on foreign interference.