Puffballs

The dandy little dandelion propagates, as do many living creatures, by successfully exploiting the power of big numbers. Like the plucky little turtles who dash to the sea, only a few of the many fertilized seeds make it. And no one knows which fertilized seed will find root.

Guambat joined the hoards of other young guambats and other folk who, as kids, couldn't resist the thrill of helping the soft dandelion puffballs send their potential on the way, with a good hardy puff.

Guambat wonders if the puffing and chuffing going on in the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands will take root in violent confrontation. With relations is both gene pools, he truly hopes not.

Territorial tensions flare between China and Japan

Angry Chinese youths on Sunday overturned cars and smashed shop windows in anti-Japanese protests across the country stemming from a long-standing dispute over uninhabited islands claimed by both countries.

Meanwhile, 150 Japanese activists tried to land on the islands by boat Sunday to commemorate World War II deaths. When that failed, 10 of them swam to one of the rocky islands and tried to plant a Japanese flag.

The demonstrations in China were the largest since 2010 when a Chinese fishing captain who had rammed a Japanese coast guard vessel was arrested, leading to a protracted standoff.

The largest street protest was in Shenzhen, where thousands of people, mostly students, overturned Japanese-made police cars and smashed the windows of Japanese restaurants. Demonstrations also took place over the weekend in Chengdu, Xian and Jinan, among other Chinese cities, as well as in Hong Kong. Japanese chain stores like Uniqlo, which are wildly popular among young Chinese, were forced to close for the day.

“Japanese, get off of our Diaoyu Islands," read most of the banners, while others exhorted Chinese to “kill all the Japanese.”

Japanese nationalists land on disputed island, tensions with China intensify

Japanese nationalists landed on an island at the heart of a corrosive territorial row with China on Sunday in a move likely to further inflame tensions with Beijing.

Around a dozen members of the right wing Gambare Nippon (Hang In There Japan) went ashore, an AFP journalist witnessed, saying they intended to plant a Japanese flag at the island’s highest point. A Japanese coastguard ship 100 metres from the moored vessels regularly sounded its siren, with loudspeakers telling activists: “Do not moor. Leave the island.”

Japan's growing rashness

To escalate tension with China over Diaoyu Islands, Japan has chosen to play the same game twice this month. According to the Japanese media, Japan's Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said on Tuesday that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "had confirmed" that the "Senkaku" (Diaoyu) Islands fall within the scope of the US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security.

Whether Clinton and other US officials have actually said so is not important because neither Japanese nor US claims will alter the fact that the Diaoyu Islands have been part of Chinese territory since ancient times. Neither Japan nor the US is in a position to impose a bilateral security pact on or infringe upon the interests of a third party.

The 1960 US-Japan security treaty requires the US to defend Japan in the event of an armed conflict. Should the current dispute continue to escalate into a major conflict, Japan would be "justified" in evoking the treaty and asking for direct US involvement or even military intervention.

What chance does reason stand to play given all this Tea Party Diplomacy?

//

Senkaku or Diaoyu

From the cerebral:

Can International Law Help the Resolution of the Senkaku/Daioyu Dispute?

The Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, eight inhabited islets/rocks, have been often reported as a hot button issue that could escalate into a military conflict between Japan and China. I will argue that the international customary law regulating the territorial acquisition and the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) does not offer enough clear, precise and equally applied rules to persuade the parties to submit the fate of their national interest into the hands of an international institution.

In the dispute, two modes of acquisition could be observed – discovery and occupation and acquisitive prescription. One crucial criteria distinguishes them – whether the territory was terra nullius (no man's land) or it has already been into a possession (lawful or not) of another country. The discovery does not confer permanent title over the territory, it requires the effective occupation to become valid. The latter must be peaceful with no-competing claims of other States, actual with real displays of State authority, sufficient in intensity and continuous. For prescription, acquiescence of other States (express or tacit) and higher publicity are required to wipe the original defect of territory (seized illegally). The intention and will to act like a sovereign (animus occupandi) is important for both cases.

The islands are referred to as known and used in different contexts by China in its historical documents from 1372 to 1893. China could probably be considered as discoverer whose “effective occupation” established a sovereignty title over the islands. China's animus occupandi examples can be found in the use of islands as navigation aids by investiture missions, their inclusion into defense system against pirates and the fact they were granted by Dowager Empress to a private Chinese for collecting herbs for medical purposes. More symbolic acts such as the official ceremony of occupying the territory, posing the symbolic markers and notifying other States about it was not required as essential in relevant decisions.

Japan incorporated the islands belonging to China in 1985, but over time it could be argued that it exercised the effective control and wiped the original defect of the territory. Subsequent treaties referring to territories Japan “has stolen from China” remain silent on the Senkaku/Daioyu (though inhabited Pescadores were mentioned) and shed no light on their previous status. China did not express any claim or its animus occupandi concerning the islands until the UN Report about oil and gas reserves around the island was released in 1969. Could China's silence for 70 years be regarded as tacit acquiescence of Japanese sovereignty over the islands? Did Japan establish a valid title over the islands by the time of first Chinese protest? No unanimous answer exists about the lap of time required for title establishment. Japan has acted as a sovereign for 117 years now and fully administrated the islands for almost 90 years (except the US administration period). Its occupation is actual, the islands are under authority of Okinawa Prefecture and patrolled by Japan's Coast Guard. Japanese symbols on the islands, disembarkation of its government and payment of lease to the owners of 3 of the islands could be satisfying as sufficient control in case of scarce and inhabited islands. Nevertheless, the peaceful character of occupation could be challenged by Chinese and Taiwanese violent protests since the late 60s. The requirement of express protest against another country's territorial possession in international law haven't contributed to resolving the conflict, quite the contrary. Judicial decisions are highly unpredictable and in this case the Court could give preeminence to actual administration of the islands which would benefit Japan.

To the online:

Chinese gamers fight for the Diaoyu islands on new app

A domestic iPad app game in China entered the top 10 list for free downloads six days after its release but was later shelved for reasons unknown. Defending the Diaoyu Islands can no longer be downloaded, but still survives on the internet and has spawned a number of online versions.


The game is similar to the hugely popular game Plants vs Zombies, where the player defends their lawn from marauding undead, except this time incorporating the very real territorial dispute over the Diaoyu or Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. The players can defend the islands as the Chinese side, while the invaders are Japanese samurais and sumo wrestlers.

With further reading:

ISLAND DISPUTES BETWEEN JAPAN AND CHINA

Both China and Japan claim the fish-rich and potentially-oil-rich islands—known to the Japanese as the Senkaku Islands, to the Chinese as the Diaoyu Islands and to the Taiwanese as the Tiaoyutai Islands— between Okinawa and Taiwan in the East China Sea..

There are five Senkaku islands. Together they cover about 5.6 square kilometers. About 250 people live on Uotsurijima. In the 1940s one of the islands contained a Japanese fish processing plant. The Japanese claim on the Senkaku islands dates back 1895 when the Meiji government incorporated the islands into Okinawa prefecture. The Japanese say no counter claims or protests were made. Under the Francisco Peace Treaty signed in 1951 the islands were included in the territories of Japan.

Chinese claims that Japan stole the islands during the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-95. In their readings of San Francisco Peace Treaty Japan formally lost all of the territories it acquired after 1895.

Maps published in China and Taiwan in the 1960s clearly show the islands as Japanese territory. There was little interest in the islands until a geological surveys released in 1968 and 1972 reported their might be oil and minerals around the islands. Also at stake are the fishing rights.

In 1971, Taiwan and China both officially claimed the Senkaku Islands as theirs. During the U.S. occupation of Okinawa, the Senkaku Islands were used for military drills by U.S. forces. When the U.S. returned Okinawa to Japan in 1972, the Japanese also claimed the Senkaku Islands.

When Japan and China signed a joint communique in 1972, the issues of the islands was not raised. When China and Japan signed a peace treaty in 1978, vice-premier Deng Xiaoping said the dispute over the islands "will be shelved until the next generation comes up with a solution." Also in 1978, the ultra-rightist group Nihon Seinen Sha (Japan Youth Federation) set up a makeshift lighthouse on the largest of the islands. After of period of time the same group returned to the island to rebuild the lighthouse and seek official recognition.

China enacted a law in 1992 claiming the East China Sea as its territory. It also claims the continental shelf off its shores, which stretch to near the Okinawa island chain, as its territory.

Senkaku Islands map In 1996, ultra-nationalists erected on a lighthouse (actually a thin aluminum beacon about 15 feet high) on the main Senkaku island. By this time four of the five islands were technically the private property of two Tokyo businessmen active in ultra-nationalist politics. Beijing was upset by Tokyo's tolerance of the actions by the ultra-rightists.

The people of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong were all unified in their disgust with Japan. In Hong Kong in 1996, protestors took to the streets and burned a Japanese flag. One Hong Kong teacher told Newsweek, "Our dream is that the Beijing navy would sail in from the left, the Taiwan navy would sail in from the right and we would take the Japanese together as a strong national force."

In September 1996, a freighter with 18 protestors from Hong Kong and Taiwan was turned back from the islands with the lighthouse by Japanese coast guard ships. Four protestors jumped into the water to symbolically claim the seas around the island for China. One of the protesters, 45-year-old David Chan, drowned in the choppy seas.

In March 2004, seven Chinese nationalists land on Senkaku. They were arrested by Japanese police and coast guard personnel that arrived by helicopter. The seven were detained for a couple days and deported. The incident got quite a bit of press coverage in Japan and stirred up nationalist sentiments. In Beijing, a few dozen people held ani-Japanese demonstrations outside the Japanese embassy.

There have been many “encounter” between Chinese fishing boats and Japan Coast Guard ships around the islands. Japan’s forces regularly board many China vessels they deem to have entered Japanese territorial waters.

In the minds of Chinese, the Japanese never adequately apologized for the atrocities before and during World War II and they view the Japanese assertiveness in military matters as a threat and a reminder of the World War II era. Textbooks, newspapers and government-sponsored films in China emphasize China’s suffering after the 1935 Japanese invasion but mention little about how relations have improved and Japan has given China billions of dollars in aid.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin had personal memories of Japanese atrocities in the World War II era and was not bashful about lecturing the Japanese about them. His successor Hu Jintao seemed to be more intent on establishing better relations with Japan. His efforts were shot down by Koizumi and nationalist Japanese but have been welcomed with more open arms by recent Japanese prime ministers.

A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center before the 2008 Olympics found that 70 percent of the Chinese interviewed had an unfavorable impression of Japan.

In a poll by a Japanese newspaper, 57 percent of Chinese asked said they considered Japan "untrustworthy." Even so the Chinese seem to love Japanese commercial pop culture. Chinese children walk around with Hello Kitty and Pokeman bags. Young girls wear platform shoes and Casio G-Skok watches.

The number of Japanese that said they warm feelings toward China declined from 69 percent in 1988 to 32.4 percent in 2004. In a December 2004 Gallup survey, 71 percent of Japanese said they distrusted China. Even so China became very fashionable. Shanghai became a popular tourist destination. Food and fashion have clear Chinese influences. Four million people travel between China and Japan every year. After English, Chinese is the second most popular foreign language. Mandarin language classes had waiting lists.

Small Islands – Big Problem: Senkaku/Diaoyu and the Weight of History and Geography in China-Japan Relations

In December 2010, the Okinawan city of Ishigaki (within which Japanese administrative law incorporates these islands) adopted a resolution to declare 14 January to be “Senkaku Islands Colonization Day.” The “Colonization Day” is intended to commemorate the incorporation of the islands by cabinet decision 116 years earlier. China immediately protested.

Ishigaki was following the model of the Shimane Prefectural Assembly, which in 2005 declared a “Takeshima Day” in commemoration of the Japanese state’s incorporation 100 years earlier of the islands known in Japan as Takeshima but in South Korea (which occupies and administers them) as Tokdo. That Shimane decision prompted fierce protests in South Korea. The Ishigaki decision seems likely to do no less in China. Why should these barren rocks, inhabited only by endangered short-tailed albatross, be of such importance to otherwise great powers? Whose islands are they? How should the contest over them be resolved?

Read more at the link.

Activists to fly flag for Diaoyu Islands

A group of activists from Hong Kong and Macau set sail for the Diaoyu Islands in East China Sea yesterday. The 14 left for the islands on a Chinese-flagged fishing boat from Hong Kong.

The activists, who belong to a group called the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, will be joined at sea by two other vessels tomorrow - from Taiwan and Xiamen City in southern China.

The activists have made repeated attempts to reach the islands, but apart from one successful foray in 1996 they have been blocked by Japanese patrol vessels.

Also yesterday, Taiwan coastguards said they will next month stage a live-firing exercise in the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea with new, longer-range artillery and mortars.

The drill will take place on Taiping Island in the sprawling group of islands. The coastguard said it would take place in September but did not give an exact date.

CE summons Japan Consul

The Chief Executive, C Y Leung, has stepped into the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands by summoning the Japanese Consul General to protest against the arrest of activists who sailed there to assert China's claim of soverignty.

Mr Leung told Yuji Kumamaru that the Diaoyus had been China's territory "since ancient times" and that local people had strong feelings on the issue.

He said the SAR government was "extremely concerned" about the incident, and did not want to see any action by the Japanese that would be regarded as provocative by the people of Hong Kong.

Mr Leung urged the Japanese government to release the 14 people being held as soon as possible. In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry also demanded their immediate release.

The activists, from the Action Comittee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, left Hong Kong on Sunday in a Chinese-flagged fishing boat. They said their action was intended to counter a plan by a group of Japanese politicians to visit the islands this weekend.

A commentary published by Xinhua said the dispute had raised tensions over territory to a new high and said the activists were "flagrantly arrested" while trying to set foot on Chinese territory. "The tensions are fully due to irresponsible clamouring and attempts by some Japanese politicians and activists to claim the islands, which are in the East China Sea and indisputably belong to China," the commentary said.

Just a link in its Second Chain

Chain, chain, chain, chain of fools

Five long years I thought you were my man

But I found out I'm just a link in your chain

-- Aretha Franklin, Chain of Fools

Guambat has previously invoked the legendary Aretha to musically frame China's ambitious Pacific chains threat. Since China's "Second" Island Chain plants a fencepost squarely on Guambat's burrow, he takes notice.


Guambat has also illustrated that not all of China's movements to move beyond its chains are overtly militaristic. Especially now, with the world's largest and richest consumer having become China's Golden Goose, China often deploys dollars to insinuate itself in its self-defines spheres of influence.

China is now exercising the latter tactic to strengthen its Second Island Chain, right here in Guambat's backyard. Yap State, in the Federated States of Micronesia, is Guambat's immediate

neighbour to the south.

Yap government, Chinese firm ink major investment agreement

An investment agreement was signed Saturday between the Yap State government and Chengdu Century City New International Convention and Exhibition Center Company Ltd. (ETG) during a signing ceremony held at the Pacific Dive Resorts.

The agreement was signed by Yap Gov. Sebastian Anefal and Deng Hong, chairman of the ETG, who were accompanied by the governor’s Cabinet, chairman and vice chairman; members of the Traditional Council of Pilung; the chairman of the 8th Legislature Standing Committee on Government, Health and Welfare; and other members of the public.

In his brief statement, Anefal said: “The year 2023 brings an end to the economic provision of the Compact between the Federated States of Micronesia and the United States, and to me that would be the funeral for the Federated States of Micronesia. If you want to prolong and postpone this funeral ceremony, then I think we have to take a bold step and this is the right time to do so. During the remaining 10 to 11 years before 2023, I think Yap has to do something.”

The governor hopes the relationship ETG and Yap have established by signing the investment agreement will create and provide the way forward so the "funeral" in 2023 could be delayed further.

Hong thanked the government and the people of Yap for accepting the investment proposal. He said this visit has opened a new page of close relations between Yap and ETG. He also said that by working together, ETG will build Yap to become one of the main tourist destinations in the Pacific region. The ETG chairman mentioned that ETG would be able to complete the construction of all the facilities in Yap within the next five years from the day of signing, if things move forward according to plan.

After the State Legislature concluded the series of oversight hearings with the administration regarding the investment agreement, the state government returned back to ETG to discuss the issue with their legal counsels before the signing of the agreement.

Prior to the signing, the Council of Pilung had taken the matter into its own hands and requested both the executive and legislative branches of government to expedite their work on the agreement so the project could start to move forward.

Hong and members of his delegation left Yap for Chengdu on Sunday, Aug. 12 aboard their private aircraft.

Rolling the Chinese dice

Yap is the closest to Guam of any of the Federated States of Micronesia, just a couple of hours away. Officials there have been discussing and negotiating with developers out of Chengdu in mainland China for more than a year. The agreement signed on Saturday is the fifth version of the contract, which is called a “cooperative investment agreement.”

The pact could bring billions of dollars of infrastructure and commercial development to the state.

The impact of all of this on Yap is a worry. The land of stone money is the most traditional of the Micronesian states, and things haven’t really changed very much there for the past 50 years. It’s a small, tightly knit community where traditional leadership is more highly respected than the elected leadership. Although Gov. Sebastian Anefal signed the agreement on behalf of the state, he would not have been able to do so without the acquiescence of the Council of Pilung, the traditional chiefs of Yap, who were present at the signing.

As originally envisioned, the plan was to bring as many as 10,000 hotel rooms to various locations in Yap, along with golf courses, spas, restaurants and all the other amenities of an intensive visitor industry development. “The objective of this project is to develop the State of Yap into a world renowned tourism destination,”the agreement states.

The parties also agree that “the local culture and environment shall be preserved during the whole term of the project.” The company, ETG, agrees it will not engage or invest in any industrial or mining activities. “Such activities are inconsistent with the principle of self-sustainability underpinning the project concept,” the agreement states.

The scope of the planned development is mind-boggling. ETG agrees to upgrade the airport and seaport facilities to accommodate the requirements of what will be the largest investment and development in the entire FSM, by far, since the founding of the nation. ETG will also fund the creation of a new public park and a new state capitol.

Yap is part of the FSM, which is included geographically, and culturally, to Micronesia. Politically, the FSM, The Republic of the Marshalls, Palau and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands all were carved out of the old Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

The area includes three major archipelagoes with over twenty-one hundred islands scattered across a vast expanse of water as wide as the continental United States. It is a time and place out of National Geographic Magazine.

Guambat had the privilege to cruise to a couple Yap State islands, Satawal and Ifaluk, a couple of years ago, and brought back these doctored photos.

Will New Zealand enter faux-fray for South China Sea

New Zealand has discovered an "island" of pumice floating in the South Pacific.

Might it then tow the island to the South China/Western Philippine/What-have-you Sea and claim 200 miles of EEZ mineral rights?

Gigantic floating island the size of New Jersey spotted in south Pacific

Yesterday, the Royal New Zealand Air Force spotted a gigantic mass made from volcanic pumice rocks floating in the south Pacific. The total area of the "island" is about 9,000 square miles, or about the same size as New Jersey (and larger than Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island or the entire nation of Israel).

New Zealand Navy scientists believe this 300-by-30-mile floating mass, which reaches about two feet above sea level, dribbled out from a huge underwater volcanic eruption. These "pumice rafts" are thought play an important role in the Earth's biological evolution as they can ferry animals across large bodies of water and may have even been homes to the earliest microscopic lifeforms.

And who knows, should this new floating island be found to be a nice place, it may be just what the anxious inhabitants of rapidly disappearing The Maldives are looking for.

Whilst obviously tongue in Guambat's cheek, creating a new South China Sea pumice island is no more farfetched a claim than most of the ones being made over long uninhabited rocks floating above the mineral rich sea floor of the Pacific Asian sea shelf.

Japan and South Korea Lock Horns Over Islands, China Steers Clear

This Friday, Japan recalled its ambassador to South Korea after South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak paid an official visit to a small group of islands located smack-dab in the middle of the Sea of Japan. Or the East Sea of Korea, as the South Koreans call it.

The islands, called the Dokdo Islands in Korean, the Takeshima Islands in Japanese, and Liancourt Rocks in English, have been part of a territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan since Korea gained its independence from Japan after World War Two.

South Koreans are reportedly passionate about the issue, and claim the islands have always been part of their motherland. The only current residents of the island are an old woman, her husband, and the South Korean Coast Guard. But the islands are also home to an abundance of fish, in which Japan is extremely interested, and to recently discovered reserves of natural gas, which would be worth billions of dollars.

Territorial disputes are common in this region, given the vast number of tiny islands, according to Harvard Professor of Japanese History David Howell. "These disputes are more visible now that China is exerting a naval influence," he said. "For most Japanese people, the status of some islands in the southern Okinawa is a much more powerful issue [than the Takeshima islands]."

Howell also said China might be staying out of this spat strategically: "Getting involved one way or the other would highlight the ambiguity of these territorial claims in general," he said, "and that might undermine some of China's other claims to other islands."

US-Japan intervention biggest threat: analyst

A Chinese military strategist has warned that a US-Japan joint military intervention in the Taiwan question would be the biggest threat to China, in the wake of a proposed revision of the Guidelines for Japan-US Defense Cooperation.

Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo, director of the Chinese Navy Advisory Committee for Informatization, made the warnings Wednesday while exchanging views with Web users on China's national security at people.com.cn.

The US has incited tensions surrounding the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea and the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea to tighten military ties with its allies, and take China's attention away from such issues in order to contain China, Yin said.

"If the US fails to contain China with such issues, it may make big moves in the Taiwan Straits. We should seriously and psychologically prepare for that," warned Yin.

The US and Japan last week agreed to consider revising the Guidelines for Japan-US Defense Cooperation, which stipulate methods of cooperation between Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the US military during times of emergency, reported the Yomiuri Shimbun paper.

The guidelines, which were first created in 1978, were drastically revised in 1997 to respond to possible contingencies on the Korean Peninsula. Tokyo and Washington both found it necessary to review the guidelines afresh, as 15 years have passed since the previous revisions.

Yin warned that the biggest threat of a revised guideline would be a joint military intervention in the Taiwan question by Japan and the US, which would have a subversive impact on China's period of strategic opportunity.

Though China has been taking a defensive strategy in national defense, Yin noted that it is not afraid of wars and has the confidence to beat any rivals on its soil and in its coastal waters.

According to the Rear Admiral, China has set up marine corps in its three fleets, namely the North Sea Fleet, East Sea Fleet and South Sea Fleet. However, only two marine brigades are deployed to the South Sea Fleet due to limited numbers of troops.

The Bully of the South China Sea

China's broad territorial claims have no legal merit, and the U.S. is the only power strong enough to push back.

In a 2000 white paper, Beijing claimed that the source of its "indisputable sovereignty" over the Spratly Islands, the most important features in the South China Sea, is imperial China's historical record as "the first to discover and name the islands as the Nansha Islands and the first to exercise sovereign jurisdiction over them."

This basis is disputed. China may have some of the oldest surviving maps of the area, but aboriginal, Malay, Indian and Arab traders traversed these seas before Han Chinese began their explorations. And the maps produced by China and other countries from ancient times through the 20th century show the islands as uninhabited dangers to navigation, not destinations under anyone's sovereignty.

Militarist Japan, ironically, is the true origin of China's claims. As the great scholar of the Chinese diaspora Wang Gungwu noted recently, World War II-era Japanese maps that showed the entire South China Sea as a Japanese lake were the first serious claim to sovereignty over the islands.

A second irony is that the People's Republic's current claims date to a 1947 map issued by the nationalist government of Chiang Kai-Shek, which drew a u-shaped line of 11 dashes around more than 90% of the South China Sea. Mao's regime republished that map with a simplified nine-dashed line after it routed the nationalists, claiming the sea as China's "historic waters."

Beijing continues to use this map to justify its claims, although it alternates between arguing that its claims rest on the U.N.'s Law of the Sea treaty, which it signed and ratified in 1996, or otherwise on territorial rights that predate the treaty. Whatever the case, Beijing acts as if it owns all of the sea within the line, last year condemning Vietnamese exploration of areas that fall both within the "territorial" line and Vietnam's coastal exclusive economic zone, or EEZ.

Even if all the disputed islands belong to China, the area of water they control under maritime law would be relatively small. Only a handful of the islands are capable of sustaining human habitation, which is required to claim a 200-mile EEZ, and some of those would be circumscribed where they overlapped with the EEZs generated by other countries' coastline. Rocks and shoals only generate a 12-mile radius of territorial waters at most.

This raises another demonstrably false claim made by Beijing—that Southeast Asian nations accepted its rights to the islands until the 1970s, when potential oil and gas reserves were discovered. Not so: The 1947 map was a matter of international dispute at the time.

It was only after the hydrocarbon discoveries that China began bullying its way into the islands. In 1974, the People's Liberation Army launched a surprise attack and ejected (South) Vietnamese forces stationed on the Paracel Islands. In 1988, the PLA again surprised the Vietnamese on Johnson Atoll in the Spratlys. Beijing seized Mischief Reef from the Philippines in 1994 without a fight.

China gets its catch, hook, line and sinker

ASEAN is the 10-nation grouping of the countries of south-east Asia - Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

In recent years it has insisted on being the central mechanism for mediating regional disputes.

The US decided to take ASEAN seriously. The Obama administration coached ASEAN to stand up to China en bloc by crafting a code of conduct for dealing with disputes in the South China Sea.

Beijing split ASEAN spectacularly last Thursday. A meeting of its foreign ministers not only failed to agree on the code of conduct, but also failed for the first time in ASEAN's 45-year history to agree on a standard communique to record its discussion.

Using its considerable influence over the host country, Cambodia, China effectively wielded a veto on ASEAN. By blocking even a communique, it censored any official record that the South China Sea disputes were even discussed.

Beijing pushed through the central diplomatic defence against its assertiveness as easily as if it were wet rice paper.

The chairman, Cambodia's Foreign Affairs Minister, Hor Namhong, told reporters after the meeting that he ruled out a communique because ''I have told my colleagues that the meeting of the ASEAN foreign ministers is not a court, a place to give a verdict about the dispute''. The Philippines' Foreign Affairs Secretary, Albert Del Rosario, said he had ''simply wanted the fact that we discussed the issue and it should be reflected in the joint communique, no more, no less. It would have just been a simple sentence or paragraph in the communique.''

Cambodia as divide and rule pawn

Chinese state banks today bankroll the construction of roads, bridges, hydropower dams, real estate developments and tourist resorts in Cambodia. Over the past decade, these loans and grants have run into the billions of US dollars, and official delegations shuttle back and forth between the two countries each year.

Beijing's offers of hefty amounts of loans and investment dollars unconstrained by human-rights or good governance concerns has been eagerly taken up by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who resents the conditions often attached to Western aid.

in December 2009 Cambodia deported 20 ethnic Uyghur asylum seekers to China. The timing of the deportation - a day before the arrival of a Chinese official carrying a $1.2 billion package of grants and loan agreements - left few in doubt that extreme pressure was brought to bear on Phnom Penh.

This unspoken quid pro quo arrangement extends back as far as July 1997, when Hun Sen ousted his rival, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, in a bloody factional coup. Unlike many Western countries, which balked at the bloodshed in Phnom Penh, China immediately recognized the status quo and offered military aid. Hun Sen reciprocated by shuttering the Taiwanese representative's office in Phnom Penh after accusing Taiwanese elements of providing support to his rivals, and in the years since has frequently voiced support for the One-China policy.

"Cambodia's single act of obstinacy is a reflection of China's influence and not Cambodian interests," said Carlyle Thayer, an analyst at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Sydney, adding that it would likely "poison" ASEAN proceedings until the next round of summits in November.

The bloc was founded in 1967 as a bulwark against the expansion of communism in Southeast Asia, with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand as members. The end of the Cold War brought an end to the overt anti-communist posture of ASEAN, which was eventually expanded to include Vietnam (1995), Laos and Myanmar (1997), and Cambodia (1999).

But tensions have remained between the old and new members. In 2007, Singapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, identified a division between ASEAN's original member states and the poorer nations that joined in the 1990s. According to a leaked cable from the US Embassy in Singapore, Lee told US officials that ASEAN should not have admitted Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam as members, fearful that some might act as a pro-Chinese fifth column within ASEAN.

"The older members of ASEAN shared common values and an antipathy to communism," the cable states, quoting Lee's views. "Those values had been 'muddied' by the new members, and their economic and social problems made it doubtful they would ever behave like the older ASEAN members."

Lee particularly focused on Laos, describing it as an "outpost" of China that reported back to Beijing on the content of all ASEAN meetings - but he could easily have mentioned Cambodia, which is quickly becoming China's most dependable ally in the region.

Thayer said last week's imbroglio, after years of pro-unity rhetoric, was "the first major breach of the dyke of regional autonomy" created by ASEAN. "China has now reached into ASEAN's inner sanctum and played on intra-ASEAN divisions," he said.

SBY to Demand China Respect Asean Road Map

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to tell visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to respect a road map taken by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to resolve conflicts in the South China Sea.

Yang will meet with Yudhoyono today after discussing bilateral and regional issues, including the tensions in the South China Sea, with his Indonesian counterpart, Marty Natalegawa. Indonesia is trying to persuade China to agree on Asean’s proposal of creating a legally binding code of conduct for the disputed area.

Marty said bilateral cooperation was high on the agenda but added that Yudhoyono was not afraid to bring up the South China Sea issue.

“Why should he be afraid? There’s no problem,” Marty said after a Cabinet meeting on defense affairs at the Armed Forces headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta. “This is something that is in China’s interest as well. Any obstruction or disruption in the diplomatic channels between Asean and China, including the South China Sea problem, may greatly affect China-Asean relations.

“[The meeting] will discuss the Asean-China partnership, including possibly the South China Sea problem."

Asean members were divided in their views on the maritime dispute during a meeting of foreign ministers last month in Phnom Penh. For the first time in its 45-year history, the group failed to deliver a joint communique following one of its meetings.

Marty embarked on a 36-hour “shuttle diplomacy tour” to the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore that resulted in the member states agreeing on a joint statement about the ongoing disputes. Asean reaffirmed “the non-use of force by parties” in the sea.

Indonesia has warned of a “risk of further tension” between nations with overlapping claims to swathes of the South China Sea if a “collective and common approach” is not agreed upon soon.

“This is an issue that demands Asean’s and China’s collective and common approach and action. Otherwise, the risk of further tensions are very much ahead of us,” Marty said on Wednesday. “In the absence of a code of conduct, we may be risking more incidents in the future.”

Myanmar’s Leader Invites US Businesses to Return

President Thein Sein of Myanmar addressed a dinner of US business executives in this city near the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat on Friday, inviting them to invest in his impoverished country after an absence of 25 years.

The appearance of Thein Sein, who traveled to Cambodia from his nearby country for the occasion, was the latest sign of a significant warming of relations between the United States and Myanmar, a Southeast Asian country that had been firmly in China’s orbit.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed Thein Sein to the gathering on the last full day of her Asia trip, one intended to show that Washington’s commitment to the region reached beyond a strengthening of military alliances to economic ties. Across the region, most countries — the Philippines being an exception — do more trade with China than with the United States.

The meeting followed President Barack Obama’s announcement Wednesday of the easing of sanctions on US investments in Myanmar, a decision reached after two months of debate within the administration over how much and how quickly to reward the Myanmar government for the reforms it has undertaken so far.

The administration placed some conditions on investments, including the requirement that US companies investing more than $500,000 must report to Washington on their human rights policies and anti-corruption efforts. US energy companies that conclude deals with the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise — which the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, wanted to be kept under sanctions — will be required to report their investments to Washington within 60 days.

Clinton told Thein Sein that the United States was concerned about the treatment of the Rohingya Muslim ethnic group, which has suffered killings at the hands of Buddhists, the State Department official said.

Western business executives say they are aware of the opportunities in Myanmar, but that there are also big hurdles. A modern banking system does not exist, communications are spotty and ingrained corruption linked to military officers is widespread.

China demands US kowtow

Commentary: U.S. should refrain from sending wrong signals over South China Sea BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua)

A recent U.S. statement on the South China Sea sent wrong signals and did not help with the peace and stability in the region and Asia-Pacific at large.

The U.S. State Department on Friday accused China of taking unconstructive moves in the South China Sea.

"China's upgrading of the administrative level of Sansha City and establishment of a new military garrison there covering disputed areas of the South China Sea run counter to collaborative diplomatic efforts to resolve differences and risk further escalating tensions in the region," said the State Department in a statement.

The statement, which ignores facts and deliberately confuses right and wrong, is an apparent interference in the internal affairs of China, and reflects the U.S. ambition of manipulating Asian affairs.

China calls in U.S. diplomat over South China Sea

The State Department on Friday said it was monitoring the situation in the seas closely, adding that China's establishment of a military garrison for the area runs "counter to collaborative diplomatic efforts to resolve differences and risk further escalating tensions in the region".

n a statement released late on Saturday, China's Foreign Ministry said Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Kunsheng summoned the U.S. Embassy's Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Wang to make "serious representations" about the issue.

Zhang said the U.S. statement "disregarded the facts, confused right with wrong, sent a seriously wrong signal and did not help with efforts by relevant parties to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea or the Asia Pacific."

"China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition, urges the U.S. side to immediately to mend the error of its ways, earnestly respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and do more to genuinely benefit stability and prosperity in the Asia Pacific," he added.

A separate statement by ministry spokesman Qin Gang repeated that China had absolute sovereignty over the sea and its myriad islands and had every right to formally set up a city to administer the region, which it did last month.

"Why does the U.S. turn a blind eye to the facts that certain countries opened a number of oil and gas blocks, and issued domestic laws illegally appropriating Chinese islands and waters?" Qin said.

"Why does the U.S. avoid talking about the threats of military vessels to Chinese fishermen by certain countries and their unjustified claims of sovereignty rights over Chinese islands?" he added.

The official Xinhua news agency said the United States was trying to present itself as an honest broker in the dispute, but that its real intent was to stir up trouble and drive a wedge between China and its neighbors for its own gain.

Washington should "thoroughly abandon it plot to seek advantage from the chaos so the South China Sea can resume its role as a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation", Xinhua said in an angry commentary.

South China Sea feud: Beijing rebukes Washington's 'biased' stance (Russia)

But the Philippines has also claimed the territory.

And it’s no wonder that the sea is coveted by both nations, as its waters and islands are rich in oil and gas. According to China's Ministry of Geological Resources and Mining, the South China Sea may contain up to 17.7 billion tons of crude oil.

According to CBS News, the United States has consistently said that it refuses to take sides, although it is obliged to defend the Philippines from outside aggression, under an existing mutual defense treaty.

But America’s actions have angered China, and Beijing isn’t keeping quiet.

In July 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her country had a "national interest" in the South China Sea. Since then, Washington has taken a series of unilateral actions in the region, according to Xinhua.

Earlier this year, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that he would raise the Navy's Pacific Ocean deployment by 10 per cent.

China has made it clear that it is uninterested in American intervention.

China National Offshore Oil Corp-Nexen deal to help South China sea thrust

The $15 billion bid by China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) to buy Canada's Nexen, Inc will help the Chinese state giant gain the expertise to drill in deep, disputed waters of the South China Sea without relying on risk-averse foreign firms.

CNOOC has emerged as a key component of China's strategy to bolster its claims to nearly the entire South China Sea.

China's policy has also included diplomatic pressure aimed at keeping the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations ( ASEAN) divided over the sea dispute; the establishment of a city government and military garrison at Sansha city in the Paracel Islands; and more assertive patrols of contested seas.

The intensifying squabble in waters that carry $5 trillion in annual trade drew a statement of concern on Thursday from Washington, which officially is neutral on the dispute.

US: China garrison raises tension in disputed sea

The Senate on Thursday also urged restraint among China and five of its neighbors and said the U.S. was committed to assisting Southeast Asian nations remaining "strong and independent."

The U.S. statement also follows an acrimonious annual meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations last month, where for the first time in its 45-year history, the bloc failed to issue a communique. The host country, Cambodia, viewed as pro-Beijing, rejected a proposal by the Philippines and Vietnam to mention their separate territorial disputes with China.

The United States, which has tens of thousands of forces based in the Asia-Pacific, views itself as a stabilizing influence in the region, and its diplomacy on the South China Sea, where it says it holds no position on the competing sovereignty claims, has helped boost its standing in Southeast Asia. But criticism of China risks straining ties with Beijing that the U.S. also sees as crucial for regional stability.

China opposes intervention in South China Sea

China has indisputable sovereign rights over the South China Sea islands and their adjacent waters, and the country opposes any military intervention in this area, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Defense said Tuesday.

According to relevant rules, a regular combat-readiness patrol system has been established in sea waters under China's jurisdiction, Geng Yansheng, the spokesman, said in response to a question at a press conference.

"The Chinese navy is justified in protecting the country's interests, and it is groundless to equate such a justified action with tough foreign policy," he said.

Geng also said the establishment of the city of Sansha is a readjustment by the Chinese government to existing administrative bodies, which is an issue within China's sovereignty and unrelated to other countries.

"China will continue to seek appropriate solutions through bilateral negotiations and consultations with the parties directly involved in the concerned disputes," Geng said.

China is also willing to cooperate with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in all fields, including the defense security relationship, in order to boost regional peace, stability and prosperity, Geng added.

Follow this South China Seas row here.

For background on the basis for claims to the area, see this and this and this and this for starters.

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Pouring concrete on troubled waters

Not content to fund concrete relationships with South Pacific island governments, China now bunkers down in its efforts to cement its claims on the South China Sea.

China establishes Sansha City

China on Tuesday officially set up the city of Sansha on Yongxing Island in the southernmost province of Hainan. The city government is located on the 2.13-square km Yongxing Island, the largest island in the Xisha Islands group.

The national flag was hoisted while the national anthem played after the signboards of the Sansha Municipal Government and the Sansha Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) were unveiled.

Luo Baoyou, Party chief of Hainan province, said in a keynote speech that Sansha was established to administer the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands and their surrounding waters in the South China Sea. "The provincial government will be devoted to turning the city into an important base to safeguard China's sovereignty and serve marine resource development," he said.

He said the main task now will be to build up political power in Sansha to ensure efficient management.

China placed troops on the disputed islands, forming a new city “Sansha”

In the conflict over the South China Sea, Beijing has achieved a diplomatic success. It managed to split the ASEAN – the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Some of these countries did not support Vietnam and the Philippines.

It takes 13 hours to reach the island from the mainland by sea. There are post office, bank, supermarket and hospital.

From the website of Holiday China Tour:

There is a city in China with a population of less than 10,000 and an area of almost one-fourth of China's territory. It is Sansha in Hainan province, People's Republic of China.

The State Council, or China's cabinet, approved in June the establishment of Sansha, a prefectural-level city that will administer the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha island groups and their surrounding waters in the South China Sea. The government seat of Sansha will be stationed on Yongxing Island, part of the Xisha Islands. Sansha exercises political sovereignty, both actual and claimed, over three disputed archipelagoes in the South China Sea. Nationally, it is the smallest prefecture-level city by both population and land area, the largest by water area, and the southernmost.

The founding of Sansha city will improve China's management of the region and help coordinate efforts to develop the islands and protect the marine environment, said Zhao Zhongshe, director of the Hainan provincial Department of Ocean and Fisheries.

There are two ways to reach Yongxing Island, by ship and by air. The airport on the island can now accommodate a Boeing 737, but there are no airlines based there. For most people, flying to Xisha Islands is still a wild wish. And traveling by ship is subject to weather on the sea, which changes a lot in June.

China stands firm on Sansha

Ruan Zongze, vice president of the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday that it's inappropriate for the US to criticize China on the establishment of the city, because what China has done is reasonable and is a logical move given the nature of Asian politics.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a news briefing on Tuesday that the country remains concerned regarding "unilateral moves of this kind," AP reported.

US Senator John McCain warned Tuesday that China was "unnecessarily provocative" in saying it would establish a military garrison on disputed South China Sea islands, and called for a multilateral solution to the dispute, according to AFP.

McCain said other actions by China, including the appointment of legislators to govern such disputes "only reinforces why many Asian countries are increasingly concerned about China's expansive territorial claims and the possibility that China will attempt to impose those claims through intimidation and coercion."

"The US should reflect on its diplomatic interference in the region which has sent inaccurate signals to neighboring countries. The recent statements from the US on the Diaoyu Islands have broken their promise to take no position on competing sovereignty claims and it will lead to damage to Sino-US relations," Ruan said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was reported to say on Tuesday that the Diaoyu Islands will be included in a bilateral security treaty between the US and Japan.

"Establishing Sansha City is a domestic affair of China which shouldn't be interfered with by any other countries. The US has no reason or grounds to protest through diplomatic channels, which explains why the country has only released a statement," Ji Qiufeng, a professor at the School of International Relations at Nanjing University said, adding there's no need to worry that the establishment of the city will lead to military interference by the US.

Su Hao, director of the Asia-Pacific Research Center at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times that the establishment of Sansha city has shown that China will not back down when the matters concern sovereignty or compromise their principles, regardless of whether the issue is the South China Sea or the Diaoyu Islands.

Since the disputes over the South China Sea have intensified, it is time for China to show its confidence in its ability to protect its own rights and sovereignty, Ji added.

China's hawks gaining sway in S. China sea dispute

Most Chinese and foreign security policy analysts believe China wants to avoid military conflict across sea lanes that carry an annual $5 trillion in ship-borne trade, particularly if it raises the prospect of U.S. intervention.

However, they say Beijing is increasingly determined to block any unified effort from rival claimants to negotiate over disputes, preferring instead to isolate much smaller and weaker states in direct talks.

The official Xinhua news agency said the Sansha garrison would be responsible for "national defense mobilisation ... guarding the city and supporting local emergency rescue and disaster relief" and "carrying out military missions".

The city government is located on the 2.13-square km Yongxing Island, according to Xinhua, which contains a small military airport, a sea port, roads, a clinic, a post office and an observatory. This is in the Paracels, a group of islands also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.

One of China's most hawkish army officers, Major General Zhu Chenghu, an influential teacher and strategy researcher at Beijing's National Defence University, has dismissed the entitlement of these rivals to the disputed waters.

In a speech to the World Peace Forum in Beijing earlier this month, Zhu said it was "unreasonable and illegal" for the Philippines and Vietnam to claim territory that historically belonged to China.

He said there had been no disputes in the South China Sea before the 1970s when maps published by rival claimants also acknowledged it was Chinese territory.

"Relevant countries did not begin to lay claim to islands and sea waters in the area until the discovery of large amounts of oil and gas reserves in the South China Sea," he said, according to an extract of his speech published in the official Global Times newspaper last week.

Zhu also blamed U.S. "meddling" for prolonging the current tension.

The retired general is best known for his assertion in 2005 that China should use nuclear weapons against the United States if American forces intervened in a conflict over Taiwan.

He escaped any serious censure over what he stressed at the time were his personal views and has since become a regular member of high-level Chinese military delegations in security talks with U.S. counterparts.

Other officials calling for a tougher line include Cui Liru, president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a Beijing think-tank closely linked to China's intelligence services, and Major General Luo Yuan, a retired army officer who is well known for his hard-line views and provocative media commentaries.

It is unclear how much sway these blunt speaking officials exercise over foreign and military policies or whether their views reflect official thinking.

But for the PLA, the persistent territorial disputes undermine a carefully-honed image as a force that will never allow foreign powers to encroach on Chinese territory as they did in the colonial period.

"The South China Sea situation is certainly highly frustrating for Chinese military officers," said Sun Yun, a Washington-based China security policy expert and a former analyst with the International Crisis Group in Beijing.

"If the PLA cannot even defend China's own territory at its doorstep, what capacity or legitimacy does it have to cruise around the world?"

Red Flag over Sansha City (And also)

There are nearly 300 cities in China. On June 21, the Chinese Government added another to that list: Sansha is the smallest city in China­.

China is the first country to discover, name and exercise sovereignty over the islands and their adjacent waters. The People's Republic of China set up a county-level administration office governing the area in 1959. In 1988, Hainan Province was established, and the administrative office was put under its auspices.

A spokesperson of the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on June 21 that the founding of Sansha will help improve China's administrative management in the area, promote its future development and protect the waters of the South China Sea.

In its 50-plus years of history, the administrative office had fulfilled its responsibilities, yet its functions were no longer compatible with the area's social and economic development, said Li.

Qu Xing, Director of China Institute of International Studies, said that setting up Sansha City will not only strengthen China's governance over these South China Sea islands and waters, but also safeguard the country's sovereignty and marine rights and interests in the area.

Through these actions, the Chinese Government is exercising legitimate jurisdiction over South China Sea islands, Qu said. Sansha will also handle fishery disputes in the South China Sea and protect fishermen's personal and property safety.

"This is a very good opportunity for foreign enterprises to invest in the area," Li said. Foreign companies can seek approval from the Sansha Municipal Government to build factories or make other forms of investment to tap local resources according to relevant laws and regulations of the country, he said.

CNOOC, Shell sign deals for oil exploration in South China Sea

The blocks, 62/02 and 62/17, lie in the Yinggehai basin off China's Hainan island, according to the agreement.

Shell will undertake 100 percent of the exploration costs in the blocks while CNOOC can take up to 51 percent of equity interest in any commercial oil and gas discovery in the blocks.

China Establishes New City on Disputed Waters

South China Sea in real time straights

UPDATE 1-China starts "combat ready" patrols in disputed seas

China has begun combat-ready patrols in the waters around a disputed group of islands in the South China Sea, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday, the latest escalation in tension over the potentially resource-rich area.

"In order to protect national sovereignty and our security and development interests, the Chinese military has already set up a normal, combat-ready patrol system in seas under our control," he said.

"The Chinese military's resolve and will to defend territorial sovereignty and protect our maritime rights and interests is firm and unshakeable," Geng added, according to a transcript on the ministry's website (www.mod.gov.cn) of comments at a briefing.

He did not elaborate. The ministry does not allow foreign reporters to attend its monthly briefings.

Philippines says Chinese boats have returned to disputed lagoon despite agreement

China pledges to protect maritime sovereignty

The US is beefing up its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Deliberately highlighting the military and security agenda and deploying more military forces in the Asia-Pacific "go against the global pursuit of peace, development and cooperation, as well as trust among nations in the region", Zhang Junshe, deputy director of the Naval Military Studies Research Institute said.

Loose cannons and stormy skies

The arrival of the USS Louisville comes just weeks after another US attack submarine, the USS North Carolina, made a port call at the same Philippine naval base. The high-profile dockings have been billed as part of the US's plan to host more rotating American naval forces in the Asia-Pacific region.

A bid protest of a different sort

Sort of like having your neighbour down the street bang up a "For Sale" sign in your front yard, or burrow as the case may be.

Vietnam says China offshore oil auction 'illegal'

On Saturday, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation announced that nine offshore blocks were available for exploration, and said it was seeking bids from foreign companies.

Vietnam's foreign ministry said in a statement late Tuesday that the blocks "lie entirely within Vietnam's 200-mile exclusive economic zone."

"This is absolutely not a disputed area. (CNOOC's move) is illegal and of no value, seriously violating Vietnam's sovereignty," it said, blaming the bid invitation for "causing tension" in the South China Sea.

The blocks, which cover an area of more than 160,000 square kilometres (64,000 square miles), overlap blocks which PetroVietnam is already in the process of developing with its own foreign partners, Hau said.

"PetroVietnam will send an official letter of protest and request the cancellation of the Chinese tender," he said, adding they would also "protest until the end" any companies who signed contracts with CNOOC in the area.

On Saturday, CNOOC announced the nine blocks were "available for international exploration and development cooperation between CNOOC and foreign companies."

The tender was "normal business activity", Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing on Tuesday.

"We hope Vietnam will respect these agreements and avoid taking any action that may complicate the matter," he said

.
Nation protests Chinese oil bids

Nghi stressed that the invitation of bids for an area in Viet Nam's exclusive economic zone and continental shelf by China was an illegal and void activity that seriously violated Viet Nam's sovereign rights, jurisdiction right and legitimate national interest as well as the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to which China itself is a member. He added that the move complicated the situation and caused further tensions in the East Sea.

MVP to drop oil hunt should sovereignty issues arise

Manuel V. Pangilinan said yesterday he will drop the plan to explore for oil in Recto Bank, part of the disputed Spratlys Islands, once sovereignty issues materialize.

Earlier, President Aquino said that he has no problem with the group of Pangilinan asking China National Offshore Oil Corporation as a partner in the oil hunt.

As this developed, AP reported that Vietnam has protested CNOOC’s posting of bids for energy development in the disputed South China Sea.

“We made it clear to our government that if we cannot resolve our sovereignty issues to the satisfaction of our government, we are prepared to not proceed with the project,” Pangilian told reporters after the stockholders meeting of Philex Mining Corp., which he chairs. Philex Petroleum, which went public in September, is a subsidiary of Philex Mining, the country’s largest mining firm.

The negotiations for a possible joint gas exploration in Recto Bank came amid a standoff at the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal off Zambales involving Philippine and Chinese vessels.

Vietnam Warns China to Halt Oil Bids in Area Awarded to Exxon

China’s blocks overlap with Vietnamese areas that have been awarded to Exxon, Moscow-based Gazprom (OGZD), India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corp. and Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM), according to a PetroVietnam map distributed to reporters in Hanoi.

The invitation for bids came as Vietnam’s parliament passed a law reasserting its sovereignty over the area. China summoned Vietnam’s ambassador June 21 to protest the move, with Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun saying Vietnam’s actions weren’t “conducive to peace and stability.”

China hopes Vietnam will “not take actions that will amplify or complicate the dispute,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said yesterday in Beijing. “At the same time, Vietnam should stop its activities that infringe upon China’s rights and interests.”

The area “lies entirely within Vietnam’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone and continental shelf,” Luong Thanh Nghi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in comments posted on its website June 25. “This is absolutely not a disputed area.”

The location of the blocks indicates that China claims the maritime spaces within its so-called nine-dash map of the sea, a development that will further alarm claimant states, according to Clive Schofield, director of research at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources & Security.

“There are highly likely to be future clashes should there be actions taken by any of the countries concerned to try and explore within those blocks,” he said. “The designation of blocks is in a sense a proxy way of states trying to reinforce their jurisdictional rights.”

In 1992, China awarded Crestone Energy Corp. a block off Vietnam’s southern coast that is now owned by Houston-based Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (HNR) Talisman, an oil and gas producer with operations in North America, the North Sea and Indonesia, owns the rights for Vietnam.

Routine patrols in the area by China’s maritime surveillance ships coupled with China National Offshore’s enhanced ability to operate in deeper waters has emboldened the country to assert its claims in the area, according to Gary Li, head of marine and aviation forecasting at Exclusive Analysis Ltd., a London-based business advisory firm.

“The Chinese in the next six months are very likely to demonstrate to potential partners their ability to muscle in on these blocks,” he wrote. “So expect more patrols, high profile propaganda announcements and puff pieces on Cnooc personnel.”

Vietnam Oil Firm Protests Chinese Plans

Cnooc's move is likely influenced by a desire to see how far it can press its claims in the sea rather than entirely commercial considerations, analysts and diplomats say. Few foreign firms are likely to engage in drilling in such disputed waters, especially after Vietnam's protests.

"There is no way any foreign company will go there," said Laban Yu, head of oil and gas research at Jefferies Hong Kong Ltd., a securities and investment banking firm. "This is just Cnooc being used by the central government to make a statement."

"Either Cnooc is doing national service and helping Beijing push the boundary of the South China Sea maritime dispute, or it's doing what analysts have been calling for" and pursuing foreign help to increase the size of its reserves, said Simon Powell, head of Asian oil and gas research at CLSA.

Mr. Powell added that the resources there are more likely to be gas than oil, and thus less attractive to potential foreign partners. "Given how low natural-gas prices are in China, the distance of these blocks from the mainland and how uneconomic it is to lay pipelines and run gas from such distances, maybe the offerings are more about politics than about earnings," he said.

China's bellicoast ways

The agitation for China's annexation of all waters to or past the Mid-Pacific Islands, and what are equally if more important, lands above and below the waters, continues as the stories below reveal (click links to stories for complete details). Guambat wonders how long the fuse is.

Beijing seeks dominance of South China Sea with new city (Russia)

A new city has emerged on the map of China. China's State Council has approved the foundation of the district level city of Sangsha. Governance over the islands of Xisha, Zhong Sha and Nan Sha – as well as the adjacent waters – will be concentrated in this administrative center.

Sangsha therefore becomes the southernmost city in China and, taking into account the area of the surrounding waters, it is the largest municipality too. At the same time, from the administrative division point of view, the appearance of a new city on the map looks like a curious incident. Usually a district level city in China has a population of no less than 200,000 people, while the population of the three islands together is not more than 500. However, from a geopolitical standpoint, it is a very clever move on the part of Beijing.

The city government of Sangsha will be located on Yongxing Island. Yongxing covers an area of about two square kilometers and is considered to be the outpost of Chinese interests in this natural resource-rich area of the South China Sea. In addition a subdivision of the Chinese People's Liberation Army is deployed here, Boeing-737 class airplanes can land on the local runway, and 5000-ton ships can harbor at its port.

The revival of the project is once again connected with the position of Hanoi. Most observers consider that the foundation of the city of Sangsha was a response to the adoption of the Maritime Law of Vietnam. According to this document, Vietnam has sovereignty over the islands of Nan Sha, Xisha, and the adjacent waters. Beijing proclaimed this step illegal, because it violated the “indisputable sovereignty” of China. In its turn, Hanoi believes that its position is supported by historical documents which prove that, already in the 16th century, Vietnam was exercising effective control over the disputed territories.

Yakov Berger, analyst from the Institute of Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes that today we are more or less dealing with propaganda gestures and a war of words – but the parties to the conflict are at the same time steadily strengthening their military muscles, which can be fraught with a potential danger to peace and stability in the South China Sea region.

This step is evidently connected to the aggravation of territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Chinese scholar dismisses U-shaped East Sea line as baseless (Vietnam)

A Chinese scholar has objected to a U-shaped line that China has put in its maps to bring most of the East Sea under its sovereignty, including Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands, calling it imaginary and having no legal foundation.

The line, also known as the “nine-dotted line,” “nine-dash line,” or “cow tongue line,” started to appear last year in American and Italian journals that cited Chinese articles with maps portraying more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, known in Vietnam as the East Sea, as belonging to China.

But Li Ling Hua, a researcher for more than 20 years at China's National Oceanographic Data and Information Center, and the author of more than 90 reports on maritime issues and maritime laws, said at a conference June 14 that “The nine-dash line on the Nan Hai (or the East Sea) is unreal," according to a Tien Phong report Sunday.

"The line was established by our predecessors with no longitudes or latitudes, and it was not based on any laws or regulations.

“It was merely a unilateral announcement by China in 1947.”

He said the Chinese government has never officially announced the U-shaped line, but many textbooks and newspapers consider it the official sea border, making most Chinese believe it.

The U-shaped line (formed with pink dashes) was established by China to gather most of the East Sea into China’s territory. Bordering the line to the left is Vietnam, to the right is the Philippines and below it is Malaysia and Brunei.
The Chinese government needs to clarify the legitimacy of the line, “or there will be clashes in the future” when Chinese people rely on the line to oppose any country they think is violating it.

Ridiculous antic (China)

On Thursday the Vietnamese National Assembly adopted a domestic law of the sea to include China's Xisha and Nansha islands in the South China Sea within Vietnam's sovereignty and jurisdiction. In response, Chinese authorities have expressed firm opposition and demanded that Vietnam correct its erroneous maritime law immediately.

Nothing is more absurd than the attempt to take what rightfully belongs to others as one's own. Hanoi's wishful thinking in claiming sovereignty over Xisha and Nansha islands with its domestic law amounts to robbery. It is an open infringement of China's territorial integrity and a violation of international law.

Regrettably, in a statement posted on the Vietnamese foreign ministry's website late on Thursday, the ministry's spokesman said, "Vietnam resolutely rejects the absurd accusations by the Chinese side."

Having been through multiple wars with multiple neighbors, Vietnam ought to know what happens when countries disregard others' territorial integrity. But the ridiculous antic on Thursday shows it has not. The consequences may prove dangerous and costly.

Talk of the Day -- Stakeholders step up moves in South China Sea (Taiwan)

The Cultural Affairs Office in China's Hainan Province has designated the areas around four islets in the Shisha Islands in the disputed South China Sea as special zones for the preservation of cultural relics, according to media reports.

The announcement was made after after archaeologists discovered underwater relics near the the four Shisha islets -- Beijiao, Huaguang Jiao, Yuzhuo Jiao and Yongle Jiao -- during a routine maritime inspection carried out by the Hainan provincial government between April and May, the reports said.

The Hainan cultural bureau will collaborate with China's public security authorities to establish an advanced three-dimensional monitoring system to better protect the cultural relics in the area, also known as the Paracel Islands or Xisha Islands in China, the reports said.

Meanwhile, Sansha City in Hainan has been assigned to administer islets, shoals, reefs of Xisha, Zhongsha (Macclesfield Islands) and Nansha (Spratly Islands) and surrounding waters in the South China Sea, the reports said.

The area was part of the "ancient marine silk road" and a wealth of historical and cultural relics are believed to lie beneath the waters.

China will not accept provocative action in South China Sea: Official (India)

Even as India has pulled out of an offshore oil block in the South China Sea following protests by China, Beijing has reiterated its stand that the islands in the South China Sea and the adjacent waters fall within its "core interests" and it will not accept any "provocative action" in the sea off the China coast.

Jia Xiudong, Senior Fellow in Residence at the state-run China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), Department of International Strategic Studies, said while China does not claim the whole South China Sea, its official position is that it has "undisputable sovereignty over the islands and waters around it".

Sounding a tough note, Jia said that China's "restraint" should not be taken as "a sign of weakness and acceptance of encroachment of sovereignty".

"China will react now, or in future, no matter what others think of China, in regard to sovereignty issues," he asserted while talking to a group of visiting Indian journalists.

Last July, the Indian Navy's amphibious warfare ship INS Airavat, which was on a friendly visit to Vietnam in the South China Sea, was contacted by the Chinese Navy on radio and told that it was entering Chinese waters. The vessel proceeded on its journey as scheduled. The Indian government later in a statement said that "India supports freedom of navigation in international waters, including in the South China Sea, and the right of passage in accordance with accepted principles of international law".

In May, following objections by China, India's ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of state-owned ONGC, pulled out of an offshore oil block in Vietnam in the South China Sea.

ONGC Videsh had signed a deal with PetroVietnam in September 2011 for developing long-term cooperation in the oil sector and had accepted Vietnam's offer of exploration in certain blocks in the South China Sea. China had protested against the move of countries "engaging in oil and gas exploration and development activities in waters under China's jurisdiction".

After China voiced its objection, ONGC Videsh pulled out of the oil block exploration. Last week, India's ONGC and China National Petroleum Corp. inked a deal to jointly explore assets in third countries. The two are already working in Myanmar, Syria and Sudan.

Samoa the same

Not exactly breaking, or braking, news this:

China a better Pacific friend than US: Samoan PM.

People's Republic of China–Samoa relations


China, and Taiwan, have been on a decades long quest to spend their way into strategic "alliances" with hands-out Pacific nation-island-states, whilst Western countries and "traditional" allies New Zealand and Australia have withdrawn support. The Pacific is dotted with many Chinese temples (of various sorts) to this buying power.



CHINA STIRS THE POT OF DIVIDED PACIFIC LOYALTIES 2006

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabou plans to appear in Fiji next month to meet delegates from Pacific Islands countries that recognise China but not Taiwan.

Pacific countries that prefer to deal with Taiwan rather than China either hadn't been invited to the meeting by the time Islands Business went to print or had decided to boycott it.

Next day, April 6, he'll have talks with the prime ministers of Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu and president of the Federated States of Micronesia. All these countries prefer to [recognize] China in return for economic aid.

They are all members of the region's political club, the Pacific Islands Forum. The countries that prefer to [give] their loyalty to Taiwan-Tuvalu, Kiribati, Palau, the Solomon Islands, Nauru, Palau and the Marshall Islands are also Forum members.

This split in Forum country ranks is not the first one achieved by China as it wages its anti-Taiwan [campaign] in the Pacific Islands.

Initially, the China summit in the Pacific was heralded as the summit of Pacific leaders in the hope that heads of Forum-member governments would attend.

After hearing of Beijing's latest ploy for influence in the islands, the Taiwan Trade Mission representative in Suva, Sherman Shi-Nan Kuo objected to the involvement of the Forum Secretariat .

"Yes, we have informed the Forum that Taiwan opposes its involvement in the summit," he said. "We are a donor to the Forum and we told them that if they are organising a summit for China, then we can also ask for the same favour."

Taiwan Trade Mission's Kuo said that for 2006, Taiwan has [given] US$700,000 for the Forum Secretariat. It is also continuing with a US$500,000 scholarship scheme for island university students.

A Fiji government announcement said Jiabou's call would be a "historic" event since it would be the first meeting between China and the Pacific's islands nations.

Such Pacific Islands academics as Professor Ron Crocombe suggested that the Chinese are playing a long-term game for access to Pacific fish stocks which they already have and possible seabed mining opportunities.

In Papua New Guinea, the Chinese are moving into investment in mining and gas extraction.

The Australians have visions of the islands being taken over by Chinese organised crime and claim that drug busts, passport rackets and other criminal activities demonstrate that they're already happening.

Bertil Lintner, a journalist and an expert on organised crime, in a new book about Chinese organised crime, Blood Brothers, says China's diplomats cultivate gangs, routinely using them to spy on countries and to corrupt government politicians and bureaucrats.

President Chen Shiu Bian of Taiwan made a goodwill tour of some of Taiwan Pacific Islands friends in 2005.

The Chinese ambassador to Fiji, Cai Jinbiao, reacted with [apparent] anger in 2005 when he heard that the Taiwanese leader would overnight at Nadi and be welcomed with a Fijian welcoming ceremony by chiefs of the district.

By fronting up in Fiji, Jiabou will put it one over other major powers who for one reason or another has motives for cultivating Pacific Islanders for the few assets they have.

On May 26-27, Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, will host the fourth Japan-Pacific Islands meeting at Okinawa. Known as the PALM meeting, held every three years, it is Japan's big pitch for having good relations with the Pacific Islands.

On June 27, island leaders have been invited to be in Paris for a meeting with President Jacques Chirac, who first met them in French Polynesia two years ago.

The point of the meetings for the French is to keep Pacific leaders sweet about France's presence in the Pacific and improve relations between them and France's three Pacific territories.

In 1990, during an election trip to Hawaii, then President George Bush dropped in on a meeting of islands leaders there. His son dropped in briefly on a similar meeting in October 2003. Neither event brought anything much to the Pacific.

China has actively been cultivating relations with the Pacific Islands for more than two decades. In doing so, it has clashed often with Taiwan as the two have clawed each other for island government loyalties.

Both countries have [won] friendships with aid now totalling tens of millions of dollars.

There's hardly a Pacific Islands leader who hasn't been invited on one or more junket trips to China or Taiwan, depending on whom they back. Groups of Pacific Islands journalists are also led around in Beijing by the nose, blocked from seeing the sinister side of life in China.

The benefits gained by Taiwan from its Pacific games are the pleasure of annoying the Chinese, who are apt to turn ugly in their attempts to block switches of loyalty to Taiwan and having a voice at the United Nations.

China has cultivated Pacific Islands governments for more than 20 years. It has embassies in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia and is planning to open a consulate in French Polynesia.

It's a tussle with Taiwan over Kiribati's loyalty it lost badly two years ago when a new Kiribati government elected for a lucrative deal with Taiwan. This led to the closure of the Chinese embassy at Tarawa-although four Chinese officials continue to lurk there-and the closure of a satellite and missile tracking station it operated there.

Former Vanuatu prime minister, Serge Vohor, made a bad mistake in 2004 when after junkets to Taiwan and China he switched Vanuatu's loyalties to Taiwan without consulting his cabinet ministers. Apparently got at by Chinese diplomats, the ministers rebelled and Vohor lost office.

Nauru had fun and games with China in 2005. It used to be pro-Taiwan, which thus helped with the cost of running Air Nauru.

In July 2002, the then Nauru government decided it could get a better deal even at the cost of money for Air Nauru and switched recognition to China. Last year, the present Nauru government, deciding that Taiwan was a better deal after all, restored its recognition of Taiwan to Beijing's mortification.

Islands Business was told of an extraordinary scene at Seoul airport last year when, enroute to Taiwan, President Ludwig Scotty after leaving an aircraft, was surrounded and practically dragged off by a horde of screaming Chinese officials intent on diverting him to Beijing.

He was presented with a ticket to Beijing and offered red carpet treatment. But President Scotty headed for Taiwan instead where the carpet he trod was a deeper red.

Last month, Air Nauru announced that with Taiwan's support it soon expected to replace its sole jet aircraft seized by the United States last year for debt.

Other Chinese/Taiwan conflict was over membership of the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO), a regional agency backed by most of the Pacific's national tourism promotion offices.

Taiwan became one of SPTO's few sources of cash. Then China moved in by joining SPTO at ministerial level-the first non-Pacific government to do so.

It blocked Taiwan's application for membership with threats, although the application was supported by pro-Taiwan members.

The Chinese made it plain that if Taiwan was admitted, then countries that hope to be put on the list of tourist destinations that Chinese tourists were allowed to visit-chiefly Fiji, Vanuatu,

Tonga, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia-would be greatly disappointed.

More reading:

China Banking on Pacific Islands 2011

As noted by Balaji Chandramohan writing for The Diplomat late last year, a number of countries including India and China are actively courting Pacific island nations as part of efforts to secure the right to station military bases there or to help develop their natural resources.

But according to the Lowy report, there has been one motivation quite specific to China, namely diplomatic competition with Taiwan. Although it notes the improved ties with the mainland since Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou took office, it quotes a Taiwanese official as stating that countries always prepare for the worst.

The danger to islands accepting these soft loans is that they are going to end up being burdened by loan repayments they can’t afford. As the report noted, Chinese loans to Tonga now make up the equivalent of 32 percent of the country's GDP, while the figure for Samoa and the Cook Islands was 16 percent. Combine this with a lack of transparency, and it’s easy to see why some Pacific island officials are concerned.

Sino-Pacific relations in the Pacific Islands

We Say: END OF THE CHINA-TAIWAN WAR IN PACIFIC?

Over the decades—and more so in recent years—there has been fierce competition between the two to win the support of Pacific Islands states with large packages of aid and a range of other financial inducements, including junkets to islands leaders.

This competition to win favours of the Pacific Islands has been described as chequebook diplomacy by the islands traditional development partners—notably New Zealand, Australia and more recently, the United States of America.

Unfortunately, many of the region’s leadership has fallen prey to these one-upmanship games between Taiwan and China and elections have been fought and governments fallen on the issue of whom to support.

Even in last month’s elections in the Marshall Islands, the question of allegiance was a major issue. Even outside the Pacific Islands region, the leaders of impoverished countries have fallen prey to this competition.

According to reports, the African nation of Malawi that supported Taiwan recently switched its support to China after it was promised a huge US$6 billion aid package.

The problem of diplomatic allegiance has caused deep schisms in the Pacific. Six Pacific Islands Forum nations—Nauru, the Solomon Islands, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu—currently support Taiwan, while the rest have followed the ‘One China Policy’, recognising the People’s Republic of China.

China and Taiwan have used the Pacific as their diplomatic battleground openly. During the annual Forum summit in Fiji in 2006, China’s assistant foreign minister publicly accused Taiwan of spreading corruption in the region with largesse.

Then again last year, Taiwan hosted a summit for its allies in Palau at the same time as the annual Forum leaders’ meet in Tonga. Several Forum leaders chose to attend the Taiwan meet—thereby upsetting some of the agenda at the Tonga meet.

Wooing the Islands: China and Taiwan High Stakes Bid for Pacific Island Support

Several Pacific Island nation governments are willing to “go with anybody” as long as it is lucrative. Selling votes at the United Nations is a common occurrence. Micronesian nations, as well as many Polynesian and Melanesian ones, regularly support virtually any resolutions proposed by the United States. Francis Hazel, director of The Micronesian Seminar, remembers how one day a television crew from Israel besieged his office in the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Pohnpei. "I wondered what they were doing in this city, which hardly appears on any world maps. Then I understood: the Israeli public was curious about this country which keeps joining the U.S., voting against all UN resolutions condemning Israeli actions in the Middle East."

But China and Taiwan are the biggest players in this game. Both Taiwan and China have erected disproportionately huge buildings for use by local governments, including the parliamentary complex in Vanuatu and the government offices in Samoa. For the convention center in Majuro, Marshall Islands, where the 2nd Taiwan-Pacific Allies Summit took place last October, Taiwan spent approximately $5 million.

Image Source: Wikipedia





China and Taiwan in the South Pacific: Diplomatic Chess versus PacificPolitical Rugby



The Growing Chinese Presence in the Region

All countries' foreign relations contain some self-interest, all influence internal affairs, and all aid has strings (some visible but more hidden -- sometimes in the pockets and egos of the powerful). But in recent years in the Pacific Islands, China pursues its self-interest more forcefully, interferes more in Pacific Islands internal affairs, and has more strings on its aid than any other country.

The indigenous people of Taiwan (who were there for 6000 years before the Chinese invaded) are Austronesian, as are the ancestors of all Polynesians. In indigenous Taiwanese languages today, the word "mata" means eye as in many Polynesian languages. The Chinese people of Taiwan mostly migrated there 200 to 300 years ago and have become a different people (like the European people of USA and Australia are different from those of Europe and don't want to be recolonised by any European power). If Cook Islands leaders are happy to help crush their fellow Austronesians in Taiwan in order to gain some glory, ego massages, free trips and perks, and money to help their elections, one can understand that. But China's claim to Taiwan is simple greed for power.

China has a record of causing internal problems in Pacific countries. That is a long, sad story. Just in the last few months, President Anote Tong, of Kiribati (who is himself half-Chinese), complained of the government of China trying to destabilise his government. Then Prime Minister Saufatu Sopo'anga, of Tuvalu, lost a vote-of-no-confidence because, although Tuvalu recognises Taiwan, the prime minister was enticed by China on a secret fully-funded trip to Beijing without telling his cabinet. That caused disruption and a new election.

Aid is usually given by the richer to the poorer. But Cook Islanders are much richer (and much freer, better educated, etc), than Chinese. Income per person in the Cook Islands is much higher than in China. So why do richer Cook Islanders beg from poorer Chinese, and why is the government that controls the poor Chinese so keen to give to rich Cook Islanders instead of to its own much poorer people, many of whom are starving right now? Or to poorer people elsewhere?

It is because they figure that Cook Islands politicians are easy to manipulate and that it is the cheapest vote China can buy in the 30 or so international organisations to which the Cook Islands belongs. Although the Cook Islands is the richest Forum Island country per person in the Pacific, China has given more aid per person to the Cook Islands than to any other. It is a small step in China's strategy to dominate in the region.

Looking North, Looking South: China, Taiwan, and the South Pacific

Asia in the Pacific Islands: Replacing the West