China to deploy new military garrison in West Philippine Sea

Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, reviews the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Garrison in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), at the Shek Kong barracks in Hong Kong, south China, June 29, 2012. Hu is here to attend the celebrations marking the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland and the swearing-in ceremony of the fourth-term government of HKSAR.

The People's Liberation Army, China's central military authority, has approved the  deployment of a military garrison in the newly declared Sansha City in the sparsely populated West Philippine Sea, said a report posted on China's Ministry of National Defense website.

China's announcement is just the latest in a series of recent actions that have expanded its physical presence in the vast disputed waters and defied condemnation around the region.

The report said that the military garrison will be "responsible for managing the city's national defense mobilization, military reserves and military operations."

The Chinese defense ministry likewise said that military troops to be sent to the newly established garrison will be under the dual leadership of Hainan province's military sub-command and Sansha City's civilian leaders.

China had envisioned Sansha City as administering the West Philippine Sea including the Spratly Islands.

The announcement came despite a diplomatic protest lodged by the Philippines against China over the establishment of Sansha City.

The Philippine protest said that "the extent of the jurisdiction of the city violates Philippine territorial sovereignty over the Kalayaan Island Group and Bajo de Masinloc and infringes on Philippine sovereign rights over the waters and continental shelf of the West Philippine Sea."

Aside from the Spratly Islands, Sansha City—which was established by the Chinese Cabinet last June 21—also claims political sovereignty over the Paracel Islands and Macclesfield Bank.

Portions of these territories are also being claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.

Kalayaan

On Wednesday, Kalayaan Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon Jr. said Filipinos have been settled in the islands since 1978, whereas China is forming the government of its Sansha City there only now. Kalayaan town, by Chinese reckoning, falls under Sansha's jurisdiction.

"Yung ating local government matagal na, 34 years na. Ako ay Filipino citizen, ang Kalayaan ay part ng Pilipinas, so sa Pilipinas tayo nagre-report," Bito-onon said in an interview on dzBB radio.

He said he is supposed to administer some 95 islands, shoals, reefs and atolls but some areas there have already been occupied by Vietnam, China and Malaysia.

Of the 95 islands, he said only 41 are occupied.

But Bito-onon said he hopes the Philippines and China can come to an "agreement on cooperation and co-existence."

He said that Kalayaan town, a fifth-class municipality, has only one village – Barangay Pag-asa. It has a population of "250-plus," he added.

"(We are) the smallest town in the Philippines," he said.

But he also admitted there is virtually no government office there, although the residents in the town are all Filipinos. He said they are developing fisheries and tourism.

He also said that while some Chinese fishing vessels would stop by the area, they would only ask for water and then leave.

Chinese infrastructure

A separate Reuters report meanwhile said that China is also planning to build structures such as buoy tenders, supply bases, light stations and radio stations in Sansha City.

"We are also planning to cruise regularly in Sansha in the future and set up a daily cruising mechanism when conditions are ready in order to safeguard China's sovereignty and maritime interests," Zhang Wei, head of the ship supervision division of China's Hainan Maritime Safety Administration, said in the report.

Last week, China also began setting up an organizing committee for the legislative body of Sansha, the beginnings of the city's government.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei, however, had earlier said that China will cooperate in the "peaceful resolution of disputes" in the West Philippine Sea.

"The Chinese side is willing to work together with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea comprehensively and effectively," the official said in a report posted on the Chinese government's official web portal.

GMA News 

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5000 China Fishing Ships in West Philippines to be armed as Militiamen

A leading Chinese fishing-industry official is urging the Chinese government to provide arms and military training for 100,000 Chinese fishermen to roam the South China Sea and defeat Vietnam and other countries in the region that are challenging China's sweeping claims of sovereignty in those waters.

He Jianbin, chief of the state-run Baosha Fishing Corp., based in Hainan province, urged the Chinese government to make fishermen into Chinese militiamen.

"If we put 5,000 Chinese fishing ships in the South China Sea, there will be 100,000 fishermen," Mr. He stated in a June 28 commentary in the state-controlled Communist Party newspaper the Global Times.

"And if we make all of them militiamen, give them weapons, we will have a military force stronger than all the combined forces of all the countries in the South China Sea," he said.

The fisheries official confidently disclosed that at present, China would have no problem deploying that many fishing ships. "In Hainan province alone, we now have over 23,000 fishing ships, with over 225,000 experienced and mature captains," Mr. He said.

"Every year, between May and August, when fishing activities are in recess, we should train these fishermen/militiamen to gain skills in fishing, production and military operations, making them a reserve force on the sea, and using them to solve our South [China] Sea problems," he continued.

China's government has been using fishing vessels in recent weeks to ratchet up tensions with almost all its maritime neighbors, including Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines. In several high-profile skirmishes, most noticeably with the Japanese and Philippine maritime vessels, Chinese fishing vessels have played a central role, followed by vessels belonging to the government's China Maritime Surveillance bureau [Haijian] and Bureau of Fishery [Yuzheng].

The People's Liberation Army's Navy is poised in the region but so far has not been directly involved in initial confrontations with several foreign vessels in an apparent effort to avoid direct challenges from the navies of other countries, including Japan, South Korea and possibly the United States.

China, in particular, regards the U.S. Navy as its main obstacle and the most formidable enemy in its South China Sea gambit. By making fishermen a maritime militia force, Mr. He argues, "we can make the PLA Navy our rear echelon for now but not the forward echelon in the South China Sea. This will alleviate our nation's burden, because if we put the PLA Navy at the front line now, we fall right into the trap set up by the U.S. government."

TANKS FOR OIL

China is set to provide $500 million worth of amphibious assault tanks and vehicles to Hugo Chavez's military in exchange for Venezuela's oil exports, according to remarks by the Venezuelan strongman at a promotion ceremony for several generals near Caracas on July 3, 2012.

China has eyed Venezuela's oil exports for years and is eager to cultivate good relations with the leftist regime of Mr. Chavez, who has shown an increasingly strong interest in Chinese-made weapons to arm his military.

China has been highly receptive of Mr. Chavez's efforts to beef up his control over the military. Chinese navy vessels recently visited the country. Additionally, Chinese paratrooper and sniper teams have conducted joint exercises with Mr. Chavez's special operations forces in the South American jungle earlier this year.

In 2008, Mr. Chavez visited Beijing and signed a deal with the PLA to buy 24 Chinese-made K-8 jet trainers. The planes were delivered to Venezuela in 2009.

The main item for the current $500 million deal will be China's ZTD-05 amphibious armored assault vehicles and a few older Type 63A amphibious tanks.

ZTD-05 is China's knockoff version of Russia's BMP-3 armored infantry fighting vehicle. It functions much like a regular amphibious tank with a 106 mm rifled gun that can fire armor-piercing high-explosive anti-tank shells. It has an advanced stabilizing mechanism enabling it to fire accurately while operating in choppy waters.

The ZDT-05 is viewed as one of the fastest and most deadly amphibious assault vehicles in the world

Washington Times

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