[Igor Antunov]

China plans to establish a military garrison in the disputed Sansha islands in the South China Sea giving a dangerous turn to its tussle with the Philippines and Vietnam on territorial issues. The three countries have overlapping claims on different parts of the Sansha islands.

The move came after a meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) ended in a deadlock on the South China Sea issue at Phnom Penh this week. Asean took the unusual step of not issuing the customary joint communique because of differences on the issue.

The Philippines and Vietnam want Asean to tackle maritime disputes, but China is opposed to outside mediation. "China has sufficient historical and jurisprudential evidence for its sovereignty over Nansha islands and adjacent waters," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lie.

The People's Liberation Army has been asked to create a division-level command , which will be "responsible for managing the (Sansha) city's national defence mobilization, military reserves and carrying out military operations" , state media said.

The new move is also a challenge to the US position in the region because Washington is seen to be supporting the claims of Vietnam and the Philippines on Sansha islands.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 086704.cms

And:

A leading Chinese fishery official has urged Beijing to provide arms and military training for 100,000 fishermen and let them roam the South China Sea and West Philippine Sea to defeat the Philippines, Vietnam and other countries in the region challenging China’s sweeping claims of sovereignty in those waters.

Washington Times columnist Miles Yu identified the official as He Jianbin, chief of the state-run Baosha Fishing Corp., who reportedly made the appeal in a June 28 commentary in the Communist Party newspaper Global Times.

Yu quoted the official based in Hainan province as saying, “If we put 5,000 Chinese fishing ships in the South China Sea, there will be 100,000 fishermen.”

“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 China would have no problem deploying that many fishing vessels as Hainan alone had 23,000 fishing ships.

“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,” the official continued.

By making fishermen a maritime militia force, he argued, “We can make the PLA Navy our rear echelon for now, 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 US government.”

Bill Gertz, another Washington Times columnist, said China was set to formally deploy its first aircraft carrier on Aug. 1 to coincide with the anniversary of the founding of the communist-ruled People’s Liberation Army.

He quoted US officials as saying the carrier, a refurbished Soviet carrier previously known as the Varyag, was currently undergoing sea trials in the Bohai Sea, over the northern coast of China.

“Its deployment comes amid growing tensions in the South China Sea between China and Vietnam and China and the Philippines over disputed islets in the resource-rich waters,” Gertz said.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?ar ... egoryId=63

It's time to get decisive. The regional puppets need to be put in line.

And to add some regional perspective (throwing dispute with japan into the mix):

In a little-noticed development, Taiwan - which is also vociferous in its claims to the islands - has also dispatched its naval patrol and coast-guard vessels to the contested waters, offering the now-rare sight of a local democracy openly lining up on Beijing's side against Japan on a foreign-policy issue, thereby adding to Tokyo's discomfiture.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/NG20Ad02.html

It's important to appreciate how complex this situation is.

[AVT]

That fisherman training idea is probably the most laughable I have seen, would love to see a fishing boat trying to attack a frigate.

Anyway nothing new here, just China chest beating, meanwhile they are handily making all her neighbours walk straight into the arms of the US.

[Igor Antunov]

The waters are treasured for their natural resources. I'd like to see a frigate catch fish/economically exploit the region.

[Baff]

That fisherman training idea is probably the most laughable I have seen, would love to see a fishing boat trying to attack a frigate.

I've seen it done on TV loads of times during the Cod wars.

Frigates have light hulls built for speed and resistence to magnetic mines and torpedoes, fishing vessels on the otherhand have heavy ones, so they ram the frigates.

[AVT]

I've seen it done on TV loads of times during the Cod wars.

Frigates have light hulls built for speed and resistence to magnetic mines and torpedoes, fishing vessels on the otherhand have heavy ones, so they ram the frigates.

That is assuming a fishing vessel could get close to a frigate, obviously if it was to escalate to the stage that fishing boats with armed sailors are firing at others the frigates would just sink them from a distance.

[Baff]

I make no assumption. This is historical record. It has happened on repeated occasions.
They didn't use any guns, they just kept trying to ram the frigates.

The frigates had guns and were doing warning shots across the bows etc.
But in high seas it's hardly a controlled enviroment.

Do your frigate crews desperately even want to start mass murdering unarmed fishing boat crews at sea?
Ours didn't.

[Typhoon]

Good documentary on the subject:

[youtube]qkZqi1wigEk[/youtube]

[Beren]

It's time to get decisive.

Or rather arrogant, hence the US Navy needs to strengthen its presence in the region. China may be good at making friends in Africa, but what about her neighbours?

I'm glad China decided to show her true face, by the way.

[Franker65]

I second the craziness of the fishing boat militia idea. Sure they could cause damage colliding with a frigate but they'd mode than likely be dispatched as mere target practice. Statistics from China show that military strength is building rapidly, though I wouldn't be too worried about the South China Sea right now...maybe a bit more when they have a few aircraft carriers operational.

[Igor Antunov]

Carriers are of no use to china at such short range from shore, in such shallow waters, against the USN. The airforce is. China doesn't need carriers to kick the neighbouring states around on the water and a confrontation with the USN over shoals and islets not claimed by the US is not realistic anyway. We may see a few repeats of past exploits, where vietnam or the taiwanese send a few ships out to do battle with one another or the prc (the philippines has no navy to send out) and that's it. Meanwhile China continues expanding supply infrastructure, surveillance nets and gas rigs across the sea.

[Locke II]

Ah, but you all miss one point. If Vietnam or the Philippines resist, it wouldn't take much for the US to go to war with China on a bs statement of 'protecting economic interests' that might cause open war over the south China Sea.

[Igor Antunov]

And once again the best way to confront enemy carrier is with attack submarines and anti-ship missiles.

[Rancid]

Yea, China becoming more aggressive like this is a terrible mistake on their part.

[Igor Antunov]

In the past when China was proactively aggressive, it was safe and strong. When it tuned inwards and stopped interfering with it's neighbours, it became weak and ripe for outside abuse.

These are the right moves. It needs to get far more aggressive.

[Baff]

I don't think it needs to much different from what it is doing already.

Far from having time to expand it's borders, China's biggest problem is not breaking up.
It needs to consolodate it's borders constantly to keep a country that big together over such a big area with so many disparate communities.

I can see them going for resource grabs, but outside of any pressing needs for it's populace, I just don't think China has time to go looking for trouble.