Chinese naval and air forces conducted patrols around a flashpoint reef in the South China Sea yesterday, after a slew of tense encounters with the Philippines over the past few months.
The patrols coincided with joint exercises carried out by the US, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Philippines in Manila’s exclusive economic zone and within the South China Sea.
Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims of several countries, including Taiwan and the Philippines, and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
Photo: Reuters
Its claims include the waters around Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) — which Beijing seized from Manila in 2012 — where the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command yesterday said it held air and sea patrols.
The triangular chain of reefs and rocks is 240km west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and about 900km from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.
Beijing said the training activities around the shoal included “reconnaissance, early warning, and air-sea patrols.”
“Certain countries outside the region are stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, creating instability in the region,” the Southern Theater Command said in a statement.
“China holds indisputable sovereignty over Huangyan Island and its adjacent waters,” it added.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense in a statement said that a joint drill involving the five countries took place in the South China Sea.
Its maritime destroyer Sazanami participated in the exercises, the ministry said.
The US said the maritime exercises conducted with its allies demonstrated “a collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The Australian Department of Defence said that the HMAS Sydney and a Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft were participating in exercises aimed at “upholding the right to freedom of navigation and overflight.”
Tensions between China and the Philippines have flared in the past few months during a series of confrontations in the waters around the contested Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) and Sabina Shoal (Xianbin, 仙濱暗沙).
In July, the two sides said they had reached a provisional deal on resupply missions to a Philippine ship, the Sierra Madre, which is grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal with a garrison on board, aimed at asserting Manila’s claims to the reef.
Beijing on Friday said it had “supervised” a Philippine ship as it delivered supplies as part of a resupply mission to the grounded vessel at the shoal.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS