Posted on 03/25/2023 9:21:58 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Thursday the guided missile destroyer USS Milius sailed near some islands in the South China Sea that China claims as its own. Actually three different countries claim the Paracel Islands but China currently occupies them. Here’s a map showing the locations of some of the disputed islands in the South China Sea.
Disputed islands in south china sea
👉🏻The Paracel Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam.
👉🏻The Spratly Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei and Philippines.
👉🏻The Scarborough Shoal is claimed by Philippines, China and Taiwan#UPSCPrelims2023
pic.twitter.com/Cv9UKS6uGT— Geography & Current Affair Page (@GeographyCrux) March 23, 2023
So when the USS Milius sailed around the Paracel Islands Thursday, China reacted by claiming they had forced the destroyer out of their territory.
China’s military said that the USS Milius, a guided missile destroyer, had “illegally intruded into China‘s Xisha territorial waters without the approval of the Chinese government.”
Chinese forces monitored, warned the vessel and drove it away, Tian Junli, a spokesman for China’s Southern Theater Command, said in a statement early Thursday.
He added that the United States was “threatening the peace and stability of the South China Sea region” and that Beijing’s forces would “always maintain a high state of readiness and take all necessary measures to resolutely defend national sovereignty and security and peace and stability” in the area.
The US denied those claims saying the ship had not been expelled as China claimed. And seeking to make it clear that’s not what happened, on Friday the USS Milius returned to the same area.
On March 24 (local time) Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69) asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law. At the conclusion of the operation, Milius exited the excessive claim and continued operations in the South China Sea. This freedom of navigation operation (“FONOP”) upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea recognized in international law by challenging the restrictions on innocent passage imposed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan, and Vietnam and also by challenging PRC’s claim to straight baselines enclosing the Paracel Islands.
Naturally, China is upping its rhetoric after the second such transit in two days. Now their Ministry of Defense is threatening “serious consequences.”
China’s Ministry of National Defense responded by accusing the U.S. of “undermining the peace and stability of the South China Sea” with its actions.
“The act of the U.S. military seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, severely breached international laws, and is more ironclad evidence of the U.S. pursuing navigation hegemony and militarizing the South China Sea,” ministry spokesperson Tan Kefei said. “We solemnly request that the US. immediately stop such actions of provocation, otherwise it will bear the serious consequences of unexpected incidents caused by this.”
He said China would take “all necessary measures” to ensure its security but did not elaborate.
It’s laughable that China is accusing someone else of militarizing islands in the South China Sea. China has fully militarized several of the Spratly Islands and has been doing so for years. Those islands are even farther from China than the Paracel Islands.
This BBC clip is 4 1/2 years old. Even then the US was ignoring China’s warnings about approaching “their” islands in the South China Sea. But as you can see in this clip, China’s tone with other nations is somewhat different from its tone toward the US military.
Finally, the best clip to explain what China is doing is still this one from Vox. This is six years old now but still relevant.
China does a really bad impression of North Korea. Its really awful. Its that way over the top commie presentation.
That China we were helping lost to the China that rules today, Mao defeated Chiang Kai Shek in 1949.
Our Chinese fled to Taiwan.
Amen
We should just cut all ties with them, send the CCP members kids home from our universities, and offer low cost government backed loans to relocate our manufacturing here.
I have had it with them too. They are bipolar and without our consumption (and imports of food and energy) they will collapse.
Raise the tariffs every time they threaten us.
> We should just cut all ties with them… <
I agree. As it is now, we are funding our enemy. It’s crazy.
Anyway, maybe here’s a bit of sunshine:
I will not buy anything made in Communist China. It’s a hard pass for me, no matter how much I might need it.
Now here’s the thing. In the discount aisles I’m noticing more and more things made in India or Vietnam.
It’s not “Made in the USA”. But I guess it’s a step in the right direction.
Map....
The Spratly Islands? There goes my vacation destination. Crossfire could ruin the whole thing.
China is not North Korea.
This is a back down threat from the Chicoms. Either SloJoe calls their bluff, or another 10% goes to the Big Guy?
> The Spratly Islands? There goes my vacation destination. <
The ChiComs are working off of an old map, one that shows that China owns all of the South China Sea and beyond.
It’s all nonsense, of course. No different that some map that might show that Spain really owns Cuba and Florida. No matter. For the ChiComs, any old excuse will do.
Ha.
Let Japan take them over this time.
Ungrateful.
Old maps....
So I should stop worrying about what Persia will do in the Middle East, too?
“ For an ancient civilization, china has a short-term memory
when it came down to the USA bailing them out in WWII.”
The chicoms running China think they fought off Japan but were in reality hiding in caves and know nothing about WWII.
.
China: Hmm. Should I build sinkable aircraft carriers or take over unsinkable islands? What to do, what to do? Okay, islands it is.
Fear the Mongols. They owned everything in Eurasia. Or tried to.
Fixed islands are fixed targets. A bunch of HIMARS, with ATACMS, on Palawan can neutralize those islands.
Yes let’s take our cues from Vox
So much nonsense for next big threat
When an aircraft carrier is sunk, it’s sunk, gone forever. When an island gets blasted with Tomahawks*, you can rebuild. And it’s your freaking island for as long as you can lay claim to it — and the territorial waters surrounding it. Cute way to get the whole South China Sea all for your own if you can pull it off.
*The Paracel Islands are way out of range of HIMARS or ATACMS on Palawan. We’d hit them with Tomahawks launched from subs or maybe ships.
China doesn’t own that sea.
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