Nansha Islands News

The Philippines and China traded accusations on Sunday over a collision of their vessels near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea as tensions over claims in the vital waterway escalate.The Philippine coast guard accused China of firing water cannons and ramming resupply vessels and a coast guard ship, causing "serious engine damage" to one, while China's coast guard said the Philippine vessel intentionally rammed its ship.China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce…

The European Union called out China on Saturday for endangering peace in the South China Sea and urged all parties to abide by a 2016 tribunal ruling which rejected most of China’s claim to sovereignty in the sea, but which Beijing has rejected.The EU last week released a new policy aimed at stepping up its influence in the Indo-Pacific region to counter China’s rising power.The Philippines on Friday protested to China over its failure to withdraw what it called as “threatening” boats believed to be manned by maritime militia around the disputed Whitsun Reef…

At first glance from above it looks like any clean and neatly planned small town, complete with sports grounds, neat roads and large civic buildings. But the town is on Subi reef in the Spratlys archipelago of the hotly contested South China Sea and, regional security experts believe, could soon be home to China's first troops based in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia. Private sector data analysis reviewed by Reuters shows Subi, some 1,200 km (750 miles) from China's coast, is now home to nearly 400 individual buildings – far more than other Chinese islands.

The world is closely watching several contentious flash points that have potential to ignite. The behavior and rhetoric of China and Russia regarding vital shipping lanes in international waters have been alarming. Disputed sovereignty claims and efforts to enforce them have the maritime world on edge. China’s nine-dash line claims about owning the entire East and South China Sea have created a dilemma for themselves and the other nations in the region. The Philippines v. China case with the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague commenced on Jan.

China scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday as a U.S. navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, a patrol China denounced as an illegal threat to peace which only went to show its defence installations in the area were necessary. Guided missile destroyer the USS William P. Lawrence travelled within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bill Urban said. The so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertaken to "challenge excessive maritime claims" by China…

China has rejected a protest from Vietnam over a flight test it has conducted on a new airstrip on a man-made island in the South China Sea, saying it is part of China’s territory. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Saturday that the flight is to test whether the airfield facilities can meet civil aviation standards. “China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side,” Hua said. Vietnam Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said the test flight violated Vietnam’s sovereignty, breached mutual understanding and hurt the bilateral relations.

The Philippines has sought to debunk China's claims to disputed islands in the South China Sea, court officials said Monday (November 30) as an international tribunal wrapped up a five-day hearing, says an AFP report. The Philippines has asked the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague to affirm its right to areas within 200 nautical miles of its coastline, under the terms of a U.N. convention. Although Beijing has refused to take part in the hearing before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, judges have now given China until Jan 1 to write a rebuttal to the case laid out by Manila in the Hague. China rejects the court's jurisdiction.

China warned it can take "further actions" after the Philippines confirmed it is fortifying the BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded ship on Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal) in the South China Sea. Beijing has hit out at Manila for repairing a crumbling ship serving as its outpost in the disputed South China Sea, branding the Philippines as a "hypocritical troublemaker and rule breaker". The Philippines said Tuesday it would repair the Sierra Madre which is at a shoal also claimed by China. A Reuters report said the Philippines also plans to revive a former US naval base in Subic Bay. The Philippines officially announced that it was repairing a crumbling ship serving as its lonely outpost in the disputed South China Sea as China deploys more vessels and builds new islands nearby.

Changing position on China's claims over the South China Sea would shame its ancestors, while not facing up to infringements of Chinese sovereignty there would shame its children, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday. China has become increasingly assertive in the South China Sea, building artificial islands in areas over which the Philippines and other countries have rival claims, sparking alarm regionally and in Washington. "One thousand years ago China was a large sea-faring nation. So of course China was the first country to discover, use and administer the Nansha Islands," Wang said, using the Chinese term for the Spratly Islands, which together with the Paracel Islands form the bulk of China's claims.

China will soon complete some of its land reclamation on the Spratly islands in the disputed South China Sea, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, indicating that Beijing is close to setting up new outposts in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia. The Foreign Ministry did not identify which of the seven reefs undergoing reclamation would be finished soon. Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said their statement was already "quite detailed". China stepped up its creation of artificial islands last year, a move that has alarmed several countries in Asia and drawn growing criticism from Washington. There have been recent tensions between the Chinese navy and the U.S. military around the Spratlys.

The United States and China clashed over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea on Saturday, as China's foreign minister asserted its sovereignty to reclaim reefs saying its determination to protect its interests is "as hard as a rock". After a private meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi showed no sign of backing down despite Kerry urging China to take action to reduce tension in the South China Sea. "With regard to construction on the Nansha islands and reefs, this is fully within the scope of China's sovereignty," Wang told reporters, using the Chinese name for the Spratly islands. "I would like to reaffirm that China's determination to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity is as hard as a rock," he said.

China has urged the Philippines to stop "malicious hyping and provocation" on territorial disputes in the South China Sea, says a report in Xinhua. Earlier, Philippine foreign ministry alleged that China's construction on islands in the South China Sea after the signing of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) in 2002 had violated the DOC. The core reason of the two countries' disputes in the South China Sea was the Philippines' illegal occupation of some of China's islands since 1970s, he said. "The Philippines side has conducted large-scale construction of military and civil facilities including airports, ports and barracks on those islands for many years," Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

After facing weeks of criticism about its reclamation work on disputed islands in the South China Sea, China on Wednesday turned the tables on Vietnam, the Philippines and others by accusing them of carrying out their own illegal building work. China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas, with overlapping claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan. Recent satellite images show China has made rapid progress in building an airstrip suitable for military use in the Spratly Islands and may be planning another. Those moves, along with other reclamations, have caused alarm around the region and in Washington too, with the issue dominating a summit of Southeast Asian leaders this week, to China's displeasure.

China has justified its reclamation work on some disputed islands in the Spratly archipelago in the South China Sea, saying they would be used for military defense and to provide civilian services that would benefit other countries. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying defended China’s island-building work in contested waters saying that it was being used for maritime purposes and not aimed at making claims at the expense of other nations. "We are building shelters, aids for navigation, search and rescue as well as marine meteorological forecasting services, fishery services and other administrative services so as to provide the necessary services to China, neighboring countries and individual vessels sailing the South China Sea," Hua said.

A statement on the China Foreign Ministry’s website, claims that as of 5 pm on June 7, 2014 there were as many as 63 Vietnamese vessels in the area near the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea at the peak, attempting to break through China’s cordon and ramming Chinese government ships a total of 1,416 times. On 2 May 2014, a Chinese company's HYSY 981 drilling rig started its drilling operation inside the contiguous zone of China's Xisha Islands for the purpose of oil and gas exploration. With the first phase of the operation completed, the second phase began on 27 May. Using frogmen, fishing nets, floating objects and hundreds of boat rammings, Vietnam escalated its harassment of China over Beijing’s legal oil drilling in the South China Sea.

China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) signs agreement with Sansha Municipal Government to work on infrastructure energy & water resources. China's major ship-building conglomerate will start infrastructure, energy and water resources projects in Sansha, the country's southernmost city in the South China Sea, reports China Daily. The Sansha Municipal Government signed a package of cooperation agreements with China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, the state-owned conglomerate that engages in manufacturing and scientific research in a number of maritime industries. Sansha is China's youngest city, set up in July on Yongxing Island in the South China Sea to administer the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands and their surrounding waters.

Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun summoned Vietnamese Ambassador to China Nguyen Van Tho recently to lodge a solemn representation to the Vietnamese side concerning the recent passing of a Vietnamese maritime law that extends the country's jurisdiction to islands claimed by China. The Vietnam National Assembly on Thursday passed the "Vietnamese Law of the Sea," which describes China's Xisha Islands and Nansha Islands in the South China Sea as being within Vietnam's sovereignty and jurisdiction. Reaffirming that China has indisputable sovereignty over the Xisha Islands, Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters, Zhang said the law infringes upon China's sovereignty. "China strongly protests and firmly opposes such a move by Vietnam," he said.

Four China Marine Surveillance ships arrive in disputed territorial waters off the Nansha Islands in the S. Patrolling and conducting surveys in the South China sea, the four China Marine Surveillance ships are there to highlight China’s claim of sovereignty and jurisdiction over the disputed waters. The florilla recently had an unexpeceted encounter. A Vietnamese ship was trying to pass through the Chinese territory at high speed. Huang Yong, China Marine Surveillance, said he hailed the ship: "Vietnamese vessel. This is China Marine Surveillance Ship Number 83. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the laws of China, this area of water belongs to China. The command ship faced down the intruding vessel, issuing the warning repeatedly in Chinese, English and Vietnamese.