The new Interparliamentary Alliance On China has a fancy name and that’s about it. 八國聯盟2.0這次不會打敗義和團了。新的中國問題議會間聯盟有一個很奇特的名字，僅此而已 By MARIO CAVOLO JUN 27 2024
Eight Nations Alliance 2.0 Won’t Defeat The Boxer Rebellion This Time
Tag: maritime security
Observations on the pundits in the PH media
Retired Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio says the Philippine government should accept Vietnam and Malaysia’s invitation to take China to an arbitral court on their territorial disputes.
US-funded Rappler:
[OPINION] Ayungin and why PH should respond as one team, one nation (archived):
This crisis should be turned into an opportunity.
We have postponed the replacement of the BRP Sierra Madre for years, for fear of escalating tension at Ayungin Shoal. Now is the time to either construct a concrete facility or deploy a self-propelled oil platform inside the shoal as a permanent station for our troops; which should be far superior in terms of habitability, self-defense, and supportability. If completed, some of the Navy’s missile boats can be redeployed to secure the shoal, instead of languishing in Mindanao and conducting anti-smuggling operations.” – Retired Rear Admiral Rommel Jude Ong.
One thing that I’ve noticed about these pundits being quoted in the PH media, is that all of them have ties to the Stratbase Group, which includes the Stratbase ADR Institute and BowerGroupAsia. Both the Stratbase ADR Institute and BowerGroupAsia have connections to Ray Powell and the U.S. government.
Read More »SCS: PLA Navy ramps up training, patrols to deter potential provocation
US keeps stoking tensions despite Philippine’s failed latest provocation
PLA Naval deterrence
The Chinese PLA Navy has reportedly ramped up training exercises and patrols in and near the South China Sea amid the recent tensions in the region caused by the Philippines’ continuous provocations.
A naval task force featuring landing ships the Danxiashan, the Laotieshan and the Lushan recently carried out a four-day all-weather full-course combat exercise in the South China Sea, as the warships practiced air defense, alongside berthing and personnel rescuing, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Saturday.
Observers said these landing ships are of the Type 072 and Type 073 series, which are smaller than the PLA Navy’s Type 071 amphibious landing ship and Type 075 amphibious assault ship.
While the larger amphibious vessels can carry more troops and equipment and release them at a certain distance away from the shore, the smaller landing ships can conduct grounding operations directly on islands and reefs, giving the latter special roles to play, a Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Sunday.
For example, Type 072 series landing ships have participated in multiple major military operations, including the building of the maritime observation station on Yongshu Jiao (also known as Yongshu Reef) in the Nansha Qundao (also known as the Nansha Islands) in the South China Sea in 1988, thepaper.cn reported.
The drills came after Philippine media reported the presence of a Type 071 amphibious landing ship and a Type 075 amphibious assault ship near the Nansha Qundao this month, as the PLA Navy has reportedly its vast amphibious arsenal deployed in the region.
Amphibious vessels are not the only forces the PLA Navy has deployed in the South China Sea, as it has also sent some of its most powerful surface warships to the region for drills and patrols.
The armed forces of the Philippines on Friday confirmed the transit of four PLA Navy warships headed by the Type 055 large destroyer Dalian through the Balabac Strait on Wednesday, Philippine media outlet the Daily Tribune reported on Saturday.
The Philippine side said that the Balabac Strait, connecting the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea, “is commonly used by international vessels.”
Earlier this month, official Chinese media revealed that three other Type 055s, widely believed to be the world’s most powerful destroyer, the Xianyang, the Zunyi and the Yan’an, had also recently conducted round-the-clock long-endurance combat exercises in the South China Sea.
This means that all four Type 055 large destroyers currently in service with the navy of the PLA Southern Theater Command facing the South China Sea were sailing in or near the South China Sea recently.
China sending huge force in Scarborough ahead of civilian mission
Atin Ito Coalition has connections to groups that have been funded by Oxfam International, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the European Union, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (Friedrich Ebert Foundation), and the National Endowment for Democracy. Find more information here.
China sending huge force in Scarborough ahead of civilian mission
“China is sending a huge force to blockade Scarborough Shoal ahead of the Atin Ito civilian convoy setting sail from the Philippines Tuesday,” Powell, who heads the program of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation that tracks Chinese maritime activities in the West Philippine Sea, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
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China seized Scarborough Shoal’s lagoon in 2012 after a CCG standoff with Philippine vessels.
Related:
Read More »China gathers naval leaders worldwide to discuss maritime security while US conducts drills to ‘destabilize S. China Sea’
US and Philippines launch Balikatan joint military drills in South China Sea
This year’s staging of Balikatan, the allies’ largest annual military drill, will include a joint sail in the disputed South China Sea outside the Philippines’ territorial waters. The French navy, a first-time Balikatan participant, and the Australian navy will also join the manoeuvres.
While the US and the Philippines resumed joint naval patrols in the area last year, and the US has in the past sailed there with other allies and partners, it will be the first time that the Balikatan drills have extended beyond 12 nautical miles off the Philippine coast and into waters claimed by China.
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Six Philippine coast guard vessels will also participate in the drill, the first time the service — which has been at the forefront of frequent clashes with China over the past year — has been included in a military exercise.
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Another closely watched component of the drills will be the Strategic Mid-Range Fires missile system, known as Typhon, which has a range of up to 2,500km. The US Army airlifted the system to the Philippines this month, the first such deployment in the Indo-Pacific. Intermediate-range ground-launched missiles had been banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, but the pact collapsed in 2019 after both the US and Russia left it.
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Troops will also practise tracking and targeting air and missile threats, retaking enemy-occupied islands in the Philippines’ far north, just south of Taiwan, and sinking a ship off the coast facing the South China Sea, expanding on drills last year.
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The exercise coincides with an annual conference by China’s Navy, which will be attended by senior military officers including from the US. It also comes as US secretary of state Antony Blinken is heading to China on Wednesday in the two countries’ latest effort to manage tense relations.
Related:
Read More »U.S. to Invest Billions to Replace China-Made Cranes at Nation’s Ports
U.S. to Invest Billions to Replace China-Made Cranes at Nation’s Ports
Administration officials said more than $20 billion would be invested in port security, including domestic cargo-crane production, over the next five years. The money, tapped from the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021, would support a U.S. subsidiary of Mitsui, a Japanese company, to produce the cranes, which officials said would be the first time in 30 years that they would be built domestically.
Related:
How Much Would It Cost To End Homelessness In America?
According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, it would cost $20 billion to end homelessness in the United States.
Urgent Call for U.S. Sealift Capacity Expansion to Counter China
Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI), the Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, is sounding the alarm on the United States’ “woefully inadequate” sealift fleet capacity to counter China in the event of an Indo-Pacific conflict.
Congressman Makes Urgent Call for U.S. Sealift Capacity Expansion to Counter China
Philippines Gunning For Fast And Massive Military Build-Up + More
MANILA –“We are not satisfied with minimum [deterrence capability alone]…movement is life, stagnation is death,” Colonel Micheal Logico, a top strategist at the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), recently told this reporter when asked about the country’s evolving defense strategy.“We [need] to elevate ourselves into a world-class armed forces,” he added.
Philippines Gunning For Fast And Massive Military Build-Up
Related:
De Facto American Military Forward Operating Base?
Hungry Pinoys highest so far under Marcos government
Philippines Conducts Joint Exercises With U.S. In S. China Sea
Batanes eyed for Balikatan military drills
Report: US Military Advisors Deployed to Taiwan-Controlled Islands on China’s Coast
Philippines to develop islands in South China Sea + More
MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines will develop islands in the South China Sea that it considers part of its territory to make them more habitable for troops, Manila’s military chief Romeo Brawner told reporters on Monday.
Philippines to develop islands in South China Sea – military chief
Related:
Philippines continues S.China Sea provocations
The US-backed NED candidate Willy Lie from the NED-backed party won
YouTube Playlist: InfoOp – SCS
Work in progress: Philippines Game Changer Analysis (PDF)
US policies pushing China, Philippines to brink of conflict
There’s an information war going on in the South China Sea (using embedded journalists, civil society activists, and various US think tanks). The Philippines plans on building a military base, on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, to replace the BRP Sierra Madre (which is about to break apart). Marcos is also re-starting oil exploration, in the Reed Bank, which is part of the disputed territory.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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