USS Benfold arrives in Qingdao, China on August 8, 2016. The visit of the U.S. Navy’s USS Benfold to the northern Chinese port of Qingdao this week is the latest development in a long-term effort to build trust between the countries’ militaries amid tensions and a rivalry for dominance in Asia.
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He said China should withdraw its official vessels immediately.
Beijing claims most of the South China Sea, which sees ship traffic worth $5 trillion, annually.
State media also reported that China sent bombers and fighter jets on combat patrols near the South China Sea islands on Saturday. “But of course that also depends on the attitude of the Chinese officials”, he said, adding that his Chinese friends include very successful businessmen.
According to a report from The Associated Press, U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Scott Swift will join the crew of Benfold on Tuesday.
The images were taken less than two weeks after an worldwide tribunal in the Hague ruled on July 12 that China’s nine-dash line, through which Beijing claims most of the South China Sea, has no legal basis. China has refused to recognise last month’s tribunal decision.
“China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly Islands and nearby waters”, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said yesterday in a faxed response to a request for comment. They can easily accommodate any fighter-jet in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), including the J-11 and Su-30.
A view shows construction on Mischief Reef in the Spratly islands, in the disputed South China Sea in this July 22 satellite image released by the Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative at Center for Strategic and International Studies to Reuters on Tuesday.
Here’s a look at the rapid construction on Mischief Reef, Fiery Cross Reef, and Subi Reef.
Fravel, an global relations expert who studies China and East Asia, added that the construction of the hangars “is part of the overall development plan for the islands”.
But on the same day Japan said it would respond firmly to what it called 14 incursions into waters around islands it claims in the East China sea.
Tokyo hasn’t specified what capabilities, including range, the Chinese radar may possess.
In what’s increasingly become a tit for tat conflict, both China and the USA have said they are not directly trying to provoke aggression.
Ramos served as the Philippine president from 1992 to 1998 and has maintained good ties with China even after stepping down from office. China deeply resents such cruises, greeting them with threats and harassment.
Swift also criticized the planned China-Russia drills, saying, “There are other places those exercises could have been conducted”. “India should consider this”, it said.
In an global tribunal in The Hague on July 12, these countries declared that China’s claims on islands in the South China Sea were unfounded.
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A longtime advocate of closer Philippine-Chinese ties, Ramos said he would be gone for four to five days to meet with old Chinese contacts.
