The rise of an economic superpower: What does China want?

[B]As an economic superpower, what does China want on the global stage?[/B]

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[I]A busy street scene in Shanghai, China. This is the cover story for the Nov. 7 weekly edition of The Christian Science Monitor[/I].
(Reuters photo)

By Peter Ford, Staff writer
[I]posted November 5, 2011 at 2:15 pm EDT[/I]

[B]Beijing[/B] -- It had been billed as a friendly exhibition game in basketball-crazy Beijing, between the Georgetown University Hoyas from Washington, D.C., and the Chinese Army's Bayi Rockets. But after some blatantly biased Chinese refereeing and unashamedly aggressive play by Bayi, it ended in a bench-clearing brawl, with Chinese fans in the Olympic stadium throwing chairs and bottles of water at the Americans.

Some foreigners in the crowd that hot night in August were tempted to see the melee as nothing less than a metaphor for China's role in the world today: contempt for the rules and fair play, crowned by a resort to brute strength in pursuit of narrow self-interest.

You certainly don't have to look far for examples of China doing things its own blunt way no matter how much Western sensibilities are offended.

Just in recent months, Chinese state firms were caught negotiating arms deals with Col. Muammar Qaddafi's besieged regime in defiance of a United Nations embargo, Beijing leaned heavily on South Africa not to give the Dalai Lama the visa he needed to attend Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday party, and Chinese diplomats vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the deaths of nearly 3,000 civilians at the hands of Syrian troops.

And that's not to mention the Chinese government's habit at home of locking up lawyers, human rights activists, artists, even Nobel Peace Prize laureates for speaking their minds in ways that would be quite normal in most of the world.

China's economic rise and its newly amplified voice on the international stage unnerve people and governments across the globe, despite Beijing's best efforts to assuage their fears. Bookstore shelves in America and Europe offer titles such as "Death by China" and "When China Rules the World." Edward Friedman, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, echoes some other observers when he goes so far as to call China's rise "the greatest challenge to freedom in the world since World War I" aimed at "making the world safe for authoritarianism." But does China really want to overturn the US-led post-World War II international order – the very system that has allowed the country to flourish so remarkably? And if the men at the top of the Chinese Communist Party are indeed so minded, could they, or those who come after them, ever succeed?

KUNG FU PANDA AND INNER PEACE

Ordinary Chinese – from unschooled peasant farmers tending rural rice paddies to get-ahead young computer engineers in Beijing – have been brought up to see their country as benign, and genuinely don't understand how foreigners can see China as a threat. China is the most populous country and the second-biggest economy in the world, they know, but they point out that the average person here makes only 1/10th of what the average American makes. And most of the country is decidedly third-world.

China is modernizing its military but still finds it a strain to keep a destroyer, a frigate, and a supply ship on international antipirate duty in the Gulf of Aden. Compared with the ability of the United States to fight two major wars and keep six full-scale fleets afloat at the same time, China's military power – even with the world's largest standing army – is puny.

In general terms, most China watchers in the West agree. What China wants is pretty straightforward and unexceptionable: to be prosperous, secure, and respected.

"We'd like to be an equal partner on the world stage, and we want the Chinese people to enjoy prosperity," says Wu Jianmin, a former ambassador to Paris and now an adviser to the Foreign Ministry. "For that, international cooperation is indispensable; China is not so arrogant as to say that it's our turn now to run the world our way."

Rarely in its history has China looked very hard or long at the rest of the world. Admiral Zheng He led exploratory fleets as far as Africa in the 15th century, but subsequent emperors were content to sit on the throne of the Middle Kingdom, at the center of their universe, and focus on their own lands. China spent a hundred years of submission to Western powers following its defeat in the 19th-century Opium Wars, and it was mired in decades of disruption before and after Mao Zedong's 1949 Communist takeover.

Only with its newfound wealth has Beijing found itself with a major role on the world stage.

"It's a very big challenge to restructure our relations with the world while retaining its trust," worries Zhu Feng, a professor at the School of International Studies at Peking University.

So, as China rises, its leaders are going out of their way to try to reassure the world that their success is, in a favorite official phrase, a "win-win" prospect for everybody. So nervous were policy-makers here about upsetting foreigners that they scotched their original formulation of China's future – "peaceful rise" – as too threatening. Instead they settled on "peaceful development."

Last month the government issued a 32-page white paper full of comforting words explaining what it wants the world to understand by that phrase.

"There have been misunderstandings about China's foreign policy," said Wang Yajun, the Communist Party's top foreign-policy wonk, presenting the document to the press. "There have indeed been suspicions."

The white paper's key message is that China threatens no one, that its rise will contribute to world peace, and that "the central goal of China's diplomacy is to create a peaceful and stable international environment for its development. China could become strong in the future. Yet peace will remain critical for its development, and China has no reason to deviate from the path of peaceful development."

"China does not want to, nor will China, challenge the international order or challenge other countries," insisted Mr. Wang, pointing to the white paper declaration that China has "broken away from the traditional pattern where a rising power was bound to seek hegemony."

Not everyone believes this, even in China. "Humanity is making progress," argues Wang Xiaodong, a prominent nationalist ideologue whose views are proving increasingly influential among the Chinese public, "but not so much that China will be unique in human history. The idea that China will develop its power but not use it is diplomatic verbiage."

China's Southeast Asian neighbors might well agree. Until earlier this year Beijing had been unusually assertive in pushing its competing territorial claims in the South China Sea, worrying smaller nations. But the way it has eased off in recent months in the face of complaints suggests it cannot do just as it likes.

"China tests the water constantly, and when they don't get what they want they tend to back down," says Bonnie Glaser, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "As they develop their military capacities, they have to be very careful not to use them in ways that scare the neighbors."

The Chinese government's need to explain itself stems partly from the system's chronic secrecy: Outsiders do not even know when the ruling Standing Committee of the Communist Party's Politburo meets, let alone how its nine members reach decisions or what those decisions are.

At the same time, some observers suggest, there is not always a coherent answer to the question of why China does what it does. The Chinese government is not a monolithic force; pressure groups and cliques from the military to provincial governments have their own interests and can sometimes push aspects of foreign policy their way.

"They don't have a clear and well-defined road map of how to achieve their goals long term other than to pursue development as they have done," says Michael Swaine, a China watcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Nor, frankly, do foreign affairs seem to figure very high on Chinese leaders' agendas. "International questions are an afterthought," says Francois Godement, founder of the Asia Centre, a Paris-based think tank. Instead, for a Communist Party whose overriding priority is to stay in power, domestic problems threatening social stability at home are infinitely more important.

"We have to change our unsustainable development model into a sustainable one" less dependent on high pollution, low-value exports, argues Mr. Wu, the foreign-ministry adviser, "and we have to narrow the disparity between rich and poor."

"China will be preoccupied for a long time with its domestic agenda," agrees Professor Zhu. "If you want to handle complex relationships, the starting point is to get yourself in the best possible shape. It's like Kung Fu Panda says – you need inner peace."

CHINA IS RICH BUT LONELY

As the big guns of the Democratic Republic of Congo's mining sector gathered last month at a smart lakeside hotel in the copper capital of Lubumbashi, some important new players were notably absent from the conference. Those who attended said they weren't surprised that no Chinese company had sent a delegate; the Chinese rarely mix with their mining colleagues, they explain.

But a visit to a local casino, heavily protected behind high, razor wire-topped walls, is evidence enough that the Chinese are indeed in town, and with money to spend: The clientele in the smoky, air-conditioned chill is almost exclusively Chinese – crowded at roulette tables and playing blackjack and poker, with mounds of chips in front of them.

These men are part of a growing Chinese presence in Congo that has already flexed some impressive economic muscle. Chinese companies are behind two billion-dollar deals, now in the works, to buy two large copper mines near Lubumbashi. Across the African continent, others like them are engaged in China's most dramatic drive for friends abroad, seeking to secure the oil, minerals, and other raw materials that China's still-booming economy needs.

"China's financial support on the continent gives African countries a choice" between East and West, says one Chinese activist at a nongovernmental organization following Beijing's African adventure, who asked not to be identified.

China's financial muscle has been key to its growing influence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Beijing signed a $6 billion minerals-for-infrastructure deal in 2009. Congo's traditional Western partners don't have the ready cash for the mammoth task of rebuilding the war-ravaged country, says Congo's communications minister, Lambert Mende, so "China is very important."

In return for 10 million tons of copper and 600,000 tons of cobalt, China will build roads, schools, hydroelectric dams, and hospitals. Half the deal is a barter, which means that it adds less to the country's foreign debt burden.

"Whether [the deal] will prove to be more effective than the Western model in the long term remains to be seen," says Lizzie Parsons of the Global Witness pressure group. Among unanswered questions: whether money will be siphoned off corruptly, whether all the infrastructure will be built, and what impact fluctuating mineral prices will have on the deal.

Orange construction vehicles from China are already a common sight at roadworks all over the capital, Kinshasa, and more and more people are doing business with Chinese firms. The experience is not always a pleasant one, according to one Western businessman who has worked in Kinshasa for nearly two decades.

"When you see a Chinese come into your office you prepare yourself for a fight," he says. "You are rarely happy at the end of negotiations. They don't show respect or politeness, and there is no feeling," he complains, adding that he rarely builds with Chinese clients the sort of personal relations he enjoys with Congolese or Western businessmen.

The Chinese are sharp, though, and Congo's traditional Western partners feel a little threatened by them, especially in light of Chinese firms' close relationship with the Congolese government, acknowledges the Western businessman.

"We are aware of their strength," he says. "They are protected; they can drive a car with no plates and no one stops them. You try doing that and see what happens."

Another country keen to keep the China card up its sleeve, especially as its relations with Washington turn sour, is Pakistan, whose leaders have recently been trumpeting the two neighbors' "all weather friendship."

China's efficient work on the ground in Pakistan (see related story on page 29) has earned it a warm welcome: A Pew survey last year found 85 percent of Pakistanis had a favorable view of China, versus only 17 percent who were similarly disposed toward America, Pakistan's major donor.

Pakistanis remember that China has provided arms when Washington refused them in the past, but Beijing appears reluctant to involve itself too deeply in security affairs today: Business is good, and Pakistan is a big market for Chinese electronics, motorbikes, toys, and food, but China's leaders seem cautious about committing too deeply to Islamabad, say ob-servers in Beijing.

On the other side of the world, in Brazil, it's a similar story. China overtook the US as Brazil's largest trade partner in 2009 on the back of huge purchases of oil, soybeans, and iron ore; Brazilian exports to China grew 18-fold between 2000 and 2009.

But "our relationship with China is one of almost only commerce and investment," says Roberto Abdenur, a former Brazilian ambassador to both Beijing and Washington.

"With the United States it's cultural and political – the two countries share many interests that China doesn't," such as the promotion of human rights, democracy, and transparent governance, he adds.

Indeed, for a government that says it is generally content with the current world order, Beijing is on unusually good terms with regimes cast out by that order, such as those ruling Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Burma (Myanmar), and Zimbabwe.

"By making friends with dictators, China challenges the [global] democratic system and works at cross purposes to the international mainstream," complains Mao Yushi, a well-known reformer who has mentored many of China's leading economists.

This does not inspire confidence in Western capitals but is less of an issue in developing countries, whose own experience with Western governments – under their rule or trading with them – has often left them feeling seriously hard done by.

China has fewer opportunities to exert international political influence commensurate with its economic clout. That's partly because few governments around the world, and even fewer electorates, regard China's repressive, authoritarian one-party system as a model to be admired or imitated, regardless of its economic achievements.

Though China's readiness "to voice different opinions from the only country in the world that has had a say up until now ... is attractive to other nations," says Gong Wenxiang, a professor at Peking University's Journalism School. "I can't see people being happy with a very strong power often supporting dictators. That is not a positive image."

"China is a power in terms of its resources, but it's not a power in terms of its appeal," adds David Shambaugh, director of the China Policy program at George Washington University. Deficient in soft power, "it's not a model, not a magnet others want to follow."

Nor does Beijing show much sign at the moment of seeking to push any particular model of governance or political mind-set, which is music to the ears of men like Mr. Mende, the Congolese communications minister. "We don't believe in that trend of Western powers mixing with internal affairs of countries," he says. "We don't like people giving us orders. China is more about respecting the self-determination of their partner."

That hands-off approach also steers the country clear of alliances that might enmesh Beijing in the costly defense of other people's interests. Even those Pakistani officials who would like to play Beijing off against Washington recall that not once has Beijing stepped in to help Pakistan in any of its wars with India, all of which Pakistan lost.

"China wants to make the deals but not to shoulder responsibilities," says Zhu, the Peking University international relations scholar. "We are far from ready, psychologically, to make ourselves a dependable power."

The government's recent white paper acknowledged as much: "For China, the most populous developing country, to run itself well is the most important fulfillment of its international responsibility."

Recent events in Libya illustrate how far China is from playing a creative international diplomatic role. Throughout the crisis, Beijing was a passive, reactive bystander, going along with Western intervention. But, focused on protecting its oil interests above all else, it was the last major power to recognize the new Libyan government. That cautious attitude was on display again last week in China's reluctance to contribute as heavily to the eurozone's bailout fund as European leaders had hoped it would. China was not, after all, going to save the world.

"China's diplomacy is cost-benefit-oriented, not dealing in terms of global public goods," argues Professor Shambaugh. "It's a very self-interested country, looking after themselves."

One result of that attitude? "China is rising, but we are a lonely rising power," says Zhu. "The US has alliances; no one is an ally of China's."

NEIGHBORS SAY, 'NEVER'

Vietnam was once an ally, when Hanoi was fighting the Americans, but not any longer.

"Jamais," read T-shirts that Vietnamese protesters donned last month, "Never." The slogan recalled Ho Chi Minh's forceful response when he was asked by a French interviewer whether Vietnam would become a Chinese satellite after the war. It still expresses the popular, centuries-old anti-Chinese feeling that runs deeper than any shared allegiance to communism.

The demonstrators were protesting the aggressive way they said China is pushing its claim to the Spratly Islands, a cluster of rocks in the South China Sea that Vietnam also claims. Both countries are eyeing oil and gas reserves under surrounding seas. Chinese naval vessels have arrested more than 1,000 Vietnamese fishermen in disputed waters this year, according to the Hanoi fisheries authorities.

China is embroiled in similar territorial disputes in the South China Sea with several other regional powers, and they all sent their defense ministers to Tokyo last month to discuss ways of deepening their cooperation.

"China's aspirations to be a regional leader are meeting resistance from other states already," says Hugh White, a former Australian defense official. "Beijing would like to exercise a soft, consensual leadership, but they won't be able to achieve it" because none of China's neighbors would accept it.

China's key local priority abroad is to prevent Taiwan from declaring independence and to eventually unite the island with the mainland. But Beijing's escalation of its territorial claims to almost the whole of the South China Sea and its rapid modernization of a navy to enforce those claims alarm Washington's and China's neighbors. Fifty percent of world trade is shipped through those waters.

"China's one overriding focus is to challenge US ability to project its power in the western Pacific," says Mr. White. "They want to be able to sink American aircraft carriers."

According to senior US naval officers, China may soon be able to do just that, using its new antiship ballistic missiles to enforce "anti-access and area denial" close to Chinese waters. Using such weapons as part of a defensive strategy, "China can reduce US strategic options very significantly," warns White, should Washington ever want to come to the aid of Taiwan or other allies in Southeast Asia.

That puts China's neighbors in an awkward position. All of them, from Japan to Laos, know that their economic future depends on China, Asia's powerhouse. China's success will be their success. But for centuries, countries such as Vietnam and Korea lived under the yoke of a successful China, points out Linda Jakobson, a researcher at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, "and nobody in the region wants to go back to that,"

PROFIT MOTIVE OR GEOPOLITICAL MOTIVE?

If China's political leaders know that they still lack what it takes to play a decisive role in world affairs, Chinese business titans are even more aware of their limitations.

"There is a perception that China is buying up the world," says Andre Loesskrug-Pietri, a Franco-German businessman whose private equity company in Beijing helps Chinese firms make foreign acquisitions. "But it's not true."

Chinese overseas investment is growing by leaps and bounds, doubling annually, and high-profile deals such as Lenovo's purchase of IBM's personal computer division grab headlines. But China's total foreign direct investment remains low – about the same as Denmark's (1 percent of the global total compared with the 22 percent US share). And 60 percent of overseas deals are for resources, such as stakes in oil-shale fields in Canada, coal mines in Australia, gas fields in Argentina, and copper mines in Zambia.

Very few Chinese firms have the skills and experience needed to become competitive multinationals, says Thilo Hanemann of the Rhodium Group in New York and author of a recent study of Chinese foreign investment. "What corporate China is doing at the moment is catching up," he explains. "Chinese companies are disadvantaged in technology, staff, human resources, brands, and intangible value."

They also have to learn new ways of doing business, very different from their habits in China, where the key to success is often a close relationship with the government officials who can offer easy credit and light regulation – for a consideration.

"The longer I live here, the more relaxed I am about the so-called threat perceived in the West of China taking over the world," says Mr. Loesskrug-Pietri. "Many Chinese investors are unfamiliar with foreign business cultures, and we are still a long way away from seeing executives and companies that are truly global."

Not one of the Top 100 global brands ranked by Businessweek magazine and the consulting company Interbrand comes from China. Though 61 of the top Fortune 500 companies are Chinese, hardly any have any foreign directors; most are state-owned companies whose leaders are named by the Communist Party. And most of the Chinese companies going abroad are doing so, says Loesskrug-Pietri, to acquire what they need in order to compete better in the market they find most attractive – China.

A handful of Chinese firms are developing a genuinely global presence: Lenovo is one; Huawei, a telecom-networking firm selling its products in 140 countries, is another; Haier has begun to sell a significant number of its household appliances in America and Europe, as well as in Asia. And the larger, reputable private companies stretching themselves internationally tend to get high marks from their foreign partners.

"I've been very impressed," says Henri Giscard d'Estaing, chief executive officer of Club Med. The French tourist resort owner sold a 10 percent stake to Fosun, a Chinese conglomerate, earlier this year. "They behave like normal long-term share-holders; they've concluded that we know our business and they let us get on with it. Doing business with Fosun has been more banal and more basic than most people would think" business with a Chinese firm would be, Mr. Giscard d'Estaing adds.

Where some critics of Chinese foreign investment "perceive state motives, or some kind of geopolitical motivation ... I see a commercial motive and profit-oriented behavior," says Dan Rosen, a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute in Washington.

But very few Chinese companies feel ready to go abroad, despite government encouragement.

"They often feel insecure. They know they don't know how things work, and they are cautious about messing up existing operations," says Loesskrug-Pietri.

Some of them also have good reason to be nervous about the reaction they might provoke. "As Chinese companies go global they encounter so many suspicions," complains Wu. "This is not a good sign."

The private company Huawei, for example, in the past three years, has been blocked three times on national security grounds from doing deals in America, after critics claimed the company has links with the Chinese military. Huawei has always denied that, but only after the third setback did the firm disclose its ownership structure and board membership in a bid to be more transparent.

Even when that kind of secrecy is not a problem, Chinese investors abroad are running into increasingly open anti-Chinese sentiment. In Brazil, where local manufacturers claim that cheap Chinese imports of everything from toys to cars to industrial machinery have cost the Brazilian economy 70,000 jobs, the government recently slapped a protectionist tax on foreign vehicles aimed at the Chinese-made Chery, the cheapest fully accessorized car on the market at $13,600.

And as Chinese investors express interest in Brazilian farmland, parliament is debating a law that would allow Americans and Europeans to buy land, but not Chinese.

In Zambia, where Chinese investments in copper mines top $2 billion but where Chinese employers have made a bad name for themselves, the presidential election this month was won by Michael Sata, who has made his career out of China-bashing. Even in Burma, one of China's closest friends in Asia, the government last month suspended a controversial Chinese dam project amid a rising wave of popular resentment against an overwhelming Chinese business presence in the country.

A SHALLOW – NOT SUPER – POWER

"China really has to know how to navigate these stormy waters," warns Zhu. "The West overreacts a bit to our rise, but we have to pay more attention to the fact that we are the ones causing the disturbance."

"We are newcomers, and people are usually suspicious of newcomers," says Wu. "They also have a lot of suspicions about the Communist Party, which creates an ideological barrier. But if our actions match our words, over time we can build trust."

[URL="http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/1104-world-cchina/10928404-1-eng-US/1104-world-cchina_full_380.jpg"]Quiz: How much do you know about China?[/URL]

China is a "shallow power" for the time being, argues Shambaugh. "China is strong in the economic realm but very weak in the security realm, and without much soft power" such as cultural influence, or the ability to persuade other countries to imitate it.

"As long as the Western democracies remain reasonably strong and prosperous," adds Mr. Swaine at the Carnegie En­dowment, "China will not drive the world economy sufficiently to make other countries align themselves with it. In any foreseeable time frame I do not see China becoming the sort of global superpower that the US became after the war."

And anyway, he points out, such questions will be moot for many decades. "The generation of Chinese leaders that will decide whether they want to be that kind of superpower," Swaine believes, "has not been born yet."

[I]• Contributors to this article include: Issam Ahmed in Aliabad, Pakistan; Taylor Barnes in Rio de Janeiro; Whit­ney Eulich in Boston; Scott Harris in Hanoi, Viet­nam; and Jonny Hogg in Kin­shasa and Lubumbashi, Demo­cratic Republic of Congo.[/I]

From VOA:

[QUOTE][I]Thứ Tư, 11 tháng 4 2012[/I]

[IMG]http://media.voanews.com/images/480*380/reuters_china_philippines_sea_standoff_11apr12_480.jpg[/IMG]
Hình: Reuters
[COLOR=#696969]Phó đô đốc Alexander Pama trình bày các hình ảnh tàu giám sát Trung Quốc ngăn chặn một chiếc tàu của hải quân Philippines bắt giữ ngư dân Trung Quốc đánh bắt cá bất hợp pháp, ngày 11/4/2012[/COLOR]

Vụ đụng độ căng thẳng trên biển giữa Trung Quốc và Philippines ngày 10/4 tới nay vẫn chưa thấy có tín hiệu được xoa dịu. Mỗi bên đều tố cáo đối phương vi phạm chủ quyền tại Biển Đông.

Vụ việc bắt đầu hôm qua, ngày 10/4 khi 2 tàu hải giám của Bắc Kinh ngăn cản không cho một tàu chiến của Manila bắt giữ một nhóm ngư dân Trung Quốc gần bãi đá ngầm có tranh chấp cách đảo Luzon của Philippines chừng 230 cây số.

Sự cố này đã khiến Ngoại trưởng Philippines, Albert Del Rosario, triệu tập đại sứ Mã Khắc Khanh của Trung Quốc tại Philippines hôm nay (11/4) và cả đôi bên đều tuyên bố nắm chủ quyền tại bãi đá ngầm nơi tàu của hai nước đụng độ.

Sau cuộc gặp, Ngoại trưởng Rosario loan báo hai bên đang tìm cách giải quyết vấn đề theo đường lối ngoại giao, nhưng ông cũng cảnh cáo rằng Philippines chuẩn bị sẵn sàng bảo vệ an ninh lãnh thổ nếu bị khiêu khích.

Trong khi đó, đại sứ quán Trung Quốc tại Philippines ra thông cáo tố cáo hải quân Philippines sách nhiễu ngư dân Trung Quốc và nhúng tay vào các hoạt động bất hợp pháp. Bắc Kinh kêu gọi Manila chấm dứt điều mà Bắc Kinh gọi là các hoạt động bất hợp pháp, đồng thời yêu cầu tàu của Philippines phải rời khỏi khu vực.

Cả Bắc Kinh và Manila đều tuyên bố chủ quyền tại khu vực bãi đá ngầm mà Philippines gọi là Panatag, tức đảo Hoàng Nham theo cách gọi của Trung Quốc.

Theo Bộ Ngoại giao Philippines, tàu hải quân của Manila đã để ý thấy các tàu đánh cá của Trung Quốc từ hôm chủ nhật, 8/4. Manila cho biết ngày 10/4, hai tàu hải giám của Trung Quốc đã tới ngăn cản không tàu chiến của Philippines tiến hành bắt giữ các ngư dân Trung Quốc mà Manila cho là đánh bắt bất hợp pháp trong lãnh hải của họ.

Ngược lại, tòa đại sứ Trung Quốc nói các tàu cá của họ chỉ tạm dừng gần đảo này vì thời tiết xấu và tuyên bố rằng hai tàu hải giám mà Bắc Kinh phái tới có hành vi nhằm bảo vệ quyền và quyền lợi hàng hải quốc gia của Trung Quốc.

Phát ngôn nhân Lưu Vị Dân của Bộ Ngoại giao Trung Quốc nói: “Hành động mà Philippines gọi là thực thi luật pháp trong vùng biển ngoài đảo Hoàng Yến là vi phạm chủ quyền của Trung Quốc cũng như vi phạm sự đồng thuận của hai nước về việc duy trì hòa bình và ổn định trên Biển Đông.”

Căng thẳng trong khu vực trong mấy năm gần đây đang gia tăng khi Trung Quốc ngày càng xác lập mạnh mẽ các tuyên bố chủ quyền của họ trên toàn bộ khu vực 3,5 triệu km vuông ở Biển Đông giàu tài nguyên mà Việt Nam cũng có tuyên bố chủ quyền một phần.

Ông Ralp Cosa, nhà phân tích an ninh thuộc Diễn đàn Thái Bình Dương ở Hawaii, cho rằng có phần chắc tranh chấp Biển Đông sẽ không sớm được cải thiện trong tương lai gần, dù ông không nghĩ sẽ có bất kỳ sự leo thang quân sự lớn nào tại đây.

Ông Cosa nói: “Không bên nào muốn có xung đột hay căng thẳng. Nhưng cũng chẳng bên nào chịu nhượng bộ. Một phần của vấn đề là mỗi nước đều muốn củng cố tuyên bố chủ quyền của mình.”

Đây là vụ đối đầu nguy hiểm nhất giữa Trung Quốc và Philippines trong những năm gần đây.

Vụ việc xảy ra sau những tranh cãi ngoại giao qua lại liên quan đến kế hoạch tập trận chung giữa Philippines với Việt Nam trên Biển Đông mà Manila loan báo trong tháng rồi.

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Nguồn: VOA, CNN, Reuters, AP, AFP, Newser, HeraldSun.com.au[/QUOTE]

From AP:

[QUOTE][I]By Jim Gomez, The Associated Press[/I]

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine foreign secretary says he and the Chinese ambassador have agreed to diplomatically resolve a standoff involving a Philippine warship and two Chinese surveillance vessels in a disputed area of the South China Sea.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario said he met Wednesday with Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing and both reaffirmed their governments' positions that the Scarborough Shoal where the ships are facing off was part of their own country's territory.

Del Rosario says that despite the impasse, "we resolved to seek a diplomatic solution to the issue."

The Philippine government says its navy tried to detain Chinese fishermen but was prevented by the Chinese surveillance craft. Beijing called on the Philippine ship to leave the waters.[/QUOTE]

From AFP:

[QUOTE][IMG]http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/r81q1uY6y6Gku7IYJ_zgLA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD01MTI7cT04NTt3PTUwMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/AFP/photo_1335075088813-1-0.jpg[/IMG]
[I]Graphic on the disputed boundaries in the South China Sea[/I]

The Philippine foreign secretary called on other nations to take a stand on China's new aggressiveness in a simmering territorial dispute over a shoal in the South China Sea.

Albert del Rosario on Sunday warned in a statement that other nations would be affected by China's claim over the mineral-rich area if they did not speak up now, like the Philippines is doing.

"Since the freedom of navigation and unimpeded commerce in the (South China Sea) are of great import to many nations, all should consider what China is endeavouring to do in the Scarborough Shoal," del Rosario said.

"All, not just the Philippines will be ultimately negatively affected if we do not take a stand," he said in an SMS message sent to reporters.

He added that China's efforts to claim the entire South China Sea as its territory was "clearly baseless."

The statement came amid increased tensions after China deployed ships near the Scarborough Shoal, an outcropping in the South China Sea just about 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the Philippines' main island of Luzon.

The nearest Chinese land mass from Scarborough Shoal is Hainan province, 1,200 kilometres, (750 miles) to the northwest, according to Philippine naval maps given to the media.

China claims all of the South China Sea as its own on historical grounds, even waters approaching the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.

The rival claims have been a source of regional tensions for decades, and the Philippines as well as Vietnam have accused China over the past year of becoming increasingly aggressive in asserting its position.

The latest flare-up occurred on April 8 when the Philippines found the eight Chinese fishing boats at Scarborough Shoal, and sent its warship to arrest the crew.

China quickly deployed three civilian maritime vessels that took turns in blocking the warship.

In a bid to calm the situation, the Philippines pulled back its warship and replaced it with a coast guard vessel and the fishing vessels later sailed away.

However China has refused to withdraw its ships unless the Philippine coast guard vessel retreats first. Two Chinese fisheries ships are now in a standoff with a lone Philippine coast guard vessel at the shoal.

The Philippines has been actively urging its fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to take a firmer stance on China's claim over the South China Sea.[/QUOTE]

From BBC:

[QUOTE][IMG]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/59671000/jpg/_59671327_014498271-1.jpg[/IMG] Philippine and Chinese vessels remain at a disputed shoal, two weeks after a stand-off began


[I]23 April 2012 Last updated at 02:41 ET [/I]

Philippine and Chinese vessels remain at a disputed shoal, two weeks after a stand-off began

China needs a ''consistent policy'' on the South China Sea if it is to resolve disputes, a new report says.

The International Crisis Group said ''conflicting mandates'' and ''lack of co-ordination'' among Chinese agencies had stoked tension in the region.

Philippine and Chinese vessels remain locked in a two-week stand-off at a remote shoal which both sides claim.

Meanwhile annual joint military exercises between the US and the Philippines are continuing in the area.

While the South China Sea conflict has been a longstanding one, the number of maritime disputes has ''increased dramatically'' in recent years, the report by the think-tank notes.

This has led to ''concerns that China, Vietnam and the Philippines are growing more assertive on this issue, endangering regional stability'', it says.

In China, many government agencies are using this issue to bolster their power and budget, it says.

Repeated proposals for ''a more centralised mechanism'' have not been met, it adds, and the foreign ministry ''does not have the authority or resources to manage other actors''.

''More immediate conflict risks lie in the growing number of law enforcement and paramilitary vessels playing an increasing role in disputed territories without a clear legal framework,'' it says.

The findings are based on interviews with officials, academics, diplomats, journalists and industry experts in fishing, tourism and oil, from China, South East Asia, Taiwan, Japan and the US.

[B]'Meddling and intervention'[/B]

Six countries claim competing sovereignty over areas in the South China Sea, parts of which are believed to contain significant deposits of oil and gas.

Along with China and the Philippines, they are Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan.

[QUOTE]Anyone with clear eyes saw long ago that behind these drills is reflected a mentality that will lead the South China Sea issue down a fork in the road towards military confrontation ”[/QUOTE][COLOR="#4B0082"]Liberation Army Daily Commentary[/COLOR]

China's claim includes almost the entire South China Sea, well into what the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea recognises as the 200-mile-from-shore Exclusive Economic Zones of other claimants.

That has led to occasional flare-ups and to competition to occupy islands, reefs and sandbars.

The latest incident sparked when a Philippines warship found eight Chinese fishing vessels at the Scarborough shoal - which both sides claim - when it was patrolling the area on 8 April.

When navy personnel boarded the Chinese fishing vessels, they found a large amount of illegally-caught fish and coral, Manila said.

Two Chinese surveillance ships then arrived in the area, preventing the navy from making arrests.

Attempts to resolve the stand-off have not yet been successful. The Philippine warship has been replaced by a coast guard vessel and the Chinese fishermen have gone, but two Chinese vessels remain there.

China has also expressed anger at the annual US-Philippines military exercises, due to run until 27 April.

This year they are taking place off Palawan, near the disputed Spratly islands which both Manila and Beijing claim. The joint exercises involve some 7,000 troops, including more than 4,000 from the US.

With China asserting its claims more aggressively the US has been strengthening old friendships in the region, says the BBC's John Sudworth reporting from the South China Sea on the exercises.

This week, three US ships are also in Vietnam for a five-day naval exchange involving salvage and disaster training. No live fire drills are planned.

On Saturday, the official paper of the People's Liberation Army published a commentary lashing out at the US for ''meddling and intervention''.

"Anyone with clear eyes saw long ago that behind these drills is reflected a mentality that will lead the South China Sea issue down a fork in the road towards military confrontation and resolution through armed force," the commentary said.[/QUOTE]

From SBTN:

[QUOTE][I](04/23/2012)[/I]

Tin Bắc Kinh - Trung Cộng hôm nay đã lên án việc Ngoại trưởng Phi Luật Tân Albert del Rosario kêu gọi các quốc gia khác bày tỏ lập trường về Biển Đông. Phát ngôn viên Bộ Ngoại Giao Trung Cộng Lưu Vị Dân cho biết Trung Cộng vẫn giữ vững lập trường về việc bảo vệ toàn vẹn lãnh thổ và chủ quyền của mình. Hôm qua Ngoại trưởng Albert del Rosario đã kêu gọi các quốc gia khác thể hiện rõ lập trường của mình trước những hành động của Trung Cộng tại các vùng biển tranh chấp giữa hai nước là khu vực bãi đá ngầm Scarborough mà Bắc Kinh gọi là đảo Hoàng Nham. Đồng thời ông del Rosario cũng cảnh báo là các nước khác cũng sẽ bị ảnh hưởng bởi tuyên bố chủ quyền của Bắc Kinh đối với khu vực giàu khoáng sản này nếu họ không lên tiếng ngay từ bây giờ, giống như những gì Manila đang làm.

Trước đó Phi Luật Tân đã cáo buộc Trung Cộng làm trầm trọng thêm mâu thuẫn giữa hai nước. Hiện Trung Cộng đã điều tàu hải giám thứ 3 tới khu vực bãi đá ngầm, nơi mà tàu hải quân Phi Luật Tân đã chạm trán với 2 tàu hải giám Trung Cộng hôm 10 tháng 4. Ngoại trưởng Phi Luật Tân vẫn khẳng định rằng quốc gia này không muốn gây căng thẳng hay đối đầu quân sự với Trung Cộng và vẫn muốn tìm giải pháp hòa bình cho những tranh chấp. Manila đã sẵn sàng đưa vụ việc ra tòa án quốc tế bất chấp việc Bắc Kinh bác bỏ ý tưởng này.[/QUOTE]

Theo Vietnam Net:

[QUOTE][I]Cập nhật lúc 25/04/2012 11:14:17 AM (GMT+7)[/I]

[B]Hôm nay (25/4), gần 7.000 lính hải quân Mỹ và Philippines đã tham gia cuộc tập trận chung mô phỏng giành lại một hòn đảo bị chiếm giữ ở Biển Đông. [/B]

[I][URL="http://vietnamnet.vn/vn/chinh-tri/69472/my-philippines-tap-tran-bao-ve-mo-dau-o-bien-dong.html"]Mỹ-Philippines tập trận bảo vệ mỏ dầu ở Biển Đông[/URL]
[URL="http://vietnamnet.vn/vn/quoc-te/68639/my---philippines-bat-dau-tap-tran-gan-bien-dong.html"]Mỹ - Philippines bắt đầu tập trận gần biển Đông[/URL]
[URL="http://vietnamnet.vn/vn/chinh-tri/69712/philippines-canh-bao-tq-de-doa-tu-do-hang-hai.html"]Philippines cảnh báo TQ đe dọa tự do hàng hải[/URL]

[/I][IMG]http://imgs.vietnamnet.vn/Images/2012/04/25/11/20120425111912_linh.jpg[/IMG]
Lính Mỹ tuần tra trong hoạt động diễn tập chung với Philipppines.[I] Ảnh: Reuters [/I]

Bốn ngày trước, các nhóm đặc công không quân Mỹ đã đổ bộ xuống các tàu cao su trong cuộc tấn công mô phỏng giành lại một giàn khoan dầu ở phía bắc Palawan thuộc Biển Đông. Các cuộc tập trận hàng năm được tiến hành theo Hiệp ước phòng thủ chung 1951 (MDT) giữa Mỹ và Philippines.

Gần 7.000 lính Mỹ và Philippines từ các tàu hải quân hai bên đã thực hiện cuộc tấn công đổ bộ mô phỏng để giành lại một hòn đảo bị chiếm giữ.

Tuần trước, báo quân đội Trung Quốc đã cảnh báo Mỹ rằng, hoạt động tập trận chung giữa Mỹ và Philippines làm gia tăng nguy cơ đối đầu vũ trang xung quanh các vùng tranh chấp ở Biển Đông - đây là mức cảnh báo cứng rắn nhất sau nhiều tuần xảy ra căng thẳng. "Trong kế hoạch và hoạt động thực hiện của chúng tôi chưa từng đề cập tới Trung Quốc", Trung tướng Juancho Sabban, chỉ huy lực lượng quân sự miền tây Philippines nói với báo chí.

Cuộc tập trận "có ý nghĩa đơn giản là chúng tôi muốn làm việc cùng nhau, nâng cao kỹ năng", ông khẳng định. "Trung Quốc không nên lo lắng về Balikatan (tên cuộc tập trận có nghĩa là vai kề vai)".

Trả lời cho câu hỏi liệu Mỹ sẽ cung cấp các hỗ trợ trong tình huống lực lượng vũ trang Trung Quốc tấn công các đơn vị Philippines nếu xảy ra xung đột chủ quyền, Tướng Duane Thiessen, chỉ huy lực lượng lính thủy đánh bộ Mỹ ở Thái Bình Dương cho biết: "Mỹ và Philippines có một hiệp ước phòng thủ chung để đảm bảo rằng, chúng tôi sẽ tham gia vào việc phòng thủ của bên còn lại".

Ông cũng khẳng định rằng, cuộc tập trận chung giữa hai nước bắt đầu từ tuần trước không liên quan gì tới Trung Quốc cũng như căng thẳng lãnh thổ trong khu vực. "Không có sự liên quan trực tiếp nào. Không có liên hệ giữa bãi đá ngầm Scarborough và động thái của Mỹ ở Thái Bình Dương", ông nói.

Trong khi đó, vụ đụng độ giữa tàu Trung Quốc và Philippines về chủ quyền bãi đá ngầm Scarborough vẫn chưa có dấu hiệu chấm dứt. Bãi đá ngầm Scarborough hình móng ngựa là một trong số hàng trăm hòn đảo, bãi đá ngầm tranh chấp ở Biển Đông - vùng biển được tin là giàu trữ lượng dầu và khí, nguồn cá và có những tuyến vận chuyển quan trọng nhất thế giới.

Trung Quốc, Philippines và một số nước Đông Nam Á khác đều đưa ra tuyên bố chủ quyền ở Biển Đông. Trong đó Trung Quốc khẳng định chủ quyền lớn nhất, bao trùm hầu hết vùng biển kể cả những khu vực sát bờ biển nước khác.

[B]Thái An [/B](theo Reuters)[/QUOTE]

From Reuters:

[QUOTE][IMG]http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/3bcm9YwFdw2HA3rVCi5nzQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zMTU7cT04NTt3PTQ1MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2012-04-25T102817Z_3_CBRE83O0IZH00_RTROPTP_2_PHILIPPINES-USA.JPG[/IMG]
[I]Philippine and U.S. marines sit in rubber dinghies during an amphibious raid as part of a Philippine-U.S. joint military exercise in Ulugan bay on the western coast of Philippines April 25, 2012[/I]. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

ULUGAN BAY, Philippines (Reuters) - U.S. and Philippine commandos waded ashore on Wednesday in a mock assault to retake a small island in energy-rich waters disputed with China, part of a drill involving thousands of troops Beijing had said would raise the risk of armed conflict.

The exercises, part of annual U.S.-Philippine war games on the southwestern island of Palawan, coincide with another standoff between Chinese and Philippine vessels near Scarborough Shoal in a different part of the South China Sea.

China has territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan across the South China Sea, each searching for gas and oil while building up their navies and military alliances.

China said last week the drill would raise the risk of confrontation. On Wednesday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said China was committed to dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the dispute.

"We are certainly worried about the South China Sea issue," Cui told a news briefing in Beijing, saying "some people tried to mix two unrelated things, territorial sovereignty and freedom of navigation".

The comments come before high-level talks with the Obama administration. China, which claims the South China Sea based on historical records, has sought to resolve disputes bilaterally but its neighbors worry over what some see as growing Chinese assertiveness in its claims in the region.

"Location (of the drill) is irrelevant," Ensign Bryan Mitchell, spokesman for the U.S. Marines, told reporters.

"These exercises take place on a regular basis. This year it happens to be in Palawan. The planning for this took place months ago prior to any events that are currently in the headlines."

U.S. President Barack Obama has sought to reassure regional allies that Washington would serve as a counterbalance to China in the South China Sea, part of his campaign to "pivot" U.S. foreign policy towards Asia after wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Philippine military officials sought to play down the exercise. Lieutenant General Juancho Sabban, military commander for the western Philippines, said the drill "simply means we want to work together, improve our skills".

Sabban's area of command includes Reed Bank and the Spratlys, a group of 250 mostly uninhabitable islets spread over 427,350 sq km (165,000 sq miles) west of Palawan.

The Spratlys are claimed entirely by China, Taiwan and Vietnam and in part by Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.

HUGE OIL, GAS RESERVES

Proven and undiscovered oil reserve estimates in the South China Sea range as high as 213 billion barrels of oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a 2008 report. That would surpass every country's proven oil reserves except Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to the BP Statistical Review.

A Philippine exploration firm, Philex Petroleum Corp, said on Tuesday its unit, Forum Energy Plc, had found more natural gas than expected around Reed Bank, where Chinese navy vessels tried to ram one of Forum Energy's survey ships last year.

The Philippines is due to open oil-and-gas exploration bids in Reed Bank on Friday.

Vietnam reasserted its claim to the Spratlys and the Paracel islands, known in Chinese as the Xisha islands, further west of Scarborough Shoal in what it calls the East Sea.

Self-ruled Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province, reiterated its claims over territories in the South China Sea and urged "countries concerned to exercise self-restraint so that peaceful resolutions can be reached through consultation".

Nearly 7,000 American and Philippine troops are taking part in the two-week drills that are taking place at sea and in different parts of the main Luzon island.

On Wednesday, about 100 commandos came ashore from U.S. and Philippine ships in a simulated amphibious assault at Palawan province to recapture an island supposedly taken by militants, officials said. Earlier estimates had put their number in the hundreds.

Jumping from rubber boats as they hit the shore, the commandos engaged in a mock firefight, making their way inch by inch from the beach to a navy facility to rescue "hostages" and recapture the base.

Four days ago, commando teams rappelled from U.S. helicopters and landed from rubber boats in a mock assault to retake an oil rig in the northern part of Palawan, 18 km (11 miles) off the town of El Nido on the South China Sea.

The annual war games come under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, part of a web of security alliances the United States built in the Asia-Pacific region during the Cold War.

The drills are a rehearsal of a mutual defense plan by the two allies to repel any aggression in the Philippines.

Hundreds of kilometers to the north, a Philippine coast guard ship patrols near Scarborough Shoal, a group of half-submerged rock formations 124 nautical miles west of the main Luzon island, where Chinese fishermen were accosted by Philippine officials three weeks ago, sparking the latest conflict between the two countries.

Manila officials say Chinese response on the Scarborough shoal issue was "based on inaccurate appreciation of the fact and dynamics of the negotiations."

([I]Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING, John Ruwitch in HANOI and Jonathan Standing in TAIPEI; Editing by Nick Macfie[/I])[/QUOTE]

From IB Times:

[QUOTE]Wednesday, April 25, 2012 4:08 AM EDT
[I]By Amrutha Gayathri[/I]

Nearly 7,000 US and Philippine troops staged combat maneuvers involving mock retaking of a small resource-rich island in the disputed waters of the South China Sea on Wednesday, escalating tensions with Beijing.

The South China Sea drill, though held annually, has raised the risk this year of an armed confrontation involving the US, Philippines and China, as it coincided with growing maritime tensions between Manila and Beijing over the disputed Scarborough Shoal.

The US-Filipino troops held the exercises ignoring China's warning last week that the drill would provoke an armed conflict.

However, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said Wednesday that China was committed to dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the dispute, Reuters reported.

"We are certainly worried about the South China Sea issue," Cui told a news briefing in Beijing, adding that "some people tried to mix two unrelated things, territorial sovereignty and freedom of navigation."

The Philippines downplayed the exercise saying that they were meant to improve security and counter terrorism abilities and support humanitarian and disaster response. Lieutenant General Juancho Sabban, military commander for western Philippines, said the drill with the US troops "simply means we want to work together, improve our skills."

Sabban stressed that the drills were not intended to target China. "Never was China ever mentioned in our planning and execution. China should not be worried about Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises."

The Philippines had earlier pulled out a warship, replacing it with a coast guard vessel to "de-escalate the situation" over the Shoal off the country's northwestern coast.

But rejecting Philippines' proposal for a diplomatic solution, China dispatched a military vessel to the South China Sea last week, according to a report by the China Daily.

China's growing maritime influence in the region has neighboring nations like Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan worried over territorial confrontations.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including what is recognized by the UN as the Exclusive Economic Zone of other neighbors, according to reports.

Beijing asserts that the islands and waters of the South China Sea, which Manila now calls the West Philippines Sea, were first discovered in the 13th century by a Chinese emperor. Though a Chinese spokesperson recently denied historicity as the reason for the claim, he maintained that China had "indisputable sovereignty" over all islands and waters in the South China Sea.

China has yet to hold high-level talks with the Obama administration over the Scarborough Shoal dispute and the threat of confrontation.

The US considers modernized Chinese military a threat and has reassured allies that Washington would act to counterbalance China's growing influence on South China Sea, as part of US foreign policy known as the "pivot to Asia," following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In an article published in the Foreign Policy magazine, titled "America's Pacific Century," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in November that "the future of politics will be decided in Asia."

"In the next 10 years, we need to be smart and systematic about where we invest time and energy, so that we put ourselves in the best position to sustain our leadership, secure our interests, and advance our values," Clinton wrote. "One of the most important tasks of American statecraft over the next decade will therefore be to lock in a substantially increased investment -- diplomatic, economic, strategic, and otherwise -- in the Asia-Pacific region."[/QUOTE]