*1 shoal - a sandbank or sandbar
Last March, Malaysia protested against the incursion of four Chinese ships in James Shoal *1, located about 80 kilometres off the coast of Sarawak. Chinese sailors fired guns in the air during the visit to the shoal. In April, a Chinese maritime surveillance ship returned to James Shoal to leave behind steel markers to assert its claim. A month ago, three Chinese ships comprising an amphibious landing craft, the Changbaishan, and two destroyers, patrolled along the coast of James Shoal. In the latest sign of Beijing's territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea, state news agency Xinhua said:
"During the ceremony held in the Zengmu Reef area, soldiers and officers aboard swore an oath of determination to safeguard the country's sovereignty and maritime interests. Fleet commander Jiang Weilie urged soldiers and officers to always be prepared to fight, improve combat capabilities and lead the forces to help build the country into a maritime power." Zengmu Reef is the Chinese term for James Shoal.
China also upset the Philippines and the United States in January this year, when arbitrary rules went into force demanding fishing boats seek permission to enter waters under the jurisdiction of China's southern province of Hainan, an area the provincial government says covers much of the South China Sea! Earlier, the belligerent Chinese had sent a warship and a flotilla of fishing vessels to the Ayungin Reef in the Spratly Islands which has been under Philippine military control since 1999. The Philippines responded with three military vessel of their own to shore up their defences.
Many countries - Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Vietnam - all claim sovereign rights over the James Shoal and Spratly Islands, rumoured to have huge undersea oil and gas deposits (completely unsubstantiated by any scientific study) to dwarf the rest of the world's energy reserves.
Of course, the Chines do not think it's relevant that the James Shoal and Spratly Islands are more than a thousand kilimetres from its southernmost coastline!
What is perhaps more intriguing is that other than the usual "diplomatic" noises, Najib and his cousin, the much loathed and reviled "Defence Minister" Hishammudin or Kerismudin, have not sent any of our Godwin, Lekiu, Kasturi, Laksamana, Kedah or Perdana combat, frigate, corvette, off-shore, missile and gunboat class ships and fast assault crafts to do some sabre-rattling of our own. Then again, what's happened to "our" two infamous $8 billion Altantuya Class Scorpene Submarines - the KD Tunku Abdul Rahman and KD Tun Abdul Razak - and their Exocet missiles, which Najib said would keep the world at bay from our precious shores and sea limits? Are they only fit to track illegal boat-Indon and Filipino immigrants, having failed to detect the "incursion" at Lahad Datu in 2013?
Are any of our billion ringgit class ships and submarines functional at all? Or are they, as usual, in dry docks for sudden unscheduled "scheduled maintenance" works? Do we have a serviceable marine pea-shooter that can be deployed to high seas in a jiffy, as the Philippines did?
Or, are we too scared of the bullying China to stand up for our own sovereign rights? Make no mistake, China knows exactly what it is doing. It is deliberate, provocative and malice aforethought. It knows it does not have a peg-leg to stand on in its claims in the Spratlys and James Shoal. It is doing exactly what the USA is doing in interfering in the internal politics of Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere, claiming hypocritically and dishonestly that countries 2,000 km away from its shores pose a "security threat" to its citizens.
China is in a kind of war with the West and the rest of the world to secure long-term supply of raw materials and food supplies for its massive 1.4 billion population and industries. China dreams of the day when it will be recognised as the world's number one economy and superpower, never mind that its western half is wallowing in poverty, and its eartern coastline blanketed in super smog. A country which has never embraced democratic principles or governments in its 5,000-year history, knows of no other way of achieving this then by gunboat "diplomacy." But a rose by any other name smells the same; bullying is all the current Chinese leadership knows.
And there is one thing I have instinctively known from the time I was about seven years old, and acted upon without fear, whether in school or outside of it. Put up to bullies, or be prepared to be trampled and stomped over! And we all know now that Najib and his Government of Thieves are the most craven of cowards!
Najib and Kerismudin, these "yella bellies" as they would have been plainly and insultingly tagged during the era of cowboys, are selling our future now to China by quaking in their boots against unprincipled dictators and landgrabbers, and not taking a firm stand.
Donplaypuks® with our sovereign territories, man! Be a man, not a mouse!
What is perhaps more intriguing is that other than the usual "diplomatic" noises, Najib and his cousin, the much loathed and reviled "Defence Minister" Hishammudin or Kerismudin, have not sent any of our Godwin, Lekiu, Kasturi, Laksamana, Kedah or Perdana combat, frigate, corvette, off-shore, missile and gunboat class ships and fast assault crafts to do some sabre-rattling of our own. Then again, what's happened to "our" two infamous $8 billion Altantuya Class Scorpene Submarines - the KD Tunku Abdul Rahman and KD Tun Abdul Razak - and their Exocet missiles, which Najib said would keep the world at bay from our precious shores and sea limits? Are they only fit to track illegal boat-Indon and Filipino immigrants, having failed to detect the "incursion" at Lahad Datu in 2013?
Are any of our billion ringgit class ships and submarines functional at all? Or are they, as usual, in dry docks for sudden unscheduled "scheduled maintenance" works? Do we have a serviceable marine pea-shooter that can be deployed to high seas in a jiffy, as the Philippines did?
Or, are we too scared of the bullying China to stand up for our own sovereign rights? Make no mistake, China knows exactly what it is doing. It is deliberate, provocative and malice aforethought. It knows it does not have a peg-leg to stand on in its claims in the Spratlys and James Shoal. It is doing exactly what the USA is doing in interfering in the internal politics of Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere, claiming hypocritically and dishonestly that countries 2,000 km away from its shores pose a "security threat" to its citizens.
China is in a kind of war with the West and the rest of the world to secure long-term supply of raw materials and food supplies for its massive 1.4 billion population and industries. China dreams of the day when it will be recognised as the world's number one economy and superpower, never mind that its western half is wallowing in poverty, and its eartern coastline blanketed in super smog. A country which has never embraced democratic principles or governments in its 5,000-year history, knows of no other way of achieving this then by gunboat "diplomacy." But a rose by any other name smells the same; bullying is all the current Chinese leadership knows.
And there is one thing I have instinctively known from the time I was about seven years old, and acted upon without fear, whether in school or outside of it. Put up to bullies, or be prepared to be trampled and stomped over! And we all know now that Najib and his Government of Thieves are the most craven of cowards!
Najib and Kerismudin, these "yella bellies" as they would have been plainly and insultingly tagged during the era of cowboys, are selling our future now to China by quaking in their boots against unprincipled dictators and landgrabbers, and not taking a firm stand.
Donplaypuks® with our sovereign territories, man! Be a man, not a mouse!
The group was made up of an amphibious landing craft, the Changbaishan, and two destroyers, state news agency Xinhua said. "During the ceremony held in the Zengmu Reef area, soldiers and officers aboard swore an oath of determination to safeguard the country's sovereignty and maritime interests," Xinhua said. Zengmu Reef is the Chinese term for James Shoal. Xinhua said the fleet commander Jiang Weilie "urged soldiers and officers to always be prepared to fight, improve combat capabilities and lead the forces to help build the country into a maritime power".
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/world/chinese-ships-patrol-area-contested-by-malaysia-1360211.html?utm_source=ref_articl
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/world/chinese-ships-patrol-area-contested-by-malaysia-1360211.html?utm_source=ref_articl
The group was made up of an amphibious landing craft, the Changbaishan, and two destroyers, state news agency Xinhua said. "During the ceremony held in the Zengmu Reef area, soldiers and officers aboard swore an oath of determination to safeguard the country's sovereignty and maritime interests," Xinhua said. Zengmu Reef is the Chinese term for James Shoal. Xinhua said the fleet commander Jiang Weilie "urged soldiers and officers to always be prepared to fight, improve combat capabilities and lead the forces to help build the country into a maritime power".
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/world/chinese-ships-patrol-area-contested-by-malaysia-1360211.html?utm_source=ref_article
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/world/chinese-ships-patrol-area-contested-by-malaysia-1360211.html?utm_source=ref_article
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