On Thursday the Philippines released photos to validate its claim that China is building structures and a possible airstrip on the disputed Johnson Reef.
As Shannon reported yesterday, on Wednesday the Philippines accused China of building structures on the disputed Johnson Reef in the South China Sea, which Manila said was in violation of the non-binding 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea agreement signed between China and the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
On Thursday the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) released four overhead shots of the Reef that date from between March 2012 and March of this year. The photos appear to show in stages China’s reclamation of the Johnson Reef, which the Philippines refers to as Mabini Reef. A DFA spokesperson said that the photos had been obtained by Philippine intelligence sources.
“These actions are considered destabilizing and in violation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and international law,” the DFA said in a statement, the local news outlet GMA Online reported.
The Philippines has speculated that China is preparing to build an airstrip on the disputed reef in order to enhance its power projection capabilities in the South China Sea. Building structures on the reef could also bolster China’s claims of sovereignty over surrounding waters and isles.
The Philippines considers the Johnson Reef to be part of the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), which it controls. Along with the Philippines and China, Vietnam and Taiwan also claim the Johnson Reef.
DFA spokesperson Charles Jose also expressed concerns on Thursday that China’s moves on the Johnson Reef are designed to undermine the Philippines ongoing international arbitration efforts. The Philippines has appealed to an international tribunal to determine the outstanding sovereignty issues it has with China in South China Sea. Beijing has refused to participate in the proceedings, which it characterizes as illegitimate.
According to Jose, China is trying to re-define the Johnson Reef as an island in order to bolster its claims of sovereignty over surrounding waters. Under the terms of the UN Convention of the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), a feature that is defined as an island contains a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Thus, a state possessing sovereignty over an island can claims the EEZ it generates. By contrast, smaller features like reefs or rocks do not have EEZs, according to UNCLOS.
“In our protest to China, we said this reclamation could undermine the arbitral tribunal’s review of our case because of the reclamation,” Jose said at a press briefing on Thursday, GMA Online reported. He added: “The nature of (Mabini Reef’s) land feature is being altered so the status quo is being changed.”
Sure looks like a pretty area. We better fuck it up.
No doubt there will be dead bloated pigs floating in the lagoon before long...
The Chinese are far far more dangerous than the Rusians are. The actions they've been taking lately are extremely dangerous. At least I can speak a little Mandarin.
How far do you think this little Mandarin language ability will take you?
No...we no kill Bobby...he speak little Mandarin.
Welcome to the practical realities of peak cheap oil.
Watch out for what's in store...
http://www.planbeconomics.com/2013/10/peak-oil-and-reality-of-whats-comi...
Suddenly there is `news` about all this mischievous deeds of big competing nations, the beast is dying and tries to bring its enemies down with it.
maybe they'll build an entire town there FOR NOBODY
Good greef, can't we all just get along?
Nah, it's the Spielberg set for "Jurassic Park: The Lost Game -2014".
Malthusianism nut jobs on this peak oil crap.
No one see the engery revolution coming!
That's because it happens all of a sudden and generally with little warning. I'm sure Thomas Edison's Twitter account was telling all who had smart phones that the light bulb was coming. "Be patient. I'm working on it."
The Chinese learned from the Israelis: they're building their own version of the "settlements."
He make good moo goo gai pan too! He rive to see other day.
One's life might gain improvement if one is be able to say, "Yes, Master!" in the correct tongue.
And if you ever find yourself lost in Detroit just say that you have black friends back home, you'll be ok.
Is Ebonics still the major dialect in Detroit? Or has it been supplanted by Rappish?
I have friends, black friends, who went to the casino in downtown Detroit. They got lost on their way back (off the 94 Expressway). They were scared shitless when they had to stop and ask for directions. Predators will eat their own when the time comes.
I speak some Chinese too. "Number 13, side of number 7 and 4 egg-rolls."
Nailed it.
I'm surprised there's any Chinese left in China; I thought they were all in California by now.
You're kidding right, all 1.35 billion of them, in CA?
It'd likely sink.
eh, damn, sounded like I sided with the Georgia Guidestones?
It would capsize, not sink...
Yes, sarc off now.
Capsize?! Who are you, Hank Johnson?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNZczIgVXjg
Tha is the link I was referring to, thanks for posting. I wondered if anybody remembered that classic!
Then there are those buying all the condos in Surfelas Paladise
Queensland
They come, they dont assimilate, the us does not need that variety of immigrant anymore. Our country is divisive enough as it is
What 'The Chinese' are you talking about ?
The Chinese lady who has the local Chinese restaurant is quite nice. She cooks delicious, healthy food (no MSG) and does so at great prices. She's under 5 feet tall and she might weigh about a hundred pounds. She and her husband work just about all the time, it seems. They have a little girl and boy. She sure doesn't pose much 'danger'. I doubt if she is consulted on the moves of those involved with those islands.
The human tendency to go into the primative 'our tribe' against 'their tribe' mode is repeatedly used by the psychopath ruling parasites to divert people from how they are being robbed. (They really know human psychology.) Will people finally wake up to that ? Or will we destroy the entire planet first ? To be or not to be.
China seems to be playing hard ball lately. Flexing its economic muscles maybe?
<I welcome my alien Chinese overlords.>
Nahhh..they are just trying to save some turtle species.
The endangered Mabini turtle has been almost hunted to extinction by Phillipinos say Chinese authorities.
BLM anyone...
The new order.
The G20 will be scooping up land and resources. Those dependent will support the rearrangement.
Smaller countries will get sucked up or search out their Sugar Daddy countries.
Will there be wars or fighting, maybe. Maybe not if there is to be no winning.
TPTB will Let Russia take Ukraine to support European economy and cheap energy.
TPTB will Let China take any/all to support cheap labor and massive production.
Energy and commodity resources will define the new order.
Dismal future for many.
Sad.
Those could all be fortune cookie wisdoms.
Yeah, Russia taking over Ukraine would be all about them supporting Europe. Russia just wants to help everyone.
Yes, the excuses are pretty worn out by now.
Nope . . . its all based on lies and fraud. ('fed' reserve issued fake 'money' based, actually banned by the US Constitution). When China was 'opened up' to the US back in the day, they couldn't even feed themselves. Certain US interests (those who had been destroying the purchasing power of the American people through their counterfeiting scheme) - went to China for slave labor in an authoritarian controlled society. (And they salivate at the thought of exporting this to the entire world.) And, in order to maintain their advantage in this beggar they neighbor 'trade' model, some Chinese in their ruling class arranged for the purchase of fake money based paper in order to maintain their currency peg, a form of manipulation. Despite this, it was inevitable that the Chinese would import fed fake money inflation.
Bottom line - - - the whole thing is a fake and a fraud and a crime. We don't 'owe' certain Chinese squat. And we don't own certain US 'creditors' squat either. They literally 'loaned' out Nothing, made up out of thin air with a few keystrokes
Their game is to have their hired whore 'intellectuals' - lawyer/liar/politicians and economists and media - - - fool the dumbed down citizenry into going along with what is nothing but a slave system. Given how well their 'education' system has dumbed down the public . . . they've got a good chance at success. When it gets real dicey they usually start a war. The public has the attention span of a toddler on Ritalin, so that'll probably divert their attention pretty easily.
They built structures on a REEF??
OK, OK, now I know how to stop those bastards. Call in the EPA or maybe the Bureau of Land Management. There's gotta be some endangered shrimp or turtle or slug or something that's going to be killed off because of that construction.
If we can throw that "dangerous right wing extremist" Cliven Bundy off his grazing land, surely we can do the similar to the Chinese on that reef.
Um, too bad that the BLM was acting indirectly through the Reids for ENN Group, a Chinese company? Apparently six others so far didn't know that either...
Honey, why is Chairman Mao on Mount Rushmore?
Sorry roundeye, you work for us now.
They imported Chinese sand to build their island. Its their turf. Dismal.
How to fuck up pristine coral 101.
yes indeed Duc888,
That's going to cause a dieoff for 50 yards plus in a radius around there at leaset with the now mobile silt.
Those Chinese are some sneaky little shits.
Not Chinese. Chinese government. Never confuse corrupt power dealers with the people.
Are you jokin? CHinese are corrupt as HELL!
Not Chinese. Chinese government. Never confuse corrupt power dealers with the people.
Good point... though the Chinese seem to be pretty nationalistic and Statist on the whole.
China! Fuck Yeah!
They say that about Americans too but my thru my lying eyes, the landscape is not so crystal clear in that direction.
It's only fair. The Filipinos started it first by grabbing Thitu island.
Sell Vietnam and the Philippines a thousand smart mines and the resource grab will end in a day.
Biden: "The U.S. takes no position."
MacArthur must be spinnig in his grave.
China don't care!
Honeybadger!
The geopolitical equivalent of voting "present" for a controversial issue.
Great! another palmtree sandbar in the middle of the ocean. lulz
Bar? Did someone say "Bar"?
This is outrageous! Burn all the non-Chinese factories you can!
Does everyone realize the Bin Laden group lives on west coast of Philippines? Our white tom knows this.
I did not realize that. What the fuck are you talking about?
I'm guessing by "white tom" he is talking about a gaggle of thanksgiving turkeys.
No, it's the Tom Cruise Lines.
What happens when the tide comes in? Sand crabs, sand castles and such. childhood memories
ya, and its typhoon alley. It will be wiped clean this fall.
Posession is the law
We are in a consolidation end-game. In the end there will be G20 'governments' and that will be it.
EVERYBODY RELAX
They are getting ready to build some 125% LTV oceanfront condominiums.
125% LTV is for Merikans. Chinese pay 100% Cashola.
The crash of cash buying mania will be spectacular.
Will Dick Cheney and friends be buying a chunk of it, like they did in Abu Dhabi?
Calm down, they just wanna build some appartment towers. No land left in mainland and demand is so huge. And the best part is: no smog.
or perhaps the mid point of a long over-sea bridge to Manila and Clark Air Base, for closer commercial and military ties with the master of the Philippines.
This is the same way much of Northwest Florida (Destin) was created, by the US Army Corps of Engineers, with title to the new beachfront land then transferred to then Congressman Bob Sykes.
The sugar crabs are back early this year.
It's no secret china wants to partition the Pacific Ocean to control all the area & resources west of Hawaii.
China cannot have high economic growth with a huge population & Brent chronically above $100....better to use force & steal all the crude.
When the chinese proposed the partition to an US admiral, you can see the shock on his face. This is from NHK News of Japan from Aug-2008.
Admiral Keating is speechless towards the end of video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1SDDUS1EyM
I'm telling you; if it gets down to brass tacks all China has to do is nuke Hawaii and say "Anything West of this ash heap is ours, if you cross the line we nuke you."
What is the U.S. going to do? We are nearly completely dependent upon China for manufactured goods, not just T.V.'s.
We have been SOLD OUT by our own leaders.
I feel sorry for Taiwan, Japan, and Australia.
And the rest of the region.
The MaoZedong Dickhead line.
nuke Hawaii? Why Hawaii? It's a beautiful place.
Why not the filthy Washington DC, or New York, or the City of London?
Perfect target, middle of the Pacific, set number of casualties, wipe out the largest base of the U.S. Navy pacific fleet without a lot of "downwind trouble", perfect demarcation line.
It was a territory for a good part of the 20th Century, not a State until 1959, not part of the "Homeland".
The Japanese did a surprise attack in 1941 for a similar reason.
Perhaps they'll nuke a carrier in-between there and China.
But Hawaii would be the exclamation mark.
Not advocating, just observing.
http://www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/cnrh.html
Nuke a US territory? You don't think the US' 'leaders' might return the favour?
It's actually a part of China. It's shown on Chinese toilet paper from the Zing Dynasty, and some Chinese fishermen took a dump there once 800 years ago...ergo... it's China. So is San Francisco too btw. And Shangcouver. Oh fuck it.... basically wherever a Chinese whips out his dick and takes a leak is China.
Then its time to start shorting Chinese dicks.
They are short enough already aren't they?
Not advocating, just observing.
From your head up your ass. Sure it is a great view.
Really? The US would just do nothing for an act of war that would send a radioactive cloud over maunland USA. Pull your head from your posterior and stop saying STUPID things. Do you even live in the States? How long do you think a politician would last if that happened and all of China did not glow. MAD is still a very viable concept dolt.
We retaliate, they retaliate, etc. - then - everything is gone.
Someone is going to pull the nuclear trigger again - we dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan nearly 70 years ago.
So...you think no nation will ever do it again? Or, perhaps one nation who realizes that the other nation will blink because it is such a horrible act?
I don't believe in "it will never happen" or "the U.S. will always be the most powerful nation" or "humanity is a kind and gentle creature".
No, I don't think the U.S. would retaliate with nukes, I think we would blink.
No doubt because you are either a pussy or a Canadian...
Great stuff! In Chinese, with Chinese subtitles.
I guess we all better get with the Mandarin program....
Urhm... that's actually a Japanese news broadcast, and those arent "subtitles," it's highlighting, a standard feature on virtually all programming. And it's also in Japanese.
You may have heard... but the Japanese have a considerable interest in the US position on these island disputes.
Nothing that a tsunami can't wipe out...
a " natural" one of course
That would be a great place to put up a half mile high pole to let bankers jump off of.
I still HATE " Edwald Nowotny"! That little prick is Draghi's mouthpiece! Edwald was his family NAZI name!
Uh oh.
Pentagon Press Conference Turns into Heated Debate Between Top Generals from US and China
http://www.businessinsider.com/dempsey-fang-press-conference-2014-5
Wow !
Well, this is what you get when you say " US dollar is outdated" and trying to create a gold-backed international currencies.
Well, this is a mess. "A particular" country is vowed to get rid of any threats of it's currency status.
Club med/nude beach?
China just making sure there's no possibility of losing it's gold (in some boating accident.) It's going to fill in the whole of the Pacific.
Isn't ALL the gold already in China ?
Say goodbye to probably the last living coral reefs in that part of the world.
Reefer madness to be sure.
I call it the North Malaysia Sea. China is all in the northern hemisphere so how can there be a south china sea? Better let the super computers decide. They're pretty good at figuring things out, like 45 degrees off any border and how to split distances without murdering each other. They should replace the morons collecting a big checks that are called diplomats for some reason.
China's generals have been busy studying the military techiques the USA used to win WWII. Imitation is flatery...?
jb
One good typhoon and that whole project is back to square one. I would say that it is like a sand castle, but it IS a sand castle.
As the Athenians told the Melians, "the strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must."
Or as Teddy Roosevelt said it, "speak softly and carry a big stick."