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Philippines Warns of ‘Sabotage’ after Cyanide Seizure in Disputed South China Sea Atoll

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The Philippines discovered cyanide on Chinese boats operating around a disputed atoll in the South China Sea, security officials from the country said on Monday.

Authorities ‌said laboratory tests confirmed the presence of the highly toxic substance in bottles seized by the ‌Philippine navy in operations at Second Thomas Shoal last year.

Officials warned that the cyanide could have had serious consequences for marine ​life and weakened the reef supporting a warship that Manila grounded on the atoll to reinforce its maritime claim.

“We wish to underscore that the use of cyanide in Ayungin Shoal is a form of sabotage that seeks to kill local fish populations, depriving Navy personnel of a vital food source,” Cornelio Valencia, National Security Council ‌spokesperson, told a press conference using the ⁠Philippines’ name for the atoll.

Valencia added that cyanide could damage the reef and “ultimately compromise” the warship’s stability. (Read more from “Philippines Warns of ‘Sabotage’ after Cyanide Seizure in Disputed South China Sea Atoll” HERE)

Instant Karma: Watch Two Chinese Ships Crash Into Each Other While Trying To Harass Neighbor’s Coast Guard

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Two Chinese ships collided with each other in the South China Sea on Monday while trying to harass the Philippines’ coast guard, video shows.

In a high-speed chase, the China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel 3104 was pursuing the Philippine patrol ship BRP Suluan approximately 10.5 nautical miles east of the contentious Scarborough Shoal, deploying water its water cannon at one point, according to Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Spokesperson Jay Tarriela. As the CCG vessel approached the boat, it collided with a larger Chinese Navy destroyer that attempted to intervene by positioning itself between the Philippine ship and the coast guard cutter.

“The CCG 3104 … performed a risky maneuver from the PCG vessel’s starboard quarter, leading to the impact with the PLA Navy warship. This resulted in substantial damage to the CCG vessel’s forecastle, rendering it unseaworthy,” the spokesman wrote.

Footage captured from aboard the Suluan documents the significant hull damage sustained by both Chinese vessels following the collision.

(Read more from “Instant Karma: Watch Two Chinese Ships Crash Into Each Other While Trying To Harass Neighbor’s Coast Guard” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

WATCH: Tensions Escalate in South China Sea as Ships Collide

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Tensions are heating up in the South China Sea, as Chinese and Philippine ships once again collide in the long disputed waters.

Chinese vessels collided with Philippine coast guard ships near the disputed atoll of Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands. The Chinese were quick to accuse the Philippines of crashing their vessel into them deliberately.

Chinese Coast Guard spokesperson Gan Yu said in a statement the Philippines ignored several warnings, and caused the collision by dangerously ramming Chinese law enforcement.

“The Philippine side is entirely responsible for the collision. We warn the Philippine side to immediately stop its infringement and provocation, otherwise it will bear all the consequences arising from that,” Gan said.

China Daily reported the Philippines then engaged in a second incident a few hours later, the CCG further accused the Philippines of seriously infringing on China’s sovereignty, and undermining regional peace in a separate statement. (Read more from “WATCH: Tensions Escalate in South China Sea as Ships Collide” HERE)

China Launches Massive War Exercises Near Taiwan

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The Chinese military is ramping up massive military exercises in the South China Sea intended to brush back the United States as the Biden administration pleads with the Taliban to bring Americans back home from Afghanistan.

People’s Liberation Army Navy forces are conducting drills in the South China Sea, Yellow Sea, and Bohai Strait near Korea until Thursday. The intense war drills come shortly after another set of military exercises off the coast of Taiwan intended to help China achieve “supremacy” in a potential showdown with the United States and Taiwan, and in response to recent activity in the South China Sea, according to one former Chinese colonel.

Lawmakers and experts say combative messaging around the exercises from China’s military brass shows an increasingly relentless attitude from Beijing when it comes to seizing Taiwan. Brent Sadler, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former naval officer, told the Washington Free Beacon the war drills show the Chinese Communist Party is not just saber-rattling but also preparing for a conflict in the coming years.

“The timing of them may be normal, but the intensity and coordination of them are different,” Sadler said of the exercise. “China is setting the battlefield for a fight if it should happen in this six-year period that it can fight on its terms. There’s an urgency with that where we should similarly be setting the stage for more favorable conditions with our allies.”

China’s demonstrations come as President Joe Biden directs his national security team to focus on Afghanistan, where thousands of Americans are stuck behind Taliban lines. Though Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting Asia to engage allies on how to team up against Beijing, Chinese survey ships are already directly intruding into territory belonging to countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia. China also conducted another set of military exercises near Taiwan earlier in August, as well as a separate drill with Russian troops. The United States in turn is conducting its own annual maritime exercises with India, Australia, and Japan next week. (Read more from “China Launches Massive War Exercises Near Taiwan” HERE)

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‘The Poop Piles up’: Images Show Chinese Ships Putting Human Waste Into South China Sea

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Chinese ships operating in a disputed area of the South China Sea have been dumping raw sewage into the water, threatening marine life, a Monday report shows.

Simularity, a US-based data analysis and geospatial imagery company, released satellite images Monday, showing the extent of damage inflicted to coral reefs in the area by hundreds of anchored Chinese fishing vessels discharging human waste.

Over the past five years, there has been an increase in the chlorophyll-a concentration, which indicates a significant boost in the population of algae that feed off human waste, the report says.

“When the ships don’t move, the poop piles up. The hundreds of ships that are anchored in the Spratlys are dumping raw sewage onto the reefs they are occupying,” Liz Derr, the head of Simularity, said Monday at a Philippine online news forum on China’s actions in the South China Sea — the territory claimed by Beijing almost in its entirety — according to The Associated Press. (Read more from “‘The Poop Piles up’: Images Show Chinese Ships Putting Human Waste Into South China Sea” HERE)

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Google Pushes Chinese Propaganda About South China Sea – With Wikipedia’s Help

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A discussion at the Wikipedia Reddit community yesterday noted that Google searches asking if China owns the disputed South China Sea prominently featured a result from the online encyclopedia parroting the Chinese government position that it “enjoys indisputable sovereignty” over the sea. Reddit users noted the line appeared to be taken from a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement quoted in the article, a fact not included in the Google snippet. The line was removed after the Reddit discussion brought it to attention.

This is only the latest case where Google’s prioritizing of Wikipedia for prominently displayed information has spread propaganda or falsehoods.

Numerous territorial disputes exist regarding the South China Sea, most significantly the dispute over the Spratly Islands. Several Southeast Asian countries as well as the communist Chinese government and the government on Taiwan (who each officially claim the islands as governments representing China) dispute control over some or all of the islands. China’s claims in the sea incorporate other islands and together are cited by the government as the basis for its “nine-dash line” territorial claim, which asserts nearly the entire sea is under Chinese sovereignty. Other countries have criticized the claim as overly broad and vague.

The opening post of the discussion on the Wikipedia Reddit community showed a screen-cap of a Google search asking “Does the South China Sea belong to China?” where the “featured snippet” from Wikipedia’s article on “territorial disputes in the South China Sea” seemed to uncritically recite the mainland government’s stance by stating: “China enjoys indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea and the island. China’s stand is based on historical facts and international law. China’s sovereign rights and positions are formed in the course of history and this position has been held by Chinese Government for long.” Other searches for variations of the question displayed the same snippet.

Such “featured snippets” are reportedly produced by Google’s search engine based on its algorithm determining what “will help people more easily discover what they’re seeking” with the search. Users noted the Google snippet matched a quote on the Wikipedia page from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu, who was responding to an oil exploration deal India’s oil exploration company had signed with Vietnam’s state oil firm, a deal involving parts of the South China Sea. (Read more from “Google Pushes Chinese Propaganda About South China Sea – With Wikipedia’s Help” HERE)

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Manila Challenges Beijing’s South China Sea Hegemony

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photo credit: jun acullador

The Philippines said Tuesday that it is taking its feud with China over competing territorial claims in the South China Sea to an international tribunal.

Philippines Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario’s office summoned Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing in Manila and challenged the assertion that China’s sovereignty extends over “virtually the entire South China Sea.”

Manila says China seized control of the Scarborough Shoal, a rocky outcrop, last year and then illegally barred the Philippines from the area. China calls the shoal Huangyan Island.

Manila wants a tribunal operating under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea to declare as “unlawful” Beijing’s actions in the disputed waters.

“The Philippines has exhausted almost all political and diplomatic avenues for a peaceful, negotiated settlement of its maritime disputes with China,” Mr. del Rosario said at a news conference in Manila, according to a report by The Associated Press. “To this day, a solution is still elusive.”

Read more from this story HERE.

China furious over interference in the South China Sea, tells US to “shut-up”

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By Ben Blanchard. China’s Foreign Ministry has called in a senior U.S. diplomat to protest against remarks by the U.S. State Department raising concerns over tensions in the contested South China Sea, further intensifying an already fraught territorial dispute.

In a statement released late on Saturday, China’s Foreign Ministry said Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Kunsheng summoned the U.S. Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Wang to make “serious representations” about the issue.

The State Department on Friday said it was monitoring the situation in the seas closely, adding that China’s establishment of a military garrison for the area runs “counter to collaborative diplomatic efforts to resolve differences and risk further escalating tensions in the region”.

The South China Sea has become Asia’s biggest potential military flashpoint. Beijing’s sovereignty claim over the huge area has set it against Vietnam and the Philippines as the three countries race to tap possibly huge oil reserves.

Beijing and Washington are already at odds over numerous matters, including the value of China’s currency, Tibet and Taiwan. Read more from this story HERE.

China tell US to “Shut-up”

By Chris Buckley. China’s state-run media ramped up condemnation of the United States on Monday over tensions in the South China Sea, with the Communist Party’s top newspaper telling Washington to “Shut up” and charging it with “fanning flames” of division in the region.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s over the weekend condemned a U.S. State Department statement that said Washington was closely monitoring territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and that China’s establishment of a military garrison for the area risks “further escalating tensions in the region”.

The mosaic of rival territorial claims in the South China Sea has become Asia’s worst potential military flashpoint.

Beijing has said its disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines and other southeast Asian claimants should be settled one-on-one, and it has bristled at U.S. backing for a multilateral approach to solving the overlapping claims.

“We are entirely entitled to shout at the United States, ‘Shut up’. How can meddling by other countries be tolerated in matters that are within the scope of Chinese sovereignty?,” said a commentary in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, an offshoot of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s top newspaper. Read more from this story HERE.