Tin quốc tế 12/11 | Hải quân Anh - Trung Quốc chơi trò “mèo vờn chuột” trên Biển Đông | FBNC
UK Carrier Strike Group Tracked, Sidestepped Chinese Submarines During Trip Through South China Sea US media hype Chinese aircraft carrier progress and anti-carrier capability ‘to boost military funding, rally allies’ Japan's defense minister calls on U.S. to enhance alliance Japan's defense minister calls on U.S. to enhance alliance Taiwan defense report focuses on China's "grey zone" coercion Chinese forces exercise near Taiwan in response to US visit Taiwan hits back after Paul Keating says its status ‘not a vital Australian interest’ Russian troop movements show wider conflict is possible, top Ukraine official says U.N. Security Council urges end to Myanmar violence Xi Jinping Attends and Delivers a Keynote Speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit Helicopters and frigates operating as a part of the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier strike group managed to detect and track Chinese submarines during their mission in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, according to remarks made by Commodore Steve Moorhouse - the commanding officer of the group - in an interview with Sky News. The waters of the disputed sea are mostly controlled by Beijing and therefore there's a heavy presence of Chinese jets - which followed the carrier strike group during its mission between August and October 2021 - and submarines. The latter, however, could not properly follow HMS Queen Elizabeth precisely because the UK forces were tracking
their movements and directing the British carrier so that it never crossed paths with the Chinese subs, Moorhouse said. "On a couple of occasions we were confident we knew where their submarines were. So we literally almost hold the submarine where it is using our frigates and helicopters and then we can move the carrier around it, literally side-stepping it, so we can continue on our way safely." The Chinese jets, in turn, continued to follow the strike group, but remained at "safe and professional and appropriate ranges", Moorhouse revealed. They would fly close enough to be within range to fire a missile and would then turn away showing what they could do if they wanted to. Still, none of the HMS Queen Elizabeth's jets, mostly F-35 stealth fighters, were scrambled to intercept them for the lack of necessity, the commodore said. "In that sort of cat and mouse type game, I am absolutely clear they are turning away at ranges where they are probably using us to facilitate their own training in the same way that we would do it towards them. So, it wasn't causing us a concern".
Chinese submarines, including nuclear-powered Type 093, are known to be on the noisier side of "silent hunters". According to some military experts, their sound signatures are as loud as that of submarines made in the US, USSR and Russia between the Eighties and the Nineties. Both countries have since developed much quieter subs, but Beijing is still working on its Type 095 submarine, which is promised to be less detectable by sonars. It is unclear when the new submersible boat will become available to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy. US media outlets fanned speculation over the development of China's third aircraft carrier on Tuesday, claiming the modern mother ship, possibly equipped with electromagnetic catapults, could launch in early 2022, right after some US media reports hyped China's "mock-ups of US carriers" used for the country's anti-ship ballistic missile practice. By doing this, US media outlets are again hyping the "China threat theory," as they believe the US' selfish hegemony faces huge pressure from both China's aircraft carrier programs and its anti-carrier capabilities, experts said on Wednesday. While these reports aim to get more funds for the US military and vilify China among US allies, they cannot contain China's rightfully justified national defense development as China grows comprehensively, they said.
Citing an analysis of satellite imagery from late October by the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), CNN reported on Tuesday that China's third aircraft carrier, known as Type 003, which has technology nearly equal to the capabilities of its US counterparts, is on the edge of completion and could be launched as soon as February. The installation of major external and internal components, including power plants and the aircraft launching system, appears to either be finished or on the verge of completion, the CSIS said, noting that only a few additional items - such as radar and weapon systems - remain to be installed before the vessel can slip into the Yangtze River in Shanghai, which could happen in roughly three to six months. Unlike China's previous two aircraft carriers that use "outdated Soviet technology," the Type 003 might feature more advanced technologies including a possible electromagnetic catapult system, making the ship the Chinese military's "first foray into a modern aircraft carrier," CNN quoted experts as saying, noting that the third carrier will also be larger than the previous two. The Chinese military has yet to officially announce the existence of the third aircraft carrier, but media outlets, including official ones such as the Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television, have mentioned it since late 2018, although technical details remain speculative. Aircraft carriers provide a very important platform for the Chinese Navy to safeguard national sovereignty in the South China Sea - especially given the US' frequent provocation in the region To achieve these goals, China will need to build more aircraft carriers rather than being satisfied with just one or two, Li said, noting that the US media's speculation is again just the rhetoric of the "China threat theory," and it will not stop China's progress. Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times that aircraft carriers are a vital piece of equipment and support China in building a blue-water and strategic navy.
Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi on Thursday wants to build a stronger Japan-U.S. alliance as well as maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific region, he said when speaking to Adm. John Aquilino, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, on Thursday. The “security environment surrounding Japan is increasingly severe,” Kishi said at th outset of their meeting, noting China’s unilateral attempts to alter the status quo in the Indo-Pacific region as well as North Korea’s test-firing of missiles. When Kishi and Aquilino met last in June, they agreed on the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, according to the Japanese government. Aquilino warned that the threat of Chinese aggression toward Taiwan may be more imminent than expected, stressing the importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance in maintaining regional security.
Japan's new foreign minister said on Thursday it was important to build constructive and stable ties with China while calling for responsible behaviour from its giant neighbour. Staunch U.S. ally Japan has recently been more outspoken on questioning China's assertiveness on issues such as the disputed South China Sea and self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its territory. At the same time, Japan's ruling party plans to review defence posture amid China's military buildup and it aims to increase defence spending sharply.
Yoshimasa Hayashi, in his first news conference as foreign minister, stressed the importance of constructive, stable relations with China. "Ties between Japan and China are increasingly important not just for our two countries, but for the peace and prosperity of the region and the international community," Hayashi said. "We need to assert and ask for responsible behaviour while at the same time, maintain dialogue and firmly cooperate on shared challenges," he said. He did not elaborate on what he meant by responsible behaviour. Ties between Japan and China have been plagued for years by a territorial dispute over a group of tiny East China Sea islets as well as the legacy of Japan's past military aggression. There have been doubts among conservative lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party that Hayashi, as the head of the league, could take a firm stand on China, media has said. Hayashi also said he would step down as head of the Japan-China Parliamentarians' Friendship League to avoid "unnecessary misunderstanding".
China “stands ready to work with the United States” to bring relations back on the right track, President Xi Jinping has said, days ahead of a scheduled virtual meeting with US counterpart Joe Biden. This comes as the two nations seek to reopen lines of communication to ease acrimony and reset bilateral ties, amid continued sparring over Taiwan and US concerns about Beijing’s nuclear arsenal. In a congratulatory letter to the National Committee on US-China Relations, Xi said China “stands ready to work with the United States to enhance exchanges and cooperation across the board”, on the basis of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. China aims to “jointly address regional and international issues as well as global challenges and … properly manage differences, so as to bring China-US relations back to the right track of sound and steady development”, said the letter, read out by US ambassador Qin Gang at the non-profit’s annual gala dinner in New York on Tuesday. Cooperation was the “only right choice” for China-US relations, Xi said in his letter.
Chinese and US officials agreed in principle for the two presidents to hold a virtual meeting before the year-end, following last month’s closed-door meeting between China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi and US national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Switzerland. The upcoming Xi-Biden summit would set the tone for solid bilateral exchanges on issues including trade and the military, a Chinese government adviser told the South China Morning Post speaking on condition of anonymity. “China and the US have currently been in close contact over arrangement details relating to the upcoming summit,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily press conference in Beijing. China is becoming more diversified in its threat against Taiwan through military and nonmilitary means such as the "grey zone" threats to secure a strategic advantage, Taiwan's defense ministry said in its biennial defense white paper. The 2021 National Defense Report was referring to Chinese activities that involve military and nonmilitary forms of assertiveness and coercion aimed at achieving strategic goals without provoking actual conflict.
Later Tuesday, meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party's People's Liberation Army said its Eastern Theater Command conducted a "readiness patrol" near the Taiwan Strait on the same day in response to secessionist activities. Taiwan's report, the third since President Tsai Ing-wen first assumed office in May 2016, says China attempts to leverage its national might to expand geopolitical influence and unilaterally alter the international order of freedom and openness increasingly through manipulation by grey zone activities. The nonmilitary approaches can be seen in such provocative actions as China's speedboats ramming Taiwan's coast guard vessels and dredgers pumping sand in Taiwan's neighboring waters, it said. The report indicated that China's air force is "now capable of acquiring local air superiority over the first island chain and striking high-value targets in the second island chain." The so-called "first island chain" is a strategic line of defense formed by the Aleutians, the Kurile Islands, the Japanese archipelago, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo. The second island chain refers to a line of islands to the east, including Japan's Ogasawara Islands, the Mariana Islands, Guam and Palau.
Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since they split amid a civil war in 1949 Since then, Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has vowed to reclaim it, by force if necessary. Chinese military forces are holding exercises near Taiwan in response to a visit by a US congressional delegation to the island. The drills in the area of the Taiwan Strait are a “necessary measure to safeguard national sovereignty,” China’s Defence Ministry said in the announcement Tuesday that gave no details on the timing, participants and location of the exercises. It said the “joint war preparedness patrol” by the Eastern Theatre Command was prompted by the “seriously incorrect words and actions of relevant countries over the issue of Taiwan” and the actions of those advocating the self-governing island’s independence. In Washington, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said congressional visits to Taiwan “are relatively common and in keeping with US obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act,” which obligates the US government to ensure Taiwan has the ability to defend itself and regard threats to the island as matters of “grave concern.” The delegation arrived in Taipei on Tuesday evening aboard a C-40 Clipper jet, which departed soon afterward, according to Taiwan’s official Central News Agency. Kirby said travelling on a US military jet was customary for such delegations.
Taiwanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou said ministry had worked with the American Institute in Taiwan, which is the de facto US Embassy, on arrangements for the visit but gave no details. She said further information would be released at the “appropriate time.” China regards Taiwan as its own territory to be annexed by military force if necessary. The sides split amid civil war in 1949 and, following a brief period of rapprochement, relations have grown increasingly tense under Taiwan’s independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen. Although the US switched diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, it retains strong informal political and military relations with Taiwan. As a vibrant democracy, Taiwan also enjoys strong bipartisan support in Congress and the US government has been boosting relations through high-level visits and military sales.
In an appearance at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Keating dismissed global concerns about China’s aggression towards Taiwan and criticised Australia’s growing bipartisan pushback. “Our military interest is not in fighting a war over Taiwan but in helping ensure we don’t have to,” he said. “Taiwan is not a vital Australian interest,” he said. “We have no alliance with Taipei. There is no piece of paper sitting in Canberra which has an alliance with Taipei.” In response, a spokesperson for Taiwan’s ministry of foreign affairs told Guardian Australia that Taiwan and Australia were important partners, sharing universal values and common strategic interests and that China’s aggression had far-reaching implications. “The crisis in the Taiwan Strait is by no means a domestic matter between Chinese, and the security of the Taiwan Strait involves the stability and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region, but also the global peace, stability and development,” Joanne Ou said.
“A peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific region is in the interest of Australia, Taiwan and other countries.” There is growing international concern about Beijing’s military capability and potential plans for Taiwan, which it claims as a province of China that must be retaken. Under the rule of the Chinese Communist party leader Xi Jinping, Beijing rejects criticism as interference in its “internal affairs”. It has increased acts of aggression and rhetoric towards Taiwan, including near-daily sorties of warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, peaking with 149 over four days last month. “Our military interest is not in fighting a war over Taiwan but in helping ensure we don’t have to,” he said. Ukrainian officials told Military Times that the gathering of Russian forces, tanks and short-range ballistic missile systems near the two countries’ border could offer the Russians an easy way to escalate an ongoing conflict.
While U.S. military leaders remain reluctant to discuss the massing of Russian forces, Ukrainian officials were more direct. “All available information indicates that the armed forces of Russia permanently sustain a powerful offensive grouping around Ukraine,” Roman Mashovets, deputy head of Ukraine’s Office of the President, told Military Times Wednesday. During the second half of 2021, Russian forces “conducted a set of large-scale command and staff exercises nearby the Ukrainian border,” Mashovets said. But after the
completion of the exercises, “units and subunits that participated in them remain in the European part of Russia, about [160 miles] from the state border with Ukraine.” Of concern, Mashovets said, is that after exercises ended, only personnel returned to their permanent bases. However, combat and other military materiel like tanks, combat vehicles and “Iskander” short-range ballistic missile systems have remained near the Ukrainian border. As of Nov. 10, more than 32,000 Russian troops were in Crimea, Mashovets said. “It allows Russian authorities in very short terms to redeploy personnel and to form combat striking groups ready for offensive actions on the territory of Ukraine,” said Mashovets. “Thus, if Russia plans to extend aggression, additional redeployment of Russian “subunits to the border of Ukraine will be conducted.” The equipment is visible in a series of satellite photos released this month from Maxar.
During a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby described the Russian troop massing “as unusual in size and scope” but declined to expand on that assessment. The U.N. Security Council expressed deep concern on Wednesday over increased violence across Myanmar and in a rare statement, agreed by the 15-members, called for an immediate end to fighting and for the military to exercise utmost restraint. There are reports of a buildup of heavy weapons and troops in Chin state, suggesting an imminent army attack to flush out militia groups formed after the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in a coup on Feb. 1 "The Members of the Security Council expressed deep concern at further recent violence across Myanmar. They called for an immediate cessation of violence and to ensure the safety of civilians," the statement said. Myanmar's junta has made no comment on the situation in Chin, a volatile border region that has become a forefront of resistance against military rule.
Myanmar has been paralyzed by protests and violence since the coup, with the junta struggling to govern and facing armed resistance from militias and ethnic minority rebels allied with a shadow government that it calls "terrorists". U.S. President Joe Biden visited the Port of Baltimore on Wednesday to tout billions of dollars included in a $1 trillion infrastructure bill aimed at unclogging the nation's ports, easing shortages and combating inflation. Lisa Bernhard produced this report. “Consumer prices are too high….” “Yesterday, I spoke the with CEOs, personally spoke with the CEOs of the major retailers Walmart, Target, and the leading freight movers FedEx and UPS. They assured me that the shelves will be stocked this holiday because they signed on to 24/7 as well. They signed on to 24/7 and they’re getting their containers off the ports quicker than ever before.”
Speaking at the Port of Baltimore, Biden said his just-passed $1 trillion infrastructure bill would help unclog the nation's ports. Port congestion has been a major source of supply shortfalls, which have driven up prices. The Labor Department reported that U.S. consumer prices accelerated 6.2% in the last 12 months, marking the largest year-on-year jump since November 1990 The Biden administration has worked with the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to move goods around the clock, and new plans were announced Monday to relieve congestion at the Port of Savannah.
The White House said improvements at the Baltimore port, which can accommodate some of the largest container ships in the world, have helped alleviate congestion at other East Coast ports. China vowed to develop a unified, open, competitive and orderly market system to add impetus to economic development in the Asia-Pacific region, said Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday. While delivering a keynote speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit via video, Xi reaffirmed China's commitment in advancing reform and opening-up to build a high-standard market system. "As a Chinese saying goes, 'To get things right at the end, one needs to lay a sound foundation; to achieve a good result, one needs to be prudent from the start.' Recently, the competent Chinese government departments are improving and better enforcing anti-
monopoly laws and regulations, and strengthening regulation over some sectors. This is called for to promote the sound development of the market economy in China. As a matter of fact, it is also a common practice in other countries. We will unswervingly consolidate and develop the public sector, and unswervingly encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector. We treat all types of market entities on an equal basis, and we are working to develop a unified, open, competitive and orderly
market system. This will enable us to cement the foundation for long-term development of the Chinese economy and better support businesses from both the Asia-Pacific and the wider world in investing and operating in China," said Xi. Thousands of migrants continue to mass on the Poland-Belarus border in the hope of reaching the European Union, satellite images by Maxar showed on Wednesday (November 10). Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller said that there were currently 3,000-4,000 migrants near the border, and more than 10,000 others across Belarus ready to try and cross into Poland.
Warsaw has accused Belarus of trying to spark a major confrontation, with video clips showing hundreds of migrants walking towards the Polish border and some trying to breach the fence using spades and other implements. Warsaw said it had deployed additional soldiers, border guards and police, while neighbouring Lithuania said it might introduce a state of emergency on its border with Belarus. The United Nations COP26 climate summit will turn its focus to climate change and action in the world's cities on Thursday (November 11) the penultimate day of the conference.
According to the U.N., more than 55% of the global population lives in urban areas, a figure that is expected to grow to 68% by 2050 Most of the growth in the number of city-dwellers is forecast to happen in Africa and Asia. As average global temperatures have climbed, cities are also heating up, putting strain on resources such as water, power and transport networks. Persistent hot and dry weather also increases the risk of wildfires that have threatened urban areas from North American to Europe to Australia in recent years.
Many of the world's cities are located on coasts, putting them at greater risk of sea level rise and storm surges caused by extreme weather events, which scientists say are projected to become more likely with increasing temperatures. These are FBNC's morning International news Thanks for watching
2021-11-13 18:53
