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Showing posts with label Sansha City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sansha City. Show all posts

Saturday, July 21, 2012

No one can stop China in South China Sea but China - Former Philippines National Security Adviser

No one can stop China from claiming “indisputable sovereignty” over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea)—except China itself or the authoritative power of world opinion.

Short of war, a war nobody wants or would wish, even the United States can only delay or impede the fulfillment of China’s inordinate ambition to gain sovereign control of 3 million square kilometers of this great inland sea that is also Southeast Asia’s maritime heartland.

This is the strategic context of China’s assertive ambiguity in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Just now, Beijing can only bluster and intimidate, as it probes for weaknesses in its rival claimants.

But once China can translate its economic power into military capability credible enough to challenge that of the United States—when the “time is right” in China’s terms—then the geopolitical configuration in the Asia-Pacific region will change radically.

And time and circumstances favor China. Analysts say China is likely to become the world’s largest economy in a decade or so.

If they are right, the Philippines has only 10 short years to prepare for what is likely to become an interesting Asia-Pacific future.

Long-term security

Given the constraints under which it’s working, the administration of President Benigno Aquino has so far done all that could possibly be done, in the short term, to defend our nation’s interests in the West Philippine Sea.

But in this case it’s not enough to deal with the immediate problem. Our nation’s long-term security hangs in the balance.

And to ensure our safety, we must look at the root of our nation’s security, which lies in our people—in everyone of us and nobody else.

If our country is to prevail in any challenge, if the Philippines is to become worthy of respect as a sovereign nation, we must first of all enable our people to become effective wealth creators.

We must make our country rich enough to enable us to acquire the means to defend our nation’s interests, to protect our people’s dignity and honor.

Nationhood infrastructure

To carry out the government’s strategies, policies, plans and programs to grow and develop the nation, we must strive urgently to create the four conditions necessary for growth and development.

Let us make no mistake, without these, the nation can hardly enforce its Constitution and its laws, and no development plan can succeed:

1. We must come to terms with ourselves. We must build among us the infrastructure of nationhood. We must be able to answer the basic question of who we are.

We must live the core values our forebears fought and died for: Dignity, honor, freedom, justice, self-determination, hard work, discipline, tolerance, mutual caring and compassion.

We must become a people at peace with themselves and with the world.

There is nothing our people cannot accomplish, if our identity and the goals we seek are articulated in terms of the core values taught us by our heroes and martyrs.

These core values define what is right or wrong for our people. They guide us, like our heroes and martyrs, to live only when it is right to live, and to die only when it is right to die.

2. No matter what it takes, we must end our internal wars. Our radical insurgency is kept alive by our grievous inequality and the elemental injustice of mass poverty. And both are caused by corruption and misgovernment.

The same is true of our separatist conflict in Mindanao. There popular frustrations are worsened by rivalries over land and livelihood, and the situation is complicated by ethnic and religious enmities.

3. We must complete all the land and nonland reforms we still need to do. Not only will their completion make rebellion, separatism and mutiny irrelevant but will also accelerate our nation’s growth. And, finally, it will unite our people.

4. We must transfer the power of the few over the state to the people as citizens. In the World Bank’s view, we are a country where state policies and their implementation serve not the common good but those of special interests.

The capture of the state and its regulatory agencies by vested interest groups has made our economy the least competitive among comparable economies in East Asia.

In sum, we must put our house in order. We must level our popular playing field to grow and develop the nation—and so enable our people to surmount any challenge.

No luxury of time

As we create the four conditions necessary for growth and development, we must also carry out our development plans. Given the uncertainties building up in East Asia, we do not have the luxury of time.

It is the Chinese people’s historic sense that is driving their country’s rise. They count their recovery from generations of humiliation at the hands of the great powers as lasting 150 years starting from the initial European effort to open up China around 1800.

In 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed China had stood up. But China began to recover economically only after Deng Xiaoping’s reforms (1978). In three and a half decades, China has become the world’s second largest economy.

We, too, must tap into our people’s sense of nationality—and do no less. By creating the four conditions necessary for growth and development that I cited above, and by simultaneously carrying out the government’s development plans, we can change our country—we can modernize it without leaving anyone behind—during the next 10 years.

By that time, we will also have nurtured the inclusive institutions that will sustain our people’s capacities for wealth creation.

No primrose paths

Let us not delude ourselves. There are no short cuts—no primrose paths—to growth and development. We must never give up even if our country’s rise takes 150 years or more.

We have no choice. The alternative is too dire to contemplate.

We must work together to prevent the situation developing that reduces our country into a tributary, a vassal, a province of a great power.

Those who sacrificed and died for us and for generations yet to come will never forgive us if we fail to summon the courage and the will to take the radical steps toward the Filipino future: To deliberately put in place the four conditions necessary for growth and development without delay.

By:

China launches Sansha City Maritime management in South China Sea

Sansha City to administer South China Sea

HAIKOU: Maritime management has begun in the newly established city of Sansha in the South China Sea, as local Chinese authorities hope to enhance maritime safety there and protect the environment.




 The building on Yongping Island will be home to the Sansha city government. [File photo]

The State Council, or China's cabinet, approved the establishment of Sansha, a prefectural-level city in south China's Hainan province, to administer the Xisha (Paracels) , Zhongsha (Middles Sands) and Nansha (Spratlys) islands and their surrounding waters in the South China Sea on June 21.



"We began maritime management there soon after the State Council's decision was made," a spokesman with the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration said Thursday.

Maritime personnel are working to build infrastructure, buoy tenders, supply bases, light stations and radio stations in order to enhance maritime supervision and rescue capabilities, the spokesman said.

Maritime authorities are also studying sea travel routes in the area and considering introducing new laws to regulate traffic, as Sansha will develop its own tourism industry in the future and receive more ships, he said.

In addition, the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration is now researching the disposal of waste and pollutants and the supervision of yachts in an effort to keep a clean marine environment, the spokesman added.

"We are also planning to cruise regularly in the area in the future and set up a daily cruise mechanism when conditions are ripe," he said.

China on Tuesday set up an organizing committee for the legislative body of Sansha, officially beginning the formation of the government of the newly established city.

The government seat of Sansha will be stationed on Yongxing Island, part of the Xisha Islands.

Sansha administers over 200 islets, sandbanks and reefs in the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands.

China said it first discovered and named the reefs, islets and surrounding waters of Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands. In 1959, it became the first country to set up an administrative office to exercise sovereignty over the area.

By Lu Hui. Xinhua

Mayor elected in China's newly established Sansha city

  
Representatives pose for group pictures after the first session of the first Sansha Municipal People's Congress held on Yongxing Island, the government seat of Sansha City, in south China's Hainan province, July 23, 2012. Forty-five deputies to the municipal people's congress attended the first session of the first Sansha Municipal People's Congress and cast their votes. Xiao Jie was elected the first mayor of the newly established Sansha city Monday afternoon. (Xinhua/Hou Jiansen)
 
YONGXING ISLAND, Hainan, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The newly established city of Sansha in the South China Sea elected its first mayor Monday afternoon.

Xiao Jie, 51, head of the Hainan Provincial Agriculture Department, was elected mayor in the first session of the first Sansha Municipal People's Congress held on Yongxing Island, the government seat of the city.

Xiao was also appointed secretary of the Sansha Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Fu Zhuang, 56, deputy director of Hainan Provincial Civil Air Defence Office, was elected director of the standing committee of Sansha Municipal People's Congress, the city's legislative body.

The legislative conference also elected three deputy mayors, head of the city's intermediate people's court and procuratorate. It also elected another five members of the standing committee of the Sansha Municipal People's Congress.

"It's a great honor to be the first mayor of Sansha, and it's also a brand new mission, challenge and test for me," said Xiao.

The first Sansha municipal government will be devoted to administrative management, economic development, people's livelihoods and environment protection in the coming five years, Xiao said.
The deputies and members of the standing committee of the municipal People's Congress should make positive contributions to the management, development and protection of the islands as well as the sea waters surrounding Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha, said Fu.

Forty-five deputies to the municipal people's congress attended the first session of the first Sansha Municipal People's Congress and cast their votes.

The deputies, divided into groups from the Xisha, Nansha and Zhongsha islands, were elected Saturday by 1,100 residents from the islands.

The State Council, or China's cabinet, in June approved the establishment of Sansha, a prefectural-level city in south China's Hainan province to administer the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands and the surrounding waters in the South China Sea.

China's central military authority has approved the formation and deployment of a military garrison in Sansha.

Sources with the People's Liberation Army Guangzhou Military Command said Friday that the Central Military Commission had authorized it to form a garrison command in the city.

Yongxing Island is part of the Xisha Islands.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

China lawmakers slam Vietnam violates South China Sea code of conduct

Correct erroneous maritime law, Vietnam urged

The National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, on Friday urged Vietnam to correct an erroneous maritime law it passed on Thursday.


Hanoi's disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea have given rise to frictions, and analysts said the passed law may internationalize the issue and bring a heavy blow to bilateral relations.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the NPC expressed its position concerning the recent passing of the Vietnamese Law of the Sea in a letter to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Vietnamese National Assembly.

The Vietnamese National Assembly passed the Vietnamese Law of the Sea to include China's Xisha Islands and Nansha Islands in the South China Sea within Vietnam's sovereignty and jurisdiction.

The NPC expressed its firm opposition to the move and urged the Vietnamese National Assembly "to correct the erroneous practice immediately."

"The move by the Vietnamese National Assembly is a serious violation of China's territorial sovereignty and is illegal and invalid.

It violates the consensus reached by both leaders, as well as the principles of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea," the NPC Foreign Affairs Committee said in the letter.

"The NPC Foreign Affairs Committee hopes the Vietnamese National Assembly to honestly respect China's territorial sovereignty and correct the wrongful practice so as to safeguard the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership as well as the friendly relations between China's NPC and the Vietnamese National Assembly," the letter said.

The NPC also reaffirmed in the letter that China has indisputable sovereignty over the Xisha islands, Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters.
- Xinhua/Asia News Network

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