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China Builds Artificial Islands In South China Sea
An anonymous reader writes about a Chinese building project designed to cement claims to a disputed region of the South China Sea. Sand, cement, wood, and steel are China's weapons of choice as it asserts its claim over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Brunei have sparred for decades over ownership of the 100 islands and reefs, which measure less than 1,300 acres in total but stretch across an area about the size of Iraq. In recent months, vessels belonging to the People's Republic have been spotted ferrying construction materials to build new islands in the sea. Pasi Abdulpata, a Filipino fishing contractor who in October was plying the waters near Parola Island in the northern Spratlys, says he came across "this huge Chinese ship sucking sand and rocks from one end of the ocean and blasting it to the other using a tube."
Artificial islands could help China anchor its claim to waters that host some of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The South China Sea may hold as much as 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a 2013 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. China has considered the Spratlys—which it calls Nansha—part of its territory since the 1940s and on occasion has used its military might to enforce its claim. In 1988 a Chinese naval attack at Johnson South Reef, in the northern portion of the archipelago, killed 64 Vietnamese border guards.
Artificial islands could help China anchor its claim to waters that host some of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The South China Sea may hold as much as 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a 2013 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. China has considered the Spratlys—which it calls Nansha—part of its territory since the 1940s and on occasion has used its military might to enforce its claim. In 1988 a Chinese naval attack at Johnson South Reef, in the northern portion of the archipelago, killed 64 Vietnamese border guards.
Are resource wars.
And start out rather like this.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
...why we really need to get weaned off of fossil fuels. Otherwise it's like the next day's heroin fix, only with oil.
Ezekiel 23:20
Like that guy who built his house on public property, these islands will just be removed if they aren't part of China. That's kind of sociopathic of them to pull that kind of a stunt unless the dispute is resolved, cooperatively.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
actually you're right that's extraordinarily apt. +1.
China has lot's of old soviet stuff.
China in this instance, is so ridiculously hypocritical - their entire argument about the Senkaku(Diaoyu) islands is that Japan has only controlled them in modern times, and China has laid claim (based on little evidence, and they're uninhabited) since ancient times. Yet, here, they're claiming these islands from all these other countries, and have only laid claim since 1940 -- a claim that seemingly hasn't been supported except by China themselves. Which way they want it? All ways. China has a big 'face' problem so can't look weak to it's oppressed masses for fear of social unrest, and like Russia, thinks the whole world around it belongs to them. Really tired of this bullshit.
Or, perhaps, do you want to rethink your silly stance on "naming makes it so"?
Jeez, even islands are "Made in China"
Table-ized A.I.
So you must agree then that everything in the Sea of Japan belongs to Japan...
omg...come on guys, seriously now. This lack of a functioning sarcasm detector is disturbing to find on a geek news website.
Has it not occured to you, after reading that poast, that it was obvious sarcasm? ( do you not also see it in this poast? do I need to spell it out?)
Or do you really, truly, think that somebody intelligent enough to write a coherent sentence on a computer is so *stupid* to take the name South China Sea so literally?
Come on Slashdot, dont get lazy, we need to up our game here...this is getting embarrassing.
The islands belong to whoever lives there and manages to chase others away. If China successfully put troops and guns on them, then the islands are theirs, end of story.
Or am I missing something here....
Education?
I was thinking "troll" but you might be right
That's how Godzilla was born, I hope you know.
Table-ized A.I.
Not to weigh in on the south china sea thing. But we have been the
"United States OF America" since we were founded.
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The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary...
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And...
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We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The united states military forces are formally named "U.S. Blah Blah". (Etc.)
--
The continent of america was named around 1507. Long before the united states existed. It was not named by a united states citizen.
"American" has become an acceptable slang term for united states citizen in many countries but is also not used in many countries.
Sort of like the "under god" portion of the pledge of allegiance, use of the term "American" was added later.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
According to Mail Online
I can picture this now. "Yeah dude, we like... totally surveyed the place. It's all good. You can start digging tomorrow."
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
The thing is, it's not really sarcasm. Pretending to be stupid and confused while not making a point doesn't serve any purpose other than maybe as a troll.
Education?
Actually, education is part of the problem here. For generations, Chinese kids have never seen the maps that we use. World maps in Chinese schools have always included most of the region as part of China, even including several countries.
So it will be really hard to convince them that the world is different from the world view that they've been brought up with.
Europe and America also use different maps (traditional Europe at the center vs America at the center), but that doesn't appear to lead to major conflicts.
This is not the sig you're looking for.
China's claim is absurd; no one else in the world considers these islands disputed. No amount of dredging is going to change that.
"With blackjack! And hookers!"
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
After anchoring its right to the South China Sea with islands constructed from Chinese materials, China has begun investigating the use of other purely Chinese items in the rest of the world.
As such, China is announcing an air defense identification zone surrounding all zoos containing giant pandas. In particular, all aircraft entering or departing the airspace in the 5 miles surrounding the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington D.C. will now have to file a flight plan with China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration, and maintain regular two way radio contact. In case of aircraft not following these guidelines, China reserves the right to take Emergency Defensive Measures.
Not to weigh in on the south china sea thing. But we have been the "United States OF America" since we were founded.
I have my own theory about the naming of "United States of America": the US of that time wanted to eventually take over the whole continent of America, so the name "United States of America" made complete sense at that point. For one reason or another, they stopped at the border with the current Mexico, after taking over Texas and California. I know this sounds overly ambitious now, but it was a different world back then.
Please read up on Manifest Destiny before making such a claim. This idea of expansionism didn't really take off until the 19th century.
Right now what I wrote sounds extreme.
10 years from now you will all then understand I saw the future you did not yet see, and you will call me prescient and wish those in power had done what I suggested.
^^ Proof that belief in a deity does not confer any kind of morality.
You know who else was critical of others' grammar mistakes?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Bullshit.
China is in complete violation of international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which China itself signed and had agreed to and ">ratified in 1996.
China has been building structures, hunting and mass poaching endangered species and destroying coral reefs within the maritime exclusive economic zones of The Philippines and Vietnam (200 nautical miles or 370km from the coastline of those countries) while at the same time, forming naval blockades and harassing fishermen from Vietnam and the Philippines in their own waters. Recently a Chinese fishing vessel was caught with the poaching and mass slaughter of over 500 endangered and protected sea turtles within Philippine waters. Pics of the slaughter.
This article is a must-read on the behavior of the 800lb gorilla China and its bullying tactics: China's Pre-Imperial Overstretch and follow-up article: China and the Mosquitoes.
Another must read is the NY Times article A Game of Shark And Minnow about the ragtag crew of Philippine marines stationed on a grounded derelict ship in the area as an outpost. That NY Times article has a very good diagram on the 200NM exclusive economic zones and China's ridiculous "nine-dash line" tongue-shaped delineation which claims the entirety of the area hundreds of miles away from their nearest legal territory, Hainan Island. The basis of China's 9-dash line claims? Fabricated bullshit. Pre-19th century maps show this. Even China's own historical maps contradict their absurd claims. Bullying, intimidation, violation, invasion and annexation of territories of smaller, weaker states. It's that simple. See also: Tibet.
http://twitter.com/object404
The proper name is "Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo" or People's Republic of China in English. Of course then there's also "Zhonghu Minguo" aka The Republic of China aka Taiwan.
Then there's the fact that not everyone calls it the "South China Sea". Vietnam calls it "Bien Dong" aka East Sea. In fact China calls it "Nan Hai" meaning South Sea.
My point being simply that a name doesn't imply ownership under any reasonable standard. The USA is widely just called "America" but that doesn't mean that it owns the Americas. The PRC is widely called China but that doesn't mean it owns the South China Sea.
You know, the strap on this thermonuclear bomb looks like it might break soon.
Just saying.
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Do you think they think they can build 'em up faster than rising oceans can swamp them? And how hard is pouring tons of sand on coral on the coral? Where is the outrage!
"There is no god but allah" - well, they got it half right.
Well, people like me invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in China, first with Hong Kong and then further inland.
The only problem is they failed to leapfrog development and are stuck in the Coal and Cement Age - a dirty grimy age of pollution and despair.
They have the (stolen) tech. They just need to use it.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
China is in complete violation of international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which China itself signed and had agreed to and ">ratified in 1996.
That's nice and all, but unless somebody actually does something about it, all those laws don't matter a hill of beans.
Russia is being embargoed half-heartedly by half the world and I'd be shocked if they ever gave up Crimea. Nobody cares enough about some artificial islands to go to war over them, and next thing you know they'll be setting up oil rigs. Unless everybody agrees to sanction China in a way that costs more than all that oil is worth, China will get what it wants. The problem is that sanctions cut both ways, and politicians get far more money if they keep trade going than if they shut it down.
Yeah. Build more islands, so they have more useless pieces of land to fight over with neighboring countries. That'll solve the problem.