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Japan defence paper slams China's 'coercive' maritime demands
By Kyoko HASEGAWA
Tokyo (AFP) July 21, 2015


Philippines hikes defence budget 25% amid China tensions
Manila (AFP) July 21, 2015 - The Philippines is planning a 25 percent hike in its defence budget next year, mainly to bolster its claims in the disputed South China Sea, officials said Tuesday.

The proposed 2016 national budget, which President Benigno Aquino is to present to parliament for approval on Monday, would reserve a record 25 billion pesos ($552 million) for defence spending.

Funds would be used to acquire navy frigates and patrol aircraft, budget and defence officials told AFP.

"We need to protect what is clearly within our territorial jurisdiction," Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said, when asked if the increase was due to the Philippines' maritime row with China.

"Certainly, we need to at least be able to effectively monitor the developments in the area, particularly those in disputed zones," he added.

Under the three-trillion-peso budget bill, defence spending would be up from a 20-billion-peso military budget last year and five times bigger than in 2013, the officials said.

The proposed 2016 defence budget is part of a five-year, 75-billion-peso military modernisation programme approved by Aquino in 2013, Abad said.

The amount would still be dwarfed by China, which claims most of the South China Sea including areas close to the shores of its Asian neighbours.

Beijing budgeted $142.9 billion for its military this year.

- Modernisation catch-up -

One of the region's most poorly equipped, the Philippine military relies on half-century old ships and aircraft keeping watch over the South China Sea, where tensions have flared recently.

The Philippines is catching up on military modernisation after spending was held back to just five billion pesos in 2013 as the government shifted resources to recovery from Super Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the country that year leaving 7,350 people dead or missing.

The Philippine military's mission to protect the country's territory is complicated by long-running communist and Muslim insurgencies that forces it to devote troops and equipment for internal security.

While China has gone on an island-building frenzy to reinforce its claims on South China Sea reefs and waters, the Philippines has set repairs on a crumbling World War II ship that serves as its lonely outpost there.

The BRP Sierra Madre, emblematic of the Philippine military, was deliberately grounded on Second Thomas Shoal in 1995 in a desperate move to check China's advance in the Spratly islands.

The South China Sea chain is also disputed in whole or in part by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.

"This budget will allow us more latitude in acquiring new assets for the Armed Forces of the Philippines," defence department spokesman Arsenio Andolong said.

"We are pushing hard on modernisation and we will need all the help we can get.... This includes the purchase of frigates and patrol aircraft."

Two of 12 fighter jets that the Philippines had bought from South Korea are expected to be delivered as early as November, he said.

A United Nations-backed tribunal is expected to decide in months whether it has jurisdiction over a Philippine petition to declare China's claims as illegal.

Beijing has refused to cooperate in the arbitration proceedings.

Japan on Tuesday slammed Beijing's bid to reclaim land in the South China Sea as a "coercive attempt" to force sweeping maritime claims, in a defence paper that comes as Tokyo is expanding the role of its own military.

Tokyo said China was acting "unilaterally and without compromise", as it also highlighted concern about North Korea's nuclear programme and Russian moves in violence-wracked Ukraine.

The white paper accused Beijing of "raising concerns among the international community" as it ramped up criticism from last year's report, an annual summary of Japan's official view on defence matters.

"China, particularly over maritime issues, continues to act in an assertive manner, including coercive attempts at changing the status quo, and is poised to fulfil its unilateral demands without compromise," said the report entitled "Defense of Japan 2015".

China is locked in disputes with several countries over its claims to almost the entire South China Sea and is currently pursuing a rapid programme of artificial island construction in the region.

It is also embroiled in a separate row with Japan over the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku islands -- which it calls the Diaoyus -- in the East China Sea, as Chinese ships and aircraft regularly test Japanese forces in the area.

While the Sino-Japanese spat has cooled considerably over the last 12 months or so, observers have warned that it could spiral into a limited armed conflict.

Separately, Japan has complained that China may have started offshore drilling for gas in the disputed waters.

"Japan has repeatedly lodged protests against China's unilateral development and demanded the termination of such works," the report said.

The document repeated Tokyo's concerns over China's growing assertiveness and widening naval reach in the Pacific and over what it calls the "opaqueness" of Beijing's sky-rocketing military budget.

But it also noted that China has worked to set up an emergency hotline with Tokyo to prevent unintended conflicts at sea.

- 'Harsher security environment' -

Following the issuing of the Japanese white paper, Beijing criticised the document for playing up "the so-called 'China military threat'".

Chinese state news agency Xinhua said that a foreign ministry spokesman argued the white paper "ignores facts, makes irresponsible remarks... deliberately plays up the 'China threat' and stirs up tensions".

Last week, China criticised Tokyo after the lower house of parliament passed bills that could see Japanese troops fight abroad for the first time since World War II, in provisions that allow for so-called "collective defence" -- coming to the aid of allies under attack.

A fraught mutual history makes Beijing particularly sensitive to any suggestion that Japan may abandon its pacifism.

Millions of Chinese died in the years after Japanese forces launched a full-scale invasion of the country in 1937.

But Tokyo's move to give greater leeway to its well-equipped and well-trained military is far from popular at home, and polls show approval ratings for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe -- the driving force behind the changes -- are plunging.

A new weekend poll showed just 35 percent of voters positively rated Abe, his lowest level since coming to power in 2012.

"We hope to explain to the public that the bills are necessary amid a harsher security environment around Japan," the government's top spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters Tuesday, asked about unpopularity of the bills and the government.

Referring to the Ukraine crisis, the report said Russia "has engaged in so-called 'hybrid warfare' that is difficult to identify definitively as an armed attack by a country, and has attempted to change the status quo by force or coercion".

"The Russian attempt is considered to be a global security issue possibly affecting the whole international community, including Asia," it said.

On North Korea, the report warned of a "greater risk" of Pyongyang deploying ballistic missiles mounted with nuclear warheads "that include Japan in their range".


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SUPERPOWERS
Beijing lambasts Manila for South China Sea ship repair
Beijing (AFP) July 16, 2015
Beijing has hit out at Manila for repairing a crumbling ship serving as its outpost in the disputed South China Sea, branding the Philippines as a "hypocritical troublemaker and rule breaker". The Philippine military deliberately grounded the 100-metre (328-foot) World War II-vintage BRP Sierra Madre atop the Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 in an effort to check the advance of China, which four ... read more


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