• Earlier this month, a Chinese surveillance vessel rammed and sunk a Vietnamese fishing boat in the South China Sea — bringing into the spotlight Beijing’s multi-year assertions in the disputed waters. 
• “Fundamentally, China has not let the Covid-19 outbreak dampen its pursuit of foreign policy issues,” said Kelsey Broderick, China analyst at consultancy Eurasia Group.
• The U.S. hit out at China for sinking the Vietnamese fishing boat, saying that it’s “seriously concerned” by reports of what Beijing did; while China accused the U.S. for attempting to negate its “legitimate claims” in the South China Sea.
• Further mistrust between the U.S. and China is unnecessary at a time when countries globally should be working together to fend off a fast-spreading coronavirus disease, said Susan Thornton, a lecturer and senior fellow at Yale University’s law school.

While the coronavirus pandemic has stalled much of the world’s activity, China has kept up its aggression in the disputed South China Sea — actions that analysts said could deepen the mistrust between Washington and Beijing.

China’s continued hostility toward its Southeast Asian neighbors in the contested waters appear at odds with the soft power that Beijing has sought to portray as the outbreak in the mainland receded. In the past few weeks, China has sent help to countries hit hard by the pandemic and rallied for global coordination in managing the outbreak.

But the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat by a Chinese surveillance vessel earlier this month once again brought into the spotlight Beijing’s multi-year assertions in the South China Sea, in which it claims nearly the entire waterway. Other main claimants to the resource-rich waterway include the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

“Fundamentally, China has not let the Covid-19 outbreak dampen its pursuit of foreign policy issues. In addition to the South China Sea, Beijing has also authorized air force flights around Taiwan in the past month,” Kelsey Broderick, China analyst at consultancy Eurasia Group, told CNBC in an email.

“China may be hoping to both send a message to other countries involved in the South China Sea that China will not back down under any circumstances, and send a message to a domestic population about the strong leadership of the party,” she added.

‘No rolling back’ on China’s part
The coronavirus, which has infected over two million people globally, first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year. There have been accusations both domestically and internationally that Chinese authorities ignored early warnings about the outbreak and attempted to downplay its severity.

Collin Koh, an expert on maritime security at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), told CNBC there were “speculations” about whether the pandemic would hamper China’s ability to “maintain vigil over issues of national defense and security concerns.” 

“This would send the wrong signal back home and to the international community — that there’s a let-up in asserting such interests that concern sovereignty and rights,” he said, explaining that could be why China has had to maintain its activity in the South China Sea.

“What I observe is that, since the outbreak till present, there’s no rolling back at all,” said Koh, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, a think tank within NTU. 

Issues surrounding the South China Sea have for years been a point of contention in the relationship between the U.S. and China — the world’s top two economies competing for geopolitical influence in Asia Pacific. 

The U.S. doesn’t claim any parts of the South China Sea as its own but has long promoted the “freedom of navigation” by air and sea across the waterway, which Washington has accused Beijing of militarizing.

The U.S. has conducted activities including surveillance and military exercises in the area that is also a vital commercial shipping route, where an estimated $3.4 trillion of the world’s trade passed through in 2016, according to think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated that more than 30% of the world’s maritime crude oil trade — or an estimated 15 million barrels per day — passed through those waters in 2016. Data by the EIA also showed that the South China Sea is rich in resources, containing some 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in proved and probable reserves can be found there. 

Growing US-China mistrust 
Following the sinking of the Vietnamese fishing boat, the U.S. hit out at China, saying it’s “seriously concerned” by reports of what Beijing did. 

“This incident is the latest in a long string of PRC actions to assert unlawful maritime claims and disadvantage its Southeast Asian neighbors in the South China Sea,” the U.S. Department of State said in a statement, referring to China’s formal name, People’s Republic of China.

“We call on the PRC to remain focused on supporting international efforts to combat the global pandemic, and to stop exploiting the distraction or vulnerability of other states to expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea,” the statement read.  

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/14/china-advances-claims-in-south-china-sea-despite-coronavirus-pandemic.html

இந்த கடல் பகுதியில் பல காலமாக முறுகல் இருந்து வருகிறது.  சீனா செயற்கை தீவு கட்டியதில் இருந்து அமெரிக்கா அங்கு சுற்றி வருகிறது.

பெரிய ஊடகங்கள் வெளியிடாத செய்தி ஆனால் அமெரிக்கா சின்ன அணுகுண்டுகள் பொருத்திய நீர் மூழ்கி கப்பல்களை அனுப்பி வைத்திருக்கிறது.

உலக போர் மூன்று தொடங்கினால் இங்கு தான் தொடங்கும்.

 

Why China is Developing Military Vessels at the Center of its Coronavirus Outbreak

 

https://www.voanews.com/science-health/coronavirus-outbreak/why-china-developing-military-vessels-center-its-coronavirus

யார் தன்னுடைய எந்த நலனையாவது எப்போதாவது வாய்ப்பு கிடைத்த போது முன்னேற்றமல் விட்டார்கள்.

இந்த covid -19 இன் கோர பிடியில் சீன இருந்த போது, pentagon missile ஐ பரிசோதித்து தொடக்கி வைத்தது. அத்துடன், freedom of navigation என்ற பெயரில் சீனாவை சீண்டுமாறு றோந்துகள் செய்தது.

voa மற்றும் அமெரிக்காவின் பிரச்னை, 4 விமானந்தாங்கிகள் கோவிட் தொற்றால் இயங்க முடியாமல் உள்ளது.

அத்துடன் சீன கடற்படை, covid ஐ சமாளித்தும் விட்டது, எந்தவொரு blue water vessel ஐயும் துறைமுகத்தில் கட்டிவைக்காமல்.  

கோவிட் 19 முதலில் பெரியளவில் உருவான வுகான் மாகாணத்தில் சீனாவின் பல நுண்ணியல் ஆய்வுக்கூடங்கள் உள்ளன. இங்கே பல ஆய்வுகள் நடக்கின்றன. சில மனித குலத்தை மேம்பட செய்பவை. சில அதிகாரத்தை பேண. 

சீனா, அமெரிக்க வல்லரசுகள்  எல்லைகளற்ற யுத்தம் பற்றியும் திட்டமிடுகின்றன என நம்பலாம்.  

இதில் இருந்து ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட கிருமி தாக்குதலும் உண்டு. சிலர், அதில் ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட இனத்தை (Based on DNA) மட்டுமே தாக்கக்கூடிய வைரஸை உருவாக்கலாம் என எண்ணுகிறார்கள்.