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Chinese gunboat stuck in shoal near Palawan [Philippines]
Philstar ^ | July 13, 2012 | Jaime Laude

Posted on 07/13/2012 4:53:45 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of National Defense (DND) on Friday confirmed that a Chinese warship has run aground on a shoal located well within Philippine waters, about 60 nautical miles from Rizal, Palawan.

The DND said the ship that ran aground was a Jianghu Class, a Chinese guided missile frigate with bow number 560.

“We have dispatched our own assets from the Western Command to investigate kung bakit siya andyan. Naaksidente ba? Kung kailangan nila ng tulong, tutulong tayo,” Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said.

Australian paper Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Chinese warship ran aground while patrolling the contested waters adjacent to the Philippines in the hotly-contested West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

The report quoting Western Diplomatic sources added that the frigate pinned itself to a reef the other night at Half Moon (Hasa Hasa) Shoal, on the southeastern edge of the Spratlys Islands and remains “thoroughly struck”.

“Salvage operations could be diplomatically challenging, given the vessel appears to have run around within 200 kilometers of the Philippines Coast, which is squarely within what Manila claims to be its Exclusive Economic Zone,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Sources in the Armed Forces' Western Command (Wescom) said the ill-fated Chinese warship is one of several Chinese naval gunboats that have been conducting regular patrols in the West Philippine Sea and have been aggressively harassing Filipino fishermen in the hotly-contested waters.

Another source said the sea mishap occurred several days ago without any sign that the Chinese warship being salvaged from the area.

“It’s been there since it (warship) struck the reef several days ago,” said a source, adding that the Chinese vessel is based at the Chinese's highly-fortified Panganiban Reef (Mischief Reef).

Mischief Reef, he said, is only 76 nautical miles from Hasa Hasa Shoal.

(Excerpt) Read more at philstar.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; chinasea
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

This is a superb opportunity for a media circus to embarrass the Chinese. They should load up ships with international media people (asking them to bring their own GPS with them) but providing them with live satellite video feeds, then make it a point to loudly ask the Chinese warship if it needs assistance, such as a tow, food or water.

The warship will almost certainly refuse, while screaming for help from the Chinese navy. But when they arrive, greet them with Philippine navy warships as “escorts into Philippine waters for a *humanitarian* rescue mission of a Chinese warship that has “navigational” problems, in that it is clearly in Philippine waters, and run aground.”

All while on live satellite feed to everywhere.

The Chinese ships Captain and his staff will probably be executed for embarrassing the Chinese navy, and efforts to bluff and bluster and declare that sea as Chinese waters will just be laughed at.


21 posted on 07/13/2012 8:39:49 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

It’s Typhoon season out east and the Philippines is always a target. One passed over the Philippines on 29 June. Nothing new has formed yet but who knows what the next couple of weeks will bring.

If they don’t get the ship off the reef soon she will be broken up or sunk!

http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/category/winds-of-change/typhoons/


22 posted on 07/13/2012 8:43:51 AM PDT by WellyP (question!)
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To: Oztrich Boy

They’re in the frigate section of Jane’s, and the Office of Naval Intelligence counts them as frigates.

They’re old, and not very good, frigates, but they are frigates.


23 posted on 07/13/2012 9:32:48 AM PDT by Strategerist
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

As much as this is an enjoyable “Ha Ha!” moment, it’s actually LESS embarassing than putting an Aegis cruiser on a reef right off of Honolulu, resulting in damage so bad the ship is decommissioned, which we did three years ago.


24 posted on 07/13/2012 9:42:47 AM PDT by Strategerist
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To: WellyP
Couldn’t they afford to put a foward scaning and side scaning Sonars on the ship? Really, my guess is they were making a “hero run”, running fast at night with all Sonar and Radar off trying to be undetected and relying only on GPS and charts that hadn’t been updated..... and they stuffed it! Did somebody screw with the GPS signal?

As recently as fewer than five years ago, you've had US warships colliding with, among other things, fishing boats, rocky outposts and bridges.

25 posted on 07/13/2012 9:55:22 AM PDT by James C. Bennett (An Australian.)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

Again, the Philippine navy is such a joke that simply having their ships displayed next to Chinese ones would make them a laughingstock. They don’t even have any anti-ship or anti-air missiles (or launchers) in their inventory - the heaviest weapons their ships carry are 76mm guns.


26 posted on 07/13/2012 10:19:22 AM PDT by JerseyanExile
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