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Philippine settlers to Spratlys
island - standing up to Communist China
AP ^
| 9-23-02
| Jim Gomez
Posted on 09/24/2002 9:24:20 AM PDT by tallhappy
click here to read article
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1
posted on
09/24/2002 9:24:20 AM PDT
by
tallhappy
To: tallhappy
Freedom against CHICOMM ping!
2
posted on
09/24/2002 9:26:52 AM PDT
by
dagar
To: tallhappy
good
3
posted on
09/24/2002 9:27:57 AM PDT
by
lepton
To: tallhappy
Uh oh, this is going to be very interesting. The Spratley's have long been an area of contention between the Philippines and China. Supposedly China has installed military equipment on the island.
4
posted on
09/24/2002 9:29:19 AM PDT
by
OldFriend
To: tallhappy
CIA Factsheet on the Spratly's here^.
5
posted on
09/24/2002 9:37:19 AM PDT
by
AdA$tra
To: tallhappy
China is building its bluewater Navy in part to lay claim to the Spratlys and other resource rich areas of the South China Sea, for oil, mainly, but fishing as well. Philippines and the other claimants will have a growing problem trying to assert their rights in the Spratlys with China moving in.
To: tallhappy
Chaeck out this "Flags of the World" web-site on the Spratley Islands: http://www.fotw.ca/flags/spr.html
there have been a number of private individuals who have asserted territorial rights (sometimes in conflict with each other) under the names of the Kingdom of Humanity, the Republic of Morac-Songhrati-Meads, the Principality of Freedomland, the Free Territiory of Freedomland, and the Republic of Koneuwe.
In 1863-1879 a British subject, Captain James George Meads explored the South China Sea in his ship the "Modeste." He laid claim to the Spratleys and the Paracels. Later he transferred ownership to a relative, Franklin M. Meads who helped organize the Kingdom of Humanity. It was proclaimed in April 1914 by Franklin Meads in conjunction with Victor L. and Charles G. Anderson, William Chaplin, Willis Alva Ryant, Paul Williard and Walter Hutchinson. Meads took the title of Chief of State and they renamed the South China Sea the Humanity Sea to discourage the Chinese claims.
The Japanese were in the islands briefly in 1917 and occupied them from 1939 to 1945. Following World War II, Franklin Meads transferred his title to Josiah N. Meads in October 1945. In November, 1945 the title passed to Morton F. Meads, but because of his youth Willis Alva Ryant served as Chief of State until September 1963. Morton Meads is said to have lived in the islands, raising chickens, ducks and goats and processing gooney birds for the restaurants of Saigon and Manilla. Meanwhile, claims over the islands which had been made by Sultan Songhrati, who lived in the Netherlands East Indies, were sold in 1946 successively to the sister of the Philippine President and then to Morton F. Meads.
Free Territory of Freedomland
A number of reefs and islands surrounding the Spratlys were claimed by Philippine millionaire Thomas Cloma on 15 May 1956 under this name. The flag consisted of a red field with a very broad navy blue border on all four sides, in the center a highly stylized white flying bird. Cloma almost provoked an international incident on 7 July 1956 when he presented the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Manila with a Chinese flag he had lowered on Itu Aba, where it had been hoisted by the Chinese navy. A month later a landing party from the Republic of Vietnam (i.e. "South Vietnam") raised its flag in the Spratleys.
In August 1974 French police arrested a swindler who styled himself the Grand Duke of the Principality of Freedomland, Count Othmar di Schmieder Rocca-Forozata. It would seem as though this Freedomland was not the same territory as Cloma's Freedomland; contradictorally also called the Republic of Koneuwe, it was described as consisting of 74 islands 2,000 miles from Borneo.
7
posted on
09/24/2002 9:45:11 AM PDT
by
Tancred
To: RightWhale
Looks like another potential proxy war.
To: Tancred
9
posted on
09/24/2002 9:47:17 AM PDT
by
Tancred
To: Eric in the Ozarks
China wouldn't be ready for a few more years to faceoff against America directly. But the trend is that this is coming; the question is whether it will be 5 years or 10 years from now.
To: RightWhale
We can move it into the way-out-there outyears by donating some of our excess destroyers to the Filipino Navy. I read last week that a Spruance class destroyer built in the 1980's was being scrapped. This sounds like a waste of resources to me.
To: Eric in the Ozarks
donating some of our excess destroyers to the Filipino Navy Probably already do. Probably won't matter when the Chinese bluewater Navy shows up.
To: RightWhale
If the Chinese show up with cast-off Russian equipment and the PI sports our old stuff, I've gotta a hunch how this is going to play out.
To: Eric in the Ozarks; Poohbah
Me, too.
The ChiComs would end up having to buy even more castoffs after the whole fuss is over with.
From the DOD Press Briefing:
SECDEF: "As we've explained earlier, the USS Cheyenne and USS Seawolf were conducting a training drill. Now, this was supposed to involve water jets, but due to an oversight, live Mark 48 ADCAPs were fired. The result, as you can see, was the destruction of the major escort force of the Chinese invasion force, which caused them to turn back from the Spratlys..."
Rumsfeld will have to be able to do that with a straight face... probably the toughest part of the whole exercise.
14
posted on
09/24/2002 11:38:37 AM PDT
by
hchutch
To: hchutch
Naw, just make sure that some torpedoes are "lost" during exercises up in the Bangor area.
"Gosh, Senator, those old torpedo retrievers are just getting plum wore out."
15
posted on
09/24/2002 11:40:24 AM PDT
by
Poohbah
To: Poohbah
Kinda hard to explain how they got to the South China Sea from Bangor...
In this case, better to have a live-fire exercise near the area, but the subs have a "navigation error" and accidentally hit the ChiCom invasion force instead...
16
posted on
09/24/2002 11:43:33 AM PDT
by
hchutch
To: AdA$tra
"CIA Factsheet"
Common, a CIA factsheet? Thats like saying politicians dont lie.
To: hchutch
Kinda hard to explain how they got to the South China Sea from Bangor...They were carried in the talons of African Sparrows.
18
posted on
09/24/2002 12:09:26 PM PDT
by
Poohbah
To: hchutch
Glad I don't play poker with Rummy.
To: Poohbah
Possible...
Better, though, to raise the specter of an "accident" to Jiang. The thing is, if we can draw some tough lines early, it might convince them NOT to cross others later on. For example, if they did try to evict those settlers, an "accident" that results in the sinking of their newest Sovremenny does the job nicely.
Whatever explanation is used, though, will require Rumsfeld to keep a straight face and not looking to satisfied when he is addressing those folks in the Pentagon press corps.
20
posted on
09/24/2002 12:14:22 PM PDT
by
hchutch
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