Free Republic

Russia's state-controlled oil company Zarubezhneft and gas giant Gazprom, working with a subsidiary of PetroVietnam, the country's state-owned fossil fuel company, operate a gas field in Vietnam's South China Sea exclusive economic zone (EEZ), according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think tank in Washington. Chinese coast guard ships have sailed into the areas operated by Russian firms in Vietnam’s EEZ about 40 times since January 2022, according to vessel-tracking data from Vietnamese research organization South China Sea Chronicle Initiative (SCSCI), an independent nonprofit, according to Reuters. The most recent incident was on March 27, days...

Thursday the guided missile destroyer USS Milius sailed near some islands in the South China Sea that China claims as its own. Actually three different countries claim the Paracel Islands but China currently occupies them. Here’s a map showing the locations of some of the disputed islands in the South China Sea.Disputed islands in south china sea👉🏻The Paracel Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam.👉🏻The Spratly Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei and Philippines.👉🏻The Scarborough Shoal is claimed by Philippines, China and Taiwan#UPSCPrelims2023pic.twitter.com/Cv9UKS6uGT— Geography & Current Affair Page (@GeographyCrux) March 23, 2023So when the USS Milius sailed...

With Eastern Europe in turmoil over Putin's land grab in the Crimea and Iraq voting to legalize rape within marriage, one news story has been trumpeted nonstop. Ever since the plane disappeared, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has dominated the news coverage and has sent the media into a frenzy. Speculation has run rampant over the fate of the plane and the 239 people on board, and conspiracy theories have abounded. Whether you believe one scenario or the other, it is most likely that the passengers are deceased. With all the chaos going on in the world, why the media frenzy...

Crew on a Greek flagged oil tanker are responding to radio reports of suit cases found floating in the Straits of Malacca, between Malaysia and Indonesia, Greek media reported. The Oil and chemical tanker, the Elka Athina, reported to media that it was steaming toward a zone identified as a field of debris, including what appeared to be aircraft passenger's luggage. The crew was responding to a report from an Indonesian source, according to the translation of the report.

BEIJING (AP) — China's official Xinhua News Agency says a government website has images of suspected debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. The report says the satellite images from the morning of March 9 appear to show "three suspected floating objects" of varying sizes. The report includes coordinates of a location in the sea off the southern tip of Vietnam and east of Malaysia.

Crews searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet are investigating an oil slick found not far from the area where underwater “pings” that may be linked to the aircraft’s black box were detected. “A sample of about two liters has been collected and we are a number of days before it can be landed ashore and conclusively tested,” said retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the head of a joint agency coordinating the painstaking search off Australia’s west coast. “I stress the source of the oil is yet to be determined.” The slick is approximately 18,000 feet down-wind and down-sea...

Australian authorities coordinating the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 said Thursday that lab tests have shown an oil slick found in the search area last Sunday is not aircraft engine fuel or hydraulic fluid. Searchers are now using a robotic submarine, the Bluefin-21, to look for wreckage on the floor of the Indian Ocean more than 1,000 miles northwest of Perth, Australia. The Bluefin-21 has a rated depth of 4,500 meters, or 2.8 miles, and shortly after it was deployed on its first run this week, it returned to the surface several hours later because it reached that depth...

Chinese group claims responsibility for flight MH370 Staff Reporter 2014-03-10 11:56 (GMT+8) A group that calls itself the Chinese Martyrs' Brigade has claimed responsibility for crashing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which has remained missing after losing contact with ground control at 1:20am on Saturday. The previously unheard-of group sent a PDF statement to various journalists in China on March 9, saying, "You kill one of our clan, we will kill 100 of you as pay back." The majority of Chinese media outlets have expressed skepticism over the statement or dismissed it outright, suggesting it is likely a hoax made up...

he US Navy reconnaissance jet flies at 21,500 feet over the South China Sea, 30 miles from the contested Paracel Islands, a group of about 130 small atolls, the biggest of which are home to Chinese military bases. A voice, saying it’s coming from a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) airport, crackles over the radio of the US Navy P-8 Poseidon as a CNN crew, given rare access aboard the US flight, listens in. "American aircraft. Chinese airspace is 12 nautical miles. Not approaching any more or you bear all responsibility,” it says. In a few minutes, a Chinese fighter jet...

The Navy and Marine Corps are holding joint exercises at a time of heightened tensions with Beijing over the shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon The US Navy and Marine Corps are holding joint exercises in the South China Sea at a time of heightened tensions with Beijing over the shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon. The 7th Fleet based in Japan said Sunday that the USS Nimitz carrier strike group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit have been conducting "integrated expeditionary strike force operations" in the South China Sea...

The United States and the Philippines have agreed to restart joint patrols in the South China Sea as the longtime allies seek to counter China's military rise, a US Defense Department statement said. The two countries had suspended maritime patrols in the hotly contested area under the rule of former president Rodrigo Duterte. During a visit to Manila by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, he and Philippine counterpart Carlito Galvez "agreed to restart joint maritime patrols in the South China Sea to help address (security) challenges", the statement said on Thursday (Feb 2).

Want to see what China's island bases in the South China Sea look like? Take a look at some of the startling images taken by Getty Images photographer Ezra Acayan in October. They show airfields, radar installations, and military aircraft and warships stationed in the Spratly Islands, which are about 400 miles from the Chinese coast. Beijing has used both natural and artificial islands to build up its military capabilities in the area....

Chinese police kicked and beat a BBC journalist while detaining him for covering the biggest uprising there since the Tiananmen Square protests more than three decades ago. The British national broadcaster said it was “extremely concerned about the treatment” of Ed Lawrence, whose violent arrest in Shanghai was captured in disturbing videos shared online. “During his arrest, he was beaten and kicked by the police,” the BBC said of Lawrence, adding he was then “held for several hours before being released.” Lawrence himself noted a Swiss journalist was briefly detained and “at least one local national was arrested after trying...

The Biden administration is giving so much military assistance to Ukraine to combat Russian forces that it's risking not having enough weapons to help defend Taiwan should China invade, according to experts and former top national security officials."Our weapons stockpiles are low, in large part because of the war in Ukraine, which means if there's another war, or if we need to provide weapons to Taiwan, those weapons aren't going to be there because these weapons are complicated to make — they're expensive," former National Security Council Chief of Staff Fred Fleitz told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Friday."My...

President Xi Jinping declared in November last year: “China resolutely opposes hegemonism and power politics.” “(It) wishes to maintain friendly relations with its neighbours and jointly nurture lasting peace in the region and absolutely will not seek hegemony or even less, bully the small,” the Chinese leader added. He was speaking during a special summit to commemorate the 30th anniversary of dialogue relations between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China.

The silent ceramic objects that survive from medieval Indian Ocean trade carry incredible stories of a time when South Asia had the upper hand over China...In the 830s CE, a ship tried to make a daring crossing. Navigating treacherous reefs and shoals, it was attempting to move from the South China Sea to the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. After a brief stop there, it intended to catch the monsoon winds to India. This attempt failed, and the ship’s contents — ranging from marvellously carved golden plates to glazed ceramics, from a diplomat’s ink-stone to a small toy dog...

Over the past ten years, China’s Communist Party (CCP) has strategically relied on its $4 trillion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to boost its image and influence with at least 149 countries to date. But success has eluded its efforts, and the BRI strategy may be doomed as a result. Consider for example the CCP’s stalled attempts at pushing the BRI strategy across countries in Europe. Not anticipated were the barriers and delays created by sanctions imposed on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. Before the sanctions, China used Russia as a convenient transit point for the shipment of BRI...

<p>An image and multiple videos of a Lockheed Martin F-35C stealth fighter jet that crashed-landed on an aircraft carrier transiting an undisclosed location in the South China Sea were leaked onto the internet in early February. After an investigation, the US Navy charged a handful of sailors for leaking internal video footage of the incident.</p>

Leaked video captured the harrowing moment a fighter jet crashed onto the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson before plunging into the South China Sea last month. The pilot was recovered after ejecting from the F-35C Lightning II, which was seen bobbing in the water without its canopy. Seven sailors were wounded in the Jan. 24 incident. The footage captured the aircraft’s final moments from the Pilot’s Landing Aid Television, or PLAT, camera as well as from the ship’s so-called “island,” the command center for flight-deck operations. The F-35C is seen banking as it descends rapidly toward the...

An F-35C Joint Strike Fighter was involved in a mishap today while landing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, which is currently operating in the South China Sea. The pilot ejected from the aircraft and is in a stable condition, while seven other sailors aboard the ship were injured as a result of the accident. The fate of the aircraft is uncertain.USNI News was the first to report on this incident, citing a U.S. Navy release. That release also said that of the seven injured sailors, four received treatment aboard the Carl Vinson, while three were evacuated to a...