US will challenge aggressive China

South seas turbulent

SYDNEY, Dec 14, (AFP): The United States will keep challenging Beijing’s “assertive, aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea”, the US Pacific commander said Wednesday, as tensions between two powers rise over comments by Donald Trump.

Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, warned Washington would not accept Chinese control of the region, despite Beijing’s rapid development of artificial islands capable of hosting military planes. He remarks come as Beijing reacted angrily after Trump, the US President-elect, broke convention by speaking directly to Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen — and suggested Washington could jettison Washington’s decades-old “One China policy”.

The “One China policy” is a diplomatic compromise allowing the US to do business with both China and Taiwan while only recognising Beijing diplomatically.

“We will not allow the shared domains to be closed down unilaterally, no matter how many bases are built on artificial features in the South China Sea,” Harris said.

“We will cooperate where we can but we will be ready to confront where we must.”

China insists on sovereignty over virtually all the resource-endowed South China Sea, despite rival claims from its Southeast Asian neighbours.

Trump

Recognise

But Washington has repeatedly said it does not recognise the claims, and has regularly sent warships into the strategically vital area to assert the right to freedom of navigation.

“Should others (countries) signal in this way in freedom of navigation operations? I think so, but that is again up to each individual country to make that decision,” the admiral told Australian think-tank the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

“The US fought its first war following our independence to ensure freedom of navigation, and we did that when we were weak and small,” he added.

“This is an enduring principle, and one of the reasons our forces remain ready to fight tonight.”

Harris added that Washington would not make Australia choose between its traditional ally, the United States, and rising world power China.

“Australia is more than capable of chewing gum and walking at the same time, and so we’re not asking you to make a choice,” he said.

A UN-backed tribunal ruled in July in a case brought by the Philippines that any extensive claims to the sea had no legal basis and that China’s construction of artificial islands in disputed waters was illegal.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said last month that Canberra and Jakarta were considering joint patrols in the disputed region. The Australian navy has already conducted joint exercises in the South China Sea with India and the US.

US military grounds Osprey planes:

The US Marines suspended flights of their Osprey aircraft in Japan on Wednesday as anger mounts over an accident that saw one of the hybrid planes crash off the southern island of Okinawa.

The incident came at a delicate time, with Tokyo and Washington pushing to build a new airbase on Okinawa despite local opposition against the heavy US military presence there and concerns by residents about the Osprey.

The MV-22 Osprey, a so-called tiltrotor plane that can carry 24 troops, is half helicopter half turboprop and boasts the manoeuvrability of a chopper and the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft.

But a series of accidents mostly in the United States involving the plane have prompted protests by Okinawa residents.

The crash happened overnight after the aircraft damaged one of its propellers during an aerial refuelling drill with another plane around 10:00 pm Tuesday (1300 GMT), according to Marine Lieutenant General Lawrence Nicholson.

The Osprey pilot guided the violently shaking aircraft to shallow waters near US Marine base Camp Schwab, and conducted “a controlled landing” in the water to reduce injuries to crew and avoid flying over Okinawan residential areas, he told reporters.

Nicholson said that investigations were under way and flights would not resume until he was satisfied with the results of the reviews.

He stressed, however, that the incident was not due to a mechanical problem with the aircraft.

‘Shadowy’ doctors visited Park:

South Korea’s embattled president was visited by “shadowy” doctors who injected her with human placenta extract, a parliamentary inquiry into a growing corruption scandal heard Wednesday.

The ongoing, two-month hearing is seeking to get to the bottom of a scandal that triggered mass nationwide protests and led to lawmakers voting to impeach Park Geun-Hye last Friday.

Park stands accused of colluding with her longtime friend Choi Soon-Sil to strong arm donations from large companies worth tens of millions of dollars.

The scandal raised questions as to what extent the friend influenced the president’s personal life, as it emerged that Park had sought treatment from doctors who were not part of her official medical staff but had ties with Choi.

The two doctors — who treated Choi for years — testified that they had visited Park at her residence multiple times, often without the presence or knowledge of the presidential medical team.

One of them said he had given Park a series of injections containing human placenta extracts and vitamins, widely used as an anti-ageing treatment or for detoxification in South Korea.

He later became a member of the presidential medical team.

The other doctor, who runs a plastic surgery clinic in the affluent Seoul district of Gangnam, testified that he had visited Park multiple times since 2013 to handle her “skin troubles.”

He however denied that he had performed cosmetic procedures on Park as lawmakers grilled him with past photos of small bruises on the president’s face, which he said were possibly traces of wrinkle filler needles.