PH blah-blahs over Spratlys claims; Vietnam builds artificial islands and fortresses

[Lee]

Quote

 

WHAT a country. Congress is spending P10 billion for its new building at the Bonifacio Global City — close of course to the swankiest restaurants and shops there. The Aquino 3rd government spent P1 billion for an "arbitration" suit against China that turned out to be useless except as a propaganda campaign tool.

We will allocate P125 billion for a Maharlika Investment Fund that most investment bankers who aren't with the government are shaking their heads over.

Yet we spent and will spend almost very little in order to defend the islands we occupy in the Spratlys, by fortifying them. We just blah-blah about it, fooling ourselves that calling the sea there the West Philippine Sea establishes our ownership of everything there.

 

Top, Vietnamese military outpost in SCS; below, a Philippine outpost (a grounded WW2 ship). SOURCE: VNEXPRESS.NET AND NAVY PHOTO

Quote

 

Vietnam, a nation ravaged by war for decades, shames us. Since 2016, it has spent considerable amounts — at least $200 million by one estimate — to turn the islands and reefs they occupy into formidable fortifications, to ensure their defense against an aggressor. Following close on China's heels, it has reclaimed 300 hectares to enlarge the small islands they control. It plans to spend another $500 million for such purposes in the next few years, according to exclusive articles by this newspaper's reporter. It certainly hasn't been only China that has reclaimed land in the Spratlys to transform them into artificial islands complete with infrastructure.

DK1 rigs

"Together with guardian vessels, these 'DK1' rigs could monitor and expel foreign fishing vessels away from nearby waters and accommodate injured or sick Vietnamese fishermen for treatment, creating favorable conditions for helicopters to pick up and rescue the sick and the 'wounded,'" a detailed study on Vietnam's recent expansion and military deployment explained.

Vietnam, in fact, boasts that its DK1 rigs are a huge accomplishment in its defense of its Spratly possessions that its newspapers have run articles praising the architect of these rigs and hailing the heroism of soldiers stationed on these rigs for months.

Vietnam doesn't hide the fact that the features it occupies are military installations. An article in the Vietnamese media Vinexpress was headlined: "The military outposts guarding Vietnam's southern continental shelf, a look back." Instead of being managed as a civilian entity, as part of a province as in the case of China and the Philippines, the Vietnamese-occupied features on the Spratly islands are supervised by military commands: the Naval Regions 2 and 4 of the Vietnamese Navy.

In February 2021, the Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), which has been an anti-China propaganda venue for the South China Sea disputes, published an article that detailed Vietnam's accelerated militarization of its facilities in the Spratlys. It claimed that it was "Hanoi's continuing focus on making its bases more resilient to invasion or blockade and strengthening deterrence by ensuring it can strike Chinese facilities."

 

 

Read more:       PH blah-blahs over Spratlys claims; Vietnam builds artificial islands and fortresses (msn.com)

[GeoffH]

I actually don't have a problem with the 'suit' that the Philippines took in the international courts and I wouldn't call it useless as it grants 'legitimacy' to various national governments to 'assist' at some time in the future if needed.

And given the relatively small cost (compared to many other projects) it seems like value to money to me.

 

YMMV of course.

Edited July 31, 2023 by GeoffH