US blacklists Chinese individuals, firms for South China Sea work
WASHINGTON, United States — The United States on Wednesday announced sanctions and restrictions on two dozen Chinese companies and associated officials for taking part in building artificial islands in disputed waters in the South China Sea.
The 24 state-owned firms include subsidiaries of construction giant China Communications Construction Co., telecommunications firms and a unit of the China Shipbuilding Group.
The US Commerce Department said the companies "enabled China to construct and militarize disputed outposts in the South China Sea."
"Since 2013, the PRC (People's Republic of China) has used its state-owned enterprises to dredge and reclaim more than 3,000 acres on disputed features in the South China Sea, destabilizing the region, trampling on the sovereign rights of its neighbors, and causing untold environmental devastation," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
The 24 companies were placed on the Commerce Department's "Entity List" which allows it to block exports of US goods and materials to them.
In addition, Pompeo said individuals associated with the South China Sea operations will be unable to obtain visas to visit the United States.
The names of the individuals were not made available.
HSBC criticized
Pompeo on Wednesday also blasted HSBC, the Britain-based Hong Kong banking giant, over reports that it had frozen access for executives of Next Media to their personal bank accounts and credit cards as Beijing and Hong Kong security authorities pressure the independent media group.
"The bank is thus maintaining accounts for individuals who have been sanctioned for denying freedom for Hong Kongers, while shutting accounts for those seeking freedom," said Pompeo in a statement.
"Free nations must ensure that corporate interests are not suborned by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to aid its political repression," he said.
The blacklisting of the Chinese companies was the latest step in Washington's efforts to push back against Beijing over its military buildup in areas of the South China Sea where sovereignty is contested by countries including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan.
Beijing has sought to make its claims to much of the South China Sea a de facto reality by building up small shoals and reefs into military bases with airstrips and port facilities.
In July the United States formally declared Beijing's pursuit of territory and resources in South China Sea as illegal, explicitly backing the territorial claims of Southeast Asian countries against China's.
Both the United States and China militaries have stepped up actions in the region, raising tensions between the two sides.
The Chinese have conducted military exercises, while the US navy has undertaken "freedom of navigation operations" to assert its rejection of Chinese sovereignty by sailing through waters around islands that Beijing claims as its own.
On July 13, Pompeo voiced Washington's increasingly strong challenge to China's claims, saying "the world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire."
On August 6 Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe warned the US to stop making inflammatory statements over the South China Sea and Taiwan and "avoid taking dangerous moves that may escalate the situation."
The United States Navy's Nimitz-class nuclear powered supercarrier USS John C. Stennis continues underway in the South China Sea.
The US Pacific Command just reported that it has received "cargo" from support ship USNS Rainier in the disputed waters.
#GreatGreenFleet's USS @Stennis74 receives cargo from USNS #Rainier in the #SouthChinaSea - @US7thFleet pic.twitter.com/MnJWrow6Vv
— U.S. Pacific Command (@PacificCommand) June 10, 2016
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources conducts an aerial maritime inspection over Scarborough Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc on Thursday, according to a report of PTV.
PTV says BFAR is checking if the southeast portion of Bajo de Mansinloc remains free from illegal and hazardous floating barriers.
Earlier this week, the Philippine Coast removed the chains surrounding the entrance of Bajo de Masinloc installed by the China Coast Guard. — PTV
The National Security Council condemns the installation of the floating barriers of the China Coast Guard in Bajo de Masinloc, PTV reports on Monday.
“It ruled categorically that such action by the PRC violated the traditional fishing rights of our fishermen in the shoal who have been fishing there for centuries," NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya says.
"Any State that prevents them from doing artisanal fishing there violates UNCLOS and international law, in general,” he adds.
PTV reports that BRP Antonio Luna of the Philippine Navy and HMCS Ottawa of the Royal Canadian Navy conducted a joint sail in the West Philippine Sea on Sept. 21.
“The joint sail is part of the Philippine Navy's regular engagements with its partners in the Philippines' maritime zones. Bravo Zulu to all the personnel of both ships and those who planned this activity," Ltc Enrico Gil Ileto, Public Affairs AFP chief says.
WATCH: BRP Antonio Luna of the Philippine Navy and HMCS Ottawa of the Royal Canadian Navy conducted a joint sail in the West Philippine Sea on Sept. 21. (????: AFP Wescom) | via Bea Bernardo (1/2) pic.twitter.com/DmJguzJSiF
— PTVph (@PTVph) September 22, 2023
Ahead of the second State of the Nation Address of President Ferdinand Marcis Jr, the descendants of the Bai sa Condor and Anta sa Tebouk, on behalf of the Iranun in the Philippines composed of 16 sultans, formally declares ownership of the Spratly Islands and the Scarborough Shoals as patrimony from their ancestors.
The declaration of ownership is led by Sultan Tomas Reyes Cabili, Jr. as part of the advocacy of the Tomas Ll. Cabili Foundation (TLC Foundation).
"TLC Foundation is doing this for our country’s sake as a whole on our claim for what is ours. Not just for our Muslim brothers and the Moro Origins of Mindanao (IRANUN), BUT for all the Filipinos - and the next generations to come. All the Philippines’ descendants of the Iranunis unfurling the historical dimension of the Spratlys and the ScarboroughShoals to strengthen the Philippines' claim on them and complement the theoretical frameworks already presented in the United Nations," Cabili says.
Raymond Powell, project lead at the Gordion Knot Center for National Security Innovation, tweets that China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels "maneuvered dangerously close" to two Philippine Coast Guard ships on a resupply mission at Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea last week.
In a tweet, Powell identifies the ships as BRP Malabrigo and BRP Malapascua. He says these were escorting a small-boat resupply mission to the Philippines' outpost aboard BRP Sierra Madre and were met by an armada of CCG and militia ships, as well as a possible navy vessel.
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