DT e-Paper 27 February 2017

World
Wary of Trump unpredictability,
China ramps up naval abilities
• Reuters, Beijing
The PLA Navy is likely to secure significant
new funding in China’s upcoming
defence budget as Beijing
seeks to check US dominance of the
high seas and step up its own projection
of power around the globe.
China’s navy has been taking an
increasingly prominent role in recent
months, with a rising star admiral
taking command, its first aircraft
carrier sailing around self-ruled Taiwan
and new Chinese warships popping
up in far-flung places.
Now, with President Donald
Trump promising a US shipbuilding
spree and unnerving Beijing with
his unpredictable approach on hot
button issues including Taiwan
and the South and East China Seas,
China is pushing to narrow the gap
with the US Navy.
Beijing does not give a breakdown
for how much it spends on
the navy, and the overall official defence
spending figures it gives $139b
for 2016 - likely understates its investment,
according to diplomats.
China unveils the defence
budget for this year at next month’s
annual meeting of parliament, a
closely watched figure around the
China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier with accompanying fleet conducts a drill in an area
of South China Sea
REUTERS
region and in Washington, for clues
to China’s intentions.
China surprised last year with its
lowest increase in six years, 7.6%, the
first single-digit rise since 2010, following
a nearly unbroken two-decade
run of double-digit jumps.
Rapid development
The Chinese navy, once generally
limited to coastal operations, has
developed rapidly under President
Xi Jinping’s ambitious military
modernisation.
It commissioned 18 ships in
2016, including missile destroyers,
corvettes and guided missile frigates,
according to state media.
Barely a week goes by without an
announcement of some new piece
of equipment, including an electronic
reconnaissance ship put into
service in January.
Still, the PLA Navy significantly
lags the United States, which operates
10 aircraft carriers to China’s
one, the Soviet-era Liaoning.
Trump has vowed to increase
the US Navy to 350 ships from
the current 290 as part of “one of
the “greatest military buildups in
American history”, a move aides
say is needed to counter China’s rise
as a military power.
Recent PLA Navy missions have
included visits to Gulf states, where
the United States has traditionally
protected sea lanes, and to the South
China Sea, Indian Ocean and Western
Pacific, in what the state-run
website StrongChina called Shen’s
“first show of force against the United
States, Japan and Taiwan”.
Last month, a Chinese submarine
docked at a port in Malaysia’s Sabah
state, which lies on the South China
Sea, only the second confirmed visit
of a Chinese submarine to a foreign
port, according to state media.
The submarine had come from
supporting anti-piracy operations
off the coast of Somalia, where
China has been learning valuable
lessons about overseas naval operations
since 2008.
Chinese warships have also been
calling at ports in Pakistan, Bangladesh
and Myanmar, unnerving regional
rival India. •
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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
Iran holds naval
war games amid
rising tensions
with US
• Reuters, Dubai
Iran launched naval drills at the mouth
of the Gulf and the Indian Ocean on
Sunday, a naval commander said,
as tensions with the United States
escalated after US President Donald
Trump put Tehran “on notice”.
Since taking office last month,
Trump has pledged to get tough
with Iran, warning the Islamic Republic
after its ballistic missile test
on January 29 that it was playing
with fire and all US options were on
the table.
Iran’s annual exercises will be held
in the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of
Oman, the Bab el-Mandab and northern
parts of the Indian Ocean, to train
in the fight against terrorism and piracy,
Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari
said, according to state media.
Millions of barrels of oil are transported
daily to Europe, the United
States and Asia through the Bab
el-Mandab and the Strait of Hormuz,
waterways that run along the coasts
of Yemen and Iran.
The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet is
based in the region and protects
shipping lanes in the Gulf and nearby
waters. •
DT
Trump to skip press
dinner, a first in 36 years
• AFP, Washington, DC
US President Donald Trump has ratcheted
up his feud with the US media by
announcing he will skip the annual correspondents’
dinner, the first US president
to do so in 36 years.
By boycotting the event Trump
breaks a tradition that began in 1921 in
which journalists invite the US president
for a light-hearted roast.
“I will not be attending the White
House Correspondents’ Association
Dinner this year. Please wish everyone
well and have a great evening!” Trump
wrote Saturday on Twitter.
The last time a president missed the
event was in 1981, when Ronald Reagan
was recovering after being shot in
an assassination attempt. Reagan however
phoned in with friendly remarks.
Richard Nixon, who despised the
media, skipped the event in 1972.
Trump frequently blasted the mainstream
US press during the election
campaign, and as president has intensified
his media-bashing.
‘Nerd Prom’
Over the years the dinner organized
by the White House Correspondents’
Association has evolved – or devolved,
depending on one’s point of view – into
the self-described “Nerd Prom” packed
with Hollywood celebrities.
The WHCA said it will proceed with
this year’s dinner, set for April 29.
The event “has been and will continue
to be a celebration of the First Amendment
(on freedom of the press) and the
important role played by an independent
news media in a healthy republic,” WHCA
president Jeff Mason tweeted.
Some news groups have already
pulled out of events related to the dinner.
Conde Nast, publisher of The New
Yorker, Vanity Fair have all cancelled
their exclusive before- and after-parties,
and Bloomberg is reportedly pulling
out as a party co-sponsor.
According to Buzzfeed News, CNN
is debating whether to also pull out.
The New York Times has skipped the
event for years to avoid charges that its reporters
are too close to the White House.
The dinner normally features a bigname
comedian to rib the president,
but this year a funny person has yet to
be booked.
Comedian Samantha Bee earlier announced
a “Not the White House Correspondents’
Dinner” on the same night
at a nearby hotel to raise money for the
Committee to Protect Journalists. •
Democratic National Chair candidate, Tom Perez, addresses the audience as the
Democratic National Committee holds an election on February 25
REUTERS
Democrats pick Perez to
lead party against Trump
• AFP, Washington, DC
Opposition Democrats on Saturday
chose Tom Perez as their new leader,
tapping an establishment figure
to lead the fight against President
Donald Trump and the Republican
Congress.
Perez, a labor secretary under
former president Barack Obama
and the party’s first Hispanic-American
leader, immediately named
the contest’s runner-up, leftist lawmaker
Keith Ellison, as the party’s
deputy chairman.
The fight over who would chair
the Democratic National Committee
(DNC) appeared at times to be
a proxy battle between the supporters
of defeated 2016 Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary
Clinton and her leftist primary rival
Bernie Sanders.
Perez, who won 235 votes
against 200 for Ellison - a strong
Sanders supporter - was seen as the
establishment pick.
A third candidate, South Bend,
Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg – a
gay, 35-year-old Rhodes Scholar
and military veteran – dropped
out of the race before the vote,
which was held in Atlanta,
Georgia. •
Bombings, air
strikes in Syria
rattle Geneva
peace talks
• Reuters, Geneva
A United Nations peace envoy said a
militant attack in Syria on Saturday
was a deliberate attempt to wreck
peace talks in Geneva, while the warring
sides traded blame and appeared
no closer to actual negotiations.
Suicide bombers stormed two
Syrian security offices in Homs, killing
dozens with gunfire and explosions
including the head of military
security, prompting airstrikes against
the last rebel-held enclave in the
western city.
“Spoilers were always expected,
and should continue to be expected,
to try to influence the proceedings
of the talks. It is in the interest of
all parties who are against terrorism
and are committed to a political
process in Syria not to allow these
attempts to succeed,” UN mediator
Staffan de Mistura said.
De Mistura has met the two sides
separately in Geneva while he tries
to get agreement on how talks to
end the six-year-old conflict should
be arranged. He has warned not to
expect any quick breakthrough and
to beware of letting the violence derail
any fragile progress. •