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In a Fortnight
By Peter Mattis
SOUTH SEA FLEET EXERCISES SHINE SPOTLIGHT ON TENSIONS
Tensions in the South China Sea once again appear to be on the rise as recent Chinese naval activity has attracted the attention of regional actors. On March 26, Hanoi publicly complained that a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy vessel had set a Vietnamese fishing vessel on fire. Beijing denied the accusation, countering that the PLA Navy (PLAN) ship had fired two signal flares as a warning near a Vietnamese fishing vessel that was operating illegally in Chinese territorial waters (Xinhua, March 27; People’s Daily Online, March 26). At the same time, the PLAN’s South Sea Fleet—one of the three major naval commands—has conducted a series of exercises that assert Chinese sovereignty and fulfills the “preparations for actual combat” requirements that President Xi Jinping has called for in military training (Xinhua, March 19; PLA Daily, January 13; December 12, 2012).
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