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Defensive Wen
- 15 of the 18 member states of the East Asia Summit that took place in Bali last weekend raised directly, or indirectly, the question of maritime security in the South China Sea
- Only Cambodia and Myanmar apparently did not touch the issue in any form.
- Addressing the annual “ASEAN Plus One” meeting with China that preceded the East Asia Summit, Wen announced a decision to set up a three billion yuan (around $470 million) maritime cooperation fund. The fund would initially focus on marine research, environmental protection, connectivity, navigation safety, combating transnational crimes, and search and rescue.
- Canberra had not consulted Washington before letting China use the space facility at Dongara. The facility in western Australia is a valuable addition to China’s international network of space stations. The four other known Chinese space tracking stations are at Karachi (Pakistan), Malindi (Kenya), Swakopmund (Namibia) and Santiago (Chile). Beijing had to close down a similar facility in Kiribati
- Dongara allows China to more precisely position its dual-use satellites — that are used for both civilian and military purposes — and track naval targets of the United States and its allies.
- There is some speculation that Australia might have granted Beijing the access in order to gain a sense of China’s technical approaches to space tracking.
