Thanks and apparently Malaysia is following Duertes course with Najib prostrating himself at Xi's feet because China is not investigating him over missing monies. [Sarcasm off]
Apparently Malaysia is going to acquire coastal defence ships from China also. This is the weakening of the ASEAN "resolve".
can't sanction them if they haven't invade/attack any country for no reason. even then its hard to sanction one of the largest export/import, it will put world econ into recession. But that also mean they wont do something aggressive due to their own economy concern.
True, but it's not that different from the USCG- look up its history from WWI! The CG & the US Navy always help & augment each other whenever it's practical; I won't be surprised if in the future this CG is merged with the Navy (but remains distinct as a civilian entity perhaps called "Naval CG auxiliary") to avoid duplication of effort & save $. Besides, the US Navy already employs civilian mariners and security personnel on its Sea Lift Command ships.
The order for the 4 ships is aimed at strengthening ties and is also driven by the fact insufficient funds have been allocated for the ships to be ordered elsewhere. The Chinese were the only ones who could deliver the ships under the allocated budget. It's confirmed that the engines will be MTUs and will also contain other Western sourced gear but to keep things cheap the ships will be fitted with various Chinese gear.
I don't think this is a very big shift. Lots of countries and companies buy ships off China. Malaysia has Russian and US gear. Seems like a fairly harmless engagement. Its not like they are leaving the FPDA and given up all territorial claims.
Indo Defence 2016: PT PAL signs MoU with Boustead to build Malaysian Navy ship in Indonesia | IHS Jane's 360
I just wonder why Singapore decided to transport the APC with a ship making a transit in Hongkong, its a part of Communist China and the Chinese can do what ever they want with Singapore's military stuff. But maybe such transports already existed for many years, without any problems...
It is largely to do with the fact that China is increasing the pressure on Taiwan by trying to isolate it diplomatically and influence the way other conduct their dealings with Taiwan. I fail to see how it is connected to Singapore's policy of supporting freedom of passage for all in the South China Sea; a policy which is adopted by everyone.
I gather because someone just looked for the cheapest transport contract available on the market and didn't care or think about possible problems of a stopover in mainland China.
I unfortunately agree. The manufacturer should have thought it through better indeed
Well Singapore do more than that..Changi is the based for US LCS ship..that continue patroling SCS. Plus with Taiwan and Singapore continue military relationship..China seems try to put pressure on anyone in neighbourhood that 'dare' (in their view) still in 'line of policy' that potentially 'stab' China back..
Agree..Singapore military ussually conduct in more 'calculative' risk management..but perhaps because they (frm what I gather) already done it several times before..using similar method.
As you said : ''anyone''. ''Anyone'' with too close ties with Taiwan would get the same treatment. It's Chinese policy to ensure Taiwan doesn't get too ''independent'' and that countries don't get too ''friendly'' with Taiwan. A too close a relationship - from a Chinese perspective - would be in violation of the ''One China'' policy and would embolden the Taiwanese. The fact that Singapore has close ties with Uncle Sam [others do as well it's just that the relationship is not so ''public''] is nothing new as is its relationship with Taiwan.The Chinese probably felt that now is the right time to publicly send a strong signal indicating their displeasure; to Singapore and Taiwan.
No surprises. It's often more practical and cheaper to use commercial means to lift heavy gear rather than military assets. Some years ago some SAF gear which was deployed to Australia for an exercise was flown in using a Malaysian [MAS Cargo] company.