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Philippines gets first coastguard boat from Japan to boost security

MANILA (Reuters) – Japan on Thursday delivered to the Philippines the first of 10 coastguard vessels to help it improve its maritime security and law enforcement in the South China Sea where tension has been rising over a territorial dispute with China.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea where about $5 trillion worth of sea-borne trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims in the sea believed to have rich deposits of oil and gas.

Japan has no claims in the waterway but worries about China’s growing military reach across sea lanes through which much of Japan’s trade passes.

Philippine coastguard chief Rear Admiral William Melad said the 44-metre (144-foot) vessel from Japan would be sent out to sea on patrols and law enforcement operations.

“It can be used for maritime security operations but it’s not for combat,” Melad told reporters.

The boat would also be used for humanitarian work and disaster relief operations. Japan will supply nine more of the vessels under a 7.3 billion peso ($158 million) soft loan agreement.

Melad did not mention China but its increasingly assertive claims in disputed South China Sea waters pose for the Philippines its most pressing security concern.

China has dredged up sand and built up reefs to make seven islands in the Spratly islands, some with port facilities and air strips.

China says is has the right to do whatever work it wants on its territory, and its aims are entirely peaceful, but an arbitration court in The Hague last month rejected China’s historic claim to the South China Sea.

China did not participate in and has refused to accept the July 12 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

Japan and the Philippines are in talks about two more large coastguard ships worth about 10 billion pesos ($215 million) and the lease of four TC-90 surveillance aircraft.

Japan has also warming relations with Vietnam, promising to help strengthen its coastguard with training, vessels and other equipment.

Philippine coastguard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo said the force would be expanded over the next two years with the recruitment of 6,000 more personnel and the acquisition of more boats and aircraft from the United States to protect the country’s exclusive economic zone.

(Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Robert Birsel)

China says cyber rules no cause for foreign business concern

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s pending cyber security law will not create obstacles for foreign business, China’s Foreign Ministry said, responding to concerns by international business lobbies over the planned rules.

More than 40 global business groups last week petitioned Premier Li Keqiang, according to a copy of a letter seen by Reuters, urging China to revise draft cyber rules they believe are vague and discriminate against foreign enterprises.

The groups say the pending rules, including a cyber security law that could be passed this year, include provisions for invasive government security reviews and onerous requirements to keep data in China.

They say the regulations would impede China’s economic growth, create barriers to market entry and impair the country’s security by isolating it technologically.

The ministry, in a faxed statement to Reuters late on Tuesday night, said the law will not be used to “carry out differential treatment and will not create obstacles and barriers for international trade and foreign businesses investing in China.”

It said companies would be able to transfer data required for business purposes outside China’s borders after passing a security evaluation.

“These evaluations are for supervising and guaranteeing that the security of this data accords with China’s security standards,” the ministry said.

“As for the legal requirement for internet operators to provide relevant data in the course of enforcement agencies’ counter-terrorism and criminal investigations, this is necessary for safeguarding national security and investigating crimes. All countries do this,” the ministry said.

‘UNNECESSARY’ CONCERNS

“The concerns of foreign investors and businesses invested in China are unnecessary,” it said.

Some foreign businesses in China are becoming increasingly pessimistic, in part due to rules companies think could make it harder to operate there.

The cyber rules have added to tensions between China and its trade partners, who have been concerned about Beijing’s Made in China 2025 plan. The proposal calls for a progressive increase in domestic components in sectors such as advanced information technology and robotics.

Business lobbies also say requirements to hand over sensitive data or source code to the government could put business secrets at risk and boost the capabilities of domestic competitors.

How much technology firms should cooperate with governments has been a contentious issue in many countries, not just in China.

Apple Inc <AAPL.O> was asked by Chinese authorities within the past two years to hand over its source code but refused, the company’s top lawyer said this year, even as U.S. law enforcement tried to get the company to unlock encrypted data from an iPhone linked to a mass shooting.

(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

U.S. lobbies China again on missile defence system

Top Army People from US and China saluting

BEIJING (Reuters) – A decision by the United States and South Korea to deploy an advanced anti-missile defence system is aimed at defending against North Korea’s missile threat and does not threaten China, a senior U.S. officer said in Beijing on Tuesday.

The United States has repeatedly tried to rebuff anger from China about Seoul’s move to host a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) unit with the U.S. military.

Mark A. Milley, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, told his People’s Liberation Army counterpart Li Zuocheng that THAAD was a defensive measure, the U.S. Army said in a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

THAAD “is a defensive measure to protect South Koreans and Americans from the North Korean ballistic missile threat and is not a threat in any way to China”, the statement paraphrased Milley as saying.

South Korea has said, too, that the move is purely to counter growing missile threats from the North and was not intended to target China, but Beijing has protested it would destabilise the regional security balance.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and followed up with a satellite launch and a string of test launches of missiles in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

China and the United States have been at odds over the disputed South China Sea as well.

Beijing has been upset with U.S. freedom of navigation patrols in the waters there, and the United States has expressed concern about Chinese aircraft and ships operating in a dangerous manner close to U.S. forces.

Milley said the United States wants to maintain open channels of communications with China’s military to “reduce the risk of crisis or miscalculation and candidly address differences”, the statement said.

Milley “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to adhere to international rules and standards and encouraged the Chinese to do the same as a way to reduce regional tensions”.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.

China’s Defence Ministry quoted Li as saying that THAAD, the South China Sea and Taiwan were all issues Beijing hoped Washington would pay attention to and “handle appropriately”.

China “hopes both militaries can increase cooperation, appropriately handle disputes and manage and control risks”, the statement paraphrased Li as saying.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie and Paul Tait)

New images suggest China has built reinforced hangars on disputed islands

Chinese dredging vessels are purportedly seen in the waters around Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in this still image from video taken by a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft provided by the United States Navy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Recent satellite photographs show China appears to have built reinforced aircraft hangars on its holdings in the disputed South China Sea, according to a Washington-based think tank.

Pictures taken in late July show the hangars constructed on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly islands, have room for any fighter jet in the Chinese air force, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

“Except for a brief visit by a military transport plane to Fiery Cross Reef earlier this year, there is no evidence that Beijing has deployed military aircraft to these outposts. But the rapid construction of reinforced hangars at all three features indicates that this is likely to change,” CSIS said in a report.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.

The images have emerged about a month after an international court in The Hague ruled against China’s sweeping claims in the resource-rich region, a ruling emphatically rejected by Beijing.

The United States has urged China and other claimants not to militarize their holdings in the South China Sea.

China has repeatedly denied doing so and has in turn criticized U.S. patrols and exercises for ramping up tensions.

“China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly islands and nearby waters,” China’s Defence Ministry said in a faxed response to a request for comment on Tuesday.

“China has said many times, construction on the Spratly islands and reefs is multipurpose, mixed, and with the exception of necessary military defensive requirements, are more for serving all forms of civil needs.”

Ties around the region have been strained in the lead-up to and since The Hague ruling.

China has sent bombers and fighter jets on combat patrols near the contested South China Sea islands, state media reported on Saturday, and Japan has complained about what it has said were multiple intrusions into its territorial waters around another group of islands in the East China Sea.

The hangars all show signs of structural strengthening, CSIS said.

“They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian purpose,” Gregory Poling, director of CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, told the New York Times, which first reported on the new images. “They’re reinforced to take a strike.”

Other facilities including unidentified towers and hexagonal structures have also been built on the islets in recent months, CSIS said.

(Reporting by Eric Beech and Idrees Ali in Washington and Michael Martina in Beijing.; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

New hacking group detected targeting firms in Russia, China

A padlock is displayed at the Alert Logic booth during the 2016 Black Hat cyber-

By Eric Auchard

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A previously unknown hacking group variously dubbed “Strider” or “ProjectSauron” has carried out cyber-espionage attacks against select targets in Russia, China, Iran, Sweden, Belgium and Rwanda, security researchers said on Monday.

The group, which has been active since at least 2011 and could have links to a national intelligence agency, uses Remsec, an advanced piece of hidden malware, Symantec researchers said in a blog post (http://symc.ly/2aTHoOm).

Remsec spyware lives within an organization’s network rather than being installed on individual computers, giving attackers complete control over infected machines, researchers said. It enables keystroke logging and the theft of files and other data.

Its code also contains references to Sauron, the all-seeing title character in The Lord of the Rings, Symantec said. Strider is the nickname of the fantasy trilogy’s widely traveled main character Aragorn.

Separately, Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab has labeled the same group using the Remsec spyware as “ProjectSauron”.

The newly discovered group’s targets include four organizations and individuals located in Russia, an airline in China, an organization in Sweden and an embassy in Belgium, Symantec said.

Kasperksy said it had found 30 organizations hit so far in Russia, Iran and Rwanda, and possibly additional victims in Italian-speaking countries. Remsec targets included government agencies, scientific research centers, military entities, telecoms providers and financial institutions, Kasperksy said.

“Based on the espionage capabilities of its malware and the nature of its known targets, it is possible that the group is a nation state-level attacker,” Symantec said, but it did not speculate about which government might be behind the software.

Despite headlines that suggest an endless stream of new types of cyber-spying attacks, Orla Fox, Symantec’s director of security response said the discovery of a new class of spyware like Remsec is a relatively rare event, with the industry uncovering no more than one or two such campaigns per year.

Remsec shares certain unusual coding similarities with another older piece of nation state-grade malware known as Flamer, or Flame, according to Symantec.

Kaspersky agreed that the same group it calls ProjectSauron appears to have adopted the tools and techniques of other better-known spyware, including Flame, but said it does not believe that ProjectSauron and Flame are directly connected.

Flamer malware has been linked to Stuxnet, a military-grade computer virus alleged by security experts to have been used by the United States and Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear program late in the last decade (http://reut.rs/2b2FA8z).

(Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Japan urges China not to escalate East China Sea tension

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga arrives at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's official residence in Tokyo

By Kaori Kaneko

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan said on Monday it would respond firmly after Chinese government vessels intruded into what Japan considers its territorial waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea 14 times at the weekend.

Ties between China and Japan, the world’s second and third largest economies, have for years been plagued by a dispute over the islands that Japan controls, and the waters around them.

The flurry of Chinese incursions into the waters follows a period of sustained pressure on China about its activities in the South China Sea, and a Chinese criticism of what it saw as Japanese interference in that dispute.

Chinese activity near the disputed East China Sea islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, has heated up since Friday, Japanese officials said, prompting repeated Japanese protests, including three on Sunday alone.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan would urge China not to escalate the East China Sea dispute, while also responding firmly and calmly.

Agencies including the coastguard would act closely together to deal with the situation, Suga said.

A Japanese government source, who asked not to be identified, said Japan’s coastguard had stepped up its patrols in the region at the weekend but declined to give further details.

About 230 Chinese fishing vessels were in the area on Saturday, Japan’s foreign ministry said.

China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement on Saturday that China had indisputable sovereignty over the islands and nearby waters.

In the South China Sea, Japan has no claims and China recently rejected warned Japan not to interfere.

The United States, its Southeast Asian allies and Japan have questioned Chinese land reclamation on disputed islands in the South China Sea, especially after an international court last month rejected China’s historic claims to most of that sea.

China has refused to recognize the court ruling. Japan called on China to adhere to it, saying it was binding. China warned Japan not to interfere.

The spike in tension over the East China Sea also follows a Chinese accusation that Japan’s new defense minister, Tomomi Inada, had recklessly misrepresented history after she declined to say after her appointment last week if Japanese troops had massacred civilians in China during World War Two.

The legacy of Japan’s wartime occupation of parts of China is another thorn in relations between the neighbors.

China, and other counties in Asia, in particular South Korea, feel that Japan has never properly atoned for its aggression before and during World War Two.

Relations between South Korea and China have also been strained in recent days by a decision by South Korea and the United States to deploy an advanced anti-missile defense system, to guard against North Korean attacks, that China fears could be used against its military.

South Korea’s presidential office on Sunday rebuked China over its criticism of South Korea’s decision to deploy the anti-missile defense, urging China instead to play a stronger role against North Korea’s provocations.

South Korea and the United States began discussions to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) unit in the South after the North’s fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko, Nobuhiro Kubo, Tim Kelly and Kiyoshi Takenaka; writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel)

China’s ‘mosquito factory’ aims to wipe out Zika, other diseases

GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) – Every week, scientists in southern China release 3 million bacteria-infected mosquitoes on a 3 km (two-mile) long island in a bid to wipe out diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika.

The scientists inject mosquito eggs with wolbachia bacteria in a laboratory, then release infected male mosquitoes on the island on the outskirts of the city of Guangzhou.

The bacteria, which occurs naturally in about 28 percent of wild mosquitoes, causes infected males to sterilize the females they mate with.

“The aim is trying to suppress the mosquito density below the threshold which can cause disease transmission,” said Zhiyong Xi, who is director of the Sun Yat-sen University Centre of Vector Control for Tropical Diseases and pioneered the idea.

“There are hot spots,” Xi said. “This technology can be used at the beginning to target the hot spots … it will dramatically reduce disease transmission.”

Mosquito-borne diseases are responsible for more than one million deaths worldwide every year and Zika has become a concern for athletes at this year’s Olympic Games, which open in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.

Some athletes, including the top four ranked male golfers, have declined to take part.

An outbreak of the Zika virus in Brazil last year has spread through the Americas and beyond, with China confirming its first case in February.

U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies.

The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.

Sun Yat-sen’s Xi said that several countries had expressed interest in his experiments, especially Brazil and Mexico.

In the laboratory, mosquito eggs are collected from breeding cages containing 5,000 females and 1,600 males and injected with the wolbachia bacteria. Xi’s facility has the capacity to breed up to five million mosquitoes a week.

While a female mosquito that acquires wolbachia by mating is sterile, one that is infected by injection will produce wolbachia-infected offspring. Dengue, yellow fever and Zika are also suppressed in wolbachia-injected females, making it harder for the diseases to be transmitted to humans.

Xi set up his 3,500 square meter (38,000 sq ft) “mosquito factory” in 2012 and releases the males into two residential areas on the outskirts of Guangzhou.

Xi said the mosquito population on the island has been reduced by more than 90 percent.

One villager on the island, 66 year-old Liang Jintian, who has lived there for six decades, said the study was so effective he didn’t have to sleep with a mosquito net any longer.

“We used to have a lot of mosquitoes in the past. Back then some people were worried that if mosquitoes were released here, we would get even more mosquitoes,” he said. “We have a lot less mosquitoes now compared to the past.”

(Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Clare Baldwin; Editing by Robert Birsel)

China says to hold drills with Russia in South China Sea

BEIJING (Reuters) – China and Russia will hold “routine” naval exercises in the South China Sea in September, China’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday, adding that the drills were aimed at strengthening their cooperation and were not aimed at any other country.

The exercises come at a time of heightened tension in the contested waters after an arbitration court in the Hague ruled this month that China did not have historic rights to the South China Sea and criticized its environmental destruction there.

China rejected the ruling and refused to participate in the case.

“This is a routine exercise between the two armed forces, aimed at strengthening the developing China-Russia strategic cooperative partnership,” China’s defense ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told a regular monthly news conference.

“The exercise is not directed against third parties.”

China and Russia are veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, and have held similar views on many major issues such as the crisis in Syria, putting them at odds with the United States and Western Europe.

Last year, they held joint military drills in the Sea of Japan and the Mediterranean.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.

China has repeatedly blamed the United States for stoking tension in the region through its military patrols, and of taking sides in the dispute.

The United States has sought to assert its right to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea with its patrols and denies taking sides in the territorial disputes.

Russia has been a strong backer of China’s stance on the arbitration case, that was brought by the Philippines.

Yang said China and Russia were comprehensive strategic partners and had already held many exercises this year.

“These drills deepen mutual trust and expand cooperation, raise the ability to jointly deal with security threats, and benefit the maintenance of regional and global peace and stability,” he said.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Writing by John Ruwitch and Brenda Goh; Editing by Robert Birsel)

U.S. to sanction cyber attackers, cites Russia, China

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will use sanctions against those behind cyber attacks that target transportation systems or the power grid, the White House said on Tuesday, citing Russia and China as increasingly assertive and sophisticated cyber operators.

The sanctions will be used “when the conditions are right and when actions will further U.S. policy,” White House counter terrorism adviser Lisa Monaco said in prepared remarks to a cyber security conference.

Monaco cited an “increasingly diverse and dangerous” global landscape in which Iran has launched denial-of-service attacks on U.S. banks and North Korea has shown it would conduct destructive attacks.

“To put it bluntly, we are in the midst of a revolution of the cyber threat – one that is growing more persistent, more diverse, more frequent and more dangerous every day,” she said.

The United States is working with other countries to adopt voluntary norms of responsible cyber behavior and work to reduce malicious activity, she said. At the same time, it will use an executive order authorizing sanctions against those who attack U.S. critical infrastructure.

Monaco introduced a new directive from President Barack Obama that establishes a “clear framework” to coordinate the government’s response to cyber incidents.

“It will help answer a question heard too often from corporations and citizens alike – ‘In the wake of an attack, who do I call for help?'” she said.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

U.S. tells China that anti-missile system not a threat

BEIJING (Reuters) – South Korea’s decision to deploy an advanced U.S. anti-missile defense system does not threaten China’s security, a senior U.S. administration official said on Tuesday at the end of a visit to China by U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

The announcement by South Korea and the United States this month that they would deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) unit has already drawn protests from China that it would destabilize regional security.

The decision is the latest move to squeeze increasingly isolated North Korea, but China worries the system’s radar will be able to track its military capabilities. Russia also opposes the deployment.

“It is purely a defensive measure. It is not aimed at any other party other than North Korea and the threat it poses and this defensive weapons system is neither designed nor capable of threatening China’s security interests,” the official told reporters on a conference call.

South Korea and the United States have said THAAD would only be used in defense against North Korean ballistic missiles.

North Korea has launched a series of missiles in recent months, the latest last week when it fired three ballistic missiles in what it said was a simulated test of preemptive strikes against South Korean ports and airfields used by the U.S. military.

The missiles flew 500-600 km (300-360 miles) into the sea off its east coast and could have hit anywhere in South Korea if the North intended, the South’s military said.

North Korea came under the latest round of U.N. Security Council sanctions in March after its fourth nuclear test in January and the launch of a long-range rocket the following month.

Rice also emphasized the importance of all sides implementing U.N. sanctions on North Korea, and was pleased that China said it remained committed to their implementation, said the senior U.S. official who declined to be identified.

(Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; editing by Ben Blanchard)

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