Tag: Oceans and Seas

What to Know About Australia’s Contest With China in the Pacific After Beijing Tested a Missile

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On the day that China announced that it had successfully fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile into the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia was in Suva, the capital of Fiji. Mr. Albanese was visiting the country on Monday to sign two long-sought security agreements with Fiji’s leader, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka. A week earlier, he was smiling and shaking hands with the prime minister of Vanuatu, having finalized a treaty with that island nation. The following day, he was in the Solomon Islands, standing shoulder…

Why China Fired a Long-Range Missile Into the Pacific

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With one missile fired over the Pacific Ocean from a submarine lurking off China’s coast, the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, has proclaimed his determination to build a full suite of nuclear weapons, including sea-based missiles that have long been Beijing’s weak spot. The missile test on Monday came after China’s military has been battered for years by mass removals of commanders accused of corruption and disloyalty. But Chinese media declared that the test showed the country remained on track to create a full nuclear triad; that is, a range of…

China Detained 2 Japanese on Suspicion of Smuggling

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China has detained two Japanese citizens on suspicion of smuggling banned products, the Japanese government said on Wednesday, adding to rising tensions between the two countries. The Japanese nationals were detained in May in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, according to a statement by Japan’s government. Chinese officials have indicated that they are being held on “on suspicion of violating the law and smuggling goods that are prohibited from being imported or exported,” Minoru Kihara, a top Japanese cabinet official, said at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.…

China Publishes Maps Detailing Minerals on the Ocean Floor

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A research arm of the Chinese government said it had published an atlas of deep-sea mineral deposits, highlighting Beijing’s ambitions to mine the ocean floor and underscoring its disputed claims to waters that neighboring nations consider theirs. Experts say the maps, in addition to pinpointing mineral deposits found in the deep ocean, give China’s military a thorough understanding of the seafloor in strategically important waters, providing an advantage if submarine warfare were to break out. The announcement this month by the China Geological Survey puts pressure on other countries that…

Red Sea Attacks Leave Shipping Companies With Difficult Choices

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The shipping companies that move goods on one of the world’s busiest trade routes for factories, stores, car dealerships and other businesses face an excruciating decision. They can send their vessels through the Red Sea if they are willing to risk attacks by the Houthi militia in Yemen and to bear the cost of sharply higher insurance premiums. Or they can sail an extra 4,000 miles around Africa, adding 10 days in each direction and burning considerably more fuel. Neither option is appealing and both raise costs — expenses that…

Blasting Bullhorns and Water Cannons, Chinese Ships Wall Off the Sea

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The Chinese military base on Mischief Reef, off the Philippine island of Palawan, loomed in front of our boat, obvious even in the predawn dark. Radar domes, used for military surveillance, floated like nimbus clouds. Lights pointed to a runway made for fighter jets, backed by warehouses perfect for cruise missile launchers. More than 900 miles from the Chinese mainland, in an area of the South China Sea that an international tribunal has unequivocally determined does not belong to China, cellphones pinged with a message: “Welcome to China.” The world’s…

Seafood Is Safe After Fukushima Discharge, But Some Won’t Eat It

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Seafood is having a bad week in East Asia, which is bad news for a region where it’s a major part of the diet. Experts say Japan’s discharge into the ocean of treated radioactive wastewater from the ruined Fukushima nuclear power plant, which began on Thursday, does not and will not pose health risks to people who eat seafood. But even though the scientific evidence bears that out, not everyone is convinced. On Thursday, the Chinese government widened a ban on seafood imports to include all of Japan instead of…

Atomic Agency Clears Japan to Release Fukushima Water

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In one of the remaining steps before Japan decides to release more than one million metric tons of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, the International Atomic Energy Agency declared on Tuesday that the government’s plan had met the agency’s safety standards. The nuclear authority’s final report concluded that the treated water would “have a negligible radiological impact to people and the environment” once it is released. Japan’s plan has provoked controversy both at home and abroad, as government officials in China and many…

A U.S. ‘Ships Act’ Would Break China’s Control of the Seas

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Soon after President Xi Jinping of China took power, he instructed top Communist Party leaders in a 2013 speech to turn the country into a “maritime superpower.” China already has the world’s largest navy, though its ability to contend with U.S. naval forces remains in doubt. But leaders in Beijing have realized that maritime strength is not measured solely in firepower. Success in commercial shipping would have “great and far-reaching significance” for Chinese national strength and security, Mr. Xi told the Politburo then, reminding the party that throughout history the…

‘Penis Worms’ May Have Been the First Hermits

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Consider this evolutionary dilemma, faced by the aquatic and squishy: How do you survive in hostile, predator-filled oceans? Squid rely on speed or camouflage. Snails develop complex shells. Hermit crabs borrow those complex shells when other animals aren’t using them, trading them out for bigger models as they grow. This sheltering strategy was believed to have emerged 180 million years ago in the Jurassic Period, when hermit crabs’ ancestors appeared in oceans, said Martin Smith, a paleontologist at the University of Durham in England. But in a study published Monday…