Thursday, December 26, 2013

China's Water Problems

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Chokepoints - La Pérouse (Sōya) Strait

2021 Sakhalin–Hokkaido - Russia’s Proposal for a Tunnel to Japan - Fut > .
23-10-25 US & [I-P-CW] vs Xina: Preparations to Fight War - Real > .
23-4-23 Japanese History, Defence Strategy & Rearmament - Perun > .
23-2-10 Why Japan's Military is Gladly Readying for War - T&P > .
23-1-13 US & Japan boost cooperation; Marines ready to counter Xina > .
22-12-16 Japan unveils biggest military build-up since World War 2 | DW > .
22-8-21 Japan Is (Again) Becoming a Military Powerhouse - gtbt > .
22-4-8 Why Russia is Fighting Japan Over These Islands - RealLifeLore > .
22-4-2 Survey Reveals US-China-Taiwan-Japan Dynamics Post Ukraine War - Lei > .
22-1-20 Japan And Russia Both Want These Islands - OBF > . skip ad > .
21-12-23 US & Japan plan alliance in case of Xinese attack on Taiwan - Focus > .
2016 Russia and Japan discuss Kuril Islands | FT > .

La Pérouse Strait
(пролив Лаперуза), or Sōya Strait, is a strait dividing the southern part of the Russian island of Sakhalin from the northern part of the Japanese island of Hokkaidō, and connecting the Sea of Japan on the west with the Sea of Okhotsk on the east. The strait is named after Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, who explored it in 1787.

The Sakhalin–Hokkaido Tunnel has been proposed to connect Japan and Russia under the Strait that connects to the Trans-Siberian Railroad. A bridge has also been proposed.

The strait is 42 km (26 mi) long and 40 to 140 m (131 to 459 ft) deep. The narrowest part of the strait is in the west between Russia's Cape Krillion and Japan's Cape Sōya, which is also the shallowest at only 60 metres (197 ft) deep. A small rocky island, appropriately named Kamen Opasnosti (Russian for "Rock of Danger") is located in the Russian waters in the northeastern part of the strait, 8 miles (13 km) southeast of the Cape Krillion. Another small island, Bentenjima, lies near the Japanese shore of the strait.

Japan's territorial waters extend to three nautical miles into La Pérouse Strait instead of the usual twelve, reportedly to allow nuclear-armed United States Navy warships and submarines to transit the strait without violating Japan's prohibition against nuclear weapons in its territory.

Chokepoints - Panama Canal

23-8-6 Climate Change & Panama Canal; USN vs PLAN - Kamome > . skip > .
24-4-3 Maritime Chokepoints: Panama Canal, Red Sea & Baltimore - Shipping > .
24-1-29 El Niño & Houthis Negatively Impacting Panama Canal - Real > .
23-8-26 Panama canal is Xina's Worst Enemy in War - BuBa > .


The Panama Canal (Canal de Panamá) is an artificial 82 km (51 mi) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan and the even less popular route through the Arctic Archipelago and the Bering Strait.

Canal locks at each end lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, 26 m (85 ft) above sea level, and then lower the ships at the other end. The original locks are 32.5 m (110 ft) wide. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016. The expanded waterway began commercial operation on June 26, 2016. The new locks allow transit of larger, New Panamax ships.

Colombia, France, and later the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped because of engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for handover to Panama. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government in 1999. It is now managed and operated by the government-owned Panama Canal Authority.

Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, when the canal opened, to 14,702 vessels in 2008, for a total of 333.7 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tons. By 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal. In 2017 it took ships an average of 11.38 hours to pass between the canal's two locks. The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

Bi-Oceanic Corridor ..

Chokepoints - Strait of Hormuz

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Iraq War 2003 ..

The Strait of Hormuz (Persian: تنگه هرمز‎ Tangeh-ye Hormoz listen (help·info) Arabic: مَضيق هُرمُز‎ Maḍīq Hurmuz ) is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world's most strategically important choke points. On the north coast lies Iran, and on the south coast the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman. The strait is about 90 nautical miles (167 km) long, with a width varying from about 52 nautical miles (96 km) to 21 nautical miles (39 km).

The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the largest security threats in the Strait of Hormuz and remain an essential factor in global energy security, due to the high volume of oil and natural gas passing through the narrow openings on a daily basis. The sovereignty of The Islamic Republic of Iran extends, beyond its land territory, internal waters and its islands in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Oman SeaIran has used its sovereignty to threaten to close down the Strait of Hormuz multiple times, due to sanctions imposed on the country. This poses serious threats to the global oil market, with the Strait of Hormuz as a key location. Iran's capabilities are found in the country's anti-access/area-denial capabilities including small attack craft equipped with machine guns, multiple-launch rockets, anti-ship missiles and torpedoesNaval mining has also been used as a strategy to threaten the security of the Strait of Hormuz. Lastly, the many naval exercises and unconventional methods used by the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, is a display of capability and shows readiness to take action in the choke point. The strategic value of maritime choke points such as the Strait of Hormuz means that the threats to the choke point influence sharp rises in oil prices. The several attacks which have occurred over the last decade against oil facilities and tankers in or near the Strait of Hormuz, has had a large impact on the oil industry. From the perspective of security studies, Iran is an important player in the international oil economy.

A third of the world's liquefied natural gas and almost 25% of total global oil consumption passes through the strait, making it a highly important strategic location for international trade.

To reduce the risk of collision, ships moving through the Strait follow a Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS): inbound ships use one lane, outbound ships another, each lane being two miles wide. The lanes are separated by a two-mile-wide "median".

To traverse the Strait, ships pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the transit passage provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Although not all countries have ratified the convention, most countries, including the U.S., accept these customary navigation rules as codified in the Convention.

In April 1959 Iran altered the legal status of the strait by expanding its territorial sea to 12 nautical miles (22 km) and declaring that it would recognize only transit by innocent passage through the newly expanded area. In July 1972, Oman also expanded its territorial sea to 12 nautical miles (22 km) by decree. Thus, by mid-1972, the Strait of Hormuz was completely "closed" by the combined territorial waters of Iran and Oman. During the 1970s, neither Iran or Oman attempted to impede the passage of warships through the strait, but in the 1980s, both countries asserted claims that were different from customary (old) law. Upon ratifying UNCLOS in August 1989, Oman submitted declarations confirming its 1981 royal decree that only innocent passage is permitted through its territorial sea. The declarations further asserted that prior permission was required before foreign warships could pass through Omani territorial waters. Upon signing the convention in December 1982, Iran entered a declaration stating "that only states parties to the Law of the Sea Convention shall be entitled to benefit from the contractual rights created therein", including "the right of transit passage through straits used for international navigation". In May 1993, Iran enacted a comprehensive law on maritime areas, several provisions of which conflict with UNCLOS provisions, including a requirement that warships, submarines, and nuclear-powered ships obtain permission before exercising innocent passage through Iran's territorial waters.The United States does not recognize any of the claims by Oman and Iran and has contested each of them.

Oman has a radar site Link Quality Indicator (LQI) to monitor the TSS in the Strait of Hormuz. This site is on a small island on the peak of Musandam Governorate.

Chokepoints - Suez Canal

21-3-29 Suez Canal reopens after giant stranded ship is freed - BBC N > .
24-6-6 Egypt is a Ticking Time Bomb - gtbt > . skip > .
24-4-3 Maritime Chokepoints: Panama Canal, Red Sea & Baltimore - Shipping > .
24-2-25 Impact on Global Trade: Disruptions in Red Sea, Black Sea, Panama Canal > .
24-1-29 El Niño & Houthis Negatively Impacting Panama Canal - Real > .
24-1-26 Saudi Arabia's Catastrophic "Iran" Problem - Hindsight > .
What Really Happened during the Suez Canal blockage? - PrEn > .
Why Egypt’s Geography Might Be Too Good For its Own Good - KhAnubis > .
Chokepoints - Suez Canal ..Suez Crisis - Propaganda Film (1956) ..

Suez Canal: Ever Given container ship finally freed: A giant container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week has been freed after a huge operation. Tug boats honked their horns in celebration as the 400m-long (1,300ft) Ever Given was dislodged on Monday March 29th, 2021.

Traffic is set to resume in both directions through the canal at 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT), officials say. Hundreds of ships are waiting to pass. Suez, which connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea through Egypt, is one of the world's busiest trade routes.

In May 1967, Nasser ordered the UN peacekeeping forces out of Sinai, including the Suez Canal area. Israel objected to the closing of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. The canal had been closed to Israeli shipping since 1949, except for a short period in 1951–1952.

After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israeli forces occupied the Sinai peninsula, including the entire east bank of the Suez Canal. Unwilling to allow the Israelis to use the canal, Egypt immediately imposed a blockade which closed the canal to all shipping. Fifteen cargo ships, known as the "Yellow Fleet", were trapped in the canal, and would remain there until 1975.

In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, the canal was the scene of a major crossing by the Egyptian army into Israeli-occupied Sinai and a counter-crossing by the Israeli army to Egypt. Much wreckage from this conflict remains visible along the canal's edges.

The Suez Canal (قناة السويس‎ qanāt as-suwēs) is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. It was built between 1859 and 1869 under the rule of the Ottoman Empire by the Suez Canal Company, which in turn was formed in 1858 by Ferdinand de Lesseps. The canal officially opened on 17 November 1869. It offers watercraft a more direct route between the North Atlantic and northern Indian oceans via the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, thus avoiding the South Atlantic and southern Indian oceans and reducing the journey distance from the Arabian Sea to London by approximately 8,900 kilometres (5,500 mi), or 8 days at 24knts to 10 days at 20knts. It extends from the northern terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez. Its length is 193.30 km (120.11 mi) including its northern and southern access-channels. In 2020, over 18,500 vessels traversed the canal (an average of 51.5 per day).

The original canal featured a single-lane waterway with passing locations in the Ballah Bypass and the Great Bitter Lake. It contained, according to Alois Negrelli's plans, no lock systems, with seawater flowing freely through it. In general, the water in the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. South of the lakes, the current changes with the tide at Suez.

While the canal as such was the property of the Egyptian government, European shareholders, mostly French and British, owned the concessionary company which operated it until July 1956, when President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized it—an event which led to the Suez Crisis of October–November 1956. The canal is operated and maintained by the state-owned Suez Canal Authority (SCA) of Egypt. Under the Convention of Constantinople, it may be used "in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag." Nevertheless, the canal has played an important military strategic role as a naval short-cut and choke-point. Navies with coastlines and bases on both the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea (Egypt and Israel) have a particular interest in the Suez Canal. After Egypt closed the Suez canal at the beginning of the Six-Day War on 5 June 1967, the canal remained closed for precisely eight years, reopening on 5 June 1975.

The Egyptian government launched construction in 2014 to expand and widen the Ballah Bypass for 35 km (22 mi) to speed up the canal's transit-time. The expansion intended to nearly double the capacity of the Suez Canal, from 49 to 97 ships per day. At a cost of 59.4 billion Egyptian pounds (US$9bn), this project was funded with interest-bearing investment certificates issued exclusively to Egyptian entities and individuals. The "New Suez Canal", as the expansion was dubbed, was opened in a ceremony on 6 August 2015.

The Suez Canal Authority officially opened the new side channel in 2016. This side channel, located at the northern side of the east extension of the Suez Canal, serves the East Terminal for berthing and unberthing vessels from the terminal. As the East Container Terminal is located on the Canal itself, before the construction of the new side channel it was not possible to berth or unberth vessels at the terminal while a convoy was running.

sī vīs pācem, parā bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...