Chapter 158: The Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca, also known as the Strait of Malacca, is a strait located between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra, with the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia, and the east coast of West Malaysia and southern Thailand, covering an area of 65,000 square kilometers and trending southeast to northwest.
Its northwest end is connected to the Andaman Sea in the Indian Ocean and to the southeast to the South China Sea. With a total length of about l080 kilometers, the widest part of the northwest is 370 kilometers, and the narrowest part of the southeast is only 37 kilometers, with a water depth of 25 to 150 meters.
Strategically, it guards the main international communication routes between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is also the only way for East Asia to connect West Asia, South Asia and Africa. It is known as the "crossroads" and "choke point" of Asia.
Economically, it connects the world's three most populous countries: China, India and Indonesia. In addition, it is also an important passage from West Asia oil to East Asia, and the economic powerhouse Amaterasu Province used to call the Strait of Malacca its "lifeline".
However, in addition to being a choke point, the Strait of Malacca has been a place of rampant piracy in the vicinity since ancient times.
In November 1971, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore signed a convention on the Strait of Malacca, declaring that the three countries would jointly administer the affairs of the Straits and patrol the Straits of Malacca around the clock. But it still can't stop more than 100 pirate attacks every year, accounting for one-third of the world's pirate attacks.
Subsequently, the United States announced that it would intervene in the Strait of Malacca by means of serious pirate attacks and terrorist threats for many years. Three military bases have been established in the three countries of the Taiwan Strait, 'Indonesia's Makassar Strait Military Base', 'Sunda Strait Military Base', and 'Malacca Strait Military Base'!
Military commentators around the world believe that the United States intervened in the Strait of Malacca in order to contain the rise of China. Immediately afterwards, Amaterasu even built a double diamond-shaped encirclement to comprehensively curb the development of China, and several coastal countries in Malacca are the first line of defense small diamond-shaped!
But it doesn't do anything!
Through the rapid development of its own national strength and the mutual exchange of some interests, Huaguo still broke through this diamond-shaped encirclement and broke through. However, since 2012, the United States has once again paid attention to and invested in this place (if there is nothing to do, it will unite several countries to conduct a military exercise and crack down on piracy), which has made the situation that China is now facing very difficult!
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In the Strait of Malacca, several major ports are occupied by crowded ships, and there are huge ships on the sea slowly following the predetermined route. Less than 50 nautical miles from the entrance of the strait, a series of Chinese steamers were heading for the predetermined waterway, when suddenly several speedboats came from behind and rushed to meet the Chinese steamers and sail in the other direction!
"Look, it's a Malaysian patrol ship, you say those speedboats just passed by can't be pirates, right?" said one of the crew members to a colleague next to him!
"I don't know, didn't you see any weapons on those speedboats just now?"
"I don't look like a pirate," said another!
"If it's a pirate, then you should have a gun even if it's not one-eyed? Do you see anyone with a gun on those speedboats? I didn't even see a fishing fork in TM, so I guess it's not a pirate. Don't worry, the Malaysian patrol ship will come out every day," said an old bird with a smile!
While several crew members were talking on deck, the patrol ship behind caught up.
"Attention to all ships ahead! Attention to all ships ahead, we are a Malaysian Water Patrol, please stop the ship immediately for our inspection"
"Attention all ships ahead...... "The loudspeakers on the Malaysi patrol ship repeated the warning of stopping the ship for inspection and approaching the ocean-going fleet at high speed, several coast guards were already standing on the deck of the patrol ship with weapons, and the high-speed cannon barrels of the patrol ship were pointed at the ocean-going freighter.
The calls of patrol ships were heard in the public radio channels of more than a dozen Chinese freighters and on the sea.
The crews all looked at each other and couldn't figure out what was going on, so they asked the Malaisi patrol ship to come and check on them!
Could it be that those speedboats that have just passed by are really lawbreakers? The coast guard in Malaysia is not capable of catching up, and now they want to take out their anger on us?
The captain of every ship in the fleet was very angry, Nima, you have to inspect us inexplicably, how long does it take for these dozen or so freighters to be inspected? If we can't get to the port within the contract period, who will pay us the liquidated damages? Who will pay for the loss?
More than a dozen ocean-going freighters were loaded with oil and ore, some were trade goods, and most of them were all kinds of garbage that were compressed into lumps from abroad. Many crew members ran out and lay on the side of the ship, scolding and discussing the nervous Malaysian Coast Guard.
Seeing that the other party kept using a loudspeaker to call the ship to stop for inspection, some coast guards also used guns to continuously shoot warnings at the sea. The fleet had no choice but to slow down the fleet slowly as they ordered.
Dozens of coast guards came to the deck with rifles, and some of the old sailors were confused, they had gone back and forth in the Strait of Malacca dozens of times, but they had never seen an ocean-going freighter inspected directly on the fairway, and they were all subject to various inspections in the port. And we don't dock and unload at your port, Nima, you check the yarn?
A coast guard, apparently a commander, boarded a docked ship, wore sunglasses, and walked up to the captain with his hands behind his back: "We are tracking a group of pirates who have been operating in this area regularly, and there are clear water patterns that indicate that they are coming in your direction. But now they're gone, Captain, can you tell me what's going on?"
"This officer, there were indeed a few speedboats passing by next to our fleet just now, but it has nothing to do with us which way they went," said the captain, pointing to the direction in which the speedboats had fled not long ago!
"Yes, officer, which direction are they going, we are all garbage carriers, you see this pile is full of garbage, we can't do anything illegal here, and it has nothing to do with those pirates!"
"It's not your nonsense, we need to conduct a thorough search of your ship!" said a man with a gun who followed the Coast Guard!
"Captain, thank you for your cooperation, this group of pirates who have been rampant in this sea for several years are very fierce, you should follow my soldiers to the captain's room, you can rest assured that I will carefully inspect every ship, and I will not let go of a small corner" The commander waved his hand and the two soldiers came over to take the captain and the first mate to the captain's room!
"Are you going to imprison us?" the captain glared at him: "What right do you have to detain us? We are not pirates, why do you do this to us? We cooperate with you to prove our innocence, but what about you? This act of yours is an insult to us, and you are violating the Straits Convention. I will definitely complain to you, you are derelict in your duties! I ask to speak to your superiors!
As soon as the captain finished speaking, the captain waved his hand and let his subordinates walk towards the captain's room, "Find out all the people on their ship, maybe the pirates are hiding among them." None of them were allowed to leave the ship until the inspection was over. The chief of the sea warden shouted loudly from the sidelines!
The captain had no choice, the ship had stopped, and people came up with guns. I said in advance that I would let them check, and if they were forcibly blocked now, looking at their appearance, they would definitely shoot and hurt people at that time!
After a few harsh words, the captain walked briskly to the wheelhouse, ready to call home to inform him of the situation here.
The country soon learned of the forcible seizure and inspection of the ocean-going freighters in Malacca, and while reassuring them to cooperate with the inspection, they reported the situation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyoto!
There were only a few ships that had been inspected in the past two days, and even a few of the ships that had been allowed to sail had just sailed into the strait and were intercepted and asked for inspection under another pretext. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is very angry about this, you are obviously targeting our country, are you trying to provoke disputes?
"Boss! This is the situation in the past few days, not only have all the domestic steamers been intercepted, but also the ships carrying goods to us. And it's about to be checked. Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have also arrived in Singapore, and the South China Fleet is also rushing over there!" Wu Shanshan reported the situation of the past two days to Liu Xiang!
"It doesn't matter if our cargo is left over there for a few more days, the South Sea Fleet has also done it, and there will always be a way to solve it in Kyoto and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It's the experimental animals we smuggled over, and I'm afraid it will be a trouble to be inspected when the time comes. Tell our crew over there that those experimental animals should settle down first, and I will call Kyoto to ask about the next situation," Liu Xiang said!
After Liu Xiang contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inquire about the situation, he learned that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was strongly protesting against Malaysia's obvious violation of the Straits Convention, and that China's aircraft carrier fleet had already arrived in the waters of Zeng's mother, and then hung up the phone.
After sitting on the stool and being silent for a while, Liu Xiang suddenly raised his head and shouted, "Xiaozhi"!