TOKYO — If China continues to grow economically and militarily, the possibility of armed conflict in Asia will grow as countries such as Japan and the U.S. step up their security efforts, says John J. Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. The American scholar and author said he came to […]
War on the Rocks is expanding, and we need your help! Please support us on Indiegogo! The United States, its allies, and its partners face an intertwined series of challenges in the South China Sea. This nested series of issues is most clearly manifest in China’s recent (and continuing) island-creation and expansion in the South China […]
By increasing the country’s military budget every year, China’s government is moving closer to challenging the US-led strategic status quo in the Asia-Pacific since 1945, writes Benjamin Herscovitch, a researcher from the Centre for Independent Studies, an Australian libertarian think tank based in St Leonards, in a commentary written for the Business Spectator on March […]
The Japanese government is now expanding its role in world stage as it forge a stronger bilateral defense cooperation and exchanges with Philippine though a established Strategic Partnership. Japan is also set to supply Philippines and Vietnam with patrol boats. Last January 29, Philippines’ and Japan’s defense secretaries signed “Memorandum on Defense Cooperation and Exchanges […]
China’s recent construction on disputed atolls in the South China Sea has accelerated the stop-start cycle of dispute there. This series of surveillance photographs from the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative gives some idea of the expanding scope of the effort. Only last July the decision of the Chinese authorities to withdraw the HYSY-981 oil rig a month early from Vietnamese-claimed waters diffused ongoing physical […]
China’s land reclamation in four of the Philippine-claimed atolls and reefs in the West Philippine Sea area of the South China Sea, estimated to have reached more than 60 hectares, may have already changed the physical features of these disputed areas, which one lawmaker warned could indicate that the Philippines was starting to lose its […]
During a visit to New Delhi earlier this month, Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, exhorted India to increase its presence in the South China Sea where China is literally creating new geography by enlarging reefs into artificial islands. He called China’s massive land reclamation “provocative” because it effectively changes “facts on […]
The Philippines has called on the international community to press for a stop to massive reclamation activities in the South China Sea that could increase tension in the disputed area. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Undersecretary Evan Garcia said at the 17th ASEAN-India Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) held in New Delhi on March […]
Japan used to be aloof from the three-way chess game of conflicting territorial claims in the South China Sea. Tokyo was pre-occupied with its own territorial dispute with China over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Daioyu in China. However, quietly encouraged by […]
A conference on the international law perspective on the East Sea came under the spotlight in an article carried by the Belgian Euro Press Image (EPI) portal on March 11. Professor Erik Franck, a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) chaired the conference in Brussels, which brought together over 100 scholars, lawyers, researchers […]