Indonesia’s Natuna Archipelago, with only 27 of its 154 islands inhabited, is the republic’s northernmost region in the South China Sea and potentially its most vulnerable. Due to their proximity to the disputed areas and features in the South China Sea, the Natuna Islands could become yet another flashpoint in the area. However, any effective […]
Vietnam is protesting about China’s move to expand construction on the disputed Spratly islands, which Vietnam calls Truong Sa, in the South China Sea. “Vietnam strongly protests and demands that China respect Vietnam’s sovereignty and immediately stop its illegal activities in the area of Truong Sa archipelago and that China strictly adhere to the Declaration […]
JAKARTA: The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) supports the Philippines’ bid for a peaceful resolution of its own territorial dispute with China, as well as the stance of other claimant countries that reject Bejing’s “dotted line” policy in asserting its sovereignty over rocks and islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). […]
NEW DELHI: The US today expressed concern over China’s “provocative” and “dramatic” tactics in the South China Sea and said the American navy will shift 60 per cent of its maritime assets to the Pacific by 2020. However, it underlined that the “rebalance” to the Asia and Pacific was not aimed at China but for […]
(Updated 4:47 p.m.) The Department of Energy (DOE) has suspended all drilling and exploration works in the West Philippine Sea, particularly in the area covered by Service Contract (SC) 72 in the Reed Bank, citing a force majeure as the site is the subject a territorial dispute between the Philippines and China. Philex Petroleum Corp., […]
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ recourse to arbitration to settle disputes in the West Philippine Sea is proof of its commitment to the Charter of the United Nations, a diplomat told a Security Council debate convened by China, with whom the country is locked in a bitter row over contested territory. “The Philippines believes that […]
A couple of weeks ago, AEI scholar Michael Auslin published a column for the Wall Street Journal about a quiet dinner in Washington where a senior China scholar declared the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had reached the final stage before collapse. The political collapse of the world’s second-largest economy and a nuclear power is no […]
China didn’t open “Pandora’s Sandbox.” It isn’t the first claimant to transform reefs by padding them with sand. But China’s superior economic and military capacity enables it to outpace other claimants. It is rapidly building the greatest “sandcastles,” which support multiple military and paramilitary functions. Beijing views Spratly and Paracel Islands augmentation as justified in […]