Plus, Vietnam gets to reclaiming land in the Spratly Islands and Taiwan celebrates 70 years of Taiping Island. A few South China Sea stories that you may have missed over the past week: The British are coming. The United Kingdom is set to grow more involved in the South China Sea. Speaking last week in […]

China’s recent seizure of a U.S Navy underwater drone may have been an early political test for U.S. president-elect Donald Trump. On Saturday, China’s Defense Ministry released a statement announcing that its military had come across an unmanned American device in the South China Sea on Dec. 15 and said it would transfer the drone […]

Some international observers minimize the importance of military facilities and operational capabilities on the People’s Republic of China’s various claimed features, rocks, and islands in the South China Sea. They should reconsider. Each location in isolation is not that potent. However, in the aggregate, this island base network poses a more resilient capability (geographically dispersed […]

On a map of the world, the South China Sea appears as a scrap of blue amid the tangle of islands and peninsulas that make up Southeast Asia between the Indian and Pacific oceans. Its 1.4 million-square-mile expanse, so modest next to its aquatic neighbors, is nonetheless economically vital to the countries that border it […]

Malaysia’s Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein yesterday urged the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) to band together on the South China Sea issue so as to prevent major powers from dictating regional politics. “Alone, we cannot face them, but as a coalition of 10 countries, I am confident that even China cannot take us lightly […]

With its controversial seizure and return of a U.S. underwater drone, Beijing may have inadvertently thrust into the spotlight one of the main motivations behind its ramped-up moves in the South China Sea: the quest to create a safe-haven for its sea-based nuclear deterrent. Submarines, in particular ballistic missile subs, have long figured prominently in […]

MANILA – China may be trying to establish a strategic triad in the South China Sea to effectively take control of the entirety of the disputed waters, an analyst warned Wednesday. Former senior consultant at the National Security Council and former Magdalo party-list representative Francisco Ashley Acedillo noted that many defense analyst and experts have […]

The U.S. president-elect took the first steps up the ladder of escalation, but China’s seizure of a naval drone shows it’s glad to follow. Beijing Is Ready To Go Eyeball to Eyeball With Trump Spring has come early to the South China Sea. Many analysts had assumed that China would do something to test the […]

In the White House Rose Garden on Sept. 25, 2015, President Xi Jinping stood with President Barack Obama and pledged that “China does not intend to pursue militarization” on outcroppings in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. Other top Chinese officials echoed this promise over the past year, even as airstrips were paved […]

Malaysia Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Asean should be united to handle South China Sea disputes. The superpower and China would respect ASEAN’s voice and stand. Instead, the fate and position of ASEAN countries would be determined by the world’s superpowers. He is of the view that ASEAN countries should have a united stand on […]