MANILA, Philippines – “So, why China?” Magdalo Representative Gary Alejano on Friday, January 12, blasted the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for supposedly approving the request for Chinese nationals to conduct marine scientific research in Philippine waters, including Benham Rise. At the same time, Alejano claimed, the DFA rejected a request from […]
BEIJING: China today objected to Vietnam’s invitation to India to invest in oil and natural gas sector in the disputed South China Sea, saying it is firmly opposed to infringement of its rights using development of bilateral ties as an “excuse”. Vietnam’s Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh on Tuesday had told an […]
“Our winning in the case filed before the international tribunal has been disregarded not only by China but by the Philippine government itself.” MANILA — Early in 2016, there have already been reports on the building of military facilities by China on the disputed Kagitingan Reef, internationally known as the Fiery Cross Reef. […]
MANILA, Philippines — Was the Philippine government really unaware of where China has been expanding in the disputed South China Sea as claimed by Malacañang? The Philippines claims parts of the South China Sea within its exclusive economic zone and calls it the West Philippine Sea. Last week, Chinese state-run newspaper Global […]
LONDON — Before his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos last January, Mr Xi Jinping’s advisers presented him with four drafts of a speech for the annual gathering of global elites. According to two people familiar with the Chinese president’s preparations, Mr Xi chose to give the softest version, presenting China as […]
HONG KONG — President Trump railed against a lot of things in 2017. Chinese construction in the South China Sea was not really one of them, despite his campaign tough talk. Focused on North Korea and evidently enamored of President Xi Jinping, the voluble U.S. president said relatively little as China continued to […]
At the recently concluded 31st ASEAN Summit Meetings in Manila, the leaders of ASEAN and China formally announced the start of negotiations on the fine print of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea. The agreement comes just three months after the foreign ministers from both sides endorsed the framework on the […]
China has accelerated construction and enhanced its military presence on South China Sea islands and shoals over the past year as territorial tensions with neighboring countries are subsiding. China’s construction projects in the South China Sea region covered about 290,000 square meters in 2017, including new facilities for underground storage, administrative building and […]
Beijing is relentless in its pursuit of territory that it feels once was a part of the Middle Kingdom. A lack of coordination in resisting this irredentist activity is having consequences, for ignoring it merely delays – and worsens – the problem. For example, if the law-abiding nations of the world had taken […]
BEIJING: China’s large-scale land reclamation around disputed reefs and shoals in the South China Sea is “moving ahead steadily”, state media has reported, and is on track to use giant “island-builders” to transform even more of the region. Beijing claims nearly all of the sea and has been turning reefs in the […]