Anyone betting that Chinese President Xi Jinping would back down quickly in a trade war with Donald Trump better think again. Xi told a Beijing crowd including some of China’s most influential political, military and business figures on Tuesday that the country’s growing wealth and power had validated the Communist Party’s — and thus his […]

Beijing appeasing Donald Trump or waiting him out will no longer work, says Financial Times’ Gideon Rachman LONDON: Tell me how this ends? was the despairing question attributed to American generals as they contemplated the quagmires in Vietnam and Iraq. The same question needs to be asked by US policymakers now, as they consider the […]

MANILA – The US envoy to the Philippines has admitted that the early months of the Duterte administration brought challenges to the relationship between Washington and Manila. US Ambassador Sung Kim said he put a lot of effort in building a constructive relationship with President Rodrigo Duterte. Kim and the President met in Malacañang last […]

It is time for Southeast Asian states and ASEAN to think, act and speak consistently and clearly for its own interests—or else court irrelevance and ruin of its own strategic objectives. THE 2017 National Security Strategy (NSS) describes China as a revisionist power seeking to displace the United States in the Indo-Pacific region. It is […]

MANILA – The United States envoy to the Philippines has dismissed President Rodrigo Duterte’s accusations that Washington failed to stop Beijing from militarizing islands in the South China Sea. Ambassador Sung Kim said the US has been consistent in its calls against aggressive unilateral actions. “China has obviously taken unilateral measures and in fact they […]

2018-12-18 Email story Comment on this story Share Share Comment Email Indonesian troops attend the inauguration ceremony for the Natuna TNI Integrated Unit in Riau Islands province, Dec. 18, 2018. The Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) commander on Tuesday inaugurated a military unit in the Natuna islands near the South China Sea that will be tasked […]

MANILA – It has been just five years since China initiated its major land reclamation in the South China Sea, and the country has already shifted the territorial status quo in its favor — without facing any international pushback. The anniversary of the start of its island building underscores the transformed geopolitics in a corridor […]

MANILA, Philippines—A possible armed confrontation over the disputed maritime areas in the South China Sea is on the top list of security threats concerning the United States in the coming year, according to an annual survey of US foreign policy experts. An assessment conducted by the Center for Preventive Action of the Council on Foreign […]

MANILA, Philippines — Although geographically far from the United States, an armed conflict in the politically volatile South China Sea is among the top concerns of US foreign policy experts for 2019, according to a study by the Council for Foreign Relations’ (CFR) Center for Preventative Action published on Tuesday. The survey evaluates ongoing and […]

December 17, 2018—The possibility of conflict between the United States and Iran as well as between the United States and China constitute two of the greatest threats to peace in 2019 and warrant heightened focus from policymakers, according to the Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) eleventh annual Preventive Priorities Survey, which identifies nine top conflict […]