Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to send his troops on a “suicide mission” if Beijing doesn’t “lay off” a Manila-occupied island in the South China Sea, the media reported on Friday. Duterte’s speech at a rally in the city of Puerto Princesa in Palawan came days after the Philippine government claimed as many […]
BANGKOK — The presence of large numbers of Chinese vessels near islands and islets occupied by the Philippines is “a concern,” a senior US defense official said on Friday. The Philippine government protested the Chinese ship movements on Thursday after its military monitored more than 200 Chinese vessels from January to March in a […]
B-52 bombers from Guam have trained with Air Self-Defense Force and Okinawa-based U.S. fighter jets in the Western Pacific, just days after China sent a total of six bombers and other aircraft through a key entryway into the Pacific for their own military exercises. “Two B-52H Stratofortress bombers took off from Andersen Air Force […]
Days after China sent a half-dozen bombers into the Pacific for military exercises, US Air Force B-52 bombers and F-15 fighters linked up with Japanese aircraft for joint drills. Two B-52H Stratofortress heavy long-range bombers out of Andersen Air Force Base on Guam joined F-15 Eagles from Kadena Air Force Base for exercises with the […]
TAIPEI — China is withholding details on the boundaries of its vast claims to a resource-rich sea contested by five other governments because it distrusts international law and wants to ensure control over tracts of water that it considers crucial, maritime scholars say. Exactly what Beijing claims in the South China Sea surfaced as in […]
BANGKOK — The presence of large numbers of Chinese vessels near islands and islets occupied by the Philippines is “a concern,” a senior U.S. defense official said Friday. The Philippine government protested the Chinese ship movements Thursday after its military monitored more than 200 Chinese vessels from January-March in a disputed area named Sandy Cay, […]
The United States has decided not to send warships or senior military officers to celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy later this month, a snub by Washington even as U.S. allies Japan and South Korea are expected to send their own vessels and officials. Pentagon spokesman Lt. […]
The Navy and Marine Corps appear to be testing a concept that would turn an amphibious assault ship into a mini-aircraft carrier — and they did so while sailing through the contentious South China Sea. The amphibious assault ship Wasp made its way to the Philippines last weekend with at least 10 F-35B Joint Strike […]
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte may take the country’s fight for disputed islands in the South China Sea to the United Nations if Beijing blocks Manila’s access to Thitu Island. Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte may raise before the UN General Assembly the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration if bilateral negotiations did […]
With the government either defending, justifying or simply doing nothing about China’s aggressive actions, the country’s giant neighbor has become even bolder to pursue its “creeping invasion” of the disputed territories in the South China Sea. After occupying, reclaiming and building virtual military bases with airstrips, radar equipment and other installations on several disputed islands […]