When Rupert Wingfield-Hayes visited the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, he found Chinese fishermen were deliberately destroying coral reefs. Poachers were revving the engines on their boats sending clouds of black diesel smoke pouring into the air – and under the water, were piles of shattered white coral branches. As he reports, some […]

We fly over Mischief Reef and am totally shocked at what we find. Over 70 boats are converting a pristine Atoll into an illegal Chinese Military base. This is Philippines territory, and so far away from China. It is against all international law.

Atolls begin as an underwater volcanoes called seamounts. Over time and many eruptions the seamount grows until it rises above the water and becomes an island. Corals grow around the island and, over geologic time, the volcano goes dormant and sinks, but the coral reefs remain and continue to grow faster than the island sinks, […]

China may be on the verge of making a major mistake that would undermine its great gains in soft power in Southeast Asia. This comes at a time when China needs friends in the region more than ever as its economy slows, trade tensions with the U.S. rise, and security and financial concerns with its […]

  The waters of the South China Sea face environmental peril that is ‘inseparable from the territorial disputes that plague it’. As claimants solidify their positions through artificial island construction, with China driving the most ambitious builds, habitats with wide-ranging ecological and economic value are being destroyed. Calls for regional science-based cooperation to overcome these […]

  As if the scandal over false claims about graduating from top universities is not enough for her, senatorial candidate Imee Marcos recently let loose with another jaw-dropping claim: It was the Philippines, she said in a TV interview, that started all the trouble with China by haling it before the international arbitral tribunal. It […]

  MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has assured the Filipinos that the government will “never abandon” the arbitral tribunal ruling which upheld the country’s exclusive sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea. “We will never abandon the Hague decision nor concede an inch of the reefs taken from us. No and […]

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Thursday slammed former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, repeating his accusation that the former top diplomat was responsible for the loss of the country’s possession of the Scarborough Shoal. Del Rosario had earlier urged the Duterte administration to “unshelf” the arbitral tribunal ruling in 2016 that invalidated China’s excessive […]

  MANILA – The Philippines should start building up its weaponry and “stop throwing money at poverty,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Thursday, as China continues its aggressive behavior in the disputed West Philippine Sea. Locsin issued this statement after Sen. Panfilo Lacson called his attention to a 2013 China Daily Mail report […]

China has built the world’s first stealth amphibious assault drone boat for island warfare, the developer revealed recently, and Chinese military experts believe it could eventually be headed to the disputed South China Sea. Built for island assault operations and capable of operating on land and at sea, the “Marine Lizard” amphibious drone ship was […]