The islands of the SCS have some military relevance, but are more important as a political claim to waterways and undersea resources. Militarily, they represent a thin crust on China’s A2/AD system. Under certain conditions this crust could disrupt U.S. freedom of action, but it won’t be hard for the United States’ Air Force […]
NEW YORK: In the trend of India and the US intensifying naval links to protect maritime freedom in the Indo-Pacific region, the US Navy chief will visit India next week, four days after the Indian Navy ships concluded exercises with the US and its allies in the South China Sea. During his visit scheduled […]
TAIPEI — Japan is helping Vietnam build a defense against the larger, more militarily powerful China as Vietnam says Beijing’s forces are occupying more than their legal share of the South China Sea. Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya and his Vietnamese counterpart, Ngo Xuan Lich, met May 3 to “advance cooperation” on maritime security, […]
TWO US warships sailed through the South China Sea in a move that risks worsening tensions between the US and Beijing. Missile destroyers called Preble and Chung Hoon were guided by the US within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson Reefs in the Spratly Islands two days ago, US military confirmed. Commander Clay […]
TAIWAN’s president Tsai Ing-Wen has accused bitter rivals China of infiltrating and attempting to gain influence on the island amid South China Sea tensions. She warned China that Taiwan would deter military aggression in the Taiwan Strait when she addressed reporters a national security meeting. Her stern message came just days after the US […]
IT NOT only boggles my mind, but I am also disappointed, as all Filipinos should be, that the outspoken Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. did not chime in to support Hanoi’s opposition to Beijing’s imposition of its annual fishing moratorium in the South China Sea, which also includes the West Philippine Sea (WPS). This […]
Since early March, Chinese fishing vessels—apparently part of the country’s maritime militia force—have been operating near two Philippine-held features in the disputed Spratly Islands: Loaita Island and Loaita Cay, called Kota and Panata Islands by Filipinos. The Philippine press began to report this militia presence in early April, prompting the government to say it […]
Three years into his quiescent China policy, Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is experiencing a rude awakening in the South China Sea. The ongoing Chinese siege of the Philippines’ largest land feature in the Spratlys, Thitu Island, represents Duterte’s greatest foreign policy crisis and, ironically, the very country he has courted assiduously is at the […]
THE US has become fearful of China’s quest to be the dominant global force amid the country’s development of a “nuclear triad”, according to a new Pentagon report. The Pentagon has insisted Beijing is close to completing an elite cohort of being able to deliver a nuclear strike by land, sea and air. In […]
As Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Randall G. Schriver emphasized in his rollout remarks on May 2, 2019, “our annual report to Congress, which we refer to as the China Military Power Report… is our authoritative statement on how we view developments in the Chinese military, as well as how that […]