MANILA — Sharing resources in the West Philippine Sea with China is only “fair” as long as Manila gets the bigger cut, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said Friday. The 60-40 sharing agreement, in favor of the Philippines, gives the country an “upper hand” against China since the latter would be spending for the […]

  Days before the 2019 Asean Summit and Related Summits in Thailand, it is fitting to reflect on the relevance and responsiveness of Asean to its more than 650 million people in Southeast Asia. Amid all its geoeconomic and geopolitical challenges in the region, Asean remains the best platform to settle differences and unite on […]

  CHINA has been left humiliated after aggressive water grabs and persistent bickering with Asian neighbours has only resulted in a withdrawal from Vietnamese waters, and their status as top dog could be further challenged as the Philippines look to bolster the defence of their own waters amid escalating tension. A Chinese oil survey vessel […]

  SOUTH CHINA SEA tensions continue to soar as Vietnam has issued another devastating attack on Beijing. The two nations have clashed recently, as China looks to increase its territorial gains in the region. With China looking to claim territory under its nine-dash line policy, Beijing has come into conflict with several nations within the […]

China has set its sights high – very high – in terms of economic development, aiming to become not just one of the world’s superpowers by 2049 (the 100 year anniversary of the People’s Republic of China) but the leading superpower worldwide. With such lofty goals China has barreled full-speed ahead toward the future, and […]

Financial markets tend to oscillate between optimism and pessimism. But, for some time now, the dominant emotion has been confusion, and extreme confusion at that. Ever since the dramatic sell-off in the final quarter of last year, in which the benchmark S&P 500 equity index fell 12.3 per cent, a widespread, and profound, sense of […]

The Philippines used to refuse to put stamps on Chinese passports with the now-invalid nine-dash line, the policy of which was amended this year. The policy was enforced in 2012 under then Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario during the Aquino administration. A Reddit user brought this up following two cases of China’s controversial map […]

Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio retires at midnight today, October 25, after serving the Supreme Court (SC) for 18 years. On Saturday, October 26, he will be 70 years old, the mandatory retirement age for members of the judiciary. Carpio was appointed SC associate justice by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2001. He […]

Comparing the state of Japan-China relations in the wake of Shinzo Abe’s return to the prime ministership in December 2012 to today, the bilateral relationship has come back to a semblance of normality. During this transition period, we had Japanese and Chinese ambassadors dueling on the BBC, comparing each other’s political leaders to the Harry […]

HANOI—A Chinese oil survey vessel that has been embroiled in a tense standoff with Vietnamese vessels in the South China Sea left Vietnamese-controlled waters on Oct. 24 after more than three months, marine data showed. The Chinese vessel, the Haiyang Dizhi 8, was speeding away from Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone towards China on Thursday under […]