Monthly Archives: June 2020

Japan Has A Plan For Dismantling China’s Submarine Fleet

Japanese forces chased a Chinese submarine out of Japanese waters on Thursday. Officials in Tokyo characterized the sub’s infiltration as part of China’s escalating land-grab across the western Pacific. A Japanese “destroyer”—actually, the helicopter-carrier Kaga—along with a P-1 patrol plane reportedly detected the submarine within 24 miles of Amami-Oshima island, near Okinawa in southern Japan. […]

Duterte halted VFA termination due to South China Sea tensions

SUMMARY MANILA, Philippines – Despite earlier asserting he wanted the military deal scrapped, President Rodrigo Duterte decided to suspend his earlier decision to terminate the Philippines’ Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States due to rising tensions in the South China Sea during the pandemic.  According to Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr, who along […]

South China Sea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Ladakh…Is the dragon stretching itself in too many directions?

The violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan valley along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh has led to the death of 20 Indian troops and an unknown number of Chinese casualties. The deaths on both sides represent the most serious incident involving the two militaries since 1967, and the […]

South China Sea: Beijing has a major natural advantage in the geopolitical power game

Hundreds of miles away from the scene of the current Sino-Indian dispute lies another perpetual theatre of war where China is a permanent player — the South China Sea, where tiffs over competing claims frequently degenerate into maritime muscle-flexing. China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei all lay claims to these waters. Rival countries […]

America Is Using Its Navy to Deter China Around Taiwan and the Spratly Islands

The U.S. Navy has conducted a Taiwan Strait transit to “demonstrate the U.S. commitment to a free and open IndoPacific,” according to a statement from Naval Sea Systems Command. Navy destroyer USS Russel conducted the transit in the area, which borders the areas just North of the much-disputed South China Sea. Recent Chinese maneuvers, such […]

Ex-SC justice says database needed to keep Filipinos informed of fight for sovereignty vs China

MANILA, Philippines—Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio is proposing a national database to keep track of the developments in the West Philippine Sea for the next generation of Filipinos. At an online forum, he described the West Philippine Sea dispute as an “intergenerational struggle.” “This will not be solved in our generation. This […]

Update: US Navy C-40 reported flying directly over Taiwan

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A U.S. Navy transport jet was sighted flying directly over Taiwan on Tuesday morning (June 9) and was last spotted flying towards Taiwan’s Dongsha Islands (Pratas Islands) in the South China Sea. Aircraft spotting sites AirNav RadarBox and planefinder, in addition to Twitter user Golf9, spotted a U.S. Navy Boeing C-40a […]