Security experts warn Beijing could spread propaganda in the lead-up to the federal election through popular social messaging service WeChat, which is facing less government scrutiny than US tech giants such as Facebook and Twitter. The International Cyber Policy Institute – part of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute – has warned WeChat’s 1.5 million monthly […]

Recently, Sen. Telena Nelson asked, “Is there an option to have no military presence on the island at all?” (Guam Pacific Daily News, Jan. 24, 2019). The answer is no. Much as we would like, Guam (like Belgium) can never be neutral. Geography will not allow it. Its strategic location is too important to too […]

Great Britain is returning to seaways “east of Suez,” decades after freeing its colonies and withdrawing, more or less, to the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. A warship from Britain’s Royal Navy demonstrated on behalf of nautical freedom in the South China Sea last September, drawing a stern rebuke from China. This month the frigate […]

Defence Minister Christopher Pyne says China’s militarisation of the South China Sea has increased anxiety and suspicion about the rising power’s intentions in the region. Australia is open to conducting drills with other militaries in the disputed territory to send a message that it is international waters, he will say in a keynote address to […]

China’s military modernisation is part of a “diverse” new threat to the national security of the United States, Washington said this week, just days after a separate US report raised concerns about Beijing’s development of a new generation of stealth jets. According to the latest “National Intelligence Strategy” – produced by the Office of the […]

Key state-owned enterprise reform ‘needs to take place much faster’ DAVOS, Switzerland — China’s ongoing trade war with the U.S. and the slowdown of its economy, the world’s second largest, are taking an expensive toll on its neighbors. Times are especially hard for Vietnam, as its relationship with its powerful neighbor in the north is […]

The United States and the United Kingdom conducted joint naval exercises in the South China Sea last week, their first such drills in the area since 2010. The operations were intended to push back on China’s assertive behavior in the region, including its militarization of nearby artificial islands, but analysts are skeptical that they will […]

The US Navy sent the destroyer USS McCampbell and replenishment oiler USNS Walter S. Diehl through the Taiwan Strait Thursday. It is the fourth time the Navy has publicly admitted to sending surface combatants through the closely-watched strait since the US restarted the practice last summer. It comes at a sensitive time in US-China relations, […]

China says its new hypersonic missile, the DF-17, can sink U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. The claim, which ran in several media outlets controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, came just hours after U.S. and British Royal Navy warships sailed through the South China Sea together. Yes, China almost certainly has such missiles. Whether the country […]

Andrew K.P. Leung says the US is confronting China in multiple arenas, ranging from technology to Taiwan to the South China Sea. While the world anxiously watches the US-China trade talks unfold, there has been all-out resistance against the perceived “China threat”, albeit with uncertain results. Following a series of national security and defence reviews, […]