China’s sprawling Belt and Road Initiative has spread development funding around Asia, Africa, and Europe. But foreign governments have warned the terms of BRI deals could pose risks to the countries signing them. Now officials in Beijing appear to be acting on their own concerns about unsustainable spending and unwieldy debt. Since announcing its Belt […]
Despite differences, defense secretary urges U.S.-China military exchanges to stabilize ties BEIJING—Defense Secretary Jim Mattis pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping on China’s buildup of military bases on disputed islands in the South China Sea as Xi defiantly stated Beijing would not give up the newly reclaimed islands. Randall Shriver, assistant defense secretary for Asian and […]
China wants to control the entire South China Sea. Every inch of it. That’s why will lose all of it, one day. In the South China Sea game, China is one player playing against all the rest: The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. China is also playing against the navies of US, Japan, France, […]
Contrary to the view that the South China Sea disputes are driven by a regional hunger for seabed energy resources, the real and immediate prizes at stake are the region’s fisheries and marine environments that support them. It is also through the fisheries dimensions to the conflict that the repercussions of the recent ruling of […]
In China, if you upset the government, you could be burned. Literally. Researchers in the country have reportedly developed a prototype laser assault rifle of similar dimensions to an AK-47, dubbed the ZKZM-500, according to South China Morning Post. The difference is that ZKZM-500 can reportedly set a person on fire — by using lasers. […]
Beijing’s recent decision to transfer administrative control of its coast guard from civilian to military authority from July is causing headaches for Japan. Given China’s tradition of using the coast guard to patrol areas to which it lays territorial claims, the move is being viewed as worrying and possibly significant. A sweeping government overhaul announced […]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 29) — Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes the Philippines, struck an agreement with China to move forward with negotiations for a code of conduct (COC) in the South China Sea. The code, which will define what the six claimants to the South China Sea […]
AUSTRALIA will invest nearly £4billion in surveillance drones to patrol and spy on the activity in surrounding waters and specifically the disputed South China Sea, in a bid to increase its maritime security. Australia will invest nearly £4 billion in surveillance drones Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he will spend £3.875 billion (AU$6.9 […]
China won’t give up “even one inch” of lands it inherited from its ancestors. This is what Chinese President Xi Jinping explicitly stated in his negotiations with US Defense Secretary James Mattis. In an interview with Sputnik, Konstantian Sokolov, a specialist in geopolitics at the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, has branded the Chinese leader’s […]
The region has become a potential flashpoint, with the US saying China’s activities in the area pose a threat to freedom of navigation in the strategically vital waterway, where Beijing has built an archipelago of artificial islands capable of hosting military equipment. Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday stressed the “urgent” need to build a powerful […]