The United States has significantly accelerated the pace of it freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea. Last year it conducted four such operations in the span of five months. This contrasts with the four FONOPs conducted during President Barack Obama’s entire second term. On January 17, the USS Hopper, a U.S. […]

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative is an ambitious program to build infrastructure across 60-plus countries on four continents. There is an overland component that links China with Western Europe by rail. The sea component links coastal China with East Africa and Europe. This month, an additional proposal linked Europe and eastern Canada […]

From being a frontrunner in pressing China on the South China Sea disputes, the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte is seeking closer relations with China. In his state of the nation address in July last year, Duterte announced that he wants to begin a joint exploration venture with China in the South China Sea, in […]

Even without the July, 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which stated that China has no legal basis to claim “historic rights” over the Bajo de Masinloc, the world knew that China’s “ownership” of the shoal was a sham, a fishwives tale of the 13th century Chinese fishermen who supposedly laid first claim […]

Manila recently allowed a Chinese ship to conduct maritime research at a resource-rich vast underwater plateau known as Benham Rise, east of the main island of Luzon, near US bases in Guam and Hawaii. For months, the Philippines has been drumming up a joint venture with China to explore for oil and gas in a […]

On January 22, Chinese government media angrily accused the U.S. of “wantonly provoking trouble” in the South China Sea. The alleged American provocation? On January 17, the U.S. Navy’s USS Hopper, a guided missile destroyer, passed within 12 miles of Scarborough Shoal — a sea feature within Filipino territory that China now calls Huangyan Island. […]

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is strengthening its combat capability by conducting drills in the South China Sea in an effort to deal with potential disputes and national reunification in the future, a military expert said on Wednesday, adding that other countries should familiarize themselves with the situation. Website navy.81.cn, affiliated to PLA Daily, […]

Last Wednesday, the USS Hopper, an Arleigh Burke–class missile destroyer, sailed within twelve nautical miles of Scarborough Shoal, a few rocks in the northern portion of the South China Sea. We would not have known about the sail-by if we were relying on the Pentagon. Beijing announced the event and then made threats. The Chinese, […]

Contrary to Palace claims, the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said the Philippines, despite its limited resources, can explore and exploit the still untapped resources of the Philippine Rise on its own, even without China’s help, with sufficient funding for research and development. As early as 2013, the Philippines, through the Department […]

The Pentagon has denied that a U.S. destroyer was driven out of the South China Sea by Chinese forces, as the country’s defense ministry has claimed. “No one runs a navy ship out of anywhere,” an unnamed senior defense official told The Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday. “This whole notion that we got run off […]