A critical and early Chinese test of U.S. resolve is likely to come in the South China Sea, where Washington has struggled to respond effectively to assertive Chinese behavior. Enduring U.S. interests — freedom of navigation and overflight, support for the rules-based international order, and the peaceful resolution of disputes — are at risk in […]
On 12 January, Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong arrived in China for a lavish, well publicised four-day official visit. Nguyen’s trip symbolised the significant improvement in Sino–Vietnamese relations since their nadir during the HYSY-981 oil rig confrontations in mid-2014. Hanoi’s subsequent suppression of nationalist protests marking the 19 January anniversary of China’s […]
Biggest Pacific land and sea grabs since the Japanese invasions of 1930s and 1940s ‘almost complete’ CHINA is stealing the oil and gas rich South China Sea and it’s “too late” for US President Donald Trump to stop them, a senior defence expert warns. Former head of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Sir Angus Houston […]
Notwithstanding the warming relations between China and the Philippines, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s Secretary of National Defense voiced the country’s displeasure over China’s “very troubling” military activities in the disputed areas of the South China Sea. “The actions of China in militarizing those disputed features are very troubling,” Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said. “They do not […]
Since the 1990s, China has insistently waged a slow and deliberate imperial war of territorial expansion in the South China Sea. “Imperial war” is the apt description. China exhibits classic imperial ambition. Using economic, diplomatic and military muscle (camouflaged by propaganda), Beijing adds territory to its imperial dominion at the expense of less powerful neighbors. […]
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s appearance at last week’s World Economic Forum shows global leadership is shifting, not drifting, toward Beijing. The most vigorous defense of globalization and multilateral cooperation was mounted not by an American statesman, but by the president of the People’s Republic of China. China’s Xi reaffirms US relations in talk with Trump […]
US energy giant Exxon Mobil and state-owned PetroVietnam agreed this month to develop Vietnam’s largest natural gas-fired power generation project, a US$10 billion joint venture known as ‘Blue Whale’ (Ca Voi Xanh). The deal, signed while outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry was on his last official visit to Vietnam, threatens to create new […]
SINGAPORE: Malaysia on Monday called on all parties to “look beyond tired and childish notions of winners and losers” in resolving South China Sea territorial disputes. Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein (pic) said Malaysia firmly and unequivocally believed that these disputes can only be resolved through diplomacy and via multilateral institutions such as […]
MILITARY and geopolitical experts dismissed Chinese state media’s warnings of war over the South China Sea following US Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson’s statement that China should be barred from reclaimed islands. Experts said China’s military and economic reach, as well international alliances, were not enough to sustain a war. Antonio Santos, former undersecretary for […]
FOREIGN Secretary Perfecto Yasay recently revealed that the Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest with China through a third person note verbale, upon verification of the report by the Washington-based CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative that China appears to have built anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons on its man-made islands in the disputed waters of the […]