We may be on the verge of serious trouble with China in Southeast Asia if Beijing continues to push its territorial claims in the South China Sea. While Secretary of State John Kerry was in Beijing recently attending an economic conference, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter was in Singapore meeting with other defense chiefs at […]

BEIJING (AP) — China’s Maritime Safety Administration says the country will hold seven-day military drills around disputed islands in the South China Sea from Tuesday. The exercises will overlap with Wednesday’s expected ruling by an international arbitration court on China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea. Click Here! China is boycotting the case brought […]

THE WASHINGTON-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) yesterday said only eight countries, mostly African, were openly supportive of China’s position as against the Philippines which had 40 nations supporting it in its arbitration proceedings against Beijing. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) of the CSIS released a tribunal arbitration tracker to […]

Aggressors, like China, start wars. Yet whether history’s next great conflict begins in East Asia will not be determined in the councils of a belligerent Beijing. If you’re trying to set your watch to the sound of gunfire, you must, most of all, observe Washington. The region is in seemingly never-ending crisis because Chinese leaders […]

INCOMING Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. said China will benefit more from a peaceful resolution of the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) row through abiding by an arbitral tribunal ruling than by taking any aggressive action on the dispute. He said the Asian giant should be reminded by all countries concerned of freedom of […]

The high seas could turn into lawless stretches if not for global rules like those of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), which over 160 countries and the European Union support. Its purposes are entirely laudable: to provide a legal order for the oceans and to enshrine freedom of the […]

The disputed waters are rich in marine life and natural resources, including oil deposits, and form one of the world’s most heavily used shipping lanes. © Reuters MANILA — A United Nations court of arbitration said Wednesday it would pronounce its findings July 12 on a petition lodged by the Philippines against China in early […]

THE maritime dispute case between the Philippines and China over the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) will be decided on July 12. “The Tribunal will issue its Award on Tuesday, 12 July 2016 at approximately 11 a.m. CEST, The Hague,” the court said in a statement late Wednesday night. “The Award will first be […]

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS – A little-known international tribunal will early next month step into a bitter dispute over the South China Sea, handing down a ruling which risks further inflaming tensions between Southeast Asian nations and China. The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) — the world’s oldest international tribunal for the peaceful resolution of disputes […]

An international court will issue a judgement next month on the Philippines’ case against China over disputes in the South China Sea. But China’s made it clear that it will have none of it. Manila is contesting China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, which the Philippines contends are invalid under international law. […]