China is training and supporting an increasingly sophisticated fishing militia to sail into the South China Sea, where the Asian powerhouse is engaged in territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam and several other countries in the region. A fishing fleet based in a port town on Hainan island — China’s southern-most point — has been […]

South China Sea, Taiwan, South China Sea dispute, Taiwan South China Sea claim, Taiping Island, Taiwan Taiping Island claim, Taiping Island media tour, Spratly Island, Asia news, International news The fishing fleet based in this tiny port town on Hainan island is getting everything from military training and subsidies to even fuel and ice as […]

Taipei, May 1 (CNA) Taiwanese fishermen lauded and expressed their full support Sunday for the government’s action in sending patrol ships to international waters near a Japanese-controlled atoll in the Western Pacific that day to protect Taiwanese fishing boats operating there. “Yes, (the government) should be this hard. This is what we call protecting fishermen,” […]

TOKYO — China’s surprise rejection of a port visit by a U.S. aircraft carrier last week could signal a further escalation of tensions in the disputed South China Sea. Chinese authorities refused last week to grant permission for the USS John C. Stennis battle group to make a routine port call at Hong Kong. It […]

Beijing has launched a charm offensive to shore up its position in the South China Sea ahead of a key international court decision widely expected to rule against its claims to the disputed waters. Over the past two weeks, China has seen successes in courting India, Russia, Pakistan, Belarus, Laos — and even Brunei, one […]

The rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) — when the history books have enough perspective to quantify and objectively examine its sheer spectacle — will certainly declare it the speediest accumulation of national power in all of human history. Whatever you think of its brutal authoritarian nature, Beijing has lifted hundreds of millions […]

Brunei is an absolute monarchist, Islamic state of 420,000 people on the north coast of Borneo, wedged into the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Indonesia and Malaysia own 99 percent of Borneo, which is the third largest island in the world, located at the maritime center of Southeast Asia. It has become a key pawn in […]

A specter is haunting Asia—the specter of full Chinese domination in the South China Sea. Latest reports suggest that China could soon move ahead with building military facilities on the Scarborough Shoal, a contested land feature it has occupied since 2012. This would allow China, according to a Mainland source, to “further perfect” its aerial […]

China’s surprise announcement of a consensus with Laos, Cambodia and Brunei on how they approach South China Sea disputes has generated predictable concern. The four points are: The dispute is between individual states rather than Asean as a bloc; these countries should be left to settle the dispute by themselves; they should do so without […]

CNA April 30, 2016, 12:14 am TWN TAIPEI–President Ma Ying-jeou said Friday that Japan’s claim that the Okinotori atoll is an “island” violates the rights of fishermen everywhere and that Taiwan is not ruling out the idea of submitting the dispute to international arbitration. Again commenting on the April 25 detention of a Taiwanese fishing […]