The following is an unclassified Feb. 23, 2016 letter from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to Sen. John McCain answering questions on Chinese reclamation and militarization of its disputed holdings in the South China Sea. The Honorable John McCain Chairman Senate Committee on Armed Services Washington, DC 20510-6050 Feb. 23, 2016 Dear Chairman McCain: […]
HONG KONG — When the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis and four other American warships sailed into the South China Sea last week for what were described as routine exercises, the message was clear: The United States is the dominant military power in the region and plans to keep it that way. But numerous Chinese […]
Three powers with concerns in the region — the US, ASEAN and China — are now entangled in the South China Sea issue one way or another. Some ASEAN members have overlapping sovereignty claims among themselves and also with China. The claims cover hundreds of tiny islands, islets, rocks and even reefs and sandbanks as […]
BEIJING — China’s foreign minister took a hard line Tuesday on the country’s claims to virtually all the South China Sea, saying it won’t permit other nations to infringe on what it considers its sovereign rights in the strategically vital area. Wang Yi, speaking to reporters at an annual news conference in Beijing, said another […]
The U.S. Air Force will continue to conduct missions in and over the South China Sea, the top Air Force officer in the Pacific said Tuesday — despite China’s military buildup and its foreign minister’s recent insistence that freedom of navigation in the region has its limits. “We’ve watched the increased military capability on those […]
MANILA, Philippines – The United States Navy has deployed a small armada to the South China Sea in what is considered a show of force as tensions rise over China’s construction of artificial islands in disputed waters. Quoting US military officials, the Navy Times reported that the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, the destroyers Chung-Hoon […]
The US has sent an aircraft carrier and a number of other ships through disputed waters in the South China Sea, it announced yesterday — a move that will necessarily raise tensions with Beijing, which has been engaging in an increasingly militaristic power-play in the area over the past few years. The countries of The […]
It is a foregone conclusion that China will be heavily militarizing their artificially-created islands in the South China Sea, likely resulting in a chain of invisible threat rings that overlap their way across nearly the entire disputed body of water. So far traditional diplomacy has not stopped this eventuality, and the best the U.S. has […]
China’s actions in the South China Sea have irritated many nations in the region, but they also threaten the preservation of the UN Charter system, Alison Pert writes. Until very recently, China was insisting that its newly-created “islands” in the South China Sea were not for military purposes. Those assurances, always unconvincing, have now been […]
Dennis C. Blair, chairman of Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, was commander of the U.S. Pacific Command from 1999 to 2002 and director of national intelligence from 2009 to 2010. Jeffrey W. Hornung is a fellow with Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA. China’s deployment of surface-to-air missile launchers to the largest island in the Paracels chain has […]