The Obama administration has restricted the U.S. Pacific Command from sending ships and aircraft within 12 miles of disputed Chinese-built islands in the South China Sea, bolstering Beijing’s illegal claims over the vital seaway, Pentagon leaders revealed to Congress on Thursday. “The administration has continued to restrict our Navy ships from operating within 12 nautical […]
THE Palace reiterated on Wednesday that the government will abide by its policy of arbitration and diplomacy in dealing with issues involving the South China Sea even as a United States think-tank said Beijing may be building its third airstrip on artificial islands in disputed waters. “The situation there primarily deals with, again, our approach […]
The Japanese government has lodged a protest over China’s gas field development in the East China Sea after confirming the presence of flares suggesting gas production is under way at two more facilities, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday. The flares, Suga said, were confirmed in mid-September and add to those already observed at […]
Beijing will never give up its claims to South China Sea islands, its foreign minister insisted Wednesday ahead of a state visit to the US by President Xi Jinping, after a Washington think-tank said it may be building its third airstrip in the area. China claims almost the whole of the sea and over the […]
Recent satellite imagery of Fiery Cross in the Spratly Islands reveals that China’s construction of facilities on the reef is more ambitious than previously appreciated, with one of its building complexes on track to rival the Pentagon in size. The complex, located in the midsection of the manufactured island a thousand kilometers off China’s coast, […]
China appears to be taking new steps to build airfields on two reefs in a disputed area of the South China Sea on the eve of President Xi Jinping’s arrival in Washington for a state visit on 24 September. Commercial satellite photos taken on 8 September for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) […]
Hong Kong (CNN)China appears to building a third airstrip in disputed waters in the South China Sea, according to new satellite images analyzed by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The images, taken September 8, come after China pledged to bring land reclamation in those waters to a halt, and will make […]
But Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines all lay claim to parts of the disputed waters. What’s in a name? An entire sea, says Chinese Vice Admiral Yuan Yubai. On Sept. 14, at a defense conference in London, Yuan said that “the South China Sea, as the name indicates, is a sea area that […]
China appears to have started building the foundation for a third airstrip in the hotly-contested South China Sea, according to a report Tuesday from Reuters. The airstrip’s construction, according to the report, appears to have started on Mischief Reef, one of seven artificial islands that China has built. The chain of islands, both natural and […]
While Russia has employed “Little Green Men” surreptitiously in Crimea, China uses its own “Little Blue Men” to support Near Seas claims. As the U.S. military operates near Beijing’s artificially-built South China Sea (SCS) features and seeks to prevent Beijing from ejecting foreign claimants from places like Second Thomas Shoal, it may well face surveillance […]