The submerged reef would be easy to miss, under turquoise seas about 80 km (50 miles) off Malaysia’s Borneo island state of Sarawak. But two Chinese naval exercises in less than a year around the James Shoal have shocked Malaysia and led to a significant shift in its approach to China‘s claims to the disputed […]
Taiwan’s Coast Guard and Military held a simulated fire drill and patrolled in the East China Sea last week, even as Taiwan’s President continued to promote his East China Sea peace initiative. According to detailed press accounts in Taiwan’s media this week, last week Taiwan’s Coast Guard, Navy, and Air Force conducted combined patrols and […]
Over the past few years, China has steadily increased its assertiveness in the South China Sea. Its most recent claim to fishing rights over most of this territory has given other countries in the region cause to worry that China may soon try to implement an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) across the South China […]
The Indonesian National Defense Forces (TNI) says Jakarta will increase its presence around the Natuna waters in the South China Sea as a preemptive measure to avert instability in the area. TNI Chief Gen. Moeldoko stated on Thursday that Jakarta will deploy additional forces and increase the presence of its army and air force around […]
Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak is seeking a security hotline with the Philippines, a year after clashes between authorities and Filipino Muslims claiming sovereignty over Sabah state resulted to the death of at least 62 people. Najib met with President Benigno Aquino III in Putrajaya south of Kuala Lumpur on Friday, where they discussed the […]
MANILA, Philippines — With a little over a month before the Philippines submits its written arguments to the international Permanent Court of Arbitration, Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza publicly spoke for the first time about the basis of the Philippines’ case against China’s claim to nearly the entire South China/West Philippine Sea. “You need to have […]
MANILA, Philippines – A former president and the longest serving member of the European Parliament called China’s actions in the West Philippine Sea and South China Sea “unacceptable,” and said no power should be allowed to dominate in the region. Hans-Gert Pöttering, chairman of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) and member of the European Parliament representing the […]
CAMP PENDLETON, California: In the early morning along a barren stretch of beach here last week, Japanese soldiers and US Marines practiced how to invade and retake an island captured by hostile forces. Memo to Beijing: Be forewarned. One Marine sergeant yelled for his soldiers to push into the right building, as his soldiers, guns […]
For the past two years China has dispatched a flotilla of People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships to the farthest reaches of the South China Sea to assert Beijing’s claim to “indisputable sovereignty” over the waters and features lying within its nine-dashed line. Beijing’s ambitious claim covers an estimated eighty percent of the South China […]
According to Reuters, ASEAN officials say that they will meet with Chinese representatives in Singapore beginning March 18 to try and make some progress on talks to establish a “code of conduct” in the South China Sea. China agreed to discuss a South China Sea code of conduct at the ASEAN forum last July, a […]