China struck an upbeat note on Monday as trade talks resumed with the United States, but also expressed anger at a U.S. Navy mission through the disputed South China Sea, casting a shadow over the prospect for improved Beijing-Washington ties. BEIJING/WASHINGTON: U.S. and Chinese officials expressed hopes on Monday that a new round of […]

Observers fear the South China Sea could become a flashpoint for conflict — and the US just made another move likely to anger China. Australia pressured to increase South China Sea military presence Two United States warships have sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea, a US official has told Reuters. […]

Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, will say today that Britain must be ready “to use hard power” to protect its interests. He will warn that Russia and China are blurring the boundaries between peace and war and declare that Britain must stand up to those who “flout international law”, a principle that “may lead to […]

Silence is not always golden. What is left unsaid sometimes can be disturbing, even alarming — as it was from both sides of the political aisle during Tuesday’s State of the Union address. During the course of his 82-minute speech, President Trump mentioned only three foreign leaders: North Korea’s Kim Jong Un (with whom he […]

A strategic rehabilitation of Hanjin Heavy Industry Corp. by a consortium of multinationals from around the world may be a major step toward a peaceful South China Sea. Rather than strategic competition, the rehabilitation policy of the Philippine government must be for strategic cooperation. This, too, is the spirit of an October 2018 report of […]

BRITAIN’S new super-carrier should form the centre of a multinational taskforce to challenge Beijing’s stranglehold of the South China Sea, defence sources said last night. It follows a new report by the Henry Jackson Society think tank, backed by senior Admirals, which includes the move as part of a seven-point plan to ensure China holds […]

The ascension of Xi Jinping to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has often been posited as a turning point for China’s policy in the South and East China Sea maritime disputes. As early as 2013, You Ji of the University of New South Wales assessed that Xi had been “instrumental in changing […]

This year, Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Japan twice – for the G-20 summit in June and a second bilateral summit later TOKYO: Even as Washington ratchets up the pressure on China, Tokyo and Beijing are in the middle of their own “Wuhan spirit”, as both countries with a bitter history strive […]

THE Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) that the Philippines signed with the United States in 1951 was supposed to give the country a sense of security against any prospect of an external attack. But given its current form and with its “ambiguous” provisions, the treaty with the country’s longtime ally does not provide this sense of […]

China is considering equipping its only serving aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, with a hi-tech launch system that will render its ski-jump flight deck obsolete and create a platform for training pilots in the latest naval aviation skills. A retired PLA Navy officer told the South China Morning Post that the 14-degree deck on the Soviet-built […]