BEIJING — A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves: CHINA DEFENDS SHIP CONFRONTATION China’s ambassador to the United States has […]

Beijing’s militarisation of disputed waterway has encouraged greater cooperation among regional players and major powers Defence ministers from the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will gather in Singapore for their 12th annual meeting from Thursday to Saturday, along with their counterparts from China, the United States, Australia, India and Japan. […]

The gradual expansion of Chinese power in the South China Sea has caused great alarm. However, it should be less alarming than the looming prospect of a trade war, in which the United States will be fighting alone. A recent near-collision between Chinese and U.S. Navy destroyers has focused new attention on the potential for […]

For years now, China has been at war against the United States in the South China Sea, except Washington didn’t notice until the process was well underway. The Chinese way of war — modeled after the philosopher of middle antiquity, Sun Tzu — is to win without ever having to fight. Thus the Chinese have […]

Beijing (CNN)There is growing realization — and fear — among Chinese officials in Beijing that US President Donald Trump could be serious in his promise to upend the types of bilateral relations they have become accustomed to in the past few decades. It is a shock for Beijing to realize that reports about an administration-wide […]

Southeast Asian countries also cooperating with US and Japan to keep China in check in the region, analysts say The assessment follows Monday’s decision by the Philippines to join a regional military exercise involving China and other Asean countries later this month, and comes days after a Chinese destroyer and an American warship came within […]

Captain Lin Jianchang is a fisherman born and bred. Sitting on his small trawler mending nets, the 54-year-old says times are tough. “When I started to fish we could fill our boat completely in an hour, we couldn’t move, there were fish everywhere,” he says. “Now there’s less fish and it’s rare to get a […]

By the normal rules for ensuring navigational safety ‘there’s no way we would see ships getting so close’, analyst says The incident happened when a Chinese Luyang-class destroyer sailed within 41 metres (135 feet) of the USS Decatur in an operation described by Washington as “unsafe and unprofessional” and by Beijing as a necessary defence […]

The proposal, which comes at a time of heightened tensions between the US and China, has yet to be approved. In recent weeks, Washington and Beijing have quarreled over trade, sanctions, Taiwan, repeated bomber flights over disputed seas, and a confrontation between US and Chinese warships. The US military is reportedly planning to put on […]

After the “close encounter of the unsafe kind” last week between US Navy destroyer USS Decatur and Chinese destroyer Lanzhou during a freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) conducted by the American ship in the vicinity of Gaven Reef in the Spratlys, the US Pacific Fleet is drafting a classified proposal for a series of operations […]