China is set to defy world opinion and go rogue. Here’s why: In a few weeks, the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the International Court of Justice in The Hague is expected to be announced. It is widely expected that the tribunal will decide in favor of the Philippines’ central complaint that […]

Asian countries are increasingly pushing back against China’s sweeping territorial claims and bullying tactics in the South China Sea. On Sunday, a Japanese submarine made a port call in the Philippines for the first time in 15 years, a sign of growing security cooperation. Last week, Vietnam seized a Chinese ship for illegally entering its […]

Social media and drones could be tapped by Asian nations in propaganda war to counter Chinese actions in South China Sea The rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) — when the history books have enough perspective to quantify and objectively examine its sheer spectacle — will certainly declare it the speediest accumulation of […]

South China Sea: Is Beijing making a new ‘strategic strait’? The South China Sea doesn’t appear at first glance to be a geographical bottleneck. China can, however, effectively create a strait by locating sufficient military assets on two sets of land it controls. A major test for the future of Asia is on the horizon, […]

SANYA, CHINA – Except for a few transient fishermen living in wooden huts, the tranquil shores of Woody Island were for decades largely devoid of inhabitants or civilian facilities. Then, in 2012, it all changed for the biggest island of the disputed Paracels in the South China Sea. That year, China – which controls the […]

Talk to any local in Tanmen about its transformation from quiet fishing village to buzzing tourist site and they will invariably point to two things: Xi Jinping and endangered giant clams. But while the Chinese president’s historic visit in 2013 momentarily shot the town to prominence, it is the popularity of giant clam handicrafts that […]

Vietnam demands that China compensate Vietnamese fishermen who were robbed by Chinese vessels while fishing off the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands earlier this month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday. MOFA spokesperson Le Hai Binh Binh condemned the acts of Chinese men as “inhuman” and demanded that such acts not be repeated. “Under any […]

Western and Asian governments and commentators have pilloried the Chinese government for its inscrutability on the so-called ‘nine-dash line’ in the South China Sea. Because the nine-dash line allegedly lacks a basis in international law as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), they have hectored China to clarify […]

This is an excerpt of a speech by veteran diplomat Bilahari Kausikan organised by the Institute of Policy Studies on Wednesday. This is his third lecture in the IPS-Nathan Lecture series. In the lecture, he examines the impact of US-China competition on Asean. In the extract below, he gives his reading of what has spurred […]

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during his meeting with U.S. Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that China is resolute in defending its sovereignty in the South China Sea, and believes the disputes should be settled peacefully by relevant claimants through direct talks, Xinhua said. Xi said Beijing “respects and safeguards the freedom of […]