It wasn’t so long ago, says Eugenio Bito-onon Jr., that everyone in the Spratly Islands, his patch of the South China Sea, pretty much got along. “Oh yeah, it was really very peaceful,” says Bito-onon, a Filipino who’s served for the past five years as mayor of this archipelago of more than 100 small islands […]
SHANGHAI—As Chinese financial markets went berserk last week, Beijing activated a jumbo-sized airstrip it has built among the shipping lanes of the South China Sea by piling sand on top of coral. Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/beijing-taps-old-playbook-nationalism-1452572490
Over the past few years, China has begun to transition away from its ‘peaceful rise’ strategy, which called for fostering an international environment that’s amenable to economic expansion; or in other words, not rocking the boat of the prevailing US-led order in East Asia. A centerpiece of this policy shift has been to push the […]
As North Korea dangerously escalates regional and global tensions with its fourth nuclear detonation, the United States can ill afford further strategic ambiguity in its intentions and policies in East Asia. Yet, that is precisely what the Obama administration is offering in its muted and somewhat muddled response to China’s expansionist actions. With Beijing accelerating […]
Vietnamese fishermen say they are being attacked by China with increasing regularity. Their boats have been rammed, equipment broken and crewmen beaten up. Vietnam accuses Beijing of trying to force them out of waters in the South China Sea where their families have fished for generations. As the breaking dawn casts a red-orange rim around […]
The Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces have decided that Japanese P-3C patrol aircraft returning home from anti-piracy activities off the coast of Somalia will give priority to stopping along the way at bases of countries facing the South China Sea, including the Philippines and Vietnam, according to sources. The P-3C has advanced monitoring capabilities, […]
Recent events related to the South China Sea (SCS) reveal Chinese thinking about its maritime strategy in that important area. First, China believes that establishing sub-regional hegemony is achievable. Second, it has a coherent maritime strategy with a two-pronged approach: modernizing and restructuring its military to allow for naval power projection, along with consolidating diplomatic […]
The Chinese military will soon use a new airport in a disputed part of South China Sea’s Spratly Islands to perform test flights, a retired major general in the country’s People’s Liberation Army told the South China Morning Post Friday. China angered Japan, Vietnam and the United States Saturday by landing a plane on the […]
Just a year short of its 70th birthday, the South China Sea’s infamous U-shaped broken line faces its biggest challenge, writes Lisa Murray. If an island can be proven habitable a nation can substantially expand it’s claim to surrounding territorial waters. A People’s Liberation Army soldier poses in the vegetable gardens on Firey Island Reef. […]
Protesters holding placards shout anti-China slogans during a rally in front of the Chinese consulate in Manila on June 4, 2015. AFP FILE PHOTO Avoiding conflict in the disputed South China Sea – where China has in recent days conducted three test flights on a newly built airstrip on a reef it reinforced recently – […]