Category Archives: News

Fewer Chinese back military action over South China Sea

MANILA, Philippines — There is significantly more support for a compromise and third-party arbitration to settle long-standing disputes over the East and South China Seas among urban Chinese residents, a recent survey indicated. In a study released by Pert USAsia Centre, researcher Andrew Chubb surveyed 1,413 adult residents of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Changsha and Chengdu. […]

‘Stronger global action sought on China moves’

MANILA – Stronger international action is needed to counter China’s rapid reclamation activities in the West Philippine Sea, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday. Belmonte noted that statements of condemnation from global powers on the continued encroachment of China in the disputed waters have been ineffectual. “The whole world is unable, unwilling or afraid to […]

China opposes PH seeking ASEAN unity vs reclamation

BEIJING, China – China on Monday said it opposed the Philippines seeking Southeast Asian unity to denounce its reclamation in the South China Sea, and hoped Washington and Manila, who have been conducting a military exercise in the disputed waters, do more to benefit regional peace and stability. Earlier on Monday, an official said Philippine […]

A Big Deal: China Reveals Its South China Sea Strategy

Concerned nations should also demand that the Chinese pledge that they will refrain from using these new outposts for destabilizing and coercive conduct. This should include promises not to interfere with freedom of navigation and to forego establishing an ADIZ over disputed maritime areas. To make such commitments palatable to Beijing, they could be included […]

Why China’s island building is so foreboding

Over the past six months, China has gotten a little bit bigger. China’s expansion, which has amounted to less than two square miles of new land, is making waves not for how big it is, but where it is. Chinese engineers, with the help of barges and dredging machines, have been enlarging tiny reefs, sand […]

Prudent diplomacy best in handling maritime row

Our dispute with China over its claims on certain islets, reefs and shoals in the South China/West Philippine Sea may not be resolved soon. Of late, China’s aggressive unilateral acts have been making news – it has been frenetically undertaking land reclamations and construction in some of the contested maritime areas. This has spurred, besides […]

China building runway on disputed islands: reports

BEIJING — China is rapidly building an airstrip on an artificial island in disputed South China Sea waters, recent satellite pictures show, potentially ramping up tensions with several Southeast Asian neighbors. Fiery Cross in the Spratly Islands was little more than a reef when China began land reclamation works to turn it into an island […]

China’s activities in South China Sea good for maintaining security, navigation freedom: ambassador

WASHINGTON, April 16 (Xinhua) — The Chinese Ambassador to the United States said Thursday that China’s buildup of its capabilities in the South China Sea provides public goods to all and “serves the interests of maintaining security, stability and freedom of navigation there.” In a keynote speech to the International Conference on China-U.S. cooperation in […]

China ‘building runway in disputed South China Sea island’

The images, published by IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, show construction work on reclaimed land on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands. The landmass could accommodate a runway about 3,000m long, the report said. China’s land reclamation work in the area has raised concern around the Asia-Pacific region. China claims almost the whole of the […]

Who’s Got the Biggest Muscles in the South China Sea?

The United States and China have been trading barbs over each other’s ‘strength’ and ‘muscle’ as alarm continues to intensify about Beijing’s massive land reclamation activities in the South China Sea. U.S. President Barack Obama told a town-hall event in Jamaica last Thursday ahead of a Caribbean summit in Panama that Washington was concerned about […]