THE president of the Philippines has accused the US of “testing who can fire the first shot” as tensions mount over the disputed South China Sea. Beijing claims the majority of the South China Sea but this is contested by other countries including the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and Vietnam. The US does not […]
BEIJING – China has closed off an area of the South China Sea this week for military training. The China Maritime Safety Administration says drills are being held all day Sunday and half a day Tuesday in an area near China’s holdings in the Paracel island group. China claims virtually the entire South China […]
CHINA has fired back at the US after President Donald Trump’s defence secretary warned Washington would no longer “tip toe” around Beijing’s behaviour in the South China Sea. Patrick Shanahan used his speech at the Shangri-La defence forum in Singapore to condemn “actors” who seek to destabilise the region, but stopped short of naming […]
Lieutenant General Shao Yuanming accused acting US defence secretary Patrick Shanahan of sending the wrong message to Taiwanese separatists. Photo: Minnie ChanLieutenant General Shao Yuanming accused acting US defence secretary Patrick Shanahan of sending the wrong message to Taiwanese separatists. Photo: Minnie Chan A senior Chinese military officer has accused the United States’ top […]
CHINA has launched a furious denial against accusations from Australia its pilots were targeted by lasers over the South China Sea. Euan Graham of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, who was the aboard the warship from which the aircraft were operating, made the claims when writing for The Strategist blog. Mr Graham told CNN […]
CHINA has “won” in the Shangri-La Dialogue as Japan and South Korea refuse to agree on security measures in the South China Sea. Pressure on Beijing’s island building in the disputed seas has eased since defence ministers from Japan and South Korea failed to negotiate security. The pair were due to meet at the Asian […]
TOKYO — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday called on Chinese President Xi Jinping to hammer out a code of conduct for the South China Sea, warning the disputed waterway is increasingly becoming a potential “flashpoint” for conflict. Duterte went off script in a speech at Nikkei’s Future of Asia conference to vent frustration over […]
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines says efforts are needed to reduce the chance of military conflict in the South China Sea. The issue will be a continuous “flashpoint for trouble” the longer it is left to fester, Duterte said Friday at the Future of Asia conference in Tokyo. His remarks came a day after […]
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte voiced rare frustration with China Friday, urging progress on a code of conduct for the contested South China Sea, which he warned was becoming a “flashpoint”. Duterte was delivering a speech at an economic forum in Tokyo, but veered off script with remarks about the resource-rich sea, over most of […]
TOKYO—President Duterte on Friday said he loved China as an ally but questioned the claim by the Asian economic powerhouse over the whole South China Sea. It was the first time that Duterte directly confronted China publicly on whether it had the right to claim the strategic waterway. The President made the remarks in […]