China is conducted a long-range drill with its military aircraft overflying waterways near Taiwan in the disputed South China Sea on Saturday (10 December), Taiwan’s defence ministry said. It is the first such exercise by China since a telephone call between Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and US President-elect Donald Trump left Beijing annoyed. However, there […]
MANILA, Philippines – Warships and aircraft on patrol in the South China Sea are arriving in the Philippines from US bases in Guam and Japan, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said yesterday. Lorenzana clarified the US is not allowed to use the Philippines as a staging point to patrol the South China Sea. He added the […]
Officials: China flew nuclear-capable bombers around Taiwan China flew a long-range nuclear-capable bomber outside China for the first time since President-elect Donald Trump spoke with the president of Taiwan, two US officials told Fox News. The dramatic show of force was meant to send a message to the new administration, according to the officials. It […]
On 12 July the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), at The Hague, handed down a landmark decision in a case the Philippines had brought against China in 2013 regarding Beijing’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea. Many were stunned by the comprehensive nature of the PCA’s verdict in Manila’s favour. Indeed, the decision […]
China defended its massive military construction and development projects in the disputed South China Sea Wednesday. “China’s construction in the South China Sea has turned its islands into the best-equipped, most advanced bases in the region with airports, hospitals, agriculture and 4G mobile signal,” the Global Times argued, citing a Chinese military publication. The South […]
Washington has failed to demonstrate that it has the stomach to remain a resident power in Asia. Recognizing the geostrategic significance of Asia for the twenty-first century, President Obama told an Australian Parliament in 2011, “The United States is a Pacific power and we are here to stay.” But with U.S. membership in the Trans-Pacific […]
By Lincoln Feast and Greg Torode | SYDNEY/HONG KONG Vietnam has begun dredging work on a disputed reef in the South China Sea, satellite imagery shows, the latest move by the Communist state to bolster its claims in the strategic waterway. Activity visible on Ladd Reef in the Spratly Islands could anger Hanoi’s main South […]
In the South China Sea, islands able to sustain PLA military operations have been constructed from what previously had been strips of sand or small atolls while Chinese naval militias harass commercial fishing fleets. In Crimea and eastern Ukraine, soldiers lacking national attribution have assisted local forces demanding changes in political boundaries. Russian and Chinese […]
TAIPEI — A marine sanctuary proposed by the Philippine president inside a contested South China Sea shoal risks upsetting rival claimant China despite an ecological mission and a recent thaw in relations with the Asian superpower. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told local media in late November he planned to issue an executive order declaring the […]
President-elect Donald Trump’s unprecedented phone call with Taiwan’s newly-elected president Tsai Ing-wen has a lot to do with Washington’s often complicated military tensions with Beijing. Why? The South China Sea, a disputed swath of ocean of which China claims a majority of territory. It is true, as Trump mentioned in his tweet, that America sells […]