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 – […]
With the increasing world population, diminishing resources, the rise of Asia and global power push by China, the Indo-Pacific will likely become the center of gravity of conflict with Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs) of many countries crisscrossing these waters. Maritime competition is essentially for control of trade routes, hence multitude of external powers that […]
CHINA cannot ignore the growing call from the international community on the need to resolve the South China Sea issue by adhering to the rule of law, President Benigno S. Aquino III said yesterday. The remark is in line with the Philippines’ case filed at the international Arbitral Tribunal at The Hague, the President said. […]
NEW DELHI – Without incurring any international cost, China belligerently continues to push its borders far out into international waters in a way that no power has done before. Its modus operandi to extend its frontiers in the South China Sea — a global trade and maritime hub — involves creating artificial islands and claiming […]
To both domestic and international observers, fishermen from Tanmen, a small fishing town in China’s Hainan province, are the country’s “maritime rights protection” vanguard in the South China Sea. For centuries, Tanmen fishermen have been fishing in the area, particularly in waters near the Scarborough and Spratly islands, and in recent years have been directly […]
In this photo released by China state news outfit Xinhua, a Hainan Airlines plane takes off at the airfield on Fiery Cross Reef (Kagitingan Reef in the Philippines) in the South China Sea on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016. Xinhua/Jin Liwang MANILA, Philippines — China continued on Wednesday its test flights over the South China Sea, […]
MANILA, Philippines – China is reportedly building a submarine harbor at Panganiban (Mischief) Reef located in the West Philippine Sea near Palawan, the Kalayaan Atin Ito (KAI) movement said yesterday. KAI has just concluded its nationwide maritime and territorial campaign that was highlighted by the “Freedom Voyage” to the disputed Spratly Islands to protest China’s […]
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, right, is welcomed by his Philippine counterpart Albert del Rosario prior to their bilateral meeting at the Department of Foreign Affairs in suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016. Hammond and del Rosario discussed issues affecting their two countries such as the celebration of the 70 […]
A submarine can be seen in the middle pier at Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam. Photo: Google Maps The arrival of the submarines from Russia is a key part of Vietnam’s biggest arms build-up since the height of the Vietnam War, which could significantly change the balance of power in the flashpoint South China Sea, […]