While the Asia-Pacific region will be grappling with the deadly coronavirus pandemic well into 2021, long-running tensions unrelated to the virus — around hot spots such as North Korea, the South China Sea and Taiwan — are also expected to return to the headlines this year. Here’s a glance at the current state of play […]

Japan and the United States have welcomed planned naval deployments this year by major European countries to Indo-Pacific waters, as China’s rapid military modernization and maritime and territorial ambitions prompt moves to increase deterrence. With Beijing demonstrating increasing assertiveness in the East and South China seas and on the India-China border, Britain will deploy the […]

Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping is shaping to make the People’s Liberation Army his primary vehicle for driving the party’s strategic aims this year. The end of last year has brought remarkable policy and propaganda shifts in Beijing, mostly unreported in the democracies, that consolidate the CCP’s control of the military and make […]

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said Monday that he regrets the U.S. hadn’t made more progress in resolving “hard issues” with China or getting North Korea to shed its nuclear arsenal, while saying that the Trump administration has made the world a safer place than it was four years ago. “The regret is that the […]

As China’s growth model sputters and Xi Jinping prioritizes repression over reform, China looks unlikely to join the ranks of developed countries. China has a new set of economic goals—and they’re far less ambitious than those of past decades. In October, when the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) met to endorse President […]

MANILA, Philippines—China’s biggest military transport plane landed recently on Kagitingan Reef (Fiery Cross) in the West Philippine Sea, giving a glimpse of what could happen if the Chinese base there becomes fully operational. A Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force Y-20 transporter was spotted on Kagitingan Reef last Dec. 25, Hong Kong-based news agency […]

SOUTH CHINA SEA TENSIONS ESCALATED AFTER INDIA AND JAPAN MADE A JOINT VOW TO ENSURE BEIJING’S TIGHTENING GRIP ON THE MOST COVETED WATERS IN THE WORLD DOES NOT SPIRAL OUT OF CONTROL, AND INTO CONFLICT. SOUTH CHINA SEA: MILITARY EXERCISES ‘MUST CONTINUE’ SAYS EXPERT India and Japan’s defence ministers, Rajnath Singh and Nobuo Kishi respectively, […]

Despite seeking a balance between the superpowers, Vietnam desires more robust security ties with Washington. As the incoming Biden administration formulates its South China Sea strategy, one regional partner that looms large is Vietnam. Over the last few years, tensions between China and Vietnam in the South China Sea have remained high, impacting fishing and […]

The exercise reflected a new emphasis on small, dispersed troop units and command centers, which are intended to be harder to locate and destroy. The simulation was one of the first to be directed from a command hub consisting of three armored vehicles that can be set up or moved in minutes and emit fewer […]

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has offered an olive branch to the incoming Biden administration, saying a “new window of hope” is opening. In a wide-ranging interview with state news agency Xinhua published on Saturday, he urged the Biden administration to adopt a sensible approach and restart engagement with China to get bilateral ties back […]