China’s military has stepped up its exercises in the South China Sea to prepare for “unexpected confrontations”, according to a report in Sunday’s PLA Daily. The military mouthpiece said a naval aviation unit under the Southern Theatre Command had completed a long-time early warning reconnaissance drill in which participants identified more than 10 kinds […]

  Key point: People’s war could start to look awfully like conventional marine combat if Beijing believes the military balance and the trendlines favor China. Last year China’s defense minister, General Chang Wanquan, implored the nation to ready itself for a “people’s war at sea.” The purpose of such a campaign? To “safeguard sovereignty” after […]

  BEIJING – The United States needs to brush up on its history about the South China Sea, as World War Two-related agreements mandated that all Chinese territories taken by Japan had to be returned to China, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Australia. China has been upset by previous comments from the new […]

  CHINA’S actions in the South China Sea are designed to “coerce and bully” its neighbours, according to a top US Navy commander. Admiral John Aquilino, commander of the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet, lashed out at Beijing for using its military strength to intimidate other countries in the region and warned China must respect the […]

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks at a news conference after restoring diplomatic ties with Kiribati on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, U.S. September 27, 2019. Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said on Friday that the United States had seriously damaged the hard-won mutual trust between the countries by […]

  U.S. Admiral John C. Aquilino speaks during a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand, December 13, 2019. BANGKOK: A partnership between the United States and “like-minded nations” will keep Asian countries secure in the face of competition from a rising China, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet said on Friday. On a visit to […]

  CHINA has come under attack from a top US Navy commander who has lashed out at Beijing for using activities in territory claims in the South China Sea as a tool to intimidate other nations in the region. Admiral John Aquilino, the commander of the United States Navy’s Pacific Fleet, said China’s actions, including […]

Top US and Chinese generals have recently doubled down on military-to-military diplomacy after months of rising tensions, as the two sides bid to head off conflict in the hotly contested South China Sea. In recent weeks, the two superpowers have teetered on the brink of confrontation, including over an incident in which China reportedly intercepted […]

Beijing needs a better strategy to ease the United States out. Many observers believe China is building up its military, especially its navy, to break through the first and second island chains and push the United States out of the Asia-Pacific. China’s military expansion in the region is thus seen as a major threat against […]

  WASHINGTON – Through nearly three years in office, the Trump administration has made a lot of noise about competing with China geopolitically but has often struggled to lay out, coherently, what America seeks to achieve. So it is encouraging that the State Department is beginning to articulate a sharper idea of what the United […]