Since May 1, China has unilaterally deployed its HD-981 rig and many vessels, including military ships, in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf. This action violates Vietnam’s sovereign rights and its jurisdiction over the EEZ of 200 nautical miles and continental shelf. More dangerously, China escalated tensions when its ships, under the support […]
MANILA, Philippines – China plans to build a $5-billion artificial island envisioned to be a ”super aircraft carrier” in the Spratlys within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The online news site Qianzhan.com reported that the No. 9 Design and Research Institute of China State Shipbuilding Corp. has come up with a proposed design […]
A Chinese ship rammed and sank a Vietnamese fishing boat off the coast of Vietnam on Sunday, according to Vietnam’s foreign ministry. Ten fishermen were on board, Vietnam News reported. They were rescued by nearby Vietnamese boats approximately 17 nautical miles from an oil rig owned by China near the Paracel Islands. Anti-China protests took place […]
Many people, like my old friend Brad Glosserman, find it hard to understand why China is acting the way it is in the East and South China Seas. What does Beijing hope to achieve by alienating its neighbours and undermining regional stability? Let me suggest an answer: China is trying to build what President Xi […]
VietNamNet: If Vietnam brings the case to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), what steps should we take? Dr. Ngo Huu Phuoc: To bring the case to the ITLOS, we need to prepare a file for the lawsuit. The documents are compiled by the government or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs […]
Fueled by China’s growing assertiveness as a rising global power, tensions over territorial disputes have mounted in the Asia-Pacific region. In November last year, Beijing unilaterally expanded its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) to cover most of the East China Sea, triggering a bitter dispute with Tokyo as the ADIZ also covers the airspace above […]
(Reuters) – Taiwan is building a $100 million port next to an airstrip on the lone island it occupies in the disputed South China Sea, a move that is drawing hardly any flak from the most assertive player in the bitterly contested waters – China. The reason, say military strategists, is that Itu Aba could […]
The No. 9 Design & Research Institute of China State Shipbuilding Corporation recently displayed on its official website its proposed design of an artificial island to be built on a reef in the South China Sea. It aims at providing a reserve of designs for an artificial island China may build there. On the website, […]
WHILE the United States, with the pivot to Asia, is testing China’s capability to handle diplomatic challenges in ties with its neighbourhood, it is carrying out the strategy increasingly at the expense of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by driving wider the rifts among members of the regional bloc. Should the ASEAN nations […]
IN agreeing to a strategic partnership with Vietnam, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin admitted that the Philippines is interested in enhanced intelligence exchange and inter-operability with Hanoi, but stressed that such an arrangement is not necessarily aimed at any third country. “On the defense front, our objective is closer information sharing and inter-operability in the region,” […]