To understand China’s bid to dominate the Western Pacific, and America’s role in answering it, there are few better vantage points than the deck of the BRP Ramon Alcaraz. Based here at what was once the largest overseas base of the U.S. Navy, this frigate and a small number of other Philippine navy ships are […]
MANILA – The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) called on the international community for a “united voice” to stop China from pursuing the “might is right” strategy in the territorial dispute over the West Philippine Sea. AFP spokesman Col. Restituto Padilla made the appeal after the New York Times, quoting think-tanks, detailed Chinese construction […]
Several developments in recent weeks point towards China’s efforts to expand the seaborne aviation capability of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The PLAN is seeking to procure amphibious assault ships with significant aviation capability, are finishing construction on the world’s largest aircraft carrier dock, while speculation is mounting over a possible new aircraft carrier […]
THERE is a chance that China will stop its island-building spree in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) and other areas if all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and Japan agree to issue a united stand against Beijing’s sea activities, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said. “In this […]
Some U.S. naval commanders are at odds with the Obama administration over whether to sail Navy ships right into a disputed area in the South China Sea — a debate that pits some military leaders who want to exercise their freedom of navigation against administration officials and diplomats trying to manage a delicate phase in […]
The Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday that whether a new port being built in Hainan province could host aircraft carriers, as some media have recently speculated, would be decided “in accordance with the tasks required”. Canada-based Kanwa Asian Defense, a regional defense magazine, said in its August issue that a 700-meter dock […]
On 27 July, local media outlets reported that the Vietnamese Coast Guard had inducted a new patrol vessel into one of its commands. The new boat, numbered CSB 4035, is the fifth of the Vietnamese-built TT400-class vessels in the fleet and was inducted into the service’s Zone 4 command. The vessel was delivered by local […]
KUALA LUMPUR – China and Southeast Asian nations have agreed to set up a foreign ministers’ hotline to tackle emergencies in the disputed South China Sea, a senior official of the ASEAN grouping said Friday. China claims most of the potentially energy-rich sea, through which $5 trillion (¥619 trillion) in ship-borne trade passes every year, […]
Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has once again sounded the alarm on China’s continuing activities in the West Philippine Sea. China, he said, is not just building artificial islands at seven reefs that are all within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone as defined and recognized by the United Nations Convention on the Law […]
Is China starting down a path similar to that followed by Japan and Germany before 1945, when nationalism backed by new economic clout led to overconfidence and adventures which eventually proved disastrous? The question needs asking in the context of China’s latest moves ultimately aimed at making the South China Sea into a Chinese lake. […]