China has almost finished building a 3,000-meter-long (10,000-foot) airstrip on one of its artificial islands in the disputed Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea, new satellite photographs of the area show. A U.S. military commander had said in May that the airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef could be operational by year-end, although the June […]
STRONG world opinion against China’s occupation and reclamation of areas in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) may have softened Beijing’s hardline stance on its maritime and territorial disputes with neighboring countries, including the Philippines. “The most glaring reality is that we are not alone, and because of that, the options are increasing from […]
The fourth of six Kilo-class submarines Vietnam bought from Russia arrived on Tuesday amid continued tensions in the South China Sea, local media sources reported. According to Thanh Nien News, the submarine, codenamed HQ-185 Da Nang, arrived at Cam Ranh Port in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa on Tuesday morning transported by the Dutch-registered […]
China’s top government body adopted a first draft of a new national security law Wednesday in a move that will likely ramp up Beijing’s ambitions in the already tense waters of the South China Sea. The law defines issues in cyberspace, outer space, the deep sea, polar regions and, perhaps most urgently, the South China Sea, […]
A Russian-made submarine arrived in Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Port Tuesday, the fourth of six Kil0-class submarines that Russia is delivering as part of a $2.6 billion deal the two countries signed in 2009, Thanh Nien News reported. The submarines are part of a Vietnamese effort to deter China’s military amid an ongoing dispute over the […]
The past few months have been a strategic roll coaster for Asia. Earlier this year, China dealt a huge blow to the United States’ leadership in the region when it managed to enlist leading European economies as well as American allies in Asia as founding members of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which will […]
AFTER months of political tensions and maritime squabbles, China said Wednesday that it has finally completed its land reclamation activities in some areas of the resource-rich West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). During the regular press briefing at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, its spokesman Hua Chunying revealed that “China’s construction on some stationed islands and […]
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has completed some of its land reclamation on the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, raising the stakes in Beijing’s territorial dispute with its Asian neighbors. China stepped up its creation of artificial islands last year, alarming several countries in Asia and drawing criticism […]
Japanese sea patrols in the South China Sea are unacceptable, but U.S. patrols there will be tolerated, a prominent Chinese general declared, according to a new NBC news report. The ongoing military dispute between China and Japan that will change the strategic make-up of the region centers on territorial claims over a group of islands that could have […]
The Philippine government’s protests through media now sounds like a broken record. The United Nations International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea will start the hearing of the Philippine suit against China’s nine dash line map which encroached on territories of the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam on July 6. But even a […]