TWO WEEKS ago, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi accused ASEAN of an anti-Beijing conspiracy over disputed South China Sea (SCS) territory at the start of the foreign ministers meeting in Brunei, and called the Philippines a provocateur for stirring tensions in the SCS. That imperious salvo triggered a sharp response from DFA Secretary Albert del […]
Synopsis Increasing Chinese maritime law enforcement capabilities in the South China Sea (SCS), ostensibly to protect the interests of its fishermen, may only exacerbate tensions in one of the world’s closely monitored regional flashpoints. This is especially so in the context of increasing commercial fishing operations by SCS littoral states and the absence of a […]
At a fund raiser for the Filipino Advocates for Justice in Oakland on June 20, I sat down with the former national chair of Bayan USA to ask him if his group planned to join the July 24 global protest against China’s occupation of the Ayungin Reef. Model of the Philippine Independence Day float of […]
(Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping told his visiting Vietnamese counterpart of Wednesday that maintaining peace and stability in the contested South China Sea was vital for both countries, who should remember their traditional friendship. Beijing’s assertion of sovereignty over a vast stretch of the South China Sea has set it directly against Vietnam and […]
MASINLOC, Philippines (Reuters) – For decades, fishermen along the northwestern Philippine coast treated the teeming fishing grounds of the Scarborough Shoal as their backyard, less than a day’s boat ride away. Now, they see it as a foreign country. “I lost my livelihood when we lost the Scarborough Shoal to the Chinese,” said Mario Forones, […]
TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: I transmit herewith the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fishery Resources in the South Pacific Ocean (the “Convention”), done at Auckland, New Zealand, November 14, 2009, with a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification. I also transmit, for […]
By Ralph Jennings, Christian Science Monitor, 3/22/13 Taiwan says Japan is set to give it fishing rights to waters around a set of disputed islands. That could mean that Japan wants Taiwan on its side in the struggle against China over the disputed ocean. Japan is ready to open a contested tract of the East […]
Tensions among rival claimant-states to the waters and land features of the South China Sea (SCS) – particularly China, the Phihppines and Vietnam – have escalated significantly in the last several years, bringing the Philippines to center stage as a key participant in the future of security and stability in our part of the world. […]