May 9 (Reuters) – China embarked upon extensive land reclamation efforts at five outposts in the disputed Spratly Islands last year, adding huge amounts of terrain to bolster its civil and military presence in an area claimed by rivals, a new Pentagon report said on Friday. Chinese building and land-filling efforts have accelerated this year, […]
AMERICA and its friends in Asia have long worried about the South China Sea becoming a Chinese lake—a vast stretch of water, through which half the world’s commercial shipping passes, falling under the control of China’s fast-expanding navy and coastguard. In the past few months these fears have been amplified by satellite pictures showing Chinese […]
Vietnam is in the process of acquiring 50 anti-ship and land attack 3M-14E Klub supersonic cruise missiles for its burgeoning fleet of SSK Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines, Der Spiegel Online reports. According to the article, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) recently updated data on its website, based on information obtained from the United Nations’ register […]
China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea are prompting a soul-searching query from Hanoi to Washington: At what point does a sliced-up salami cease being a salami at all? In a short space of time, China’s unilateral and incremental efforts to carve out a greater presence in the South China Sea — by, for […]
High-resolution satellite images from April 17, 2015 reveal that in the space of ten weeks China has built an island on top of Subi Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands group. The dimensions and shape of the land fill, which is still underway, are compatible with a potential airstrip 3,300 meters long, similar to the […]
A CHINESE frigate supposedly fired shots at a Philippine military aircraft early this week in Pag-asa Island (Thitu) West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). “There was a near disastrous incident between a Chinese frigate and PAF patrol aircraft early Monday. The frigate fired an illumination round on the PAF aircraft which necessitated grounding all military […]
The Philippine army has released new photographs of Chinese construction work in disputed waters in the South China Sea as it launched giant war games with the United States involving 11,500 personnel that were partly aimed at warning China. The Philippines voiced alarm about Chinese ‘aggressiveness’ in the area as it launched the Balikatan 2015 […]
MANILA, Philippines — There is significantly more support for a compromise and third-party arbitration to settle long-standing disputes over the East and South China Seas among urban Chinese residents, a recent survey indicated. In a study released by Pert USAsia Centre, researcher Andrew Chubb surveyed 1,413 adult residents of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Changsha and Chengdu. […]
HONG KONG — China’s island building program in the South China Sea may result in it gaining control of some of the world’s most important waterways, the US’ most senior military commander for Asia said. “If this activity continues at pace, is that it — those would give them de facto control” of the maritime […]
The images, published by IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, show construction work on reclaimed land on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands. The landmass could accommodate a runway about 3,000m long, the report said. China’s land reclamation work in the area has raised concern around the Asia-Pacific region. China claims almost the whole of the […]