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 […]
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 […]
PALAWAN ISLAND, Philippines–Tokyo’s growing partner in the field of security appeared impressed by the equipment of Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force. “We have radar, but they (MSDF) have advanced radar for search and rescue,” said Niccaben Ogoc, 37, a second petty officer of the Philippine Navy, during the countries’ first joint exercise using the MSDF’s P-3C […]
WASHINGTON – If China can prove indisputably it owns the islets, shoals and reefs that are at the heart of a dispute with the Philippines and other neighbors, the US will support it 100 percent, Deputy US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Blinken said the US made it clear during a US-China strategic and […]
China is reportedly proceeding with the construction of artificial islands on at least two reefs, which are claimed by the Philippines, despite Beijing promising to end some work soon. Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon of Kalayaan Islands, which falls under Philippine’s control, said that he saw Chinese land reclamation activity going on in ‘full swing,’ with many […]
Hainan Island, China — The U.S. and China are jockeying for power in the South China Sea, deploying sharp words and an expanding fleet of warships, spy planes and fighter jets to protect their interests in a vital maritime domain. Is this regional arms race and increasingly tense diplomatic showdown between the world’s two largest […]
Follow the latest developments on island reclamation activities in maritime Asia. Exclusive new satellite imagery is added on a regular basis. Island Building Cuarteron Reef U.S. Board of Geographic Names: Cuarteron Reef Chinese: Huayang Jiao (华阳礁) Philippine: Calderon Reef Vietnamese: Bãi Châu Viên The artificial island at Cuarteron Reef saw most of its construction and […]
WASHINGTON DC — The US continues to insist all contesting parties in the South China Sea should halt reclamation activities, US Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken said at the 2015 Center for New American Security conference. The United States has no territorial claims in the South China Sea, but the White House has stated […]
Reports began emerging in the Vietnamese media on Thursday that China’s Haiyang Shiyou 981 (HD-981) oil rig—the centerpiece of last summer’s clashes between Vietnam and China—was being redeployed off the coast of China’s Hainan Island, in waters where the disputed exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of Vietnam and China overlap and west of the disputed Paracel Islands (known […]