t a Nov. 12 news conference in Beijing, General Secretary of the Communist Party Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to notify the other side before major military activities, and to develop a set of rules of behavior for sea and air encounters, in order to avoid military confrontations in Asia. “It’s incredibly […]
President Obama’s second daylong summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping will be the best chance this year to clarify some fuzzy lines on Asia’s biggest potential flash point: the South China Sea. This is the time to further clarify U.S. interests, including whether the United States cares about possible outcomes to the region’s many territorial […]
Vietnam is becoming a proxy against China in any future possible confrontation in the South China Sea or South Asia as a whole. On Oct. 28 India announced that it would sell naval vessels to Vietnam in exchange for an energy-exploration deal. These vessels would arrive at a time of rising tension between Vietnam and […]
It is no secret that the South China Sea is an area of conflict and controversy, but understanding the interests and role of the United States in that region is not intuitive. The situation centers on competing territorial claims by China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, the Philippines and Malaysia over several sets of islands. Attempts by […]
(Reuters) – Taiwan is considering stationing armed vessels permanently on a disputed South China Sea island, officials said, a move bound to renew friction in a region claimed almost wholly by China, with Vietnam already dismissing such a plan as “illegal”. The potentially energy-rich Spratly islands are one of the main flashpoints in the South China Sea, with claims […]
Earlier May 2014, China unexpectedly moved the HD-981 oil rig to the location that is about 17 nautical miles from the island of Tri Ton (of Vietnam’s Hoang Sa Archipelago) and 120 nautical miles from Ly Son Island (Da Nang province), deep in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Vietnam, and 180 nautical miles from […]
To increase its military defenses in the South China Sea, the government is preparing to establish an F16 fighter jet squadron in Pekanbaru, Riau Islands, and an Apache helicopter squadron near the South China Sea. Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the government had decided upon the measure to safeguard Asia’s largest gas field exploration at […]
The close encounter on Aug. 19 between a US Navy P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft and a Chinese Air Force J-11 fighter-bomber over the South China Sea is a reminder of the growing clash of interests between the two great powers. Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby accused the Chinese fighter pilot of flying within 20 […]
China’s efforts to protect its submarine gateway to the South China Sea could broaden from standoffs with U.S. military planes to announcing an air defense identification zone, according to two retired army officers. China could seek to restrict the air space around Hainan Island as the U.S. routinely runs surveillance flights in the area, retired […]
WASHINGTON – China’s neighbors are increasingly anxious that Beijing’s maritime disputes with countries like Vietnam and the Philippines will lead to military conflict, a US research group said in findings released Monday. Even in China itself, polling showed that 62 percent of the public worried that territorial disputes between China and its neighbors could lead […]