A Philippine government ship slipped past a Chinese coast guard vessel Saturday and brought food and fresh troops to a marooned navy ship used as a base by Filipino troops to bolster the country’s territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea. The incident was witnessed by journalists who were invited by the Philippines military […]
In recent years, especially since the beginning of this decade, the term “Thucydides trap” (between China as a rising power and U.S. as an established one) has gained increasing currency among policymakers, advisers, and China experts in Western research institutes and think tanks. The fear is that as its power increases, China will eventually choose […]
MANILA — The Philippines will proceed with its legal case against China at the United Nations tribunal over Manila’s claims to parts of the disputed South China Sea, despite pressure from Beijing to delay or drop the case, lawyers for the Philippines’ legal team said yesterday. Manila is seeking a ruling to confirm its rights […]
Walden Bellow, a representative of Akbayan (Citizens’ Action Party) in the Philippine House of Representatives, recently wrote an opinion-editorial in Foreign Policy in Focus (March 18) entitled, “A Budding Alliance: Vietnam and the Philippines Confront China.” Bello argued that, “The Philippines and Vietnam are natural allies in their common struggle against China’s drive for hegemony […]
The South China Sea is seeing increasing tension amongst the claimants. The Second Thomas Shoal is the latest addition to Beijing’s ‘Salami Slicing’ strategy of slowly acquiring small reefs and islands to consolidate its contested claim. By Darshana M. Baruah THE MOST recent tension in the South China Sea over the Second Thomas Shoal indicates […]
WASHINGTON, Mar 22 2014 (IPS) – Last year, the Philippines brought a complaint against China’s aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea to the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal. It was a master stroke by the Philippine government. The Chinese “were really unprepared for that and were really embarrassed by it,” one of Vietnam’s top experts […]
BY FORCE: Is physical occupation backed by military force the only option left in resolving territorial disputes between the Philippines and China in their common waters? That is another way of saying war looms as a possibility as the options for peaceful settlement dwindle. A military scenario is emerging with the reckless rhetoric coming from […]
HONOLULU, March 21, 2014 — The modern world that emerged from the end of the Cold War and the disastrous terrorist attacks of 9/11 has deceived the United States and her traditional allies into assuming that war between states was a thing of the past. As the world sees Russian advances in Eastern Europe and […]
A global association of political parties has condemned China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), in a move the Philippines hailed as an “international expression of support” for its claim on isles in the disputed territory. In a one-page resolution issued in Brussels, the Centrist Democrat International (CDI) said it “condemns the […]
China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, resumed consultations on the South China Sea in Singapore Tuesday. In theory, active work on a declaration and code of conduct for the South China Sea—the arena of conflicting territorial claims—should ease tensions, but the opposite may be true. On March 9 China took the […]