TAIPEI — Vietnam’s efforts to modernize its armed forces face numerous political, historical and financial barriers. Many are of Vietnam’s own making — its go-slow policy on human rights issues and democratization, and the Communist Party’s reluctance to share power, even though it has embraced foreign investment and capitalism. Still, growing problems with China are forcing Hanoi to ask hard questions about its […]
Not too long ago, the Chinese economy appeared to defy both gravity and doomsayers. Despite years of unbalanced growth, Beijing has managed to rely on investment to power its economy and keep growth high. The country’s binge on credit since 2009, which has brought the debt-to-GDP ratio close to 300 percent, a perilous level for […]
India and Australia will conduct their first ever bilateral war games in September with an eye on China. Chinese authorities said it is unperturbed but claimed that the naval drill is part of a long-planned alliance with the U.S. and Japan to contain China over South China Sea dispute. According to a report from Reuters, […]
China’s rapid construction of a string of artificial islands in the South China Sea has entered a more troubling phase. According to a major Pentagon report released last week, Beijing is shifting its focus from land reclamation to building deepwater ports, military-grade airstrips and other strategic infrastructure on top of its islands. While it’s unclear […]
China conducted large-scale air and sea exercises in the East China Sea on Thursday, state news agency Xinhua said, the third time in the last two months it has carried out such live-fire maritime drills. The training involved more than 100 ships, dozens of aircraft, information warfare units as well the firing of close to […]
BEIJING: China will unveil a refitted model of a long-range strategic bomber next week during the massive military parade here to commemorate the victory against Japan in WWII, the state media reported today. The aircraft, independently developed for long-distance precision strikes, was loosely based on a previous bomber model, but 90 per cent has been […]
China has undergone more than three decades of unprecedented rapid growth. Literally. The country is expanding. Hundreds of square kilometres are added onto China each year, as coastlines are extended farther and farther out to sea. Massive amounts of land are being reclaimed to build new cities, ports, resorts, and industrial zones. Dubbed by the […]
The Pentagon just released an “Asia-Pacific Maritime Security Strategy.” The document articulates three regional maritime objectives heretofore insufficiently stressed and linked: “to safeguard the freedom of the seas; deter conflict and coercion; and promote adherence to international law and standards.” Long-overdue, the strategy represents a positive contribution, but remains far from sufficient. First, the strengths: […]
It has long been presumed that economic integration can and will mitigate U.S.-China security competition. But to put it bluntly, this does not seem to be happening. So when President Xi Jinping visits Washington next month, it is essential that the U.S. and China use his visit to confront, not tiptoe around, the underlying reasons […]
Since then, Taiwan, one of the six claimants in the South China Sea dispute along with China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, has moved to take additional positive steps, most notably, officially launching a South China Sea Peace Initiative. In a climate where much of the news on the South China Sea has been […]