BEIJING—The Philippines has paid a high price for launching a legal challenge to China over its sweeping claims to the South China Sea: Two-way trade, travel and investment are all languishing. Now, it risks missing out on a planned Chinese infrastructure spending bonanza designed to boost trade and bring jobs to the region. Read more: […]
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 […]
In the course of the dispute over the Spratly Islands, China’s extensive reclamation works do not necessarily act as a ticket to win sovereignty claims in accordance with the maritime provisions of international law. A Eurasia Review analysis cited China’s ongoing infrastructure projects on several of the seven reefs it occupies in Spratly. But according […]
The Spratly Islands are basically mounds of sand in the middle of the South China Sea, some of them barely tall enough to reach above the water. But China is hell-bent on making them inhabitable, even drawing up plans for floating energy and water plants. It has nothing to do with the islands themselves and […]
Satellite images captured by Taiwan indicate that Vietnam is pushing for land reclamation much harder than China in the disputed South China Sea, the Christian Science Monitor reported on Sept. 23. Wang Cheng-gi from the Satellite Surveying Center of the Department of Land Administration under Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior, who is in charge of […]
MANILA— The Philippines has stopped all development work in the disputed South China Sea because of the impact such activity might have on an arbitration complaint it has filed against China, a defense official said on Friday. The Philippines has called for all countries to stop construction work on small islands and reefs in the […]
China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea can ‘make it impossible’ to settle the Philippines’ historic case against the Asian giant, a US-based analyst says MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines should work with Vietnam in “accurately surveying” the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea before China completes its artificial islands in the […]
Having missed out on the prime real estate, China is constructing its own What do you do when all the seats are taken? The Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia control real islands in the South China Sea. “China came very late to this party and missed out on all the good real estate,” writes the […]
What, exactly, is China constructing in the disputed Spratly Islands, where heavy-duty construction, ocean dredging, and the possible foundation for an airstrip have been reported for months? The BBC took a shot this week after traveling through the disputed seas, reporting that China “seems to be preparing to build an air base with a concrete runway […]
“Millions of tonnes of rock and sand have been dredged up from the sea floor and pumped into the reef to form new land. There are cement-pumping trucks, cranes, large steel pipes, and the flash of welding torches.” These are the words of BBC journalist Rupert Wingfield-Hayes describing China’s construction activities at the Johnson South […]