China’s recent construction on disputed atolls in the South China Sea has accelerated the stop-start cycle of dispute there. This series of surveillance photographs from the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative gives some idea of the expanding scope of the effort. Only last July the decision of the Chinese authorities to withdraw the HYSY-981 oil rig a month early from Vietnamese-claimed waters diffused ongoing physical […]
China’s land reclamation in four of the Philippine-claimed atolls and reefs in the West Philippine Sea area of the South China Sea, estimated to have reached more than 60 hectares, may have already changed the physical features of these disputed areas, which one lawmaker warned could indicate that the Philippines was starting to lose its […]
During a visit to New Delhi earlier this month, Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, exhorted India to increase its presence in the South China Sea where China is literally creating new geography by enlarging reefs into artificial islands. He called China’s massive land reclamation “provocative” because it effectively changes “facts on […]
The Philippines has called on the international community to press for a stop to massive reclamation activities in the South China Sea that could increase tension in the disputed area. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Undersecretary Evan Garcia said at the 17th ASEAN-India Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) held in New Delhi on March […]
Japan used to be aloof from the three-way chess game of conflicting territorial claims in the South China Sea. Tokyo was pre-occupied with its own territorial dispute with China over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Daioyu in China. However, quietly encouraged by […]
MANILA — China is ramping up land reclamation and construction on the disputed Spratly Islands, aerial photographs by the Philippine military show, fueling concerns in Manila that the Asian giant soon may militarize in the South China Sea. The photos from January show several large facilities, such as a six-story building, being constructed on the […]
As if there aren’t enough territorial disputes the world over, China is — literally — manufacturing a new one in the South China Sea by transforming a series of lonely reefs into small islands. Where nautical charts once identified bumps in the sea as Mischief Reef, Gaven Reef and others, China is dredging massive amounts […]
MANILA, Philippines — China has created new artificial islets in two more reefs in the disputed South China Sea, which the Philippine military fears is meant to choke off its access to Ayungin shoal, where a crumbling Philippine Navy ship is beached. In an interview, former Air Force officer Rep. Francisco Acedillo, now partylist representative […]
Radar stations and lisening posts should be built on the islands China controls in the disputed South China Sea, Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo of the PLA Navy and a member of the national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference told the official China News Service on Mar. 9. A year after the disappearance […]
Despite opposition from the United States and the Philippines, China has begun to build an airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef in the disputed South China Sea, according to a satellite image released recently, the Shanghai-based Guancha Syndicate reports. Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the US Department of State, openly criticized China’s extensive land reclamation in South […]