As North Korea dangerously escalates regional and global tensions with its fourth nuclear detonation, the United States can ill afford further strategic ambiguity in its intentions and policies in East Asia. Yet, that is precisely what the Obama administration is offering in its muted and somewhat muddled response to China’s expansionist actions. With Beijing accelerating […]
Vietnamese fishermen say they are being attacked by China with increasing regularity. Their boats have been rammed, equipment broken and crewmen beaten up. Vietnam accuses Beijing of trying to force them out of waters in the South China Sea where their families have fished for generations. As the breaking dawn casts a red-orange rim around […]
The Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces have decided that Japanese P-3C patrol aircraft returning home from anti-piracy activities off the coast of Somalia will give priority to stopping along the way at bases of countries facing the South China Sea, including the Philippines and Vietnam, according to sources. The P-3C has advanced monitoring capabilities, […]
Recent events related to the South China Sea (SCS) reveal Chinese thinking about its maritime strategy in that important area. First, China believes that establishing sub-regional hegemony is achievable. Second, it has a coherent maritime strategy with a two-pronged approach: modernizing and restructuring its military to allow for naval power projection, along with consolidating diplomatic […]
The Chinese military will soon use a new airport in a disputed part of South China Sea’s Spratly Islands to perform test flights, a retired major general in the country’s People’s Liberation Army told the South China Morning Post Friday. China angered Japan, Vietnam and the United States Saturday by landing a plane on the […]
Just a year short of its 70th birthday, the South China Sea’s infamous U-shaped broken line faces its biggest challenge, writes Lisa Murray. If an island can be proven habitable a nation can substantially expand it’s claim to surrounding territorial waters. A People’s Liberation Army soldier poses in the vegetable gardens on Firey Island Reef. […]
Protesters holding placards shout anti-China slogans during a rally in front of the Chinese consulate in Manila on June 4, 2015. AFP FILE PHOTO Avoiding conflict in the disputed South China Sea – where China has in recent days conducted three test flights on a newly built airstrip on a reef it reinforced recently – […]
With the increasing world population, diminishing resources, the rise of Asia and global power push by China, the Indo-Pacific will likely become the center of gravity of conflict with Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs) of many countries crisscrossing these waters. Maritime competition is essentially for control of trade routes, hence multitude of external powers that […]
CHINA cannot ignore the growing call from the international community on the need to resolve the South China Sea issue by adhering to the rule of law, President Benigno S. Aquino III said yesterday. The remark is in line with the Philippines’ case filed at the international Arbitral Tribunal at The Hague, the President said. […]
NEW DELHI – Without incurring any international cost, China belligerently continues to push its borders far out into international waters in a way that no power has done before. Its modus operandi to extend its frontiers in the South China Sea — a global trade and maritime hub — involves creating artificial islands and claiming […]