The dispute over the South China Sea pits China against its smaller, weaker regional neighbours. Vietnam is one of them, and right now there is a concerning flash point that could have deep, significant implications for the region. Around Vietnam you find propaganda billboards denouncing China’s actions after it built a billion-dollar oil rig about […]
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has reiterated its call for signatory states to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), including China, to respect the treaty amid rising tensions in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). The government made the appeal during the 24th meeting of state parties to […]
China has violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) when it snubbed the Philippine arbitral claim on the West Philippine Sea and when it built structures on disputed reefs in the area. This was the pronouncement made by international law expert and University of the Philippines professor Harry Roque Jr. […]
BEIJING — China rejected a suggestion by the Philippines for a regionwide ban on construction in the South China Sea after Beijing began building a school on a rugged outpost it created to strengthen its claims to disputed waters. Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said he will propose that the Association of Southeast Asian […]
The Philippines filed a protest over China’s reclamation in Kennan Reef in the West Philippine Sea last week. The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that China has been carrying out land reclamation activities in Hughes Reef. Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said this follows the Philippines’ protest against China’s reclamation on Mabini Reef last April […]
MANILA, Philippines – China is carrying out land reclamation operations in not just one but a total of five areas in the disputed Spratly Islands well within the Philippine maritime zone. A confidential Malacañang report detailed the land reclamation activities of China in five areas, namely Johnson South (Mabini) Reef, Cuarteron (Calderon) Reef, Hughes (Kennan) […]
SINGAPORE, Jun 11 (IPS) – China’s early-May decision to dispatch the state-of-the-art oil rig, HYSY981, into Vietnam’s 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), has intensified ongoing territorial disputes in the South China Sea, raising fears of uncontrolled military escalation in one of the world’s most important waterways. It wasn’t long before Vietnamese and Chinese maritime forces were […]
The South China Morning Post based in Hong Kong reported on Saturday that China plans to create a military base in the Kalayaan Island Group, a move that is seen to further increase the tension in the ongoing territorial dispute between China and the Philippines. The KIG is located near Palawan, and has been declared […]
MANILA, Philippines — Chinese designs of a proposed man-made island on Philippine-claimed Mabini (Johnson South) Reef in the South China Sea were recently released by an arm of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation. The Ninth Design and Research Institute of the state-owned contractor bared three-dimensional design plans for reclamation project on disputed waters showing an […]
Chinese Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu told The Wall Street Journal this week that he believes the United States is making “very, very important mistakes” with regard to territorial disputes in the South China Sea and that continuing the approach preferred by the Obama Administration will force China to become a “qualified enemy” of the U.S. Zhu […]